WELCOME!


It is hard to believe that it was almost ten years ago I witnessed a CNC router in action for the very first time. I was fascinated with what I saw and simply had to have one! Although I had been in the creative end of the three dimensional sign business for most of my life I didn't really know what I would do with one - but I just knew it could do fantastic stuff.

Through extensive research and LOTS of hands-on practice I quickly found out that my MultiCam router was capable of just about anything imaginable.This journal will chronicle that journey to date and continue each week with two or three entries as I continue to explore just what is possible with this wonderful tool... -dan

Saturday, January 28, 2017

15" gauge fun



This past week I was in California visiting Hillcrest Shops, the folks who are building the chassis for the train that is to go to Trinidad. They have an impressive operation with many projects underway. I also got the tour of the whole operation which includes miles of track and a number of steam locomotives, all in 15" gauge. One of their smaller pieces of equipment is a rail inspection truck which is gasoline powered. It looked like a lot of fun and of course got me to thinking about our own 15" gauge railroad. What would such a rig look like if we designed and built it? 


I dug through some old sketches I had done about sixteen years ago and found the start of what I wanted. Last night I did a little more sketching and came up with the basic concept of what will soon come to life in the shop. 

Our locomotive is named in honour of our first grand daughter Phoebe. The little truck will carry the moniker of Juniper, our family's latest addition. 

Railroading is a whole lot of fun at any scale but being able to ride around on the finished piece is the very best yet! Stay tuned as there will be many instalments to come as this thing comes to life.