Trains Across the Tantramar 2008

We've been to the 2008 Maritime Federation of Model Railroaders convention, named Trains Across the Tantramar. Here are a couple of pictures of the micromodule setup for the public train show portion.





Also, here are some YouTube videos:

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

SceniKing Backdrop F006 - Farm Fields

I installed SceniKing backdrop "F006" on my farm supply module tonight - www.sceniking.com. It took all of about 1/2 hour to accomplish and turned out pretty nicely, considering it's just printed on 4 sheets of 8.5x14 inch paper. I simply followed the instructions that come with the backdrop, using a glue stick to perform the sticking duties. We will see how it holds up; the backdrop is printed with water-soluble ink and this module is transported to shows, occasionally encountering a little rain or snow. My wife suggested some sort of fixative might work; I'll certainly give it a try on the instruction page sometime.



This particular module has an 8 inch plywood backdrop built into it but the paper SceniKing backdrop is only 7.5 inches wide, so I have approximately half an inch at the bottom to hide using scenery. I believe I'll be able to make it look fairly convincing using a line of shrubs and small trees like you see at the edge of many fields.

Overall, I found that the backdrop is fast, easy to install, looks good and is not prohibitively expensive. The only thing I find lacking is the quality of the image, which shows pixelation common to images compressed using the JPEG format. This could have been avoided originally by saving and editing the images in a format such as TIFF.

-mike

------------------------------
2008-May-13 - Update: Added hill with grass and bushes to hide the bottom of the backdrop. (Sorry about the Mad Cow. What a mess she left!)

Rix "Guthrie Grain" kit

I've been working on an N scale Rix "Guthrie Grain" kit for the past little while. I added a 3rd tank to the kit and plan to add more.



Additionally, I've been adding small details such as a light on the tower to light the work space below and reinforcing wires on the feed pipes. I will be adding more tanks, truck scales and unloading for rail and truck traffic, shelters for unloading, office building, fences, etc. as time permits.