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Rusty Knuckle Cafe?
The Rusty Knuckle Cafe came about after I had finally decided on a name for my new, N scale home layout. After deciding that my layout must have a mine on it to utilize all those Atlas ore cars I keep collecting, I came up with the name for my railroad as the Ridgeway-Keeler RR. With the initials of the railroad being R K, and knowing the tendency of people to generate nicknames from those initials, I thrashed around for a suitable nickname, and settled on rusty knuckle. Rusty because this is a low budget, minimal upkeep railroad.
>The Town<
The town is Ridgeway, not a large town, but a thriving one. After all, the miners spend their hard earned cash there, seeing as how they are only 7 miles away. One traffic light, a few stop signs, a fair amount of traffic. Several festivals each year bring in tourist trade, and the miners really enjoy the autumn Beer Festival!!
The Rusty Knuckle Cafe is only one of several places in town to eat, but it is the only one right alongside the Ridgeway-Keeler mainline. This fact alone, makes it the favorite of railroad enthusiasts, and that good home cooking sure seals the deal. Almost any day, you can find a group of railfans over in the corner booth talking "trains". Model rails, active railroad workers, and, occasionally a retired railroadman or two.
>SATURDAY NIGHT with IRONRAILS<
>The Mine<
The Mine is the only holding of the Keeler Mining Corporation. At this point in time, (Feb, 07), I am undecided as to just what is being mined. Copper? Iron? Coal?
Talk to the Webmaster
>The Layout<
The layout had its earliest beginnings about January, 2005, I think. I bought some Lifelike brand Power-Loc track from a local Hobby Lobby store, just to see what is was like. After setting up an oval, I was hooked. This product presented a BIG challenge. What could be done with a track system that had only one radius available, 9 3/4 inches, only one size of turnout, with the 9 3/4 radius thru the diverging route, and only one length of straight track? I played with this track for almost 2 years before finally deciding on a track plan. Using a Model Railroader magazine track plan (The Madison Central, HO scale, from one of their 5 Easy Track Plans booklets) I have created an N scale model railroad in a space 36" x 48".
The base for the layout came from a discarded project board I had built up for my wife. She needed a steam pressing board for steaming flat those sweaters she knits. With 2" thick blueboard glued on top of the plywood, and covered with cloth, she gave it a try. Not long after that, she bought a special machine to do the job, and the board came back to me. I stripped off the cloth, and stashed it for future use.
During my experiments with that Lifelike track, I bounced back and forth between a 32" hollow core door and the steaming board, finally settling on the 36" x 48" board and the Madison Central trackplan.
On Saturday nights I hang out with the members of our modelrailroad club, Ironrails. We are a former N Trak club that has been in existance since about 1992, but we don't do N Trak anymore. We still have our N Trak modules, but most of them have been converted to a 2 track main, and they don't go to shows anymore. For shows, we use our T-Track modules, my Z scale layout, and sometimes the 4x8 HO scale, Irish themed layout of one of our members. We have gone from a single scale club to a multi-scale club.
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