 Hey, my name is Steven Priest and I'm Joel Priest and guess what we're gonna do today What's neat this week March episode starting right now? The What's neat show is sponsored by caboose sharing our passion for trains since 1938 This is what's neat for March 2019. I'm your host Ken Patterson in this month We really do have a good show first of all we got Kansas City and take a look at Steven Priests and Joel's beautiful Santa Fe layout an Absolutely extravagant big layout. It's a treat this month to look at also I show you the safety tips of using a sled for your table saw for making precise cuts with your models It's a really really neat thing that you should look at and I'm gonna show you how to do it this month Plus one thing we do look at is the new Bachman K4 locomotive. This is a streamlined pensy locomotive We built a new scene for it to shoot the 2019 cover. It's kind of a photography treat to look at this month Also, I've got with me Michelle Kemplema who is starting a new segment for What's Neat for model road habeas magazine and Michelle tell us about that Okay, so as the director of the Colorado model railroad museum I'm often traveling around the country working in tourism wearing my tourism hat And I decided to start filming the places that I'm visiting because a lot of times Modelers are traveling and they want to do railfanning on the way So I'm gonna start interviewing all the places that I go to and share with you all the places You can visit as you travel around America So that's it for What's Neat in March, and we hope you enjoy For this segment of What's Neat, we're gonna talk about this table saw. This is that wonderful four inch table saw that you can get from Micromark, it's great I go through one of these about every ten years because I use it so much The purpose of a saw obviously like this is to get precision cuts those types of cuts that you can't get through the regular Full-size saw or a band saw or any normal type of shop equipment But at the same time a hand saw still isn't going to be the answer to the project So I love using these saws the problem with saws like this is as you run the equipment they stuff through them They tend to be a little bit dangerous now They make saw guides metal ones that allow you to run the equipment up one side of it the wood in the shavings and it works But I prefer to use something called a sled and what a sled is it's a device that would hold your entire work piece On a flat surface as you run the product through the saw and I've built this one in fact out of plexiglass Which is a medium that a lot of professional model builders like to use for building buildings For example this structure this grain elevator from Greenville, Illinois is built completely out of plexiglass as a super structure Because it's extremely strong and then you can laminate it with whatever type of modeling material your building is going to look like For example here I've got some sightings here from Hullgate and Reynolds and I've also got regular Campbell Just beautiful metal sheet metal work up and down this building and it laminates very well on plexiglass Another great thing that you can use plexiglass or I like to take eighth inch plexiglass and make my tool holders The screwdriver holders going better on 17 years old and the stuff doesn't come apart You glue it together with MEK and a paint brush and it works really well now again The point of this video was really to talk about this sled because this sled could be adapted to any Type of table saw flat surface saw that you use now I prefer to use it on this microlux saw because it works really good with a 4-inch carbide bit when I'm also cutting the buildings For example as you run some of these design preservation buildings to the saw the carbide tip blade is variable speed So you can slow it down so you don't melt your plastic But you can also cut an entire row of bricks straight throughout the structure Which is exactly what we want to do when we're building models like that So it's something that I wanted to touch on it's something that you could do if you've got a full-size 8-inch table saw or a small model building saw like what I've got here build yourself a sled It's something that's helpful to run your material through when you're cutting it It allows you to keep all your fingers safe, and that's this hobby model building tip for what's neat For this segment of what's neat. I'm doing an outdoor photo shoot today It's about two degrees outside right now, but you don't feel it because there's really no wind out here at the moment So it's actually working out. I'm shooting a tunnel Diorama that I built all about eight years ago, and I'm featuring the Bachman k4 Streamline locomotive on this scene. It's an absolutely magnificent locomotive that I do want to show you guys It is just something that Bachman has come out with recently new and I've got to tell you what the quality of this model is Absolutely amazing as I zoom in here and try to show you what this thing looks like. It's got a TCS wow sounds sound system in it So it's got the form of current keeper that keeps the locomotive running of its dead spots and the sound quality is absolutely fantastic In fact these locomotives talk to you when you do the programming with them So it makes programming totally simple. It's something I wanted to share This is gonna put Bachman Industries out in Philadelphia on the map This is truly a quality model that the modelers are really gonna love and let me show you how the 2019 catalog cover photo came out. It's kind of a cool shot. I've got trees on either side of the main line It just screams, you know farmland out in Pennsylvania. So what a beautiful shot here love doing it The Bachman 2019 catalog cover photo is done and I'm gonna go back inside with my TCS Cup full of coffee here and have a good afternoon. So with that let's end this segment of what's neat For this segment of what's neat I'm in Parkville, Missouri a suburb of Kansas City with Joel and Stephen Priest Standing in this gorgeous Empire now Stephen and Joel are both overachievers in our hobby You can tell that based on what we're about to see on this layout I do not over exaggerate when I say that these guys are amazing Stephen You've been working on this layout for how many years tell me about this well this particular road six years We bought the house six years ago Went ahead and you know did all the finishes surface finishes and things like that in preparation for the railroad And then basically tore into the rear itself. It took about six months to design But from then we just pretty much took off now. You've got an eye for scenery. I can tell the way it flows There's not a circus here in a city there without the flow between your scenery is weathered everything's laid out Very prototypically. Tell me why is it you model that way? Well, I'm a I'm a you know They're talking about model rarity, but I'm also a railroad modeler and there's kind of a difference between the two of those And it's oddly odd you to say that but it's really true. And so the idea behind here is we're actually modeling a railroad We're actually taking 1978 and recreating it So we don't have kind of a dog breakfast of things We don't have some steam engines over here and you know a European train here It's it has a very cohesive theme to it and a lot of people don't model that way But that's okay, you know we happen to because I like I like the the feeling of an entire Encompassing finished product. Yeah, definitely got this now. I understand Joel you've helped a lot with the electronics You kind of are a DCC wizard like our friend Daniel on the podcast Tell me about your passion for the electronics. Well, it all started here when I grew up with this layout I started in 2012 so I was 12 years old Just started working with building kits and working with jam or I and DCC and just really stuck with me And I enjoyed a lot Another thing is my dad's getting older and he can't bend down as much. So my friend Cody Cameron and I We are professional wire pullers So my dad says we need to run this cable from here to there and I'm done here about five minutes That's awesome. You've got to be very very gosh. What a great son Yeah to work on a layout with the family. It's got to be about the family on this layout, isn't it? You guys work together along with Cynthia. So it's a family affair Plus you've got a lot of friends that you work with you want to give some credit to some of the folks that have helped you with this layout Oh, yeah, man, you know the cool thing is nobody is good at everything. You know that nobody is good at everything So you've got these little little little absences of skill sets And so if you can find people to fill those in then you really get that room Going so Keith Robinson and Dan Munson and Mike Porter and and Mike Dittmer's and Jacob Dittmer's and On and on and on I mean there's been about you know The average work session is 10 people, but there've been as many as 19 people here And there's probably been as many as 30 people that have actually overall Encompassing you that have come once or twice to help out Craig Victor's one of those guys comes over and lays track Like track guy, so it's been a lot of fun And it's really this layout is not just a testament to me and Joel and Cynthia It's a testament to all the people that are involved plus all the manufacturers that give us all this awesome stuff That's that's basically our palette to paint with yeah Yeah, that's our extended family. Yes, it's the best hobby in the world I seem like I say that a lot But it's about the people that I've run into in them in many years and all the things that I've learned Like you guys are showing me tonight. I've learned some new things here. I believe it or not And I thought I knew it all But just some of your ideas on how you stage things and your lighting and your LED lights that you've put in So many of these buildings around here. I mean this is all new technology You've got to actually be on top of it to know how to do that I don't know how to do it you do and I learned out tonight, so I appreciate that now Tell me I want to ask you guys What are some of your most favorite parts of this layout and if you'll take us around and kind of point out some of The things that you're really proud of oh sure well I like the whole road, but you know there are keynotes there There are keynote scenes that remind me of my rariting days like the intermodal facility and going down to Argentina and hopping on a on a conscious to power you know to go out and tire into your train and take off west across Kansas You know at 70 miles an hour on a pig train Wow, and so I created you know a large Intermodal facility and a large diesel facility diesel shop because that's the things I remember and then of course the yard for switching And I'm gonna I'm a segue into that just for a second if you're an operator as a model raritor There's really two types of things that that occur. There's Mainline trains that you run across the road and then they're switching jobs and Depending on the personality type of the people or what your days been like there at the times that that people come home from work And they just want to relax and take a passenger car train across the railroad They don't have to think they just look at signals But there are other times that same person will come over and he's like man I'm all raring to think so we'll put him in the yard where he has to process and sort hundreds and hundreds of cars The railroad is built to address both of those situations So it's not one or the other it it encompasses both so it's aesthetics and operation and you're using the car Cart system you've got it very carefully laid out everything's written out it took a lot of time just to set that up didn't it it did And Dan Munson did a lot of that Dan Munson is Works with the BNSF railway. He's been a lot of capacities currently is he's yard mastering and so that's what he does He does TSP's or train service plans at Argentine Argentine yard Basically, he looks at a whole day and he plans out what his jobs are going to do And so he comes down here and it's just an extension of that he comes down here He plans what the job the job is going to do on the railroad so and I think he actually enjoys it Which is the scariest part of all yeah, the other thing you bring into operation is your CTC board and you were showing me that I'm running b-roll right now. You've got a window on there So you can actually see out the window of the tower. Is that how it's supposed to be? Yeah, and here's the thing a CTC panel You can't have it in the middle of all the noise because the dispatcher's got to think he has to really program and Plan out what's going on but often they get stuck back in a room And they don't have any attachment or any visual or physical feeling of what the railroad's doing You know, they're they're separated so by putting that window in there You know he can turn around look at the railroad and and feel some type of of a relationship with the railroad as he's dispatch I mean, that's really important I mean it really keeps the demeanor of the dispatchers a lot more pleasant makes sense Joe you've worked on some of the buildings down here I saw one of those really cool kids that you built tell us about your passion for some of that scenery work in buildings So for scenery I really like working on the countryside because that's kind of where my dad first took me when Railfanning out in Western, Kansas where he used to run around so I like you know, including various plants cat tails and such and scenes But as for buildings, I like creating kind of weird-looking buildings or something more industrial I like cities a lot and Industries where you can switch with spurs and such so loading docks is kind of my passion as well That's amazing and you are so dedicated Steven in this hobby That's so much that we're looking at today isn't going to be around in about three or four months This is all going to disappear and you are going to build a new layout Somewhere down in Kentucky in the south down there You want to talk a little bit about your new adventure that you're about to start and this video will be coming out in March I believe but we're always on an adventure in this household. I'll tell you and we're not scared of things You know change is good and if you we want to continue to change all the way through our lives continue to learn Oddly enough, this is road number 16. We've had you know Many many railroads and so you continue to progress you continue to continue to kind of perfect things Scale trains.com. I'm going to be working for them doing their marketing management and things I've been involved in the model road industry as you know and a lot of people that are watching this know and They basically came to me and said hey, you know, would you consider coming to work for us? You know, and I said sure, you know, we'll look at it and so we start talking and it worked out Well, so we'll be moving down near Benton, Tennessee Which is just east of Chattanooga between Chattanooga Knoxville and originally they wanted me May 1 But they've moved that up to March 1 because they just have a lot going on So I'm really excited to go work with those guys. They fantastic group of guys and they are pioneering and they're hiring The people to stay pioneering. That's the cool thing watching their their plan You know, they're hiring the people that are on the cutting edge of model rarities So yes, the rare is coming down, but there'll be another one. It's just a thing Man, you're an amazing spirit in this hobby. You're a valuable asset to them. I wish you the best of luck with that I guess you're looking forward to moving to a new place a new environment Well, yes, I'm looking forward to moving, but I'm not going to be moving with them I'll be joining the Air Force enlisted this fall. So who knows where I'll end up Wow Awesome, dude, well, we're gonna walk around and look at some of your more favorite parts of the layout But I really appreciate you both taking the time to share this with us. So let's go check out some of your cool stuff Let's do it Joe we're standing at the east end of Robinson and I see this beautiful little area with the double-track main line now This area is one of your favorite parts of the layouts. Tell us why well when I was really young We went out and celebrated Dina Day in North America, which is rarer is illustrated go out and take pictures across the nation kind of holiday and We went out to this place in Bosworth, Missouri very very rural and There's a place just like this scene here and we tried to recreate it on this layout because it's just such a cool area in fact These little bridge Supports here or prevents the erosion. We actually modeled that from that area as well as long as the bridge and Tried to model my friend Cody and I hear railfanning as well Other than that also like how the scenery just came together with the Telephone lines and the signal placement and the signal maintainer down there as well, so this is amazing You did a great job on this part of the layout. Well, thank you Steven we're standing here in one of your more favorite locations that you've described and we're gonna look at a few of them here Tell us about this area here that we're looking at well This area is called Centrelia and I love it for several reasons first of all It's right in the middle of the railroad and it's a really small compact yard, but it's a very busy yard It's where the Santa Fe branch line breaks off Which is about a third of the railroad is branched line non signal branch line a lot of the guys like to go out And carry on and switch on the branch line during a session It's also where the Rock Island comes in and gets on trackage rights to go towards St. Louis So the combination of those two things make it extremely busy And also extremely scenic and one of the things that I that I like about it is a number of years back I worked with athern to do this this depot kid I worked with George Ryler there when George Ryler was at athern and that structure they made them out of basically casting and You see him around on the railroads, but it's kind of neat to look at that know that realize I designed that and it was the Marion depot which is my childhood home and I remember going down and watching the Santa Fe locals come in and to Marion and Set there at the depot and even when it was raining I'd sit there with the eaves the depot and stay dry and so that depot has a lot of meaning to me So that's basically one of the reasons I love this area Okay, one of the things I want to talk to you about because you know I like unique things in modeling because uniqueness sets your model railroad apart This structure right here was bought for me by a good friend of mine Steve huddle who's a locomotive engineer for the BNSF He found it on the internet that they would custom-build any bridge that you wanted And so what he did is he went out and he ordered this bridge off of plans We had and basically around 400 bucks. They delivered it from the Orient So eBay has other interesting things you can do as well So it's a it's a very unique structure and the coolest thing about it is it will not allow you to run High-cube cars through it It's kind of that back New England clearance type of thing So it's really neat. So this is actually kind of a choker restricting factor for our branch line It won't allow high-cube cars. So that's one of the things that in Centralia. You kind of have to switch those cars out So it's one of my favorite things about the railroad is that and right beyond that is this little junction where the Rock Island crosses the Santa Fe and That's a neat area to run to and one of the things that's cool about it is The signals all function here But the signals run out will run off this panel here That's actually built right in to the area. So the operators just like the prototype railroad They actually go out and they line their trains Themselves through the junction through the interlocking which is quite prototypical because the branch is not signaled But the interlocking has to be so that's one of my favorite things as well So what we've got here is we have an interlocking which means two roads are crossing So just like an intersection a highway intersection We have signals that protect that so the trains don't run at each other It's run off the panel up here, which you saw earlier But I have a freight car here what I'm going to do is I'm going to roll it into what we call the plant And you'll see that signal drop when the when the freight car enters the the plant And that's done basically to protect trains to keep them from colliding So this is kind of a an island in here a little signal island Which all over Western Candice or where anytime rare it's crossed This is what they did they create what's called an interlocking plant and they interlock it So only one train could go through the interlocking at a time Hey, Ken. Well, nothing I want to show you about the rare is I'm not a big fan of helix coming out of the engineering department of the Santa Fe railway Helix is combined two of the worst forces and railroads grade and curvature and on the prototype Ards whenever they have curvature they lessen the grade Unfortunately helix is kind of challenge us in the model railroad world. There are other ways to go between decks What we've done here is if you notice this is a constant grade We have about a 40-foot grade that is a 1.2 percent grade Which all it does is provide us the ability to go between levels on the railroad so Basically instead of a train disappearing into helix for five or six minutes It goes into a tunnel comes out the other end on the grade and we're set So this train here just a couple seconds ago was in the upper deck or the upper level and here it is down below Also like fuel pads. This is one of the things. I've never seen modeled on Model road before Mike brusky at dimensional model concepts actually makes all these fuel booms and oil booms and water booms Which are really really nice models, and I think Mike for doing that. He's an awesome modeler Hey, can another thing I really loved like I mentioned earlier I used to love going to work and climbing up on engines at the Argentine engine facility where they were often there were 200 or 300 locomotives there Obviously, we can't do that in model road form, but I can get a good 50 of them into my engine facility So I patterned this kind of after what went on at Argentine, which is a lot of fun So we build consists here we fuel sand the locomotives, and then we have a shop Which will be located here where they actually will repair things a Good friend of mine Steve hoddle bought both of these overland sanding towers for me off eBay He found them he had been looking for him for years And they came available within about six months of each other The only thing we did to modify them is we added lighting to them We added these bush lights to them which makes them look really awesome Especially in evening scenes because the ones at Argentine, of course were eliminated. So With DCC, it's a lot of fun to build consists here and you'll notice here We've got car cards and way bills and things for all the locomotives Every locomotive has a card. So we'll actually build the build the consists during an operating session. It's an absolute blast Hey, can come on in. Let me show you something, you know It's interesting a lot of people believe that Monitoring happens all at the layout, you know bench work and tackling and in truth a lot of it does But one of the keys to having a good model road and being a successful model rariter is Creating a good shop in other words a good place to work a place that you can sit down Build models leave for a while go up and have supper come back down continue working on the model It's keynote also Organization all these drawers full of parts. It's absolutely and essential to being able to to build good models And so half of the shop is actually just storage of materials to build things out of then Of course the other half the shop is work areas and this shop is divided into actual four areas So four people can work here at once or you can work on different types of projects So right here obviously is a paint booth where we paint We have an area here that we do milling with our machine shop so we can do DCC installs and things like that We have a general kit build area, which is kind of this center aisle here And then in here around the corner is a little electronic build where we do all our DCC installation Do a lot of the the installing of lights and things for structures and things like that and of course all the programming for DCC as well So it's an extremely keynote to build a good shop if you want to be a good model You just actually cannot separate the two of those they're they're entrenched with each other Steve and Cynthia, I want to thank both of you for the hospitality of having the what's neat folks Look at this beautiful Empire. This is going to be the closing on this layout The end of an era as you move and go on to build something else just as a Magnificent, but I got to tell you what in a way It's kind of sad because there's so much love and passion that I see work in this layout You guys want to close out this one for us and kind of Sure. Well, I want to say, you know the neat thing about moderating is there's always something around the corner You know you can look at this and say oh my gosh, you spent all the time doing this Oh, it's the end of the world this guy is falling But really you know what the thing is is a great opportunity I have a whole new basement to design, you know, and there's gonna be things that matter differently I'm gonna probably do all incandescent lighting so I can dim it all kinds of things like that. It's a great opportunity That's awesome Cynthia say something add to this. It's amazing. Isn't it? If you stay still for too long you miss out on life's adventures And that's what I consider being married to him is one continuous adventure after another That's awesome guys. You guys make this the best hobby in the world High five And that's this segment of what's neat This is Michelle Kempema and I am here with Jamie Johnson from the historic real park and museum Did I get the name right? It's historic real park and train museum. I forgot the word train of all things Train right the most important part. It's so exciting to meet another woman director of a rail attraction Yeah, it's really fun to meet you and I've enjoyed your museum today Can you tell me a little bit of about your museum? Sure so the actual train depot that we're standing in was originally built in 1925 and About 20 years ago. They actually came back to restore the entire building and then the museum was put into place About 12 years ago. So we just celebrated our 11-year anniversary We're really excited to be here to have two stories of a museum. That's wonderful You tell all kinds of stories in here I thought it was really interesting that when we came into the museum This is the part of the museum that was segregated and you really do tell that story of rail history And you have your Jim Crow car outside and that's just a really neat story that you tell and tell us about the railroad that this Beautiful train here that we got to walk through and see the rail cars. Tell me about that project Yeah, so you know when people visit us here our our mission is to tell the story of passenger travel So we're not about freight travel We don't have open stock that anybody can just walk into everything is protected And so we have five restored rail cars that we take guided tours out on and so when we bring people into those cars We're actually able to show them a true glimpse into what it was like in the golden era of train travel And you know to get these cars here was a huge undertaking We have a total of eight cars just five on the tour But each car came in different, you know Some came by rail and were hoisted onto our track Some actually came in on semi trucks and then again were hoisted onto the track Some of them came in the condition like our towering pine, which is a sleeper car It came in pristine condition Literally the last day that they unloaded passengers They closed the door never reopened it again until we got it on site So it was just a matter of cleaning it up and opening it up now some of the cars You mentioned our Jim Crow car that was actually once a deer stand out in the middle of the woods It's not even it wouldn't have even been Recognizable somebody thought I think that used to be a train You know, so we brought it in and and we've spent a tremendous amount of money and a lot of time working on that car And it's still not ready to be bid on the tour But you know each car tells a different story and each car it means something different to us And so, you know, like we have the an original post office car You don't see a lot of those and you definitely don't see a lot of those restored And so that it's taken a lot of volunteer hours to make those things happen a lot of People that are just passionate about about travel and passionate about history So yeah, there's there's a lot of stories going on around here good story The male car was my favorite. That's just a beautiful car and you've restored it beautifully It's just a really neat thing and of course you tell the story of only the male car dog in there And I just really enjoyed that so tell us about your big project that you're working on right now Yeah, so like I mentioned, you know the museum is we were coming on our 12-year anniversary And so we've created a save the depot campaign and you know, we've got this beautiful building I mean our building alone is worth about four million dollars and we are a nonprofit organization So, you know, you have to think how does a nonprofit organization maintain a building like that? You know, we we have several hundred thousand dollars invested into our train cars And so we look for people to come do tours We rent out our facility space for weddings and all kinds of things We have special events here that families can come to we have an event coming up called romance at the Railpark where we offer people a you know an evening on the dining car to eat So we do all these things to generate funds to keep our doors open And so, you know now in our 12th year we're saying that, you know, it's a struggle It's a struggle for not only our train museum, but other train museums out there And so we created the save the depot campaign as really a nod to the 1940s in world war two And and we're using the propaganda posters to put the word out that we need the community to pull together And and support this place and become a member attend an event, you know, any of those things that help us And part of that theme actually came from a new exhibit that that is has been designed And we are currently fundraising for and hope to put into production this year But we have an exhibit called railroads go to war and and one of the bigger pieces of that is world war two You know things like rosy the riveter or all that kind of stuff is what you're going to see with it And so that's really where the theme of save the depot came from But the the whole point of it is to truly save the depot and keep this place open Because we don't want to lose a gem like this in this community. It's it's very important to us I agree. I think it's a beautiful place and you've done a great job. I mean your exhibits are first class This is just a beautiful museum And there is a model railroad here and I took a lot of footage of it Can you tell us a little bit about the club that you have here? Yeah, so we have a group called the show modular model railroad club They are a group of volunteers and so basically what we do with them is they get the space And we allow them to utilize that space and they maintain the exhibit And then what they get from us is all the travelers who get to come through get to see their exhibit because You know a lot of people will have a model train display in their basement Or in their garage someplace that nobody ever sees it And so this is an opportunity for them to actually showcase their passion their hobby all of their hard work And we have so many people that come through here and look at that model train. They're just they're impressed and they're inspired And then they go home and they start building something So, you know, it's just great to have that here and then, you know, the different members of that club who are dedicated to the Even preserving that particular exhibit because for us, it is an exhibit You know, they're in here day after day putting in hours and hours and hours to maintain The buildings that you will see on there The the little trees all those things, you know, you have to there's maintenance on those things Definitely the tracks and the cars. I mean I come in and and it's always fun to see what the guys are up to But a lot of times they'll have the bands on with the little light and they're down there, you know Like they're doing surgery on a car And so, um, you know, but it's really cool because in these are people who are um, you know, they're just really cool people They're engineers They're they're people that, you know, we've got one of the guys he used to own an hva Seed company and so they come from all these different backgrounds But they're all joined together by by their passion and their love for railroading And some of them, you know, actually worked in the railroads, you know at some point So it's just really fun to see all of them come together and and and Maintain that certainly that important piece of our museum I think that's fantastic and On the show that we have called what's neat this week We really like to talk about how that's the greatest hobby in the world because it's about passion and you totally talked about that It's about passionate people coming from all walks of life and building model railroads because it brings us joy And why don't you tell us your website right off of that? It's historic railpark.com And what is the main railroad that went through here still Louisville and Nashville one? Yeah, I think that's really neat I honestly didn't know much about it and I learned a whole lot today and it's very cool And I even got to go inside the locomotive. This is very exciting for me It's the best hobby in the world. Thank you so much for being with us today and talking to us Thank you for visiting come back and see us and for those of you that model the Louisville and Nashville This is your home all of the model railroad products seen in this episode of what's neat are available through caboose in lakewood, colorado Or order online at my caboose dot com