Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Recharging the modeling batteries..

This past weekend I attended the NJ Division meet in Haddon Twp. NJ with my friends Ralph (The Commodore) Heiss, and Jim Fawcett.  It was a great meet with quite a few good clinics given on a variety of subjects.  I went to Mike McNamara’s  getting started in JMRI clinic.  Since I will be using JMRI for decoder programming and also WiFi control (operators will have the option of using their smart phones or iPod touch as a throttle on my layout) I was able to get some good info from Mike’s clinic.
Another clinic that stood out was a tree making clinic that Arnold Kimmons gave.  Arnold showed examples of different foliage materials and their uses in model tree making and he demonstrated some fast and easy techniques for building trees plus ground foliage techniques too.
Speaking of Arnold Kimmons.. After the meet there was an opportunity to visit some layouts.  On the advice of our friend Tony Laccassi (Sorry if I butchered your last name Tony) we went to Arnold’s house to see his Royal and Edisto RR.  This is a freelance short line set in the low-country of South Carolina in 1956.  Arnold has taken the approach of some other well-known modelers in that he’s finishing one section then moving on to the next.  The following photos will show you how well Arnold has captured the sandy pine barren like terrain on the first section he’s built: the RnE’s interchange with the Southern RR in Edisto, SC.








All in all it was a great day out, and it gave me motivation to come home and get things done. :)

2 comments:

  1. Ted
    Thanks for the great press for the RnE RR. It was a pleasure having you visit the Lowcountry. Y'all come back anytime. We've got plenty of Moonpies and RC Cola!
    Arnold

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for having us Arnold! It was great to see what you have done. A friend of mine who is an Ex-Marine and saw my pictures asked if you had included some HO scale chiggers (nasty bugs they are) and sand fleas? He all to well remembers having to deal with those at Camp Lejeune. LOL

    ReplyDelete