MODELING It's a Special Thanksgiving Weekend Modeling Plans 2020

Jim Wiggin Nov 25, 2020

  1. Jim Wiggin

    Jim Wiggin Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Greetings everyone on what is not the gateway to the weekend, but rather to Thanksgiving. At least for those of us in the U.S. 2020 has been a real @#!%$, but we still have a lot to be thankful for. Let's get this special thread started.

    Thanksgiving Day: It will just be Ang and I. With everything going on, we don't want to risk our health or anyone else for that matter. That is okay by me, I much rather have a quiet holiday. This year we are trying something different, smoked turkey. I'll make my homemade pecan pie, cheese ball, stuffing and in general, my typical New England style feast. I'm looking forward to it.

    Friday: I'm one of the few that will be working but thankfully not in retail and since I work from home doing what I love, the days go by fast. The new Athearn December announcements go out so I'll be busy with that as well as the Facebook Live event planned that day.

    Saturday: I'm hoping the rain and wind finally stop so I can finish raking the leaves which will allow me to get the Christmas decorations up. I'm hopping to do some of that done on Thursday so any trips required to my favorite hardware store can be done early Saturday. I also need to get hardboard for the HO fascia and I would love to get some work done on that.

    Sunday: My N&W Genesis GP7 came in the other day and this locomotive has me excited to start on the HO layout. Yes I know the N&W is not my B&M, MEC or even CB&Q, but we released these and since moving here 22 years ago, I've had a secret fascination with the Wabash and N&W as the line runs in the neighboring town. If I get the hardboard this Saturday, I can cut, mount and mud the hardboard fascia, then paint the top of the layout surface an earth tone and start working on track. In a perfect world, I could have track down on this simple switching layout and start running said N&W GP7. We'll see.

    So how about you? What are you thankful for? What are you doing during the Holiday weekend? Let us know, we want to hear. We'll assemble again on Monday the 30th to see how everything went. Until then, have a happy, safe and healthy weekend and...

    High Greens!
    &
    HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
     
  2. SP-Wolf

    SP-Wolf TrainBoard Supporter

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    My weekend starts today.

    So -- here we go.

    I have no idea - LOL
    I do have some plans in my head - will I get to them ?-- we'll see.

    Report on Monday

    Y'all have a great Thanksgiving!!
    Wolf
     
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  3. RailMix

    RailMix TrainBoard Member

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    In between doing some outside work around the house and doing development for my now online classes, I'm going to try to get some actual modeling done this weekend for a change.
     
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  4. BNSF FAN

    BNSF FAN TrainBoard Supporter

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    Thursday off, Friday on call (which usually means half my day is already spoken for), Saturday and Sunday will be indoor Christmas décor since the outside weather looks to be rather wet for the weekend here.

    As time permits, plant more trees on the layout, work on the tank car loading platform, and maybe start on a new grain elevator complex.

    I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!
     
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  5. Kevin Anderson

    Kevin Anderson TrainBoard Member

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    I plan on getting some interiors done on some passenger cars. After that who knows.
     
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  6. nscalestation

    nscalestation TrainBoard Supporter

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    Thanksgiving will be quiet here, just my wife and I, and our cats. Because most folks are not having large dinners this year I suppose, the smaller turkeys were sold out so we are having chicken instead.

    I just received another 10 sets of low profile locomotive wheels from Kato USA so I will be replacing the pizza cutters on 10 more of my older locos. In between doing those I'll work some more on the layout expansion and concrete trestle scene.

    Everyone be careful, stay safe, and enjoy the Holiday.
     
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  7. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Nothing happening here. I may tinker with an unfinished kit I set aside some time ago. Or just go with the flow and completely relax with a (DVD) movie.
     
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  8. Atani

    Atani TrainBoard Member

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    Tomorrow, it will be just my GF and I so we are cooking up a couple small hunks of ham and having a few simple sides that we like with it. Oh and dessert, a Pumpkin Chiffon pie and Espresso Chocolate pie.

    Even though it is a holiday tomorrow I'll still be working as I'm on-call this week and need to ensure things are running smoothly. In between the on-call work (hopefully not much!) I'll be continuing the work on ESP32 CS and ESP32 IO. I'm expecting two packages today from Mouser with almost all of the parts I need for both of those projects and a pile of parts for five RailCom boards (each with six dectectors). I'll be able to organize most of the parts for those two projects and a few into another pile for the CS (heatsink and thermistor for testing), but I'll need to wait for an order from DigiKey for additional RailCom parts and the PCBs/stencils to arrive from PCBWay. Most likely those orders won't be here before Monday though.

    So, until then I'll be using some of the various parts I have on my desk for some performance testing and narrow down why I'm seeing CAN frames being dropped by the CS and IO boards when building it with ESP-IDF but not with Arduino-esp32...

    Oh and forgot, waiting for ~100lbs of 18650 batteries to arrive so I can add to my growing backup power supply (Thanks PG&E for making me think about this...) which should be here on the 1st. Once they arrive I'll have about 6 weeks of reclaimation and testing to do on the ~1300 batteries.
     
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  9. bigGG1fan

    bigGG1fan TrainBoard Member

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    Today is work on the curves day. Get proper clearance, remove derail points. Maybe do some Decoder Pro stuff, try to get the J sound back while keeping the long address and J whistle.

    Tonight it's prepare the sweer potato pie custard.

    It's odd not having 10 or more people at Thanksgiving, so we just have a little bit of cooking to do. Our son will be the only guest (he built the tables for the RR.) Probably some RR running.

    Friday/Saturday, more trackwork. Finish curves, have to shim the crests where the track goes from incline to flat at a joiner. Uncouplings galore, so need to keep the incline. Then it's filing bumps (or replacing pieces using the extras lying around.)

    At some point, I have to start on the turntable and roundhouse tracks.




    Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk
     
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  10. gmorider

    gmorider TrainBoard Member

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    HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all! Side note: You can never go wrong with chicken. I did get the Mogul finished just a short while before getting online. Naturally, the next step is the tender. And I really, really need cabooses. :confused:
     
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  11. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    My model workbench is still committed to other non modeling projects. The latest was testing and repairing the wife's outdoor spiral Christmas trees. I wound up cutting some trees out of the sets of four trees and splicing the wires back together.
    This year we decided to Spend Thanksgiving and Christmas at the cabin. We didn't want to spend money on decorations for the cabin so I repaired/resurrected old stuff we never disposed of.
    We traveled on Tuesday. Today was errands, haircut and a few things that wouldn't fit in my Outback. (The two big dogs take up the cargo area.)
    Thanksgiving I'm going to walk a little more of the S&NY RoW in Bradford County Pa.

    My knee has been giving me trouble since my hike on that RoW last month. I think it is meniscus related. It's mostly kept me off my feet for a month. I was dreading a three hour drive.

    Yesterday my knee suddenly felt much better and flexibility has returned with only minor discomfort so tomorrow I'll go for a short walk and sit in the woods, split a small amount firewood and be thankful we are both relatively healthy and that my wife's health issues haven't progressed.

    On a side note, my wife's scleroderma causes her to always be cold. When we are at the cabin she keeps the woodstove well fed and the cabin around 80*F. I'll be having Thanksgiving dinner in gymshorts and socks!
     
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  12. Grunt

    Grunt TrainBoard Member

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    Going to grill out tonight and sip a glass of whiskey. I have a week of vacation this week so I plan to get some work done on the RR. Enid to the Cimarron River will get a base coat of scenery and track. My goal this week is to get at least 1/3 of the track laid and finish at least one grain elevator. I have 10 of them to build so I'd better get busy.
    Happy Turkey day to you all,
     
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  13. Mark St Clair

    Mark St Clair TrainBoard Member

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    Since February we have been splitting time between our home in Bellingham and my mother-in-law's place in Shelton, Washington. Our bubble is the three of us. She gets treatment for macular degeneration every four weeks and we do the driving. Typically two weeks there and two weeks here.

    This past spring my son finished his Masters degree and was going to start teaching at the university. The pandemic froze hiring so he has been unemployed since graduating. Here's where the good parts comes in. Last time we went to Shelton, my son moved into our house and isolated here while we were gone. We brought his grandmother back with us for a Thanksgiving celebration at our house. For the first time in nine months we will all share a meal together. Today he accepted a job offer. Feeling very thankful today. After we leave, he will isolate at our house again before moving back into his apartment and rejoining his bubble. The new job means we won't be able to repeat the process for Christmas.

    As to modeling, my new N scale Bachmann Thomas arrived while I was gone last week. Pleasantly surprised with how well it runs. Appears to have a coreless motor and even a flywheel. My big objective this weekend will be fitting a decoder in there somewhere.

    It is back to Shelton on Saturday making for a short weekend even though we are starting early.

    Stay safe and Happy Thanksgiving!
     
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  14. Atani

    Atani TrainBoard Member

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    I thought about picking up one of those as well but decided it may be best to hold off until someone fits a decoder in it. Please do post your experience of adding the decoder.
     
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  15. mrhedley

    mrhedley TrainBoard Member

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    Last weekend I managed to sneak in a few hours in the layout room (basement) and I completed the last section of trackwork on the Susquehanna Valley System. This added another out and back loop to give me more operational variety. I posted a pdf of the CadRail drawing of the layout to a post in the Inspection Pit, but it is hard to see the detail. I'll try converting it to word so I can post a screenshot in the near future.

    Probably won't get to work on the layout until Saturday. I'll finish up the track supports for the new loop and then add some more feeder wires. In my test run last week it performed just fine. I ran a pair of locos around the completed layout at a scale 35 MPH, and it took over 7 minutes to complete the transit. That works out to over 2 miles of mainline track. Now to recruit a few prospective engineers to run trains with me. I will be able to operate at least 4 trains at a time, but I need eyes in the back of my head to do it solo.

    Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and please stay safe. Covid is everywhere!
     
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  16. Todd Hackett

    Todd Hackett TrainBoard Member

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    What? Thanksgiving - we can't have that due to Covid. So, we are gonna have a turkey funeral. hytek posted Covid rules: 6 to 10 at family gatherings, 30 at funerals. We actually do not have family coming in - how did we do that? Hmmm. Gonna have the typical stuff, deep fried turkey, smashed spuds with giblet gravy, fresh bread, brocolli, cauliflower, and and I probably am forgetting something. My favorite is all the grazing I get to do. Veggie tray, smoked sausage, crackers with shrimp dip. Got all of that on a lazy susan so you can taxi up to the table and spin, spin, spin.

    I am plodding along with the track plan and reworking some of my SD9 and SD40's.

    Note that I am sorry to hear about your turkey passing!
     
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2020
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  17. Joe Lovett

    Joe Lovett TrainBoard Member

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    Cynthia and I are going to have prime rib for dinner.

    This weekend I'm going to make a drawing for the HO Ft. Scott and Beyond layout.

    Joe
     
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  18. Kitbash

    Kitbash TrainBoard Supporter

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    Happy Thanksgiving weekend all. Hope everyone had a great dinner and got to at least see some family. Yesterday I smoked a whole turkey on the BGE with a light mix of hickory, mesquite, and Jack Daniels cask chips. Good wine and a sip or 2 of Makers 46 last night while "chilling".

    Totally cleaned the layout room yesterday and also worked on a F&C kit yesterday while the turkey was smoking. The F&C kit is of a Southern Caboose from the 20's/30's. The Southern eventually put 6 or 7 to the Atlantic and Danville that ran from Newport News/Portsmouth are along the Virginia/NC border to Danville, VA. I grew up on that border and even though I am a dedicated C&O fan, I do have A&D equipment and rolling stock I run just for "yucks" every once-in-a-while. I have always wanted a prototypical caboose and the F&C Southern is perfect. NOW I just to have develop or score some specialized decals to match the A&D cabooses.

    Moving forward this long weekend, I will get some more progress on the caboose. I have NO CLUE what I will do in the train room. It is all clean, spruced up and ready for me to trash again w/ more projects. I'll probably find out what I did by Monday AM when you guys find out what I did. Enjoy the long weekend all!!
     
  19. Tompm

    Tompm TrainBoard Supporter

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    Since I missed the post on Wednesday half of this post will be in the past.

    I slept in this morning partially due to a food coma. We always make more food than we should considering we only have four people this year. My wife set a place for her dad as this is the first year, he is not with us. My son was the last to the table and saw the empty chair and broke down. My FIL retired to be a stay at home grandpa to help raise our daughter and mostly our son who was still in diapers.

    The wife and I had to make a run to CVS as she needed one of her over the counter meds. On the way home we stopped at the Swiss Farms store to get a couple of things. Swiss Farms is a drive thru grocery store that is unique to Delaware County, PA. They started out selling milk, bread, eggs, and other dairy products. They now carry most things you would find at a small local grocery.

    My latest two deals arrived today, and I had to try them out. I have done well recently on that auction site. I grabbed a used Roundhouse by Athearn RTR CNJ F7A (powered) and F7B (dummy) in the blue and orange scheme for $40 and a Proto 2000 FA1/FB1 Lehigh & New England for $100 new still in original unopened packaging. The LNE set is number 705 (A) and 752 (B). These units are rare and hard to find at a responsible price. Last time I saw them they went for nearly $200. I have 701 (A) and 751 (B). All units run well. I had to clean the wheels on the F7A as it stuttered a little. After the cleaning it took off.

    The rest of the weekend we will take down the Thanksgiving decorations. I hope to get the outside Christmas decorations done. Inside we will set up the tree and begin the marathon of decorating. If there is time, I may get to weather those hoppers that have been sitting on the workbench for the last two weeks. If there is time, I may run a train or two.
     
  20. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    thumbnail_IMG_0312.jpg

    I worked all weekend on various projects including this one. SO far tomorrow is free !
     
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