Travel Time

I have not posted for the last two Fridays because Laurie and I decided to attend the National Garden Railroad Convention that was held in Tacoma, Washington, this year.  We visited garden railroads in the greater Seattle/Tacoma area for 5 days and saw some very nice garden railroads.  Although I have no real interest in building a garden railroad I enjoy seeing good modeling in any scale.  A chance to get out of the heat of Central California and visit the Northwest is always a good thing.  It is also nice because Laurie gets to enjoy the gardening aspect of the hobby as many of the railroads have very nice landscaping.

After the convention we decided to drive up to British Columbia and visit some friends.  We stopped to visit with our good friend Dario Le Donne who is the creator of Rail Scale Miniatures.  We had a great visit and while we were there I picked up his latest kit, which is a real beauty.

This is Horwood Bros. and is an incredibly outstanding kit.  You can also order a lighting kit which must be seen to be believed.  Dario has only been in business for a few years but has turned out a line of fine craftsman kits.  Click on Rail Scale Miniatures in the side bar of this blog to visit his website and check out his line of kits.

We also visited Steve and Cecile Tate, two of our favorite people in the hobby.  Steve has an online business called Kettle Valley Trains and has started manufacturing an upscale precision cutter that cuts wood at any angle.

Here is a close up of the cutting blade.  Instead of coming straight down like a chopper, the blade cuts across the wood, slicing it in two which makes for a clean cut.  You can check out Steve's website by clicking on Kettle Valley Trains in the sidebar under favorite sites.

Steve also sold me the Tractor and Logging Repair Shed from SierraWest Scale Models.  This is an O-Scale kit that I will find a place for on my railroad.  I did not plan to have a model of this type but after one look into the box I knew I had to have it.  I have been buying HO kits from SierraWest since the mid-90's when he started his business and have a standing order to buy whatever he makes.  My hobby room has several of his fine kits built into dioramas and they are pure enjoyment to build. This kit is loaded with detail and the crawler tractor in the foreground of this photo is super detailed as is the whole kit.  Once again, you can find his site listed in the sidebar to the right.  One click and you will see some of the nicest kits you have ever seen.

I am back from my trip and anxious to get started working on the railroad again so check in next Friday as I hope to have some new progress to report.