Welcome back everyone to the gateway to the weekend. I hope you all had a good week and are ready to get some model railroad projects done on this last weekend of March. It's also Easter Sunday. Where does the time go? Didn't we just celebrate Christmas? Friday: It's Athearn new announcement day, so once I'm in my home office, I need to make sure all the new items are on the website and all the announcement videos are on the YouTube channel. With Train Tuesday and an Athearn Extra last night, my hours will run out early today, so I hope to change gears and work on either the N scale layout or the F150. Saturday: Last weekend, I made a lot of progress on the N scale layout. Using the .025 wire as an actuating rod for my turnouts was the best compromise in spring tension and throwing the turnout throw. I managed to get the last two turnouts set up during the week. So, my goal is to finish the trackwork by installing ties where needed and run the layout through a few operating sessions. I'm finally at the point where I can paint and weather the track, but time has run out on the layout as I'll be switching gears once I return from the Rocky Mountain Train Show. My N scale module needs structures and scenery before the Galesburg show in June, so that will take up all my modeling time. EASTER SUNDAY: Hard to believe but Easter Sunday is this weekend. We'll make the hour and half trek to Grandma's for Easter dinner, hopping for good weather but it's been hit or miss the last two weeks. Any time left over will be spent on N scale projects. Monday: I have Monday off this week as I will be in Denver next weekend. I plan to mainly take it easy but will probably get the F150 ready for railfan season. Brake lines, new tires and an overall checkup is in order. I normally go railfanning on Good Friday, but this year, work has been busy, and I could not sneak it in. I'll end up railfanning April 12th after I get back from Denver. Let's hope the weather is warmer than now. So how about you? What do you have planned for this last weekend in March? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Monday the 1st of April, no fooling! I may be later than normal, but I'll be here, and we can review what we all did over the weekend. Until then, be safe, stay healthy and... HAPPY EASTER! & High Greens!
Happy Good Friday all! In addition to a full work day, I'm looking forward toe the Athearn new announcements that Jim has done a fine job of teasing this week on his Facebook live appearances. I need some paint for a project and if I can get out the door right on time, I'll try and make a dash for the LHS to get it, if not, I might be able to fit it in Saturday morning. Then if I have any free time after dinner, I'll head to the workbench Saturday morning, I should be up and in the train room with coffee at hopefully a not too early hour. I have too many projects on my workbench and I'm going to concentrate my time on trying to at least get a couple done if not more. I've got another DCC install I might give a shot depending on other progress so we'll see. Lots of laundry to get done and a run to the store as well. Sunday will be up early for sunrise service and then hitting the road for the rest of the day. With the extra long day Sunday, those of you that are fans of the Railfan Photos of the Week can look for it to most likely get posted Saturday night. If anything stops that, it won't hit the presses until late Sunday evening. Next week will be spent training a new team member so it's going to be an extra long week. We shall see. You all take care, Happy Easter, and have a great weekend!
Good morning from mostly sunny and cool Northeast Ohio! I am writing this while my wife is doing her physical therapy after her knee surgery last week. After we get home I will be doing some repair work on some TOFC flats that I hope to take to the club on Saturday to go with the ones I have completed recently. Will also work on the GP7 as I did some more work on it this week so it may come to be finished soon. Saturday will be going to the club to run trains and will take GP9 chassis for one of the experts to look at as it does not run as it should. In the evening will be decalling at hopper car kit that I finished and painted during the week. I will also mask the first color on a 86’ auto parts boxcar and get the second color painted. Sunday will be doing some housekeeping chores including laundry and then finding another kit to start working on. Rick Jesionowski
Indeed. Happy Easter Weekend and Good Friday to all. Busy weekend coming up. Trains, Basketball, Sunday mass and Good Friday celebrations and then Easter dinner here on Sunday. Plus we get to breakout the Italian Easter dessert pie (pasticciotti). We order this from an Italian baker every Easter, always been my favorite thing to eat. Also, the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight get whittled down to the final four this weekend. Really pulling for both the NC State men and women's teams to advance far. We'll see how it goes. On the train front the long list of to-do things on my mind for this weekend includes: Get outside and paint some puff-ball trees. Nice weather this weekend in Raleigh. Maybe start another decoder installation Airbrush session to keep some projects moving along Install and program a DS74 stationary decoder I scored this week to drive 4 turnouts in West Monterey Finish the roof on the "barn project". Clean up the train room. Of course, I will be fortunate if I get half of that stuff done. Have a blessed and peaceful weekend all.
Happy Good Friday and Happy Easter to Y'all Looks to be a rainy weekend is in store for "sunny" So.Cal. After cleaning my yard and "trying" to run some switchers, I will be cleaning my switcher fleet. Apparently they have sat for way to long. Looks like their wheels and contacts have oxidized a bit. That's about it for the next couple of days. Y'all have a spectacular and very Happy Easter!! Wolf
Good morning everyone, Will mostly be working on getting everything ready to go for next Wednesday's layout setup for the air museum exhibit. Any time left over will be used to continue work on a pair of buildings. Have a great weekend.
Will experiment with making trees from old metal and new plastic "armatures". I've brought my puffball tree production to a halt while I figure out how to transition to detailed armature trees in the foreground. In any case, I still have roughly four and a half million more trees to make.
Greetings Everyone, Most likely I will get a lot done this weekend. Friday: Prep for Saturday and Sunday including measure factory and other building footprint. Get out supplies / tools etc Saturday: Get up early and be in train room by 8AM. Cut sides and such for factory. Most likely using foam and cardstock. Sunday: Morning Paint factory and other objects white. Evening paint tempoary doors / windows on factory. Try to do a video and add factory noises. We shall see.
Once the house yard work is finished I hope to prepare for the U-shaped peninsula benchwork. I need to sort and discard contents from the white dresser under the TV/Ryobi wall to make room for the workbench. This is a big move which will disrupt my routine as this is my space to hang out. I have quite a few tools and various items to get rid of in order to create a less cluttered space. The benchwork will run off the section of layout shown on the left of the photo. The lower level will stay flat for the entire inner portion plus a short portion of the outer U. I plan to keep the grade below 2% running up to Beaumont and Banning on the top level then into staging (left in photo). I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed, but will get to where I want to be. My motivation comes from a gentleman I met in the '90's with a great HO layout. He started building in the '50's and didn't have ops until '60's. Even when I started visiting he was adding a super tight dock area to his existing scenery. We are never really done. A doodle for reference.
I decided that my new layout was not that good, and I have a project that has to be completed before I can create a new layout... had to cut the tile, remove all drywall and the door jamb to get it in, going to rebuild the doorjamb and drywall tomorrow, today has been cleaning up all of the different types of dust, wood, drywall, ceramic tile...
I'm chipping away at my HO 70-tonner (quite literally in some places), and I'm going to try and tackle the rear light wiring on my N Train Master so that that project is actually capital-F Finished. I've also spent the last few weeks dreading facing down a PFE reefer that needs various small decals. You don't realize how many dozens of tiny little labels are on a freight car until you have to apply them all. One letter at a time in a few cases. Maybe I'll put the build dates on this weekend. A few more months and it'll be back in service
Already started repainting a Proto FB2 dummy that was part of my goodies from Ottawa's OVAR model train flea market last weekend. One side is complete, with decals and lettering for CN 9417, in its as-delivered appearance (green with a Copper-Bronze #10 stripe). Lots of cussing involved but a very satisfactory result. Tomorrow's plans include finishing the other side and putting back the parts that flew off when I dropped the shell , after putting a coat of clear matte over the new decals and while drying that with a fan. No other damage, just the radiator fan grill on the roof going one way, one end door with diaphragm going the other way, and the other end door with diaphragm flying in yet another direction. Physics - there's no end of amazement... I'll also put the CN green paint on my newest pair of RS3s.
From my experience doing a similar job, you are nuts. I plan to have mine redone soon as I made many mistakes back in 2001. Its been usable, but ugly. Fingers crossed you have better success.
After the yard work I sat down and considered where to put all the items from the storage drawers that I want to keep. I became annoyed. I could move the dresser to a room in the house, but I simply do not want it any longer. I guess I will chip away at it until its empty then move it to the curb in hopes someone will take it. That said the brown steal cabinet needs to go too.
Yep. It is Easter already! Maybe the new team member will make the week shorter. Another hopper in the works. I still need to do some puff ball trees myself. Gotta' have switchers. Ahhh, the air museum! Four and a half million? A new milestone. Factory noises is gonna' be good. Yep. Seems like we are never really done. Ahhh, it is to bathe. 70-tonner will be worth it. Oh no. Shell drop. (Is there a cuss to result ratio?) On here late due to Easter visit out of town. I was able to install all major walls to floors. I had to add sections to two walls due to mismeasurement. The project is creeping forward. Have a great Easter!
I did similar to my first house. The big diffence is that I removed everything. To include floor, walls and window over the tub. The only thing I left was the good ceiling and plumbing. But first I put in an open bathroom with shower in the basement. That was in about '85. Can't do it anymore.
