Good Morning, good evening, wherever you may be! I apologize for the absence on Friday, these holiday's in the middle of the week along with me working Saturday's has my calendar all messed up. Here we are, this was the last weekend of 2019, onto 2020 now but more about that in a minute. Saturday: Busy day at the dealership. With new tax laws in Illinois going into effect at the start of the new year, people are busy trading in vehicles. I'm included. With Jess the Railfan Jeep sitting for 6 months in the garage and no time for railfanning anymore, I hate to say it but I'm finally letting go of my beloved Jeep. Sunday: We went up to see Angela's Dad and Grandma for Christmas. Her dad showed us his neighbor's open house train display he shows to the public every Christmas. It was a neat set up, done in G in a small barn on his property. It was really neat and unfortunately, the closest I got to any model railroading. So how about you? What did you accomplish? Let us know. Now this thread is a special two-part affair. First, tell us what you got done. Second, give us a goal for 2020 in your model railroad plans. It doesn't need to be detailed or lengthy, just some key things you want to accomplish this New Year. We'll return on Friday, January the 3rd 2020 for a new weekend, new year and new decade. Until then, be safe, have fun and... HAPPY NEW YEAR! High Greens!
Jim, I know what ya mean -- mid week holidays really mess with timing. Nothing photo worthy -- I am taking a break from my SP F unit project. The F3's are done -- next up will be the F7's -- a bunch of them. I did make progress on my foob/could/should have been project. I hope have it finished this coming up weekend. Hope Y'all had a great weekend, Wolf
More progress on the Murphysboro, IL, passenger depot. Still in the drawing phase though. I have to do my own diagrams. Not really complaining. Just adds to the time factor.
Friday and Saturday I took the tree down. That always takes more time than I think, espcially cleaning up afterwards. In any event, I still managed to "re-paint" the skirt on my whole layout with a better grade of paint, same color, just used a high quality, Sherwin Williams semi-gloss urethane. The effort was worth it. MUCH better than the cheap stuff I tried to get away with. You do get what you pay for. Also I managed to finish up the brick-finishing, weathering of the major walls for another industry I am building. Its the "American Brewery" kit from Custom Model Railroads.(CMR). I also got out the plaster castings and started cleaning them up before I seal them for painting. This is a kit I got about 13 years ago and it isn't offered anymore as far as I know. When I opened the castings from their bubble-wrap (first time), they had an inordinate amount of air-bubble pockets on window and fascia edges. Also, the shingles had hundreds of air-bubble pops. I got those filled pretty easily with sparkling compound. The bad news is the castings were pretty defective. The good news is with a little time, I can salvage them pretty nicely. See here's the eye glitz ...
Plenty of odds and ends around the layout including some work on the recycle drop off and more turf put down. Will post some pics in the N scale JPT Sub thread. Hope everyone had a great weekend!
For my 8000th post I did up a 'Grandure Valley 8000' Shinkansen image. Visible here: https://www.trainboard.com/highball...tasy-schemes-done-or-dreamed-of.25124/page-19 The daydream is to actually make my own.
Howdy I spent the evening swapping couplers. My KATO MAXI cars are now finally equipped with MTL couplers. It's Sylvester and my wife is happy. You also have to set priorities. Happy New Year everyone thomas
