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Visitor activity in the past year was slightly down on prior years in terms of visitor numbers, total views and specific topic viewing numbers.
As usual, the USA lead the country activity registering 78% of the 2023 total viewings, with Canada in second place with nearly 6% of all viewings, narrowly pipping the United Kingdom into third place by 0.5%. Japan placed fourth, followed by Germany, Australia and Greece.
All other countries scored less than ½% of the total views.
The blog has recorded visits from 57 different countries around the globe this year.
The editors would like to wish all the contributors a Happy New Year and thank them for their material used. We hope that our viewers have found the site of interest over the last year,
Terry, on behalf of the editorial team (Trevor, Matt & Terry). (*) as recorded by WordPress, using direct visits to the topic/posting.
We are following the lead provided by the then Maine On2 Yahoo group on their 10th Anniversary back in October 2009, when they used the same picture showing Bill Kerr’s Car Works SR&RL #23 winding its way through the scenery of his layout approaching Avon Roadway.
This WordPress iteration of the Maine On2 FAQ’s made it’s public debut 10 years ago on the 30th March 2013.
It is a successor to and a development from two previous complementary versions; the publicly accessible text based HTML web version of Bill Kerr’s own collection of research notes first published in 2003 on his own site at his own expense: and the picture based Fotopic version showing pictures and having some text started in 2005.
Both of these versions were lost in the 2010 to 2011 timeframe.
We (Bill Kerr, Trevor Marshall, Herb “Matt” Mathews and Terry Smith) had been discussing republishing the older versions of the FAQ’s from the Summer of 2012 onwards, with particular emphasis on the text based HTML version.
In February 2013 we started loading up information in WordPress on a trial basis. After about four weeks, we were satisfied with both the formats chosen and styles developed, and when several discussions on the Maine On2 Yahoo! group made reference to the old FAQ’s, we decided to go public with the new version to support those threads.
We started back then with just 41 topics/posts, mostly picture based, showing some of the commercially produced brass models and a selection of historic On2 layouts.
Encouraged by the response from the group, the number of topics grew to over 110 by our first anniversary in 2014, on our fifth anniversary the blog consisted of 195 topics/posts and 6 pages. In our fifth year, we passed a major milestone, that of receiving our 100 000th viewing.
Today, on our 10th Anniversary the blog consists of 222 topics/posts and 6 public pages. In the ten years that it has been available for public viewing, more than 54000 viewers from 114 countries have viewed more than 180000 pages/topics.
Thanks to all our contributors and viewers, we hope that you have enjoyed the last 10 years, and look forward to the next 10……
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Visitor activity in the past year was lower in terms of visitor numbers, total views and specific topic viewing numbers, compared to previous years, in common with the general trend noted for a number of model railroad blogs and websites in these challenging times.
The USA still leads the country activity with some 72% of the 2022 total viewings, the United Kingdom placed second with nearly 8% and Australia coming in third with over 5%, very closely followed by Canada in fourth place also with just over 5% after a late surge of viewing on the last day of the year took their total to just four views less than Australia. Germany came fifth with 4%, and then Japan with 1.4%. All other countries scored less than ½% of the total views.
The blog has recorded visits from 48 different countries around the globe this year.
The editors would like to wish all the contributors a Happy New Year and thank them for their material used. We hope that our viewers have found the site of interest over the last year,
Terry,
on behalf of the editorial team (Trevor, Matt & Terry).
(*) as recorded by WordPress, using direct visits to the topic/posting.
The editors would like to wish all the contributors a Happy New Year and thank them for their materials used. The strange and challenging times have continued and we hope that our viewers have found the site of interest over the last year.
The most viewed posts (*) in the calendar year 2021 were;-
#1– Maine On2 layouts – Bob Harper’s New Sharon exhibition layout.
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A rather different listing this year, with Terry Smith’s account of Bob Harper’s extensive work to get his New Sharon layout fit for a return to the UK Exhibition circuit in the Autumn as the UK restrictions were easing, proving popular in what was otherwise a fairly barren year.
Visitor activity this year has been pretty close to that of 2019 and 2020 in terms of visitor numbers, total views and specific topic viewing numbers, which are used to produce these end of year rankings.
The USA still leads with some 77% of the 2020 total viewings, with the United Kingdom occupying its traditional second placing with 6% and Canada coming in third place with just 3%. Next were Switzerland (2.6%), Japan (2.1%) and France (1.9%).
As we showed in the last quarter of the year, with the new pictures of the Custom Brass SR&RL Prairies, the existing topics can be updated and refreshed, some times from materials already in hand. We still have some topics and updates on the “to do” list and may well find additional information to add to existing postings, so it is worth checking back at intervals in the coming year,
Terry,
on behalf of the editorial team (Trevor, Matt & Terry).
(*) as recorded by WordPress, using direct visits to the topic/posting.
The New Sharon layout had a booking to appear at the UK 7mm NGA Exhibition on the 16th October 2021 at Burton-on-Trent. The pictures that follow show the “behind the scenes” operation to prepare the layout for its return to the UK Exhibition Circus after an eighteen month break. The exhibition visitors obviously enjoyed the layout voting it the “Best in Show”.
The award consists of a brass plaque permanently attached to the layout and the David Taylor Cup held for a year.Well done Bob!.
The man and his layout: Bob Harper and New Sharon in Llanbedr Village Hall
Bob wrote a brief introduction to his New Sharon Layout for Exhibition managers and the viewing public which is copied below. A copy is posted in the niche at the right hand end of the layout for the benefit of exhibition visitors.
New Sharon is the third of my Maine (USA) 2ft narrow gauge layouts; unlike Franklin and Megantic, New Sharon has been designed as a purely exhibition diorama style layout. I was inspired by a photo of a wooden trestle bridge on the proposed line linking the Sandy River Railway at Farmington with the sea at Wiscasset; sadly it was never opened despite nearly all the trackbed, bridges, and station buildings being completed and ready for track-laying. I have modelled the station at New Sharon on the assumption that the line did actually open, and consequently built up a healthy traffic in trunk hauls from the large Sandy River system down to the harbour for trans-shipment into schooners sailing up and down the New England coast. The trackplan is simple, with a passing loop and one siding that serves a potato warehouse; hopefully the scene will provide a pleasing backdrop for genuine Sandy River trains, drifting through the village with its New England clap-board buildings and then across the embankment on to the trestle bridge over the Sandy River.
Bob’s model of the bridge that inspired him to build the whole layout.
The control panel shows the track layout. The lower portion is the sceniced viewing area, and the storage yards are at the back of the layout. The end curves are around 36″ radius and are partially hidden from view by niches extending from the scenic areas.
The layout is 25 feet long by nine feet wide and stands with the track level at 52″ above floor level. The main viewing area at the front is 18 feet long, consisting of three open fronted “C” shaped modules, each six feet long by 22″ deep and 15″ high. These modules contain all the scenic features permanently fixed, with an integral backscene and top cover with integral LED strip lighting. Each module has legs which fold up into the respective module floor for transportation and storage.
At either end of the sceniced section are niches, the left hand one is the control station fitted with the controls for all pointwork and route selection, and two DCC throttles. The train consists, their storage tracks, and running orders are displayed on the vertical backboard to this niche. The niche at the right hand end has the introduction (above) and a map of Maine showing the location of New Sharon and the line of the proposed Franklin, Somerset & Kennebec Counties Line which would have linked the SR&RL to the Wiscasset line and the sea port of Wiscasset.
The bridge crossing the Sandy River at New Sharon is at the right hand end of the sceniced area. Notice how well the entry point through the curved backscene is hidden by the foliage.
The middle section contains a typical Wiscasset style station and a warehouse. This picture shows the embankment style construction which has the benefit of allowing the Tortoise motors used for switch operation to be totally enclosed within the module structure, which have flush top and bottom surfaces for transportation and storage.
The left hand end section displays some typical Maine/New England icons such as a white painted clapboard church and and a white painted clapboard family farmhouse with front porch, but the space available precludes the usual attached barn structure.
The picture shows Richard “Momentum” Archer-Jones at the front operating position favoured by Bob so that he can talk to the public at exhibitions and also allow them to operate the layout.
A view of the layout control station situated in the left hand niche, showing the route selector panel, the two DCC throttles and the list of trains and train operating order on the back.
Spare Loco #8, loco #11, railcar #5, cream car 65, boxcar 75, boxcar 5, boxcar 125, pulpwood rack 213, Canaan Valley caboose 8.
Train order for New Sharon
Road 1 « « « « « « Loco #7
Road 6 Loco #23 » » » » » »
Road 2 « « « « « « Loco #22
Road 7 Loco #10 » » » » » »
Road 3 « « « « « « Loco #18
Road 8 Loco #12 » » » » » »
Road 4 « « « « « « Loco #2
Road 9 Loco #9 » » » » » »
Road 5 « « « « « « Loco #123
Road 10 Loco #24 » » » » » »
The right hand niche contains Bob’s introduction to the layout, explaining that the scale is quarter inch to the foot and the gauge is two feet (not commonly known or used in the UK) and presents a map of the location for the viewing public.
Bob has kindly provided a copy of the map shown in the niche.
A view of the storage sidings at the back of the layout with the crew adding the trains from their travelling cases seen on the table at the right. The trackwork on these sections is handbuilt in situ using code 75 flat bottomed nickel silver rail soldered to glass reinforced pcb ties.
Crew members are John Pearson middle left with Lee Egginton behind. Bob Harper is middle right with Dave Egginton mostly hidden behind.
A view of the yard, now loaded with trains and with the marker labels showing the limits of each siding in position. The layout is operated from the front left corner, approximately the same as the camera position, and the labels are very useful when operating single handed.
Dave Egginton watches closely as the first train departs from the storage yard.
The trains enter and leave the scenic section through small holes in the curved backdrop. This shot shows the construction of the scenic modules and the attachment of the framework supporting the backdrop and top.
Part of the scenic section can be seen through the small hole. The small entry and exit holes are fairly easy to disguise or obscure. Take a look at the pictures of the ends of the scenic sections to see if you can spot these holes.
Getting pictures of the trackwork on the scenic sections is pretty awkward, even with “privileged” access. Shooting though one of the entry holes is an option and the above picture gives a view of the hand built track using Karlgarin code 82/7 nickel silver rail spiked to Mount Albert On2 sugar pine wooden ties with Micro Engineering small spikes.
Editors note: the Karlgarin rail used on the layout is a specially drawn rail in high nickel nickel silver with proportions to suit O scale narrow gauge use. Compared to standard US code 83 rails produced for HO track, it has a wider base flange and a wider rail head.
A closer view of the scenic section
The stone farmhouse across the Sandy River.
The boat on the Sandy River.
Train number 5 pulled by SR&RL #23 crosses the bridge at New Sharon.
Train number 5 approaches the farm supply warehouse at New Sharon.
SR&RL #23 eases Train number 5 to a gentle stop outside the station at New Sharon.
Beyond the station is a typical New England white painted clapboard family farmhouse with a front porch.
Opposite the farmhouse across the lane is another typical New England white painted clapboard structure – a church.
Transportation and erection of the layout
The storage, transportation, erection and maintenance of a layout such as New Sharon are major issues particularly when the home base does not have sufficient space to erect the layout and when the layout has not been erected or run for a period of time such as has happened in the UK, when Covid 19 restrictions have shut down the model railway exhibition circuit/circus for the last 18 months or so.
New Sharon had a booking to attend the UK 7mm NGA Exhibition in mid October 2021 at Burton-on-Trent. The following sequence of pictures show the “behind the scenes” operation to prepare the layout for its return to the UK Exhibition Circus.
It started in early July at a US running session of the North Wales and West Cheshire O gauge groups meet in the Village Hall at Llanbedr, in North Wales. Bob (who is an occasional visitor to the American running days) turned up, as a visitor, to erect and test the storage yard sections of New Sharon in the restricted space left after the groups layout had been assembled in the middle of the room.;-
Terry Smith’s “train in a bag” in the foreground circulating on the groups sectional layout with Bob in the background with the New Sharon boards behind him, taking a break from trying to track some operation problems.
When I chatted to him, he said that he really needed to erect the whole layout to check the operation. We discussed various options, and I suggested that he looked into hiring the hall privately (the charges are very reasonable) and inviting local O gauge American narrow gauge and other specialist enthusiasts to attend to help defray the hall hire……..and in late August the first such event took place, followed by another in early October at which the pictures were taken.
The Llanbedr Village Hall is not particularly big, but the space looks big when empty. In this picture the New Sharon curves have been unloaded and laid in place.
New Sharon is stored and travels to venues in a trailer. In this view, the top shelf of the trailer has been unloaded with the scenic sections yet to be unloaded.
Bob Harper and John Pearson unloading the left hand scenic section which contains the bridge. This view shows the outline of the curved backscene which is continuous with no corners.
Bob and John bringing in the last scenic section and placing in approximate position.
Dave Egginton did a really useful job of ridding the scenic sections of spiders and other detritus acquired during the long storage, watched by Lee Egginton.
Meanwhile Bob and John have been busy in the background setting up the yard sections. Note that the first section has two sets of legs and can stand on its own, whereas the other two sections only have one set of legs each and must be attached to the first section to be stable.
A closer look at the underside of the left hand scenic section which has two sets of legs and can stand on its own. Note how neatly the legs store.
The legs were extended while the section was on its back, and the section has been lifted and rotated into position with Dave Egginton helping.
John Pearson assists Bob in offering up the second scenic section (on one set of legs only) to the first section, while the third scenic section lies in the background, legs extended to be assembled next.
Voila! the layout is now assembled. Bob is adding a small G cramp to the top of the fascia joint to provide additional stiffness.
Supporting (some non Maine On2 – continue at your peril) activities in August
Richard (realistic operation) Archer-Jones playing with his newly acquired DCC fitted Lionel breakdown crane was among the invitee’s with special interest’s. Note the legs supporting the New Sharon end curve top right.
John Pearson, seen here in the blue shirt supervising Lee Egginton, was a major provider of support activities in August, bringing facilities to run standard gauge and On3 narrow gauge on DCC. Also demonstrating the Proto Throttle for DCC diesels, Protocraft and Kadee couplers and the operating possibilites of a Lance Mindheim style single turnout layout assembled from Atlas track on the table top. Note the Uintah 2-6-6-2 tank engine disappearing bottom left.
On the table along the far end wall Terry Smith provided running facilities for On2 and On3 under DC, Gaugemaster DC Momentum and PFM Sound System controllers. The 5 chime whistle with maximum reverb was a popular (and frequent) request as the system was fitted with a decent extension speaker. Jason Dickie had a lot of fun running the Maine On2 sound fitted loco’s and playing with the Sound System controls to adjust the sounds.
Jason arrived with a car boot full of goodies for sale and did a steady business. Terry acquired additional freight cars so now he has a longer train in two bags – and it looks better.
Terry also demonstarted the hill climbing and run back under gravity capabilities of his kit built On3 Kemtron Shay, which was built some 45 years ago when he and Jason were both members of the Bucks County Model Railroaders. Terry notes that it was Jason’s comments about the Maine Two Footers during the refreshment breaks at that group that alerted him to their charm.
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While this listing may appear familiar, featuring a number of old favourites, it does have two new entries. Coming in at a very well deserved number three was the updated post featuring Doug MacLeod’s fabulous craftsmanship in brass showing his latest work. Another new entry is the posting about Brakes coming in at number 4.
Visitor activity this year has been pretty close to that of 2019 in terms of visitor numbers, total views and specific topic viewing numbers, which are used to produce these end of year rankings.
The USA still leads with some 78% of the 2020 total viewings, with the United Kingdom retaining its traditional second placing with recording 10% and Canada staying in third place with just 3.5%. Next came France (2.2%), Australia (2.0%), and Japan (1.6%).
The blog has recorded visits from 52 different countries around the globe this year.
The Editorial teams view of 2020
The editorial team may appear to have taken things easy for most of this year. Our normal year end internal review over the New Year 2019/2020 showed that we had accumulated, but not used, a number of extra photographs and information relating to various older topics. We eased into the year by adding these into their respective topics.
We then had a period of research to try to place a comment into its original context in order to reply to it accurately. A by-product of this research was a large number of additional pieces of information and photographs for more of the early topics (by first publication date). The research also showed that the comment had been dealt with before privately, and had also been discussed on the io group. Rather than repeat the subject on this blog, we decided that our time would be better spent by improving more of the early topics with the newly found information and photographs, and adding links to related topics not conceived in the early days. In total, some 22 topics were updated in 2020. Those interested can find more information on the What’s new? page.
This systematic re-writing represented was a major change to our normal somewhat “ad-hoc” manner of updating either when we feel like it or when an older topic is about to become “sticky of the week”.
Sticky of the week – this has been posted before, but it’s worth repeating;- the WordPress blog software has the facility to post any message to the top of board, meaning that it will be the first message displayed. Within the editorial pages this is known as “make sticky”, but the public version is shown as “Featured”.
We use this facility to rotate the older topics, normally choosing to display an older topic for a week or so, before it is replaced by the next “sticky”. The change over is normally done first thing on a Friday morning, and we hope that returning viewers appreciate seeing different topics at the top of the list on what would otherwise be a static list.
In 2020, we completed the first full rotation of topics as “sticky of the week”, meaning that around 190 current topics have now been displayed as the first posting seen on the Home page. Some have been displayed more than once, as it is our practise to make topics “sticky of the week” when they have been significantly updated.
We have now started a second rotation, but to make things more “interesting”, we are now selecting the topics in the order of their popularity over the past seven years.
Milestones: we chose not to publicly mark the blog’s seventh anniversary but did make a small io group announcement that the FAQ’s blog received its 150,000th page view in August, noting it has been visited by more than 43,000 people.
Visitor activity this year has been sporadic and variable. On one occasion, the stats page showed that the FAQ’s had one visitor (from the UK) who methodically worked their way through all the topics in one session. On another occasion, we recorded the blog’s worst ever daily viewing figures of just four page viewings from four visitors.
Take care, stay safe and enjoy your trains,
Terry,
on behalf of the editorial team (Trevor, Matt & Terry).
The former Yahoo! Maine On2 group has now been copied across to the io platform. All former members of the Yahoo! group with current working email addresses at the time of transfer should have received an email inviting them to join the group on io.
All the intellectual assets of the group such as the past message board, photos and files etc have been copied across and are now available on io.
For the record, io appears to replicate the functioning of Yahoo! groups and has proved to be very reliable in the six months or so of operations.
Those members of the Yahoo! group with non-working email addresses and prospective new members should visit the group home page on io to request membership.
To access the groups new home page on io click here.
Update 19-12-2019: Yahoo! has now removed the past message board, photos and files from their site as announced.
Originally posted to illustrate a then current thread on Maine On2 discussion group;-
View shows two scratchbuilt doors. The freight door is Evergreen scribed styrene sheet, and the accommodation door is built from Slater’s Plasticard (or similar) plain styrene sheeting. The white framing on the accommodation door was cut from .010″ sheet in strips.
The following “new to me” parts were seen at the UK 7mm NGA Trent Valley local groups “winter meet” on the 26th January 2019 at Mickleover, near Derby, and may be of interest to Maine two Foot modelers, particularly those who follow the Bridgton line.
Apart from not having a central mullion dividing the lower panel, it appears to be identical to station doors used on the original stations on the Bridgton line. For the Bridgton modeler it is a relatively simple matter to add this piece compared to scratch-building a complete door and frame.
This picture shows the Grandt Line window part number 3762 (left) described as 30″ x 56″ 6/6 double hung compared to the Tichy Train Group window part number 2006 (group of three) described as double hung window, 38″ wide x 66″ high, with glazing & shades (not shown).
The Grandt Line item is a standard choice for the Bridgton line modeller, but the Tichy part will be a useful addition where larger windows are required.
The Maine On2 FAQ 
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