MODELING It's Monday, September 30th, 2024: Weekend Modeling Accomplishments

Busy/productive weekend but still restful.

Caught up on a bunch of housework and returned most of the furniture to my living room and dining room. Did a bunch of volunteer work and while doing so I met a fellow n scaler down the street. We have the same floor plan so I showed him a couple photos of my benchwork and how I was using my basement. A contractor came to fix my chimney on Sunday. Electrician will show up tomorrow to reconnect everything. After that I’ll have insulation put bwck in the attic and I’ll be down with repairs.

I’d set my Halloween graffiti cars aside earlier this year because I hoped to have some track down by October. With the way work, the house repairs from the tree, and suddenly finding myself president of our volunteer board, that won’t happen. But they are out on some track for this year. I’ll try and decorate more next weekend.








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Happy Monday all,
We dodged a bullet in my area as the the remnants of the hurricane went farther east than expected. A lot of rain but very little wind. However, looks like a new storm is forming and projected to take the same or similar path so can't let our guard down just yet. Lots of prayers for all those that have been badly affected by the storm.

Overall, my weekend plans didn't not really go as good as I hoped. Friday afternoons outing ran much longer than expected so no work on the train room. Saturday, the wife and I got the last wall painted. It all looks really good to me and the light gray color actually seems to brighten up the room some which was needed. There are 6 outlets in the room and I go all of those replaced. Still have the light switches let to change out.. Had to stop and go run errands with the wife at that point. When we returned home, I had about enough time to install the wall plates for the outlets on the first two walls we painted, move the desk back and uncover the layout.

Sunday, we took our son back down to his dorm, looked at a new apartment complex for ho, ran a couple of additional errand and had an early dinner. The wife decided she likes the rectangle shaped outlets and light switches I am putting in the train room and wants me to start updating other rooms the same way so that added a stop to Home Depot for a few more of each so that will be a new project going forward as well. When we did finally get home, my knee was done for the weekend and I pretty much rested and iced it until bed time.

Hope to make more progress this week and maybe get everything in the train room back to some sort of order by the weekend.

Hope you all have a great week!

 

I crawfished on going to get a door. I had an HCD layout that I built before. I thought about it and I was never happy with the door as a base for a layout.

Even though I have the ability and tools to build benchwork, at the moment, I simply don’t have the time. I’m sure that some of you have moved into a new to you house with a woman before. Also, since it is an older house, there are several things that need attention.

I cringe every time that she comes to talk to me about something about the house. It’s always like, “Houston, we have a problem.” The list just keeps getting longer, it seems.

I decided to buy some modular open grid benchwork kits. I ordered a 36” x 48” module and a 36” x 36” module with 48” legs. This will give me a 36” x 84” layout. I plan to use 2” foam for the base on top of the benchwork.

I believe that this will actually get me up and running faster. I was going to have to come up with a support system for the door anyway. The kits are supposed to be shipped at the end of this week. I should be able to get the benchwork assembled in some of my copious spare time.

 

Did not get much done this weekend, still not feeling real well after last weeks bout of whatever. I did bowl on Friday and managed a 202-256-172 for a 630 series. The only game we won was the one I shot the 256 in.

Saturday, spent the day at the club running trains and speaking with the visitors, we did not have a count but suspected between 300 and 400 people came down to visit the layout. Did not do anything train wise in the evening.

Had great plans for modeling on Sunday, but did not even get the laundry done as we had to make a trip to Toledo so my wife could help out her two sisters who are not well this week. I got home but did not feel like doing anything in the late evening.

Rick Jesionowski

 

Weekend here went about as planned. Friday was a trip to Costco and then house cleaning. When I got out to the train room I cleaned the layout and track, and began to run some trains after a couple weeks layoff.

Saturday morning was more house cleaning then my wife's friends visiting in the afternoon.

Sunday I got to spend more time in the train room and had everything running well. My friend Clif arrived in the afternoon and I had him run a couple of jobs on the layout. Here he is switching out some cars from the westbound manifest in Carlin yard.



We had a great visit and he gave me something he had made which are PC board throw ties with wider spots to solder to the rails. I had been making my own and had lent him the pattern I was using. This gave him the idea and he knew how to source having these made. As I am contemplating a layout expansion, the timing for this is great.

 

We had a lazy weekend recovering from our cruise to Bermuda. We got home Thursday and after the drive from Bayonne I began unpacking starting with the dirties and throwing them in the washer. Friday was more unpacking and laundry. Friday, we made a run to the post office and to Kohl’s for Amazon returns. Saturday was our 33rd wedding anniversary. We did nothing special. Went to the produce store, grocery store, and PetSmart. Dinner was ham sandwiches and chips. We had our fill of fancy restaurants and dinning on the cruise. Sunday was my daughter’s birthday. My wife and her went to Linvilla Orchards and I went searching for a strawberry shortcake for my daughter, When no strawberry shortcakes were found she requested a carrot cake. Her dinner request was cheesesteaks from our favorite place, Leo’s Steaks in Sharon Hill.

I ran trains on and off all weekend. I did some organizing of rolling stock. I inventoried some new acquisitions.

 

I actually slept in today myself. Glad those repairs are going to be in the rear-view mirror. Yes. Keep that knee as comfortable and rested as possible. (I actually prefer to move into a house with a new woman. ) ("Houston, we have a problem." ) All things considered, I believe up and running faster is the way to go. (BTW, maybe make a list of the lists. ) Helping family is number one. Clif looks a pro at the throttle. Congratz on the thirty-third and Happy Birthday to daughter. First of all, the last storms/flooding occurrence is one of the saddest I have ever witnessed. Prayers and hope to all those affected. This past weekend saw relatively little progress with figures. I put a new blade in the craft knife which resulted in the accidental removal of the upper left cranium of a figure. To help even more, the scoring I did on mid torso was actually a cut. I need a lighter touch here, for sure. Oh well. onward and upward. Have good and safe week.

 

Thursday, I stopped at the pharmacy and got a flu shot and the new RSV shot on the way home from work. This may have had some effect on other events of the weekend.

Friday, I headed over to my parents' house in the morning planning to get measurements and photographs of the sheds in the back yard so I can get estimates for the cost of moving them. Once that was done, I spent a couple hours packing stuff in Dad's train room. The last of the furniture (a small workbench) was moved out, some tools and hardware packed up for the trip home, and some piles of boxes from the structures on the layout were packed (Dad kept EVERYTHING). I decided that the antique wooden carpenter's box, which is full of locomotives is just too heavy. I'm no slouch, but that box has to be well over 100 pounds. So, I'll plan to repack the locos into a tote so I can move the box empty. I headed home at lunchtime planning to eat lunch and do homework, but upon arrival found our daughter and new grandson were visiting. So, instead of doing homework, I sat in my recliner and had a baby take a nap on my chest. Not according to plan, but a most satisfactory end to the day. By the time they went home, I was to tired to study.

Saturday, my wife and I once again headed out for our Emmaus team meeting. This week it was my turn to preview the talk (about 25 minutes) that I will give. Only a few more weeks left before the team and the pilgrims meet at camp for the Emmaus weekend retreat. I do like doing this, but I will be glad to get my Saturdays back. After our team meeting, we went straight to church for the tail end of a friend's surprise retirement party. We basically had an early dinner there and finally got home around 5:00 pm. Having slept poorly, and not feeling all that great, I was, again, too tired to study so I headed upstairs for a nap. It helped, but not much. By 9:00 pm I was done and went to bed without doing any homework.

Sunday, having slept a little better, I headed for church followed by lunch, and a few hours at the train club. While there, I got most of the month's bookkeeping done, our electric bill paid, had a short conversation about our plans for the new port facility, and spent time talking to one of our older members who likes to come to the club but physically can't do much else. Aside from church, we are his only social outlet and, at this time, his son and grandson (also a club member) come with him to help him climb the stairs into the building. I headed home around around 4:00 pm and, again, found our daughter and grandson in the house since her husband was out at the gun range or something. I fed the munchkin and let him sleep on me while my wife did her homework. Later in the evening, after dinner, and after our daughter had gone home, I finally opened my laptop and did homework until almost 9:30 pm. Since my professor torpedoed most of last week's efforts, this week I will have to rewrite last week's assignment as well as this week's assignment, and all before Friday when much of my day will be spent at the surgical clinic while my wife takes care of some (more) skin cancer spots.

Other than that, we continue to pray for all of our friends (including those here) who have been impacted by the recent hurricane. Some of those friends are without power and have dozens of trees down. Here, we just have several days of rain and overcast skies which we haven't really had all summer.

Take care friends. Stay safe. I hope your week is a good one.

 

What exactly are these? Sorry, I don't understand

 

These are used when you hand lay turnouts. The stock PC board ties often break loose from the point rails so having a larger surface area in those spots to solder to makes them stronger. This is a link to my blog post from a few years ago that explains.

https://palisadecanyonrr.blogspot.com/2016/01/custom-throw-bar-for-code-55-turnouts.html

 

Didn't get a chance to post yesterday, but made some progress this weekend. Started laying roadbed. It's a somewhat slow process as I have to recycle my push pins every time, but it's good to get a start.

Finally! Huron Central across the pink foam desert.