Good morning, good evening, wherever you may be. Welcome back to the gateway to the weekend. By the looks of Monday's thread, we got a lot accomplished. Let's do it again! Saturday: Actually starting tonight after work, I plan to go to my "not so local" hobby shop and pick up some needed supplies for the HO module. I'll pick up more track, cork and some ballast. Once Saturday rolls around, I'll be spending more time in the garage, hopefully painting the skyboard on my N scale shadow box as well as installing LED lighting. I also need to dig up some Illinois dirt and bake that for scenery to be used on the HO module. Sunday: It will certainly feel like a fall day. Rain and 52 degrees for a high. No working in the garage today. I plan to use this day to lay roadbed, track and base scenery to the HO module as well as hook up the NCE panel. As much as I enjoy summer, I still really enjoy shop time with a podcast playing and a hot cup of Earl Grey. I'm sure there are other things in there that will get done as well but overall I'm hoping for a productive weekend. So how about you? What do you have planned for the weekend? Let us know. We'll get back together on Monday the 19th to see how we all did. Until then, have a great weekend, stay safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
I just learned that we will be hosting a visitor Saturday afternoon through Sunday mid-day (Our wonderful Granddaughter). So, I have no idea how much MRRing I will get to. And - that's OK by me. Report on Monday. Y'all have a great weekend, Wolf
I have had a set back on the modules. My geometry was off a smidge. So I had to go back to the drawing board literally. Originally I had 45 degree angles cut. Now after playing with a protractor and if I read it right, it is looking like I should have gone with 20. I am currently cutting some test strips to see how it works out this time. Hopefully I don’t end up with a very expensive pile of firewood. One thing I am not good at is math. I also am returning to work on the last structure for one of my previous modules. I now have more time sitting in a hotel in Nevada.
Its cooling off this weekend, but there's still grass to cut and other yard prep to do. I need to build some new frames to cover the banana plants for the 4 or 5 cold nights we get over winter here. I started on the lighting for the second warehouse this week - a total of 9 LEDs need to be installed and wired up. And I'm thinking some switching should occur just to keep things moving. Finally our local MRR outfit is having an open house for its latest expansions on Saturday 12-4. Social distancing and mask rules no doubt apply but I'll swing buy to see what it looks like so far. https://www.wlox.com/2020/10/10/model-railroad-museum-expansion-fast-track/
Not sure specifically what I'll do this weekend, but something will get done. As with many weekends with me, I'll figure it out standing in the train room early in the AM, staring at the layout and downing the first cup of coffee. Football game on TV at 3:30PM tomorrow, NC State hosts Duke, but other than that, all train room and/or workshop stuff. Have a great one!
I'm trying to build half a dozen 42' drop bottom coal gondolas for my module set this weekend. I got the final design done:
Saturday is one last trip to Chattanooga to get the last few things moved out of the house there. Most will go to Goodwill or the used book store and maybe a half load in my Tacoma to bring home. Will be a milestone accomplishment. Sunday will have plenty of free time. Been feeling kind of blah of late so hopefully I will be motivated to do some scenery work. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Good Friday morning everyone. My staging yard rebuild is reaching a successful conclusion and I will be cleaning up the mess I have made of the train room. At the work bench I plan to make 3 more of the brass object seen in this photo. It is a stand for an Azatrax sensor that will sense trains arriving on their assign track which will trigger the next train to leave the yard. I had built this one some time ago to experiment with the concept and on a recent trip to the hobby shop picked up the material to build 3 more. Next I will start what will be the last section of bench work for the layout. The photo below shows where this will go between the bridge across the doorway on the right and the 8 ft section on the left. These sections will eventually represent Carlin, Nevada but before that will serve as a temporary turn around using Kato Unitrack. We are having what will likely be our last blast of summer here in Northern California with temps in the low 90's. Will fire up the BBQ one last time this year. Hope you all enjoy this weekend whatever you are doing.
My plans this weekend are to do better than last weekend where I weathered one boxcar. I have many boxcars to weather. I also would like to run some trains. I have not been informed of what the family plans are for this weekend so everything is up in the air.
Seemed like an off week for the RR modeling. Got backed up on chores and dental appointment and one family thing. Tonite, football game with grandson playing. Sat., a proposed delivery of old HO equip. for sale. Maybe Sunday? I hope!
Well, it's not my personal layout, but it's one that I'm very proud of. Ben and I rebuilt a basket case that was donated to the Mississippi Coast Model Railroad Museum (MCMRM) last October. The layout was conceived as a hobby shop store front window (one-sided) display in 1974 by the hobby shop owner, Joe Chisesi. Ben was the major builder, chief cook, bottle-washer, and problem solver. Fast forward to last October, the layout was donated, and Ben, just retired, joined the MCMRM. The layout had been removed from the ex-hobby shop with the aid of a saws-all. (No Comment ) It had been "plopped" in the middle of the museum floor in six piles, with a multitude of bits and pieces strewn in a room next door. A few in boxes, wow, thanks. Thank Goodness for Ben. He, with the aid of photos of the original layout on his laptop, identified most everything. Now we began. Long story short, we finished today, it's BEAUTIFUL, and the trains RUN!!!!! OK, at least for the first "soft" Open House tomorrow. PHEW! I promise photos tomorrow, assuming 4 hours of keeping fingers from destroying everything doesn't drive me to copious amounts of Adult Beverages. Hey Y'all, this has been a blast and I've loved every minute of it.
AAARGH, after five hours standing on my feet, rerailing locos, cleaning track, and keep trains running until the Shay stripped a gear, I was whooped. Totally forgot to take photos. Sorry. (Promise, I'll run by after church and take photos. Cross my heart an' hope to die.) Oh Man, the WOW Factor was wonderful. The parents with kids would creep slowly around with the occasional "OOH", or "WOW". Then they'd go off to look at O-gauge, or HO, or 50-100 year old Lionel, American Flyer, or Marx. Then they'd come back. "Mommy look at this", "That's a Dinosaur", "Look at the Alligator". Then they'd come back again and see more partially hidden "stuff", like the astronaut who got lost on re-entry and is standing on the mountain ridge, or Elvis partially hidden on his cabin porch playing a guitar. Look, there's Sasquatch in the woods. Folks, that makes the past year of recreating an exhibit from a basket case worthwhile. Kids, regardless of their ages, are neat excitable people. Sidebar....The middle-aged parents apparently felt they had to be subdued in front of their kids. But gimme grandparents any day. They were as excited as their grand urchins. Love 'em!
Here are photos of Ben's and my G-Scale exhibit. 1-Overall of the front. 2-upper left detail. 3-Detail of center. 4-Detail of right. 5-Far end. 6-A backside detail showing water fall, a bridge Painter, and an alligator admiring its lunch. Now we get to add the tiny details that folks seem excited to find.
