It'll be nice to see 50 really quick before it goes bye-bye. I was up in your neck of the woods about a month ago Allen, fixing some equipment at HyVee in Lincoln. Ken is up in the Great White North. The write up on tab on car is very good Allen. I've used it on a small layout before, but it's interesting to see it on a larger layout.
We only received a few dustings of snow. A flurry here and there. Several nights below zero, I believe the coldest was five below. We got up to around freezing mid-afternoon today. First time in almost two weeks. Nothing unusual for this area. We usually see a snow flurry in early to mid-October, which did happen. Depending upon how things go, we can have snow on the ground from now until late April, and occasionally early May. Have seen measurable snow in mid-June and late August. As the saying goes, we have two seasons: July and winter. I like it cool and indoors. That means no outdoor chores, and more hobby time. Will check this out again. Maybe I should bookmark it this time!
You should have dropped me a note. So I see Thank you! Mark Dance uses tabs on his Columbia & Western [Which is where Steven seen it] and his layout is bigger and more complex than either Steven's or Mine is. So far it seems to work fine.
If you ever lose the link, I have the link in my footer. The Wheel Report is under "Operations" on the right hand column. Well 2.2" is more than I want, I would have traded you! I don't want to greedy and take it away from others who like the crap. But wouldn't you know, it's suppose to warm up just in time for that damn football game tomorrow! To bad they didn't play last weekend. LOL! The weather always seems to work out just right for them and the stupid fanatical fans. Oh well, at least it's the last home game of the season and it'll be over till next year. They told us last year that we were going to get more of those Polar Vortexes this year, I guess they were right?
We used to have a lot of them. Around here they were always called "Alberta Clippers". I guess someone, (as happens too much these days), got paid too much money come up with a new name for same old, same old. Anyhow, I always try to be stocked up with modeling supplies for such events. Don't need to go anywhere and can just keep inside, warm and having fun. Just watch the world go on by.
I will, but I'm mostly in the office now. And after 3 hours rebuilding a smoker I'm usually not that clean! One day I'll have to drag out there for an ops session. I've done the Des Moines to Kearney trip enough that Lincoln isn't that bad.. I read Andy Sperandeo's article on this system way back in the Jan 1981 MR, which used it as a 4 cycle system. I've done that, which worked well also. It'll be either that or a modified version of car cards with pictures instead of reporting marks.
Well it’s been awhile since I've posted any updates here. I’m gonna quickly run through some of things that have happened and refer you to the blog with links and a few pictures. December and January turned out to be a couple of bad months due to personal reasons and just took the winds out of my modeling sails. Having got past the doom and gloom, I've managed to catch another round of wind and proceeded forward again. The Tab-On-Car system has turned out to be a very simple system to use and has given us something else to help add to the operations: Off Spotting. So far not one of the crews has complained about the switchover, actually most have found it much easier to use. We ran two dry runs and then decided to do a full op session in late January when a fellow modeler from KC had contacted me about a possible visit after stumbling across my blog while designing his yard. Coy came up to the Council Bluffs GTE show and then stopped by to chew the fat and run some trains. To keep this short and simple, we had a blast and everything worked as expected. Coy took on the Malvern job which kept him busy through most of the session and finally worked the Haskell turn. Afterwards we discussed his layout and how he wanted to design his yard so it worked similar to mine. Basically his yard would serve as two towns much like mine. It was great to have a visitor on the Little Rock Line. Ops session #10 I also think I may have cornered my DCC gremlins as well! I had worked all last summer installing chips in a large batch of my F and RS units. Not once did I have any issues of the chips resetting themselves to a reduced speed. Along about late November I started to get a few static discharges again. About a week before session #10 was held, I noticed a large amount of the chips were all acting strange again. So I quickly reprogrammed the whole lot and then decided I would pick up a small humidifier and some Static Guard to spray on the floor mats. I’m happy to report one or both of these things did the trick! No one made mention of any static shocks throughout the session. In late February I finally got the work bench cleared off of small projects and decided it was time to get something other track work on the layout. I went back to work at Olin-Chlor in Malvern and picked up where I left off. I had gotten the building done for Olin-Chlor but hadn't quite figured out where or how I wanted things arranged. I did manage to get some of the Walther’s North Island Refinery built but the towers never made it off the bench. They wound up in the trash and I quickly picked up some Tomytec Distillation towers to replace them. Lets try this again shall we Once they were done, things started to fall into place and I caught another gust of wind. I decided to “pour” concrete throughout the Olin-Chlor complex using a styrene FOR SALE sign. Olin-Chlor expansion part 7 Next I decided to try my hand at actually pouring some roads in Malvern using the Woodland Scenics Smooth-It and tape forms to see how they worked. Roadwork In Malvern and a milestone! Can't say I was overly impressed, but it did work. I think I'm going to stick with styrene roads from now on out just due to the sanding dust and mess. It was almost like sanding drywall. Everything turned white! I may still pour some areas depending on the situation at hand but keep the vacuum close by. Roadwork in Malvern, part 2 I’m waiting on another Tomytec kit to show up, a set of upright storage tanks, as well as some hobby tools I've decided to pick up which should help my scratch building. My next project will be to finalize the storage tanks and try my hand at building a tank car unloading platform at Olin-Chlor since I can't seem to find any of the 50’ Train Catt unloading platforms. With the platform built and the roads in, I'm so hoping to get some grass down and start changing the look of Malvern.
Just to ask how things are going along recently. Been a while since an update, so was wondering if all was well, etc.
Ah! I thought maybe I did something wrong that finally caught up with me. lol :funny: December and January turned out to be a bad couple of months for me. Family issues with my sibling. The old saying is soooo true: You can pick your friends but can't pick your family. It took a lot of time away from the basement, but at least I'm making progress now.
Lookin' great, Allen! Just a quick FYI...your little item will be done week after next. It's spring break, so I plan on wrapping it up. I've also got a head to reinstall on my sons car, but other than that, I'm gonna finish it up!
Glad to see you still moving around Allen. I was in Lincoln a few weeks ago via Kearney. The usual, fix this, drop off that. Some day I'll get a little more heads up and have to meet up.
My Tomytec Upright storage tanks arrived the other day. I got to say these are not too bad of kits. I got them cleaned up and partially assembled then painted them, but I'm a little disappointed with the size of the railings though. I tried sanding the catwalks down in thickness, but nothing will help mask the railings. Sensing they might be to big, I also ordered some Gold Metal Models industrial catwalks and railings, looks like I'm going to need them. Another thing I see is missing is a way to fill these tanks, nothing some piping won't take care of.... more on the blog
Excepting the railings, they do look good. It will be interesting to see how the GMM parts improve appearance.
