Welcome back everyone, I hope you all had a happy and safe long weekend and for my fellow Americans here and abroad, a happy Independence Day. Saturday: As planned, I got up and started the battle of the yard. By noon, I had mowed the entire lawn, weed wacked and was now tackling brush. By 12:30 I switched gears and started laying out the pyrotechnics by size, gluing them onto pallets and interlinking them with fuse. I finished two pallets of fireworks by 5:00pm. Ang and I went back to brush clean up, ate some dinner and went to bed exhausted. Sunday: I slept in a bit but not much. Ang started cleaning the house and I started setting up awnings, stereo gear, speakers, the grill, tables etc. I was done in record time at 1:30pm and was enjoying my first beer with my father-in-law. At 3:00pm, our guests started to arrive, and I was the grill master until everyone had their fill. We had a lot of good food that everyone contributed and lots of good conversation. At dusk, the small firecrackers were set off and the large pallets were placed into position. Then at 9:30pm I started the show. It went off great and lasted about a half an hour. By 10:30, we had the yard picked up, a bon fire going and the music off. By 11:00pm, we were in bed. INDEPENDENCE DAY: We slept in as we were tired. Two days of getting ready for our biggest party of the year is a lot of work. We don't do nearly as much work for other holidays. We rested then went out and picked up any remnants from the night before as well as patrolling neighbor yards picking up spent fireworks. I finished putting much of the items away then cooked some burgers and watched the end of Stranger Things season four. Other than some track plans I worked on, no real model railroading was done, but like I said, the 4th of July is our biggest holiday in my household. So how about you? What did you get done this weekend? Did you enjoy the holiday? Are you recovering from recent surgery well? Let us know what you accomplished this weekend. We'll be back on Friday, July 8th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a great week, be safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
Good morning Y'all, Thankfully, my weekend went pretty much as planned. With a great addition. Sunday, I received an invite from my dear Sister. Se we spent the evening at her house - celebrating her Birthday (Which is today). So, the Cotton Belt PA's are coming along nicely. The decals are pretty much done. A few touch ups. Next - install grabs, horns, windshield wipers and other details -- then ready for a clear coat. And installation of windows. -- Hope Y'all had a great and very safe weekend, Wolf
Good morning all. Hope everyone had a good 4th. Weekend went really well here for modeling. Friday afternoon: Cleared off buildings from Albemarle City for extending the platform that buildings will sit on. Made a template out of scrap 3/8" foam presentation board. Was kind of tricky. Had to make it fit around 2 tunnel portals that go "under the city". After I was happy w/ the template, I "jig-sawed" the base from some 1/2" plywood scrap and it was sized perfectly to fit the template. (30" x 14") Saturday: Spent most of the day custom cutting risers to fit around track and other features support the platform. Had to make a trip to LOWES to get a 1x2 and 1x3. I wanted cabinet grade because I couldn't tolerate any bows to get around all the track, etc. I got it done after much cutting and piecing and was able to fasten the base down. Turned out well. Sunday: Built a couple of covered hoppers as well as built up 5 rooftop AC/Ventilation units from a Walther's Cornerstone set I have had hanging in the workshop since the mid to late 90's. Imagine that. Also built up 4 big ventilation fans for the C&C Pet Food mill. Monday: Got out the airbrush and painted the hoppers for decaling and painted all the AC and exhaust fan units built up on Sunday. Have a great week all!
Well, I accomplished more than I thought I would. I found a Walthers Thrall gondola in among the kits on the shelves so I built it along with removing cast on grabs and replacing them with wire grabs. It was a PITA project as I have never seen such brittle plastic in all my life, took forever to drill and pieces would just break off. I finished it and got it painted and half recalled. I also built a Walthers 89’ intermodal flat will paint it in the near future. I also built Kadee 50’ boxcar kit will paint it this week. I then started with a special run Accurail kit by carving off and changing the detail parts will mask off the already correct paint job and just touch up the corrected areas. I have two doctors appointments scheduled one with the cardiologist and one with the surgeon. Rick Jesionowski
We got done the planting we wanted to do over the weekend. I planted the remaining flowers for the front garden and the wife replanted the window boxes and concrete pots. The pansies that were in them were done. She also planted geraniums in a new pot she bought for right outside the back door. We had a small cook out with my daughter, her boyfriend, my wife, and I. Due to the stiffness and pain from the planting my daughter did the grilling and she came up with a fabulous grilled corn on the cob recipe. We kept the puppy occupied so the fireworks did not bother her over the weekend. I tried to run my Tropicana Orange Juice train but ran into issues. First was several derailments which were caused by out of line turnouts and debris on the track. Then came the uncoupling issues. These were caused by loose coupler box lids on several Con-Cor cars which I thought were okay. The new rule for all the Con-Co Tropicana reefers is to add grey Kadee washers to make sure the lids are tight and therefore the couplers do not bounce.
Good morning all, Weekend went about as planned. Very quiet and not really much in the way of fireworks around here. We made pizzas on Sunday and BBQ chicken on the 4th. In the train room I was able to weather the two tunnel portals and get them installed on the section of the layout I have been working on.
Lots of family stuff this week, and weekend (both good and tragic). Long walks with our dogs, a visit by our son on leave from Fort Hood in Texas (with his girlfriend), a visit to Chinatown in Cleveland with dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant and shopping at the Asian market, plus a short hike at the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve on the North Coast. Later came a couple of cookouts, and a few hours at the dog park with our dogs as well as the grand-dogs. The only train related stuff I got accomplished was last week when I briefly visited the Sebring Model Railroad Club and tested my gondola camera sled. It worked... but not really. It starts out fine, but as it rolls forward, the camera, and the gondola, want to pitch over to one side or the other. I hope to have a look at that later this week. I also tested the new GoPro Session just sitting on a flatcar, and that seemed to work great, except that I hadn't charged it recently enough so the battery went dead after less than a minute. Next trip, I'll be sure to charge it first, or at least take a charger with me. While at the club, we also identified an additional benchwork carpentry project that will be next on our list. It seems that the original plan for our new port facility was overly optimistic in terms of the area to be covered by "water." So, the new plan is to decrease the water and increase a bit of the shoreline to make room for a port-side grain elevator. That may be on the agenda this evening (Tuesday).
More great results! Pics are super. I have installed the main hood on the Olds. Since fishing is curtailed this week, I hope to work on fenders and car top. Last week was up in the air. Fishing. Meeting daughter's prospective in-laws. Went out of town for this. Shorter week, "mucher" model railroading (I hope). All have a great week.
Made some progress turning the pile of sticks into the parts for a ballasted, curved, wood trestle. This is going into a "negative space" (scenery only, single track) section of the layout. You can see the test fit of the deck into the scene in the second photo below. I have installed 12 dozen NBW detail parts, and ran out just before finishing the back side of the pilings shown. Oh well, maybe get it installed next weekend. Take Care All, -Bob T.
Not much accomplished on the layout, plenty accomplished out in the yard. Had a good 4th. Unfortunately we did not make the revolutionary war cemetery ceremony. Went to brother in laws for burgers and fixings. Took a nice walk around his neighborhood. Afterwards we stopped at a neighbors for dessert. Never made it to the river for fishing.
Got my spacing on the 11" and 9 3/4" radius working so I can run my Kato ES44DC's, and Kato well cars without them kissing each other. Further adjustments needed in the future Me happy as I stated in the July 4th photo area!
