Just returned from my first NASG convention. I am new to the hobby this year and I found the convention quite inspiring. I was warmly welcomed by many and met many new and interesting people. All in all, bravo to the officers and convention committee for putting together a very enjoyable weekend. I hope to attend many more! Kim Hartshorn

ScaleTrains going to be at Patcong on Friday night. I cannot attend but want to go here on Saturday. Rockledge Model Railroad Museum https://www.scaletrains.com/roadtrip Thank You, Bill Lane Modeling the Mighty Pennsy, PRSL & Reading in 1957 in S Scale since 1987 See my finished models at: http://www.lanestrains.com/My_Models.htm Look at what has been made in PRR in S Scale! See my layout progress at: http://www.lanestrains.com/My_Layout.htm Join the Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines Historical Society It's FREE to join! http://www.prslhs.com Preserving The Memory Of The PRSL Virus-free. www.avg.com

I just wanted to mention Rich Gajnak article on building his wooden caboose. I really enjoyed the article and the way Rich wrote it. His first paragraph as a disclaimer was great. -- Mike Swederska Meramec Valley Lines Modeling Mopac equipment in 3/16 Don't let perfection get in the way of good enough! Keep model railroading fun!

<it is an excellent issue that tries to illuminate the various parts of S scale in an intelligent way. Congrats to the BOT and their helpers! I think Brooks also had a little bit to do with all of this... 😊> I couldn’t agree more, this is a masterful job of getting the various aspects of S defined. I was really glad to see the article addressed the fuzzy areas of crossover compatibility very well. My thanks to all who were involved and especially to Brooks for taking the time to listen to some issues I had. Very nicely done! Tom Stoltz in Maine

saved it but obviously I've had a mental lapse and can't find it. Therefore would someone that remembers their address please send me their address. Thanking you in advance. Richard H.

As I had inquired a few days ago, I've been searching for a small vacuum cleaner for those tiny but dirty jobs. As Dick and Bill have talked about sheets of plywood, it's something most of us had to work with. Because I actually built my second story addition, Sears was having a sale on one of it's larger robot looking vacuums that did everything I needed at that time, but it certainly was like dancing with the 'fat girl' at the dance! Once Kodak (remember them) offered freebee's if you bought a lot of film so I requested a smaller Eureka shop type unit. It didn't last very long, so I then tried a Shop Vac brand bought in a hurry. It was more of a handheld football sized unit where the tank was mostly filled with the motor itself and it required a handkerchief as a filter. I acquired a twin of it as it was good in my outside workshop. However it died too. so the remaining unit fitted with some Micro mart accessories did okay, but I dislike dragging a regular sized hose and the unit would tip over easily and jam, so for a quick cleanup it wasn't fun and I was using a lot of off-color language! So yesterday, I received a no-name imported battery unit via Amazon as they're again delivering. After a 2 hr. charge, I put it to work on a couple of spots. I was impressed, so will have more in-depth description and photos coming. You'll need less cash then a new boxcar kit! Bob Werre

Bill Winans, Thanks for sharing those photos with the webmaster. I always check for the latest home page photo and that one really was nice. I went to his layout page on the NASG web site and looked at his photos and track plan. I must say it can make a old Sn3 modeler put his standard gauge in the box and get out his narrow gauge again. Geoff Hamway's Sn3 layout is very inspiring. Thanks again and thanks to or web master. Mike Swederska Meramec Valley Lines Modeling Mopac equipment in 3/16 Don't let perfection get in the way of good enough! Keep model railroading fun!

I had vertical easements throughout my layout. The yare easy to create without any math. I used 5/8"-thick plywood for subroadbed, making sure that there were no subroadbed joints beneath the vertical curve. The plywood's flexibility automatically gives you perfect vertical easements. But I still had to use deeper couplers to keep 85-foot cars from uncoupling when beginning hill climbs. I preferred the San Juan "Evolution" couplers because they are vertically deeper than the Kadee 800-series couplers. -- Dick Karnes, MMR

Right you are Bill, in my case I was building my layout at the time many new models were arriving. So if one were to wait until you had everything in line, you'd never get much done! At the time I had things running in that still uncovered tunnel so that a train with power would all make it using #5's. So I added scenery and longer passenger cars, then I'd leave some cars due to those vertical curves. I could eventually balance things, but I never have believed in a 'certain' order of cars that couldn't be changed! Also, I had been running for some time, when I bought my River Raisin SD9. One beautiful engine, but it's on the stiff side so it derailed in one area that I had already finished/ballasted. I then hammered in a couple of thin slivers of basswood, after discovering slight dips that might have come from clamping down the track too tightly with C clamps. Just like the prototype branchline trackage where you see cars swaying back and forth giving it a certain flavor--on a model that flavor can be too much! Bob Werre Phototraxx