Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend and got a lot accomplished. Saturday: After the very easy Friday set up, I started the first day of running trains. I’m happy to report that the track repair that I did the previous week worked flawlessly and the only issues I had with the layout was the occasional dirty track but even that was minimal. Later that night, I got to hang out with the guys from the Burlington Route Historic Society and partake of some good BBQ, something I missed while in New Hampshire. Sunday: More running and talking with folks about trains. I was pleased to talk to two young men about their enthusiasm of running model trains in a prototype manner. Trains ran flawlessly and before we knew it, it was time to go. Fortunately the rain stayed away while we packed up and I enjoyed a pizza with a friend before leaving Galesburg. I think Galesburg is still my favorite show as I have been going now for 21 years. The show organizer, Larry, has done a great job coordinating this show and I thanked him for his hard work. Naturally, he is already working on next years show. So how about you? What did you accomplish this weekend? Let us know. We’ll assemble again on Friday the 28th to do it all over again. Until then, have a great week, stay safe and as always... High Greens!
Made a tiny bit of progress on my Block Control panel, experimenting with where to mount the LED resistors for easy soldering. I use small flat-jawed alligator clips for heat sinks. I think I went a little overboard with the LEDs, but my former 30 year old N Scale road had none and they look cool. Mine is an old skool DC railroad, but I'm including an input for DCC control ….. with an LED indicator light of course.
So … we had our Granddaughter for the entire weekend - starting Friday evening. Saturday -- I managed to paint the ends of my cabooses. Then we took our Granddaughter to the park. Rode the Choo choo. We rented one of those 4 wheel "bicycles" or should it be quadcycle-? LOL. We were going to go to the zoo. However - they had some sort of Star Wars thing going on -- needless to say -- it was absolutely packed!! Took her to ride a pony. She chickened out at the last moment -- oh well. Sunday: I masked the ends of the cabooses - painted the bodies, trucks, under frames and end rails. Hope Y'all had a great weekend!! Wolf
The interior of the one structure is coming along. Parts are in place, glue is drying. The only problem is the electronics/ I can’t find my solder I purchased for these things so I used a different solder. All the wires are coming loose so I had to order more solder. Hopefully it comes today so I can finish this up and I can start the next project.
Picked up some used Unitrack #6 switches (or turnouts ) last week. The plugs had been cut off the wires but they are all supposed to work. Spent some time Sunday afternoon wiring new plugs onto them. Hopefully I'll be able to get some additional switch controllers this week and test them next weekend if I can begin to make it to the basement again.
Summer does want you to do other things. For me it’s camping and fishing. I have to force myself to model.
My layout is in my garage, I live in the Sonoran Desert...summer makes me want to drink beer in a pool
Had a fairly productive weekend, only thing "finished" is the SP SD45 I've done some paintwork on for a friend. It is a Proto 2000 model, factory painted, however all the running gear was black and should be grey, tank, trucks and coupler boxes relatively easy but the air tanks had to be left in place so a fair bit of masking required. Painted the cab interior and the crew, also the handrail ends in white too.. rusted the faces of the wheels and the couplers. It was also the first loco I finished in satin as it's owner doesn't like weathered items... so as delivered condition.
A lot of natural looking trees were modeled this week....... .....and planted !!! More here: https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/the-old-port-shop.125242/page-5#post-1100389 Best, Sven
Thicken your bark color with dust-like sand particles. Don't worry if during the drying process little parts fall off, makes it only more realistic! Best, Sven ...from a distance... ;-)