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).
Eulogy for John Armstrong, 1920-2004, master Model Railroad Layout
Designer
Eulogy
for John Armstrong, 1920-2004, master Model Railroad Layout
Designer
Photos from the Amherst Model Railroad Show
2005
Amherst
Model Railroad Show, Jan 29, 2005 - 180 photos from Springfield,
Massachusetts, a documentary visit to the
11th annual Northeast NTRAK convention and to the 2005 Amherst show,
one of the largest annual train
shows in the USA.
Photos from National N Scale Convention 2004 at Chantilly (Washington
D.C. area) in USA
John
Sing's
Community Webshots Page - Chantilly NTrak National Convention 2004
- photo documentary of the Chantilly "World's Largest N Scale Layout"
convention, held in Chantilly, Virginia (Washington D.C. area) in
August of 2004
Click
on the photo below to see home Layout Tours from the National N Scale
Convention 2004:
Photo by John Sing, taken on Lance Mindheim's N scale Monon Line.
More 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
Community Webshots Page - Layout Tours - photo documentaries of
various model railroad layouts visited, including: Paul
Dolkos, Lance Mindheim, Dick Patton, Monroe Stewart, Pliny
Holt, J.D. Smith, Jim
Vail, John LaBarbra, The Model Railroad Club Inc.,
and more
John
Sing's
Community Webshots Page - Layout Tour2 - more photo documentaries
of various model railroad layouts visited, including: San
Diego Model Railroad Museum - La Mesa HO Club's depiction of Tehachapi;
Allegheny & Western HO layout of West Island Model RR Club
in Farmingdale, Long Island, NY; Dave Salamon's N scale Deep River
Southern; San Diego Model Railroad Museum's N scale Pacific Desert
Lines.
John
Sing's
Community Webshots Page - Layout Tour3 - photo documentary of Ed
Loizeaux's S Scale New York Central Valley Division.
John
Sing's
Community Webshots Page - Layout Tour4 - more photo documentaries
of various model railroad layouts and train shows visited,
including: Spring 2005 Timonium (Maryland) Great Scale
Model Train Show, On30 Yosemite Short Line, Kermit Paul's HO Lone
Pine & Tonopah, Dan Morgan's N Zuni
Mountain and Santa Fe, and extensive photos from the 2005 NMRA National
Convention in Cincinnati.
John Sing's
Layout Tour5: Visit to the Bay State Model Railroad Museum
(N, HO, and O scale layouts) in Roslindale, Massachusetts (Boston
area). The HO layout was the cover shot of the July 2005
Model Railroad magazine.
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.
John
Sing's Layout Tour of Miniature Wonderland, Hamburg, Germany, November
2005:
Visit to one of the world's most remarkable, very large HO model
railroads, in Hamburg,
Germany. This layout, featured in the February 2004 and again in
the February 2006 Model
Railroader magazine, is amazing for its size and scale, fine level
detailing, innovative animation and day/night lighting.
A treat
not to be missed, check it out!
John
Sing's Layout Tour of Nottingham Model Railway Exhibiition, Nottingham,
UK, in March 2006: Visit to one of the major United Kingdom
train shows, with a mix of wonderful UK, European, and North American
layouts. Also visited with NMRA British Region, and Alan Curtis
of Alan Curtis Models.
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 a
Jan 2005
visit 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
Thank you to all the layout owners and clubs who
so
generously allowed me to photograph their model railroads.
Local National Model Railroad Association
(NMRA) Model Contest Photos
I'm the local Coast Division, Pacific
Coast Region, NMRA Model Contest chairperson-flunky. Click
on the photos below to see a quarterly collection of the many
excellent, inspirational
models entered in recent Coast Division
Show and Tell,
Model Contest, or
Photo Contest:
Click
here to see the Coast Division March 2009 Meet Report, Photos, and
Contest Results!
Click
here to see the Coast Division December 2008 Meet Report, Photos, and
Contest Results!
Click
here to see the Coast Division September 2008 Meet Report, Photos, and
Contest Results!
Click
here to see the Coast Division June 2008 Meet Report, Photos, and
Contest results!
Click
here to see the Coast Division March 2008 Meet Report, Photos, and
Contest results!
December
2007: 
September
2007: 
June
2007:
March
2007:
December
2006: 
September
2006: 
June
2006: 
March
2006: 
December
2005: 
If you are interested in more
information about the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA),
click here for the national web site,
or
click
here for the Pacific Coast Region web site (northern
California,
Nevada, Oregon), or
click here
for the local Coast Division web site (San Francisco, San Mateo,
San Jose, Oakland and East Bay, Pleasanton, Walnut Creek, etc).
Model
Railroading Photos from John Sing's Layout
John
Sing's
Railimages.com Web Pages - click above to a large collection of my
model
railroad
photos on Railimages.com
John
Sing's
Community Webshots Home Page - another large collection of my model
railroad
photos. Included on this page are Vol 1:
Painting
Kato
Unitrack for Realism , Vol 2:
Tuning Kato
Unitrack #4
turnouts for better performance,
Vol
13: Santa Fe Trainmaster at
Belmont Shores Lines, a visit to
Visit to
Kato
Tokyo Japan Showroom, and
more.
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. :-)
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
Kato
Unitrack for increased realism
Tuning
Kato
Unitrack #4
turnouts for better performance
Click on the picture
at left to see my little 4' x 4' N
scale layout - including my experience with ballasting Kato Unitrack
Easy
N Scale Number Boards using laser printer and adhesive mailing labels:
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
Click
on the image on the left to see photos documenting ATSF Bx-108 -
Lowering an N scale Micro-Trains Hi-Cube
Boxcar
Click
on the image below to see how to install Micro-Trains 1035 short
shank truck mounted couplers on N scale MDC Husky Stacks:
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!
I hope this information was entertaining and useful
(smile). Please feel free to send comments to:
singj@us.ibm.com
John Sing
California, USA
Modeling the Santa Fe's Peavine Line (Ash Fork -> Phoenix, Arizona)
in the 1950s and 60s - in N scale
