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

	The N Scale

	Model Railroad

What's New?

13 June 2008

What is this thing?

Find out in my blog.

18 April 2008

With the completion of the Black River and Western video series, Better Days for #60, I'm now turning my attention to the New Hope and Ivyland with the Autumnal Reverie series, part of my newly-reorganized Railfan Videos page. I have a substantial amount of footage of #40, far more than I had of #60. I threw the Aquetong Road segment online first simply because it was my favorite #40 moment; now I've added a second episode, this one at Nonesuch Farm in Lahaska. There's much more to come; over time the collection will continue to grow, and many of the isolated vignettes I'm producing now will be incorporated into longer, more comprehensive sequences.

Note: YouTube has added a new feature. You can now view certain videos (including most of my railfan videos) in "High Quality." If you see a little orange TV set icon at the lower right of the video display, you can switch from Standard to High Quality. Videos look substantially better in this viewing mode. In addition to quality, however, download time is increased, so it's only recommended for folks with high-speed internet access.

Also new with this update is another photo album: Black Hills Central Railroad, South Dakota. Check out the operating 2-6-6-2T...

17 April 2008

With addition of two more parts for Better Days for #60, the "quadrilogy" of the Black River and Western is now complete. Part 4 is an example of pure serendipity: I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture a unique and funny once-in-a-lifetime event.

14 April 2008

Part 2 has been added to the Better Days for #60 videos page. This ten-minute installment features Black River and Western's #60 doing the runaround in Ringoes yard. Assembled from two separate sequences, it shows #60, preparing for a run to Flemington, being passed by a CF7 headed for Lambertville.

12 April 2008

The real railroad that helped get me into the hobby, the Black River and Western, received the first installment of a planned series of video tributes. Fans of steam and, in particular, of this railroad should enjoy them. Click over to the Better Days for #60 page for Part 1.

11 April 2008

It's a long, slow process sifting through the old videos I'd recently transferred to my PC. I knew of one particular favorite sequence from the New Hope and Ivyland footage that I'd wanted to post, and once I found it, I threw the sequence together with some titles for a short piece I call "Autumnal Reverie."

It's a long (relatively speaking), lingering look at #40 as she climbs the grade toward Aquetong Road in beautiful, bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania. No quick cuts, no special effects, no annoying background music, and no ear-piercing whistle-blast just as the train passes the camera; it's just crickets, chuffing, and, at the very end, the distant, mournful wail as she reaches the grade crossing. Please see the Autumnal Reverie page for more information and the link to this new video.

While on the topic of videos, the first one I posted back in February ("Max Headroom," on the The Accidental Railfan page) was re-rendered and re-uploaded to correct a problem with the aspect ratio. Which means any links to the old YouTube address are dead.

6 March 2008

While not directly related to N scale, it is nevertheless noteworthy: Micro-Trains has just dropped a bomb.

17 February 2008

During the early 90s, I videotaped many hundreds of hours of railroad action—predominantly steam—from all over the country. But because all of the source tapes were destroyed in 2000, all that remained of that enormous collection were distant, fading memories.

Then one day last year a surprised arrived in my mailbox: a set of long-forgotten dubs. Representing a "best of" compilation, these tapes had been made as a gift for an ex-in-law who was a railfan. After he passed away, his family kindly returned the tapes to me.

Now I'm in the process of distilling "the best of the best from the best of the best" for this website as sources of information and entertainment for visitors. Please check the Railfan Videos page regularly as the clips collection grows.

First up is something most unusual: Conrail ballast undercutters at work in Hopewell, NJ, lowering the (former Reading) roadbed under the North Greenwood Avenue bridge to increase clearance, circa 1994, on the The Accidental Railfan page.

3 February 2008

New entries added to the N Scale Manufacturers links page. Existing links checked. I am also looking for sources of some fine European N scale vehicles and detailing kits; I can't seem to find websites for the manufacturers yet (Lemke, Rietze, Brekina, Littke, Luft, Marks and others) but I'm working on it. If all else fails, I'll assemble a collection of well-stocked retailers, because they are definitely worth including.

16 January 2008

All animation videos have been uploaded to YouTube, so that anyone who had issues viewing them from this site can easily watch them online. I also made use of the free disc space offered to me from Google and created some Picasa albums with railroad reference photos.

10 January 2008

As promised a long, long time ago, here's the yard ladder control circuit for Tortoise switch machines. Many modelers have asked about this, and I'm especially glad to finally have this online because the color diagram that appeared in the November 2000 issue of Model Railroader contained an error: the red and green wires connecting the power supply to the rotary switch were reversed (this was my fault, not the magazine's). The new illustration is, of course, now correct.

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