Welcome back everyone to the gateway to the weekend. I hope you had a good week and are ready to get some model railroading done. Let's get started. Friday: This will be a working model railroad weekend for me. I got into Springfield Massachusetts this morning at 1:00am after spending 23 hours between four airports. The fog really put a strangle on the travel yesterday. Today I'll be at the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show and setting up the Athearn booth. I'm hopping to get that done by noon so I can head back to the hotel to get a little rest before the show. Saturday: Day 1 of the big show. If you are in the area, please stop by and introduce yourself. Sunday: Day 2 of the show along with packing up the booth and getting ready for the return trip. So how about you? What do you have on the list of model railroading goals this weekend? Let us know. Are any of you planning to come to the Amherst show? We'll assemble again on Monday Morning to see how we all did. Until then, Have a great weekend, be safe and as always... High Greens!
Greetings from a warm but rainy McLean VA. Priority: Running Trains Puttering with a focus on not doing too much. I may be doing a little painting blended with day dreaming and a nap. There is a chance I'll make a rock formation for Grandure Valley. Off chance that I will set up and begin my 'transfer / coupler transisiton car. Have fun everyone!
@Jim Wiggin hope the show goes well for you! Wish I could be there. My weekend plans are work. The project start up is going well and months of planning, training, and work are all coming together. Have a few more days of site nurture before heading back home. Since things are going well, I may take a long lunch Saturday and hit a LHS that's not too far away and hope to duck out a little early on Sunday and do some railfanning if I can. Also have a couple of small workbench projects that I brought with me and will continue to work on those each evening. Hope you all have a great weekend!
Friday: Work, then spend some time with family. Maybe clean off the top of the layout a bit as it’s caught FSD: Flat Surface Disease. Symptoms include strange growths on all flat surfaces; new growths usually appear at the end of the work day as bags are unpacked and clothes are changed. Saturday: Sleep in, get doughnuts for the family, and start putting more foamboard down. While it dries I’ll look at my track plan and think about wiring. My last layout was only unitrack and about 2’x5’ so I’ve got to educate myself on running buses and boosters. Sunday: I’m going to move slow. I’ve got a big meeting Monday so I don’t want to get caught up in painting the backdrop or priming the foamboard yet. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
On Saturday I may have to work overtime. If I don’t, I hopefully will finally be able to get the outside Christmas decorations in as they won’t be buried in snow. They may be wet, but I can deal with that. I will probably run some errands at some this weekend. Sunday the rain is back so that will mean indoor stuff around the house including the dreaded laundry. Since I finished the Ashmore Hotel I need to find space for it on the layout. In order to do that I need to clear off the stuff that has collected on the layout over the last couple of months. Clearing stuff off the layout also means I can run trains. However, this will force me to do some clean out and organization of the basement. To take a break from cleaning and organizing I need to determine what is next; build a structure, tune up some rolling stock, install DCC…
Good morning from cloudy, cool and rainy Northeast Ohio. I am at the doctors office where my wife is having her physical therapy on her knee. When we get back home I will be moving the computer from the basement up to the table where the television used to sit now that I mounted the television on the wall. After that I may get some work done on some cars I have in process. Then going bowling this evening. Saturday will be a non club day as we have to go to a funeral for a good friends brother who died recently and maybe get some modeling done in the evening. Also will be doing some general household cleaning and putting away Christmas stuff. Sunday will be more of the same except will be doing the laundry. Have most of the taxes done just waiting for the forms to arrive before filing. Now is time for my rant directed at Jim and Athearn. Why no undecorated kits of the high quality cars and don’t say the standard line of they don’t sell. Atlas, Tangent, Moloco, and Scaletrains kits sell out as fast as their decorated cars. Rick Jesionowski
Happy Friday to Y'all This weekend is supposed to be in the mid to upper 70's here in So. Cal. --- So -- Saturday: - Much needed lawn care. Then - If I'm up to it.... continue to decal my friends locos Sunday: Depends on what I get done on Sat. Y'all have a great weekend, Wolf
Good morning all. Warmer weather here in NC this weekend which is awesome. This weekend the modeling chores will be figured out later today and in the morning. Ably assisted by a cup of coffee of course. One thing I do have planned is to mount 4 more pictures and a small advertising sign in the stairwell leading up to the train room. Then the "stairwell gallery" project will be done for a while. After that? Who knows, I'll figure it out over the weekend. Have a great weekend and enjoy it! Here's a shot of stairwell thusfar....
Good morning everyone, Since early December I've been in scenery mode on the east end of the layout and have not been able to run trains. With the scenery now all done, I am cleaning the layout and returning it to operation. Work bench is due for a good cleaning up too. I'll be adding some finishing touches to the propane dealer and starting work on some other structures for Carlin. We have a Great Train Show coming up in 4 weeks so I need to start thinking about what I am going to take to run on the Ntrak layout and get those things ready to go. Wishing you all a great weekend whatever you are doing.
Between four airports! Yikes! Running trains is a good priority. Extended lunch LHS visit. Cool. FSD. A few years ago, my cousin's wife gave him the same treatment. Clearing stuff off the layout sounds critical. I love a good rant. Helping a friend with loco's. Nice gallery. Returning the layout to operation. This past week, saw prep work for turnout number two. That was Monday. Tuesday was, you guessed it, laundry. Tuesday afternoon was a curtain hanging project for my daughter. As luck would have it, the weather turned a little warmer. I worked up a nice sweat hanging curtains and then unwittingly went to the car during a by then cool breeze. This was all followed by body aches, sinus inflammation and nose-blowing. Some dizziness was present as well. I have not been this sick in years. Lesson learned. Don't do dat'. Well on the mend now. Main plan, pick up where I left off. Have a healthy and safe weekend.
I have quite a list to pick from, but I think tonight I will run a local from the yard to Fontana and back. Currently my yard tracks are only two flex sections long and I bury the locos, but that's ok. At least I can tinker with how the local will operate. I'm a bit torn on next steps for the weekend. I could; Touch up the existing backdrops. Install the LED strips for the existing lower level. Add a fascia made from a different material and check results/opinions. (This could be embarrassing.) Add more track to the upper and lower level to make the curve. That would be about 30 sections of flex. I really need to get the rest of the mainline built, but that will be a huge undertaking. All this track in the yard, staging, and helix makes me wish I could build a much longer mainline for super long trains. I am so tempted to go three levels, but that would put us up on platforms as the top most deck would have to be 74". That's crazy! I will stick to the plan! I'll stick with 14 foot trains and be happy. Also, as Wolf said, it will be warm and clear this weekend, so I need to get some yardwork done.
Similar to @Jim Wiggin I'm not getting any modeling done this weekend, I'm at the Amherst show as well! I flew out from SFO last night around 10PM PT and landed at BDL around 11AM ET, around 2-3hr of very broken sleep on the first flight and almost none on the second. Today was setup day for MRC, including testing our new products for announcements in the morning! Sat will be demoing the new products, tracking down a few other modelers in various booths Sun will be continuing the same and tear down of the booth immediately after the show so they can head home and I can head to the hotel for a 6AM ET flight home on Monday. Then the real fun begins, catching up on tasks I left at home and updating the products based on the demos. At some point I'll get the promo materials posted on here, until then head over to https://www.youtube.com/@HumancityJunction for some live videos from the show.
Last weekend was shortened by our journey to my mother-in-law's home. This weekend will be shortened by the return trip. What gets done when will be a matter of compromise. Here's my plan. Saturday: Driving back to Bellingham. Likely to clean the belts and rollers on the laser. I would start some burning, but the exhaust outlet will probably be dedicated to the clothes' dryer. The cleaning needs to be done in any case. Sunday: Early morning soccer match followed by bacon and eggs. If I can access the exhaust outlet, some inserts will be cut. Might need to tweak settings for the material. There are a few intermediate prep steps, but I am hoping to cut the final discs and counterweights Sunday. Wish me luck. Pictures one way or the other. Unless nothing at all happens all weekend. Then no pictures. Stay safe,
I have an upper level track that runs directly over a lower level track........I need to cut supports for the upper level. Basically a bunch of 1 x 4s with a "tunnel" cut in them......been putting it off for too long since I only need about 10 of them. Also just picked up 13 ore hoppers and I need to modify them for my close coupling system and add low profile wheels. Maybe run a few trains somewhere in there.
Continue working on The C&L Layout & Beyond. Actually have accomplished a lot in my mind, but will post it in the Accomplishment thread Monday, and probably post some pictures somewhere on here, and maybe a few places
You realize before working for Athearn, I was a custom painter for 20 plus years. I say that to remove all doubt to you and anyone who may think I have any responsibility in what Athearn does or does not produce, I'm the Marketing agent. Not to be rude, but we do have sales data that point to the contradictory of what you have stated. That being said, Athearn does indeed, produce undecorated models. Currently they are mainly locomotives however, we have offered an undecorated kit version of our new 60-foot Canadian Tire container and have talked about a select number of freight cars to offer in the future. Simply put, if our customers send us requests through our product suggestion email found on our website, we get enough request that we think will justify the production, and once available they sell well, then we will produce it. While most of us at Athearn are active modelers, we still have to make sound business decisions.
