If your reading this between 9:30PM CST to Midnight CST, you maybe wondering, "Eh, what the heck do you mean weekend?" I'm hitting the road at 0 dark thirty tomorrow and will not be ready to do my weekly task, so there is the explaination. If you are reading this and your computer says Friday, then welcome back to another session of Weekend Modeling Plans. Model wise not a lot for me. It is a working weekend but rather than planes, I will be working a train show. I'll be spending my weekend at the Worlds Greatest Hobby show in St. Louis MO. So if your in town for the show, stop on by the Carstens Publications booth and say "hi." I hope to look around a little bit and maybe pick up some items I need for some projects I'm working on but other than that, I'll be working a booth. So how about you? Are you going to any shows this weekend? Showing your layout or modules anywhere? Maybe more work on track, or sceanery. Perhaps its time to work on some motive power or rolling stock. Whatever your plans may be, let us know, with pictures if you have them. We'll all be back here on Monday the 14th to see how we all did. Until then, have a happy, safe weekend and... High Greens!
Not much for me, either, I'm afraid. I'll be driving up north to go skiing straight from work, so I won't be close to the train room until Sunday evening. I did pull out the carfloat kit itself, once again. This time, I've got a long piece of pink foam to build it on. Although the actual build-up of the kit should be pretty fast, it's going to be important to keep it flat while each glue joint sets. This thing is 38 inches long. Perhaps I'll actually get to start it on Sunday night. I must give a salute to Walthers on this one. I bought the kit quite a while back, feeling very blessed because it had gone out of production (again) and Walthers ran out of them, but Trainworld still had a few. I opened it up to look at the parts and read through the instructions. Like Beldar of Remulak, I lost the instructions somehow. After an e-mail to Walthers, though, I had a PDF copy in my in-box within 10 minutes. Thanks to them.
Build the first level if my long planned double track helix. I want to build one level in a weekend, lay track the next, then repeat until done. This should only require a few hours each weekend. Jamie
Now that I have located some missing switch parts I can get that switch mostly completed. I also need to paint some switch points as well as 2 or three locomotives. It is supposed to be in the 60's tomorrow so that painting will probably commence then.
My plans include getting the rest of the track laid on the transition lines from staging to the main level. I started this last night and should have it finished by tomorrow night-fingers crossed. After that, a temporary loop connecting the two ends, and then, trains trains trains. I reckon I'll start with 5 cars pulled by a double header and if all goes well, quickly graduate to 20-30 cars, and top out around 45 cars (with more head end power ofc.) So yeah, Sunday is all about test running, hopefully about 10 hours worth with a variety of equipment-or rather, a variety of axles: Athearn, Atlas, BLMA, Exactrail, FVM, and MTL. Fingers and toes crossed lol! And, if all goes well, I'll have some pictures or perhaps a video tomorrow night to show off my handiwork
Yesterday I assembled the framework for two three foot T-Trak modules. They will be made into a six foot industrial switching area. Each module is 36-1/2" long and 12" deep for a total length of 73" I plan to have them completed over the weekend and sealed with a couple of coats of polyurethane. I also hope to get another pouring of WS realistic water on another module i'm working on.
CSX Dixie: what are the stats on your helix? BTW , its good to see you getting some more done on your layout
- Double track - Inside radius 15"; outside 16.5" - Inside grade 2.7%, outside 2.4% - 2.5" separation between each turn - 6 turns between lower levels; 4 turns between upper levels Jamie
