Welcome back everyone. I sure hope you all had a good weekend and got a lot accomplished over the weekend. Let's get started. Saturday: I slept in until about 20 past 6 and got up with the wife and dogs. The first thing I did was enjoy a hot cup of Early Grey while arranging the paper that would simulate my N scale layout. The AnyRail software I have, allows you to print your track plan to full scale and in this case, I was thankful of this feature! Turns out that 1960s- 70s Bradford VT will not work well in the 6-foot space of my shadow box. RATS! So as I have done since September of 2020, I researched more. The morning was spent watching YouTube videos of the current Pan Am as well as looking at Google Maps. The rest of the day was busy and involved cutting grass, cleaning out our sons bedroom, trips to the local good will and finishing outside projects that were started in May. The day was capped off with a burger on the grill and a cold PBR. Sunday: Slept in again till about 6:30, got up and after the much needed Earl Grey, went back upstairs to research my layout. After not having this N scale layout for over a year, I was determined to find something. After digging, I came upon the Blackmore branch of the B&M. The last train was in 1981, so I can justify running it. The line terminated at Blackmore (North Haverhill NH) at bridge number 88.88. And what is at the terminus of this line? Exactly what I was looking for, a grocery distributer! Us older folks from the North East may remember FINAST or First National. Well they had a big warehouse at the very end of this line and the buildings are still there. The plan is to visit the complex when we go out for Thanksgiving. The rest of the day was more yard work, cleaning and getting ready for a vacation. So how about you? What did you get accomplished this past weekend? Let us know. We'll get together again on Friday the 15th to start the process all over again. Now as previously mentioned, I will be on vacation and will not be back for at least a week. While I'm out, Bremner will be conducting the WMP 10/15 and WMA 10/18 in my absence so be kind! He has a slightly different schedule then me so please be patient and wait for the thread to start. Until then, have a great week, be safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
Hey Y'all, Well.... I had a very productive weekend. Just not with what I had intended. The joys of home ownership. Saturday: Removed an old and installed a new toilet. So much fun!! Sunday: Finished cleaning up from Saturday (Broke down the boxes for the trash) then repaired a leg (Fabricated a new one) on my Mom's planter. Our tortoise destroyed it. So not MRRing for me this past weekend. Hope Y'all had a great weekend, Wolf
With my wife's help, both train tables made their way upstairs and were assembled for the first time. Very happy with the set up, strong and lightweight. The control panel is next, to be mounted where the six bolts are seen.
Well, I stuck to my 'non'plans and as such was very successful in not completing them. I *did* get a couple of buildings designed. After researching loading dock heights I fixed my freight station and printed to paper for a mockup. It was 1/3 the right size. I don't know how I bungled it but oh well, back to the drawing board, (I us MS Paint').
Friday, bowling was okay, bowled my average and we won 5 points so we moved up in the standings. Saturday, went to the club with an intermodal train, had not had the cars out of the box since I moved 3 years ago, and all of the flats got damaged in some way, mostly the 5th wheels were broken or missing and coupler heights were all messed up. Finally got a lot repaired and it finally ran okay but a lot of work needs to be done before I run it again. Started decaling a PS 4740 Covered Hopper and continued work on the R70-15 Reefer. Went to dinner with my Son and his Wife in pre-celebrating his 1st wedding anniversary. Found out he had one of his aphib attacks while he was attending a wedding in Buffalo, found out he has to limit his drinking to one drink a day. Sunday, did the laundry and some decaling on a boxcar and the covered hopper, also continued work on the R70-15 Reefer. Still have some 10 steps left before painting, including the rollers on the plug door, sill steps, interior details in the mechanical room, coupler pockets etc. Rick Jesionowski
Good Monday morning all, I had a very productive weekend getting to everything I had planed to and then some. Did all of my yard work, filling those 2 100 gallon barrels to be put out today and made some progress on the drip irrigation in the back yard. Got the 2 bench work sections for Carlin taken down and the new temporary turn around loop mounted, track installed, and wiring all squared away. This is those 2 sections on the saw horses with the plan laid out on them. Here is the new tempoary turn around loop in place. The auto reverse block is this loop and it is long enough for any train that will fit in the staging yards. The shelf brackets that hold up the Carlin sections were covered with pads made from pipe insulation to prevent accidents. Good view of the staging yards now. And I got the bottom cover for the smaller Carlin section made. LED panels will be mounted to this to light part of the staging yard. The larger section already had two panels like this.
Thursday i installed two decoders. Then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday became very expensive. 10 locos either brought home, on order, being shipped, or on preorder. Rio Grande 2-6-0 BLI 2 Bachmann 0-6-0 to be changed to DSM Bachmann 2-6-0 to be changed to DSM ATSF 2-8-2 BLI ATSF car whisker F7 A/B set BLI ATSF war bonnet F7 A/B set BLI Rio Grande RS3 Bachmann 2 Rio Grande SD9’s BLI 7 Santa Fe passenger cars. DSM stands for Dorado and Silver Mountain I also got some roster work done identifying what rolling stock worked i what era that I already have. Purchased a few rolling stock items. And started work on the last area of track needing to be laid. I tried once with foam to get the grade done and failed miserably. Now I am checking to See what other options I have. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I can think of few other hobbies like ours where we can dream something up and attainably achieve it without highly advanced skills and bags of money. It's great to see what everybody's working on.
I managed to get my box car kit assembled and ready to paint. But stalled there. Played a bit with trying to weather the wood decking on my turntable bridge. It did not turn out well, but at this point I don't care. It stays as-is. Boxed up my old MinitrainS Plymouth switcher to send to a fellow who will install a new Tramfabriek motor in her. (But USPS is closed today. Rats.) Will be great to have the little beast running again!
Happy Monday all. Some nice progress by all. To no surprise it rained all weekend so the chop/mitre saw stayed in the garage, no framing work was done. Saturday: Spent time cleaning and vacuuming the layout and room. We then went to the new James Bond movie. So not much other railroading happened. Sunday: Finished cleaning the layout and decided to build a Korber water tower kit I’ve had for awhile. Dang thing had 112 gussets to desprue and file. But I did finish it except for painting.
Well, sometimes you just cannot trust a tortoise. No matter how good intentioned they are. More impressive results here. Bremner will be a great sub I am sure. Currently, I am building freight car trucks after completing coupler hooks. It is onward and upward.
I finished a diorama. Going to take it into work and leave at my desk so have something to look at/show off my rolling stock. Realized I forgot to add a guardrail so that’s on its way. Still going to take it in to work until then. Buildings are lit with interiors, couple of street lights, and a police car with the lights on. Pictures make the light bleed more obvious than it is in real life. Also finished adding a couple of signs to businesses on my layout-printed them myself. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
For once, I did exactly what I said I was going to do back on the Friday edition. Cut plywood, covered the open benchwork, glued down the foam sheet, drew out the track plan and got some track laid down. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Looks like a lot of you had a good weekend. Me, I got nothing done on the MRR, but I did get out last evening for a while and shot pics of a train in the MRR barn. I did get the FA-1M SLSF 5216 finished up last week, I wont bore you with all the details and work done to it, here it is with 3 other units, sitting in the main yard, headed east, 4 units/61 cars and a caboose. Below we are on the east yard lead about to hit the switch and enter Main track 2. Below, our train has started the long 1.5% pull to the summit. About to cross Punkin Center Rd, gotta whistle and wave at the kids. Now we are on the bridge crossing Long Lake, with swimmers, campers and a few chasing the train. Climbing past Lazar. Below is my meager as it is, attempt to get the whole train in the image, it almost worked. I almost need a ladder. Now in the tunnel district, it always amazes me the people who park and make camp right next to the RR. Thanks for taking a look.
Mostly plotting and planning. The 12x16 shed comes in January. I am negotiating for space. So far the SO says as long as she has a sewing area she'd love to have a train going around the perimeter as long as there aren't any duck-unders she has to negotiate. Rapido has really ruined me now for models. Their GMD-1 models in N scale showed me what was possible in N scale with sound from a manufacturer, and I have since then acquired more Canadian stuff (mostly CN, but also with a BCRail Dash 8-40CM, with one CPR FP9A and one VIA FP9A also in the mix). My CPRail passenger train "The Canadian" is supposedly arriving today. This has me thinking that maybe my coming layout is a Canadian setting, probably BC. My adult kids live in Surrey, BC, and I am up there pretty regularly now so I have some opportunities to do some site recon. My modeling lately, besides the already mentioned acquisitions, has been focused on narrowing down layout priorities and also figuring out signaling. Adam
Late again. Nice to see everybodys progress. Some really nice photos. Saturday we went to an indoor yard sale at a local church. I picked up a Wind-Lock hot knife for $5.00 I also bought some plastic bins for storing scratch building supplies. Saturday and Sunday was spent going through 30 year old paper work. I came across a ticket for an expired inspection sticker, a final notice before warrant issued for said violation and a payment schedule for same violation agreed to by a judge. I also came across a seperate four point speeding ticket from around the same time period. I have no recollection of any of it. Sunday I made some progress cleaning up and organizing my workbench. It is progressing some more work is needed. The rest of Sunday and Monday was spent on Honey Do items. Im planning a midweek day trip to LBI NJ to do some jetti fishing so I wanted to make the wife happy. Hope everyone has a great week.
Well, as expected, Saturday I renewed my driver's license. What I didn't expect was for the dogs (both our three and our daughter's two that I was dog-sitting) to wake me at 0500. But, since I forgot to take my passport with me I got the "regular" license and not the federal "enhanced" license. After that, I drove an hour and a half to visit my wife in the hospital and made it back just in time to change clothes and participate in an Eagle Court of Honor for a young man in our scout troop. Sunday was church, for which my usual schedule got me up at 0530. Church went well, but after two early wake-ups and a long day on Saturday, I opted to take a nap instead of going to our train club. Monday I visited my wife again, and while there we found out that one of our dogs (mine) had terminal bone cancer. My daughter picked him up so we could say goodbye, and after a day spent doing his favorite things, I took him back to the vet and said goodbye on Tuesday. Today, Wednesday, I finally got to bring my wife home. She's still got a long recovery ahead of her, but at least she's moving in the right direction. Not surprisingly, I didn't actually get anything else done. Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk