Waiting for the Interurban

The Traction Terminal after dark

Registering for a model railway exhibition is the best way to finally get things moving. I've been working on it for ten years, sometimes more focused, sometimes less, and some years not at all.

On the workbench: several Baldwin-Westinghouse Class B in HO scale. And making fun of patchworking a little bit my production samples of different colors

No I don't jump on the pre-order train. Pre-ordering is widely used by the model railroad industry, by the big and by the small players, to mitigate the risk of ample stocks of unsold models. I am not into it, I don't like it [1/6]

I don't sell nice 3D renderings (even though I know how) but real model trains. For each model I offer, I've built a prototype myself. Most, I only make one. This way, when preparing an order, I have the opportunity to photograph two. Currently, it's an ICRT Canton-Massillon curved side interurban.

On the workbench: A Cincinnati built Curved Side car, H0 scale, color printed as Inter City Rapid Transit (Canton-Massillon). Ready to motorize with a Bowser drive

Is there any appetite for "ready to run" HO scale Interurbans? It would come with a price tag, but perhaps not as much as you may think.

Our HO scale Cincinnati Curved Side car is now available in wide range of colors.

Lehigh Valley Transit had four Cincinnati Curved Side cars for their Easton Limited, modernized in a fancy way. I have two, for a short time, one will soon leave the property for his new owner. (This is HO scale)

As I was asked about my street track: it is basically like Kato N scale UniTram. Filament printed, with flex track inserted. I started to make Unitram clones, and then upscaled this to HO scale, or even O

Some final engineering work on the HO scale Baldwin-Westinghouse Class B locomotives. "Pre-production" samples came out very well.

The ghost of Otto Kuhler showed up again recently. He said he was happy with my Lehigh Valley RR "Black Diamond" car. He flattered me, thus I knew he wanted something more: The striking "Asa Packer" livery

How long I am working on the Indianapolis Traction Terminal HO scale model? 10 years to date, exactly. In fact, I never really thought to built it. But on March 8, 2016, I made a trial on a laser cutter in a Berlin Fab Lab, and then there was no way back.

Diamonds can drive you crazy. I made one, color printed, it was like making diamonds from coal, with 16 manual color swaps: A streamstyled Lehigh Valley 900 series car in the striking Otto Kuhler prewar livery. Now just don't ask how about motive power. Doing the car was already a crazy idea

One, two, three ... it is rollout day for 3 variations of the same car, almost the same. Pacific Great Eastern had a specialty in recycling Interurban trailers, were they looked slightly undersized, but got diaphragm and would finally fit well into the red main line compositions.

N-scale color printing is primarily a matter of high dimensional precision. Things have to fit together. Did you guess the prototype? The model is exact, but the paint scheme is not, that is just a test bed to train my color printing skills

On the workbench: a lot of Cincinnati-built Curved Side Cars in N scale, Speedrail and Shaker Heights

American passenger cars in N scale are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, if it's not for the great "name trains". That's why we starting to make small runner packs. We follow our own desires and start with a DELAWARE & HUDSON set of three, full color printed

On the workbench: Union Traction of Indiana heavy steel Interurban, HO scale. The model (sold without drives) makes a test run on borrowed NWSL-Stanton motor trucks, to check that all fits and tight curves are well negotiated.

Placing the upper cornerstones on the HO scale Indianapolis Traction Terminal. Still some work to do: modeling the upper Cornice, and making and placing 336 more windows

How it is easy to swap a Tomytec TR04 drive with our dummy floors. Any new "vitrine" model of our N scale Cincinnati curved side cars can be put in service with a motor drive, and go back into the shelf liberating the drive for another model.

A 6-year-old just lost his mother. A woman was shot in the face in front of her wife. The swift, lockstep attempt to dehumanize and villainize Renee Nicole Good might be the most depraved thing we've seen yet from these ghouls and their supporters. These people are utterly fucking dead inside.

Some more official "acceptance runs" of the N scale Northern Texas Traction "Crimson Limited". The train set takes 103 mm (4in) curves with ease

Yay! Shipping parcels works smoothly again between France and the United States. Thanks to our thorough understanding of customs forms, Harmonized Commodity System numbers and country of origin details, the first parcels arrived without any problems, after a 3-month break

It is peak ERIE, pre-merger: Producing a batch of "Thru Line Coaches gives me the opportunity to run a number of Erie cars

The Crimson Limited rolls through the plaines of Texas! N scale "pre-production sample" of fine Northern Texas Traction cars make first laps. Full color printed, designed for Tomix drives. Available soon.

Sending packages to the United States could be possible again soon. Customs duties (15% from France) and fees will be calculated - and paid! - when the package is shipped (in France by yours truly) Postal handling fees should be moderate. I have to calculate now how all this will add up.

Being a little bit under-employed, with my 3D garage factory halted due to geopolitical issues, I found some time to make progress on my Indianapolis Traction Terminal HO scale model. Now I'm tackling the most difficult parts, the brick moldings of the stories 4 to 9

Ho ho ho ! La billetterie pour le train spécial Noël est ouverte, sur la plate-forme HelloAsso 🎄 Embarquez pour une promenade hivernale à bord d’un train à vapeur centenaire 🚂 pour vivre la féérie de Noël et rencontrer le Père Noël 🎅 Réservez à l'aide de ce lien : www.helloasso.com/associations...

Riding the Iron Poney

Les Journées Européennes du Patrimoine 2025 approchent ! ℹ️ Le Samedi 20 et Dimanche 21 Septembre : ⏩ Animations gratuites et visites au dépôt à partir de 10h (chauffe des locomotives vapeur, train miniature) 🚂 Balade en train dès 10h20 à 4€ par personne ! 4 trains en ligne. Horaires et infos :

Commuting

We try to stay afloat, with orders from Europe or Canada. On the workbench: Scranton Electromobile, Brill "Baby Bullet" and two Shore Fast Line cars in the making (HO scale).

WE HAVE TO STOP The United States adopted an executive order that changes customs procedures for goods shipped to the US. Starting August 29, items previously exempt from duties under the $800 de minimis threshold will now be subject to customs duties...

Would there be any appetite for motorized Ready-To-Run models? This is a"pre production mockup" : a Baldwin-Westinghouse Class B motorized with two Halling coreless motor drives. Wired 2 rail, DCC ready, any color (orange, green, red, black...)

An (unpainted) Altoona Electromobile in O scale is getting out for a photo stunt before being boxed for shipping to the customer

On the workbench: one O scale Altoona Electromobile, three N scale New Bedford Electromobiles (color prints), and one N scale Aurora Fox River Lightweight

Narrow and very narrow gauge

Ready-to-run N-scale Heavyweight paired window passenger cars, full color printed, running on 6 wheel trucks. Modeled after a Pullman prototype. Interior seating, window glasses, truck mounted Knuckle couplers, compatible with Kato and MTL couplers interurban-models.myshopify.com/collections/...

Joy riding

« Easton Limited » is rolling down the Line, at the East Penn Traction Meet in Allentown PA [HO scale]

Visting East Troy RR Museum

I am into the fog

Curved Side cars built by the Cincinnati Car Co are lined up

Into the wild

On the workbench: A Wisconsin St.Louis Car Lightweight, a Cincinnati Curved Side car, a New Bedford Electromobile (color printed), a Brill "Baby Bullet" (color printed) , and a Queensboro Bridge Car. And a bunch of pre-production Baldwin-W'house Class B locomotives, testing variants [HO scale]

My Electric Vehicle. Powerful. High battery range. Efficient steering control. No nonsense

Baldwin-Westinghouse Class B model, HO scale