MODELING It's Monday, September 18th, 2023: Weekend Modeling Accomplishments

Greetings all. Happy Monday. Saturday spent all day w/ college football. Sunday I got 2 buildings started. One of which is the BTS "MD Cabin" kit. I will have this at "State Line" on my layout and it will be tagged as "SL" Cabin. Got all of the parts airbrushed and they sat all night under plate glass to keep them from warping until they fully dried.

Have a great week all!!

 

My week went pretty much as expected.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent doing homework, but our daughter did come over for a while on Friday for buffalo wings and cookies to celebrate my birthday (which was Thursday).

Birthday shirt

Sunday was church, followed by some time at the club doing some track laying and welcomingsome guests from NMRA Division1. I got the west end of the new port yard pieced together so that next week, I can focus on the repair (and connection to) the almost 50 year old hand-laid track at the power plant. I left the club before 3:00 and drove to church to join the Zoom meeting for our Liberia mission board, which went surprisingly well and even ended a little early.

Since my homework was already done, we ate leftovers, watched television, and enjoyed the evening.

Loram ballast cleaner parked at the train club Sunday.

 

The goal of the weekend was to install the rusty bridge.

 

The weekend went pretty much as expected, on Friday I did not get much modeling done what with taking my wife to her hair cutting appointment and then in the afternoon getting the shot into the eye for macular degeneration which took longer than expected. Bowling was not great but the team managed to win all seven points this week winning one game by 3 pins and another by 1 pin.

Saturday, went to the club and got a Rock Island train around the track without any problems, had a good time with all present. Later I managed to get some paint onto a couple of cars and did some masking on another car before heading to the Guardians game, had a good time with my fellow workers and the Guardians pulled out a 2-1 win in the late innings.

Sunday, started off with the laundry and painted some more cars before going to choir practice. In the evening I started decaling an XLI boxcar and did some more work on the substation for the club layout, here is the progress to date:



Rick Jesionowski

 

We had a good weekend around the house. I did heavy-duty cleaning of the living room floors including lifting the covers off the radiators and cleaning under them and between the pipes. Saturday, we made trips to the grocery store, Kohl’s, and a nursey. We found mums and got six plants. We potted four in the front but did not get the last two potted at the pond. Sunday, we took it easy. We made a trip to Target where my wife and daughter picked up some Halloween/Fall decor. I got a couple of additional storage bins.

As good as the household stuff went the model railroading was frustrating. It started with the MTH Little Joe. On Friday night it ran perfectly with no issues. Saturday it was a different story. In DCC it started stalling at several locations around the layout. I checked connections and voltage and found no problems. I switched directions and it stalled at a whole new set of locations. I then tried several other DCC locomotives and none of them stalled. In a last-ditch effort, I tried DC, and it ran better but not perfectly. Sunday, I continued my attempt to run a train with the Little Joe. I was able to get it to run with 20 cars in DC successfully for the most part. However, it would randomly slow down with no rhyme or reason and it did not happen in the same location. I tried to make a video, but I ran into issues with lighting as I was getting too much glare from the lights off the train. I fiddled with the lighting and finally got things the way I wanted but it was late, and I had to stop for the night. Given my experience with the Little Joe locomotive and after reading some reviews of it and other MTH HO locomotives I do not think I will be purchasing any in the future.

 

Good morning all,

Most of Saturday was spent working with a neighbor to take down a tree that had grown up right on our property line in preparation for having a new fence installed. Finalized things with the fence contractor, they will start on the 26th.

I did get the fascia finished around the upper helix and a few other small areas near the gate. So fascia is now 100% finished on the layout. Also have the east end tunnel portals almost finished. Did some work on the control circuit for the Ntrak club staging yard but not as much as I wanted to. Got to get something in gear on that project.

 

Rick,

Is that big transformer a kit? It's awesome. I need something like that for my new depressed center flatcars.

 

Between house chores, I managed to get 25 Caboose ground throws installed. Actually I UNINSTALLED 12, and then installed /reinstalled 25. I hadn't originally planned to power the frogs on the new layout, but I used Atlas #10 turnouts on the mainline (they work great) and while most locos roll right thru, a few were having issues.........the frog on the #10s is 1.25 inches long which is big stretch for locos to cross. Surprisingly, my little 44 tonner rolls right thru, but I decided better safe than sorry. I had already installed all the throws (222S) on the mainline, so I had to carefully remove them and then install the new powered throws (224S) which was a lot more work since you have to cut a slot thru the base under the throw to run the contacts . Lots of clean up afterwards. I then took the throws I removed, and reinstalled them at other points on the layout, plus some additional throws I got when I ordered the powered throws. But now every turnout on the layout has a throw. Now I have to go back and actually wire the throws to the buss wires to actually get power to the frogs.

 

Kudos to the old car challenge. C&O MD cabin looks very interesting. Loram ballast cleaner. Maybe weather will turn good. I like the rusty bride. Sharp substation. Sounds as if Little Joe needs to go the corner. Fascia looks crisp. Can't have too many throws. I am happy to see more Autumn-like weather. This weekend was extra busy. I still need to move on to the next passenger car. I am thinking baggage. Saturday was an out-of-town visit to my son for his birthday lunch. After which we toured the countryside and checked out a fishing location. Next, we visited the grandson at his workplace. Sunday was just chilling day. Earlier was an errand. Hope to get back to the projects this P.M. Have a wonderful week.

 

I spent the weekend at the Mike Phillip's N Scale Weekend in Altoona PA, train gooning it up with some old friends - and adding a few new ones. Having arrivedd home via Delta Airline early this AM., I don't have the pictures downloaded or videos edited yet.

 

John, it is an old Kibri kit I bought in the late 70's, it is no longer made, I still have two of them left in stock, if you need one, let me know and I will part with one.

Rick Jesionowski

 

Let me think on that. I have two possibly similar kits on back order with Walthers. I'll definitely give you a shout if I don't like them (when they finally show up).

 

It was a relatively quiet weekend for a change. Spent a good bit of time at the workbench Saturday. Finished up a couple of smaller projects, installed metal wheels on a few cars, applied some decals, piddled with a few different things, and and mainly drank a lot of coffee. All in all, a good weekend that was much needed.

Hope you all have a great week!

 

Wow, that looks really cool. Be sure to post some build photos as you progress. I shot MD (at Meadow Creek, WV) on 04/10/1988. It controlled the branch to Rainelle, WV. Maybe these pictures might help. As you know, MD is gone today.

 

Hardcoaler: Thanks for the picture. That shot does help as it does a good job of showing the siting. I was "considering" elevating the base to the top of the roadbed, but wasn't sure. Your photo shows the base of the building pretty level w/ the base of the road bed, which confirms I do not have to elevate it. Although I am applying this building to a fictional division of the C&O, I'd like to keep it somewhat prototypical. The shot also has a great view of the double semaphore on the line pole. I may model that as well (non-functional) which should not be difficult at all.

I have been on the C&O Historical Society Archives and viewed many photo's of the building and they are good, but you really can't blow them up unless you purchase them. So I viewed them to check and see what I could. However your full size photo here gives me a better feel for it. Thanks again, I appreciate your post.

 

Glad to help. Here's a more distant shot taken the same day showing the tower, plant, signals and Meadow Creek sign opposite the tower. Square end blades were often used on absolute signals, aka stop and stay signals. Sure wish a train had come by as I waited, but no such luck.

 

Yes. A great shot of the double semaphore. Thanks!!