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Santa Fe Fairbanks Morse Trainmaster - The Untold Story

Click above or here to see the 'Santa Fe Fairbanks Morse Trainmasters - The Untold Story'

 (This web site was flattered and honored to be chosen by National Model Railroad Assciation as their Webmaster's Choice of the month for August 2004).

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Eulogy for John Armstrong, 1920-2004, master Model Railroad Layout Designer



Eulogy for John Armstrong, 1920-2004, master Model Railroad Layout Designer

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Layout Tours!    

John Sing's NMRA Pacific Coast Region 2009 "Worldwide Model/Prototype Railroad Tour" - download a 3MB Acrobat Reader copy of John's clinic presentation at the NMRA Pacific Coast Region 'Rails Across the Bay' Spring 2009 Regional Convention.   Follow the sun from the East Coast of US, West Coast US, Hawaii, Japan, Argentina, and Europe (including UK, Switzerland, and Germany).  Tons of links to noteworthy worldwide model / prototype sites and layouts that you can visit.  Or, just save the cost and view it here. 

John Sing's visit to Jim Younkin's Mud Bay and Southern, Olympia, Washington:   A photo tour of my visit to this beautiful N scale layout representing Olympia, Washington, in the USA.  This layout was featured in Jan/Feb 2005 and Mar/April 2005 N Scale Railroading, as well as in the Mar/Apr 2001, Sep/Oct 2001, and Mar/April 2002 N Scale Magazine.  Thank you so much, Jim Younkins, for having me as a guest, and to Bryan Borovec for arranging the visit.

  First US-themed Model RR Convention in Germany, Oct 6-7, 2007 (near Frankfurt)
I was very fortunate to visit this convention while on a business trip layover.  Stellar US-themed modeling and craftsmanship by Europeans!!!  
You have to see the N scale "Somewhere West" layout to believe it!

Click here to go to a web page where you may download and play a 2 minute online video of the fantasy Santa Fe Trainmaster - running on the San Diego Model Railroad Museum's N scale Pacific Desert Lines.   Thanks to Jim Bence, president of the San Diego Society of N Scale, for giving me this video made during January 2005 to San Diego.

More Layout Tours from 2007 and 2008:

•   Los Angeles area Model Railroad Clubs, October 2007
•   O Scale West 2008, February 2008
•   Narrow Gauge Live Steam near Dresden, Germany, May 2008
•   N Scale Convention - June 2008 Louisville, KY, and the NMRA National Convention - July 2008 Anaheim, CA
•   N scale Clinchfield Railroad at the June 2008 Louisville N Scale Convention
•   Kato Showroom Tokyo, August 2008, Japan
•   San Juan Central (HOn3) by Malcom Furlow, September 2008
•   John Petrovitz' N scale Southern Pacific in San Francisco and NWP, Sept 2008
•   Visit to Miniature Wonderland, Hamburg, Germany, May 2010.  Highlighting the new Switzerland exhibit.

There are many more  Layout Tours and Convention visits, you can see them all here at http://www.pbase.com/atsf_arizona/root&page=all 

Thank you to all the layout owners and clubs who so generously allowed me to photograph their model railroads.

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X2011 West NMRA National Convention in Sacramento, Calif

National Convention Facebook Social Media campaign and permanent convention photo/video documentary

Between June 2010 and July 2011, I was fortunate to be the leader on the X2011 West NMRA National Convention online Social Media campaign.  This annual national-level, 2000-attendee convention, with an operating budget of over a million dollars, was the proving ground for a first-ever real-time online internet experience of the NMRA Nationals.  Facebook was the central portal.  We created and executed a blended campaign of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, combined with internet forums and internet photo-journalism, to present this convention in real-time to a worldwide internet audience.

You can see over 750+ photos and 35+ videos that were created in a year-long campaign that started at 2010 Nationals in Milwaukee, and culminated in real-time worldwide internet coverage of 2011 NMRA Nationals in Sacramento.

Best of all, this was and is free to anyone on the internet - by intent, you don't have to be a Facebook member to see the material - it was and is open to everyone worldwide, free of charge.  The goal is to show the power, reach, and effectiveness of today's modern Social Media.

You can still see all of this material, permanently recorded for posterity, by clicking here on the icon for the X2011 West Facebook page:

 

Enjoy!

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Photo essay:   Exquisite craftsmanship of today's N scale Brass Steam

While many of us may never own a brass steam locomotive, we may all enjoy the next best thing - to see and appreciate, in photographs, the exquisite detail and incredible craftsmanship that goes into today's brass imports that are coming from Korea.  

Click on the thumbnail below to see a photo essay that I did on on a N scale Key Imports Pennsylvania Q2 4-4-6-4 Duplex brass steam locomotive, made by Samhongsa in 2004.



I hope you enjoy seeing it, as much as I enjoyed taking the pictures.   :-)

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Modeling Lessons Learned

In the few years I've been modeling, I have had my share of trial and errors.  This section is documentation on a few lessons learned, and I offer it in the hopes of enhancing your modeling enjoyment by saving you some time and energy.    Comments, suggestions, corrections, all welcome!  You may email me at sing@us.ibm.com .


Painting and Ballasting Kato Unitrack for increased realism


Tuning Kato Unitrack #4 turnouts for better performance

  Removing the shell on N scale Kato F, E or PAs (the 'toothpick technique) 


Installing short shank Unimate couplers on the N scale Kato F unit - get superb close-coupling distances!

    Click on the picture at left to see my little 4' x 4' N scale layout - including my experience with ballasting Kato Unitrack

Presentation - "John Sing's Worldwide Model Railroad Tour" - version 2, given at NMRA Pacific Coast Region convention April 2010 (Acrobat Reader, 3.8 MB)

Presentation - "John Sing's Photographing Railroad Models" - given at NMRA Coast Division Meet in December 2009 (Acrobat Reader, 1.3 MB)

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Easier N Scale Number Boards using laser printer and adhesive mailing labels:

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John Sing and Randy Gustafson's Santa Fe Zebra Stripe FM H12-44 in N Scale - a short treatise on the making of the model shown below, from a early Minitrix: 


  Click on the image on the left to see photo-by-photo installation of a Richmond Controls LED light package in this switcher

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   Click on the image on the left to see photos documenting ATSF Bx-108 - Lowering an N scale Micro-Trains Hi-Cube Boxcar

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Santa Fe Big Dome - Simple Improvements to the Bachmann N scale model



Click here to download a 1 MB Acrobat Reader document showing simple modifications you can do to create an decent Santa Fe Big Dome for yourself.

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Click on the image below to see how to install Micro-Trains 1035 short shank truck mounted couplers on N scale MDC Husky Stacks:

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Overview of my N scale 4' x 4' Santa Fe Peavine Layout

Click the photo below to see an overview of my little ATSF_Arizona 4' x 4' Santa Fe "Peavine Line"
N scale layout, including my experience with ballasting Kato Unitrack:



Thanks for visiting!

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I hope this information was entertaining and useful (smile).   Please feel free to send comments to:  singj@us.ibm.com



John Sing
Sarasota, Florida, USA (as of Sept 2012)

Modeling the Santa Fe's Peavine Line (Ash Fork -> Phoenix, Arizona)
in the 1950s and 60s - in N scale

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