Today is the day! Yes, it is the first day of spring! Maybe the temps don't feel like it, but it feels good to say it. It's also Friday which means it's time to see what we have planned for our railroads. I have another weekend off but it will be busy. The weekly shopping, getting things done and this week a post Birthday celebration for my Sweetheart with some friends is in order. Somewhere in there is the time I need to get my T-trak bridge module worked on. I have not worked on it since late fall of last year but the terrain is done. I still need to weather the Kato bridge that spans the gap, glue the track down and start adding scenery. This is the first of a series of T-trak modules I'm building that will depict a "somewhere in the White Mountains of NH" modules. The first being this bridge module complete with campers, canoes, fly fisherman, bear and Moose and maybe a Jeep or two. Module two will be a classic motel along a road not to far removed from the roads I remember from my youth growing up in that state. With my clubs big show next weekend, Have a lot I need to get ready so hopefully between the haircut, Jessica the railfan Jeep's oil change, dinner and shopping, I can get some work done on it. So how about you? What does the weekend hold for you? Train shows? Open houses? DCC work? Whatever it is, let us know! We'll all be productive and come back here on Monday the 23rd to see how we all did. Until then, have a great weekend, keep it safe and... ​High Greens!
Didn't end up working this week due to an unfortunate, but brief medical emergency my wife and I had Monday morning. She went back to work Wednesday, so I ended up with unexpected abundance of time for modeling. I modified two IHC double door boxcars with new trucks, KD coupler boxes and painted both. Just started applying decals for a friends "Kanawhas Belt Line" on one of those. I painted and applied decals on a 40' boxcar as Chicopee Road 33589. Still need to apply reporting marks and numbers after I apply dull cote. I applied NKP-style nose chevrons to some of road's fleet, including: U23B #2061, GP7's #1803 & 1881 and GP9 #2515. Not all units will get them, as prototypes also have varying paint schemes and quirks. I prepared a P2K GP30 for painting, including the relocation of the horn, adding a firecracker antenna and nose bell on the end of the long hood. Veteran GP30 #3207 was pulled out of storage. (I painted it 10 years ago for my former CP&E.) I pulled off some details and made the same changes as I did to the other GP30 I mentioned. Both are now ready for the paint shop. As for the rest of the weekend, I'm going to paint the GP30's and continue decal work on the KBL boxcar. I should receive a package with a large quantity of Sergent couplers today, I'll assemble those in the hotel next week.
Spring? It's 20 degrees out and cloudy, and there/s still a foot of snow everywhere on my yard, except, of course, where it's deeper. I've already seen a robin flying around, but the surest harbinger of spring will be here tomorrow - the March edition of the Greenberg Train Show! Yes, I will once more be walking the aisles, checking out the layouts, looking for bargains and hoping to pick up a few detail parts. Sunday I'll be off skiing for a week, so don't expect to hear from me until this time next Friday. I'll leave you with a close-up of one of my NJ International crossing gates in HO scale: On the right side, you can see where I drilled a hole in the counterweight to add my own push wire to raise and lower the gate. That will go to a Tortoise down below, through a couple of remote activation widgets.
Going to try adapting the FVM passenger car light strips to Athearn/MDC Overlands. Also start figuring out a method for detailing the walls of each car, I'm thinking a scanner might be involved. Sent from the magical mystery box
It's not really a "modeling plan", but Chuck let me know that my Athearn Burlington Northern F45 is in. YES!
Continuing work on the Atlas GP7, to become CN 4809. Paint is done, now the decals will be applied. And generally having fun with trains.
I will be trying to organize my freight cars a little better and put some different ones on the track. Also, plan on making a fly over video of the layout to summarize the whole thing. No building projects planned but I did order some more people so I can do a better job on my log loading scene to illustrate jammer loading "Minnesota" style.
