Welcome back! I hope everyone had a good weekend and that you got a lot done. On my walk this morning, I bumped into a gentleman who was packing up his Hi-Rail truck. What was interesting about this new F-350 Hi-Rail was the logo on the door. The truck was white but it had a McGinnis logo and clearly stated in bold blue letters; BOSTON AND MAINE. Course this peeked my curiosity and he went on to tell me that a short line company ended up buying the Pan Am line and had separated the two former roads back to the original B&M and MEC. He also told me they were re-laying track in both Concord and Boscawen in plans to open a freight terminal. That is GREAT NEWS!!!!! Saturday: I was able to get up early and get all my domestic chores done as well as pick up supplies for the City Job. Sunday: Was a much busier day, spent with organizing and cleaning the layout. I started using the weathering powders on the brick office building for Butler and was immediately impressed. I finished the day by running a quick operations test with my B&M #1715 GP9 as a guest. That old Atlas really runs well. So how about you? What did you get done this past weekend? Let us know. We'll assemble once again on Friday the 5th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a great week, stay safe and for today regarding my story about the B&M... APRIL FOOLS! One could only wish! High Greens!
Well - we had an interesting weekend. Started of Saturday morning with our son-in-law going to the emergency room. So, we had our granddaughter for the weekend. (He's OK, he's anemic - they did a blood transfusion and sent him on his way). With all that -- I did manage to get my BL-2 a bit closer to paint ready: This is all I was able to get accomplished MRR wise. Hope Y'all had a great weekend, Wolf
I had not heard about these events. Would you please pass along anything further which you might learn?
Have as yet to hit the modeling bench. Been working on reducing 'box mountain' in the middle of the room. Making some progress! Starting to get a bit excited again, after too many years....
I built two grain trailers on Friday. Sunday I started to kitbash a structure which forced me to figure out where I was going to place a road on the layout. I built a mock-up to make sure the six was right. Actually I made two mockups to get it right. Settled on the shorter one. Applied paint to the model pieces I’m gonna use and cut a couple of them to measure. Hope to have it completed today. The road area I needed to lay some cork down to bring it up level to the track. I’m gonna make some street running.
Worked on my block control panel (I'm a DC guy) until I broke my teeny tiny drill bit I use to mark the drill holes that prevent the 1/4" bit from "walking" as I drill on the drill press. Sigh. That pretty much shut me down. I see that Dremel has a kit of seven bits which includes a 3/64" that should work. I'm hoping that I might find the kit today at Lowes or Home Depot.
DC guy here as well. (I have operated on DCC. It is nice, etc. But cost for me...) Remembering Bruce Chubb's old Sunset Valley. I keep a supply of 1/16th inch bits for similar uses.
Worked on several things. Wiring, bridge project, and started the masonite skirt back at the staging yard. Wiring: I've dropped 35 feeders (70 wires) along the staging tracks. Now I have to get each bus hot, but that should be easy, AFTER I get my control panel built. The picture shows 1 of 3 drop points I've put in across the 11 track ladder. (3 drops per ladder track) Bridge: The double box bridge will sit high about where show. I'll cut out the plywood of course. Next to that will be a double track girder bridge. I have all the CV beams made up to build the center pier for the box bridge. This weekend I'll probably build a "jig" to make up the tower pier. Masonite Skirt: Got it put on 2 of the 3 sides in the staging/fiddle yard aisle. Onward through the Fog!!!
I found the Dremel bit set at my my local Lowes. The 3/64" bit in it is a wee bit fatter than my #57 that broke, but I think it will do okay. I looked at my #57 with a jeweler's loupe and now see why it broke. I'd used it so much that it was no longer sharp. I was having to force it more and more, and it finally snapped. Like a lot of modelers, I seem to have amassed a large and worthless collection of dull and/or low quality bits.
