Welcome back everyone to a new week, new month and a new Year! Welcome 2021! Lets pray your a better year then 2020 was. Now lets not speak of that horrid year again! I hope you all had a nice long weekend and celebrated in your own way. Thank you for sharing your New Years Model Reservations as well. It looks like we have a busy year ahead of us so lets start this new thread of the year off! NEW YEARS DAY: Well, we stayed up way too late with a pair of friends on New Years night, we got home late, real late. I slept in until 9:00am which almost never happens to me. Between sleeping late and an ice storm we were experiencing, we decided not to go see Angela's Dad and Grandmother that day. Instead we stayed home and I watched a really cool DVD on the Vermont Railroad. I then spent some time working on track plans. Saturday: I finished up the last bits of Angela's Dad's RC Cobra and wrapped all the gifts. Ang had to work so we did not go up this day either. Good thing too, it started snowing that afternoon and snowed real hard throughout the night. Sunday: Due to the ice storm on Friday and the heavy, wet snow on Saturday, our power was in and out as downed limbs contributed to power lines coming down all over town. We decided to unplug everything and go up north to see Ang's family. It was a short visit but we had good food and Angela's Dad loved his 1/10 scale version of his 1995 Ford Mustang Cobra. The visit was cut short due to more bad weather on it's way so we left mid afternoon for the hour trip home. We relaxed with some hot coco and popcorn before calling it a night. Not a lot done but the Vermont Rail video combined with my work on track plans certainly helped get things moving on the N scale layout once again. So how about you? How did you fare? Let us know. We're back to a regular schedule again which means we'll meet up again on Friday the 8th to start off a new weekend. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy and safe and as always... High Greens!
Hi Guys -- Sorry I dont have Pics / Vids yet, but Im hoping to post some later on! New Years -- I Live with my folks, so we hung out together and spent a good portion of the day watching football -- including the fantastic Ohio State win! -- I continued getting track laid on the main loop -- also worked on learning JMRI Operations Friday -- Wasnt feeling well (No, not hung over -- heart issues) so I didnt get much done then Saturday -- I finished laying the main loop of track, and started the process of debugging -- also more JMRI learning Sunday -- I finished the first tutorial on JMRI and also got most of the main bus run, now I need to start power drops today (depending of course on how I'm Feeling as well as suprise doctor appointments etc) I want to see if I can get the power drops done before I have my bypass, so that while I'm healing I can run some trains!! Hope you all had a great weekend -- take care TIM
Was a quiet weekend. Nothing done Friday. Was feeling a bit blah so pend a good deal of it napping or vegging in the recliner. Saturday was better. Replaced all the exterior door locks on the main floor. (Still have two in the basement to do) and then spent a little time on trains. Got the roof for the main section of the grain elevator painted and more work on assembling the silos. Also experimented with anew display shelf idea. Sunday seemed to fly by. About all I got done was a little more work on the grain elevator. Welcome to 2021 everyone.
Oh the pain!!! Yes my foot kept me from doing much unfortunately. I did however finish painting the parts for the main building for my ethanol plant. Also painted up two sets of Grain bin extensions, then cleaned up the family room/ work room and set up my old west module to add a few refinements. Set up an appointment for Jan 30 for some evals to be done by the NMRA division. Now to finish all the little things I found to work on.
Too tired. Watched a little football. Then got sidetracked, digging through the year of paperwork, getting it ready for taxes.
did quite a while during the holidays, but most of it was prepping work. Details and picture here. https://www.trainboard.com/highball...ian-ho-scale-modular-layout-wip.115210/page-5 But Sunday was all to family time.... not in the attic where the trains are.
Good mornin to Y'all!! I was able to work on my track re-alignment project (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) Moved the track closer to a wall. And, ripped out the Micro Engineering turnouts and replaced with Atlas (code 55) - I think, I am the only person that can't stand ME turnouts. I still have one spur to re-lay. All of this to accommodate a depot move. Hope Y'all had a great and safe weekend -- and, a Happy New Year!! Wolf
On the modeling front: 1. As I thought, spent time sprucing up several buildings at Albemarle City. They are buildings I got about 90% done and then stopped. One building (Angelo's Distributors), I spruced up the loading dock and added barrels, pallets, and crates. 2. Ran trains. Yesterday ran a hot shot refer express train, an east bound loaded coal train and a west bound of empties to the mine. While they were running, I had a 12 car mixed freight switching Albemarle City as well as running cars in and out at the NYC interchange. 3. Cleaned up the train room and the work shop. On the non-modeling front, scarfed up 2 live lobsters Thursday night with enough left over Lobster Newburg Saturday night. Also watched NC State drop a 2 point Gator Bowl loss to UK. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Happy New Year! All I got done train wise was beginning a new notebook to list out my projects and track what I use to build them (which has been on my to do list for a while). I'm 8 1/2 pages in to writing that list, and 6 1/2 are just on layout related stuff (like wiring and scenery). My current pace puts me about 10-12 pages total when all is documented.
Here we are in the new year, good morning and happy new year to everyone on Trainboard. Stayed at home and did get a few little things done on the layout. Decided that I liked Model Master 4763 Gulf Gray (flat) best for a shade of gray that would resemble concrete. The photo below shows the abutments for the WP bridge. Then tried out a technique I saw in a YouTube video. This involves tapping an almost dry brush against something to splatter tiny drops onto the model. I am using white, black, darker shades of gray, and brown. This abutment is for the SP bridge. The ones shown in the first photo also got the same treatment. I like this look but want to see what it will look like after some weathering. I received some more wire so did get the DCC buss extended to the new PSX modules and also pressed on with the terrain in the corner. The material my wife ordered to re-upholster the dining room chairs also arrived so Sunday we worked on that. 2 down with 4 to go. The first one took us 4 hours, the second one was done in 1 hour.
I did not get anything done model wise this past weekend. On 12/31, my old Dell Inspiron crapped out. Something on the motherboard I suspect. I was fortunate cause my son had a new HP that had never been used. He sure saved my bacon but I have spent the better part of 2 days setting up the new PC. We copied parts of the old hard drive to the new one. Missing is my JMRI and ESU Lokprogrammer data and facts. I got them loaded again but I have lost all the Decoder Pro rosters. I will spend a few days in copying all pages of a decoder in order to set it up again. I SHALL backup my rosters onto a thumb drive from now on. Live and learn, right? BTW, the new pc is so much faster than the old. Be well, Carl
Finally got the spackling done on the inclines. Will have to sand and test this week. Hopefully I've added enough so it's a matter of sanding down so the track sits on the surface. Visited my not-so-local HS to pick up #6 switches for the yard. I am allergic to #4 switches, even in the yard. Yard redesign done, track laid, wires dropped. I now have run-around capability so my switchers don't get trapped if they pull cars into the yard instead of pushing. Less storage for rolling stock now, but this is better for operations. Redesigned the engine storage tracks; now have room for coaling and water towers and a fuel oil tank. Added two tracks and a platform for the off-again, on-again main post office RPO facility. Tested turntable. Still revolves, but want DCC to keep from short circuits and maintain speed when going onto the turntable. Added temporary shims to match turntable to Unitrack height while waiting for 3D printed ring and matching shims for roundhouse floor. Ordered my first DCC booster. Will isolate the yard and engine facility, maybe station, too. Carl, I feel your pain. Had to replace a HD on my primary laptop over Christmas. I keep JMRI on the house cloud with all the other backups. Can access it from any computer in the house. Also saved on Google Drive. Sounds like a lot got done, but why doesn't it ever feel that way? Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk
Good project progress listed above. I was treating a sore knee and only did a little maintenance type work. The brownie experience was good overall in that I did not eat them all at once. My BP check earlier shows somewhat high. I think I need to lose weight! Who knew? Anyway, by next Holiday season I hope to locate an even better brownie. These were good but the search will continue but not after we get the weight down I am going to adjust the caboose building approach slightly and hope to have much more done by Friday. Good week all and stay well.
Finished my first three Seaboard U30B phase I kits this weekend, getting ready to ship them out to their new home. I had intended to finish these a lot sooner however I kept modifying the design for improved fit of the parts - pretty happy with them now. -Mike
Got a covered hopper and boxcar painted over the weekend and started on decaling a boxcar and covered hopper, worked on a Walthers Thrall gon, removed the cast on grabs and replaced with wire grabs. Also installed rodding and air lines for the underbody brake gear. Got the Tangent Covered Hopper kit to about 90% done. Did some cleanup work in the storage area of the basement so at least you can now walk thru there without tripping over something. Rick Jesionowski
Finished assembling and planting all the trees in the kit I bought some time ago. Painted some mailboxes and set one of them. I'm looking at putting some lighting under the eaves of my depot as well as along the platform. As soon as they lift the lockdown I'll be looking at some tiny LEDs at the electronics store, might even try some tiny Christmas LED lights on the fine wires. If the brightness is right, that's going to be it!
Made some progress on the GreenRiver Depot this weekend. The plan is to get this structure painted/assembled to the point where it will be ready for later addition of lights and signage.
