About the Rip Track

What is this site?

The Rip Track is a personal website where I, the webmaster, will post information about model railroading. The three "oohs" mentioned in the page heading are: News, Reviews and Howtos. At some future time, when there's enough traffic here to guarantee a wide readership, I may add a fourth "ooh", Interviews.

So where's the content?

As new material is added to the site, it appears on the main page as a new story. Previously posted content is available through the menu on the left under the "books" link. Documents that describe how to accomplish a task are then listed in "Howtos". There are a lot of headings in there that have no content in them yet; they are place holders for future content. You may notice that the content is added apparently at random in this outline; that's because it is. As I write and upload documents, I will add them into the outline so they are published under the appropriate headings. I find that I write best when I do it in a sort of "free association mode", so the next topic to be posted will be whatever I feel like writing about. Eventually, I hope to have all of the topic headings filled in such that the sections can be viewed as a dead tree version (a book), organized by topic and where they fall in building a model railroad.

The website's author and admin, Sean Lamb, in a locomotive cab at Galesburg Railroad Days.

Who are you anyway?

My name is Sean Lamb, I'm a model railroader. You may have seen one of my clinics at an NMRA national convention recently (one I did on scratchbuilding techniques at the St. Paul convention in 1999 was videotaped and is available for checkout from the NMRA library in Chattanooga). I've served on the Board of Directors for the NMRA's South Central Wisconsin Division for many of the years that I've been a member, and I'm currently the division's model contest chairman. I have served in the past as the division's clinic chairman and webmaster. At the 2005 Midwest Region convention, I was asked to partner with another SCWD member to fulfill the region's model contest chairmanship. In early 2006, I was elected to one of the Director-At-Large positions for the Midwest Region's Board of Directors.

I am very active with the Capitol City "N"Gineers NTrak modular layout club; I exhibit with the club at about 7 shows per year around Wisconsin and northern Illinois. I'm also in the process of building my home layout based on the Milwaukee Road between Portage and LaCrosse, Wisconsin, set in 1984. Many of the photos that I have planned to add to this site will feature scenes and under-construction views of this layout. Who knows, you may even see it in one of the magazines at some time.

I am also an administrator on the English language edition of Wikipedia where I am the lead editor for the Trains Portal.

Why are you doing this?

Why not? This website gives me a chance to give back to the model railroading community without setting specific deadlines or making the information available only to those who are able to attend one of my clinics. I can put the information out to a global audience, and get feedback on it, and still keep an interest in the hobby.

How did you make that logo image?

I had this idea for a site logo to make it look like the site name was stamped onto the side of a rail, much the same way that the rail's manufacture date and information is stamped on. The original photo is one that I took while railfanning at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and I added the lettering on the rail with the bumpmap plugin in the free graphics editing tool The Gimp (it works a lot like Photoshop, but for free). I plan to make some more graphics for the stories and articles, and I will upload them as I have time to work on them.

I created a login but I can't login. What's wrong?

The most likely answer is that you didn't reply to the question that was emailed to you to verify that you weren't a spammer. When I get a notice of a new account request, I send a question to the email address that you used in your account request. I give everyone a minimum of seven days from the time that I send the followup question to respond to me with a coherent answer. The accounts of those who do respond are unlocked, while the accounts for addresses that don't respond after seven days or that immediately bounce the verification question email are summarily deleted.

I didn't see the verification question email. Are you sure you sent it?

Yes, I'm sure I sent it. Are you sure you typed your email address correctly? When the verification question email bounces, I immediately delete the account request. Also, check your antispam settings and your spam trapbox just in case it got sorted there by a more aggressive setting. Since I am not personally online 24/7, and the verification question emails are all generated manually by me, there could be a pause between your account request and the time that I send the verification question email (the longest pause so far has been four days, but the 7-day response clock doesn't start until after I send the verification question). If you're unsure, you can always send an email to the standard webmaster address at this site and ask about it.

The feature that I'd most like to see on this site is...

Will you review my product?

The short answer is this: if your product is related to model railroading, I am willing to review it. I have a few quick rules about the reviews.

• The product to be reviewed must be related to model railroading. It can be a model, a kit, an accessory, a book, a video, reference material or any of a number of other items. If it is intended to be used by model railroaders in the process of practicing some aspect of the hobby, then it is included in my broad category of "model railroad products."
• I retain the copyright on all reviews that I write. In the modern world, copyrights have become more and more important to companies looking for new ways to get money out of the model railroading community (the evil companies should know who they are). If you would like to use my review in your marketing materials, you are required to obtain my permission first so I know where my words are being used. I reserve the right to prosecute any and all infringements that I discover at any time.
• All products submitted for review become my property whether I complete a review of the product or not. It doesn't much matter to me what the suggested retail price of the product is; if I receive it as a product for review, the sample that is sent to me becomes my property. I am willing to make some limited exceptions for items that retail for a substantial dollar amount (like more than $1,000), but talk to me before you send it to me so we are both in agreement on this term. If I bought the product on my own, then it's already mine, so it doesn't matter anyway.
• I do not reimburse shipping costs in getting the sample product to me. If I didn't order or otherwise purchase the product, then you can't charge me for it or for shipping it to me. Unless we have made some agreement before the item arrives at my front door, I reserve the right to refuse any and all COD shipments.
• Unsolicited product shipments are assumed to be product review requests and any and all materials within the shipment will become my property upon my receipt of the shipment whether or not I write a review for it. If you send me a product without contacting me first, I will assume that you want me to review it. I will try to get a review posted to the site, but whether I do or not, the product becomes mine because you sent it to me without contacting me first.
• Reviews that I write will be posted into the front page queue on this website as soon as they are finished. I will post my reviews to the site, I will not send you my review for you to review first. I will, however, send you a note when I do post my review so you know when it is done.
• I reserve the right to post a negative review. This is my website, not yours, and let's face it, some products are just bad. Most of the products that I use in building my own model railroad are of superior quality (or at least acceptable quality), but when something is truly bad, I will not hold back and I will say it is bad. If you want to be guaranteed a good review, then write your own review and post it on your site. If you want me to review it and post my thoughts here, you've got to take the bad with the good.
• The reviews I write for this website will follow the format that I create them in. You are not allowed to specify what you want to see in the review or in what order I put the material in my review. Like I said, this is my website, not yours.
• I am assuming "fair use" rights for images of products that I review. I'm writing about the product, and as I understand it, including an image of the product being reviewed falls under my "fair use" rights on the product's likeness.
• I cannot review software written for any version of Apple's Macintosh operating system. I don't have a Mac (yet). 'Nuff said.
• These rules are subject to change without notice. If I think of something that should be changed or added or removed, I will just make the change. I will not send you a notice that these rules have changed; it is your responsibility to keep track of this page if you want me to review your product.

In addition, keep in mind the following:

• My reviews might be influenced by other modelers. I attend a lot of model railroad shows, and I talk to a lot of other modelers. I also read almost everything I can find about model railroading, so it's pretty likely that I've at least seen or heard something about products that have already been released. It is possible that I may be influenced in my review by these other views that I've been exposed to.
• I am more likely to finish a review if the product can be used somewhere on my own model railroad. I model primarily in N scale, and my home layout is based on the Milwaukee Road between Portage and LaCrosse, Wisconsin, set in 1984. If the product you want me to review is not one that can easily be used in my home layout (a G scale box car from an 1894 prototype, for example), the review will take a little longer for me to finish.
• Reviews are posted as I finish them. Model railroading and this website are, unfortunately, not what I do for a living, so I don't necessarily have as much time to devote to the site as I would like. Unless you and I make an agreement before I receive the product, my review will be posted when I'm done with it. If you want a review by a specific date, talk to me first to see if I can write it within your desired timeframe. I've still got reviews in the works that I started a year ago, so be patient.
• I might use the product you submit in a manner you didn't expect. A big part of model railroading is creativity, so don't be surprised when I use the product you submit in a way that is different from your product's assembly or usage instructions. I might kitbash it or cut it up and use a part of it for another project on my layout. I might bury it in simulated water, I might bend, fold, spindle or otherwise mutilate it. Hey, the product sample is mine anyway (see the rules above), and I'll use it any way I want to.
• Anything I post on this website is subject to change at any time without notice. Generally, once it's up, it stays that way; usually updates will be put in comments so it's obvious which is the original text and what the update is. But, like I said, this is my website, and I can change anything about it at any time.

Okay, so how do you get your product to me for a review? Contact me through the standard webmaster email address for this website (the username is "webmaster", it will be followed by an "@" symbol and then this site's domain name, "riptrack.net"). Eventually, I plan to open a postal box where you can send the product, but for now, send me an email and I'll send you my "ship to" address. Be patient, because it may be a day or two before I see your email (like I said, this website is not how I make a living).

The Rip Track banners and link buttons

So you've been reading the articles and tips on this website and now you want to link to it from your website. Great! Here are some graphics you can use for that purpose.

You may link to this site using any of the graphics below. When you do, please link to the root page (http://riptrack.net) as there is no absolute guarantee that any other page will still be where you expect it even as short as a month from now. Right-click on the image in the table below and save a copy to your hard drive so you can then upload it to your site (because the image may be moved or changed here without notice). Use code something like the following to build the link:

<a href="http://riptrack.net"><img src="filelocation/filename" alt="The Rip Track" border=0></a>

All of the images provided below are copyright © Sean Lamb. Permission is granted to display these images on any website so long as a link is provided to The Rip Track by clicking on the image (as in the sample code above); the images may not be altered in any way.

Image	Description	Size
	Small button based on the site logo.	88x31	4.88 KB
	Small button with an image from an NTrak module.	88x31	5.89 KB
	Small button based on the favorites icon.	88x31	798 bytes
	RSS-style button.	80x15	287 bytes