Welcome back everyone and welcome to May! Now its crunch time for me as Galesburg RR Days, one of my favorite shows, is within a month and three weeks away. Let's see how we all did this last weekend of April. Saturday: I got up and got ready early as I had to take the Falcon in to get those rusty exhaust header nuts off. I pulled into the local shop at 9:00am and soon had a small crowd gather to see this Mid Century transport. Once on the lift the tech was able to heat up and carefully undo both nuts, clean up the studs, re-thread them and reassemble the whole exhaust. It cost me $30.00 which I thought was a more than fair price for my frustration. From there I went and got gas, then stopped by the new home of our N scale club. They were busy setting up their NTrak modules as they now have a home and meeting place. It was nice to visit with the guys and talk about the upcoming show season. I then headed home and spent time with the wife and her dad. We spent the afternoon fine tuning the Falcon carb and getting my motorcycle ready for new hard bags. It was a late night when we stopped and got pizza at a place we had never tried and boy were we happy, we'll be back! Sunday: Angela's dad stayed the night since we stayed up so late the night before, so we got up, got cleaned up and he took us out for breakfast. It was a nice visit. Once we left, I headed home and brewed up some coffee, fired up a podcast and set out to work on the NTrak module now that my track is here. It took me all day, but I was able to remove the old track and cork roadbed as well as the old scenery. Tonight I'll sand the top down and order some more cork roadbed so I can lay track this week and into the weekend. Galesburg is coming so my goal is to have the roadway down, building and spur down and basic scenery finished for it's trip to Galesburg. So how about you? What did you accomplish this past weekend? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Friday, May 5th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a good week, stay safe and as always... High Greens!
Good mornin to Y'all, I managed to get some MRRing in - Another conversion project Utility truck (Classic Metal Works) -- Changing from Ford to Chevrolet (Showcase Miniatures) The start: After swapping beds Thanks, and Y'all have a great week Wolf
Happy Monday! Overall was a good weekend! Consumed a lot of coffee and tea and just enjoyed the days. Tennis was cancelled on Saturday so got a little extra time at the workbench this weekend. My focus was to get work done on one specific flat car load and do a lot of clean up in the train room. Well, it all came together fairly well on the load and its all done except for adding some banding. Had planned to use black tread but discovered my wife was out. Adding that to the shopping list this week. Another flat car load was finished up as well but it also could use some tie downs for the load to really call it complete. It's getting there. I had a couple of trains running the whole time and with the exception of one troublesome coal hopper and some others that were squeaky, everything ran well. Organization of the room proceeded at a decent pace but there seems to be a lot more to do than I expected. We went to dinner with some friends and while the food was excellent, it was quite possibly the worst service I have ever had. Our waiter was all but non existent and none of the others were willing to help up. the food was good enough to make me want to give them a second chance but it may be a while. Sunday afternoon, I wasn't motivated to do any organizing so I moved on to another project that I wasn't even thinking about starting. It went together much easier than I expected and like the others, it's all done except for one part that is in transit. That's about it. Seems weekends just are not long enough. Hope you all have a great week!
Good morning and happy (NOT RAINING) Monday morning. This weekend I did essentially 2 things: 1. Saturday, worked on scenery at the "East Ridge" of the Potomac South Run river. I had to finish track ballast and cinder bed so I could let it dry until Sunday. I then spent some time organizing tools around the work bench that have scattered here/there over many projects. 2. Sunday, I started putting trees on the ridge. Came back to do some static grass and wasn't getting good results, so I stopped. Looked around on line and figured out what I was doing wrong. I have put this stuff in successfully in the past but going back after time there were a few little techniques I was ignoring. Re-learned them fast. I'll try to finish up during the week. Saturday I also got an email from the printer preparing my control panels. We've agreed on the proofs and they are making the boards and sending them out. Probably this week. FINALLY!! Control panels are in the stars for the Albemarle Division. Have a great week all! Progress pics. About 85% done on the ridge. Before: In Progress:
Saturday I did some work on the pedal box and finished a car and the ambulance. Sunday I was a little under the weather so I just sat and rested. Feeling fine now though so I may chip away more at the pedal box and some police cars over the week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
As expected, I spent most of my time working on my research paper. That, and several other smaller papers, are due Thursday morning so much of this week will be more of the same. Saturday I did take the time to go to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with my wife where we, quite accidentally, ran into a retired pastor and her husband from our church so the four of us had dinner together. Sunday was church, an hour or so at the Sebring Model Railroad Club where we chose a color combination for the water in our new port facility, then a short nap and more writing. This week, I really need to finish my papers, and a sermon for Sunday, but now that I know what colors we want, I can order paint and, hopefully, get started soon so that the track guys can do their thing.
Good morning everyone, As expected, lots of yard work all weekend plus a trip to the garden center on Sunday. I did manage to finish and install the new control circuit for the reverse loop on the WP yard. With that I was able to run trains around the layout automatically again. And I also made some progress on my modified HUMVEE flat car loads. Weather forecast for this week is more rain so I may get a break from the yard work for awhile.
With all the rain we worked inside the house. We got the rugs cleaned in the foyer and living room. Replaced the miniblind in the hall bathroom. I got some laundry done but not as much as I wanted to. Saturday between the storms we ran to the post office, produce store, gas station, BJ’s, and the drive through diary store. The wife is having issues with her allergies for the past week. We are not sure what is triggering them, and she has an appointment with a ne allergist. She has finally given up on her current allergist and his rude bedside manner and overall lousy attitude. I gave upon him about a year ago and have been trying to get her to do the same. It came to a head last week when my wife called him, and his receptionist answered, and my wife heard him in the background tell the receptionist to tell my wife he was not in. Spent a portion of the weekend allowing my son to vent. He is the lead organizer of the county Pride Festival in June and at the last minute the township police department decided they need 10 officers for the event and not the 6 previously agreed to. He now has to fund raise an additional $5000 to $7000 in the next four to six weeks. This was also a surprise to the township council and there will be further negotiation going on between him, council, and the police department. Unfortunately, I got very little done on the workbench or layout. I was able to put some rolling stock away that I used for the latest run by. I did clear out some junk from an area that I can now use for storing some train stuff.
Good morning everyone, my weekend was CBQ Spring meet where I learned more to model. I did manage to work a little on the GLS loco facilities. I cut some paperboard and plastic for concrete pads between the tracks. I had to even out track spacing a little or a lot better. I have an inspection walkway to assemble and need to figure out lighting in the shop building. First I have to buy a new washing machine as that reared its ugly head this weekend.
Happy May Day ! Friday I posted an image of one of my KATO lighting projects with hopes of completing it this past weekend. Well yesterday it was 94* here in ElP, so I worked under the refrigeration and did get something done. Here are some views : #1 - overall shot with power on. I have not totally completed because I have some Z scale people coming to place in car. 2nd - shot with light diffuser on one end with ceiling fan lights off. 3rd - shows light distribution over length of car. I will place a piece of black tape over the LED on far left side of image. You can get a glimpse of the very small bridge rectifier on right side of car. All said and done it was a successful weekend of modeling. However very much more important to my wife, of 60+ years, and I, we became Great Grandparents. Happy Days !
As expected got a little decaling done on Friday along with finally finishing a Tangent 40’ combo door boxcar that I had started months ago. I also attended an op session on Jerry Jordak’s PC layout and ran a number of trains. Saturday and Sunday went as expected with the last weekend of the Ohio State Bowling Tournament taking up much of my time. Rick Jesionowski
Thirty dollars = inexpensive! Cool trucks! Flatcar loads really add to the overall effect. (Maybe you could encourage the wife to do a sewing supply inventory occasionally. ) Ridge is coming along. I like that ambulance. We can definitely appreciate "track guys". Automatic reversing! Eureka! Junk clearing = more train stuff. CBQ Spring meet? Interesting... First of all, 94 degrees in ELP, El Paso? Second, lighting and people coming. Third, Great Grandparents! That's great! (I have a three-year-old great granddaughter myself. ) Decaling is critical. I did make progress on the three tenders. However, I should have been finished. The tender steps were more problematic than I was hoping. The rear steps were done yesterday. I began working on the more complex front steps a little while ago. If I can get them done, I should be able to start building locomotives. Chores are rearing their ugly heads though. Weather is gorgeous. Fish are singing in the distance. We shall see. Also, Happy May Day. (I am trying to locate a Maypole dance.) (Also, maybe we can have laundry reports with some model railroading on the side. Jus' kiddin'! ) Have a great week.
I re-checked the little interface board and the LEDs connected to it (ditch lights, number boards) on my SD40-2W. I was relieved to see that none of the LEDs were blown (LEDs are delicate creatures which don't appreciated reverse polarity very much). I also confirmed that the circuit is a common anode design (the + ends of the LEDs are linked together, the - ends are separate). Everything checks out, but nothing lights up. Circuit simulation says it should light up. Headlights are OK, on separate circuit. Need more thinking (supercharged with more )...
Got the dock completed and installed, just as I set out to do! Cut some wooden matchsticks in half down the center as planks, and used some dollar store dowels for the stilts. Painted them all brown and then super and wood glued everything together. Total cost less than $5. I also made some dwarf lights out of some bi-colour 5mm LEDs and hooked them up to the tortoise switch. Video here: https://youtube.com/shorts/0uNE3_vwqsE
Scattered a few parts on the work bench. Was getting set to start another HOn30 critter. But then I got into a long exchange of emails, (still ongoing), with a retired BN & MILW agent/operator long time friend I'd barely been keeping up with, these past few years. That's been quite interesting. A lot of memories refreshed. Good, clean, old-fashioned fun! In between, scanned a bunch more of my train order collection.
I’ll say this is 90% done. Needs some weathering and details but bring on the locomotives. I’ll be interviewing locomotive maintenance staff shortly.
