Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? Have you or your family ever seen a spook, spectre or ghost? If the answer is "yes," then don't wait another minute. Pick up the phone and call the professionals... Ghostbusters. Unlike many modellers, my feelings of hobby dread aren't in the basement or attic...there in a converted 3rd floor bedroom...

Something ghostly with Halloween coming up on Friday. A CPKC Intermodal heads east from the Mactier Subdivision onto the North Toronto Subdivision at Osler Street in Toronto's west end after dark.

Giants of “New Build” Steam was the theme of the Bluebell Railway’s 2025 ”Giants of Steam” autumn steam gala. I have been a member of the 6880 Betton Grange group which built one of the locomotives since 2009. I’ll have more to say on my trip once I’m home, but for now, Saturdays Grand Lineup of 21st Century Steam at the north end of Horsted Keynes Station.

The Bluebell Railway in 2004. Not a gala, just a random September Saturday visit, my only one until next weekend and my impending trip for the Giants of Steam Gala. On my visit in 2004, I saw ex-Great Western Railway Dukedog 9017 "Earl of Berkeley", Ex-British Railways Standard 4MT 75027, Ex-London Brighton & South Coast A1 Terrier 72 "Fenchurch, and NS7742 "Bello" visiting from the Netherlands operating a three train service with Fenchurch on Footplate Experience duties.

Nearing the end of the line. A matched set of an F40 and LRC coaches in the same (as close as you get anyways) these days. As all the new Charger-Venture sets have been delivered, the days of the LRC coaches are numbered.

High Speed from the Continent! An original Class 373 Eurostar train blasts through Stratford International Station en route to London St Pancras International. This is train ES9141 from Brussels back on August 7th during our England Summer Vacation.

There is no small amount of irony that I am started drafting this post the day after the Federal Government announced major changes to Canada Post forcing the CUPW workers to strike while they have been without a collective agreement for some time. The Postal Service is something incredibly valuable to several of my friends who run small side hustles making things and selling them, and to me for receiving packages.

Well, I am well and truly back at it. I've been making progress on many projects, nothing earth shattering or crazy, just actually making time to sit at my workbench every day (more or less) for a bit over a week and do something. Some days its been 10-15 minutes, others its been solid 1.5 hour blocks of just puttering away, and I'm seeing progress and feeling good about the hobby again.

Back where we started this ride. Locomotion #1 is seen at The Greatest Gathering in Derby England on August 3rd. This weekend, a replica of this 1825 pioneering locomotive that hauled the opening train on the Stockton and Darlington Railway opening the first "modern" railway will traverse parts of the railway that still form a part of the UK's active railway network.

Sigh, I’ve been waiting for this model a long time, since 1986 even though I probably didn’t know it at the time when I was 7 years old. Back in 2018 I wrote about getting in a pile of long term ahead pre-orders (which just seems to be the way the hobby goes these days for a lot of reasons), and fast forward to yesterday, …

I said when I cleaned my workbench that I was going to start working on models again, and I have. Nothing earth shattering or crazy. But I'm now up to 4 days in a row where I've spent at least 15 minutes working on the freight car kit from the now closed Yarmouth Model Works, one of several I have that were started and have become something that has felt more like a trio of albatrosses hanging around my neck as they have been in a started but no where close to finished state for over a year.

A GMD1 in the wild! The CREWS Railcar Transload/switching operation at the Port of Johnstown on the St Lawrence River uses a GMD1 as one of their switchers. Seen hear parked up on Canada Day outside their shop building.

An OC Transpo O-Train Line 1 train approaches the St. Laurent Centre Mall station seen from the walkway into the mall from the station.

Are you sure you're doing it right? The conductor of CPKC Train 101-17 on April 17th tries and fails to manually throw the crossover switch from the North Toronto Subdivision south track to the north track at Osler. THey need to get onto the Mactier Subdivision tracks in the foreground to head north to Vaughan Intermodal Yard to get the rest of their train for Vancouver.

Its not the sexiest or the funnest part of our hobby, but sometimes you’ve just gotta clean. My workbench setup has the misfortune of being at my work from home desk, and my personal computer…