May is finally here and with it, maybe some warmer weather, it's time for Weekend Modeling Plans. This was to be another sports filled weekend, however Jared's Soccer has been cancelled due to the fact that the fields are water logged. Illinois is experiencing an endless cycle of rain, cold then a warm day and more rain for days on end. Saturday he does have a track meet but other than that, my modeling time has opened up. That time will be spent working on my T-Trak module of Maywood Station NJ. I have a lot to do as I want to have it done for the Columbus OH N scale show in three weeks. Other than that, I hope to get the train room cleaned up in some Spring cleaning. So how about you? What are your plans this weekend? Work on the layout or module? Track work, DCC or painting, whatever it may be, let us know. We'll all come back on Monday the 6th and see how we did. Until then, have a happy and safe weekend and... ​High Greens!
Yesterday, I carefully watched the online traffic reports and decided I could make it to Northeast Scale Lumber without ending up in a parking lot that's 20 miles long and 4-mergeing-down-to-3 lanes wide. Their storefront is actually a small hobby shop, with an eclectic assortment of kits, a few N-scale cars, and a lot of scratchbuilding stuff. I went for one sheet of real wood siding to use to top off my flatcars, and ended up with a few other items as well. The place is a nice resource for detail parts, too, so I'll probably visit again from time to time. With my flatcar deck wood in hand, I'll be finishing them this weekend. I'm still trying to clean up the derailment issues on that street-running track. My next step will be to add "guard rail" like strips. This street-running track seems to be designed more for trolleys. The problems I'm seeing are related to wheels climbing up out of the shallow grooves as sideways pressure from pushing puts a crosswise force vector. Pulling a string of cars works fine, but pushing the same cars results in derailments. I'll be doing some detailing of the Mooseport scene as well. That should be one of those relaxing tasks I can do while just letting trains loop around the layout.
I have two automatic signals to install on a module. The control circuit boards are already in and working so I just have to wire in the two heads to the boards. Garage cleanup continues along with lawn mowing.
I need to finish this little trading post I'm building for a buddy's 1953 era NKP layout. It's just a laminated texture print over styrene core job for middle distance scenery, but I need a door or two and some windows. Anyone know a good n scale printable door and window site?
The Train Pervert is on the loose again this weekend - I'm going to the Ottawa Train Expo on Saturday. Hope to find something interesting, maybe some older items (last year I was a bit disappointed in that department - way too much new stuff). Best of all, I'm out of the house for the day and it's a nice drive to Ottawa on what's going to be a gloriously warm and sunny day.
