Good morning from East Central Illinois! It feels good to be in my old work shop again. The only thing that has changed since my departure almost a year ago is the layout isn’t here and a layer of dust covers everything. Saturday: I left New Hampshire on a 6:00am Flight with a four hour layover in Atlanta before getting into Bloomington Illinois around 1:00. Shelby’s Baby Shower was a success and it was great to see everyone again. The rest of the day was spent relaxing with Angela over some good Mexican food, something I don’t get in New Hampshire! Sunday: Was a day of relaxation and planning. Current goal now is to fit the Galesburg City Job back into the Focus mid June along with some other items and drive back to Illinois in time for Galesburg RR Days. Yup, I’m coming back to Illinois. The move to NH did not work out as Angela never found a good paying job and as of two weeks ago, my job with the UAV company came to an end. As much as I want to move back east, the timing is not right so I’m coming back to my Angela, dogs and everything else I love. Now to figure out how to get everything back! So how about you? What did you get done this weekend? Let us know. We’ll assemble again on Friday the 7th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a great week, stay safe and as always... High Greens!
Hope Y'all had a great weekend, Let's see -- for me, it was OK. Saturday: Changed the oil in the Wife's car. Went as it should -- took about 20 minutes. I then did more prep work on my C-30-4 caboose project. I got the roof walk mounting holes filled and prepped. I also removed the molded on grabs. Then I modified (slightly) 3 Atlas outside braced wood boxcars to fit the Minitrix track cleaning chassis I have. I also gave them a bit of weathering. Took then up to the layout and put them to work. I also put all of the automobiles and trucks back that my wonderful Granddaughter had rearranged. She sure loves Opa's choo choo's. Sunday: More caboose prep -- drilled the grab iron holes -- Then---- I cleaned up my work table. As my actual work space was closing in me -- LOL. spent some time in the afternoon doing yard work --- blah!! Thanks, Wolf
Weekend went very well. While testing a train I found a piece of troublesome track I need to work on. The evaluations from the NMRA went very well. Two out of three achievements complete. I earned the electrical and scenery achievements. The golden spike award was achieved two weeks ago. The third achievement I was working on was structures. I need 6 merit awards to complete this one. I received two merit awards. Both on scratch builds. My fire tower and mine dump house. Four others judged but didn’t make it. They were close though. A little more work and wallah they will get it. One I will be adding an interior for. It will be cool when. Done. Pricey but cooool! I’ve got the parts ordered now. I will be adding some lighting and sound effects as well as general interior stuff. Others need a little weathering. I also need to scratch build a new structure since they didn’t like my campground sign I built. And one more thing I did was register for the NMRA convention being held in Slc in July.
How about that? I actually accomplished both my goals for the weekend. Got the track installed to complete the folded 8 on the main portion of the layout and ran trains on it for the first time in over 10 years. And got my compressor set up even though it's louder than the Miller, but it should work a whole lot better than it. I also added a turnout to access the new yard configuration as a bonus. Things are finally moving.
This weekend I got some stuff I thought I'd do. Didn't get as much painting as I wanted to, but I did "pre-paint" brick walls for 2 building kits. Also, I spent quite a bit of time doing some "puff-ball" trees. Then planting them. I have a LOT of trees to go. Here's a "progress" shot: While I was shooting the above, the Sunday afternoon mail train came by, headed up to the coal branch with mail and supplies.
A frustrating search for a missing Shapeways item. Which they apparently failed to ship, but I did not find out until long afterward... Without it, my project is DOA.
I was sitting at my favorite rail fanning spot and already was waiting hours for a train to come, when I suddenly heard cars, slowly creeping up the old canyon road..... Strange, more than one car and all of them at least 60 years old but looking like new..... Very strange! I decided to take some pictures to show it later. May be somebody can explain this mystery? Oh NO, while I was shooting pictures from the cars, The California Zephyr passed by...... And I couldn't catch one sharp picture of it !!!! :-[ Except one, may be, but not full length - what a disaster weekend ........ ;-) Best, Sven Please also take a look here: https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/the-old-port-shop.125242/
