Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend and accomplished a lot. Let's dive in. Friday: Since the wife was off work and had cleaned had most everything ready for guests, we drove into town for a few Holiday items as well as Menards. I had a bathroom faucet that needed attention as well as a few other house repairs to complete before our guests arrived. A quick trip to the small panel section of the store had me looking at some Baltic Birch that was reduced for quick sale due to damage. The wife really liked the grain and suggested I use this for the fascia of the shadowbox, so I picked up both panels. We found a new restaurant in on the way home and ended the evening with a nice meal from a new local establishment. Saturday: The day started with coffee and hopes to work on the shadowbox but that quickly went out the window with the bathroom faucet. There is an unwritten law that every plumbing repair is never easy and requires multiple trips to the hardware store. A simple replacement of the faucet handle took all afternoon and trips to two hardware stores. Once the drama of the faucet was completed, I turned my attention to other repairs and soon Angela' father and grandma arrived followed by Jared and his girlfriend. We had a very nice visit, enjoyed a great Italian dinner then went back home to enjoy a new homemade desert recipe Angela made. Her desert was a hit, and we had a pleasant time visiting. Sunday: Throughout the course of the previous night, Ang's dad had hinted on taking a break from the Falcon so we agreed that we would meet for breakfast and then look into a few possibilities for a house. After a meeting for breakfast, we looked at a few houses that are closer to Angela's work but only one was a possibility. We went to an open house and talked to a realtor. We'll keep looking but nothing yet with our expectations has come into the market and we may wait until spring. Angela's dad dropped me off and Angela went to Costco for Thanksgiving shopping. The weather was so warm, so I decided to hang Christmas lights then rake and burn leaves. By the time Ang got home I was about halfway through the front yard. We both tackled the front hard and parking area until 5:30 and now have a clean area to set up the rest of the Christmas decorations come Friday. We can tell the holidays are here now as my free time is impacted due to Holiday errands and projects as it was now time for dinner and the end of the weekend. So how about you? What did you get done this weekend. Are the Holidays impacting your train time? Speaking of Holidays, many of us in the United States will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week and as such, we'll not have the Weekend Modeling Plans posted Friday, but Wednesday. We'll gather around on Wednesday the 22nd for a special Thanksgiving long weekend and first weekend into December Weekend Modeling Plans. Until then, I hope you have a good, short week and until Wednesday... High Greens!
Good Morning All, Similar to Jim, after returning from the West Coast, I spent most of Saturday on home repairs. Spent about 3/4 of the weekend running down an electrical problem on the GFCI circuit in the house. About all I managed on the hobby front was a bit of work on this scratch built 1880s era depot for the Lightning Creek Mining Camp on the layout, modeled after a Frisco depot in Waco, MO. Shingles are in the paint booth. A few more roof details, a bit of interior, signs, window glazing, a chimney, weathering, and we'll be good. Happy Thanksgiving All, -Bob T.
The weekend had good moments and bad. Saturday was the rough day. Things started out well. We got one of my wife’s coats dropped off at the dry cleaners. However, we should have taken the hint that it was going to go downhill by how people were driving in the parking lot. I saw close to a half dozen near misses. We then made it to the pharmacy where they had my wife’s medicine in stock. She is taking Mounjaro and it has been difficult to find since many doctors are prescribing it for weight loss which means the diabetics who the drug is approved for are having a hard time getting it. The last time it took us almost 3 weeks to get the medication. Next my daughter and I tried to get new phones as our lease was up. That was a total disaster. Issues with T-Moblie’s payment systems prevented us from paying the old phones off and trading them in. We spent close to two hours there and came away with nothing. The day did end with a positive as we got a good dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Our waiter remembered my wife from her days as a teacher’s assistant. Sunday, I spent at home. My wife and I emptied all the pots from the front patio and winterized a few plants in the garden. I got laundry done but not as much as I had hoped. I spent some time entering some rolling stock into my inventory program. I organized a pile of new passenger cars and rolling stock by putting the passenger cars in one pile and the rolling stock in another. I did not get around to boxing any of the locomotives sitting on the layout. Maybe I will this week.
I double check the last 158 inch Upper level track with laser control. I was only able to measure a deviation of 0.07 inch.
Greetings and happy T'Giving week. Good weekend. Got some modeling done, great college football on Saturday, plus started Christmas decorating here at home. Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday I got some good scenery progress. Worked on making more trees, schemed out the ground cover at SL cabin, weathered the grain bin at the C&C plant, and worked on ground cover as well as the tanks at the Afton Fuel facility. Have a great week and peaceful Thanksgiving holiday.
Good morning to Y'all Hope Y'all had a great weekend. (Despite crazies in parking lots). Finally, I was able to model railroad. Saturday: - Cleaned track - set a couple of trains in motion. Pretty cool. I sank some uncoupling magnets farther into the table top. For a long over due project - I worked on Samples Sales used car lot. Added the "black top" parking lot. Sunday: Sanded down the aforementioned parking lot. Then painted it. Cut in for Junior's office. Painted Junior's office and started final assembly. Windows and door are in. Roof is on. Half the shingles have been applied. (Photos to follow) Y'all have a great week -- and -- HAPPY THANKSGIVING to Y'all, Wolf
Greetings Everyone, Friday: Made plans, on what to do Ran trains Took walks Did videos which revealed the layout as 'unpresentable' Made plans to clean it up before more videos Saturday Took long walk on beautiful fall day Changed Industrial Area to optimize space for structures Wife's birthday took up much of the afternoon Back to the trains for running and planning Sunday: Ran trains Took longish walk in beautiful fall day Changed Industrial Track to futher optimize it Built 'Coffee Mountain' 8"s tall with layers of foam Gave it a base coat of white paint Painted several other K-cup boxes and tomato cans Took 'Desk Eye View' of the layout. That is, how I view it from my desk. My Desk Eye View of the Layout, (less than 2 minutes):
Good morning everyone, We decided to postpone our visit to the Trolley Museum as my wife's back was bothering her. So I got a bit more time in the train room and got some things done. With the help of a new oscilloscope I recently purchased, I was able to find out what was causing the problems I was having with the yard ladder controls on one of my staging yards. Afterwards, I made and installed a small shelf for the oscilloscope above the work bench. Throughout the weekend I worked on the hillside at the east end of the layout and by Sunday evening everything had plaster cloth and a coat of drywall joint compound applied. I also made up some car cards for some recently acquired rolling stock. Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Monday all! Started my weekend abut 2 hours later than planned Friday but was still early enough to get downstairs and start cutting some wood for the parts I need for raising the layout. Managed to get everything cut before dark. Saturday started out with coffee and running trains for a bit. Did some organizing and sorting of parts on the workbench. Then I finished up all the pre assembly work I could do on the wood I cut Friday. Then spent the afternoon going through old cloths with the wife. Have four good sized boxes ready for Goodwill. It was amazing how fast the day went by. Sunday, I finished up painting some stacks of junk cars. Next up to finish them will be a wash of India ink to kind of darken up the deeper areas and then some rust colored powdered chalk weathering. Then I have to figure out where or how to use them. The wife and i did a lot of clean up of leaves and stuff. I also had a couple of very large cardboard boxes (Like the size a ping pong table would come in) that have been lingering in the garage for far too long so I finally cut them into small enough pieces that they could be disposed of. The wife did some paint touch up in the garage while I was doing that, Now it's Monday. I'm off this week. Have a day full of errands and doctors appointments so today is shot already. Picking up the kid from college on Tuesday. Haven't been told what time so hopefully will get some train time. Wednesday should be pretty open except for going in search of any last minute items we may need for Thanksgiving day. Then it will be weekend time again. Wish you all and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Things went sort of planned for the weekend, Friday was about as planned with executive board meeting in the afternoon, then bowling at night, did do some work on the Sam Rea Shops covered hopper kit. Saturday, took my wife to the diagnostic lab for an MRI on her right knee, did not take as long as the one I had a few years back on my right leg. In the evening I started adding the airlines for the brake gear on the covered hopper kit along with all the grabs and ladder rungs on the A end of the car. Sunday, did the laundry and vacummed the carpet along with getting rid of the plants which finally met their match with the frost this past week. Also managed to paint a 50' boxcar and started work on a car for the club gift exchange that will take place at the Christmas party in December. Rick Jesionowski
There is a rumor...that faucets and other plumbing fixtures don't like model railroads. (I love it when a dessert comes together. ) 1880's depot looks cool. Beware suspicious parking lot drivers. I hate it when medication = politics. A 0.07 deviation would be a miracle for me. Afton fuel tanks and related all look outstanding. Good progress on the used car lot. A lot going on near Coffee Mtn. New oscilloscope looks interesting. Junk cars often appear on layouts. Covered hopper excitement is building. Let's see. Friday (or was it Saturday) all the floors for the passenger cars had recesses cut along the sides. This was needed because the doors and the window supports reach down to the floor level. Next is attaching walls to floors. Then end walls will be made and attached. Saturday was indeed two business open houses. Before going to them, I went shopping for a .20mm marking pen I use to mark rails. Old one was out of ink. I also use a .50mm for tie marking. So figured I would replace it as well. The .30mm pen is little used. Even so, I decided to buy the three-pack as this would save money. First, I went to the nearest Hobby Lobby which had a near full parking lot. Found the pens at $7.49. Then decided to check Michael's due to long lines and possible lower price. Found pens at Michael's at $9.99. Decided to return to Hobby Lobby to assuage my Scottish/Dutch parts of my ancestry. Lines at Hobby Lobby even longer that before. Since I only had one thing, the lady in front of me let me go before her. Then I went to the open houses. The second was in Irondale, Alabama. Due to this I decided to head to the railyard to spot some trains. Met a couple of other train buffs at the old caboose display located there. Did see some trains. All took place on a beautiful afternoon. Sunday was chill day. I get the idea that everyone on these forums is already a thankful person. You don't need a reminder from me. I hope all have a safe and fun holiday. We probably be on here Wednesday. Until then.
Saturday was filled with rain most of the day, nearly 1.5in of rain! But I was able to complete one task for my upcoming projects, I assembled 50 small PCBs and printed holders for my PnP machine (only 49 in the picture as #50 is sitting off to the side as I need to add a terminating resistor still). These are the completed assemblies This is the back side of the 50 PCBs, a total of 600 solder points, the IC on the left side is ~4x3.5mm with six legs that was manually soldered under the microscope using 0.5mm solder with a no-clean flux. Next up will be populating 50 of the control boards for the new feeders that I'll be adding to the PnP machine: Which will be a task for next weekend likely. Sunday I didn't do too much other than send off a new firmware update to a few testers to try and address a couple stability issues they were facing, still a bit more work to do on these projects over the next couple weeks.
A very nice oscilloscope and some soldering under a microscope... sounds like a fun day, at work or at home! Meanwhile, Kitbash is having fun fueling around, and Dogwood is using the Force to install light sabers on his layout. I really have to stop taking decaf in the evening... but I'd rather sleep...
Diddly squat! I soldered one throwbar on the 15 or so that need to be done. I'll get there one day. My current motivation is to be able to run a local from the yard to the branchline and back. I now have the stationary decoders for the mainline turnouts so once installed and programmed I can run up and down the double track helix. I knew the yards and the many turnouts would be a huge obstacle, but man oh man its tons of wiring, soldering, adjusting, and energy that I have a hard time drumming up. I can see why layout owners have work groups for faster and hopefully quality progress.
Friday, as usual, was dedicated to getting my homework reading done with one quick trip to sneak out and get a few things for my wife's surprise 60th birthday party on Sunday. Saturday, I went out to the Sebring Model Railroad Club early to get the cash drawer ready for Bob, who greets everyone and collects the admission donations. Then I went home to finish my homework and spend some time with my wife. In the evening, I convinced my wife to come with me to the train club (not here favorite thing to do) and go out to eat. As it happened, many of our club members had gone to the same restaurant to eat. Sunday, of course, was church, and then we got ready to go out to eat because "I had reservations" and took Patti to church, where our daughter had decorated (somewhat lavishly) and many friends had gathered, even some whom we hadn't seen in 15 years or so. Everyone had a good time and Patti felt deeply loved and appreciated. So, unlike many birthdays, I am NOT in the doghouse this week. I'll try to remember to give a detailed report later, but while the first weekend of our club open house was a bit disappointing, Saturday's attendance was nearly as much as the entire previous weekend, and Sunday was about the same. This week or next, I'll dig out last year's report from the club filing cabinet and see how this year compared. Perhaps not as good as we might have hoped but, as my German grandmother used to say, "It's better than a fist in the eye." So, we at least did okay and we're ahead of where we were, even if we didn't get as far as we might have hoped.
Great job everyone, I truly appreciate seeing all the things you've done with your modeling, hopefully someday I will have the space to set up a layout of my own, keep up the good work everyone.
Did some fiddling with my Bluford corn fields. Some searching for a few items on my wish list. Traded emails with a couple of friends about some scenic ideas. Wasted too much time watching football. Weekend over..........
Four days of Scouts BSA Winter Camp wrapped up last evening. Merit badges were completed (my son did 4 - Landscape Architecture, Fish & Wildlife Management, Orienteering & Robotics), camp fires burned, fellowship had, and a decent thunderstorm camped through the final night (I now know which parts of my rain fly need to be re-seam sealed). Today is catching up on work and the cleaning, Turkey and football.
The small board with the 2x3 IDC header are used as a power and communication interface for the automated part feeders on my Pick-n-Place machine. The larger board is the control board for the part feeder itself. This is one of the feeders partially assembled for 12mm wide tape (I also have 8mm tape versions): This attaches to a 20x20mm extrusion rail mounted on the PnP machine with the bottom left corner of the black PCB touching the power and communications board using a set of spring fingers. Once I have the feeders assembled and fine tuned I'll be able to speed up my PCB assembly process from ~90min for CS PCB down to around 10-15min, the CS PCB has ~160 parts to be placed before it goes into the reflow oven to melt the solder paste. After that it would get inspected, solder through hole parts and then cleaning.
