Interests     

     Trains, trains and more trains! Were you expecting glass ballerina figurines?

     DCC installs.

     What better way to while away the time, burning your fingers and learning new curse words! HA! Seriously folks. When I first got DCC, I envisioned a lot of melted decoders. After all, I know enough about electricity to be a danger to myself. Really, it ain't that bad!   

Proto 2000 BL2 with a DCC decoder installed

True, the first few had me all nervous, but I got over it. You can too!

     Scratchbuilding structures

     Start off simple. A couple of familiar looking houses, a garage, a shed, then move up. My latest effort?

     H.T. Ford & Sons General store.  This building stood just over a mile from the family farm, and was the destination of many a bike ride! Ahh yes, a cold Coke or an ice cream cone. I can almost taste them now!

     Custom Painting

     Yes, I do my own painting, and damn precious few for other folks, but I do like to show it off, so here goes nothing. One in HO, 1 in N.

      Kitbashing

     This could be one of the more fun aspects of the hobby. At least, I have had fun with it. Kitbashed stuff can even take on a life of its own, beyond that of the original model. Let me tell you a little story. Years ago, the Mount Airy & Western Railroad( the FCSME's private road name) had a GE U23B that was involved in a horrific grade crossing accident. Painted in the MAW's old black and gray scheme, the tanker driver claimed he didn't see it coming. With new GE Dash 7 units in the paint line at Schenectady, the MAW shop forces sprang into action, fixing #13 and applying a new high visibility paint scheme, the same scheme the new units would get before they arrived on the property. Only one problem, the MAW didn't have all the right parts to fix #13. Scavenging parts from # 236, a wrecked F7A, they rebuilt her. Rather than calling her a U23B, they reclassified her completely. Can you guess as what?      

     Well, lets see, it's the front and an f unit, the back of a u boat, and they upgraded the electrical system so that functionally, it was compatible to any dash 2 unit. So that makes it an FU-2, right ?

     What is really funny at shows when I overhear someone pointing at it and saying, "Heck yeah, I seen dem before, they run dem down in Mixeeco!"

     Sometimes I can get away before they see me laughing, sometimes not!

     Articles

     One of these years, I plan on obtaining my MMR (Master Model Railroader) certificate. As part of that I have been working on the Author Certificate phase of MMR qualification. To this date, I've had a few articles in print. One in RMC  was co-written with Keith Albright, the others were all mine. More articles are in the works, keep an eye out for them. One is kitbashing a 55 ft Trinity hopper into a 40 ft cement car! Then maybe some chopped nosed GP9s!!!!

The latest? The upcoming October RMC, I'll be building 3 units into CSX style road slugs!

The rest? As soon as I can get a