Smaller
Prototypes

Massfeller's Mumblings

Why a News Letter and Why Now? Actually, the real question is "Why Not." 7/8" scale has grown via the Internet during the last few years but we all have friends who are not PC users and some who never will be. The content of this newsletter will include summaries of discussion in the 7/8" scale email groups and articles written just for the newsletter. It will be published, from time to time, to the email lists electronically and mailed to other 7/8" scale modelers without access to the Internet as we identify them and develop a mailing list. One important point, the mailing list will never be provided to anyone, for any reason. Some of our 7/8" scale manufacturers have offered to purchase advertising space in the newsletter because they will go directly to 7/8" modelers. At the same time, a "Manufacturer's Page" will provide a simple listing of who offers what. The only expenses will be for printing and mailing the hard copies, so until we gain some experience, and find out how big our mailing list will be, the initial subscription cost will be unknown. The majority of the time and effort taken to create this issue was spent on the manufacturer’s list and fighting the software to set up the format. Additional issues will take less than an hour to put together if you, the readers and 7/8” scale modelers write articles and product reviews and send in photos. A special thanks goes to Carlo Spirito for creating the industrial train graphic in our masthead, on our guild cards, and featured on his web site http://www.7eighths.com

Jim Massfeller, Editor, SA

Nuts, Screws & Bolts

When I began construction of the Belmont Agricultural Railway, I also was being introduced to the pleasures of modeling in 7/8" scale. The impetus was an early photograph of Steve King's "Maine Done Right!" in Steam in the Garden. It looked, as Rich Chiodo says, just like a real railroad, only smaller. In addition to the realistic appearance, it was clear to me, as a half-century 1:87.1 (HO/HOn30) modeler, that I could use prototypical fastening techniques.

NO GLUE! Hooray!

Continued - Page 2

Lix's Lessons

I wonder why so many little railways tend to meld into one blasé memory and others strike some chord within our mind and seem to rise above the others for no seeming reason. I am often stunned by some vision around my little railway, it is not so much the idea that some model has all its riveting in exact spot, or the bit of track has the proper track joint bolts in the correct direction or the right rail. The reasons why the mind sees these little railways as real are many, but they are not a mystery. It seems to be a sense that all is in order and takes a deeper analysis to get to the fact that this is a pretender. I am stern about rail size, called in fact several derogatory names by my fellows, who are a bit more tolerant of weak looking, track. The color will give it away in short order. The shiny stuff or the whitish color of aluminum is a dead give away. The mind says "Hah, toy train bits!" Plastic shining up through the muck is another fast defeat as well. Some garden lines use a sub roadbed, which must be hidden away well so as to not give the game away immediately. I ballast quite often, anytime I see the sub bed showing. I make great efforts to get it buried fast least the illusion be shattered.

Continued - Page 3