Weekend one of December is about to start, are you ready for it? I'll start my weekend off early once again and work on an N scale photo backdrop today as well as move my airbrush equipment from the front porch to my office area. After the first of the year, it will see more action once again. Yesterday, I stopped into my not so local hobby shop to see that he was carrying the Tam Valley turnout controls I had been looking at for my modules. The owner of the shop had installed some and so he was able to answer all my questions and subsequently I purchased enough electronics to power two turn outs. Enough to get me started but not break the bank. Saturday, my girlfriend has a commitment so it's guy day tomorrow. I'll take Jared to his weekly indoor soccer and then we might stop and visit the local RC race track as he has really taken to RC trucks. Later, I plan to get some more finished on my photo backdrop. Sunday, I plan to work on the modules. After a bit of research, I found a clean way to install the legs with bolts versus the pockets I had been using. This will help with the wobble I have had with them and make things more rigid. We'll also be getting into the Christmas spirit on Sunday as we start decorating and yes, you guessed it, the Christmas Train comes out again. So how about you? What is on your ready board for the weekend? Bench work, track work, decorating? Let us know! We'll all come back here on Monday the 8th to see how we all did. Until then, have a happy and safe weekend (don't fall off any ladders!) and... ​High Greens!
I got so much accomplished over the week of Thanksgiving, I'm ready to lay rail on the new end section. Hoping to solder feeders to rail tomorrow morning and maybe spike some down.
Good morning. FRIDAY. Time to rise and shine. Now that I finally got a yard ballasted and some ground cover started, A bit more detail and scenery work looks like the next thing in order will be adding a bit more detail to the yard area, and then start working around the roundhouse area. When all of the work is done to the rear of the layout, the fun will begin and the town detailing can finally start.
Yes, really nice photo! I got my new section of benchwork done last weekend, too. The next step will be to add bus wires and then the pink foam. Then I can start playing with arrangements of track and the small turntable to turn the engines at the end of the line.
When I laid out my yard I waited until I thought I had all of the turnouts and flex track I needed (which I did) and laid out the yard with the actual part in hand. It worked out well. After all of the track was laid, I spent hours pushing long trains through all of the turnouts and track to make sure there were no problems. The only derailment I had was when some dummy didn't have a switch in the right position.
I did the same with my staging yard, but I wasn't quite sure about which turnouts I needed, and it took a while to acquire them when I decided. Instead, I photographed ones I already had on my layout, downloaded them to the computer and printed them full-scale. Not quite as good as the real thing, but the differences were taken care of using flex track.
Will build some new and hopefully improved joshua trees, but tinkering with those I built last week. I built them a built sparse so tried simply planting a couple together. So next batch I hope to add some texture to the trunks and add more branches .
I'm planning on adding a couple of structures to the layout tomorrow if I can find my glue to assemble them.
Took it in Missouri while visiting another model railroader. Was headed to breakfast and couldn't pass up the shot.
Run some trains and clean up the place for an open house in January. I'm surprised how well it runs after very little ops for almost 18 months.
Here is a tree that I tried to save by adding some dimension in the texture of the trunk and branches. It is hard to see through all the dead leaves but in person it sure looks nice. The newer saved tree is on the left.
Thanks Jim. Now that I have some experiments under my belt I think I can build a convincing joshua tree in N scale. Anyone know of a shorter grass that could be used for the dead grass that tend to gather on the branches here and there. This way the longer stuff does not hide the texture on the trunk and branches or stand out to much in photos.
Deer hunting is taking up moat of my free time lately, however... Got some free pallets at the local lumberyard, the owner is a member of the local depot preservation society, so it is good to know people. Going to break them down and the slats will reinforce my workbench/ bookcase shelves. While at the yard, I also got some free pine veneer cut into strips to make an HO bridge for the depot holiday train display.
