Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend and unlike me got something done. Let's see. Saturday: The car show was a success, lots of great cars and motorcycles. It felt good to get in the Mustang again. Unfortunately the crappy weather we have had since March, came out and we ended the show by noon due to rain. We had a nice visit with Grandma though and finished the day with BBQ. It was a great day no matter what. Sunday: With work being so hectic lately and me working on everything from motorcycles to Jeeps, the wife was feeling a bit forgotten, so I made Sunday her day. The genius weather folks blew it and that rain never came. It was warm and overcast so I took her to one of the states biggest Antique and swap meets. There was anything you could want even for train guys. I did not score any new train items but the I did score a 1967 Wen-Mac 1/12 scale '67 Mustang GT promo model. That made my day. Ang found some things and we got our exercise in before coming home and switching gears to lawn chores and taxes. The weekend, once again, evaporated. So how about you? What did you get done? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Friday the 21st to do it all over again. Until then, have a great week, stay safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
As predicted, Worked a portion of Saturday and most of Sunday trying to finish the dirt road scene on the front of the layout. Road is about 8 ‘ long and was tedious, but it is done. All that’s left is to clean up the layout skirt where it got buggered up from a little white glue, etc. But that will be a cinch to clean and paint over. Here’s a before and after shot.
I managed to complete the 1958CF IMRC covered hopper kit and got it painted this weekend. Also built a 40’ PS1 IMRC boxcar kit and tried to paint it but the paint had gone bad will have to finish it some other time. Went to the club on Saturday and tried out all my PRR H39 and H37 hopper cars where I had replaced all the wheels with Intermountain metal wheels and the Mcjunky couplers with Kadee’s, everything ran fine with 3 Rapido RS-11’s pulling. Rick Jesionowski
It was a productive weekend around the house. We got the raised vegetable planter repainted, set up, filled with dirt, and added plants. I painted the radiator cover for the master bathroom. After my wife’s dentist appointment Saturday morning we went and ate breakfast at our favorite breakfast/lunch place. This was the first time since the pandemic started, we ate breakfast out. During the pandemic we did order takeout from the place numerous times. We ate outside and felt like a little bit or normality returning. With all the house stuff being done very little modeling got done. What did get done was problematic. I tried running a passenger train with my PRR Erie-Built locos and PRR cars. Between the derailments and constant uncoupling, it was the worst running session I had since I started rebuilding the layout. The derailing was traced to a rail not sitting correctly in a rail joiner and a misaligned piece of track. Once those issues were resolved the derailments stopped. After scratching my head for a few moments, I got out the coupler gauge and began checking couplers. All my Bachmann Spectrum PRR passenger cars have been converted to Kadee’s years ago and they were fine. A recently purchased Athearn blue box RPO was good with Kadee’s. The problem cars are all older (10+ years old) Walthers cars. To my surprise they all have either EZ-Mate of McHenry couplers, and none match the coupler gauge. I thought I had changed them out, but I guess once I realized they would not run on the old layout I did not. My new project is tunning these cars up. The other uncoupling problem is the transition to the Water Tower Diorama and I cannot address that until my Trainworld order shows up.
Good morning, Spent any hobby time I had this weekend working on the gate visibility project. Here is the result so far. Whenever the gate is closed LED's on each side of gate will flash in two circuits. The LED's and their wiring are mounted in 1/2 inch aluminum channels that are attached to the bottom of the gate on each side with the wiring coming together on the hinge end of the gate. A cover mounted here hides these connections. The wiring is held in place in the channels with cubes of dense foam. The cable goes through the gate deck and over to the frame on the hinge end of the gate. There is enough of a loop on it to give it flexibility for the gate to open and close. This cable goes down through the conduit under the entryway to the other end of the gate to reach the control circuit. This is the control circuit. I have it working reliably on the proto board but have been struggling to get the same results on the soldered PC board. Other than that, the weekend was filled in with yard work and getting the travel trailer ready for a short trip in a few weeks.
Bad weather, good modeling, basically completed the 3rd module for the station. Still some details and wiring left. A few pics on my topic Italian HO scale modular layout - WIP | Page 6 | TrainBoard.com - The Internet's Original and then it will be ready to be packed for my return to Italy after 4 years here in Germany. Construction of the other modules is planned but I think will not be starting before next year.
Got the pieces of my tank car kit laid out on the work bench. Discovered it has a LOT of flash and other mold excess to be cleaned away first. So began that long and slow careful process....
1. Completed the lower staging yards. 2. Built and installed two sections of upper level benchwork. 3. Started assembly and installation of staging level lift out section. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well, what I wasn't able to get done last weekend, I was able to do this weekend. I had planned to get the underside details for my Metroliner but was lacking good reference materials. So basically I used about 10 images to piece together the puzzle of what the underside details look like. Here's part 1. There are two other variants I'm going to do and then I'll stop as there are plenty more variations of the underside configurations. Can't do 'em all unless someone hands me blueprints. Happy with how these turned out although I think I'm going to re-proportion a couple of boxes: Cheers -Mike
More inspirational posts. For me, Sat. was "chore" day. Sunday was rest day (veg out day) and today has more chores. The hotel looks like it is ready for doors, windows, and mouldings. I will work on glazing assemblies first. Then exterior work. Have a great week all.
I built the free-moN module frame for a friend that he asked for and worked on a little wiring issue on a set of modules. Today was scenery after I blew some cash at the LHS. I hope to have all these modules finished by Friday. I am very close. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You folks got some really nice work done this past weekend. I will start out by saying it was a great weekend. Then I will admit I accomplished none of my modeling goals. Friday Sharon and I went out for breakfast after she had a fasting blood draw. It was nice enough to sit outside at one of our favorite spots that is still take-out or outdoor only. The rest of the day was spent hardware shopping for both domestic chores and hobby projects. Saturday we needed to do a little grocery shopping because my son was dropping by on Sunday. An unplanned and happy surprise visit. I got started on project number 1: Hobby Knife Rack. Watched our favorite women's soccer team on TV in the evening. Sunday started out with a bang. The family's soccer team scored a dramatic, last-second goal to win the game. Then waffles, fruit and bacon with our son. The weather was surprisingly warm so all got a nice walk in after. In the afternoon I got back to the modeling projects. Here is the result: I still need to clean up the layout lines and smooth some edges, but you get the idea. The blades are visible so I know which is which and the clear cover keeps my tender flesh from the sharp edges. No more dragging out the tackle box each time I need a knife. Made a little progress on project number 2: Firebox/Boiler joint for the Mikado. Nothing to show however. Stay safe,
No start yet on the new N Scale railroad, but my newly-minted college grad came home and loaded up a bunch of things to take to the new apartment and freed up garage space I'll need to build my benchwork. PLUS I'll get a pay raise, with no more tuition payments, and my grad soon paying for healthcare and car insurance. I don't think I'll escape vehicle maintenance though -- Dad's Garage will remain open ......
I built a drawbarred pair of Walthers 2600cf Airslide hoppers. The cars await new Plano running boards and are currently getting their cast ladder rungs replaced with wire drop grabs. I already installed some Kato 70-ton trucks on them, as well as new brake reservoirs, control valves and handbrake wheels.
got a pair of tomytec tm22 chassis from Japan I decided to take this week off, and it is a mental health break. As some of you might know, the ex and I have a bit of a difference in taste. Today I patched a hole in the wall that the not so great Danes made with their rough housing, and I started to wash the walls. I will finish up washing the downstairs walls and mask tomorrow, then paint Wednesday. My 24 year old asked me to start with the orange wall first.
I hear you! While my step son is enjoying his first trip after graduating college, I'll be working on his car this weekend too. Fortunately it is a fun distraction for me.
