Introductions

[jsoflo]

Good day to all from South Florida!

My name is Jan and I am new to railwire but not to N scale, as I am on my 4th unfinished layout.  I know several of the posters here from over on trainboard-- found ya! ;D  I have been slowly upgrading my layout building and modeling skills which is when I stumbled on the weathering forum here which was very inspiring. I have taken a break on layout building since my cat completed a super-tree deforestation project in the "mountains of Scranton." So now I relax by painting extremely small rust splotches on boxcars, urgently rubbing them off before they dry and trying diligently to put less paint on the brush. : I am going back and detailing, weathering, etc. a 35-car manifest train using most of Tom's techniques (thanks Tom, the book is great!). Once that is done a 30-car intermodal train is next.

I model CP's Pennsylvania and New York operations from 1997 to the present as an around the wall shelf layout at home in a small spare bedroom. I also belong to the Florida East Coast N-Trak group (which is actually a one-trak group), which is a modular group modeling the FEC between Jacksonville and Hialeah (Miami) with an emphasis on operations. We get together twice a year to run an actual FEC daily schedule. I own (and built) the Ft. Lauderdale intermodal yard modules and intermodal is my main area of interest (All model trainwork I have been doing for the last two-months is actually an attempt to avoid cutting a Walthers 5-unit Thall well car set into a 40' well set but the saw, it calls to me).

Its good to be here, everyone seems to have a real good approach to stuff and a good sense humour and great modeling, thanks for having me ;D
my best,
Jan

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh wow! That FEC modular stuff is awesome. I wish I was somewhere nearby to check it out.

Welcome!

[jsoflo]

Thanks for the compliment Ed, the FEC N-trakers are a dedicated bunch. as for distance: last weekend in September, Jacksonville, FL-- convention 2009-- like Haley's comet it won't be that close to points north again for several years to come (it works its way south to Miami with stops in Daytona, Cocoa, Ft. Pierce, west Palm, and Ft. Lauderdale before returning to Jax), 2 words:

Road trip.

 ;Dmy best,
Jan

[Two Truck Shay]

Good morning from Oregon. I'm getting ready to start benchwork on my third unfinished layout and model SP and thereabouts. Be kind!

[wm3798]

Good morning from Oregon. I'm getting ready to start benchwork on my third unfinished layout and model SP and thereabouts. Be kind!

I'm sorry, this is abuse, you want arguments next door!


Lee

[SirTainly]

Good morning from Oregon. I'm getting ready to start benchwork on my third unfinished layout and model SP and thereabouts. Be kind!

Excellent choice!

Welcome

[billincarmel]

I'm oldbill_indy on the Atlas forum and I wanted to check out this forum. I chose billincarmel because it is more accurate of where I am. I have been retired since 1996 and am now 76 years old...thank God for the optivisor. I have loved miniature trains since I was 5 years old and can still visualize the wonderful Lionel Christmas layout that was in the local department store. My parents could leave me there and spend a lot of time shopping and maybe a movie before I could be pried away. Anyway, I have a small layout that keeps me busy and alert. It is not museum quality as some I have seen on the forums but it makes me happy to be alive and able to enjoy the hobby.

[TrainCat2]

Hey Jan ...

Glad you came on over from "there". Wazzup? Did you ever get out to the Titan plant?

[jsoflo]

Hiya Bob, long time no speak!

Yes indeed, we got a full tour of the Titan/Tarmac facility, very impressive! We got a bunch of photos, let me know if you want copies, I can send you a CD with them.

For those unaware, Titan/Tarmac is a massive aggregate and cement producer here in Miami that is served by the FEC. At the last FEC convention we toured the facility. They have three of their own switchers, GBRX "Tarmac" high cube boxcars (former Big Blue CSX), a cement facility that loads two and three bay covered hoppers, they take a unit train of coal per month, and load aggregate in all those FEC red ortner hoppers using a remote control operated switcher, they even brought out the remote control box and showed us how it works moving trains around in front of us. They drove us out to the quarry pits and showed us the dragline also. Very cool stuff.

how you been? Thinking of attending Jacksonville this year? I am told the brochure will be out soon and that the tours will again be superb (rumor has it we'll gettours of both the CSX and NS yards around Jax)

my best,
Jan

[GaryHinshaw]

That sounds like a really fun tour Jan.  I'm a bit surprised they would host a bunch of model railroaders though.  Does someone in the group have connections?

[jsoflo]

Gary,
the model railroaders are a sub-group of the FEC society (a railfan group dedicated to all things FEC). The FEC has really good relations with the FEC group (the FEC president was at the convention and ran a train on our One-trak layout). There are also several engineers on the FEC who are model railroaders and they helped set-up the tour at Titan and Hialeah yard in 2008 and Ft. Lauderdale yard and CSX's Hialeah yard in 2007.  The guys at Titan were real cool also, all the transport guys came out to say hello and show us all kinds of stuff (It also helped that I was friends with the head of transport there!). Hoping for more good times this year, its not too late to sign up and railfan "beautiful" Jacksonville, FL come September 24-27! ;D
here is a link to some photos from last year's tours of Titan and Hialeah yard:
http://picasaweb.google.com/CPJsoflo/FECConventionPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ_Piaa_gfW7Hg&feat=directlink
my best,
Jan

[Wlal13again]

Oh wow! That FEC modular stuff is awesome. I wish I was somewhere nearby to check it out.

Welcome!

I agree, some nice work by you and your group Jan

Rich..

[TrainCat2]

I am going to try and get there Jan. I have detailed, but rough drawings of the FEC Bascule bridge and I have not been able to get to the head of Engineering at FEC. This trip might be productive after all.

[martyscustomn]

My name is Marty Coil and I live in CHICO, Ca. I model the Pacific Northwest out of Spokane in the late 40's and early 50's. Lots of F's on my layout. My layout room is 12x13,and I use the closet for my work bench. SOME of the names here I'm familiar with, but not many. I like to 'bash' cars and have done a few, mostly Western Roads.

[Chulvis]

My name is Marty Coil and I live in CHICO, Ca. I model the Pacific Northwest out of Spokane in the late 40's and early 50's. Lots of F's on my layout. My layout room is 12x13,and I use the closet for my work bench. SOME of the names here I'm familiar with, but not many. I like to 'bash' cars and have done a few, mostly Western Roads.

You forgot to mention that you are one of the most annoying people walking the face of the earth!  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Welcome to RW, Marty. Good to have you here.

xxoo,

Chuck (FRTS)