Welcome back everyone! I hope you managed to stay cool despite the summer temps. Let's get started. Saturday: I slept in for a bit then wandered to the train room. I did some switching then got cleaned up for the day. I wanted to get the garage cleaned up so I can in turn get the new home office/layout room started. I integrated my phone into the Mustang, took Ang to the bank then went to the car toy store to get a cover for Callie. Unfortunately the garage is only one bay so I have to move a vehicle out when working in there. Later that day, I met up with my N scale buddy and his wife for some good German food and beer. I'll be helping him out with a new room he wants to use for his B&O N scale layout. Sunday: I spent a bit of time just running the layout and trying to decide if I want to model a prototype or just a simple, one large industry with a team track that is just generic enough to pass for B&M. I feel like I'm still suffering from the model railroad designers version of writers block. I experimented with making my own rub for some spare ribs Ang picked up, then I smoked them on the smoker for the afternoon while I did yard work. The yard work wore me out so I spent the rest of the day relaxing. So how about you? What did you get done? Let us know. We'll return again on Friday the 14th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a great week, stay healthy, be safe and as always... High Greens!
Worked on the wall I wanted as well as constructed a tunnel liner that will run behind the rock wall. Took some pictures of how I did the liner. Mostly out of cardboard and then lined it w/ plaster cloth.
Not too much progress on the trains projects over the weekend but I did receive the picture below last night from JLCPCB showing the updated revision of the 32-IO Board (blue) and ESP32 CS PCB (green). Since then I've received notice that DHL has picked them up and they have cleared customs in Hong Kong so I'm expecting them to show up in three or four days so I can finish assembly and test. The IO Board has 62 components (52 SMD, 10 through-hole) to install (it's a bare board currently) after applying solder paste with the stencil (not pictured). Assembly time is around 15 minutes by hand for the followed by around eight minutes in the reflow oven. After the board cools from the reflow I'll add the through-hole components (RJ45, screw terminals, IDC headers) which will take around five minutes. The ESP32 CS PCB has around 40 components to add to it, of which 15 are SMD and 25 are through-hole. That should also take around 15-20 minutes to assemble with a hot iron and solder. If any of the pre-assembled SMD components need rework I'll take care of that with my hot air rework station before adding the rest of the components. One other thing I did get accomplished was cleaning my second work desk off and moved the reflow oven and sorted components over to the desk until I have the PCBs in hand for assembly.
Accomplished 1/2 my goal for the weekend! Go fascia applied to 2 of the 4 sides of the layout. Also did a few other small things on the layout and also sat back and watched some trains run. All in all, a good weekend. Hope you all had a good one as well and I will you all a great week!
I was not very ambitious modeling wise this weekend. I did manage to decal five cars and destroy two sets of decals. Uncomfortably hot and humid here in NE Missouri so it was an indoor kinda weekend. I cooked up some food stuffs for the week ahead. Salsa, salad dressing, bread, croutons and yogurt. Gonna try a recipe with scallops sometime during the week. Enjoy the days ahead and stay cool.
How did you destroy the decals? I've got a number of cars that need to be relettered/numbered at some point but have been putting it off for a while now.
Well - it ended up being a Family weekend - which was great. I had limited modeling opportunities. - And, that's OK. Hope Y'all had a great weekend, Wolf
I actually finished sanding down all my new module bases, installed all the leveling, magnets, and dowel pin connecting hardware, and painted 4 layers of Piano Black with 400 grit sanding in between each coat. The heat wave facilitated quick paint curing and hardening, so I was able to connect and level the module set together without worry of paint sticking to adjacent modules. With my table sagging quite a bit, the leveling hardware was very handy, and a close inspection of all the modules showed less than a millimeter of gap anywhere, with the exception of one sky-board at the top where the plywood had warped before I sealed it on a module I assembled last winter. The next step is sky-board paint and sealing to prevent any other sky-board warpage before I can start track laying. Progress shot:
I found the time to do some paint and decal work in the past week. A couple projects have been in the works for a long time, but the covered hopper was completed pretty quickly. This caboose is based on a photo I found on rr-fallenflags.org that's right in my modeling era of the late 80s. The model started out as a Walthers Platinum RTR caboose. I rearranged the interior, replaced the coupler pockets, trucks, battery box, ends, sides and detail parts mostly with items I designed and 3D printed. The trucks are Rockwell high speed trucks, which were applied to the last ten bay window cabooses delivered to Rock Island. Here it is right when it started to come together last year: Here's another model that's mostly 3D printed. It's one of Burlington Northern's B30-7A1B locomotives. I used a modified and shortened B30-7 Phase 2 sill from Atlas to make a Phase 3 sill which rides on a 3D printed frame and printed fuel tank with reservoirs. The frame uses Athearn trucks but I've mounted Atlas FB-2 sideframes to them. The body is a 3D printed kit designed to use Atlas radiator grille parts. The handrails are mostly Utah Pacific, but some Smokey Valley stanchions were used in the "cab" section. This model has been built for a few months, but I finally got it painted when I loaded up the airbrush to paint the Frisco covered hopper below. And finally here is the Frisco hopper. This was an Accurail model painted for CNW but the scheme didn't work for me so I decided to modify the jack pads and replace the outlet gates to model one of the last group of Pullman Standard covered hoppers delivered to Frisco. These were delivered so close to the BN merger they came from the factory in BN green.
I always enjoy seeing what others have accomplished here. Good work, gentlemen! A couple of weeks ago, I decided I would do a backdrop for one of my layouts (I have two currently, both smaller tabletop efforts). After research, I settled on an image from TrainJunkies. William was very helpful and created a special length of one of his images. It arrived last Friday. I had already gotten the back board cut and ready. So, Saturday was spent in attaching a small lip that the boards would rest on to the base of the layout back and side and embedding the magnets that will hold the boards (lightweight foam core) in place, and painting. Sunday was putting the actual photo mural down on the boards. It was printed on self adhesive paper. Pics of the results below: Some close-ups: Thanks to William Prusso at TrainJunkies for the excellent backdrop printing!
Great stuff as far as above posts. I am doing the shifter upgrade currently. I worked on it last week and basically everyday. I decided to reinforce the main frame after I saw some flexing. The cross head yoke is done and awaiting installation. Wheels are on the frame. Cylinders are made and awaiting installation. The last thing I did was the bell. I did not like the last effort so I located an online pic and saved it for study. The bell I made is one sixteenth inch wide and three sixty-fourths inches high. I did this early Sunday morning and took the rest of the day off.
I finished weathering three Athearn wood reefers and a Bachmann wood reefer. I almost completed weathering three Accurail PRR reefers. I sprayed two Walthers reefers, an Athearn bay window caboose, and a Bowser covered hopper with Dullcoat to prep them for weathering.
I sat at my train bench for a while. I thought I would start laying out my yard/turntable and service track to begin my layou. I couldn't figure out how I wanted it so I quit before I even started
I did not have any plans for the past weekend and I knew that was not good. I spent time Saturday replacing a disposal unit in the kitchen sink. Look at the money I saved with DIY ! ! I did get started on decal work, need to re-set the small ones. Stay well, Carl
I made some progress, just not as much as I thought I would. However, it was a great weekend. Weather here has been awesome so Sharon and I got several miles of walking in. Enjoyed some coffee on the Village Green. If there is any good side to the pandemic, one aspect has been fewer tourists here this summer. The Green is nearly empty every morning, even on nice weather weekends. By afternoon things pick up a bit. We try to spend a little money locally to help keep folks in jobs, etc. Sunday afternoon my son was able to come over for Stacked Enchiladas. Tried a different masa flour and it made our best tortillas yet. Spent a couple hours outside eating and swapping tales. As to modeling, got the joints on the coal bunker filled and smoothed. Lot of small strokes with a finishing file. Didn't get to the coal board extensions. Attached the water hatch to the tank and fitted the walkway. Not happy with the result. I am going to replace all the .012" wire supports with .006" wire and see if I like it better. Before After Stay well!
Sorry man, sometimes it's kinda' like writer's block-we all get it here and there. I'll just step back for a bit, and it'll come back to ya'. Start looking at old Model Railroader magazines, watch some videos online, or even your local town RR for some inspiration.
