Welcome back everyone. I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend and that you got a lot done. Let's get started. Saturday: The highlight of the day was selling a young man a beautiful 2017 Mustang GT. Days like that are fun at the dealership! Sunday: I ran the layout a bit more and found some more shortcomings in my track plan. I may start looking into a different direction. Thankfully my design is modular. I only had a little time to play with it before Angela and I spent the day with her Dad and Grandmother. Pretty much just a relaxing day. So how about you? What did you accomplish this past weekend? Let us know. We'll start the process all over again on Friday the 12th. Until then, have a great weekend, stay healthy and safe and as always... High Greens!
Not much accomplished this weekend. My heart was just not into doing much. Unfortunately I lost my job. In a way it was a good thing because I was starting to not enjoy it any longer. I'll miss the extra hobby income and we'll see if something else comes about. Chin up. I did order a few inexpensive supplies that I need for projects and did a minimal amount of my usual cooking. Goin' to the farmer's market today for some fresh produce and then try some workbench time. Be well, be safe, be happy and above all be grateful.
Happy Monday! Weekend accomplishments were not as much as hoped. Had a small amount of yard work/clean up to do that my wife managed to turn into a full day long project for us. Was very sore Sunday but managed to get some curved ends applied to the scenic backdrop and now it is ready for the prints to be applied. Did the cut outs for the creek on the new fascia board and started sanding the edges. Should be ready to paint soon. Found I had about a 1/3 of a bottle of realistic water left so went ahead and applied that to the creek. Finally have a water level I was looking for. Lastly, I found out late Friday that I am going to have to go visit one of our other sites for a couple of weeks starting Wednesday. That put a bit of a damper on the weekend mood at my house as well. So, I cleaned up the workbench and made sure anything messy was put away so I will return to a good to go work space. Also dug out more phot CD's to take with me so I will have something to work on while in the hotel at night. Hope all of you had a great weekend. Here's wishing you all a safe and happy week!
No progress on the layout but a bit of progress on two projects I have in the works.... ESP32 CS PCB has been updated to move most components over to SMD based *WITH* pre-population by JLCPCB! I'll be ordering an initial run of this PCB later this week after going over the schematic again to confirm no issues remain at the design level (found a possible design issue in the previous RailCom circuit, thus part of the reason for the shift to SMD with a bigger push being the design below). I've found a few benefits in moving over to SMD components recently that will be saving a lot of assembly time in the CS PCB which I will be passing on to the end users via the kits as I will assemble the components before shipping. I may opt to skip assembly of the ESP32 TTGO-T1 though since it only needs two rows of pin headers to be soldered on. Gerber files for bare PCBs will be made available as well as the BOM and CPL files for JLCPCB (warning, there is a high cost for small batches!) ESP32-S2 IO Board, a 32 configurable IO board with screw terminals and plugin sockets for RR-CirKits modules, drawing power from the LCC CAN bus (typically 15VDC 500mA): This board will be usable for block detection, signals, control panels, or virtually any other IO needs on the layout. The design can be extended to support up to 256 IO pins, but doing so would very likely result in "information overload" when you go to configure the board.
Wow, sorry to hear about the job Dave. That bites. Thoughts are with you and hope you find something you will enjoy doing again.
Dang, that stinks! But it sounds like you have the right mindset about it and I'm certain something will come along soon for you.
Well, I think I got all done what I wanted. I must have set my expectations low! I did get a platform built to extend Albemarle City. This extension will need hills to the left once done, but I have the base to place more buildings. The rise will be high rocky cliff with overgrowth. Also finished cleaning up my workshop. It had gotten pretty bad. It gets to a point for me I can't really accomplish anything if its too ragged in there. These are shots looking from each end. I only took pictures because it will NOT last long! Also manage to spend some time gathering some pictures that fairly represent what I am looking for in the signals I'll use on this layout. Pretty good weekend. Have a great week all!
I've been shuffling templates of module bases, to be certain all will fit as desired. Settling that, I might order another module kit or two, as the week progresses.
Sorry to read about your downer Dave, It will most likely turn out to be the best thing for you. I have never posted to this thread because I never completed my weekend plans. But in this case I have and here it is................................ I need to Neolube the rods and drivers, the photo revealed a needed fix on the dome and I need to tweak the tender. However, it runs well, looks good, and sounds good so I am pleased with the effort. Thanks for looking, be well, Carl
I think everyone here believes things will turn around for you and turn around quick. Getting out and getting fresh foods is a great idea. Good luck.
I actually got up about ten minutes before 6 A.M. this morning and got back working on the turnout design. I decided to use the test track set to work out the specs. I have been "tweaking" quite a bit. I went to "tweakville". Matter o' fack, I am now the mayor of "tweakville. I think I have it done. Just one more thing (I keep saying that). Then it will be on to the module for turnout replacement (seven) and track replacement. And then some more stuff....
I finished a body style mod to convert B&M Laconia Built drawings into Pacific Electric Cabooses for Big John. Here is what the B&M prototype looks like. I made models of these about 16 years ago: Here is what the Pacific Electric caboose looks like: And here is as far as I am taking the models, now that I know all the parts fit together. John is going to have to paint them, apply window glazing, then insert the window frame parts with awnings, and hand form grab irons, because Idon't have any of the plastic needed to make the grab forming jig. He is also going to have to provide the Decals, Brakewheels, MTL Trucks and Couplers, as I don't have any N Scale parts for these models. At least the hard part is done, getting a proper body style for an obscure prototype:
I've had this for a couple of weeks. It's an HO Scale Central California Traction Atlas GP7 with DCC and sound. First HO loco that I've purchased in a very long time. I picked it up because I'd like to build an HO Scale switching layout based in the Central Valley. It's sitting on my copy of Dave Stanley's book on the CCT. I had the pleasure of meeting Dave through a friend and he's operated the #60 when he worked for the CCT.
Oh thank you so very much! The original owner was the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac, they sold a lot of these to short lines, the Pacific Electric was the biggest buyer of them.
Well, I managed to clean off my workbench from the picture I posted a couple of weeks ago, and I started work on a gift of a Rail Yard Models 50' RBL Boxcar kit. Got most of the the underframe parts applied and here it is after the brake lines were installed. I then installed the all the brake rodding and quides, still have to do the retaining valve and its air line along with the hand brake rodding. In addition I painted up three freight cars and started work on decaling two other cars. Bummer Dave, I am now only working 20 hours a week heading towards 0 and full retirement. Rick Jesionowski
