Tom's Trains

I've had a thing for trains and model railroads for years. I seem to go through phases... sometimes I don't have any trains.... sometimes, I am deep into designing and building a railroad. Like most everybody, I started with HO scale, but in the last 15 years I've been most interested in Z scale and G scale. Z is the smallest commercial produced scale while G scale is one of the largest.  My latest "money pit" is "garden" railroading ion G scale.  This page includes info on my GardenRR that I play with in the summer, and my Z scale and modules I display with a local club.

The Garden Railroad

Z Scale Page

I am also into Z scale.  I belong to the Northwest Pacific Z Scalers here in the Seattle area.  I have built two modules (see the slide shows and movie on Z Scale page) which we show from time-to-time.  I also have a couple of portable Noch layouts that I take to shows when we aren't showing the modules.

I live in Renton, WA just south of Seattle. I belong to the Puget Sound Garden Railway Society, the Boeing Employee's Model Railroad Club, and the Northwest Pacific Z Scalers club. I have displayed my garden layout during the West Coast Regional Meet July 1997 and the 17th National Garden Railway Convention in 2001.

Tom's MRR Movies, VR Photos, & Slide Shows

		Press photo to see my train passing the station (760k).  (Click to get the free viewer)
		Jump on board! Press photo to see movie (800k). (Click to get the free viewer)
QTVR G Scale		This is a QuickTimeVR 360 deg. panorama. This photo was taken in August 2003 with a Nikon 5000 and a OneShot360 lens. Click photo to load, then click and move mouse on photo to view.   It is only about 250kb in size but you need a QT viewer on your computer. (Click to get the free viewer)
Real- Time WebCam		This is a real time camera on my Garden Railroad layout during the day.  It is updated every couple of minutes.  Click the photo to see the 640x480 version.
Renton, WA Weather in Fairwood	Powered by La Crosse WS23-10 Weather Station	About the Real-Time I am using a Sony EVI-D30 PTZ camera in a special enclosure on the side of my second story.  The camera moves through six different preset views every 30 minutes using  J3Soft camera control software. The video is captured using a Hauppage Win-TV card and uploaded to my WEB server using the VisionGS application running on an XP computer. The software is programmed to upload photos every 2 minutes only during daylight hours. The weather info is captured by a LaCrosse WS-2310 Weather Station and the data is uploaded every 10 minutes with software supplied by LaCross as a jpg file.

1998...180k .jpg panorama stitched from 4 digital camera pictures.	My Garden Layout I keep the switches covered when not in use with plastic boxes. My layout was started in the spring of 1996, so much of the gardening is still to be done. While I can't run two trains at the same time, I did installed an automatic controller to allow two trains to alternate around the layout using a passing siding on the left of this photo by the station. I use LGB 1700 series sensors on the track and magnets on the locos. I cleared the ground and put plastic weed barrier down first, then put pea gravel down. I then used 2X4's to contain the rock and put ground cover, stepping stones (for roadway) and bark over the rest.
	Bashing the LGB 040 I do a lot of "bashing" or modifying RTR and kits. Here is the 040 LGB steam engine that comes with the starter kits. These can be had for around $50-$100 and can be bashed and weathered to make a fun weekend project. Here is a new 040, which had a red cab, which I took off and replaced it with a cab from a Dalton loco. I run it with an Aristocraft sound tender. I am in the process of weathering the pair and putting Colorado & Southern decals on them

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