CN Extra 35 East at Kinross, 1971...

I've been really enjoying Grant Eastman's Southern Alberta Rail videos recently on YouTube. His layout is a superb example of the beauty of N gauge...

More than that though, I've enjoyed engaging with his material. The way he produces and narrates the videos is both entertaining and informative. They're well produced and as a result, a real pleasure to watch. It has lit an unexpected fire in me, to produce better quality moving pictures of my own layouts. 

I don't have Grant's expansive empire, and I hate hearing my own voice so for this next video I went back to what I've been with experimenting recently - overlaying my models with sound from real trains. This is much more difficult than it seems, but the results are pleasing. The video here is just 6 minutes, but the switching operation takes nearer 10 minutes, and a few minutes to setup the layout and tidy up mean an operating session is around 30 minutes. It's a good stop gap for now, and learning about switching operations from watching the prototype and reading about model railroading is giving some interesting thoughts on how best to operate a single point plan. I've adopted two car spots at Visser, and the combination of pulling, placing and holding cars in these positions gives enough interest in the time available.

The video was shot on my iPhone, unfortunately without a tripod so my apologies if it's a little shaky. I've added text to describe what's happening rather than a voice-over, in fact I've used a sound overlay by recording excerpts from an amazing video from another YouTube video about the San Luis Central Railroad in Colorado. 

I hope you enjoy watching, let me know what you think. Until next time, more soon...