Welcome to March! On cue, I can hear the Beatles, "Here Comes the Sun" and I saw signs of new growth with yesterday's warm temps. Let's see how we did. Saturday: Great day at the new dealership. People were out and happy to see sunshine and buy a car too! Sunday: I slept in and got ready for my day. When we got up, there was still snow on the ground. It was gone by 11:00 and by noon it was hovering close to 60. I had opened the garage in anticipation of working on my CTC project. We cleared a lot of brush, cut down some old trees and generally tried to make the place look nice again.With yard work out of the way, I was able to try out the new sander that Angela got me for Christmas and sand the plywood box that is for the CTC panel. It made short work of a tedious process and allowed me to get the stain on it a bit later. I finished the day with bacon cheese burgers on the grill. So how about you? What did you accomplish this past weekend? Was the weather good? Did you get a lot done? Let us know. We'll do it all over again on Friday the 6th. Until then, have a great week, be safe and as always... High Greens!
Wet productive weekend... Thursday I built trees and wires up two blue point switch machines. Saturday and Sunday were spent with scenery... I also had three engines follow me home after a quick trip to the LHS. Now may I present Tumbleweed... I finished the module this weekend. Four scenes making one big scene. The time is the mid to late 1800’s We join some Native Americans on a Buffalo hunt, then we visit the town of Tumblewwed. After that we head to Tumbkewwes Mountain where a prospector lives as well as a homesteader with a small problem. Then we see the US Calvary and an Indian village.
Saturday wound up working on scene behind the passenger station in Albemarle. Essentially, finished more retaining walls (painting/staining that is), cut and put down sheet cork to build up the area a 1/4", got it glued down and painted. Sunday, I took tracing paper, taped it down and made a pattern for a curved road that goes between 2 automobile tunnels on the layout. Then I took the pattern and cut out 1/8" chip-board that will be the road. Also sat down and went through catalogs and websites looking for a good double-track portal I can shorten on height and use for an auto-tunnel. Many of the pre-manufactured auto-portals seem too narrow to me. Finally found one at AIM (Monroe Models) that will work. So I got that ordered last night. Took some pictures as I went along to keep a record of how it was done. Lot of time spent on a little area this weekend, but such is life in this hobby. I'll post pictures when I get the scene done.
I’m bringing order to my workbench: This came from a Canadian firm called Tabletop Gamer https://www.tabletopgamerstore.com/accessories/organizers/
Saturday: -- The OPS session went great -- fun was had by all. After that -- NADA. Edged the front yard -- then relaxed and vegged out for the remainder of the day and evening. Sunday: Worked on a misbehaving Kato NW-2 -- she is now ready for service (Again - LOL) I also started on a new project -- long on my mind. Hope Y'all had a great weekend, Wolf
Well, my weekend went as expected and only got a few minutes on the layout. Ran a couple of trains while I worked on organizing some of my recent wiring work (it's not pretty by the way) and that was pretty much it. The upcoming weekend should go much better. Until then, hope everyone has a great week.
As a true Southern Pacific railfan, I know that the “beloved” SW1500 was called a crud. In all aspects, the Micro Trains SW1500 is a think of beauty. These little gems are great switching locos, paint is sharp and crisp, I just wish that my weathering skills were up to the challenge of making it perfect. Thanks Smoken’ Joe for this great model. I seriously started to sing a Paul Simon song when I opened the package from Talent.
Had a busy three days. Never made it to the club Fri. night. Instead I started making a batch of yogurt. Oh boy. Sat. After the three S's I made a breakfast casserole for a weeks worth of eating on, baked some bread, cooked up a mess of chicken and packed up the yogurt. Spent some time recording CD's, I'm a music nut. Perused the Bay. Walked to the PO. and then sat down to study CorelDraw. Sun. Checked my Bay bids and other Web stuff. More CD's. Home made yogurt with fresh berries. Then back to CorelDraw. I accomplished my goal of creating a logo and would like to share it here but the program won't let me save it in a compatible format for TrainBoard. I never did get the glue out.
Had a good weekend. Placed more rolling stock in bins. I have the passenger cars to put in a bin when I can find one they will fit in. Cleaned off the workbench and organized a few things. I repaired a couple of cars. One I had to reglue weights, another I had to glue the door back on. Fix the couplers on a couple of other cars. I finally got to open the paints and do something with them. I dry brushed three Accurail boxcars. They need to receive a wash and then sealing.
With help from Rick Brodzinsky I learned how to find the correct format to post these. They are what I was working on this weekend with CorelDraw. Before After It need a bit of adjustment but it's close to what I want.
I got a little "whelmed" and ran behind posting. Saturday was the Smokey City Rails Train Show. I won a door prize. It was a ten dollar coupon, redeemable at the show. Since my scale is 1/384, I was in a quandary about what to get. I finally decided to get some trees for my grandson. He won some as a door prize at another train show, but they were misplaced during a previous move a couple on months ago. Anyway, the depot now has window frames, walk-in doors and loading doors along with stone wainscoting and stone external window sills plus end gable vents. Next is glazing. Looks like everybody got some to a lot done.
Hi Y'all, I haven't done anything on my home layout in more than five years since my wife got sick and passed away. Since then I've become very active in the Mississippi Coast Model Railroad Museum (MCMRM) and am deeply involved in helping rebuild a fantastic LHS layout. The Orange Grove (MS) Hobby Shop built a G-Scale layout in its front window 45+/- years ago that was activated by motion sensors any time someone stood in front of the window. The owner passed away and MCMRM inherited the layout. It sat in a warehouse until we obtained a 20,000 sq. ft. space. Now the original builder and I are rebuilding it for the Museum. To explain, the LHS owner had the artistic vision and was a nationally renown modeler. The builder shared that vision and now is mentoring me, an N-Scaler, how to create a G-Scale layout. It's like building a house with enormous tools, when all I ever used were dental picks. OK, just a matter of scale, doncha know. LOL This is a photo of the original window layout showing a very small portion of the detail it contained. I'll take photos of what Ben and I are doing and post them next week. This is wonderful. I may be 84 and retired, but I'm so into going to "work" each weekday morning, it's unreal.
I know the feeling. I model HO but moved to N for modules. I had to learn to rethink what I was doing.
Hytec, I appreciate your remarks. I never met someone from Mississippi who wasn't friendly. Keep up the good work.
