Welcome back and welcome to October. I hope you all had a good weekend, and you got a lot done, let's get started. Saturday: As predicted, Angela, her dad and I headed to Newport Indiana for the antique car and motorcycle hill climb. We saw a lot of Model T's, Model A's, Willys, Nash and Studebakers, mainly from 1950 and earlier. It was a nice change of pace from the past summer. We stayed all day and finished the evening with dinner and ice cream. A nice relaxing day. Sunday: I slept in, amazed the dogs let us do such a thing. I got up and made coffee and went to the workshop. I started planning where my N scale shadowbox layout would go, my HO layout would go, and my 1/32 slot car track would go. All of this has to fit within two rooms that already has my office a video studio and workshop. By the second cup of coffee, I designated the N scale layout would accompany the video studio and the HO modular layout would be within my office. The slot car layout will not be permanent but set up on fold up tables when a race night is in session in the office. I cleaned some and put away items that had been left out while I was on the road. Most of the day I took it easy. So how about you? What did you get done this weekend? Let us know. We'll return on Friday the 6th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a good week, be safe and as always... High Greens!
Last week was my 32nd wedding anniversary and my daughter’s 28th birthday. On Thursday, which was the anniversary, my wife and I went out and got hot roast beef sandwiches at our favorite local ale house. Friday, which is my daughter’s birthday, was the big combination anniversary/birthday dinner. Saturday my wife and I got our flu shots and covid boosters. Then we hit PetSmart and Kohl’s to drop off an Amazon return. Once we were back home, I started the outdoor Halloween decorations. I installed a new light in our bedroom closet and did some laundry. Sunday, we made a run to Target to get a few things we need for our upcoming cruise. Back home I worked on the outdoor decorations. I am almost finished but an issue with a timer not working caused me to do some temporary wiring. Then there was more laundry. The only modeling, I did over the weekend was putting some rolling stock away.
Good weekend but didn’t go according to plan so no progress on my boat or railroad. Saturday was kids’ sports and a few errands. Sunday was more errands-this time buying some Washington Spirit gear (my kids and wife went to their first pro women’s soccer game and their hooked) and Halloween decorations for our new home, which we put up together before we went to a friends house for his birthday. Then I made some chili to freeze, froze some more Carolina Reapers for later use (going to make my own hot sauce someday), and boxed up some excess hobby stuff that sold on the auction site but didn’t sell here. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I ordered some Bluford Shops green corn stalks. Spent a bit of time trading emails with a 40+ year N scale friend who lives in Seattle. That was fun. Did the same with a retired RR friend who also collects train orders. Started moving things around in this room, so I can move my T-Trak table from the living room in here to work on. And also to use it more! Where I am going to put boxes and boxes and totes of railroadiana, my small apartment... Yikes. Am planning on starting to sell that collection off this winter, but until then... All so that I can spend more time running my trains. Yikes.
Good morning all. Very little modeling Saturday and Sunday due to mostly thissa and thatta household chores and miscellaneous maintenance stuff. Changed strings on my flat-top guitar and put new tubes in a guitar amp. Also did some work out in the yard. However, I did manage to get the shingles on the BTS Cabin kit. Get the roof painted, spray paint and mount the smoke-jack. After that? I got nothing. Everyone have a great week.
Good morning everyone, The smoked salmon came out great on Friday and got the outlets taken care of on Saturday. On Sunday I helped my wife re-upholster a chair cushion and cleared the redwood tree dropping off the garage and train room roof. In between all this I got short sessions in on the Ntrak staging yard. Got to work on the other end, replacing one turnout and installing PC board tie plates just like I did on the other end last week. Set up the two end sections and successfully tested the controls on all lines.
Friday, I mostly did homework but took a break to take my wife out to eat at one of our local Mexican eateries. Afterward we returned home and I finished my assigned reading before bed. Saturday, I did my written assignment (a two page discussion of the reading) and attempted to turn it in. Usually, I just upload my MS Word file to the school's (Blackboard) page but this time my upload appeared blank and it wouldn't let me do it a second time. So, I emailed the file to my professor directly and moved on to other things. My wife and I then went to the church garden to dig up our row of potatoes (and got a half a bucket full), pick peppers, and start pulling up some of the tomatoes that are done, or volunteers that are just in the way. Then we got ice cream for lunch and took the dogs to the dog park for an hour or so. By then, I got an email from my professor saying that he'd reset the homework webpage and asked that I resend my homework. I did, but I had the same problem and ended up cutting and pasting the file rather than uploading and that worked. I then began work on a project that I promised my wife would be done by the end of the year. I have a corner of the basement filled with train stuff that friends and retiring colleagues have donated to me saying, "If you don't take it, we'll just throw it away." I also have a bunch of my stuff in that pile from the 70's that came back to me as we clean out my parents' house. In any case, Saturday's effort was to sort through several boxes of buildings, figure out which ones were HO scale, which were N scale (and one oddity that seemed to be S scale), as well as the ones that have, um, re-kitted themselves. I ended up with one tote of (mostly) whole buildings, one small tote of building parts, and a half a box of N-scale buildings. My hope is that, as I get the boxes sorted, I can find new places for them in upstairs crawlspaces, dark corners of the garage, or any place other than the corner that my wife intends for other purposes. Sunday, was church, then the monthly business meeting for the Sebring Model Railroad Club with plans intensifying for our annual November open house. Then off to a board meeting for Everlasting Equine Ministries, another equestrian group that my wife serves, and finally home. I had hoped to get some work done on writing a curriculum for the Scouts BSA Railroading merit badge, that our train club can use, but that's just going to have to fit into this week somewhere as will a church funeral.
Along with a number of you did not get a lot done modeling wise this weekend. Friday was bowling and I got a couple of trains ready to use for the open house at the train club on Saturday. Saturday spent most of the day at the railroad club open house and in the evening took my wife out to celebrate her birthday along with my son and his wife. Sunday, slept in, did the laundry and then went to choir practice. Later we had our weekly FaceTime call with my daughter and her family from Vancouver, WA. I finally got some train time and installed the rest of the brake system air lines, rodding, rod guides etc. on the GATC RBL kit I am building. Rick Jesionowski
October is here which means fall is here. I'm ready for the nicer temps that come along with that. Over he weekend, I didn't have much free time but I did manage a little time at the work bench. Other than drinking a lot of coffee, I did change out the trucks and couplers on a couple of cars, started some weathering on a gondola (it has a long way to go) and also started on a couple more loads for some gondolas. Even though it wasn't much and the time passed way too quick. I did enjoy the time spend and I guess that was actually the point, right. Hope you all have a great week!
I spent the weekend on never-ending landscaping and remodeling projects, but found a few hours to assemble a couple more Accurail W&NW three-bay hoppers, decal one side of each and start on the Pullman Standard 2893 covered hopper from Athearn. I also worked to tune up a couple of center beam cars which arrived with a few loose parts. Tonight, I am working to decal the other sides.... Have a great week and catch you soon. -Bob T.
