The Book Has Landed!!

It is with great pleasure that I can announce the release of my first book, Guide to Signals and Interlockings, which is in print and available for sale!   

In the largest news to date on the Onondaga Cutoff, the layout is the central feature of this new publication by the editors of Model Railroader magazine.  It is the culmination of the journey that the signals on the Onondaga Cutoff have been, and contains information on the process so that the reader can understand how that works.  

Many nights and weekends went into it, and now it's available from booksellers, hobby shops, online, and also directly from the publisher at https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/12824

In the 'Is this really happening' department, a friend sent me a screen shot showing the book having reached '#1 Best Seller' status on Amazon.   Amazing!  

Thank you for all the support!  I hope readers enjoy it and learn more about railroads and signaling as a result.  In a hobby and in a world where there is always more to learn, it is a humbling and exciting process to go through the journey of creating something like this.  I am grateful for the opportunity and excited for the future!

Some Press for the 1:1 Scale Railroad

In a diversion from our regularly scheduled program, I was interviewed at work by Jim O'Grady from WNYC and The Gothamist, one of the papers in New York City.  The topic was Newark Penn Station, one of my professional concerns, and it was fun to bring some good press to the railroad for which I work.  

Take a read and enjoy!  

Newark Penn Station Interview

~Dave

The Book! Guide to Signals & Interlockings - now available for presale!

 I am excited to announce the presale for my new book - Guide to Signals & Interlockings , now listed at Kalmbach Media:   https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/12824

This book is the culmination of 2 years of effort from a variety of contributors and reviewers, as well as the art and editorial team at Kalmbach.  Writing the text and assembling the photos was a major part of evenings and weekends for me through much of the chaos of 2020 and in many ways was a bright silver lining to a difficult year.  Special thanks are due to many:  Eric White, Lisa Schroeder, Hal Miller and Carl Swanson at Kalmbach, Tony Koester, Jerry Dziedzic, Mark Hemphill, Dave Barraza, Joe Relation, Rich Wisneski, Jack Trabachino, Bill Darnaby, Nick Anshant, J. Alex Lang, to name a few.  The greatest thanks are due to my wife Kristen and my kids Susie, Teddy, Pete, who had to deal with a lot of nights of me being distracted and preoccupied!  I am grateful for all the support of each of these people.  

In a small reminder of life going on, it is listed with a shipping date of March 8, 2021.  March 8 is the birthday of my late sister who would have turned 43 this year, and who without question would have been thrilled with this.  She wasn't a train person, by any means, but she was a family person that would have been very excited for her big brother.  It's something worth reflecting on.

It is still surreal to see the cover for sale online, at a site I have admired for years.  I am really pleased at how nicely the Kalmbach team made this look, and am very excited to see it in print!  I am hopeful it will help readers understand railroad signaling more, and that it will inspire beginners and advanced modelers alike to work and include signals where prototypical on their railroads.  It is an exciting time in the hobby and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute at this level.

~Dave

The Onondaga Cutoff - On the Cover of Railroad Model Craftsman!

I'd always hoped to be able to contribute to the hobby press, ever since I was a young boy whose only tangible link to the hobby was those same pages of Model Railroader and occasionally Railroad Model Craftsman.  If anyone had told me a few years ago that by summer 2020 I'd be involved with the hobby press with articles, interviews and even a book, I'd have stared at them and blinked, then smiled and asked where I can sign up. 

I am excited to announce that the Onondaga Cutoff is featured on the cover of RMC's September 2020 issue, with a feature article inside to boot!

Those monthly magazines were highlights I looked forward to, especially with large color photos of cutting-edge layouts of the time:  Cat Mountain & Santa Fe, Utah Belt, Virginian & Ohio, La Mesa's Tehachapi Pass, Rand Hood's and David Bontranger's Rio Grande work, and many others.  Thanks to good fortune, mentorship and a lot of work learning to improve my writing and photography, several articles have come together and I am grateful to be able to continue that process, and hope maybe someday there's a few young people that in their minds will have added the Onondaga Cutoff to that list of iconic layouts for the hobby.

Pick up a copy at your local hobby shop or book store, or at https://shop.whiteriverproductions.com/products/rmc-202009

There is a great deal to be thankful for!

Signals & Interlockings for your Model Railroad - a book for Kalmbach!

As the wild spring of 2020 continues into summer, with uncertainty still swirling but a growing sense of life going on, I hit a neat milestone for the Onondaga Cutoff that I wanted to share with you and commemorate here on the blog.

This week I finalized and submitted all required components of a new manuscript, my first ever, along with supporting photographs from contributing photographers.  All was loaded onto a flash drive and sent to my editor, Eric White at Kalmbach, who has been a patient and supportive teacher in this.  Thanks Eric, and thanks to all at Kalmbach for working with me to take on this project!

Dropping my first manuscript off at Somerville Post Office

In a world of back-and-forth energy, this is the culmination of 16 months of writing and photography and coordination.  It has been a truly unprecedented 16 months.  A majority of the work was done on my commute to and from work thanks to my Google Chromebook, with other work at night and on weekends to pull it all together.  

I'm excited for the next steps; if all goes well this will be in print in the early spring of 2021.  Good stuff to come!

On the Cover of Model Railroader!!!

Continuing with the theme of balance in the wake of a challenging few months, I am thrilled to announce that the Onondaga Cutoff has been featured in an article published in Model Railroader magazine! 

While I knew the article was coming, I had no idea that it was in consideration for a cover shot, and so that will live as one of the best surprises I've had, ever.  I am still in a state of shock weeks after the author copy arrived in the mail.  I'm so thankful to be able to contribute, and hopeful that perhaps somewhere a young person will see this and be inspired as I was so many times in my youth.  Coming from a non-model railroad family, this magazine was a wonderful source of excitement for me when I was able to get my hands on it. 

Regular readers will remember the article published in Model Railroad Planning ('MRP') 2018, which gave an overview of the layout and its origins.  That one got the train rolling, so to speak, and I was able to build on that momentum to develop several article concepts for the main magazine.

This article is the first of those to be published.  It is part of the September 2019 issue of MR, on the shelves now, which has several articles coordinated around the idea of running model trains over '24 hours' including simulated dusk, darkness, and dawn, as well as with the lights on.  One of the early goals for operating trains on the 'OC' was to simulate a rolling schedule on the railroad, including round-the-clock operation and the challenges (and mystique) that changing light conditions bring to prototype railroad operations.  This has proved very popular with operators on the OC, so my writing is centered on getting your room and layout surfaces lit for operations, with photos and some ideas to help it come together.   

As a subscriber for some 35 years, it's one of the life goals I have had, and now it's on the books!  Thanks for your support.  This is a wonderful hobby to share.  More to come as always, but this highlight will remain for a long, long time!

Complete, but not Finished - and the Onondaga Cutoff, In Print!

Big news lately on the Onondaga Cutoff - first, Model Railroad Planning 2018 arrived! As expected on page 44 my article appears.  Kalmbach did a beautiful job putting it together! 

It is such an honor to see this in print, and to see it next to names that I grew up admiring through these pages and those of Model Railroader magazine.  What a rush!

I also have some smaller success to report on the railroad itself.  While waiting for MRP to arrive, I made a big push to complete the scene on which I have been working for several months.  (I had series of late nights in the last week or two.)  The results are what I'd hoped - the scenery was completed ahead of the most recent operating session, and now the railroad has scenic greenery all the way from CP282 and the Syracuse skyline along Onondaga Yard, around the big turn to the east past the dairy farm, to the automatic signals on the bridge at MP 278.8!

First I taped off the areas along the main line where I didn't want grass - the maintenance road, and the track areas.  Once that was in place I installed a mix of static grass as a scenic base.

Once the grass was down, and not yet dry, I proceeded to put down a layer of cinders for the shoulders of the ballast area, and then the ballast itself as shown.

Ballast is spread by the time-tested manner of a brush, with my own addition also of some foam cut to fit which I use as a sort of regulator along the tracks.  Moving this gently back and forth knocks the dust and stones off the rail web and base, and helps to smooth the profile overall, ensuring most ballast stones are down between the ties where they belong.

Here's the profiled ballast before the glue process.   As I have noted here years ago, some of the chalky dustiness will go away after the ballast is soaked with isopropyl rubbing alcohol and diluted white glue (or matte medium).  Once it is soaked it needs to dry for about 36-48 hours to harden.

And, here's the result!  What a change from the earlier photo above.  

Here is the ballasted area beneath the overpass to the east of Onondaga Yard, with all the new scenery in place besides it.  Some details have yet to be added but this gives a good feel for the general look of things.  To some degree, the new scenery seems to belie the amount of thought and planning that went into the scene - this appears as though it has always been this way.  

It's been a great start to 2018, here's to the next few steps on the Onondaga Cutoff - some overdue equipment maintenance and getting a few new locomotives into service.  It's nice to be able to look at this progress each day!

~RGDave

 

Publication - of the Onondaga Cutoff!

I have been working for some time on a major announcement regarding the Onondaga Cutoff - and today, I can say with excitement that a full-length article on the layout will be published in Model Railroad Planning 2018!

Model Railroad Planning is a special edition, produced by the publisher of Model Railroader, once each year.  It focuses on layout planning and construction, and that's exactly the angle that is taken with my article, which will be published in early January.

It's available for sale at https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/special-issue/vt-mrp180101-c

I am so grateful for the opportunity, and for the incredible assistance offered by many through the years.  I am hopeful that this is a start to a series of in-depth articles I can create about modeling and layout construction, and that makes me even more thankful for the assistance and guidance.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year!

~RGDave