Wow! Another Friday the 13th is upon us? Good thing we're not superstitious eh? Lets get another Weekend Modeling Plans up and running! No Friday off for me this weekend, it is the first train show of the year for me. After a seven year hiatus, the Lincoln Square show in Urbana, hosted by the Midwest Central NTrak club, is back and running again. I'm very excited to be at this show again as it was one of the first shows for me to start running N scale when I first moved to Illinois. Even when I lived up in Northern Illinois, I would come down to this event, only missing one year in total. Changes in the mall and Mall attitude forced the club to disband the show after a 20 plus year run, but now we are back and hopefully we'll have a great show. I'm bringing along my three T-Trak modules that depict Maywood NJ and supplementing it with NSBN modules as a lot of my fellow club members can't make it out this weekend. It will be a small set up, but still fun. So from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon, I'll be relaxing track side, 1/160th style and maybe picking up a bargain or two. So how about you? What do you have in the works for your weekend? Let us know! We'll come back here on Monday the 16th and see how we all did. Until then, have a great weekend, stay safe and... High Greens!
No modeling for me--quite the opposite. I need to prep the house for an intercontinental move. We are, however, going to attend a Pi day geocaching event. Yes, tomorrow's Pi day. http://www.piday.org/ Since I'm nerdy like that, the event is held on 3/14/15 at 9:26 AM. A perfect Pi day like this only comes around every hundred years. Nerd alert! Don't click this last link unless you are truly a numbers nerd! http://www.timeanddate.com/countdow...0=:&msg=Once-in-a-century+Pi+(π)+Second&csz=1
So, what's purple and between 3 and 4? Blueberry Pi. Still plugging away on the grade crossing systems. I got some of the new phototransistors to work. I think it's really just a matter of getting them properly mounted and illuminated, but that's tricky with infrared where you can't see the light beams. I got my $5 train show turntable painted. I cut the hole and measured out the tracks. Now, I've bought more WS foam roadbed and I'm in the process of putting it down along the branch line that leads out to the turntable at the far end.
I'm driving down to Modesto Sunday to have a belated birthday dinner with my kids. I was supposed to have gone last Sunday, but I've had this cold or flu that really kicked my butt last week. Saturday is supposed to be beautiful, so I'm hoping to do some rearranging in my apartment so I can finally make some modeling space for myself (fingers crossed!). Hemi, I've been reading about Pi Day for a couple of weeks on Facebook. There's even a T Shirt for sale (I'm very tempted!) It's going to be very cool!
I am going to paint and assemble the Woodland Scenics Gas Station, I have very little room for any new buildings but can squeeze this in any one of two places. There was a station like this in a couple towns I lived in, one still in use back in the early 60's. I like the molded metal details that they include in their cast models: I think I will print a photo of one of the painted ones so I get some good ideas. Not always sure what some of the tiny stuff is supposed to be.
Aside from dodging black cats and inconveniently placed ladders, I'll be taking on the task of painting and detailing an undecorated Atlas GP7, to CNR 4809, in green and yellow. I have some add-on barrel-type headlights to install, and I need to figure out how to get the light from the standard EMD dual-beam headlights into the large barrel and make it look good. My bad luck started last weekend with that GP7, when I was looking at it, planning the work. The shell slipped off and the frame and works dropped down, hit my knee, then the floor. My swear jar gained some weight.:rats: Other than one of the plastic knuckle couplers being broken off (they're getting replaced by Kadees anyway), there doesn't seem to be any damage. The GP35 (CN 4000) is finished except for putting in Kadees.
I finally got a couple of bulk packs of Kadee 158 wisker couplers. I could start replacing the older Kadee couplers. Really like the smaller closer to scale look of them. Also finally got a Walthers metal fence kit for a salvage yard on the layout. Guess that could be started.
I assembled a couple pairs of Sergent couplers and installed them on a couple cars. Very pleased with performance and appearance. Just ordered a 144 coupler kit, jig and wand. I also repainted a GP7B I stripped last fall and a 40' boxcar. Finished the morning off installing the grabs on U23B #2061. Rest of the weekend: Attach staging tracks bench work to the shelf brackets they are resting on. Add a couple feeders on a pair of turnout closure rails I omitted previously. Continue testing and troubleshooting track work. I still have a 6-pack of Tichy panel side hoppers that need completed. I got distracted with the track work progress surge and haven't found the urge to resume despite they taking up most of the work bench.
