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| Written by Paul D. Race for Big Indoor TrainsTM and Big Christmas TrainsTM |
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Trains-N-TownsTM, the Official Newsletter of BIGIndoorTrains.com, BIGChristmasTrains.com, and HalloweenTrains.comThis newsletter is for people who like O scale, O gauge, S scale, and Christmas trains, including people who combine On30 or O gauge trains with collectible villages. It is produced in conjunction with the Big Indoor TrainsTM, Big Christmas TrainsTM, and HalloweenTrains.comTM web sites.
In this IssueYes, we're still around. But we weren't altogether dug out from answering Christmas-season questions until a few weeks ago. As you can imagine we get slammed every year. I try to prioritize by answering the questions that really will help people get their trains running or whatever first, so we "save Christmas" for a few families at least. Sadly, we can't save everybody's Christimas - a lot of folks get the train out of the box a week before Christmas and realize that it was put up broken, or some such. In those cases there's not much we can do except to tell them where to send the train to get it fixed, which always takes weeks. So we can't "save Christmas" for everybody. But we do answer every letter that has a real question, even if sometimes it's not until well after Christmas. One ironic result of this is that we sometimes spend so much time answering individual questions, that we get behind on site updates, and folks who aren't in constant contact with us assume we've lost interest. Quite the reverse.
Just as helpful, when someone asks me a question that might have more than one good answer, I can post it in the forum and get feedback from several experts. This way, readers aren't depending my knowledge alone.. Also, instead of helping one person with that question, we're helping anyone who comes up with that question in the future. This month we're announcing the addition of a discussion forum for questions and tips regarding O gauge, On30, S Gauge, and holiday-themed trains. We've actually had bits of the forum open for testing purposes. For example when it looked like the Yahoo Paperville forum might have to close down, we opened the forum for paper and cardboard houses, in case those folks needed a place to "land." Now it seems like at least some of them are heading off in another direction, and that's fine, too. But you're always welcome here. In the meantime, we've set up discussion pages for every subject described on the Big Indoor Trains web site and some that aren't. Most of them are close to empty at this time, but that shouldn't last long. As an example of the kinds of reader input you might expect so see on the forums, here's a page from our Putz house (CardboardChristmas.com/forums) that shows a reader's miniature home construction project that would work just as well on an O scale or S scale railroad (if you left off the glitter): Several folks I know from other hobby forums are already planning things to post on the Big Indoor Trains forums, so I'm expecting some interesting discussions. Our cardinal rule is courtesy - I've invited discourteous folks to leave other forums, but that's how I keep the world-class contributors on the site, so it's a very fair "trade-off" if you ask me. :-)
Ordinarily I try to have brand new projects or tips in the newsletter, but setting up and testing the forum took up the time I would have used for that. Once it gets going and folks start getting tips and tricks from each other, I think you'll agree it was worth the time. Iin honor of my Paperville friends, this newsletter includes links to some "paper house" resources. And in honor of the season, we have a totally non-scale Easter-themed project you may enjoy. As always, we have more projects in the works, so stay tuned. Finally, please accept our wishes for a great rest of the year. And please enjoy any time you can spend with your family in the coming months. Topics discussed in this update include:
Our recent discussions with some of the Paperville people reminded us how much fun it can be to recreate classic structures with inexpensive materials. We've been compiling a collection of projects that give you free tinplate-inspired graphics and detailed instructions for doing just that. You can see even from this month's title photos and the little photo to the right just how well these stand in for rare, expensive, and - likely as not - rusted and battered collectibles. In addition, we're starting a Paper Structures subforum where our readers can contribute and comment on each others' contributions.
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Note: Family Garden TrainsTM, Big Christmas TrainsTM, Big Indoor TrainsTM, Big Train StoreTM, and Trains-N-TownsTM are trademarks of Breakthrough CommunicationsTM (www.btcomm.com). All information, data, text, and illustrations on this web site are Copyright (c) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 by Paul D. Race.
Reuse or republication without prior written permission is specifically
forbidden.
Big Indoor Trains(tm) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
For more information, contact us.
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Paper-and-Cardboard Building Projects
Chicken Coop Project
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