Two blogs you may wish to check out...

Blogs...
I have yet to figure out how to list links that are of interest on my blog page. You can find the links on my profile page. So for now please just look there for current links.

The two blogs on my links you may wish to check out...they are excellent modelers. The first is Marty McGuirk, Central Vermont Railway. Marty models the CV and is in the process of building prototype scenes from along this line. A few years ago Marty built a great new basement...one we all wish for and he got a very nice house to boot with it. I have known Marty for a long time now. He is the founder of the Central Vermont Historical Society and has a great amount of knowledge about modeling the CV. In the past Marty was one of the editorial staff with MR and later on worked for InterMountain Railway Company. He currently works and lives in the Washington DC area. I had a chance to visit my old friend Marty and his layout in October before attending the Annapolis sailboat show. I arrived a day early to visit the DC area and Marty. Well the CV  is well underway in his basement with a long trestle scene completely finished and Waterbury, Vermont well under way.

Marty McGuirk Central Vermont Railway scene in Waterbury Vermont. I took this shot from above with my pocket camera with available lighting for an overall view.

Marty called  Bernie Kempinski and set up a visit to his civil war O scale layout. Bernie owns and runs Alkem Scale Models a laser cutting model business. Marty and Bernie are good friends and share other interests such as golf. One of Bernies kits is the White River Junction coaling tower. Don Janes has a finished coal tower model that I love to look at every time I visit. Bernie has a blog also that is very interesting and well worth following. He also posts laser projects as they develop. When we visited Bernie he was in the process of cleaning up after a basement flooding. He took the time to give me a tour of his layout. Everything is scratch built. His O scale rolling stock even has working hand brakes to hold the cars in place. He is very knowledgeable in Civil war uniforms and has hand painted all his figures. He mentioned having to do a lot more troops.  Bernie is a true artist as seen in his backdrops and drawing.

Bernie Kempinski O scale civil war layout. Bernie demonstrated how the hand brake worked on the flat cars.

While visiting Bernie he decided to finish the alteration on the pre-production CV coaling tower. There was a problem with the CV herald that needed fixing. The prototype model can be seen a couple of years back in RMC kit review done by Don Janes. Marty had sanded off the herald on his last visit and Bernie decided that on my visit he was going to laser in the proper herald. Well that was interesting to see...putting a finished model in the laser cutting machine and redoing the cut. The first cut was done on masking tape applied to the model to see if it would line up right. Once pleased with the results the cut was made...it looked really good. Oh and Marty got to take the model home to add to his WRJ scene.

Marty is on the left of Bernie as they look at the final adjustments to the finished coal tower. This was prior to re-cutting the CV herald. The coal tower is now a part of Martys layout.

I had a great visit to the Washington area and two very interesting layouts...check out these two sites for yourself...George Dutka