Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend and spent some time with family over the holiday. Let's see how we did. Saturday: I was able to leave work early so I decided to work on our 1989 John Deere tractor. It stopped steering last fall and had sat idle since. After two hours I found the culprit and ordered used parts thanks to an online auction site. Saturday, I finished up the mower and removed the blades for sharpening. I only got the last front fascia installed on the NTrak module before I realized I required more hardware. Fortunately, we have a new Tractor Supply real close so that was taken care of quickly. Unfortunately, the yard was calling me, and the future wife and I spent the rest of the day removing brush and picking up limbs and branches. Hopefully my parts for the Deere are here soon as the lawn is already getting tall. Sunday: As it was Easter, we headed up to Angela's Dad and grandmas for a nice Easter dinner. It was nice to relax a bit and her dad was able to sharpen the blades for the mower. I visited my Mustang, still tucked in her cover. Hopefully it will warm up in two weeks for her first drive since early November. Soon our visit was over and once home I finished my taxes. With that out of the way, Ang and I popped up some popcorn and watched the last of the Netflix re-imagined Lost in Space. It was okay, but much darker than the original. Guess I'm a sucker for the original with Guy Williams, June Lockhart and Bill Mummy. Oh well, I'm old fashioned. Then the weekend was over. Not a lot of train work this weekend but with a holiday, that is expected. So how about you? How did you do? Let us know. We'll gather again on Friday the 22nd to start the process all over again. Until then, have a great week, be safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
Good morning from cloudy and cold Northeast Ohio! Snow???? expected this evening!!!!! Friday, I continued work on the Lot 974 50' Boxcar, got the other side cut out, and glued the ends and roof to the sides and lined everything up. Also modified the frame to install the Moloco End of Car Cushioning pockets. Also painted a pair of Bowwer G39 Ore Jimmies black along with the underframe for a 2983CF Covered Hopper. Saturday, had our club meeting followed by an operating session, trains I was assigned to were quite easy and I stood around an commented on those trying to accomplish their tasks. Went with my son to dinner as his wife was out of town at a debate tournament. Sunday, did the laundry and continued work on the Lot 974 Boxcar, removed all the cast on grabs, placards, and door stops and drilled holes and installed grabs on one side of the car. Also did some decaling work on the G39 Ore Jimmies. Rick Jesionowski
Found a little time on Saturday to spend on the layout. I did some switching and ran a few trains around the mainline. Then I worked on the scenery at the west end of the layout, replacing what used to be a large church with homes with lawns and driveways. This is all on a lift out piece made from two layers of 1" insulation board. I did the front slope next to the highway with static grass. The lawns are sprinkled on ground foam. I still have to add trees and details. The unfinished section next to the railway station will be covered with foilage clusters to resemble kudzu. I still have to paint the tavern on the corner. The tavern and the two homes at the rear on the right side are 3D printed structures I bought on Etsy. The white house is a scratchbuild model of the first home I owned. I'm pleased with how it fits in the scene.
On Saturday one of the guys from our Ntrak group brought over a 6 ft x 36 inch Ntrak module that he had acquired 2nd hand. I had remembered seeing this module years ago in Seattle. We installed new wiring for the tracks that was compatible with our club standard, cleaned the tracks, and were able to run a test locomotive all around. Found one dead spot with was corrected with the repair of a loose connection. This module has quite a bit of animated lighting effects including fiber optic runway lights. After finding and repairing several more loose or broken connections we were able to get almost all of these working. I had forgotten to take pictures until we were loading it back into his truck. One of the things we were not able to get working on Saturday was the runway approach lights which strobe. I removed the circuit board before he left and on Sunday was able to get that working. So the plan will be to re-install this when setting up at our next show. The fiber optics fit into the brass tubes that are over the LED's. Sunday evening I brought home some take out from a Japanese restaurant and my wife and I had that for dinner along with a bottle of sake.
Happy Monday all. Hope everyone had peaceful Easter weekend It was a productive weekend on the layout. I wanted to build up more scenery at the river gorge and pretty much that's what I worked on. I spent Friday afternoon and Saturday AM getting in all of the cardboard strips on each hillside flanking the bridges. Then Saturday afternoon and Sunday I got in all of the plaster cloth, covering both mountain/hills. The plan is to paint the plaster cloth this week after I'm sure all of the water has evaporated out of the cloth and it is good and dry. Some before and after shots along w/ the cardboard work shot. Friday AM: Saturday Afternoon: Late Sunday:
Hello from cloudy, windy, cold North Alabama. (You Northerners please keep your bad weather up there. ) Pics look great! I am still just getting started on hopper end frames. I think I have doped out an action plan. All have a good safe week.
Here are more scenery progress shots, showing my weekend progress. I worked on two separate areas. The first is the approach to Specialty Minerals and the second area is Letourneau Gorge. There are more photos of this area in the Weekend Photo Fun thread.
With it being Easter weekend not much got done. Much of the time was spent preparing for Easter diner. The only thing I did in modeling was open a kit for a fruit stand and look over the kit. I need to think about what is next for the layout.
Errr, accomplishments? Friday: Secretly wrapped some anniversary gifts for Mrs Moose whilst she was out grocery shopping. Who's a sneaky moose?! Saturday: Continued researching steam locomotive prototypes and comparing to da models that Moose has to be converted "some day", figuring out what all would need to be done to convert any of three different conversion donors to a reasonable facilime of an Northern Pacific prototype appropriate to the late 1930's (* see below). Moose gave up, had a dram of Talisker Dark Storm and called it a day... Sunday: Moose carefully and slowly modified (i.e. chiseled) the plaster foundation where the logging trestle is supposed to be installed, in another attempt to get the trestle to sit properly on the layout. In the end, Moose had to add some air dry clay to some areas. Not sure it will work. Will check Wednesday to see what the clay is like after drying, and if okay will add some sort of sealant to hopefully seal the clay in place before installing the trestle. Hooves crossed! Monday: Wedding anniversary! Off to explore some arts stores with Mrs Moose, then head up to Seattle for dinner. Yippee! * Started out last week just looking to do a simple conversion of a Life-Like 2-8-8-2 N&W Y3a to an NP Z-4. That became more than what Moose wanted to tackle any time soon, so Moose consider converting an Athearn 4-6-6-4 UP to a NP Z-6, but not only are there more detail differences in the locomotive shell than Moose wanted to tackle, but the tender would be a near if not total scratch-build. Sooo, Moose turned to a BLI 2-8-2 Erie that Moose had acquired with the intent to convert it to an NP W-4 or W-5. That turned out to be a huge conversion as well, possibly more involved than either of the others. Moose still pondering what is "close enough" when it comes to modeling prototypes...
Started a scratch build box car out of bass wood. Need to cut a few more pieces for detail work. Then finish it up. Also painted up a whole group of civil war soldiers to go with the boxcar. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I dug out some of my N scale stuff and took a crappy photo! Well, a couple of photos. It felt good just to get my trains out of the boxes.
Got most of my Just Plug lights installed in I think their final location. I guess some could change in the future. It looks really cool with the room lights Off. Me likes! Yeah I have to cut the toothpicks off at the bottom. They are helping them stay in location and turned the correct way
Big objective met. And then I embellished. Sorry! Couldn't help myself. I cut some disc driver overlays to convert the Kato Mikado spoked wheels. They turned out to my liking and will work. My first attempt at gluing the overlays was not so impressive. Having hashed that I did what any do-it-yourselfer does, slapped paint on it. No damage done actually. This driver was sacrificed to the project long ago. I will likely cut new overlays for a more precise fit on the final version. Really, they are going to work. You will just have to wait a little longer to see one installed. Materials and tools on order to finish the job and I can now turn, or return, my attention to other parts. Stay safe,
I didn't accomplish anything this weekend. Today, I did put a pair of Micro-Trains 1015 couplers on one of my GP9s. Hmm... Kiz is so proud of himself...
Playing catch up-I finished the 5 sets of Maxi-I well cars from the previous weekend. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
