I'm and oldie but a newbe on this site.

[SpiderWeb]

This is my second posting and my first on this site.

I'm retired on a fixed income scratch building in roughly a 3/8"=1' scale.

I grew up with railroading in having lived along side the B&O in Darby, PA during WWII. I saw the Royal Blue go by twice a day.........sometimes the bullet nose was used.  I lived near Baldwin locomotive Works, General Steel Castings, Sun Ship, J. G. Brill and BUDD......all now gone.

The trolley cross over the B&O at 6 th & Main in Darby is one of the few remaining in the country and is still in use.

Using Bachman wheels and drive boxes, I build freelance style whimseys out of Strathmore Bristol, illustration board and wood cut in my shop.  I have a model of the "Toonerville Trolley" seen in Fontaine Fox's famous comic strip. 

I'm interested in linking up with other large scale scratch builders to share drawing and techniques. I was an avid fan of the "A N U T S" magazine until they went out of business.

I look forward in hearing from interested folks...

Merry Christmas to you all........The Spider

[kstrong]

BTW, the AWNUTS group is active on the web...http://www.whymsical.com/

Later,

K

[cabbage]

Well I am a scratch builder and I live in Derby in the UK. I grew up for the first 14 years of my life in Bulawayo "shed" and then spent the rest of my teenage days at the BR Technical Centre on London Road in Derby -after we moved to the UK. I normally build in 16mm scale on 32mm track and I have recently branched out into 13.5mm scale and Gauge 3 (and maybe -just maybe 25mm scale on Gauge 3 track). All of my creations are REAL -none of them are imaginary. As far as possible I like them to operate in the same manner as the originals -but most are powered by electric motors rather than steam. Although I earn quite a good living I limit myself to just £10 per week for my hobby. This means that most of my builds are made from scrap or junk from the bins and to be honest with you I feel I get a better level of enjoyment building a Rzeppa joint out of used Singer sewing machine shuttles, beads and plumbing parts -than I would ever have simply buying them... My current model uses quill drives using springs from ball point pens, (would I lie to you???) At the moment I am on holiday enjoying the summer sun over the Christmas period and this weekend I am going to see the only surviving example of a Davidson lokey, which I used photos of -to build the model with. The home page is cabbagepatchrailway.co.uk I will be home by New Years Day use the e-mail if you like. regards ralph

[SpiderWeb]

Thanks for the heads up on "The AWNUTS" site.

No bits or pieces are safe around here....I also use use the springs from ball point pens and recently I salvaged the really neat springs from the anti-biotic syringes my wife used after her knee replacement.   Some of the Ms's emty cosmetic bottles find their way into my stuff.

I myself had successful cataract replacements this past July.....the plastic lenses have a built in UV filter and 20:20 vision....which I never had.

F.Y.I. I served along side the 1 st British Commonwealth, 3 rd British Commandos, Turks, Aussies and Greeks during the Korean Police Action.  I landed on the shores of Inchon in the middle of winter so many years ago.  I was with "Co "B", 502 nd Reg, of the 101 st Airbourne Div  until I was trasnsferred to 8th Army FWD.

Speaking of AWNUTS, I loved the cartoons of Peter Barnfield.  My favorite RR painters is Cuneo and Ted Rose.

For me, the fascination of this hobby is that it allows folks of all backgrounds and ages to share a harmless, healthful pursuit.........no valium needed here.

I plan to post some of my stuff on this site sometime in January, 2009.

If any of you are interested, I will share some of my anecdotal tales of my experiences growing up around Baldwin.

Merry Christmas from Jim Webb, a.k.a. the Spider 

[SpiderWeb]

I went to your beautiful website Ralph....I could not find your E-mail address.

By the way....I love the stuff on the GG-1's

The first Lowe design was used on the prototype now in the Pennsylvania Rail Road Museum just across the road from the Strasburg Rail Road, in Lancaster County, PA......about 30 miles from home.  Her number is 4800 and affectionately known as "Rivets"

They were known as High Wheelers.   GG-1, 4876 was the engine that went into the Washington, D.C. Terminal and crashed into the basement.  She was recovered , repaired and put back in service. They were serviced in the Wilmington, Delaware Shops.

It's a small world.....during the development of the GG-1, the wheel/traction/weight displacement tests were done on a spur at Baldwin locomotive Works in Eddystone, PA.. No computers here......what they did was clever.    Steel plates of a known hardness were placed under the rail along the test track.   A ball bearing was placed under the rail between the plate and the rail base.  As the GG-1 passed over the rail, the ball bearing would put an indentation in the plate which was in reality a "Rockwell Hardness" test.   For their size, the engineer's compartment was really small.

The GG-1 frames were cast in the ground at General Steel Castings.    Before GSC closed down, I witnessed castings being made.

 

Enough already, what's your E-mail address Ralph ?

the Spider 

 

[cabbage]

 It is actually very simple... If you click the CONTACT button! The e-mail address is listed there. I am glad you like the site -it is nice to get some feedback!!!

regards

 

ralph