Welcome back everyone to the gateway to the weekend. I hope you had a good week and are ready to dig into another weekend of model railroading. Let's get started. Friday: After being gone last weekend, I have today off. Spring in Illinois has yet to show up as it is windy, cold and raining as I type this. I was originally planning on railfanning but with this weather, it's just as well as I am completely worn out and will probably relax today. I'm hoping to research my trailer train I want to build in N scale for this year's upcoming NTrak display at Galesburg. I ordered a pair of ScaleTrains N scale SD40-2s that will hopefully be here in time for me to program and speed match them. I've started ordering the Athearn N scale F89 TOFC cars and 45' vans to match. I figured this would be a nice change of pace from my standard trains and it will bring back some good memories. So, I'll research that today with a hot cup of coffee and relax. Saturday: It may warm up so yard work will be the main goal of the day. Angela's Aunt goes back to Florida so we must go an Hour and a half north to have dinner and say our goodbyes. After that, we'll probably be too tired to do anything but head to bed. Sunday: I'll start the day with coffee and play around in the layout room. I most likely will start arranging buildings for the NTrak module as I will need to get that ready for Galesburg RR Days in June. At 1:00pm, I'll be operating on Alan Saatkamp's Progressive Rail in Minnesota, an HO layout. I was there Wednesday with our in-house photographer getting images of the new Athearn RS3s, SD70ACes and DDA40X. I've operated on his layout a few times and have always enjoyed it. After the op session I'll head home and enjoy a nice evening with the wife and pups. So how about you? What do you have planned? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Monday the 15th to see how we all did. Until then, have a great weekend, stay safe, be healthy and as always... High Greens!
Happy Friday! Enjoy the day off Jim! Regular work day here. I have an item to pick up at the LHS that I will probably do this evening before heading home and cooking some dinner for the wife and I. IF I feel like it, may head down to the workbench for a bit. If not, I'll probably just do some reading. Saturday should start off with lots of coffee and time at the workbench. I'll continue to work on open projects and see what I can finish. I've been working on weathering a gon that I'm pretty sure I will get finished and set aside with the rest of the cars waiting for a nice warm day outside where I can dull coat them all so that's one for sure thing. I've got a few other gons that need to be repainted so I'll also work on prepping them. May get around to installing metal wheels on 2 or 3 more cars. Then there is laundry, groceries, and whatever else the wife has in mind. Sunday, will continue wherever I leave off on Saturday. Have an Atlas 4 bay covered hopper that I am stripping the paint on so it will go in the paint prep stack with the gons. Will also try and fit in another dcc install. Will also spend a little time just watching the trains run and enjoying coffee. Hope you all have a great weekend!!!!.
Will hopefully make some more progress on puffball and armature trees on my layout. My on-and-off motivation with tree production makes it hard to commit to anything. I've made good progress outdoors in cleaning up the front and side yard, so I'll probably order bales of fresh pine straw today for landscaping.
Good morning from cloudy, cool and rainy Northeast Ohio, high wind warning for this afternoon and the rest of the day. Today, I took my wife to Physical Therapy this morning and I hope to finish up the Moloco RBL kit this afternoon and get the first coat of paint applied. I also found the decal I was looking for last weekend, it was in a box a put in the middle of my workbench and I found it last night, so I will be doing some decaling today. Saturday, going to the club for a little train running in the morning and then back home and I will be doing some masking on some box cars for the second paint color application along with some more decaling. Sunday, doing some housekeeping duties before getting to work on a couple of new freight cars to go with some decals I just ordered from Dan Kohlberg. Another picture from my trip last week to the Wheeling and Lake Erie Shops, here they are in the process of truing up the wheels on an SD40-2 that was an upgraded old PRR SD40. Rick Jesionowski
Happy Friday to Y'all, Hope Y'all had a great week. I have been making steady progress on both AT&SF NW2 and the T&NO ABB set of F9M's This weekend is supposed to be a bit rainy -- I plan on completing the NW2's decaling and make more progress on the F9M's (Modifing the cab unit) Y'all have a great weekend, Wolf
Good morning everyone, Spring has arrived here and the yard will be demanding more of my attention. Some more rain is in the forecast for this weekend and if that happens I'll get a little more time in the train room. The project I am currently working on is the installation of a sound decoder and speaker in a building in Carlin that will give voice to the Carlin yard switcher. Wishing you all a great weekend whatever you are doing.
Saturday I’ll be going to one of my daughter’s soccer games and then I’ll try and knock out some chores-laundry, groceries, and get some netting for the strawberries and blueberries. Sunday I’ll hang out with the family until they’re bored with me and then I will get after cleaning off my benchwork as it caught “Flat Surface Disease” again and reviewing my track plan. I’ve also got to get organized for the following week’s railroading activities. I’m taking Monday-Friday off. I’ve got a plumber and an HVAC coming on Monday afternoon but otherwise while everybody is out of the house during the day I want to make some forward progress on the layout. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Winter weather has indeed been pesky. Just watching trains run sounds like a worthy goal. Ahh, puff ball trees. Another worthy goal. Great shop shot! NW2 sounds interesting. Sound for the yard switcher is going to be cool. Time off for the layout. Great idea! This past week saw me making good progress on the depot. All that remains (I think) are roof trim, porch roof braces and the chimney. Saturday will be the Thirty-seventh Annual Coosa Valley Model Railroad Association Train Show. Located in Gadsden, Alabama. My cousin has elected to go with me so this should be a fine outing. Later today should see a little more work on the depot (I hope). Sunday may see more progress as well. All have a great weekend.
This weekend there will be the usual stops at the grocery store, produce store, and pharmacy. There is a backlog of laundry to do but I am not permitted to carry any baskets with the upcoming hernia surgery on Thursday. I need to finish my taxes and help my son and daughter with their taxes. As far as modeling I plan to run trains and do some organization. I have some Roundhouse and Athearn blue box kits to build. I am hoping the kit building is something I can do during my recovery.
Been a good week. Before delving into the weekend objectives, I want to do a little show-n-tell. Old news for many, but I didn't know two-part silicone mold putty existed until this week. You may recall I gave up waiting for RTV Silicone to cure last weekend. My search for a solution led me to this fast cure material. Perfect for the crude measuring "slug" I wanted. Easy to mix and ready in 30 minutes. Now for the weekend ahead. Friday: Wrapped up the taxes this morning and put the check in the mail. This evening, we will finalize our travel reservations for the Road to Bethlehem PA. Able to find a few moments to work on the Mikado boiler. The pictured slug has been a big help in setting interior dimensions. Also found time to pick a bushel of dandelions. After a walk, we are cooking some mushroom etouffee for dinner. Saturday: The real hobby action should get started. First up is turning some setup tools. Need gauges for centering and internal diameters. Then I am hopeful to complete the next iteration of boiler. May wash a car if the weather cooperates. Soccer game in the evening. Sunday: Starting out with soccer in the morning. Then brunch. Our son may join us. Let's go out on a limb here and pretend the boiler is done. Next up is turning the new steam dome. Finally, another soccer match to end the weekend. Pictures on Monday. Stay safe,
Guess what I'm doing tomorrow morning at the Hobby Show in Laval, QC? I'll be on the hunt for my next train fix! Ottawa a few weeks ago, Laval now... Of all the ways to get spoiled, this has to be one of the best. Hopefully, I'll have some interesting booty to show off (not that kind, mind you - that would get a tad ugly ).
We do plan to drive it. We enjoy it. We find places to visit along the way and my daughter lives in the Finger Lakes region. We will head that way after the convention. Been back and forth several times. Drove to the Nashville convention in 2022. Stay safe,
well........I'll be in the trainroom/man cave, but I'll be working on installing a fish tank, not too much on trains. I may get a little work done on my Rode-a-way transfer kit when I need a break from making 29 trips up and down the stairs hauling water, and my new set of Kato F7s is supposed to show up on saturday, and I'll make sure I get those programmed and on the layout. Most of my other priority projects are on hold waiting for parts. Of course there's ALWAYS stuff to do on the layout.
Dave , have you seen the Python water change hose ? It hooks up to your water faucet . I have a 75 foot one for my basement tanks no water carrying here ! Mike
I've been wanting to order a replacement motor for an Atlas MP15 as many years ago I broke the motor tab which contacts the DCC board. I came upon it while looking for something and took a closer look at how to solve the problem. I think I will simply do a direct wire job on it. Fingers crossed. I have some Cobalts in LA customs, so I may just build some turnouts to complete a 10 track staging section. We'll see how this goes.
Well so far I have taken my MP15 apart, soldered, reassembled three times with no success. I determined way back that it needed a new motor, so maybe I best go that route. I've been attempting to hard wire the motor tabs to the decoder, but I keep getting a short. Oh, well.
Got the fish tank done .......thanks for the suggestion Bremner, thought about running a garden hose up the stairs, but decided the exercise would do me good. So I started in on some decoder installs.......and now I have a list of to dos for next time. Put a decoder in my Atearn FP45. Everything went well......till I put it on the track and got magic smoke. So I put the DC board back in and nothing. So I pulled it apart, and the motor feels gritty and has a definite "snag" at one point (it was fine before). So the smoke was the motor? Then got a brilliant idea.........I had another FP that I had melted a truck on at the club, So I'd just swap the trucks and shells and make one good loco out of 2 bad ones. That went well, and then I started wondering.......if the smoke was from the motor, maybe the decoder was OK......so I swapped in the decoder and got exactly the same result......fried motor. How do you fry a motor (let alone 2) ? So now I get to try to find a couple of Athearn motors. I DID get the new F7s programmed, and also got some MT couplers swapped into my Kato NW2s..........I have a pair that are MUed together that are my primary yard switchers, and the original Kato couplers just weren't cutting it......too many failures to couple, and the small knuckles made it hard to uncouple as well. Comments and/or suggestions on the fried motors welcome!
