If you peruse my main web site, you'll find that I'm quite fond of the AtlasO models of the woodsided billboard reefers from the early part of the last century. So fond, in fact, that I have one of each design that they've issued to date. So, when they announce new ones, well, I find it exciting! 
AtlasO has now announced five new designs for their 40' reefers — Glaser Crandell Co., Meeter's Sauerkraut, Pabst-ett, Stokely's, and Sun-Rayed. You can find the announcement along with the artwork for the new reefers HERE.
Archive for December, 2006
New AtlasO 40′ Wood Reefers
Sunday, December 31st, 2006Railway Post Office Cars
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006When passenger trains were the predominant form of cross-country travel, most every train had one or more railway post office (RPO) cars. These cars were essentially mobile post offices, picking up, sorting, and delivering the mail all along the train's route. Recently, MTH has brought out a newly tooled version of the RPO which is a pretty neat model. I've done a review of two of the versions, one for the PRR and one for the CNJ Blue Comet. The review, with photos, is on the Train Reviews page of my web site . Here are the overview shots of both cars.
DCS and Modular Layouts
Monday, December 11th, 2006The folks at the new Standard Gauge Module Association contacted me to ask if I could share the knowledge that I've developed about using DCS with modular layouts. There's quite a bit as I've been demonstrating DCS with layouts constructed to the hirail modular standard since before DCS was commercially available. I wrote a document for them that distills down that knowledge. It's available as a .PDF format file HERE.
One Year
Thursday, December 7th, 2006It's hard to believe but today makes one year since I "got retired." It was so appropriate that it was on Pearl Harbor day! In the interim, I've had my shoulder fixed and gone through rehabilitation and now need to decide what to do with myself.
New Video
Tuesday, December 5th, 2006The video of the converted PRR G5 Ten Wheeler has now been posted on the Multimedia page of the main web site . As always, I've posted it in three formats: Real Media, Windows Media, and MP4, so no matter what kind of computer you have, you should be able to view it. Enjoy!
Freaky Friday
Friday, December 1st, 2006It's Friday, it's the first of December, and I was just outside in my shirt sleeves as it's seventy degrees (F) outside! This has been a strange, strange year! In train news, I recently received back my MTH PRR G5 from Davis Trains. Interesting story with that one — it's the only upgrade from PS1 to PS2 that I was unable to finish (I've done a dozen successful ones). The locomotive was so small and so cramped that I was unable to get the boiler back on the chassis no matter what I tried. Steve Rider and his crew at Davis managed to get things rearranged so it all buttoned up nicely and it runs really well. I'll try to shoot a short video of it in action over the next few days and get that processed and up on the web site.
