Welcome back everyone and welcome back Mark! I hope you all had a good weekend and got a lot accomplished. Let's get started. Saturday: I woke up to snow and blustery temps so no working in the garage and no working on the fascia. With coffee in hand, I simply enjoyed a few videos. Later the wife and I picked up a few things in town and went to look at some possible houses. Neither house had a suitable back yard for the pups, so both were crossed off the list. The search continues. Once home, we enjoyed dinner and a movie before retiring to bed. Sunday: More snow but nothing like we get in New Hampshire, more like a dusting. The temps did not improve so no garage work, and no fascia work. This project may be put aside until warmer temps reappear in April. Instead, I made coffee, made the wife and I breakfast and relaxed for the day. My workshop is cleaned and organized so I'll probably go back to servo turnouts and track work on the N scale layout next weekend. So how about you? How was your first full weekend of 2024? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Friday the 12th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a good week, stay safe and as always... High Greens!
Didn't get much done, other than planning for organization. I did do something rather unusual on Sunday. A long ride on my electric tricycle in the "warm snowless weather". I usually park it after Thanksgiving. Then rested and tried fixing my new Smart A phone.
Good mornin to Y'all I did put into service my SP DS-113 class H12-44 - 1489 Friday: - Put the finishing touches on the 1489. Started re-decaling my AT&SF H12-44 Saturday: The OPS session at my friends NYO&W went great. Lots of fun was had by all. When I returned home - I had a few more projects. My friend is having me repair a headlight on one of his NYO&W F3's (Done) And - renumber 4 more. Along with decoder installs Sunday: Clear coated the SP H12-44 and some light weathering. Just about completed the barricade stripes on the AT&SF H12-44 Installed the decoders in my friends F3's and painted out the road numbers. So, my I introduce to Y'all - SP 1489 - ? Thanks, and - Y'all have a great week, Wolf
I finished my track plan and put my hardware store shopping list together (yay)! More details on the Layout Party and WC Waukesha Sub threads. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Happy Monday all! The weekend went mostly as planned, not as much train related as I wanted but still a good modeling weekend nonetheless. Got a lot done on the Baker Country Store building. Almost ready to mount to layout and blend in the ground cover. Started laying out some scenery around the State Line cabin I put in back before the Christmas holidays. Pulled out all my RR theme pictures and started mounting a few. Also ordered a new one online. Got the work shop cleaned up on the bench tops. Did not get to the cabinets like I wanted. Put away outdoor decorations from Christmas. Have a great week all and stay warm!
Happy Monday everyone! Friday evening went as planned and I did finish up the notebooks that I had assembled the materials for. There is one left to go that I haven't quite got everything read for but it should get done this week sometime. Saturday, I had planned to be up early and I did get up early but my knee was bothering me a bit so I laid back down for another hour before getting up making coffee and spending some time on line. Didn't accomplish much during the morning and then it was time to take my sone back down to school. We enjoyed a nice lunch out and of course I ate something I shouldn't have. It was good but based on how it treated me later, it wasn't worth it. After dropping him off and making sure he was settled, we made a couple of quick stops on the way home. Then I did get a couple of hours to work on the layout. Made progress on the fascia for one side. Sunday, the knee was being troublesome again but after breakfast, I did fight it and head down to the layout, I pretty much finished what I can for now on the fascia on one side and removed the fascia from the other side. I got a lot done despite feeling like I was terribly unproductive. It's coming together pretty much as I hoped, just slower. I'm happy with it so far though. The next few weeks are going to be particularly busy so things will slow down even more. Here's hoping you all have a great week!
As I suspected, did not get a whole lot done as I was taking care of my wife after her knee surgery. But with the aid of some pain pills and White Russians, I was able to go bowling on Friday and get to the club on Saturday. Modeling at home went like this, a few decals were applied to an RBL I have been working on and I managed to get one color on a 60' Auto Parts car, then I get to mask it for the second color. I also did the laundry on Sunday. After all the prognostications over the weekend, whatever snow fell melted on contact and we ended up with nothing. Rick Jesionowski
Greetings to a Wonderful Monday I have my energy back. Over the weekend I re-designed the industrial area. Removed direct access to the main Added a run-a-round Found out this morning what Kato 'control' is an 'On Off' . I'll be able to use 2 of them to feed power to my engine track. Before the day is out I will isolate electrically the main from the yard / industrial area and run a separate power supply to it thus permitting one person to run the main including the Mystrium mine and the interchange. @MetraMan01 I may have a slew of electrical switches ranging from simple on off to DPDT center off. They vary from push button to slide to toggle.
Well, I had high hopes of getting a lot done since this was my last weekend before the spring semester begins on Monday but, while I got stuff done, it wasn't necessarily the stuff I had hoped to get done. Thursday, I worked late preparing for Epiphany Sunday and writing a eulogy for Saturday. That evening, I dug out a Walther's 65th anniversary spine car from my pile and added a few ounces of weight to bring it into spec. I also added weight to my 1970s-era depressed center USAF missile carrying flat car. Friday, I got the oil changed in my truck, made a quick stop at Rob's Trains to get metal wheels for future rolling stock conversions, then headed over to my parents' house to haul out another load. This week, it was Mason jars, a box of tools, an end table, and a few other odds and ends but didn't have time to do anything in Dad's train room. Since my wife has been particularly unwell after a COVID shot on Thursday, we just spent the evening on the couch together and watched Starship Troopers. Saturday, we had a funeral at the church so I was there by 8:20 am and left after the luncheon around 12:30pm. Once home, I vacuumed the stairs to my side of the house before the cordless vacuum broke. So, I disassembled part of it, cleaned out a pound of dog and cat hair, hunted down a gear that escaped (and which probably caused the original malfunction), and reassembled it. After that, we again watched television together and sorted through the box of tools I had brought home. My wife, Patti, picked out what she wanted for her toolbox, and the rest went back to the basement. In the box, I found a small plane, and another really tiny plane that will be perfect for shaving roadbed. We also pulled out two Crescent wrenches. One was in need of some oil, and the other was frozen up entirely. So, off to the workbench I went. I oiled the first one and did a complete disassembly, cleaning, and wire wheel treatment on the second. Both are now working fine. I also received a box of stuff from Micromark, including a tiny parts holder and a pin insertion plier that I hope will help with our club track laying. Sunday was, of course, church with the celebration of Epiphany and communion. After a quick lunch, I made a quick stop at church again to print a letter forwarded to me by a club member from Accurail with our almost final estimate to build our club's 75th anniversary train cars. I then proceeded to the Sebring Model Railroad Club for our monthly business meeting. Attendance was down a bit because some members were manning our table at the Youngstown train show, but other than that, it was a pretty ordinary meeting with a couple of new prospective members in attendance. The bad news was that the November electric bill was $500. The good news is that we may have fixed a problem that contributed to the heat pump running inefficiently and that the track switches that we needed to continue track-laying on our new port facility project finally arrived. Not much got done that evening, and just like that, the weekend was over.
Saturday. The weather was as miserable as predicated. I woke up to snow which changed to sleet in the early afternoon. By dinnertime it was all rain. As a result of the snow and sleet we did not make to the pharmacy to get our RSV shots. My wife was not comfortable walking on the slippery snow and sleet. Later in the afternoon when it had all turned to rain, we did make a trip to the grocery store. We did a few loads of laundry and put away about a third of the inside Christmas decorations. I added my newest eBay haul, five MDC/Roundhouse 36 ft Billboard Reefer kits and a built Walthers PRR boxcar kit to the inventory program. Sunday. We put away more Christmas decorations. We realized that one of the storage bins is MIA. I spent some time looking for it to no avail. I will continue looking tonight. Did some more laundry and clean out a storage file in the dining room corner. I finished installing the glass for the windows for the Ashmore Hotel.
Good morning all, I started to install the EZ-Line as cables on the GHQ crane was soon realized that it did not look quite right so resorted back to the black thread. In the photo below the winch line is done with the boom line being next. I made an electro magnet piece to use with the metals and will have the bucket sitting off to the side. The EZ-Line will be perfect for another future project I have in mind which is slide fences. Worked a lot on the hillside and the road adding a wooden center part to the grade crossing, stripes and markings to the road, and some road signs. Got a start on the propane dealer by laying out the various parts. Because of all the piping and details, I will build this on the bench so cut out a sheet of plastic to use as a base and built up the borders where it will fit into on the layout. We are finally getting what passes for winter in these parts - lows in the 30's and highs around 50. Aki, the train room cat is my companion each afternoon while I work on the layout. He has his green pad he likes to lay on in front of the heater.
I like it. If you wanted to go bigger, the electromagnets at a scrapyard can be more than 6 feet across (up to 79 inches/2000 mm) on one webpage that I looked up. I used to work at a plant where we rebuilt them, and they can be quite large.
Snow = frozen! Glad you can work indoors. Organization is key. SP 1489 looks like a dream come true. Hardware store list = soon building. Baker Country Store gonna' look so cool. I love it when a plan comes together. Glad the White Russians were able to come over and help. Haven't heard about them in a while. They must be somewhat elderly. Glad energy has returned. Watch where you point that rocket! (Wheels seems like they has gone up?) Cool micro plane. "Billboard" reefers! That crane looks like a workhorse. I have been working on a much-needed turnout upgrade redesign. The first picture is the old type. The second picture is the new type. The old style consisted of a triangular "sliding plate" measuring 1/2 inch by 3 inches. Seen up close is the "lock wedge" (green and red) and "plate retainer bar". The new design may be around ten percent the size of the old type. Its base is about 5/16th by 5/16th of an inch. It uses a moving "angle bar" to direct rolling stock to the diverging route. Extended support ties are indicated by dark brown color on the moving angle bar plate upper retainer plate. A switch stand rod was fashioned from a brass safety pin. The "target" is huge and will be made smaller on the "production model" (I hope). Benefits: Drop-in installation. Easier to make. Works better. Looks much more realistic. A win-win-win-win for my little railroad. All this is pending a seven-turnout installation and shake-down period. Wish me luck. Have a warm, wonderful week. Additional minutia: Behind to old turnout is heavyweight baggage mail #101. In the second pic, it looks like Frisco boxcar has a linear curved roof. (these nasty surprises often appear in close-ups. The test sliding wedge is colored yellow for ease of seeing. Production switch stand rods will be colored black. On a positive note, the boxcar has been diverted to the other track. Still to come is a switch rod "lock wedge". This pic is on the "test track".
I got all my locomotives and rolling stock off the layout, into the jewel cases, and put away as planned. All the vehicles and removable buildings have also been put away. The layout looks very strange with so much track and roadways and nothing on it. Now we wait. My brother remains in the hospital so we haven't left. His condition appears to be improving, but we've already had two false alarms. At least this time the hospital seems determined to find out what's wrong before releasing him again. The hospital has been so overcrowded each time he's been in that they seem to be more intent on freeing up beds than actually treating anyone. But I'm certain his attitude hasn't helped. Anyhow I did snap a few more photos before taking everything down.
Got most of my shelves up, 2 more to go. And the LED lights are done except hiding some cables. Ordered an extra 5 pack of shelves from Amazon, but sending them back as there is no way I would be able to see models or N-Scale items up that high. So just going with 5 as originally planned. Kind of have a Catch 22 thing going on now because now my models and such on the shelves are in the dark. Of course I don't have the overhead ceiling light on either. Maybe a ceiling spot light at some point, maybe just keep it as is, not sure But man, I love the results of the shelves and LED lights.
@in2tech - Am I seeing things or are there two canoes paddling along in the street on the lower right, near the beginning of the curve in the track? Unless they're some of those newfangled roller canoes (the new amphibious green transportation), then never mind. Cool little layout!
Hey All, Not too much progress this weekend on the modeling front. I spent a good deal of time working on an attic storage/insulation project with the weather so nice here in South Texas. In the evenings, while watching some football and basketball, I worked a bit on this project collection. Assembled three old Branchline kits. They are not quite prototypical in some cases and don't have reporting marks/numbers on the ends. For example the Frisco car is a better match for the 600000 series car with a few details added, but I don't think I'll bother to move the lettering and renumber. We'll just be satisfied that we know it was built to haul Schlitz beer. The ATSF hopper is an excellent release from Tangent, a PS4427, but comes with an ACI placard and no grease/maintenance stencil. We have fixed that to suit the 1980s (still needs weathering). The SL-SF hopper is a release from Intermountain. A solid fit for one of the last Frisco orders, and painted BN green in anticipation of the merger around 1980. These will continue to get stencils, weathering and a few details in the coming days. Have a great week all...I hope all of your favorite football teams are winners! -Bob T.
There is one of those cranes near by. They also have modern ones. It looks like they are clearing out an old salvage yard. Maybe room to enlarge the Walmart.
