Welcome to the first WMP thread of 2019! Are you ready for another great year of working on layouts and all things model railroading? I don’t have too much planned this weekend. I plan to go snowmobiling either Saturday or Sunday and which ever day I don’t do that, I plan to work on and operate the City Job. So how about you? What do you have planned for the weekend? Let us know. We’ll assemble again on Monday the 7th to see how we all did. Until then, have a great weekend, stay safe and as always... High Greens!
Lots to do for sure! Friday it’s back to making trees for the next section of layout. Sunday with the time change for church services this year, I will have more time to spend in the train room. Plans are to continue cleaning up the royal mess and cast some rocks. Need lots of rocks to cover this mountain with. Also I realized I forgot to add a few deer to the winter/Christmas scene I just finished. The Christmas tree is enroute from Walthers so that should be here in a week so I can add it to the scene as well. Otherwise I have a whole list of things to do in the other areas that need completing. Everything from electronics (my worst nightmare) to placing figures in places that need them. Have a great weekend!
Well, add some more ground cover and field grass. Although I don't yet have all the rolling stock I want (who does?) I will try to operate a little and make sure the final positions for industries work well.
I will be painting 7 NW-2's for a friend (N Scale) - It's a fun project and something different for me. They are NYO&W. Cool paint scheme. Thanks, and Y'all have a great weekend, Wolf
It's amazing that one still survives, acquired by the NYS&W and painted in its legacy colors. I'd love to see your paintwork when complete!
After being detoured for a number of months, I hope to make some small progress on my control panel. Need first to pick up a few items at the woodworker's store.
My weekend plans will be head to Great Train Show on Saturday to hunt down some deals on LocoNet stuff (need it for testing with DCC++ESP32) and depending on when my order from Fifer Hobby ships out I may pick up a few insulated joiners so I can finish laying the rest of my staging yard tracks. At some point I also need to get the servos for throwing the points installed and wired into the DCC bus via an Arduino ProMini.
I have seen photos of the above unit -- very cool. I will get his permission to post photos of his units, once they are painted and decaled. Thanks, Wolf
This is one of thise weekends w/ no goals other than to walk into the layout room early tomorrow AM w/ my first cup of coffee and start on whatever suites me. Have a great weekend all.
The Layout Design Discussion forum's 2018-2019 11th Annual International Winter Layout Party began before the Holidays, but there's still 8 more weeks to participate. Drop by the Layout Party thread in the Layout Design Discussion forum, and post about your weekly progress on your own layout, or ooh and aah about someone else's progress on their layout. It doesn't matter what stage of the layout building process you are currently in...Still refining your track plan, constructing benchwork, laying track, building your first shake-the-box-kit or your 25th craftsman kit, using cardboard boxes for buildings and a whole lot of imagination on your 2 foot by 4 foot Plywood Central RR, or putting museum quality scratchbuilt, super-detailed, lighted, and animated structures on your basement-filling empire. Join the Party. Have you got a project you want to start or maybe one that has languished partially completed? Was one of your New Year's resolutions to spend more time working on your layout? Join the Layout Party thread in the Layout Design Discussion forum to give/get encouragement, support, and inspiration to/from your fellow Trainboard members.
As part of the Layout Party, I've been working on the CIM Yard in Havana. This weekend I hope to get the finished vertical tree flats re-installed in front of the hidden loads in/empties out tracks behind the Yard, put the horizontal tree flats between the vertical flats and the Yard, and ballast the Yard tracks. This pic shows the unfinished vertical tree flats. Layout Party Rock face by the 2 Northern Division tracks 2018-12-24 00.12.33 by ppuinn posted Dec 24, 2018 at 1:16 AM This pic is of the boat ramp at the left (south) end of the Yard. I finished the vertical tree flat behind the ramp earlier this week. Hopefully the glue that I slathered on to add the ground foam to the other four tree flats last night will be dry enough to let me stand the flats upright tonight. CIM Havana Boat Ramp and photo of river on tree flat by ppuinn posted Jan 1, 2019 at 3:52 PM
Work the weekend grave shift, so got a head start last night. Took a pile of mostly gifted old unboxed Life Like, Athearn BB, a bit of AHM, and even an old Marx B&M 40 footer. Some of it NOS, some of it had been boxed away for decades. Fired them up and ran an operating session for five hours with a couple of Train Club buds in El Paso. Lot of folks pooh-pooh vintage horn hooks, saying that you can't do anything operational with them. Forsooth! A three part video montage of model train ops:
Wasn't happy with the way space issues near the boat ramp by the Havana Yard forced a grade crossing and then a road that is supposed to lead into the Havana business district but actually leads to the front of the shelf and 2 tracks in the Northern Division (Havana is one of the Southern Division cities). So, I've taken the boat ramp out and made the road to the yard office run between (and parallel to) the river and yard tracks... so there is no need for the grade crossing in my version of the Havana Yard, and the road from the Yard disappears behind trees, instead of drawing operators' attention to the close proximity of cities that are supposed to be many miles far away from Havana. Here's the new view of the river at the south end of the freight yard. No more boat ramp or road to No-Where Jan 05, 11 59 22 PM by ppuinn posted Jan 6, 2019 at 12:40 AM I took a few panels from a Rix warehouse kit and made a Yard Office. Found a pic of the CIM logo and put it on the front of the building, and added an operating light over the door. Finished Vertial Tree flats, kitbashed yard office, ballasted trackJan 05, 11 55 40 PM by ppuinn posted Jan 6, 2019 at 12:40 AM Pic of the operating light. Yard office with operating light over door. Jan 06, 12 37 17 AM by ppuinn posted Jan 6, 2019 at 12:50 AM Hmm...a sudden thought: despite installing hundreds of lights or LEDs in signals, on fascias, and in control panels, in 45 years of N-scale modeling, this is only about the 3rd or 4th light I've installed on the outside (or inside) of a model building--probably because 95% of my structures are cardboard, cardstock, or foamboard mock-ups instead of plastic or wooden kits. Pics of the finished vertical tree flats behind the yard office and the horizontal tree flats behind the yard tracks. The first and second Horizontal Tree Flats Jan 05, 11 57 57 PM by ppuinn posted Jan 6, 2019 at 12:40 AM The 2nd and 3rd Horizontal Tree Flats Jan 05, 11 58 06 PM by ppuinn posted Jan 6, 2019 at 12:40 AM When looking through CIM pics in books and on-line for ideas on how to position the yard tracks and yard office, I came across info and pics about the Havana Coal Rail-Barge facility, which I've modeled just to the right of the Havana Yard. The new info/pics have prompted me to revise my plans for the next few days a little bit, so Sunday afternoon I plan to weather the yard office and attach the door light to layout power instead of a 1.5 volt battery, clean yard tracks after Saturday's ballasting, and then also make some adjustments to the Havana Coal Rail-Barge Facility.
