I decaled and weathered this Penn Central SD45 and lent it to my friend Kyle (who took this photo) to enjoy for a while. He took this loco, along with his blue SD45, and some of his freight cars to another friend's railroad, that of Dave Weber.

This hobby is a lot more fun with good friends who can team up like this to share trains, railroad, tips, ideas, photos, etc.

I had a blast running my SPC 2-6-0 over the weekend. This loco has an RC system for the throttle, reverser, and whistle.

I was able to achieve a nice, steady, slow run and was quite happy to get a solid run in for an hour with just a few stops for water to be sure things were good in the boiler.

This 2-4-2 is based on an Accucraft Ruby and has RC for the controls. Despite running without its tender, it drew attention at the 2026 Cabin Fever Expo.

These mods to the loco give it a more American feel.

Nikon D850 & Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 @ f/4.5

A model plane flies over Lake Josephine

I was at the Cabin Fever Model Expo today and spotted this really cool RC model of the iconic truck from the movie Duel. I like the patina work done with the weathering, and that it all works as a scale model is wonderful.

Nikon D850 & Nikkor 24-120mm f/4

Testing out my Roundhouse Sammie on my friend's elevated garden railroad. This 0-4-0T has an RC servo for the throttle. It does not have Radio Control for the forward/reverse action as this loco is equipped with a slip eccentric.

This SP freight, headed down grade, has just exited this tunnel portal.

My Darjeeling Himalayan Railway 4-6-2 Pacific is in action with a freight train. This shot is from last year (2025) at the annual Aikenback steam up in Scranton. We always meet at the Trolley Museum right at Steamtown.

This locomotive is a great puller with a good-sized boiler; it can make a solid 30-minute run pulling a long rake of wagons. The factory RC works perfectly.

In the next year or two, I am going to convert the boiler on this loco to a coal-fired boiler. And for this year's steam up (2026) I plan to run my Darjeeling A-Class 0-4-0 so stay tuned!

Live Steam 0-4-0 made by Grover Devine steams through the rock-cut on my garden railroad.

50mm f/1.4 Zeiss Milvus Distagon ZF.2 @ f/8

This hobby is a lot more fun with friends. I especially like finding friends who have different ideas, new solutions to problems, and fun ways to maximize the enjoyment of our hobby.

I visited my friend Dave Weber's railroad this weekend and it was the first time since the passing of his son, TJ. While the loss of TJ has hit the whole hobby, it was nice to see this tribute/memorial boxcar some friends made to honor TJ. I was able to capture this photo of Dave watching the train roll past.

Traxxas Stampede 4x4 Tearing it up

I spent much of the afternoon at my friend's garden railroad and with the help of another friend at the throttle we got a nice pan short or two. My friend's railroad models the area near the Tehachapi loop and this freight is seen headed up some of the many grades on the railroad.

If only that AML GP-60 (the second loco) wasn't so new looking and the yellow wasn't so loud.

Unstoppable RC fun

On my friend Dave's garden railroad, one picturesque area is this valley with some bridges for the trains to pass from one side to the other.

This train happens to have a Penn Central SD45 leader that I decaled and weathered. In the background is a Penn Central patched boxcar that I also did with an interior of junk (old boxes and discarded wrapping). I was lending these items to another friend who brought them to run on Dave's railroad with some of his own stuff, too. I love this sort of cross-pollination we get in this hobby.

Nikon D610 with a Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ f/10

An early Conrail freight led by a former Penn Central GP40 (patched for CR) rounds the curve at the highest section of my garden railroad.

Sigma ART 35mm f/1.4 @ f/9

1/6 scale (GI Joe / Barbie size) radio controlled Jeep. The original color scheme was military green, but I'm giving it a safari, or a 'Daktari', makeover.

A Southern Pacific freight rolls into a tunnel on my friend's garden railroad.

Nikon D610 & Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 @ f/7.1

1/6 scale (GI Joe / Barbie size) radio controlled Jeep. The original color scheme was military green, but I'm giving it a safari, or a 'Daktari', makeover.

In the foreground is the loco I am making as a tribute to Grover's creation. The loco in the background is the original dream locomotive: Grover's 0-4-0.

Zeiss Milvus Distagon ZF.2 50mm f/1.4 @ f/16

I wanted to photograph some trains but it is just so hard with this fence around the parking lot and the sidings at the factory. Maybe I can sneak in somehow.

28mm AI f/2.8 @ f/22

Favourite images.

The cab is shellacked and I've added number decals to the smoke box's number plate and the cab. The whistle is back on (you can barely see it behind the steam dome) and things are moving along. I need to make a coal load, maybe build some tool boxes out of oak, and sort out the RC bits (where to put batteries being one project itself).

I wanted to photograph some trains but it is just so hard with this fence around the parking lot and the sidings at the factory. Maybe I can sneak in somehow.

28mm AI f/2.8 @ f/22

I love DJI's NAZA flight controller, however, on their not-so-inexpensive motors, bullet quality was really poor. It almost cost me a crashed multicopter, eventually I just went ahead and replaced all bullet connectors

Just stuff that I'm into.

Most images aren't mine.

This is the wiring scheme I had to use after buying a connector-less GTPA010 GPS module, with the RangeVideo OSD v5. For all I know this should work with RVOSD4 just the same.

Cheers :)