Back fresh from another weekend! How did you fare? My weekend was relaxed and refreshing. I went ahead and pulled Jess out of the garage and dropped her top while Angela got ready for our road trip. Our destination was Galesburg but not for trains but rather just enjoy down town. We took the more scenic route, stopping for lunch at one of those old road side burger and ice cream stands before heading north again. Once in Galesburg, it was all but impossible to miss a train! We wandered over to the Amtrak station and was surprised to find a few private coaches. Galesburg Observation by Jim Wiggin posted Jul 11, 2016 at 6:54 AM Galesburg Streamline by Jim Wiggin posted Jul 11, 2016 at 6:54 AM Galesburg Pullman by Jim Wiggin posted Jul 11, 2016 at 6:54 AM After leaving southbound, the growl of an EMD unit could be heard, so I stuck around to watch the seemingly endless line of cars. Soon an SD40-2 could be seen pushing these cars into the Galesburg Yard. I was able to snap a picture of this once road unit turned switcher as it cleared the Amtrak sign. Galesburg SD40-2 by Jim Wiggin posted Jul 11, 2016 at 6:54 AM We then walked the streets shopping at all the neat little boutique stores that line the various main streets of Galesburg before enjoying a great meal at one of my favorite local establishments, The Packing House. After having a great meal I drove over to the area in which my friend Bill and I are modeling. It gave her a new appreciation for what we are doing in N scale. The trip was finished by driving across the route 10 overpass over the BNSF yard. At first glance, everything looked like any other day, rows of orange and green or orange and black locomotives and freight cars but then.... Galesburg 2016 006 by Jim Wiggin posted Jul 11, 2016 at 6:54 AM Is that what I think it is? Galesburg 2016 002 by Jim Wiggin posted Jul 11, 2016 at 6:54 AM It is, it is! Wow! A rotary snow machine and in the new(er) BNSF paint scheme. That was cool. Glad I brought my real camera, just wish I had brought the other lens. Oh well, pictures are here so you know it happened. Sunday was more Jeep driving with my lady. The only model railroading I got done was continuing my switching between the two roads on my layout. The more I do it, the more I realize I will be working up a switch list. I spent any down time researching switch lists for both the CB&Q and the Santa Fe. All in all, a great weekend that was a nice change of pace. So how about you? What did you get done this weekend? Anyone make it to the National Train show in Indy this past weekend? Give us a report! Like always, we'll assemble once again on Friday the 15th and start the process all over again. Until then, have a safe week and... High Greens!
^ Nice shots in Galesburg! This weekend I got done what I said I would. (I think that must mean I "underplanned" my weekend ) I managed to get the beams cut out and trimmed on the bridge I'm building. Just something to keep it progressing along. Also got all the cork down on the staging yard, 70 sq. ft. I used 3 rolls of 1/4" cork, each 8' long. That was tricky putting it down w/ glue on the table. I wouldn't want to tackle a piece bigger than that by myself. Got it down on Saturday. Painted it Sunday morning and managed to pull out some loose track, starting to plan track spacing for the staging yard. It was a productive weekend.
I didn't get any modeling done, but my buddy Chuck let me know that some stuff that I ordered had come in. I had ordered a couple of BLMA 52' gondolas, a Sacramento Northern and a Southern Pacific: 003 by WPZephyrFan posted Jul 9, 2016 at 5:56 PM 004 by WPZephyrFan posted Jul 9, 2016 at 5:54 PM While I was there, I found a couple of other goodies. One was a Wheels of Time Southern Pacific bulkhead flat car: 007 by WPZephyrFan posted Jul 9, 2016 at 5:53 PM And a Trainworx Peterbilt tractor and a FedEx 53' trailer: 001 by WPZephyrFan posted Jul 10, 2016 at 10:20 AM Lastly, something that I had ordered from BLW, an Atlas Missouri Pacific GP38-2: 009 by WPZephyrFan posted Jul 9, 2016 at 5:52 PM In one of my Western Pacific books, there's a interesting photo of a post merger Chico local on the SN pulled by a MP Geep. I like MP's blue hood units and that gave me an excuse to finally get one!
I dropped the feeders for my switching layout, then spent many relaxing hours testing the track, pushing and pulling cars here and there. I read somewhere that a good goal is 2 or fewer derailments per 100 car movements. After putting a couple of cars aside for being underweight or wheel issues, I managed to achieve much better results than that. Very happy with that. I have noticed that my Atlas VO-1000 switcher runs much nicer than the Bachmann NW-2. I had less coupler issues with the Atlas as well. Doing some DCC tuning on the Bachmann is now on my to-do list.
I had a pretty decent modelling weekend. Got my friends station painted up (Now I can finish assembling it). On my layout - I glued down the sidewalks for downtown Saticoy. And - I got a bit more ballasting done. That's about it. Thanks, Wolf
Our Jeep top came off this weekend! It's a Jeep thing. I rearranged some scenery details and vehicles on my layout and ran a couple of trains but nothing serious. I've been sidetracked by a USS Olympia model. Shame on me.
