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James McDonald

@jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social
431 followers 716 following 446 posts

Musician, historian, and fabricator. I play drums (ska, reggae, cumbia, punk), write history (lots about trains, but also food and convenience), and build all sorts of things from models to theater sets. Mostly model train posts these days.

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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Word circulating that Westerfield Models has shut down. Here’s hoping Andrew finds a buyer for the line. On the heels of a similar announcement from LaBelle and Clover House’s indefinite hiatus, the pre-WWI modeler’s options are shrinking. #ModelRailroading
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ouinne @ouinne.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
sometimes i feel despair about our species but a man who only takes pictures of trains reassures me that we still have the right stuff
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Interurban Era @interurbanera.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
To all my younger modeler mutuals, this is an INCREDIBLE deal and you should absolutely take them up on it. Rapido strikes again with a great idea for the hobby!
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Iron Genesis Models @irongenesis.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
First print. c.1850 Norris 4-4-0 for the Mantua General chassis. Larger based on the 1850 locomotive Copiapo, since it is fairly close in size to the General. Going to make some minor tweaks for a better fit, and it'll be good to go.
Photos of two HO scale 4-4-0 steam locomotives, one a 3D printed Norris, and the other a Mantua General. photo of 3D printed Norris locomotive.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Kayle is a fantastic scholar and great speaker! This talk should be super interesting. #ModelRailroading #ModelTrains
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
There are some words that I almost always misspell when I type them. I even know as I’m typing them that I’m pushing the wrong keys for the word. My fingers defy me regardless. Anyhow, just correctly spelled the word hierarchy on the first try. Please clap.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Super excited to be working with the legendary Derrick Morgan again! My September is going to be bonkers! UK tour with EST, then flying directly to rehearsals with Susan Cadogan and Derrick Morgan, and then the amazing Supernova festival where all the ska fam gathers. And it’s not a dream.
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Trojan Records @trojanrecords.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
"Hurt So Good" was first a major US hit for Millie Jackson, but it was Susan Cadogan’s more understated take that brought the track to a wider audience. Produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry at his Black Ark Studio, her version entered the charts on this very day in 1975
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Worlds collide. I just played a ska show in a restored train depot.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Haven’t been posting any model railroad content in a while because I haven’t done much. I misplaced a tool I use every day and can’t bring myself to buy another when I know the thing is somewhere in one room of my house. Meanwhile I’ve gathered material for 5 new fright car projects. 🤔
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Discontinued Foods! @discontinuedfoods.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
What's the worst sandwich you've ever had? One that was so bad, it lives on in your sensory memory to this day?
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Eastern Standard Time @estmusic.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Had a fantastic time playing at R Bar for our first Virgin Islands show! Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome!! Tonight we’re at Iggie’s for the Bolongo Bay Beach Bash festival, alongside steel pan master Robert Leonard, Soca champion Relo, DJ JonQuan, and Steady Rock Sound System!!Come thru!
Color photograph showing members of eastern standard time smiling while standing in front of the R Bar in Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, USVI with palm trees in background. Flyer for the Bolongo Bay Beach Bash festival. Text reads Iggie’s Beach Bar Presents the Bolongo Bay Beach Bash concert series featuring Robert Leonard, steel pan, Eastern Standard Time, DC ska jazz reggae, Cooperate with Relo of Ubersoca. Open beach, food & drink specials, local vendors, Saturday February 21st, 2-10pm. Flyer is a yellow green and blue gradient fill with photos of the artists and logos of the venue and CCI Virgin Islands production company.
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Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 12/02/2026
Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin
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Eastern Standard Time @estmusic.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Huge news. We’re backing up the legendary Susan Cadogan at this year’s @supernovaska.bsky.social in September!!!
Flyer advertising Susan Cadogan backed by Eastern Standard Time at the Supernova International Ska Festival, September 12-13, 2026 at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia.
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Hagley Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society @hagleycenter.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Join the #HagleyHistoryHangout for a chat w @bordergroves.bsky.social and indep scholar Elizabeth Moore about the many controversies sparked by the Long Island RR during its nearly 200 year history. Here or wherever you find your podcasts: www.hagley.org/research/his... Please subscribe and share!
hagley.org
Rage! At the Train Station: Long Island Railroad Controversies | Hagley
Infrastructure projects have frequently generated controversies in American history, and railroads in particular have been the cause of many a political fracas.
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Eastern Standard Time @estmusic.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
One month away! EST heads to the Virgin Islands! 🇻🇮 19.Feb at R Bar St Thomas and 21.Feb at Iggie’s Beach Club. Both shows alongside DJ Quan and Steady Rock Sound System!!
Flyer advertising Eastern Standard Time shows on St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Has EST clock logo in upper left. Background is a sky with palm trees. Test says Eastern Standard Time, live, St.Thomas, V.Islands, 2.19 R Bar, 2.21 Iggie’s
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Interurban Era @interurbanera.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Headlines decades from now will all be about "someone found the last intact copy of XYZ digital media thought long lost because a person saved it for future generations in an old storage format" BE that someone with the stuff you love, especially the ephemeral and obscure stuff. 1/2
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Buckinghamshire Archives @bucksarchives.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Don't steal pies this Christmas.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Drain hose from washer popping loose and draining into the house? 0/10. Would not recommend.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Anyone want to start a new band? Specifically a duo named after this old soap?
Line drawing of an oval soap cake with words “Buttermilk and Borax” pressed into it in old-timey lettering.
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Interurban Era @interurbanera.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
My #1 goal for all of what I do is to make OUR lives hopefully a bit more joyful. Are there "serious" topics about the model railroading hobby? Sure. Mostly centered around inclusiveness of gender/race/economic status. The key is inspiring people to enjoy the hobby at a level they wanna enjoy it!
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Timonium train show this coming weekend. Hoping to pick up some new tools and maybe a freight car kit or two. #ModelRailroading
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
Check out this super weathering technique for modelers.
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Metro @wmata.com · 02/10/2025
A bittersweet farewell to our 2000-series! 🚇   Today, we removed the final one from Greenbelt Rail Yard. These trains were first introduced in the early 1980s, operated nearly 200M miles, and carried more than 775M passengers.   Now, we’re making way for our 8000-series! 👋
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Eastern Standard Time @estmusic.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Our next show is this Saturday in Newport News. One Love Reggae Music Festival!! Come forward!
Poster for One Love Reggae Music Festival. Black background with text in yellow, blue and white. Texts read: Oct 4, 5th annual One Love Reggae Music Festival, 11am to 9:30pm. Free admission. Coastal Fermentory & Ironclad Distillery. 206 23rd Street Suite B, Newport News, VA. Bands listed: Eastern Standard Time, Rio, Cultivated Mind, Lost Soul Society, Nature’s Child, Trevor Daniels and The Reef, Young Lions, Lionsbridge, Native Dread, Josh Craig.
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Eastern Standard Time @estmusic.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Our next shows…
Flyer for Eastern Standard Time showing bass player with an expression of delight and hand raised like a claw. His fingers point toward the text listing upcoming shows, which are September 27 Oktoberfest at Five Mountain Brewing in Shickshinny, Pennsylvania and October 4 at One Love Reggae Music Festival at Coastal Fermentory in Newport News, Virginia.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Back from @supernovaska.bsky.social . What a great weekend!
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Iron Genesis Models @irongenesis.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Reminder, that if you want an HO scale model of the first 4-2-0 built, the Experiment of the Mohawk & Hudson, you can get a 3D printed kit on my shop here: 3dptrain.com/products/183...
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bluebeatoftheday.bsky.social @bluebeatoftheday.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Next at Supernova, Eastern Standard Time
Eastern Standard Time, a ska ensemble, on stage
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
16 years ago today, CSX 8201, CSX 8509, and CSX 8803 were heading west through St. Denis, MD on their way to Jessup, MD to pick up a transfer run to Baltimore. 8201 was L&N 3573 built in 1974, 8509 was ex Seaboard built in 1983, and 8804 was originally Conrail 6373, built in 1977. My photo.
3/4 color wedge photo of three diesel electric locomotives passing under a signal bridge on a multi-track railroad line. Green trees make up the background.
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Eastern Standard Time @estmusic.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Oh, hi there. It’s your friendly neighborhood EST here to say a) it’s Bandcamp Friday so we’d love your support there (easternstandardtime.bandcamp.com naturally) and b) we’re playing Froggy Daze festival in Narrowsburg, NY tomorrow and Supernova in Virginia next weekend. Very excite.
easternstandardtime.bandcamp.com
Eastern Standard Time
Put together top musicians from Washington, DC’s Jazz and Reggae scenes, give them the recipe for the original Jamaican Ska, throw a heavy dose of vintage Soul in the mix, shake well, and the result i...
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
For over 25 years I drew train pictures for the screensaver program Traffic but I stopped drawing about a year ago to finish school. Suddenly, today, I started up again. Here are some CM&StP 28’ boxcars in 1880s-1900s versions. Scale is 10px=1 meter.
Color image showing six boxcar drawings on a black background. The left column shows one side of a car, the right column shows the other side. Each row represents a different year and the appearance the car had in that year. The top row is 1880s with no air brakes, link and pin couplers, and spartan lettering. The second row shows the same car in the late 1880s as equipped with air brakes. The third row shows the car in its 1890s to 1910 appearance with automatic couplers and the full Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul railroad name spelled out on the side of the car.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 31/08/2025
Barbecue time.
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Emily Mark-FitzGerald @emilymfg.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
This is my plea: stop using colourised photos in the news and in books. Don’t encourage ‘fun’ distortions of historical images that could produce confusion, for the sake of clicks/likes. Accept historical images with all their flaws and gaps: they don’t need ‘correction’, they need interpretation.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
No film gets historians right, but that's only because no audience wants to watch someone quietly work their way through a cardboard box of old papers, in total silence, for eight straight hours.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
Saturday’s #ModelRailroading. The Ma&Pa boxcar (rear) is ready for paint. The Milwaukee Road boxcar (gray, 2nd from back) needed sill steps (since added) but is now ready for paint & I finished the brake rigging on the Union Line and CRR of NJ boxcars (3rd & 4th from back, respectively). Progress.
Photo of four HO scale boxcar models in various states of completeness arranged in a 3/4 view on a desktop. The first two are in a state of assembly and rest upside down showing the brake rigging and plumbing complete. Neither have roofs yet. The second two in the rear are resting on their trucks and are fully assembled.
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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
It’s 1775, & Swedish-German chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele has made a discovery that will go on to delight, entertain and, um, kill a lot of people. Scheele is by any measure a remarkable scientist. A better world might celebrate Scheele’s legacy for what it was. Instead, it gently ridicules it. 1/
Stock photo of a cloud of green dye swirling upwards in water.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Finished rigging the brakes on the Ma&Pa boxcar. Now I just need to find some weights that fit within all the baffles I used to hold the body square and I can get this thing looking like a freight car. #ModelRailroading
Photo of the underframe of an HO scale boxcar showing brake rigging in place.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
About 2 years ago the AC in my car stopped working. It’s an old car and I’m broke so I decided to lump it. I made elaborate travel plans around no AC. Even borrowed other cars when I had long drives on hot days. Today I accidentally bumped the button and the vents start delivering cold air. Huh.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
I know language changes over time but I think it’s kind of neat when you notice it changing. No one (including me) seems to pronounce robot “row-but” anymore. It’s become “row-baht.” Or how people used to place the stress on the K instead of the G in the acronym EKG. Can you think of others?
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bsquiklehausen @bsquiklehausen.com · 09/08/2025
This explains a lot about some of the model railroaders I know.
A vintage diagram describing a way to power model train tracks on a moving lift bridge by using pools of mercury that wires dip into to make the electrical connection. It's described as "A simple, excellent system."
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Jim Barrett @jimbarrettrail.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
My scratchbuilt ballast hopper build is close to completion, and I'm very happy with the results. Aside from trucks and couplers, the brake wheel is the only commercial part. #hoscale #bsmrguk #modeltrains #modelrailway #modelrailroad #modelrailways #tmrguk #scratchbuilt #scalemodelling #scalemodel
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
For months I’ve just started new #ModelRailroading projects whenever an active project hits a wall because of lack of parts, tools, etc. In the last week a bunch of supplies showed up so I spent time today pushing old stuff forward.
Photo of workbench showing 3 freight cars in various states of assembly. On left a customized Camino Models kit that will become a CRR of NJ 30000 series boxcar. It’s about to get brake gear. Center, an F&C kit of a Ma&Pa 700 series boxcar with new needle beams and queen posts. That’ll become a 500 series car. On right a BTS kit of a PRR XA boxcar, as updated with air brakes. It will become a Union Line boxcar.
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Tegan 🏳️‍⚧️ @spitfire.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Last night I got to expand my TotC freight by 3 cars.
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Aram Sinnreich @aramsinn.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Hey #DC #music people, I’ll be playing a free show with @duniabest.bsky.social, @ladyhatchet.bsky.social & @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social on August 8th 7pm at MarketSW by the Wharf. Come check out some live, original #reggae, #ska & #soul.
Flier for Dunia & Aram live at MarketSW August 8th 7pm-9pm Free show featuring Lady Hatchet & James McDonald. Flier features a background of colored swirls with four very good looking musicians in the foreground.
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James McDonald @jamesdmcdonald.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Time for some light Saturday afternoon reading.
Title page of book entitled “Railway Shop Kinks”
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54-46 Was My Number 🇵🇸 @skinheadsdemacome.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Have a nice weekend 🍻 The Pioneers - Reggae Fever
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Adam Bunch @adambunch.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
The Toronto Circus Riot broke out on this day 170 years ago — sparked by a brawl between angry clowns and firefighters at a Victorian brothel. Here's my annual thread about one of the strangest stories in Canadian history...
A collage of four Victorian circus performers standing in front of a circus tent, with flames rising up in the foreground.
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