New Atlas Bridge

Randy Epstein sent along a few photos of his new bridge project on his layout. These bridges are much more prototypical and detailed than the old bridges he had in there, great job Randy!

"Inspired by a prototype Northumberland, Pennsylvania, this NEW 18" Through Truss Bridge is the first truly American 18" bridge offered by Atlas. The HO Through Truss Bridge features simple, snap-together construction and specially designed bridge track. With two different colors to choose from for both Code 83 and Code 100 layouts, this bridge is perfect for any modeler." From Atlas website, comes in code 83 & 100, black and silver, retails for $24 and JP's Trains & Hobbies in Latham has them in stock.

Great looking bridges.....Randy should do Atlas ads, lol.

More Chris Rittner Pics

Chris has sent more pictures of his new soon to be N Scale empire, enjoy!
This is from the staircase looking down onto the layout.
Looks like Chris has a curious visitor!
He sees something that probably would taste good!

Comments can be posted by anyone at the bottom of the posting, please use this feature.....I have to ask what's the cat's name?

Brad's Champ

Brad Peterson's has finished his 7 1/4" Box Cab, looks nice in blue and grey!!

Chris's Riverline

Well, I've been plugging away down stairs finally. Have reassembled the existing portions of my old layout and with the addition of six new sections in a new configuration(as of today 5 out of six have been built). I painted the walls and floor, also installed two new circuits - one for lighting and another for layout and tool power. Hope to have trains running by next week. It is N scale and I'm still deciding on what Route, but I'm leaning toward the Riverline over the Mohawk.

Chris R

Inspector Squeeky

Thought you just might enjoy a photo of one of the model train projects I'm currently working on. The locomotive is G-scale, an actual steamer fueled by butane. The wood construction of the cab is a test shot from a manufacturer I'm working with (Ozark Models), and is laser cut from aircraft plywood. The model is getting modified to closely resemble a Maine narrow gauge engine, Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington #3. The little furry QA Inspector (Squeeky) frequently 'helps out' on the workbench as you can see in the photo. This was a few days ago, and the cab has now been completely assembled, stained and poly-ed, and tomorrow, with lousy weather predicted, I'll be adding some details to the side door areas and the roof. Squeeky arrived here in mid-December, one of my best Christmas presents ever. Not a bad deal for her, either, as the alternative may have been euthenasia - she was the four-year old pet of a friend at the hobby shop who passed away suddenly at the age of 56. Alex was a serious modeler, retired on disability, and spent a lot of hours at the bench in his Cohoes basement apartment. Squeeky thus knows her way around model work, tools, and, I have to admit, if she was learning from Alex, knows quality work as well...An excellent inspector, although she doesn't show me the reports ! There's another photo here, shows her after a tough day in the shop. Yes, she WANTS to be covered up like that, actually prefers to be COMPLETELY under the covers !

Bill M

Revisiting The CV

Seems like Spring is having a hard time arriving in upstate New York. But warmer is around the corner and our Thursday night meets will be coming to an end soon until next fall. So we revisit an old friend, Bill Hickey and his Central Vermont Railroad. On Thursday, April 12th the lights are back on in the basement at Bill's and the railroad which has been quiet for the winter shows it still has life left and work to be done.

We had a very good turn out for the night, some young, some familiar and some only a mother could love!

Bill spent the day cleaning the track and I'm happy to say everything ran well. Bill showed off his new Athearn Genesis units, be sure to check out Bill's layout in the video section.

A few projects need to be finished around the layout, scenery around the engine house, waterfall needs to be completed and a permanent bridge installed and finally the paper mill on the mountain division. Hopefully our visit will help inspire Bill to keep the trains running for years to come!

Thursday At Randy's

This past Thursday, March 29th, we got together with Randy Epstein. For most of the guys it was the first they had seen his layout since he is our newest member of the group. Randy really likes motive power, all makes and models and he has a lot of it.

It was nice to see a B&M freight wait for D&H freight pass at a diamond, it reminded me of something I had seen many years ago in Mechanicville.

While Randy's layout is no where near finished, it does have a finished look to it. He has buildings, tons of vehicles and figures all over the layout. He started some scenery, and ballasted a few feet of track, I'm still impressed with the overall appearance. His wiring is very neat and complex, he has a really nice control panel that would take some time to learn. His layout is not DCC, it's all block and cab control, still pretty slick to watch him run it.

So we all had a good night and Tony Bucca treated us to trackmaps of the D&H from the 30's. Hope to see Randy's layout again soon.

A Real Railroader

No it's not Alaska, it's Rouses Point, NY in the winter. A brisk -22 degrees and that's not a mountain man, but our own Kenny Olsen, D&H Conductor, prepared for the winter cold. February 19th working Train 931.

Plow Extra on the D&H

I don't get out much to railfan, but a plow extra is hard to pass up. On February 15th, the day after the great storm, I was lucky enough to catch a plow extra running with a Jordan spreader on the Colonie Main, between Mechanicville and Albany. Above the train is recovering South Main Street in Mechanicville with snow.

This is at the Albany Cemetery in Menands.

Not Chessie, but Squeeky!

Squeeky the railroad cat......Alex's cat Squeeky found a new home at Bill Michsler's house. The cat really likes trains and feels at home with Bill.

Robert Gould's Erie-Lackawanna

Construction on my HO Erie-Lackofmoney started in August of 2001. The area allocated for the layout was a small "L" shaped room in the basement equipped with recessed lights and sheet rock walls. The track plan soon found its way into the closet under the stairs since posts were going to block the right of way. After a little more planning, the middle section was conceived to be out of sight staging, under the display cases my late father-in-law built. As I began running trains, I felt that I needed a way to turn them back. This led to the invasion of the second closet and the "dog bone" style track plan.

Plywood on "L" girders, Atlas Code 100 flex track and #6 turnouts make up the bulk of the layout. All connections are soldered. It was originally wired as a 2 cab-block system. I agonized over the decision to go to DCC. At the urging of Brad Peterson and Rob Dennis I converted. This was well worth it but changed my loco fleet profoundly. When I started, I had about 60 engines from multiple manufacturers to convert. Most of those were sold and the revenues from the sales led to purchases of DCC ready units. About 15 are on line with 6 more waiting in the wings for a decoder. I strongly recommend using DCC. I use the Atlas system and have 4 spots along the layout to plug in 1 of 3 controllers. I can follow the train around with the hand controller unplugged since the system has a memory.

This layout models a fictitious division of the Dereco era (EL, D&H, N&W). The scenery is about one-fifth complete and could represent anywhere from NY to OH. Most structures are Walthers. The Cargill Mill and the Superior Paper Mill have been set up as "flats". Some of the buildings are ones my father built for me over 30 years ago. I enjoy using the Woodland Scenic's products. I recommend them but caution that there are a lot of things in their line that you may already have or can get much cheaper at a craft store. For example, a foam cutter they sell for $39.99 is also available at AC Moore for $8.99 If there is one thing I learned about working on the real D&H, it is that railroads are cheap and this one is no exception.

There are almost 250 pieces of rolling stock on line with 85 more in the display cases. I have 1 passenger train and plan to add more. Some cars are weathered but most have knuckle couplers. I agonized over that conversion some 15 years ago. I wish I had completed my backgrounds at the beginning. This is the big struggle right now using various commercial components as well as a roll of shelf paper and blue spray paint. The future will bring signals, a dispatcher desk and working interlocking levers near the towers. My eldest son Broderick has contributed to the layout a farm he made at school. My sons are just starting to show interest in the hobby so maybe I will be a Train Master down the road.

Randy Epstein's Boston & Maine

I would describe my HO Scale model railroad as a freelanced B&M based layout with D&H and other Northeastern roads well represented. It is rather large, about 2/3 of our cellar, with 2 turntables, 2 reverse loops, 2 yards, & a double track wye leading off the mostly double track main line into the larger yard. My scenery is not bad, but it could definitely be better. I enjoy operating the layout often, but I now see the limitations of the DC operating system. I was happy with it for years until I saw what DCC offers at Frank A’s layout. I moved the layout to Stillwater 6 years ago, which required major surgery including a complete rewiring of over 85 DC track blocks and 60 turnouts. As I mentioned before, I have not yet rewired my signals pending my impression of the new integrated Atlas system. I had some with Optoelectronic detection, some solenoid activated by turnout position and some that were just direct wired through on-off switches at the old house. I designed a novel method of wiring using standard telecom terminal blocks, which allows each layout module to be connectorized and provides the ability to isolate each section of every circuit if troubleshooting is ever required. I use typical Atlas control components with a few extra controls for power routing. The layout has 3 control panels and 4 MRC Power Supplies, including a hand held walk-around throttle network which is a bunch of RJ14 type modular phone jacks connected in parallel. I take a lot of pride in my trackwork too. Its code 100 and code 83 rail, and mostly flex track. It’s very reliable for smooth operations, but not a lot is ballasted.
I have always modeled the “modern” era, but having been in the hobby since the 1970’s, what was once contemporary is now nostalgic. I always loved the D&H lightning stripe so it’s well represented. I operate a lot of GRS equipment, but also NYC. I try to group era specific items together in different sections of the layout, so you won’t see E-L or D&H Centuries pulling Pan Am 50’ boxcars. I prefer Atlas locomotives and newer Athearn, but you will also find some Proto 1 & 2 K locomotives that I found interesting on the roster too.
The layout area is not a “finished” basement yet, but eventually it will be. I was the general contractor for the building of our home, so the layout was paramount in the design of the cellar. There are lots of windows to allow natural lighting and provide a good view of our woods. I feed many wild birds out there, so it’s common to see woodpeckers, turkeys, hummingbirds in summer, deer etc. from the primary operator’s control position on the layout. It’s also a walk out basement so you can go right from working on the layout to my trail network and landscaping.

D&H has a new lightning stripe?

Tony Bucca has an interesting new vehicle and many of you may have seen. It is a custom painted Ford van in lightning stripe. These are a few pics when he showed it off to the CP Christmas train crew in Saratoga. I think all the company vehicles should be painted like this! Good job Tony!

Happy New Years! 2007!

Yesterday afternoon Paul, from JP's Trains & Hobbies in Latham, had his annual New Year's Eve Party. Over 40 people attented through out the day. Plently of food and good conversation for everyone.
The spread of food was excellent!

Santa after Christmas! No, really it's the owner Paul.
Paul's Son-In-Law was doing a little cooking.

Bob, Bill and Chuck........

And of course Freddie!

The Alex Estate Sale Is On......

A few weeks ago a good friend of ours Alex Kolothros passed away he was only 56. His sisters have let his friends and JP Trains & Hobbies in Latham sell off his estate collection for the sisters. Alex worked for Paul at the shop during the day for many years. We need to sell the collection off as soon as possible, and everything is being inventoried. We are talking over 100 boxes of HO trains, none of it junk. 500 freight cars, 100 plastic diesels, 100 plastic steam, 100 steam brass, trolleys, building kits, craftsman kits, out of production kits, etc. Metal fire trucks and buses. Books and tools. Please stop by the shop. JP's Trains & Hobbies, 277 Troy-Schenectady Road in Latham or call 518-782-0981. Open Wed-Sat 12-7, Sun 12-5, Closed Mon and Tue.

Rob D

This is just a few of the engines we have!

Brad Peterson's "New' D&H/ Southern Adirondack

My present version of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad is my tenth layout built in HO. There are some parts that have been in up to four or five different layouts. I have always followed the 'close enough' modeling theory with a freelanced prototype flair which I call "D&Hesque" so the scenes and locations are familiar but also fit my operating needs. The hub of my layout is Mechanicville based in the late 1970's with XO tower at the south end connecting to a 5 track B&M yard and 10 tracks on the D&H side. WY Cabin toward the north end of the D&H yard connects the north ends of both yards via a crossover between the two D&H mains and the D&H engine terminal is nearby. Going south on the D&H from XO is my condensed version of the Colonie Main which will have some industry including Mohawk Paper, Colonie shops and Albany staging. Colonie will have a small freight yard, passenger coach yard and the north end of Building 1. The industries (other than Mohawk Paper) will be whatever I have on hand from previous layouts where they will fit the best. Headed East from XO on the B&M is the connection to the Southern Adirondack Railroad (freelanced shortline derived from the former Saratoga & Schylerville RR) at LM Cabin then the double track main ducks under the layout into staging. There will be 4 Cabins throughout the layout that are not found in any D&H timetable...ME, CA, LM, and DB. They come from the initials of my four kids so don't bother trying to look them up since if there is any resemblance to reality it is purely coincidental. Following the D&H/B&M joint trackage from WY Cabin, the railroad will continue double track almost directly into a 2 1/2 turn helix to gain some altitude for a duck-under and for the Round Lake branch to be built below. The Round Lake branch was a major part of my last layout so I found (I hope) a neat way to add a small paper mill on the branch. After the helix the double track will come out to CA Cabin (a single powered crossover) then continue west/south to QS Cabin. Like XO, QS will be "D&Hesque" where I will try to get the track as close to prototypical as possible in the space I have. QG, GV and BW will follow that practice. With that said, the B&M will leave QS as the double track it was and climb to an upper level staging while the D&H will go to single track and QG. The Canadian Connector will come off at QG while the main will continue down to GV then into lower staging. I will include the Canadian Main from GV north to BW connecting the Million Dollar wye if space permits. Since my operating plan doesn't include any trains running on this section of track, I may just make it look like its there. The Canadian main will go north but not very far. The main will break through the wall to the garage to have a small (3 track or so) staging yard and a connecting track to the Southern Adirondack Railroad for a continuous running option. The Southern Adirondack Railroad is a fictitious railroad that Steve Lamora introduced me to a few years ago. He was modeling the northern half from Ballston Spa to (I believe) Paseico Lake and I needed something to complete a section of my last layout. I chose the old Saratoga & Schylerville Railroad right of way as a starting point. This was an easy choice since I already had Mechanicville as the main yard and the S&S connected to the Boston & Maine Railroad in Mechanicville. The story goes back into the 1950's when the S&S was to have abandoned the railroad, however in my world, another short-line was created and they plugged away for a few years on their own. At some point (pick a date any date) the D&H was approached for some much needed help and the railroad was subsequently upgraded and a new cabin was installed (LM) just east of XO for a better and direct connection to the D&H yards. After the much needed financial help from the D&H, the SAR has prospered and has very close ties to D&H operations. Passenger service continues into the 70's with a former B&M RDC-3 repainted into SAR green with yellow stripes. At Saratoga and Mechanicville the D&H and SAR provide bus service between their respective stations since there are a few miles separating them. Leaving Mechanicville headed north you first come to the SAR freight/passenger station. Just north of the station is the Round Lake Paper Company Mill 3. I haven't figured out where Mill 2 is but Mill 1 will be the one mentioned earlier on the Round Lake branch. The mainline goes through the heart of the mill with an east siding on the south end and a west siding to the north. Just to the north of the mill is Lamora cement and just over a double track thru truss bridge is an as yet unnamed lumber yard. Here the west siding end sand the main is to continue north with at least 1 more industry before the (short) trestle over the north end of Saratoga Lake and the connection to Schylerville. After crossing a lift out section in front of the door to the garage, the SAR terminates in its own Saratoga yard. This Saratoga consists of an engine shop, materials unloading dock, a large warehouse, a coal dealer, a small lumber yard and a 4 track yard which includes a runaround.

A friend of ours passed away this past week. He loved modeling and loved JP's train shop and helped to make it even more successful. He will be missed!
Rob D


Alex Kolothros


Kolothros, Alexander J. COHOES Alexander John Kolothros, 56, died suddenly Friday, December 8, 2006 at his home. Born in Albany, he was the son of the late Leo and Joan Isles Kolothros. He was a 1969 graduate of Albany High School. Alex had been active in scouting and was a former member of the boys choir at St. Peter's Episcopal Church. He gained a love of HO Trains, a passion he shared with his father. This love of trains continued, and was shared with his good friend Paul Werschler (JP's Trains & Hobbies) and other members of the Click-Clack Club. He worked as a field engineer for guidance and control systems with Litton Industries in Calif. and was a driver for Penske Truck Rental. He served in the Air Force and then the Navy aboard the USS John F. Kennedy. He was brother of Doreen Hughes (Richard) and Mary Berger; uncle of Christine "Goofy Grape" Rodriguez (Benny), Sondra Berger, Deirdre Berger; nephew of Margie Kolothros (late Harry), all of Albany, Terrence Isles (Flora) of Scotland, Dennis Isles of England and the late Kenneth Isles of Scotland; cousin of Eileen Meyers and many other cousins in the British Isles. His cat Squeeky will miss him. Funeral services Monday at 1:00 p.m. in the McVeigh Funeral Home, 208 North Allen Street, Albany. Relatives and friends are invited and may call Monday after 11:00 a.m. in the funeral home. Interment, Albany Rural Cemetery. Contributions can be made to the Mohawk-Hudson Humane Society or the American Heart Association.

CH's Alcos

Last week a few of us got together and visit Brad. Mr CH ( don't ask) brought a few reworked and prototypically correct Alco's. Above is "my" personal favorite. D&H engine RS-11 (DL-701) with dynamic brakes, number 5006. Why 5006? Becuause this is the engine I used to ride when I was a kid hanging around Mechanicville Yard. The afternoon yard crew would let me ride up in the cab once in a while. This is a reworked Like-Life Proto 1000....
Unit number 1976, RS3m was painted into a Red, White and Blue scheme to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976. The loco was renumbered 1976, and returned to its original number 506. This Started as an Atlas RS-3 and was heavily modified.