Welcome back everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend, let's get started. Saturday: I got up and brewed a cup of coffee in the stove top percolator then headed upstairs to the home office. I had set up the portable HO layout behind my desk and set out getting everything level. No pictures but if you watch Athearn's September Announcement video on our YouTube channel, you'll see it behind me. Once level I fired up my B&M GP9 that had been programmed with the Proto Throttle and I switched cars for about an hour or so. I also had a chance to place my new Brekina Kenworth Aerodyne cab over tractor and Athearn Conrail 45' trailer on the layout. After this I fired up the motorcycle, something I have not done since June, and went to the bank and run errands. Once home I took it easy and spent the rest of the day with the wife and dogs. Sunday: Same start, with coffee in hand went into the workshop and read a build thread here on Trainboard as well as work on some track planning with my AnyRail program. I then treated the wife for breakfast then came home and mowed one more time before my trip for New Hampshire. Once that was finished, we went to one of our favorite pizza places and enjoyed homemade root beer and pizza. Once home we relaxed until poof the weekend was over. A nice relaxing weekend before I go back to NH. So how about you? What did you get done this weekend? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Friday the 15th to start the process all over again. I would be remiss in not taking a few moments and remembering the significance of today's date. For many of us, September 11th is a date that will hold images that will forever be burned in our memory. For many of us, the memory of that clear, sunny, late summer day 22 years ago today will forever be with us. I know for me; life has never been the same. The phrase used so much back then, Never Forget has unfortunately been forgotten by most major news sources and people, however I feel it is important to remember that horrific day and honor the many people who were lost that day. Please take a moment at some point today and remember those who did not come home that Tuesday morning. NEVER FORGET 9/11
Saturday I watched my daughter play soccer and did a bit of gardening. I hung out with my family did a bit more work on the track plan, and then we went over to a friend’s house and played board games. Sunday I made a batch of chili with the vegetables I picked Saturday. I used one of my Carolina Reaper peppers in this batch and it’s the best chili I’ve ever made. I did a couple of chores and finished the track plan. Then as I stared at it I got another idea on arranging things so I started another design. [mention]Jim Wiggin [/mention] thanks for reminding everyone. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good morning and greetings all. Saturday was a tough day in football. We got hammered by Notre Dame. Tailgating got delayed due to AM thunderstorms, then at the start of the 2nd quarter, game got delayed due to lightning in the area. The delay was for 90 minutes. Sunday I did get in the train room to do some things. I hauled my airbrush up there and totally redid the small road I put in last week. MUCH BETTER. Also changed out some light bulbs. Then I spruced up the Interchange, VA area and did some switching there. Started cleaning up in the work shop so I could pull out some freight car projects that are overdue for attention, but ran out of time. @Jim Wiggin A big "DITTO" on 9-11. Interchange, VA.....
Saturday I got the trains organized that I am taking to the Altoona N Scale weekend starting Friday. I have a joint Amtrak-private car inspection train, and an all KCS freight train with two different locomotive sets. Plus a set of the FP-9s in Executive Belle incase I can complete a planned purchase of a ConCor Belle passenger set to serve as a KCS Business train stand in until I get mine fully kitbashed. I also dug out and started painting a 1968 Volvo Amazon 124S which I got some months back from shapeways. I grew up riding around and rail fanning in a 1967 122S (the last digit designates the number of doors) and so I am painting and fading this one to take north and use in my railfanning shots of various display railroads at Altoona. Sunday was helping with he Little Free Library my daughter is doing for her Girl Scout Silver award, and starting to de-rust a Craftsman workbench for the garage that I got for a steal at an estate sale down the block.
Good morning from sunny and warm Northeast Ohio! Friday night bowling was pretty bad, the entire team had problems finding the pocket and leaving hard pickups for spares. I did manage to paint 3 cars and will be working on decaling them in the future. Saturday, went to the club with a PRR ore train pulled by a pair of Alco C636 Demonstrators, ran well with 41 ore jennies that was quite a load with the metal bodies and a load in them. Later in the evening I worked on decaling another ore jenny and a covered hopper. Sunday, did the laundry and finally felt up to it to remove the cats litter box and stuff out of our bedroom, difficult not having her sitting on one or the other of us laps. Finished up the decals except for the end lettering on the ore jenny and covered hopper. Rick Jesionowski
Good Monday morning all, The weekend went just about as planned. The cat got a clean bill of health, and some yard work and some laundry got done. Finished a half done control circuit and started the second one. These will be for the Ntrak staging yard. Made some progress on the tunnel portals and added some more car cards for Incentive Per Diem or IPD short line box cars after realizing that my early modeled era aligns with the time when many of those were on the rails.
Friday, I did homework for most of the day, with a few chores thrown in as well. Then, about the time I would normally start getting ready for bed, I grabbed a couple cans of Mountain Dew and headed for the airport to pick up my wife who was scheduled to arrive home (finally) from Texas just after 11:00 p.m. Finally got to bed after the caffeine wore off sometime around 2:00 a.m. Saturday, I slept in a bit and did homework. I got terribly frustrated at one point, when I needed to actually type up my reading reflections and turn them in, and my computer a) booted slowly, b) needed to download and install updates, and c) absolutely refused to recognize my mouse, or the spare mouse, or the wired mouse, until I finally rebooted three or four times. Just getting the computer to behave cost me an hour and a half. Ugh. Even though she was finally home, my wife was still recovering from her Texas migraine, and still wasn't feeling entirely well so she mostly camped out on the sofa and I did the cooking and tended to her as necessary. Sunday was church, then lunch, then out to our monthly business meeting at the Sebring Model Railroad Club. Our meeting was mostly uneventful and rather poorly attended in comparison to our average. We presented the business card open house invitations as well as the new yard signs, and folks seemed fairly excited about them. Scheduling has also started for volunteers to qualify trains that they want to run during the open house and possible track defects are being thoroughly investigated. Work also continues as we lay track in the new port facility with some hope that by the November Open House, it will look like we did something since last year. Just as it has happened to me before, I heard a train as I arrived at the club, put my hand on my phone to take pictures and, at the last minute, decided against it. And so, of course, when the train passed, the second unit was the Erie heritage unit. Happens. Every. Time. Anyway, today my wife is feeling a little better and is out doing what she does, and we both have busy weeks ahead. I hope all of you have a great week.
The back injection went well on Friday. I was in and out of the hospital in about 3 hours. The back and legs feel better than they have been in months. My back is a little stiff this morning. Saturday my daughter took my wife out shopping. My daughter needed to get some items for her new office. While they were out, I headed down to Delaware to get gas and go to a local hobby shop. The hobby shop visit proved to be successful as I found three Bev-Bel/Athearn blue box kits for New Haven State of Maine 40 ft boxcars. As a bonus the cars were assembled. This gives me five of the twelve cars in the series. I also purchased three Rapido F30G TOFC flat cars for Trailer Train. Sunday we just lounged around the house recovering from our outings. On the layout I finished gluing down the roadbed for the two-track mainline. I also tacked down the inside track and wired three more feeders. I have one more feeder to finish and then the inside track will be down and wired. I am waiting for more feeders to arrive so I can finish the outside track. I tested the inside track in both DC and DCC and it worked well. I have one spot that has been a problem from day one with derails and uncoupling. I added some shims to eliminate a dip in the tracks and I am hoping I finally solved the problem.
It's Monday again and a somber one at that. I second what Jim said concerning this day in history. While I didn't and don't feel particularly well, it was a decent weekend. Made some decent progress on projects over Saturday and Sunday. Only some boxcar loads got finished up and one looks off so I'll need to redo it. The rest moved forward but not as much as I hoped. In addition, I haven't watched much college football the past several years but with my son being in college now, I did take time to watch the game on Saturday. Hope you all have a great week!
Yes. 9/11, a day of infamy. B&M GP9 sounds cool. ABD, always be designing. Interchange looks outstanding. Altoona is starting to sound like a trip to the Wonderful City of Oz. I heard, "covered hopper". I love era alignment. Special note to @Pastor John, computers make our lives easier. Hooray for track fix. Good for boxcar load progress. Through weekend and earlier the passenger car diagrams are being done. As mentioned, the building diagraming is on hold. Everyone have a great week.
Nothing accomplished. A bunch of sleep was lost. Aside from work, I was involved in helping to deal with a rather sad situation.
I did as planned, put the ground throw back where it was. It wasn't the glue that let go, it was the foam underneath! After the new glue dried, I tested the lever and the points move and lock in place just the way I like it. I discovered the problem late last week while shoving some cars along and one derailed, and another, until I reacted and hit the brakes. That's exactly why I put those ground throws in! Little miracles...
Hey All, I spent most of the weekend working on flooring and painting,but did manage a little progress weathering my fleet for the W&NW. with apologies to @Jim Wiggin, I am finishing up these repaints and patch outs from the Athearn lines. I also submitted my entry for this year’s Model Rail Radio track planning contest… Have a good week All, -Bob T.
