The Home Machinist!

Electric trains come to life with lights. Love the lights! Before LED's, an earlier improvement I most appreciated were the MR-size halogen lamps that became available. (late '80s?) These lamps provided genuine results from older flashlight reflector arrangements that never really did a very good jo...

The short line with a long history is back in service again. A first generation aluminum electric train… running on phenolic wheels, has quietly started a new chapter to its operating history. The miniature railroad delivers fresh eggs to a roadside egg-stand, and alleviates having to walk 258 feet ...

Re-read the thread from the beginning. I found the answer to my inquiry at the very beginning. "...The purpose of this is so that my elderly father, who has a hard time picking his feet up as he walks around the railroad, won't be tethered... " Okay. Sorry, I should get out more often. ; )...

Locomotive "remote control" has/and/was an intriguing objective for me to daydream about. I thought about it in 1972 at twelve-years-old. I worked out how I was going to do it with different tones sent over the 27 megahertz band. Considering that the original purpose of building (or in thi...

John Hasler's suggestion about sound is a good one. A search using terms... Acoustic Detection or Acoustic Monitoring can provoke additional ideas. Sound is a very good source for determining the status of many different kinds of mechanical arrangements. A rolling wheel upon a rail is a mechanical a...

In other news, I am quite pleased with my wheel borrow ballast transport... for lack of a better description. It's not WiFi connected, GPS tracked, or available for down load... but it does serve a very helpful purpose. It works! It involves having to use a shovel. It also means you feel better afte...

Root Cause Analysis has been a subject I've long enjoyed. Yes, to say "I think", means you really don't know. Looking at the photos of the ballast failure posted by RONALD, I'd blame the washout on the original decision to place the miniature railroad alignment in its location to begin wit...

One can be disappointed in first attempts at doing a lot of things. A stick-to-it-ness in perfecting a particular outcome can also become costly. If one has "deep pockets" and you're building something from scratch, you're considered eccentric. If you're poor, and wanting to do something &...

One of the "things" about railroad track ballast is it's not practical to take it with you when you move to another location. So there's no redeeming value to it except the very important function it serves... for lack of a better explanation. I'm not comparing apples-to-apples in the foll...

For those of you following the price of lumber and steel, I'll fill in an additional blank for miniature railroading costs. From this time last year, the cost for crushed stone has increased approximately 40 percent. $37.00 a yard last Spring to $48.00 a yard "today"--- April, 2021 Maintai...

Interesting. It appears the 11" X 17" advertising insert may have been altered by someone at the Forest Service for entertainment purposes. It seems the original rendering was produced by Carl Pupp Industries. They manufactured "Diazo" equipment for reproducing blueprints. The ac...

Here is what the IBLS site has about Mr. Kubicek. http://ibls.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Gary_Kubicek While there is no mention of his notes, the IBLS site may be a perfect place for what you have been given. Daris Nevil would likely be interested in adding your new-found notes to Gary's entry at...