Welcome back fellow model railroad enthusiasts. I hope you had a great weekend and got some things accomplished. Christmas has taken over our household so not so much for me. Let's see how we all did this first weekend of December. Friday: I was off work by 3:00pm hoping to get to the DMV and register my truck, however the wife had an appointment I forgot about. So, I worked on the Christmas American Flyer display and successfully cut the three sections that make up the curve that will go around the tree as well as the three straight pieces. The larger part that supports the village would have to be purchased the following day. I then cut the two pieces that will make up the N scale shadowbox fascia. After dinner, I ran upstairs to my office again where I was a guest on Ray Arnot's Podcast, Around the Layout. Athearn gave away a free HO or N scale car to a lucky member of Ray's crew. After that it was time for bed. Saturday: Started with coffee. From there my father-in-law showed up with his power washer and we removed the cap from my recently purchased F-150. Once removed, we also removed the old plastic bedliner and scrubbed everything with a solution of water and Simple Green then power washed everything twice. The truck is actually a dark blue, not the purple we originally thought. Years of living outside and never seeing a wash I suppose. After a few hours, we turned our attention to the side deck and house that never sees sunlight. By 3:00pm we were done and exhausted. We cleaned up and got into warm, dry clothes and went to town for Christmas items. A stop at Hobby Lobby, got all the paint and "snow" supplies the American Flyer display would need, along with the wife's candy boxes and more Christmas lights. A trip to Lowes got me the lumbar, legs and hardware for the AF Christmas display finished the night of shopping. We stopped for dinner on the way home before saying our goodbyes and then going to bed. Sunday: Saturday wore me out and we both slept until 6:50am. Coffee was made, and I looked up parts for the truck while enjoying coffee. By noon, Ang and I were determined to finish the outdoor Christmas displays of lights and inflatable characters. I was attaching the last string of lights to the garage at 5:30pm. It took longer than I wanted but the display is better than last years. By 6:45pm I was too tired to do anything in the workshop, so I'll need to work evenings this week to get the American Flyer display ready for next weekend when we bring the tree home. So how about you? Has Christmas taken over for you too? Let us know if you were successful in your modeling endeavors. We'll meet up again on Friday the 8th, the first day of Hanukkah, to start the process all over again. Until then, have a good week, stay safe and as always... High Greens!
Battling some sort of crud that has been going around. Half the people at work have it. Quite a few absentees. Coughing like crazy, with some hearty sneezes in the mix. I actually pulled a muscle from doing that. So when at home, mostly been just sleeping. I should have some scenic materials coming in by tomorrow, and am hoping to spend a few minutes with that. Meanwhile, between bouts of whatever it is, am continuing to scrounge the 'Net for my wants.
Good Morning All, Christmas has not quite taken over here. I spent the majority of the daylight hours clearing the ground for the foundation expansion of the outbuilding rebuild. That ended for the weekend with a stubborn sago palm that needs pulling. Maybe next weekend we'll have the foundation space ready for forms. During the indoor hours, I worked on a couple of freelance projects. Brad Bourbina of the Neosho Valley Lines sent me some decals for a hopper and subsidiary boxcar, and I worked on prepping an Intermountain hopper and Athearn boxcar by removing heralds, and in the case of the boxcar, all lettering (it will become blue). The hopper is ready for decals, while the boxcar made it to primer. The boxcar was a salvage from eBay, and was missing some parts...all good now. I also made some progress on my "Kansas Midland Leasing" cars, Evans X72As from Rapido. Kansas Midland was the 1880s era railroad that became part of the Frisco's Burrton sub near Ellsworth, KS. A small freelance tribute and some rank and file cars for the W&NW project. These have made it through decaling, clear coat, and are ready for some weathering. Have a good one All, -Bob T.
Greetings from a almost warmish McLean VA. Friday: Added layers to 'NE Mt. corner Saturday: Domestic washing. Planning and train running sorta Sunday: CFO/Wife Helped mix paints to get a light to dark tan. I measured the amounts so now I can do it myself. Left to right: Computer next to layout, Coffee Mountain Grandure Pass 'The Three Bares' - Mystrium Storage Silos Black Mountian with 'eagle positioning system' ☻ North East Mt: The eagle was orriginally a 'thing' I moved around. Recently I realized I was using the distictive shape of the wings for visibility / positioning on mountains and focus for camera.
Good mornin to Y'all, Hope Y'all had a great weekend. @BoxcabE50 -- hope you get well soon. So, again - I had a mixed bag. The oil changes went without a hitch. Our vehicles are now serviced. Oil and filter, cabin filter and tire pressures good to to go. MRRing -- I got a little accomplished. Did a bit of painting on Jr's inventory. Y'all have a great week, Wolf
Good morning all. Weekend went off as planned, mix of final Christmas decorating, helping the Mrs w/ schtuff, and working in the train room. Modeling was mostly upkeep. Finished up some scenery details on Saturday as I had time. Yesterday afternoon, I ran the two track cleaners for several hours. Cleaned each mainline with a CMX tank car followed by a separate engine pulling a Centerline roller "mopping" residue. Hand cleaned sidings and a few industry tracks. @BoxcabE50 _ get some rest, and get that "crud" cleaned out sir. Have a great week all.
Happy Monday everyone! As Jim asked, I can say yes, Christmas is in full swing now. To @BoxcabE50 and everyone else feeling under the weather, hopes and prayers that you all get better quickly. Friday afternoon saw rain so no luck in hopping for new fascia material. Had stuff scattered all over the workbench so spend a bit cleaning it all up while enjoying some hot Earl Grey tea. Saturday morning started with coffee and setting a couple of trains loose on the layout. Installed some new 3d parts that I got, finished up some decals on a couple of cars I am working on, stripped the name and road number off another car, and worked on cutting some materials for more pipes to use on the layout. Then it was the rest of the day, errands and helping the wife with stuff around the house. It was raining or wet the better part of the day. Sunday started much like Saturday with coffee and trains. I started in on another freight car project even though I have plenty of other stuff to work on. Rearranged engines in one of my display cases, and installed metal wheels on a couple of cars. The rain stopped early in the day and the afternoon was quite nice out. We ran a couple of errands and then about an hour before dark, we got out and put up all the outside Christmas lights. Went quicker than I remember from last year. That was the last of the decorating that needed to be done so it’s kick back and enjoy the season time now Hopefully I will be able to get what I need for the new fascia for the layout during the week and have that for next weekend’s plan. Hope you all have a great week!
Good morning all, Get well wishes going out to @BoxcabE50. Good weekend here. Got all of the turnout motor control issues cleared up and did quite a bit of running the layout to make sure it was all working correctly. Got handrails done on three more locos and got all the trains ready that I am taking to next weekends show. Modules don't need anything done to them so all I have left to organize are tools and accessories. Going in for my annual physical exam this afternoon. Wishing you all a great week.
Good morning from cloudy, cool and wet Northeast Ohio! Friday, went pretty well, got a little modeling done including a lot of work on an Intermountain 4650CF Covered Hopper kit, but then bowling went really well for a change, the team won 5 out of 7 points and thanks to my new spare ball I made all but one of my spares on the 10 pin side. Saturday, the club was open to the public along with the rest of the Historical Society, but the weather was too good for a large turnout, I had noticed in the past when it is cold and snowing we had the best crowds. I took my Wabash Bluebird passenger train but the F's I used to power it were running slow and got slower as the motors heated up, may need to replace those early Genesis motors. In the evening we had the club Christmas party and we all had a good time and a lively gift exchange where I ended up with a pair of Walthers flat cars which I needed and a Target Gift Certificate that my wife received. Sunday, the club was again open, I took my FA-2's as power for the passenger train but had problems with derailments, it was determined that the rear truck on one of the units was cocked so that the wheels on one side were up in the air which led to the flange going over the rail and derailing, will have to take it apart to find the problem. Later in the evening I managed to finish up the laundry and the Intermountain covered hopper kit along with a Stewart 14 panel hopper car. Here are the cars I made for the gift exchange! Rick Jesionowski
Nothing much going on. I will need to repair and finger out a couple of electronics I received. 'Boxcab' That sounds like Covid19 which I have had twice. Two weeks ago I got the injections for that and the Upper Respiratory Infection. Those made me sick for 4 days. And missed Thanksgiving and my 74 birthday, as well as braking off a molar with the candy.
Friday: After work I had to run to two pharmacies to pick up prescriptions. Normally this would have been uneventful but with the rain and the unusually high number of vehicles on the road and the fact that most of them seemed to forget how to drive in the rain. I did get to enter some additional unbuilt kits into the inventory program. Saturday: My daughter and I cleaned out and organized the garage. We then put away the outdoor furniture. I still have to remove the cover/roof off the gazebo. I hung the outdoor Christmas lights in the bushes in the front yard while my wife and daughter decorated the Christmas tree. I still need to finish the outdoor decorations such as the lighted reindeer and candy canes along with stringing lights on the pergola. I thought I had finished entering the unbuilt kits into inventory until I found a dozen more. Sunday: The rain stopped any outdoor decorating, so I did some laundry. I ran to the grocery store. We put up a few indoor decorations while my daughter made 5 batches of Christmas cookies. I found two more kits. However, I did not get any entered into the inventory program.
@Shortround Happy Birthday @BoxcabE50 Hope you are feeling better soon. The Wife and Step-Daughter are afflicted with symptoms details you don't want to know. ☻ So far I'm good. ☻
Doc says it's just a nasty head cold bug going around. Backs into sinuses, and then drains to make us cough a lot. Currently no reported cases in my county.
Sometimes "sleeping in" is a life saver. Hope the "mystery illness" disappears fast. Another hopper (chortle)! Look! An eagle! Used cars for sale! Very thorough track cleaning. @bnsfan = human model railroad tornado. Handrails look sharp. Covered hopper spied in the underbrush. Broken molar! Ouch! Five batches of Christmas cookies! Hoping for quick family recovery. So far, I am still making car end doors. More time is needed. I am hoping for improved health for those listed above and a great week for all of us.
Again, this week, I had a "guest" preacher in the pulpit with a retired pastor from our congregation subbing so I could work on my paper for this semester. Worked on that most of the week and submitted it after 10:00 pm on Friday. Saturday, I sat around and rested but got out for a bit and started to cut and split a small pile of firewood. Unfortunately, the automatic oiler on my electric chainsaw was not working, and I'm pretty sure I've burnt it up. So, I'll be shopping for a new saw (or two) soon before fireplace season gets rolling. Sunday, was church, a quick dinner of leftovers, then out to the train club for our monthly business meeting. Our efforts at promoting the open house were apparently successful, with a 62 percent increase in attendance over last year with a similar increase in revenue. We've decided to purchase the business card sized invitations for next year's open house immediately so they can be distributed at upcoming train shows. We also decided that, although everyone liked the yard signs, new ones will need to be significantly larger for placement on busy streets. After the club meeting, I went back to church for a board meeting for our Liberia mission on Zoom. Then home, and into my recliner. Monday, I didn't feel great but stayed home to keep an eye on my wife, who was particularly unwell. Finally got some blood work done, with more tests scheduled this morning, but a resolution, or at least a plate forward, seems to be in sight. The only railroad-y thing I got done at home was getting some things put away in the basement, so I have room to work on the boxes full of train stuff I'm trying to organize.
