March has been moving at a steady pace and already we are half way through the month of transition from winter to spring. It's time for weekend modeling plans. My main goal modeling wise this weekend is to finish the painting the hand rails and and to decal my Rock Island project. Decals should not take long but while going through my stack of decals, I realized I did not have enough numbers for my number boards. I'll have to order another set of decals and hope Microscale has not discontinued them. It was supposed to be warm on Saturday and since Jared and I are done with being stuck indoors, we have planned to ride our bikes on a somewhat new rail trail in nearby Monticello. The rail trail is on the old Illinois Central and includes a neat bridge south of the railroad museum. We also want to explore the 5 mile stretch north of the museum to where the CNIC still operate. Recent activity has us wondering why the old abandoned ROW is now suddenly cleared and we are seeing more activity. Could the museum put down track again? Is the CNIC looking at this line again? Who knows, but a bit of exercise and feeling sun will be a nice break after being inside all winter. Sunday, my girlfriend Angela is having her birthday so various activities have been planned. That will be more of a relaxing day. So how about you? What will this weekend have you doing? Track planning? Maybe a little DCC work? How about a little locomotive and rolling stock tune up for the upcoming show season? Whatever your plans, let us know, with a picture or two if you have them. We'll come back on Monday the 18th and see how we all did. Until then, have a happy and safe weekend and... High Greens!
For the first time in a while, we won't be going skiing, so I hope to get back to a number of projects that have been shunted off to sidings while the Life Express roars through. I've got the Tortoises for the carfloat terminal, and an NCE Switch-It to drive them. This will be my first foray into DCC control of turnouts, but I bench-tested the whole thing last night and it works fine. I will have to figure out some sort of linkage for the points on the bridge, since they are designed for manual operation. I'd be OK with that, but working in that corner is too tight, and I'd rather be able to stand nearby and push a button. As part of the design, I'll need to work out how to mount the Tortoise on the benchwork extension. I'm almost done with one of the "idler flats," but there are still two to go. These are Tichy models, and they take quite a bit of assembly. The stake pockets on the sides are all individually applied, and the brake gear on the underside is a combination of tweezer-small parts and wires which must be cut and bent to shape. Another new toy is a wheel-painting mask, and its first use will be for the wheelsets for these flat cars.
Tonight i'm going up to my club for the second time this week to install another R/C servo driven double crossover on our layout. Tomorrow I have to tune up and inspect my T-Trak modules for a show in Albany NY on Sunday at the Polish Community Center. I'll be there with the Albany Area N-Trak club.
Got my fascia put up this last week. Now that it is warmer I will be slowing down on the modeling. It's time to fish! Although I still have a few projects I can work on occasionally over the summer.
