We're back, perhaps a few pounds heaver. So between the feast, family and shopping, how did you do on your model railroad projects? We had a nice gathering of family and overall it was nice and quiet. Friday we established a take it easy family day by watching the latest James Bond film. Saturday it was back to work. WLW Box art by Jim Wiggin posted Nov 30, 2015 at 6:47 AM After a few months of research, I finally found a box that would work for the high detailed locomotives I'll be selling as the locomotives will no longer fit in the original jewel cases with all the details installed. Saturday I finalized the box art and had comped up a box for my latest locomotive, the Chicago Central GP38. So Saturday was more digital work than locomotive work but at least now production can move on. The rest of the day and into Sunday, I worked on my Galesburg Modules. Module 021 by Jim Wiggin posted Nov 30, 2015 at 6:46 AM Just before Galesburg this past year, my buddy from up north and the Santa Fe end of the modules, found a great aerial shot of the area and as you may remember, led to some rather furious re-work of the track plan. The first module, the entrance into Butler also needed a Y right at Henderson road as well as a reverse spur that will later serve Rowe Manufacturing on a future module. I installed the #5 turnout last week but installed the road bed, complete with hard point and sacrificial track piece on the end. Module 022 by Jim Wiggin posted Nov 30, 2015 at 6:46 AM Fortunately last fall I saw what I thought was remnants of this spur both beside the main and within Henderson Road so I had planned for it and removing the track to install both the switch and the Y was painless. Module 023 by Jim Wiggin posted Nov 30, 2015 at 6:46 AM Finally the Y was to be installed. The spur has a sharp S curve to it and a curved turnout that served a building that will not be seen. I cheated a bit and slightly compressed the track work width wise as I want to use this hidden track spur that dead ends into a brick building as hidden staging. It won't even get used until I build the next module as the Y is right on the edge of this module. All in all, a nice long weekend. I'll continue to finish up the required track work this week because my buddy from up north is coming down Friday night so we can go to Galesburg and visit a train show as well as do some "boots on the ground" research followed by a marathon of scenery. So how about you? Did you get a lot done? I heard rumors of Christmas trains last week, even a magical Wizard transporting train. Do we have pictures? Post em! We'll come together again on Friday, December 4th and start the process up again. Until then, have a great week, stay safe and... High Greens!
Actually got away from the football games on TV Saturday, and did some parts cleaning, preparing for painting.
This was my first productive model railroad weekend in a long time. NASCAR is done. The heat is done. The wife went to visit her Mother. So, I was able to cut in a couple of turnouts and -- the really big thing --- I was able to glue down my turntable whisker tracks as well as program them. I dropped the power feeders from them as well. So, next will be powering them up. Thanks, Wolf
Well I attempted to change the couplers on an d Bachman GP40 from the hook horn to knuckle. However the couplers I have didn't fit so back to the drawing board. I thought about cutting off the coupler boxes and gluing new ones to the frame but the shell is in the way. I will keep thinking on this. So today I entered the train room again to start the track work on my swing down and ran into a conundrum. What worked on paper isn't working too well on layout so I have been playing with different turnouts and track pieces to try to get things to work. Also found that I need to buy two more switches for my staging yard and all my suppliers are out of stock. I need 2 #8 LH code 83 switches. Not good..... I hope to find them soon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
After spend all summer working on remodeling the house, I finally had some time to spend in the train room. Some of the time was spent planning what was going to be done in the near future. I did add some poles and an overhead cable to supply power to the turntable in Logan as pictures here. Also finally got the handrails installed on the turntable. While doing this, I grabbed some more cars out of a yard and hidden staging track and added them to my abnormally long train. I usually only run an 8 to 12 car train. This one is 48 cars with a caboose. This took three locomotives to pull the train up the two plus percent grade. Just let it run for over an hour and no derailments. I think that is probably about the limit for length unless another helper is put into the middle of the train. My curves are super elevated and at the top of the grade I noticed that the first few cars behind the locomotive were leaning in a bit. Don't need to dump a bunch of cars on their side.
Love the video. Hope to be able to run trains like that soon on mine. Gotta get past my conundrum first. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
My weekend plan moved to Monday night due to a stomach bug that ran through the house all weekend. This is a Kato car striped of it's Phase 2 stripes. The Phase IV stripes naturally started to disintegrate making this project go from pretty fast, to a bit more time consuming. I've fixed the alignment of the stripes a bit more after Solva Set had started to take place.
Nice baggage car. Now all we need are models of the new view liner II baggage cars. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
Yes, attempting to go off this: Probably should have repainted it grey, although it's not an exact match for the car either, so it'll be a bit foobied.
Lack of precise color match is another good reason for weathering! BTW, do you (or anyone else) know the reason the one door is set back further? Or is that just a perspective illusion?
These are sliding doors. Here they are slightly open. There are two wheels placed at the top of the door on the inside that rolls on a track. These doors were horrible at sealing. Always had snow and dirt in the baggage cars. The new view liner II , the doors are hinged and open inwards. Seals are tight and nothing gets in. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
My weekend continued today. I got my carts painted, UP5 installed. Now to let the paint finish setting up. Nest weekend I run bus wires and loco et wire and glue down cork. Then it's track laying time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
