On30 Flat Car kit now available!

Flat car kits are available!!!

Price is $13.00, not including shipping. These are fantastic bare bones kits that can easily be used as a basis for all kinds of other cars. Super simple to assemble (two parts), and chocked full of subtle wood grain texture, they will look great on your layout. Minimum radius on this guy is about 10", so it will work well on small and micro layouts.

Look for a Gondola version of this car soon!

Dead Rail?

Over the last few days, I have been contemplating some pretty deep stuff, like:

Why do we drive on parkways, and park on driveways?
When is it okay to tell a person they have a hanging booger?
What makes an "innie" into an "outie"?

But the biggest question I have is:

Why do I get so frustrated building layouts?

I have the answer: I hate wiring. Hate is a pretty strong word, and I don't just hate wiring, I hate everything electrical.  Loathe it.  It's probably because I don't understand it, and that pisses me off. I could dive into books and websites and teach myself everything about electrical engineering I could ever want to know, but that would take time away from what I love, which is building, detailing, and weathering models. I'm not willing to do that. My modeling time is limited as it is, and I couldn't care any less to waste energy on the flow of electrons, amps, watts, ohms, and volts. 

Enter a few guys on the internet.

"Convert those locos to battery powered RC, and never worry about electrical again!" they said.  No worrying about any of the garbage anymore.

Well, I'm thinking about it, and I'm trying to figure out whether or not I can shoehorn RC gear into HOn30 locomotives, or if I'll have to run cheater cars with them.  The current (and only) HOn30 locomotive on the roster is a Railway Recollections Porter, which will probably not have the room for gear, without a cheat car. (a cheat car is a piece of rolling stock that is permanently connected to the locomotive that hides all the RC gear, It used to be pretty common for N scale guys to run cheaters with small steam locomotives).  I'm waiting on an order from Parkside Dundas to ship of a Five79 2-4-4 Forney that will go over an old Bachmann 0-4-0 mech, that are notoriously bad runners, mostly because of poor electrical connections (sounds like a candidate for RC). The Forney might have enough room in the cab and bunker to house the receiver and batteries. Once I get the kit, I'll be scrutinizing it thoroughly.

In the mean time, my Porters and lone Davenport in On30 would be able to run RC with one of my gondolas set up as an auxiliary tender (cheat car).  From what I can see, it doesn't look like costs would be much different than converting to DCC. 

Never having to clean track? Now that would be Awesome.

A million miles an hour

My brain is moving faster than my hands can build, write and type.

I've committed to attending a show in July, and while it might be just over 5 months away, I feel as if I have no time to prepare for it. Trying to balance long range planning, with the things that have to get done right now is just insane. I've got so many ideas, and I don't seem to have time to even catalog, let alone prioritize them. My goal is to have 3-4 kits ready for that show, with around 100 total in stock. I have a ton of other things that have to get done in order for me to feel prepared for the show, finishing the display layout, getting a packing list together, and identifying shortages on the list, and fixing them.

It would also be pretty awesome if I could do some of my OWN modeling while the winter is still on...

Back at it.

Go build something awesome.

Creative kitbashes

 

Models and Photos By Al Judy

 

 

Customer photos!

Al Judy sent me a bunch of photos of the very first Marsh Creek Miniatures kits assembled...ever. Al works super fast, and had two done by 5 pm the day he received them in the mail! Two were built as mine prop carriers, one as a tool car, and one as a bite sized bulkhead flat. You can see all of them above.  You can see more of Al's work on his Facebook page, the Mill Creek & Lycoming Railroad.

 

 If that isn't enough Pennsylvania goodness, order a copy of the 2014 On30 Annual where Al has a layout tour featured in one of the premier publications for the On30 crowd.  Here's a few more shots of Marsh Creek's kits on Al's Layout.

 

 

Models and Photos By Al Judy

 

 

It makes me incredibly happy and proud to see something I have designed executed so well. Thank you Al for the pictures!

Like the kits? You can buy them here.

 

 

Go build something.
Rich



Online shopping?

 

Technology is fantastic. I am pleased to announce that you can now purchase the little On30 4 wheel gondolas directly from this blog! Ever since I offered these for sale, the most common questions I got was "do you take PayPal?"

 Of course I accept PayPal. What kind of a tech savvy train geek would I be if I didn't?

Keep checking back often to see the latest developments with the kits, the blog, and my pseudo philosophical ramblings.

An unexpected surprise

Yesterday I was finally able to sit down and build one of the mine cars that I had cast. With life being so hectic, I haven't had a whole lot of modeling time since Christmas. I think they came out pretty good. There are some other things that I'd like to do with them, but overall, I'm very pleased.

 

 

 

 

 The surprising thing is that they have gotten quite a lot of attention in a short amount of time. I had originally offered them as trade bait, thinking I might be able to get some small kits or parts for them.  Since Thursday, with a very small audience on facebook, I've gotten orders for 16 of them, from as far away as Scotland and New Zealand. I was shocked. I personally thought they were a pretty cool little car, and they were up to my standards as far as detail (of course they would be, I built them), but I had no idea there might be enough interest to make them available commercially.

 

 

 The response was so good in a 5 day period, that I literally have run out of supplies to make any more kits than were ordered. I've got more resin coming, and I'm contemplating making a second mold to speed up production.  One of the guys who bought the first kits suggested that I work on a shorty 2 truck car, between 12 and 15 scale feet in length. Bachmann's 18 foot cars are wildly popular, and for the guys who like to run tight curves on small layouts, even smaller would be a nice to have item.

 

 

 

 

Between School, the kids' extracurricular activities, Cub Scouts, and finding time for the Mrs., things take me a while. I'm not a retired guy who has nothing but time on his hands. I wish I could spend as much time as I wanted in the basement sniffing glue, creating things, but right now that's not in the cards. There may however, be just enough time to turn my creations into a small hobby business...

 

 

We'll see. I certainly hope there is, but I'll leave it in God's hands for now. Or, like they say in Iraq..."inshallah" (As God wills).

 

Stay tuned.