The White River and Northern Model Railroad: What's New?

	The N Scale

	Model Railroad

Website News Archive: 2006

7 November 2006

A new editorial, Life Imitating Art Imitating Life, might prove illuminating, if you'll pardon the pun. First of a series.

23 October 2006

The WR&N Version III gets a track plan, too. That's it—now all of the flavors of the WR&N have track plans.

21 October 2006

The WR&N Version I gets a track plan at long last.

20 October 2006

A paragraph excised from the original version of DCC is Not for Me has inspired a whole new editorial: Sound Off!

19 October 2006

The Sceniced and Undecided is the cover story in the November-December issue of N Scale Railroading! Twenty-two photos in all, plus a huge double-page centerfold track plan, suitable for framing (just kidding). Good job by Publisher/Editor Kirk Reddie. Also... Rick admonished me (in a good-natured way) for some of the liberties I took in my DCC is Not for Me editorial; I've made adjustments so as to paint a fairer picture of the technology.

15 October 2006

A webmaster's work is never done. Lately I've learned that Firefox does not support mouse-over comments on images using the "alt" attribute. Seems they decided to break away from the behavior exhibited by just about every other browser on the market. So now I've had to start coding "title" attributes for every image at this site, involving ~490 images on ~180 pages. It will be a few more weekends of spare time to complete this task!

14 October 2006

Everybody loves photos! Admittedly some of them are a little hard to find on the site, so I've added a Photo Gallery, with links to the images' source pages—which lead to lots more photos.

11 October 2006

What a difference a professional slide scanner makes! Back in March I shipped out my scanner for warranty repairs... and just got it back yesterday. Yes, it took over seven months to repair! While waiting, I'd imaged the slides with my digital SLR. Now properly scanned, they look significantly better, particularly those in the Pinhole Photography Part II clinic. Here's a before-and-after sample:

24 September 2006

I've begun adding new versions of some of the magazine articles I'd published to the Clinics section. They are extensively revised and feature information not available in the print versions. This will benefit modelers who do not own or have access to back copies of the magazines in which they appeared. The first one to get the treatment is Better and Cheaper Magnetic Uncouplers.

1 September 2006

A nice long evening spent photographing at Rick's Sceniced and Undecided provided images for three new clinics as well as three existing ones. The new clinics include a working window fan, lighting for a corner bar and detailing structures. Updated photography enhances the clinics on a working barber pole, a chaser light sign, and a service station with illuminated rotating sign and car lift. A new lens and a set of extension tubes allowed me to capture some great images, so enjoy!

1 July 2006

Added several new links and expanded some of the answers in the FAQ.

10 June 2006

At long last, the Pinhole Photography Part II clinic has its images. I got tired of waiting for my slide scanner to be returned from the service center—I strongly suspect they have lost my unit. So, I cobbled together a slide holder attachment for my digital camera using lightweight cardstock, aimed it at a sunlit sheet of white paper, and fired away. The contrast is a bit high, but the images are still serviceable. As a bonus, a few non-pinhole slide images grace the Penwell Tower page.

In other news, I discovered seven 35mm slides taken of the WR&N Version I that I thought were long lost. Although they are nothing to rave about (they were all shot on daylight film under tungsten lights—talk about serious color shift), they reminded me about some of the rolling stock I'd purchased back then that I'd forgotten. Have a look!

1 March 2006

Rick is online! I've also added a few items to the WR&N site: the track plan and control panel with automatic loop control system for the WR&N IV; and the wiring diagram for the Time Machine in the day-night lighting clinic. Enjoy!

23 February 2006

Last night Rick Spano and I spent a lot of time going over preparations to launch his Sceniced and Undecided website. We sifted through a small mountain of brand new digital photos he's taken, looking for the right ones to introduce his layout to the world. I'll be spending the next few evenings preparing the pictures for use on the internet; in the meantime, Rick will be busily writing copy to accompany the images. It's exciting to see it coming together! Look for the grand opening just a few more days.

12 February 2006

Snow day! We got almost a foot of the white stuff here in New Jersey—a perfect day to stay inside and add more to the website. I just did a quick count, and the site—which isn't even two weeks old yet—has over 100 pages already. Look for a brand new clinic, Supercrud! Also check out the many new photos added to the clinic on working crossing gates.

11 February 2006

Whilst scouring my computer for additional images for the Photomapping Clinic, I came across some track plans I had thought were long lost. They illustrate the ideas I had during that murky darker period of my modeling life. They are as interesting as they are unsettling.

8 February 2006

It's my birthday, and to celebrate I've wrapped up a lot of loose ends. In particular, I've finished a lengthy clinic on The World's Smallest Functional Layout. It features several brand new digital photos as well as many illustrations. In addition, I've completed all of the initially planned clinics, save for Pinhole Photography Part 2, which must wait until my slide scanner is repaired. Which reminds me, I'd better go get it packed so I can ship it out...

4 February 2006

Welcome to my new website! It started with just a few bare-bones pages that I posted a couple of days ago. It's come along nicely since then, but I still have lots to add. I have a bunch of slides to post, but my slide scanner just broke down, so that will have to wait until the scanner is repaired.

Meanwhile, I am preparing to launch a new website later this month for Rick Spano's fabulous Sceniced and Undecided Railroad. Eventually his website will dwarf mine, since he has many hundreds of photos and dozens of stories to publish. I expect that, someday, his will be the most comprehensive website on a model railroad to be found anywhere.

I hope you'll stop back often to check on our progress. Thanks for visiting!

—David

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