If you’ve been following the “Up the Creek” column, you‘ve seen
the layout change over the past five years – indeed, the BC&SJ
was featured in the first issue of MRH back in January 2009.
Here are a couple of photos, one historical, the other a view of
latest new track with me having fun with trains. Yes, the tem-
porary Salem staging finally was moved and the construction
crew was quick to extend the benchwork and mainline (upper)
from Oakhill down to – and the Siskiyou branch (lower) up to
– Bear Creek. My crew is eagerly anticipating this month’s op
session with a scale mile of new mainline in place.
The April 2014 MRH cover story will take an in-depth look at
the 10th anniversary version of the BC&SJ. Horace Fithers tells
me he “jest can’t wait to see it!” Now if you’ll excuse me, I
need to make more sawdust and get some more track laid.
Allagash Bash
To help celebrate our fifth anniversary, we’re doing what
we call an “Allagash Bash” the first 6 months of 2014. If you
know anything about Mike Confalone’s Allagash Railway,
you will no doubt agree it represents some superb modeling
that’s not like what you see every day.
Even though Mike models 1970s Maine in the March-April
timeframe, many of Mike’s techniques can be used on any
model railroading project regardless of scale or era. We
hope to bring you some of the best of Mike’s useful tips,
techniques and modeling philosophy as we do our “Allagash
Bash” over the next 6 months.
As far as MRH goes, we kick off the Allagash Bash this issue
with a railfanning cover story on the Allagash. The railfan-
ning adventure wraps up next issue in part 2.
MRH staff notes - 3
Also this month on TrainMasters TV, we’ll be featuring a
special one-hour interview with Mike as we delve into his
approach to the hobby, and his learnings while modeling the
Allagash. This video also features a lot of fun eye-candy shots
of Mike’s layout with trains running through his outstanding
scenery. Watch for it on TMTV around January 20th.
And that’s not all! We also asked Mike to put together a
definitive eBook on his Allagash, how he conceived it, how he
has built it, and how he’s doing his proto-freelanced roster.
We also asked for Mike to get into how he built and prepared
the layout for prototype ops, and how he does op sessions.
Having attended an Allagash operating session, I can tell you
Mike’s layout runs every bit as well as it looks. During an
entire six-hour op session, I don’t recall a single derailment!
MRH-Jan 2014
