When you’re at the mall for the train show at the end of March, you may find a shop that can help your modeling efforts year around. Right at it’s center, Lincoln Square offers a great art supply store, the Art Coop, with plenty to appeal to model railroaders. You’ll find all sorts of paint,…
The Idea Store: Lincoln Square’s Imagination Shop – for RRers, 2!
Doing a small bit of advance work for the upcoming (March 30-31, 2019) annual Lincoln Square Train Show, I ran into an old friend, Jessy at The IDEA Store: http://the-idea-store.org/store-hours/ Let me tell you, they have some cool and useful stuff if you’re doing many things connected to our hobby that require art supplies or…
Arduino & Model RRing Clinic: ITD Meeting, Feb. 9 in Monticello
NMRA member Thomas Ose will present a session on “Arduino and Model Railroading” at the next Illinois Terminal Division monthly meeting. It is coming up on Saturday, February 9, 2019 from 1pm to 4pm at Buzz Swett’s home on the outskirts of Monticello. Write to our divisional email (bod@nmra-itd.org) if you need directions Arduino are…
Lincoln Square Train Show, March 30 & 31, 2019 in Downtown Urbana
Mark your calendar now for the 2019 Lincoln Square Train Show! This year’s show will be March 30 and 31, 2019 from 10am to 6pm on Saturday and 11am to 4pm on Sunday. Admission is FREE! Organized for four decades by the Midwest Railroad Club and the Urbana Free Library, this year’s show is cosponsored…
Newest Layout in the Division Gets Thumbs Up
The Tuscola Beltway Railroad, the newest layout in the Illinois Terminal Division, received visitors today at the monthly divisional meet-up. Owner/Operator Thomas was called to other duties today, but everyone else enjoyed a quick tour of this very much under construction layout. Located in the superintendent’s garage, it’s part of the division’s mentorship program, which…
First Run of Tuscola Beltway
After months of hard work, usually a few hours one day a week, the first run of the Tuscola Beltway took place on Wednesday, November 14, 2018. IC 6135 was the motive power, testing the as yet unspiked trackage. Thomas had to crawl underneath and do some last minute troubleshooting, but then it was showtime.…
Lincoln Square Model Train Show Announces Change in Organizing Group, Fun to Stay on Track
Annual Spring Lincoln Square Model Train Show Announces Change in Organizing Group Fun to Stay on Track The Midwest Central Railroad Club and the Illinois Terminal Division of the National Model Railroad Association are happy to announce an agreement to transition management of the annual free Lincoln Square Train Show from the former to…
Having Fun with the Illinois Valley Division Layout at Monticello RR Days
It was a very busy September, but the Illinois Valley Division brought its modular layout to Illinois Terminal Division territory for Monticello Railroad Days on September 15 and 16. Members from both divisions, led by Minton Dings, MMR, set the layout up early Saturday morning so it would be ready for the crowds. Our goal…
Thomas Operates on the Monticello Railway Museum
When model railroaders get together to operate, they usually speak in terms of what the gauge and scale of the layout they’ll be working on happens to be. In this case. Thomas (NOT the famous locomotive, but one of our newest members) decided he wanted to operate some large scale equipment, REALLY large scale, …
Promoting the “Sharing Economy” of Model Railroading
The “sharing economy” might be something you haven’t heard of before. You’ve nonetheless likely experienced something like “…an economic model often defined as a peer-to-peer (P2P) based activity of acquiring, providing or sharing access to goods and services that are facilitated by a community based on-line platform.” (Google definition) Except for the…