 I will. June. What's Neat? Yeah. Come up here and sit and then we're gonna go eat dinner. Do you want to eat supper? Come here and sit. Come here. Sit. Sit. Good boy. Good boy. Okay, lay down. That's even better. Can you get him? Hold on, I'm wiping the shuttle. Yeah, I got this. On the back light, it's not an issue. Okay. I'm recording. With Caboose. Hi, I'm Kevin Rubel and this is Diesel, the wonder dog. And June's What's Neat starts now. The What's Neat show is sponsored by Caboose, sharing our passion for trains since 1938. This is What's Neat for June 2019. I'm your host Ken Patterson and this month we've got a great show. First of all, Campbell Rice shares with us a beautiful H.O. Scale layout built by Sam Sizdeck. It's a beautiful layout with tons of craftsman structure buildings all over. What artistry Sam shares with us on What's Neat this month. Also, Rand Hood shares some new structures that he's building for his home layout that he's now starting progress and building on and planning. So look forward to the segment where Rand walks us through a lot of scratch build buildings that have a purpose already on this layout that he's building. We've got a beautiful H.O. and 3 modular layout that we videotaped at the Rocky Mountain Train Show out in Colorado. This is the New Mexico Narrow Gauge Modular Club. It's absolutely beautiful and we interviewed a couple of the members for that. We also interview some of the principles of the San Juan model company who have recently acquired about six different companies including Grantline. And all they're doing is bringing the resources together to make this the best hobby in the world for all of us. It's a real treat. Drayton Blackgrove shares with us some drone footage and modeling ideas from above this month. Pay attention to the height of the trees and imagine as you look at the Ohio scenery how this could be built into a really nice shelf layout. That's what I see when I see the drone footage and that's why we run it because it gives great ideas to folks out there. Now I'm standing on the Garden Rara today because I've been getting a lot of work done it recently as the weather's been super nice out here and it's always such a challenge to model outside against mother nature and all the elements. It's a lot of fun. Also be sure to check out Caboose in Lakewood, Colorado. If you're on vacation in the Denver area this summer they've got an absolutely beautiful store biggest train store that I have ever seen. And when you're out there tell them that you've seen and heard about their store on What's Neat. And with that that's the lineup for June 2019 What's Neat. Hi I'm Austin Allard and for this segment of What's Neat we're with Rand Hood. Although he hasn't built the layout yet he's building buildings and models and we're looking forward to seeing the future of his layout being built. Well Austin while the design plans are being worked out and we're finishing the space downstairs we've been actually constructing a lot of buildings and structures that we're going to need. And the one thing about doing mountain scenery is I don't need a lot of things but there are a few key elements and here's a couple of them here where this is a section house in Pine Cliff and there's the Foreman's house. All these got destroyed by a wreck a while back. It's too bad. Just a little structure that Karen has on her desk that she keeps her monkey on there because she's all happy about that. And then yeah this little speeder car shed and waiting area at Pine Cliff. This is about five years too late in the year we're doing but with the Rock Island coming in I'm going to go ahead and allow this and also these little elements of fuel. And then we were wondering at one time if there's actually restrooms there at Pine Cliff for the people. So we're building this abandoned section men and women's nice little delicate structure but it gives you something this will be right up on the edge of the layout so you can kind of view in there. Down closer to Denver here's just a little structure warehouse element just totally kind of chipped paint and weathered out just kind of had some fun with that and and built a little dock for it. This is actually just kind of a wing it but we wanted to put in a little industry and kind of show that and then the main things that we're working on. Here is the North Yard Tower for the Rio Grande and this is the the structure base at this point that just all comes apart in sections so we can detail and do things. The main structure it'll have the micro mark brick paper put on it. We have all the windows constructed we figured out and rebuilt them all to be this masonry pane so they will match. So that's kind of a fun little project. And then nearing Pine Cliff we have the big long bridge at that point. Karen and I went up and measured poured these abutments out of plaster both ends the way that it sits and then constructed the bridge on a 48 degree curve or radius so that when we lay it in on the plan we we refine that area right away so that this would work with the plan and so the rushing water will be coming out through here and then we enter in into the pine cliff area. Now on up the line we've already begun working on the Moffitt tunnel and this time we decided we wanted the full structure and it's going to continue back into the mountain so we've allowed enough space but this is just all kind of the component work at this point and monster model works did this poured concrete and he actually before he went out of business ran this for me with eight inch plank widths for the board so they were correct so we're putting a skin on this to get that poured concrete look and then inside now we're just kind of setting stuff up these are just things from the scrap box you're not going to really see it but with lights on it'll look like there's something there and things happening so the main structure of the of the portal uh back with vents these these are the the big gates that close within the portal and we are actually modeling where these go so you can see into the portal all the electric work uh that they do the little fence these I guess they're giant dampers they close these to allow the airflow so those will be part of that both sides and then we're modeling this a little longer but we're also adding some elements inside so there'll be some glowing lights and things that happen within this model as well as the sound we have recordings of the ventilation system working and that's part of the operation that you have to wait for that uh to tunnel to clear so this is things that we're working on now and there's there's a lot more things but um at this point you know we're feeling pretty good about the progress and we're going to be breaking ground like momentarily it's going to be great so thanks for checking in and it was good to see you great well we look forward to it thanks for this segment of what's neat I found Clark O'Bern here with this beautiful narrow gauge layout now Clark this thing is gorgeous you guys call this the new Mexico modular railroad club and you guys have traveled all the way from there to be here in Denver at this gorgeous show yes tell me about this gorgeous layout how old is it and what are you guys doing here the club started in 2004 and we have gone through three iterations of the layout modules get changed constantly and in fact we've got three brand new modules that are out for the first time at this show nice so we get we try to get some change out of the modules and things like that we have a lot of fun with that's awesome now it looks like you built us at a really good height for viewing of plant past 40 inches about four feet about 42 inches 44 inches something like that okay and it seems like the public's really receptive this is the one layout that I see a crowd around all the time why is that most of the time when we talk to the people they say we love the details you know and people go along and they'll look at all the details on each module the two end modules are owned by the club and they're built by all the club members the rest of them are all individually owned it's up to you what you want to put on your module there's no design there's no preconceived thing just make sure that it connects to your neighbor at each end and we put a lot of details in and that's what we enjoy doing that sounds like fun now you got some great lighting on this layout too you've paid attention that lighting brings out the detail yes sir it does and all of our lights have been converted over to a 5000k light so it gives us a good daylight for the for the actually for the people to take the photos of the of the layouts they love to do that it's absolutely beautiful would you say Clark that this is the best hobby in the world I can't think of any that's any better of course it's the best that's awesome I love your layout thank you for sharing it with the viewers of what's neat okay and that's this segment of what's neat and now I'm standing with Cheryl on this beautiful narrow gauge layout and Cheryl you've built this module Hermosa and you also have a passion for trains and it's so wonderful that this hobby is so acceptable to men and women alike we all enjoy the beautiful models and the art that this allows us to make Cheryl tell me about your passion and what you've built on this module well two years ago my friend Clark open who you just interviewed he's awesome yes he is well anyways he asked me well what would you like you want an a train or a train car or do you want this bag which was Hermosa Creek okay bridge and this is the bridge right now that the train is going over and I said I I think I want the bridge I want the bridge oh I was hooked and of course I love that it's a hobby I can share with my husband now he's been doing trains for 20 plus years and and so it's something in our retirement that we can share but you know that bridge and then all of a sudden all of this happened from that my my husband by the way is the construction engineer I don't do the the the screwing of the boxes and things like that you got such a good eye for color right you love to do the colors I do I love to paint uh-huh in fact some of the guys will get me to paint their figures because I love that little detail painting the figures and getting the faces and the colors right so that's I love it this is such a beautiful layout and it's so wonderful that you get to share it with your partner your kindred spirit in life how awesome is that that is just it's got to be the best hobby in the world it is the best hobby in the world you're awesome Cheryl thank you for taking the time and showing off your module with us thank you so much I'm Cisdeck and we're in his garage in this beautiful HO scale layout Sam glad you were able to join us today on what's neat on the road tell me a little bit about your empire here and when did you get started when do you build this and how did you get into the hobby well the hobby started basically just pretty much like everybody else when you're a little kid you get a train set and I had a mark set when I was little but it don't know whatever happened to it but after I got married the wife knew I like trains so she went out and bought a little just a little train set and that's been over 30 years ago wow and so it kind of came from there started out as a four by on on top of a bed right spare bedroom and then it just kind of morphed into what we have today but it's been it's been a journey it's been a lot of fun it takes a lot you know you learn a lot sure doesn't like you have to learn how to do electrical work and and carpentry and that sort of thing so it's a lot of fun so when did you build this this one here when did you when you start on this I started on this uh going on uh about 18 years ago because okay I actually had a layout before but we moved up here and but some of the structures were already built so I brought some from the from Texas with me and and and just kind of went from there okay cool well let's let's take a minute show everybody around and we'll just kind of look and and let you explain different parts of your layout here all right Sam tell me a little bit about your your main boulevard here that you have and and your traffic lights and and the details you put into here well a lot of the vehicles are you know just you can buy classic metal works and things like that which which are great because they're already painted and and made to the period that you want to to model but the traffic signals are all scratch built from styrene the posts that they're on are actually little paintbrush handles from these little how creative 99 cent paint brushes that you get the little disposable brushes so I started with those and the rest of it is styrene that I just I cut the shapes and and the little lenses and everything glued them together painted them and and hung them up there it even looks like they're lit actually yeah they do in some certain in certain lights like if a flash of camera or something it actually looked like they're illuminated then but they're they're really not it's a fluorescent type paint that I use remarkable and so let's just kind of walk down here and tell me about some of these now are these buildings scratch built or are they kits or or what virtually everything here on the layout is is a kit didn't do a lot of scratch building some of them are plastic kits some of laser cut wood some are hydra cal and and you probably recognize quite a few of them if you've been around the hobby any time I started buying kits from a lot of them are downtown deco and some are bar mills and in false scale but it just depending on what caught my eye it's amazing the detail you put into these Sam I'm just blown away what attention to detail that you have on all these the details what I really enjoy because it adds such a dimension if you see just a building sitting there there's no life to it but when you start adding cars and people and it makes it look like they're actually doing something versus just the building just sitting there empty absolutely amazing and every little block seems to tell its own story and speaking of telling stories what's the story behind this one uh that one I had to do a lot of convincing to get the wife to let me buy that one she wasn't too sure about it's it's a false scale building and it's a sort of a limited run type kit but with mine she said well with your personality it probably fits you real well so she let me get it and and it's been a lot of fun it was a one of the most difficult kits I put together but it turned out nice looks very nice very nice tell me about this section here I see you've got your beautiful wooden bridge and that is one of the first trestles I've ever built it's it's actually a plastic kit and it's two kits put together but I built this back in uh I believe it was 1989 and it was part of the old layout that that's the only part that I brought up here from Texas and I started here it's here so I'm in Sam's shop here and his work area and this to me is is is exciting is the layout personally because you really have a nice work area here and I've never seen a hardly a work area that is so well organized I mean if you just look everything seems to have its place against the walls and and it's so organized and you know I can't imagine not being able to find anything you were looking for immediately well I used to work this was part of the original the garage part and I got tired of freezing in the winter and burning up in the summer so I threw all this together with makeshift materials and it we insulated it real well and it works you'll find I got heat in the summer in the winter and air in the summer and I've got good lighting and I can come out here and work and and but I don't have a place to park the car but that's kind of secondary right now but it's uh I really needed this and I really very nice Sam tell me about this little kit here now this this is one you scratch built yeah it was a scratch built I got the inspiration from a coffee table and I just thought it just needed to be modeled so I just kind of scratch built a little little uh roadhouse uh a friend of mine who owns Blair line came by one day and he saw it he liked it and so now he put it into a laser cut wood kit which is the other one and you can you could buy that from Blair line or online or somewhere it's called he's he named it Sam's Roadhouse but uh I didn't name the thing but he named it nice Sam's Roadhouse I was really tickled that he brought it out because it's been a lot of I've got a lot of compliments on it wow that's that's a pretty amazing feat yeah very nice it looks very very good both of them do Sam I want to say thank you for for allowing us to come look at it isn't this the greatest hobby in the world it is it's really it you learn a lot and it I got into it because when I worked in a stressful job and uh and when I come home and get into this it it uh it helps you calm down and absolutely make you forget about everything else and you start concentrating on this so it really helps out is well we sure thank you for letting everybody see your uh a wonderful way out here and and uh letting us to air it on what's neat on the road well thank you so I'm glad you came by thanks Sam for this segment of what's neat I'm standing with John and Doug from San Juan model company and I've got to tell you what these guys have got a passion for trains not so much for modeling but you guys are actually creating a lot of different companies that you're adding to your portfolio of companies it sounds to me like you're in it for real Doug tell us about all the companies you've got presently so we started out with uh Leadville shops years ago uh me and my partner Bob Steers up in Billings, Montana and we have since added on to American limited models San Juan decals San Juan model car company then we picked up grant line here later on this year and we also picked up a company called rail graphics out of Chicago so we've got grant line and we're all familiar with that because a lot of us scratch builders have been using that forever I mean grant line came with all the Campbell kits if I remember right years ago it was just something that we all needed to do a lot of manufacturers used your windows and parts but now are you expanding the line tell us about the excitement of what you're doing with these companies currently what we're trying to do is just bring everything back into production that wasn't available for a lot of time because over the years things went out of production they stopped producing things so we're trying to bring everything back into production get it all back up get an inventory going so we can improve customer service with people and get the parts out there again and then moving forward we're producing through American limited we produce ready to run cars and through San Juan model company we're going to be producing ready to run narrow gauge cars also. Austin running a camera bought one of your American limited cars in pink this week and he's really proud of it they also make great diaphragms for passenger cars don't they? Correct yeah that's the line that I really didn't know that much about it when we first started when we bought San Juan American Limited was kind of like a add-on company that we really didn't know much about so when we took them over and started understanding all the stuff they did it was amazing the demand for that product out there and then for other things that haven't been produced from American Limited for a while they did a thing called the end scale cork kits for guys that did the sides for the cars that will be bringing back also right that a lot of people are demanding getting those back out there another nice thing is you're you're you're in between all the scales i see on three scale on 30 and you've also got the grant line the narrow gauge cars in H.O scale correct yeah we we have everything basically we have everything from z scale all the way up to large scale with grant line and then and also with the decal line on stuff and then with the ready to run stuff and the other narrow gauge cars we do a lot of different scales on that's awesome Doug now I've been talking to John yesterday and today and I love his enthusiasm he is one of the best guys you've got to work with as a partner in this operation you guys are all working under the same roof all day long tell me how great it is when you're working in an industry that you love with people like John who's so good it's it's been an interesting change I did IT my whole life that was my background so and then this is a total switch on it and me and John have been friends forever and it really is just a natural fit for us to work together on stuff and you know the synergy that we have and the working together is really John is this the best hobby in the world or what I've been doing it for 50 something years I was making grandline using grandline parts when I was like 15 years old sure now I'm making them it's great never thought that would happen this is awesome we look forward to see what you're going to do with these companies that you've got in your portfolio they're all important to us modelers especially us narrow gauges we really need what you do the decals the cars the parts so many diversified items what website can we go to to find out all the stuff you've got you go to someone model co.com excuse me you can go there and there's links to all the different sites from that from that main site there so grant lines website is still up and running a lot of people think grant line is out of business they are not we are producing the parts we are shipping parts so everything is ready ready to go that's awesome guys grant line is not out of business this is the best hobby in the world Doug and John guys thank you so much for sharing all of this with the viewers on what's neat thank you 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 mycoboose.com