Not only are we close to the end of the line for this week of February, but it is Valentine's Day. So as much fun as we may have planned for today and into the weekend, plan to spend some time with your better half. That is, if you have one. If your single, well then carry on! No trains for me this weekend unfortunately. This weekend is the big indoor model airplane event in Champaign/Urbana known as E-Fest. Angela, who works for the company who hosts the event, and myself who works for the publisher that will cover the event, will be working the show all weekend. The good news is that I get Monday off so I might be able to sneek a few hours in after all. So how about you? What do you have planned for this weekend? Track work, structures, DCC, maybe some painting? Let us know! We'll come back on Monday the 17th and see how we all did. Until then, have a great weekend and Valentine's Day and... High Greens!
Thursday's snow gave me a head start on weekend modeling. It cost me a vacation day, but the alternative was a nightmare commute coming home. Back at work now, for one day. We don't get Monday off. I spent 5 hours, pretty much nonstop, putting grabs on this Tichy single-sheathed boxcar kit: I did the brake details on the underside of the car months ago, but after that I devoted my modeling time to building the tannery and getting the scenery done around it. To tell the truth, I wasn't looking forward to doing all those grabs. I broke 3 or 4 #80 drill bits in the process, but they're all in place now. This is the car that will be "Hide Service Only," an old soldier that has seen many seasons and is on its last assignment. Looking ahead, I'll try to get some paint on this car if it's not too cold and wet outside. If not, the backup projects are the tank car platform and some static grass work. Or...I've got another Tichy boxcar kit that needs brake details and grabs...
Weather permitting, I will be heading to Ottawa on Saturday to a model train flea market. This is the one where I got back into the hobby back in 2008 and I usually find some really nice stuff for reasonable prices. I hope that today's latest snow dump doesn't mess up my usual route. They really screwed up when they annouced 4" and I just shoveled about 10" off the walkways! I'll put a new headlight bulb in the Athearn PA I bought last week. During this past week, I gave it a bit of TLC - a lube and a good wheel cleaning. Works wonders!
I hope to sort through the garage stuff and make room for moving the old layout to a friends and prepare for room improvements. Or I may finish adding details to some locos and weather along with some Maxi cars and containers. Of course I reserve the right for my motivation to switch things up.
Spent last night with my wife prior to going to work. Found a way to start on my back log of projects. I got my plate girder all decked out. Attempted to work on a loco. Got the wiring fixed, put on a new speaker and the sound still crappy. I am wondering if the new 16 bit decoder from digitrax will be better than the sdh164d. It looks like to get the plows on my two atlas sd35's I may need to change out couplers. Sunday I can continue to lay road bed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
