Daniel E. Markle's Blog - Hobbies

RC Helicopters

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:56:32 -0500

My first RC helicopter; a Syma 108g From RC Flight

At the Greensburg Train show in York last weekend a vendor was flying these RC Helicopters around his booth. Impressed by his precision and the low price, I purchased this one. About the length of my hand, it's designed for indoor use only.

I have been interested in RC aircraft for a while and was considering getting into the hobby this year. Although I was thinking airplanes, flying these around the house is surprisingly fun and not tied to good weather conditions. Helicopters I have looked at in the past were either ridiculously expensive, hard to fly, or both, but modern gyro technology now common in cell phones has made these quite reasonable in price and very stable to fly.

Now to land one of these on a train flatcar . . .

HO Slot Car Track

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 10:34:00 -0500

After trying out some HO slot cars in the store at English's Model Railroad Supply, I decided to try out a set. I set up an AFX 24 Hour Champions set I acquired at Kranzels Hobbies in the basement.

Finding this to be a nice diversion from my usual digital pursuits and a complement to my model train hobby, I acquired a few more cars. After racing for a while, I found the floor was too dirty and was gumming up my cars, so I returned to English's and picked up a Life-Like Stock Car Thunder set as I remembered it having a reasonable sized footprint for a table top. This set is the one shown in my current slot car gallery photos along with some cars I've acquired along the way.

With Thunderjets, XTraction, Mega-G, Tracker T, and other types available all having varying magnets, tire, frame, chassis, and guide pin designs, racing them for best lap times is more complicated than it appears with the deceptive 'all you have is a trigger' technology. They're also surprisingly inexpensive (especially when compared to my computer and train hobbies). A friend had told me a few months ago that I should get into cars; this may not be what he meant but I'm certainly finding it fits the bill for me.

Rockhill Trolley Museum First Visit

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:05:35 -0400

On the 15th of August Joyce and I traveled to the Rockhill Trolley Museum. We had been planning on visiting for a long time after much positive raving about it from Ed. It certainly lived up to expectations, this video provides a taste:

No video can convey the actual experience of riding one of these, for that you will need to visit the museum.

MCMRRC 2010 Raffle Layout Initial Track Test

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:37:49 -0400

Working on a layout for the 2010 Mifflin County Model Railroad Club to be given away as a prize. As it's in O gauge this year the challenge is coming up with an interesting layout in a small enough space to transport and at a low cost. I believe I've found a layout I'm happy with, adding a working street and a small yard for operational interest.

These aren't the vehicles being given away, just some I had handy for testing. Quite a bit of landscaping to do as well.

7up Tank Car

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:18:00 -0400

Picked up this O gauge 7up tanker car at the Great Scale Model Train Show this month.

Interesting that the number 1 (Coca Cola Co.) and number 3 (Dr. Pepper Snapple Group) beverage companies have many train cars available, but number 2 (Pepsi Co.) has none in recent production I am aware of.

East Coast Large Scale Train Show, Spring 2010

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:33:45 -0400

Made this video in the layout room at the East Coast Large Scale Train Show this spring.

Also, took some pictures of the train show. The CN car in the diorama was my favorite static display. This Interstate locomotive led my favorite running train; as shown in the video the selection of cars reminded me of various trains I've enjoyed. These distinctive passenger cars in the live stream display intrigued me, if anyone knows what country they are modeled from, please let me know.

Video and photos were taken with my G1 phone, which did not turn out as nicely as I hoped. The halls were not as well lit as expected, which my phone is very sensitive to. Unfortunately I didn't have better equipment handy.

Perhaps the biggest plus of this show; I didn't buy anything. It was refreshing to just wander around a show enjoying the sights without being tempted to buy (although if I'm into G gauge by next year it may never happen again).

xtrkcad Adding Trains to Run

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 10:05:51 -0400

When using the run trains feature of xtrkcad, the tutorial is misleading where it directs dragging the engine and cars to the track. Instead, these items are placed just like track elements; click on the item to place in the toolbar, then click within the drawing area and drag the item where you want it.

First select the engine to place in the toolbar (shown selected here in blue and black):

Then move your cursor down into the drawing area, click and hold, dragging the engine into place on the track (shown here in orange just below the brown wall):

St. Patrick's Day Box Car

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:26:55 -0400

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Although technically not a holiday car, this O gauge MTH Shamrock Pale Ale Car was exactly what I was looking for to add some green spirit to my layout today.

DT&I Work Crane and Boom Car

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:48:28 -0500

This DT&I (Detroit Toledo and Ironton) work crane and boom car set by K-Line caught my eye, it's the first set of this type I've acquired in O gauge.

These road name labeled versions are an interesting staple of model railroading that were rare in real life. Actual railroad lines didn't want work cars cleaning up derailments, etc. to have their names on the side (they didn't want to be associated with train disasters) so these actually came in either plain colors or if marked were marked with the manufacturer's name. The 'work caboose' was also rare, these were usually just plain flat cars.

Polar Express and Amtrak Trains

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:41:18 -0500

While working on permanent layouts for trains, we couldn't resist setting up a couple in the living room to run in the meantime.

These O gauge trains include the Lionel Polar Express, which Joyce purchased before Christmas and the extra cars to which she received as Christmas gifts. Also running in this video on the second loop is an MTH AEM-7 pulling the Amfleet passenger cars from the Lionel HHP-8 set; this consist matches the Keystone service trains which run from Harrisburg through Philadelphia to New York.

Mifflin County Model Railroad Club Photos

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:31:23 -0500

Last week I took some photographs of the Mifflin County Model Railroad Club's layout as of Christmas 2009.

Pennsylvania Railroad MP 15 Diesel Switcher

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:54:03 -0500

I picked up this K-Line Pennsylvania Railroad MP 15 Diesel Switcher at Ed's Train Repair and Sales. He often has an interesting selection of used trains, and this one caught my eye for the price.

I've always liked the look of trains with weathering and although this one is clearly unintentionally weathered (i.e. rust, dents, and such), with a little bit of strategic spraying it will do its job in an old turnout somewhere on the line; pushing cars out to the mainline for pickup occasionally, most of the time collecting rust while fancy new engines like the one in the background zip by on the mainline.

2009 Happy Halloween Box Car

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:51:00 -0400

Happy Halloween!

I don't normally purchase holiday cars, but Doris at The Station talked me into this one. She said to think of her as the witch on the left side of the car, so I suppose Dick would be the vampire on the right.

This one is made by MTH.

PRR Jet Snow Blower

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:55:30 -0400

Saw this O gauge model of a Jet Snow Blower in the Lionel catalog and found one in stock at The Station.

Interesting that it has to move to ramp up. In actual use these aren't used to clear long lengths of track, but to clear switches, which is impossible to simulate with the action of this model. A Legacy command control model with remote control of the smoke, noise, and nozzle would be ideal.

1996 Bloomsburg Fair Milk Car

dmarkle@ashtech.net (Daniel E. Markle) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:48:45 -0400

After finding a 2009 Bloomsburg Fair Car and searching the internet to see what else was in the series, I found this one on eBay. It is an O gauge milk tanker car. This one was made for the fair by Weaver Models and is very nicely detailed.