No you did not miss the Special Labor Day Weekend 2023 Modeling Plans thread, I did. As planned, I left New Hampshire at 12:35am Thursday morning and drove straight through only stopping for gas in New York and Mansfield Ohio and arriving home at 5:30 central Thursday night. After a long hug from the wife and two dogs beside themselves to see "daddy" home, I ate supper and went to bed. I slept close to 10 hours and jumped into everything that needed to get done while I was home for a few short days. Friday: Mowed the yard twice since it was long after being gone so long and that took up most of the day. We packed up the dogs and went north to Angela's dad's place to spend the night and be prepared for the annual Sweetcorn Festival and car show. Saturday: We got up and drove the Mustang to the car show. There were 130 cars in attendance and some beautiful machines. Of course, there was sweetcorn given away at the festival which we had for our lunch. The show ended about 3:00pm so we went back to Ang's dad's place and cooled off before returning for supper at the festival. We then went home. Sunday: The drive caught up with me and I was tired, so I just rested most of the day. Ang did con me into going to Costco but that was the extent of my activities. Labor Day: I got up early with a pot of coffee and first started packing for the return trip to NH. I then paid a stack of bills and looked for parts for the truck project. We went into town to have a nice lunch and visit with family, then back at home it was time for a few projects to wrap up before I head out, namely building Angela's new office chair, cleaning the Mustang before putting it away and repairing the grill. We finished the night with a steak on the repaired grill and potatoes and green beans. So how about you? What did you accomplish this past weekend? Let us know. We'll return on Friday, the 8th to start the process all over again. An additional programing note, I will be back in NH by Friday so we should not see an interruption in service this week, however I'm not 21 anymore, nor am I long haul trucker and the 19 hour drives really exhaust me so don't be surprised if the Friday thread is later than normal. Until then, have a good week stay safe and... High Greens!
I had a fairly productive long weekend around the house. I got all the throw rugs in the house shampooed. I added a disposable cookie sheet under the air conditioner in our bedroom, so the water does not drip against the outside wall. I got propane for the grille and grilled dinner on Sunday. The wife harvested her herbs and was drying them in the dehydrator. My daughter drove over to Swedesboro, NJ to pick sunflowers and dahlias. The ones she brought home are huge. Everything was well except for the power outages. We had three on Sunday. First two the power was out just long enough to cause all the clocks to flash. The third one was about 45 minutes long. A tree branch fell into the wires a couple of blocks away causing a fire and the outage. On the layout I can say I am now about three quarters done with tacking down the roadbed and track for the two main lines. I still have to connect the feeders to the main wiring. I basically have two thirds of a curve to finish. When I am done the entire two track main line will be tacked down and wired into four power districts.
Good morning. And happy4 day week, week. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. Only got in the train room Sunday and yesterday. Saturday I spent all day smoking beef short ribs. Took 8 1/2 hours for them hit their temp. Used the Aaron Franklin method. My son and daughter-in-law came for dinner. It was a very good day. On the train front, I filled in a place on the north side of the layout for a roadway near Afton Fuel. Also went through all of my building kits and found a gas station/general store kit I will put across the street from the oil facility. I marked the road, traced it w/ tracing paper, then transferred it to artist cardboard (chip board). I was happy w/ the road, but not happy w/ my paint/finish on it. I will haul my airbrush up there, mask it off and re-do it in place. Have a good week. Fill in: Chipboard road cut out: Road finished (will be redone):
Very grateful for the long weekend. I was exhausted. Friday I picked some vegetables from my garden, made chili using a lot of them. Best chili I’ve ever made, so very happy with my little garden. I’m 90% done with my track plan. I’ve got to make some adjustments to the Antioch coach yard and finish the staging yard. I’ll post it in my WC Waukesha sub thread. Saturday we visited a friend and played board games while our children played together. Before that I found out I won yard of the month-I’ve got an average yard lots of weeds in beds next to know flowers coming up, but apparently the criteria was a Back to School thing and because I put one of those Little Free Libraries in the yard in July that was what did it. I actually feel a little bad because I watched one of my neighbors spend hours every night after work trying to pull weeds out of his yard this summer. I just stained some wood, assembled it, and dog a small post hole. Sunday I organized my trains and sorted out excess I’m looking to sell. I hadn’t had much luck here, so I posted it on that auction site. If anyone know of any train shows coming up in the DC area where I could grab a table, please let me know. I’ve got a bunch of spare parts that don’t necessarily make sense to pay for shipping. Mostly Atlas non-DCC ready frames, Atlas GP shells, and some Kato and Concor Bilevel Coach parts. Monday I grabbed some batteries for my boat, did a grocery run, made more chili and burgers, and planted a couple of perennials and a shrub by the front door. Pretty good weekend. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good mornin to Y'all -- For a short work week. I had a mixed bag weekend. Saturday: Painted the hand grabs on my St.Lsw project, then clear coated them. (The whole units - not just the hand grabs) In the afternoon we video chatted with my Niece. In preparation of their upcoming visit (She and her husband will be flying in from Austria in a couple of weeks) Sunday: Did some lite weathering of the F7's and final reassembly. Monday: -- Started preparing the house for the visit. And -- just relaxed. And -- the St.Lsw Z-15 class F7's Thanks, - Y'all have a great week!! Wolf
Good morning from sunny, hot and muggy Northeast Ohio! On Friday, I managed to complete a Bowser 100 Ton Hopper Car and started on a Bowser Covered Hopper kit I got on E-Bay that had some broken parts which I managed to repair and get it ready for painting. Went bowling Friday night and bowled about average and the team won 5 out of 7 points. Saturday, went to breakfast with my fellow club members and then we went to run trains, I took my now complete PRR General (13 cars) that I had behind a pair of Rapido PA-1's. Later in the evening I worked on decaling an Atlas 5347CF FMC 50' Boxcar kit that I had painted previously. Sunday, I did the laundry and between loads I got the weights painted for a couple of more Bowser H21A hoppers and painted the 100 Ton Hopper that I built on Friday. Also worked on a Stewart/Bowser G39A Ore Jennie that will need to be painted. Monday, I completed the decals on the 5347 Boxcar kit and got most of the decals done on the coal hopper, while investigating why the PRR changed the air tank and ABD valve locations on the G39A. Rick Jesionowski
It was a cloudy, cool Fall type weekend here. We were to have heavy rains, but only received a very few brief and light sprinkles. I received an order of HOn30 parts from Shapeways. But that was about it. Had to work extra hours, as work was shorthanded. Everyone taking vacations, etc. Too tired to sit down at the hobby workbench.
The only train related work was sorting and pricing some surplus property for the Altoona N Scale Weekend in a couple of weeks. There may be enough that if I get the prices I'm asking I can wrangle a couple big ticket wants. Otherwise my wife and daughter were away (separately) so it was me and boys. Chores, yardwork, pool time, and two movies. Plus the oldest boy cooked dinner one night and made breakfast Sunday. Not too shabby if you ask me.
Friday, I loaded up all of the library books I've been using for my research papers during the last two semesters, and our German Shepherd, Natasha, and headed west from Alliance, Ohio to Ashland, Ohio to the seminary library. I saw that a classmate of mine from Michigan was on his way to do the same thing (with his family and their dog) so I quickly packed a small box with tomatoes and peppers from our garden and took that along too. I dropped off the books and hour or so later and chatted with the librarian until my classmate announced that he was running late. So, I entrusted the produce to our research librarian and headed home. On the way, I would pass our daughter and SIL's house, so I called to see if she was home (since she's a nurse, her schedule is weird). She was, so Natasha and I stopped there for a little while. The evening was spent doing homework. Saturday, I pretty much stayed home all day doing homework but turning it in around 6:30 pm., ate dinner and watched television before heading to bed. Sunday, was church. I came home, ate a quick dinner (since my wife is still in Texas and delayed her return because of a migraine) and discovered that the HVAC unit in our attic crawlspace had frozen up (again) and was dripping water into the entryway room. I quickly turned it off and discovered that when the technician had been there earlier in the week he had a) turned on the AC to a part of the house not currently in use (because my wife is in Texas), b) turned the thermostat down to 65, and c) left the door to the furnace filter open. The furnace guy is now scheduled to return to a) change the filters the he didn't have with him the last time, b) show me how one of the filters (a really bizarre design) is un-clamped and removed, so that I can change it next time, and c) pressure test the unit that froze up because we had a problem with leaking refrigerant last year and we need to determine exactly why it froze up this time. Once the AC was turned off, I headed out to the Sebring Model Railroad Club, where we continued laying track for our new port facility. We had a couple of options to make one connection, but after puzzling over it and getting a couple of opinions, we made our choice and pressed on. Sunday evening, I started on this week's homework reading. Monday, I went out and laid in supply of soda pop while the prices were on their Labor Day sale, then I returned and did laundry and homework. In the afternoon, our daughter invited me over for a late lunch. She said I didn't have to come because everyone else had cancelled but, since all the food had already been made, the dogs (both of them wanted to go) and I went over for a couple hours before I returned home and did a (very) little more homework reading. I did, however, snag a train photo on the way home. On the way home from our daughter's house, my regular route crosses the east end of the NS yard outside of Canton. On both Friday and Monday, traffic was stopped, and although I don't mind waiting for slow trains, both days absolutely nothing was moving, and everyone had to turn around and go a different way. Friday, there was nothing to see, but Monday, a locomotive (4049) was parked at the edge of the crossing, so I took a photo before I left.
Glad for a good Labor Day for Mr. Wiggin. Three quarters done on trackwork. Good progress. I have learned that if you ain't happy with it now, you will be less happy later. A man's garden is his joy. F7's are outstanding. Covered hoppers a comin'! I hate it when it is "short-handed". Kid cooking dinner sounds like a great thing. I hate HVAC snafu's! Currently I am working on drawing diagrams (elevations) for the Union City, TN, union station and the William Hull house, Murphysboro, IL. I believe the depot drawing is complete enough to begin building. There is also more stuff in the works. Have a great short week.
Good morning everyone, Been away from this thread for a couple of weeks as my wife and I were on a 2+ week trip with our trailer. Got back Thursday afternoon and spent most of the long weekend on house cleaning and putting things away from the trip. Also caught up on some yard work and harvested some things from our vegetable garden. Put up a blog post on one of the railroad related sites we visited on our trip. Tracks across Nevada: On the road again - near Terrebonne, OR (palisadecanyonrr.blogspot.com) This will be the first of several posts from material I gathered on this trip. Did get out to the train room a little bit on Sunday and Monday evenings. Ran some trains and changed out some pizza cutter wheels with low profile ones. Then made up a removeable scrap wheel load from some of the many M/T pizza cutter wheels I have. I will have some work to do on it to make it look right but I will leave you with this photo of it as it is now.
It seemed like a quick weekend for it to be 3 days. Was up early Saturday to go pick up my son from college for the long weekend We got home, I cooked breakfast and then he and a couple of his friends went to join another friend at their lake house until Sunday afternoon. After he left, I went to Cartersville to check out a LHS there. Got some new paints to try but the gem of the trip was I finally caught up with CSX 6914, the unit that had the nose unofficially redone in Chessie paint. Sunday morning was the normal routine and the afternoon was split between laundry and the workbench. Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, I continued working on some grain trailers. I had painted them aluminum and then planned to do the sides in black but the aluminum looks really good so they may stay that way. I did get the wheels, tires, and tarps painted so they are probably ready for decals and final assembly. Continued work on a new pipe load for a gon. The pipes are done and got a first coat of paint. Going to try to get the second coat done by Friday so I can maybe finish that up this coming weekend. Upgraded a couple more cars to metal wheels and added M/T loads to a pair of boxcars. Monday afternoon, fired up the grill and then after dinner, drove my son back to school and just like that the long weekend was done. Hope you all have a great week!
Howdy All, I spent a good amount of the long weekend putting in a new floor for my office. However, I did manage a little time for hobby projects. On and off, I worked on my entry for the Model Rail Radio / Mine Mount Models track planning contest. An excellent exercise to stimulate some research for the (still hush-hush) specifics of my entry. I have also been studying a number of YouTube videos on weathering methods and trying different styles/approaches on my 1980s Wichita & Northwestern fleet. Everything from airbrushing to pan pastels to brush-applied oil paints. Maybe I will eventually settle on a style..... I hope you had a good one. My flooring progress bar made it to about 70%.... -Bob T.
Again, not much in the modeling department. I replaced the dash cam in my car - it seems to be slowly going into senescence as it was often with a black image (but it was recording) and lately started freezing up. With my usual luck, I got the cam and an SD card for a song (I have this weird knack where every time something of mine needs replacing, I find exactly what I need - or better - at a substantial discount, usually by chance.). Mostly watching trains on web cams around the world. Spotted CSX's L&N heritage unit coming out of Waycross GA as a mid-train DPU. Nice!
For sure! For example, if you like yard action, there's Belen, NM, where there's also a "service station" where trains stop to refuel, change crews, inspections, etc. Plus a lot of traffic! Fort Madison, IA is someplace with plenty to look at: besides the trains running on two lines (one track from the ex-BN/CB&Q, two from ex-AT&SF), there's the Mississippi River with all its barge traffic (call them water trains) and the huge (525 foot) nearly 100-year-old swing bridge that lets them through. Norfolk Southern's famous Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, PA is also on the list. List which goes on and on. Funner than a barrel of monkey wrenches!
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