A bit early you say? Maybe, but a few of us have tomorrow off, why not start it of with a bit of model railroad planing? Tomorrow I start my weekend early. Really early. 3:30 a.m. early to be exact. Me and an old time railfan buddy are going to fan the BNSF (former Santa Fe) Transcon from Toluca IL, to Galesburg. Jess the Railfan Jeep will be pressed into service as we leave the flatland early and start our railfan adventure in Toluca at 6:00 a.m. If you ever decide to railfan the line and stop in the town of Toluca, be sure to pick up a good home cooked meal like we do at the Cheese House. We'll slowly railfan from Toluca with stops in Chillecothe, Edelstein, Plansville and finally Galesburg where we'll finish off the night with some tacos at the depot. This has been a yearly tradition my friend and I have coined "Good Friday, Great Railfanning." Saturday, I plan to clean and put some new parts on Jess my railfan Jeep. She has a new bumper and skid plate that needs to be put on and a trip through the car wash is probably in order. With my Maywood Station modules about done, I have started work on my forth T-Trak module. This module is a standard double size from T-Kits.com and will feature two Kato bridges and a Northeast river and woods look. I want to get it done in time for the Ohio N Scale Weekend coming up in a few weeks. Last but not least, I have another Galesburg Tribute locomotive in the works that will be donated at this years Galesburg RR Days. I also need this done for the Ohio N Scale Weekend. Oh yeah, there is Easter in there too! Overall a nice long weekend. So how about You? Besides the Holiday, do you plan to do anything this weekend? Let us know. We'll come back on Monday the 21st to see how we all did. Until then, have a great weekend and... High Greens! and a Happy Easter!
Our long weekend in Massachusetts has its extra day on the other side. Monday is Patriots' Day, the anniversary of the battles at Lexington and Concord, "By the rude bridge that arched the flood." It's a state holiday, but no, I don't get it off. It's also the day reserved for the running of the Boston Marathon. No, I don't run, either. I hope to get in some modeling, though. Last night I got psyched and started to decal a couple of crossbucks, but the decal sheet is very old and the decals just fell apart. I scanned the remainder into the computer, and I'll make up my own decals. I plan, at a minimum, to finish that tank car platform, I'll sit it gently in place, maybe even with a touch of glue, but nothing permament as it's right in front of the Railway Express depot project, and I'd rather finish that before I lock down the somewhat delicate tank car platform. I also may get back to ballasting, as I've got the ground cover done around the back arc of rail. It will be easier to finish the ballast now than after the depot goes in.
I have purchased three of the new Digitrax SDXH166D sound decoders. I am installing them in three Athearn SD40's RTR. I like the sound of them so far. I am planning on at least four more of these. I want to change out an SDH165D in one loco for this new 16 bit decoder. Then sunday I will continue to lay track and program the new units. Monday will be more of the same then Tues I gotta hit the LHS for supplies.
Out of town for the holiday, but I'm still working on planning the new layout. I don't think will have quite enough main line run to access any staging using a "no-lix" design. I may build a helix to access staging, too early to think about that. I made up a spreadsheet of my HO equipment. Let my close friends get what they want before I post in our sale section. Sold 10 cars so far, probably taking some stuff to the division jamboree in Pittsburgh next weekend. I have a track plan about 75% complete. Smallest curve is 22", should look awesome in N scale. Going with Code 55 flex and #8 switches on the main with #6 switches and Code 40 flex on sidings and spurs. I have enough 1x3's in the garage, I should be able to get most of the bench work built for no additional cost. I'm going to use risers and spline construction with cork over 3/4" plywood for roadbed construction. I'll stack and glue foam blocks for scenery base later on. An old-fashioned HO type construction, I don't know if other N scale folks do it that way or not. Sent from my LG-P930 using Tapatalk 2
