Welcome back fellow train enthusiasts of all scales and eras. I hope you all had a great weekend and have a lot of progress to report. Also, Friday night into Saturday morning was a nightmare for a large part of the Midwest. I pray all of those members of Trainboard in this part of the country are safe and accounted for. Let's get started. Saturday: I got an early start Friday night and set up in the garage just before sundown. The outside air temp was warm, muggy and about 60 degrees. Inside the garage was cold, dry and 40 degrees. Once the garage door was open, I had instant fog. I managed to get all 12 1/4-inch and 1/2-iunch plywood cut and ready for assembly. Unfortunately for a large swath of the area, we had heavy winds and for a few unfortunately, tornados. Our area was spared but prayers for those who were in the direct path of nature's fury. The next morning, I started the leg assembly. I only have a few clamps which means I can only glue and clamp one leg at a time. While a leg was drying, I worked on other things. I finally installed a set of LED lights in the new layout room and boy what a difference! I then cleaned the 3 rail O Christmas track with mineral spirits and a very thing coat of Anti-Ox. What a huge difference! With the Christmas train assembled and running I called it a day. Three legs were assembled this day. Sunday: I got up and started by pulling Jess out of the garage and firing up the heater then unclamped leg number 3 and started with leg four. I was then told someone wanted to go out for breakfast. RATS. I tried convincing her that the restaurants would be packed but she wanted to go out. Long story short, after the 40-minute drive, the wait time at both places was an hour and a half. We settled on a diner in a nearby town and had nothing that could not have been easily prepared at home. At least at home I can have real maple syrup, not corn syrup - YUK. Once home I finished decorating the house and working on the modules. So far, I have enough to build two complete modules. In the next few weeks, I'll hitch the trailer up to Jess and go get 2-inch foam and the last of the wood to complete the third module. By the end of the day, I had 6 of twelve legs done. We finished the day with pizza and a great Christmas movie, Die Hard. So how about you? What did you get done this past weekend? Let us know. We'll do it all over again starting Friday the 17th. Until then, have a great week, be safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
Nothin. Well, to speak of. Took down the Shinkasen line. Given that I have less than 2 years and access to the space was awkward I decided it was interfering too much with the main goals I have for the 'final' layout. With the new space freed up by its removal I'll be able to to focus on scnery and just running trains. Bonus: I now have room for a 'Passenger' staging track at each end of the Main Line. I'll be able to run my excursion train(s) and shorter Shinkasen. Finally made room for Christmas which included cutting off access to at least 1/2 the layout for 3 to 4 weeks. Argh! I will be spending the time working on small areas such as the farm and determinng a way to keep the 11 month old away from the trains without restricting him too much.
Good morning to Y'all, Well - what a weekend. First - Mom's surgery went very well. She now has a new stainless steel Shoulder (Humerus). The new debate: In home rehab - or - she stays at a rehab center. Thanks to Y'all for the well wishes. I managed to remove the paint from both A units. Removed the lettering fro the B's And - install decoders in the A-B-B-A set. Hope Y'all had a great weekend - and have a fantastic week, Wolf
Outdoor decoration set up and Sunday's Christmas Cantata (where my wife is in the choir) pretty much dominated the weekend, but I did manage to get out more of my late '60s/early '70s N Scale for our Christmas tree railroad Sunday night. It's nice to see it run and I suspect that running the locomotives every now and then will help them to continue their long lives.
I second Jim's well wishes for those that may have been in the path of those massive storms Friday night and Saturday morning. Hope all the members here are safe and prayers for all those that were impacted. Great news that mom made it through the surgery Wolf. Was a busy weekend at our house preparing for the gust who will be arriving later today. Did manage to fit in some time at the layout Sunday while cleaning and organizing the train room. Dug out a couple of items from my parts box and came up with a plan for what to do with two small areas on the layout. Thinking I will make these two projects my winter layout party goals along with finally getting around to doing some wire management under the layout. Hard to believe we are less than two weeks from Christmas and that 2022 will be upon us before we know it. Here's hoping you all have a great week and are enjoying this magical time of the year!
I didn’t make it down to the Division Meeting on Saturday but I did finish up the modeling challenge kit and sent pictures so it could still be displayed. Very pleased how it turned out and I’m going to make use of it on the layout somewhere. Over Friday night and Saturday morning, I set up my new Digitrax DCC system and addressed a couple shorts that turned out to be easy fixes. So I do have trains running a limited section of the lower level main track, finally. Also, the foam scenery base cut and set in place around the ouside of the curve at Charleston behind the roundhouse. This is the only place in which the layout is 42” in depth. I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to easily reach the backdrop once the second level benchwork is in place. So, time for scenery in this one area. This will be mostly be a large rock cut, so I’ll need to experiment with rock castings sooner than later. I’ve actually progressed a lot farther since I took this picture Sunday morning. Once the base is painted, I’ll paint the backdrop. Hopefully benchwork will get done next weekend. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good morning all. I was able to finish up the turnout controls on the east end of Carlin yard and got a start on the west end. Made tempoary connections to the DCC system and was able to run a switch engine back and forth through everything without any problems. For a long time I have wanted to have a decent drawing of the layout but have struggled with getting one done. So with the cold and rainy weather we are having here right now I spent some time in the house at the computer and made some good progress on doing that. Not done, but am now encouraged that it will get done.
Saturday went exactly as I knew. No modeling. All day getting ready for a Christmas dinner party we had for my department at work. Sunday spent time cleaning up and doing some other work. However, I did manage to keep plugging away at a boom car I originally built in the late 80's or so. I didn't like it and put it away. In about 2006 I got it out and repainted it and put on some grab-iron ladders at each corner. Yesterday, I finished decaling it, got it weathered, glued in some crane booms and rigging, as well as fixed one of the coupler pockets. VOILA! Another old relic is saved from the scrap heap.
Saturday went as planned. No modeling but we visited our daughter and wished her a happy birthday. Sunday I wasn’t able to start modeling until late. I was finally able to get the ballasting done on the new yard lead and started some ground foam scenery. Now to clean the track and move to the next project as I plan out the final scenery for the lift out yard lead. Next project: finish the lightning storm. I. May have some extra time this week after I get the booster later today, recuperation time that can be used for modeling. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Cleaned the workbench. Started fiddling with the caboose kit. And began getting together a shopping list for Kato track I will be using on my new T-Trak modules, after the New Year when mails aren't so jammed....
Fine workmanship shown above. Folks are busy with model RR and other stuff. Sunday I was able to make a workable reporting marks set (I think). The centerbeam part is done and will be tested shortly. I have most parts done but need the roof yet. All have a great week and be safe.
I had a productive weekend. We got the Christmas tree up and decorated. The wife felt well enough to help and hung about half the balls herself. We had a major snafu, three light sets went poof during their storage time. I went looking for replacements but could not find any multicolor sets anywhere. We had to take the only multicolor set we had off a tree outside and use it on the Christmas tree. I finished ballasting the track in the passenger station area and painted the foundations for the station platforms. I also glued them down. The platforms are not permanently attached. They will be after the scenery is completed around them.
