Im finally back

[pdleth]

I had another stroke that put me in a nursing home. I still have model railroadinging on the mind and hope to get a small John Allen type time saver going here. shortly

[mf5117]

I hope your OK, God speed

[jonathan]

Great to hear from you PD.  We missed you!  Praying for your speedy recovery.

Regards,

Jonathan

[pdleth]

I feel okay, just can't do much. My right hand is good for a paper weight thougth

[CNE Runner]

Glad to have you back with us PD...it wasn't the same without you. Sooo, you want a small John Allen Timesaver? You know the drill: check out Carl Arendt's website (with is running again with new material...yea!!) at http://carendt.us/ There are too many options to contemplate. Heck with one of those nifty Trix railers you'll be back in business...paperweight or not.

Enjoy,
Ray

[pdleth]

I like this site too

http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/sw-timesaver.html

[Jim Banner]

Glad to hear you are still pursuing the black arts known as Model Railroading.  I too like Wymann's Shunting Puzzles website and am working toward including an Inglenook in my 0n30 layout.

all the best,
Jim

[pdleth]

I saw the Inglnook siding but thought that the time saver would be more fun as I built one with  all hand laid code 70 rail on Campbell ties and it is still operating on my brothers layout. It would be too big for what I can have because I used a 4' x2 plywood and homesot. I only have 10" by 60" to play with. I have all ready made my track plane with code 83 track using wyes not #4

[J3a-614]

Hello, PD, am glad to see you are still around (and I have to admit, I was worried at times); glad you can still pursue that "black art" even now.

A Timesaver in 10 inches of width?  I should say so!  I actually had something like that for a while as a test track for locomotives.  Ironically, I kind of came up with it on my own (at least, I don't remember copying Allen).  It's purpose in testing was to run locomotives back and forth testing for clearances and other things while going through both No. 4 1/2 and No. 6 switches, including crossovers.  This was before all the good ready-to-run stuff that's out now, and it supported an Arbour Allegheny along with some smaller engines going through their paces. 

I had only 10 inches to work with, too, so you can do it as well, but you won't have much for scenic effects. . .bet that's no surprise.

Have you seen the new Bachmann 2-6-0?  Although I'm not quite sure she represents a New England locomotive (she could be Green Bay & Western), if it runs as well as most new products, she'll be a sweet little engine for this job.

Anyway, glad to see you back.

[pdleth]

and another of our lost friends has been found. I got a call from Bob Osburn the other night . Like me he had computer problems He sounds great but has lost almost all of his sight. He still loves the hobby but has limited ability now because of his lose of sight Yampa bob still lives in Craig Colorado

[pdleth]

When I was a kid their was a lumber company near my home and it had a time saver as a way of switching cars in the l.umber yard. Dearing lumber had a very bad fire in the late 50's that close the north south B&M commuter line, Though Melrose, Mas for a day or 2 Since the fire all the track was paved over for parking for the nearby train station. I sent an idea to bar mills for a way to scenic such a narrow lay out Paper thin buildings glued to chop stick that could be place the correct distance from the tracks. After all scenery is just  a perception at best
if your siding is 2 cars long you can have 2 buildings there and they would hide every thing behind them any way. Paper thin buildins could be store in plastic sleeves with their chop stick supports still attached in a 3 ring binder and changed as needed

[J3a-614]

"Paper thin buildings could be stored in plastic sleeves with their chop stick supports still attached in a 3 ring binder and changed as needed."--P. D. Lethbridge

Hey, that's a new one!  Thin backdrop buildings are one thing, storing a batch of them in folders or envelopes sounds neat!

[pdleth]

your rusty trusty nmra gauge would give you the distance the thin building should be away from the track an help you get the position for the holes for the chop sticks. This idea is for the cheap and innovate modeler. After all you can only see one side of a building at a time to fit in the plastic sleeves you keep the buildings around 6" wide or unfoldable to 6" Again for a time saver style layout smaller is better

[CG04]

Hello PD.

Glad to have you back.  I too got a call from Yampa Bob.  He sounds pretty good.  It was good to hear from him.  I think he had turned 73 the day before.
He was worried about you because he had called your number several times and never got an answer.  Sooooo, I guess he finally got hold of you.

Again, welcome back.

Clif

[Desertdweller]

PD,

I only joined this forum a few days ago, but I want to welcome you back (this is my first post).  And welcome back to Yampa Bob, too.  I have a lot of admiration for you guys to stay in the hobby despite your physical limitations.

I retired this past April, and have no plans for leaving the hobby.  I model Denver passenger operations in the early sixties in N-scale.  My challenge is seeing what I'm doing.

I noticed the idea in this thread about using chopsticks to hold up the thin building flats.  Why not?  Most of the models are made in China anyway!

Actually, I do something similar on my railroad.  I have a long viewblock to hide a mainline on the backside of my layout.  It needed to be removable so I could access the track if I needed to.  I made it of a long strip of blue foam insulation board, supported on the backside with bamboo skewers (the Chinese influence again).

This allows me to lift it out and replace it in the exact spot.  This viewblock has my building flats attached directly to it, along with some Walthers scenery background prints glued to it.  This viewblock is about 8" tall.
I painted it sky blue to match the taller backdrop behind the hidden main line, and it is not really noticeable.

Les