I was surprised to hear that Railroad Model Craftsman  and Railroad and Ralfan (among others) has been sold. Apparently Carstens Publications suffered the fate of a lot of print media. The whole operation was sold to White River publications  at the cend of August.

I started reading RMC when it was printed on comic book paper. I have subscribed for at least 40 years and am glad that the magazine will still be published. I found it to be less formal than Model Railroader (which I've also subscribed to for 40 years.)

I wish the new owners well. Losing RMC would be very bad for the hobby (which is already declining.)

Regarding solder blobs - I haven't read through some of the previous postings. Radio Shack used to sell coils of a copper braided wire that is used to remove solder. All you do is heat up the solder blob by putting  the braided material between the blob and the soldering iron. The idea is that the softened solder will attach to the braided material. Putting a dab of flux on the braided material improves the process. This could also be done with plain old stranded wire - again with a little flux on the wire.

I think that Martha should think about how to keep the track clean because that smoke oil does leave a residue.

I wish her luck with her Christmas layout (Christmas? I just put away the 4th of July bunting I display on my front deck!)

Sad news about EBT. I went on a Winter Spectacular once many years ago with friends. I remember being at the end of the line where they had to reverse direction. We jumped off the passenger car to take pictures and were knee deep in snow. Riding in a caboose and the motor car was great fun. Wasn't (isn't) there a traction line running in the same area - or is that also defunct?

Isn't the East Broad Top in that neck of the woods. I would try to fit it in to any Horseshoe Curve trip I might make.

enjoy your trip!

Jonathan - "Beano" rules and so do you! The pictures show some really outstanding work. Always a joy to see things that you have posted. Woody

Over the years there have been numerous "how to.." boks about building a model railroad published. There was a publishing company, I believe the name was Arco, that published  how to books - things like fixing cars or making furniture.  One featured the "O" gauge layout of Frank Ellison. Ellison was a pioneer in running and scheduling trains on his O gauge layout.  THere was a NYC public library near my elementary school. I remember that they had the Ellison book and when I retrieved it and brought it to the front desk I was the only one who had borrowed the book in years!

I remember a how to book featuring American Flyer trains. For some reason I remember the name McClintock as the author.

The trains were a lot simpler 50 years ago and, yes, seeing a working headlight in HO was an oddity.  Passenger cars were sold wqithout glazing and often the grab irons supplied in kits would work out to three inch piping in the real world.

Those old books are gems. There are many great books from Kalmbach and RMC available today that cover all sorts of topics in detail. The problem is that fewer snd fewer people read anymore.

THe GSMRy car was nothing as nice as Lookout Mountain. The railroad runs on former Southern Railway right of way. I haven't been there in almost 15 years and I see that their steam engine - a 2-8-0 built for the Army Transportation COrps in 1945, has been out of service since 2004.

The line was used in the filming of the film "the Fugitive" and part of the train excursion takes you past the wreck that was staged for the movie.

My brother and his wife are thinking of relocating to Maggie Valley which I believe is about 45 minutes away from the GSMRy depot. I hope they find something - visiting them would just be an excuse to ride the rails. We are drawn to the area of western North Carolina because our grandfather was born near Cowee.

I still haven't gotten around to visiting the Tweetsie.

I think modelling an excursion car is a great idea - you can copy a prototype or freelance. 

The Great Smokey Mountain railroad in western NC has some interesting open air cars. I rode in what had been a baggage car - the sills for the sliding door were intact. Open air cars are homemade so you can do anything you like!

Having ridden behind GG-1s on numerous trips down south I can tell you that they were very quiet. Waiting for a train to arrive in Penn Station was always fun. You'd here the train coming because of the bell ringing on the GG-1 - very loud (I guess because of the Penn Station tunnels.)

Somewhere in my collection of pictures I have photos I took of GG-1s in the Woodside yards. What interested me was the steam that would come out of them. Theye had boilers to provide heat for the passenger cars. My late godfather rode around the yard in GG-1s several times - his dad was a tower operator. He said that the cab was hot and cramped and today OSHA would have been giving the Pennsy a hard time.

I am looking forward for my Bachmann Black Jack GG-1 ro arrive.

Floquil used to market a red zinc primer which I used with good results. I believe that Scalecoat still has their laquers avaialblae.

I remember the Bill Schopp articles. He always came up with interesting locomotives - he would swap cabs, running gear, tenders.  I had seen some of his work at train shows and they often didn't run too well.  However, his pioneering work got a lot of folks interested in tinkering with brass engines.

From experience I know that using yellow paint is tricky.  Anybody have problems with yellow?

Speaking of war production, Alco made an export version of the RS-1. Many were shipped to the USSR through Persia (now Iran.) The Soviets copied them and produced them in large numbers. So the RS-1 variant was significant in helping the Russians win the war.

Northwest Short Line used to carry metric taps and drill sizes. They also had metric screw assortments. That was before the company was sold. I'm sure the new owners didn't make drastic changes. Try www.NWSL.com for online information.

Good luck.