One of the many train stores that I buy train from is going to start “sponsoring” my video product reviews. He’s going to sent me trains to review. In exchange for me doing a review on the item and mentioning his store in the video, he will sell me any items that I review at cost. Pretty cool, eh? Of course, I told him that when I do product reviews I will point out both the good and bad features of anything I review, so I’m not going to give everything he sends me a glowing review just because I’m getting a good deal on stuff. Fortunately for both of us, MTH and Lionel and others really don’t put out a lot of “bad” stuff so it should be pretty fun.
Sponsored Product Reviews Coming Soon
July 31st, 2010New scenic work
July 30th, 2010I’ve been doing some scenic work on the South Tunnel area. Check it out…
New Videos in production
July 26th, 2010Right now I’m working on 3 videos simultaneously, all 3 of which will be included on the upcoming “Eric’s Trains Volume 1″ DVD. 2 of the videos show fixes for power problems on a steam engine and a diesel engine. The 3rd video is part 2 of my scenery how to and shows how to scenic the area around the tunnels that I built in the first scenery video. The 2nd scenery video will be available on youtube. The 2 other videos will only be available on the upcoming DVD.
Impulsive weathering
July 5th, 2010For some reason I felt like weathering this older MTH SD90 over the weekend. I think it looks pretty good.
Layout Update #4
July 2nd, 2010Here’s the newest layout update video, #4 in the series…
MTH L4b Mohawk Modification & more…
June 27th, 2010I bought my first steam engine, the MTH Premier L4b Mohawk, in late 2009. It’s a great engine but it’s always had some power issues going through multiple switches and so forth. Unless the track has just been cleaned, the 2 power rollers on the locomotive just aren’t enough to give consistent power to the engine. To fix this, I used some leftover parts from an MTH dummy engine lighting kit and added a 3rd roller onto the front truck of the tender. It worked like a charm and the engine is now running like a champ!
Things are going a little slower on the layout right now, which is fairly typical for summer. You get busy doing all sorts of outdoor family stuff and there just isn’t as much time for the layout as there is when it’s cold or nasty out. Nevertheless, there has been some work taking place. I’m going to start shooting the next layout update video next week, so look for that on my YouTube channel in the near future.
NMRA visit and other stuff
June 17th, 2010So the guys from the local NMRA chapter came to visit the layout on Monday. They took a bunch of pictures to send to CTT Magazine, so hopefully they guys at CTT will like it. I’ve just finished another tunnel on the north side of the layout. I will likely start making a new layout update video end the of this month or the first week of July. Cheers!
2010 Piedmont Pilgrimage
June 11th, 2010I got an email yesterday letting me know that my spot on the 2010 Piedmont Pilgrimage will be on Sunday, November 14th from 11AM to 3PM. So, that gives me about 5 months to get as much done on the layout as I can. I’ve got several goals I’d like to meet before the pilgrimage, so now I’ve got 5 months to meet those goals. I’ll talk more about those goals as the Pilgrimage nears.
Tunnel work this week
June 8th, 2010The guys from the NMRA are coming to view the layout next Monday, so I’m working as hard as I can to get the layout as ready as possible. My main goal is to have the single track tunnel on the north side of the layout done before they get here. I think I can pull it off, but it’s gonna be close.
Mainline Completely Ballasted
June 3rd, 2010The mainline loop that circles the entire layout (through each room) is now 100% ballasted. 