Starting with the right foot...

Third post for me and I am slowly warming up to the whole "blogging thing". There is a lot of information to share with you, so I will try to keep my posts short, but useful. This post is not for seasoned railroad modelers, so feel free to skip it if you want.

One good source for those who are starting to get into model railroading is a small publication, titled Model Railroad Club Magazine, and offered by Bachmann, one of the most popular manufacturers of model railroads. While more popular among beginners, Bachmann is, nevertheless, a good choice for everyone who wants to enjoy this hobby, without being too concerned about accuracy and high end features. I happen to have a good number of Bachmann products and I am very pleased. The third issue of Model Railroad Club Magazine is finally available and can be found in the following address:

http://www.bachmannmodelrailroadclub.com/

The 2013 edition, delayed by almost a year, is the most recent issue, but you can access the other two, as well. It is not a complete guide to model railroading, and it caters mostly to Bachmann products, but don't be alarmed, as pretty much everything you read in that publication applies to and works with other brands.

Enjoy!

Third attempt in creating attractive mortar lines.

Railroad modellers who love to include buildings in their layouts face several challenges. Among these challenges are avoiding gaps between the kit parts and painting the mortar lines to create a more realistic building.

In the following photos you can see some of the steps I took to accomplish the above, at least partially. This building kit has been released by Life Like under the name Belvedere Hotel, but it is also known as Downtown Hotel. The small clamps I used helped tremendously in keeping the pieces tightly together before liquid cement was applied.

Not perfect, but not bad either, I think. The interior was painted black in case I decide to install a light bulb inside the building. The walls are not "dense" enough to block the light and I don't really want to have "see through" walls.

The last floor and roof are not really glued because I am still thinking about the possibilities. This is also why the gaps between the second floor and roof may appear large. Question: Do I want to install floors? If I do, I have to make it easy to place light inside and change the bulb if needed. This will also allow me to place some people near some of the windows.

This project is a work in progress, but I really want to finish this as soon as possible. I have one more kit like this, so if I am not happy with this one I can always do better with the other one. Eventually, I may purchase a couple more kits and "steal" 1-2 floors from each one so I can build the second one as 5-7 story building.

Lessons learned

With every success comes a failure... or so it seems. There are things I learned from building this kit - although I am not finished yet - and here are the lessons:

• Always use clamps. I did that and it was major help.
• File the bottoms, tops and sides of the walls to ensure smooth surfaces.
• Do not color the interior until the main structure is finished.
• Do not paint any areas where glue will be applied. In this case, the gray bases should have been painted after glue was applied.

Welcome to my railroad modeling blog!

First post in this new (for me) venue. In this blog you will read about my adventures in model railroading, my thoughts, my plans, etc.

There is no previous history between me and model railroading. As a kid, I only had one train set that my mother bought for me as a gift during one of her visits to England - I grew up in Greece. It was an HO scale set that featured a steam locomotive a box car, a gondola and a caboose. Nothing to get me interested in model railroading.

It wasn't until 2 years ago that I got interested in doing something more. My son had developed a love for trains - along with dinosaurs, Transformers, Lego kits, etc - and since he loved the movie Polar Express, I wanted to re-create that little adventure for him. I begun with the acquisition of a Bachmann DCC Berkshire 2-8-4 steam locomotive, which resembles the locomotive you see in the movie. I bought 4 coach cars and 1 observation car to go with the locomotive and my son was more than happy.

A train without a village and a North Pole is not much of a Polar Express, so I purchased a lot of trees (the ones used for Dept 56 villages) at ridiculously low prices - thanks to the after Christmas sales - and a bunch of Dept 56-like buildings from Dollar Tree. The picture was nearly complete. Before and during Christmas (2013) I purchased some more buildings from the Dollar Tree, along with trees and my collection grew nicely. The element of "boring" has been removed for now.

My adventure in model railroading started a little less than a year ago, when I begun to spend time - and money - in getting train stuff: freight cars, locomotives, buildings, various accessories... The list goes on and on. That is when I actually begun to plan my permanent Polar Express layout, which has yet to materialize, but has also become a lesser priority, since I will be working on a different, simpler layout in the next few months, assuming that my finished attic gets cleaned up first.

So, feel free to follow my adventure and hopefully learn from my successes and failures as I am slowly diving into the world of model railroads. Also, feel free to share your own thoughts and experiences... positive and negative.