Recent Entries

• Wow - December already

  by Toni Ryan December 2, 2012
    I can't believe it's December already!   We had our third PNW FreemoN meet on October 20th at the the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club.  It was a BLAST!  The club members were getting ready for their Christmas season open house, plus they were hosting a private tour for a mo...

• Keeping busy

  by Toni Ryan July 24, 2012
    I have been working on stripping the F7 shell that you may have seen in my airbrushing troubles video.  I felt bad about spraying on all that flourescent pink without a suitable basecoat to show it off!  The new paint washed off pretty easily with just some 70% rubbing alchohol. &nb...

• Relaxing...

  by Toni Ryan June 24, 2012
    The past couple of weeks have seen all the wiring finished on the module.  I have tested the throttle bus, and repaired the fascia after the module fell off the sawhorses.  The tailtrack extension is almost finished, just needs a last bit of soldering/sanding and some paint then I c...

• Entry Lost...

  by Toni Ryan June 10, 2012
  The last entry was lost to the ether when something crashed on my computer.  It had something to do with my adjustable module legs.   I am using 1" steel electrical conduit for the upper part of the leg with a 7/8" hardwoord dowel for the lower section.  The dowel is drilled for clea...

• OW - My back!

  by Toni Ryan May 28, 2012
    We had our second local Free.Mo.N meetup last weekend.  This was the first time any of us had got together and actually hooked modules together.  There were folks from 100 miles away that came!  Using the butt joints as suggested by the N-land Pacific group worked stunningly we...

• Module - schmodule...

  by Toni Ryan April 21, 2012
    Got a bit more done on the module this week.  I tried to carve the foam with a razor knife.  fter nearly severing a thumb, I headed for the hobby shop to pick up a hot wire foam cutter.  While I was ther eI grabbed some ME code 55 rail, a few pieces of Atlas 55 flex track and s...
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• World's Greatest Hobby on Tour, Portland, OR

  by Toni Ryan February 25, 2012
     Went to the train show today and I have to say I like it being in the convention center this time!  Nice and bright and comfy.  I didn't find any Thrall all-door boxcars in N, nor did I get my set of old timey passenger cars to go behind my 4-6-0, and I struck out on scoring 4...

• BASIC stamp kit at Radio Shack

  by Toni Ryan February 12, 2012
    I was in my local Radio Shack picking up some AA batteries today and noticed they had a Parralax BASIC stamp kit for $99.  I think I will have to go back and get one.  I want to use it with a couple of photo diodes to start/stop a timer function at a set distance along the track and...
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• Pains in the petootie

  by Toni Ryan February 11, 2012
    The problems with the 2 different thicknesses if plywood for the shelf base didn't rear it's head until I decided that the 4" thick shelf was too high when sitting on the shelf brackets.  I wanted to keep the fascia on the front to hide wires and switch machines and serve as a valance fo...

• Vancouver Yard in N

  by Toni Ryan February 6, 2012
  I have been toying with setting up a new layout for the past few years, and have finally made a few decisions about the direction I want to go.  I am using the "Beer Line" track plan from Model Railroader magazine, translated to N scale, and configured as an around the room shelf layout, rather...