Hey it's the first day of spring!! That means, for me anyway, railfan season is almost here! I hope you survived the weekend and have a lot to show for it, it certainly went fast for me. Saturday: I spent most of the day in the shop getting those two BNSF Heritage units wrapped up. I only need to assemble the Blackbird then I'll get the images done for the Facebook page and let my customer know they are headed his way. After getting all that I could get done on the N scale, I turned my attention on my buddy Brian's O scale collection. I started to get decal work done on a special pink covered hopper I've painted for him. It's pink for a reason, you'll see later. Once the shop closed it was off to a nice dinner with my Sweetheart for her Birthday. Sunday: I started my day slowly looking at all the upcoming train shows that the layout will be displayed, then realized I still had half a year to display in New Hampshire as well, so I started sifting through the shows and was happy to find most of my old favorite shows were still running as well as a few new ones. It finally warmed up so I painted the track on the Inglenook but didn't get any further than that. One area that has bothered me on the Galesburg City Job, was the grade crossing on the first module. The road crosses a Y and I thought using a brand of "Asphalt" would be the way to go. Unfortunately, every time we cleaned the track, the gray concrete color wore off and a bright white would shine through. It also was bad at getting dirty to the point that the switcher would not run through there. I finally got up the gumption to pick away at the grade and parking areas for most of the day, alternating between a pick and the vacuum. By 8:00 I had all the offending material removed and was slowly starting to add the polystyrene replacement which works much better in other areas of the layout. Unfortunately my day was spent doing this mind numbing task but I hope it will make things better in the future. So how about you? How did you do this past weekend? What did you get done? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Friday the 24th and start the process all over again. Until then, have a great week, stay safe and as always... High Greens! & HAPPY 1st DAY OF SPRING!
Still feeling the effects of that darn flu bug. I didn't get much done. I did however get my two horsehead oil pumps painted. Next will be final assembly and placement on the layout. Hope ya'll had a great weekend, Wolf
Not to be anti-spring, but while i spent the weekend with my toes in the sand, my friend got this picture of a local oil train. Proof that you can model anything I guess.
Not a bad weekend. I got my shipment of Chinese LEDs and went crazy putting them in various locomotives. Nothing's hooked up yet, but they're all glued into place. The eBay "deal" I got on a DCC equipped SD30 was still a good deal after I spent two hours cleaning ballast out of it's gearbox - apparently someone thought it would be fun to run it through an actual sandstorm. Pro Tip - don't do this. And my benchwork is all complete and the foam is glued to the top of it. I have one loop of Flex in place just for looks and to actually be able to run a loco back and forth. Maybe this week or the weekend I'll manage more. My sandy loco - weathering gone too far though, with the sand in the gearbox! Other than that, it's a pretty well done worn-out SF loco. I think a kid got hold of it though - the handrails were painted light blue and the Santa Fe was covered with some sort of stickers...
I tipped my switching layout up on its back so the backdrop was flat on the floor, then used Aileen's Tacky Glue to fasten the background flats to the backdrop. Used plenty of weight to hold them flat until the glue dried, and I'm hoping this will work better than my first try with rubber cement. I've got one more small flat to put down, I'll be able to put the layout back upright tomorrow afternoon after work.
Ottawa's OVAR club held its twice-annual flea market on Sunday, and other than taking a nice drive in the Sunday sunshine and meeting some nice folks at the event, I picked up eight freight cars, five of which are kits. I also found a handy way to make pretty decent white frame stripes for CN system diesel locos in the 1961-1973 scheme (black and red, noodle logo, no zebra stripes) - white tire detail touchup paint marker. It gives a good, steady flow of paint that has decent coverage and is easily applied with relatively good precision. That enabled me to finish off the Atlas RS-1 I painted as GTW 1951.
Mike That's a nice tip Also interested in your 1973 date - is that a 'no zebra stripes before 1973'? I've been pondering the introduction date, as I'm quite keen on the look, having seen 4132 at Huntsville last summer. Donald Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
I stumbled on the tire touchup applicator while looking for the smaller body paint touchup one. It kinda looks like a white sharpie marker. No zebra stripes before 1973... maybe I should have specified the whole gamut of exceptions, like passenger and freight cabs which had the stripes from the get-go in 1961, etc., and not just limit by inference everything to road switchers and switchers. I'm not the legal disclaimer type... I figure people will understand what I mean (especially in this hobby!) without all the whys, wherefores, and pursuant-tos, heeding the party of the first part, second part, which makes for a lot of partying (I don't hold my alcohol very well). Sorry for being a little weird, but that's what you get at 3:30 in the morning... Things go uphill once I have my coffee.
I'm drinking coffee myself just now, although it's 0800, over here in Scotland. Things will get better! Didn't mean to tip you into a turmoil about liveries - I should do my own research, obv. It does seem a tricky topic to find out clear information though. Cheers Donald Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
