I hope so! As I had noted earlier, thus particular scene really has grabbed my attention. I'm not certain as to why, but I sure have been looking forward to and following any and all updates.
Just finished fabricating the ground conveyor. The main bins will be fed to the elevator from the left pipes and the underground pipe from the auxiliary bins will feed from the left. Now I just have to get the piping from the left to meet the conveyor. May have to bend some pipe, honey, where's my lighter..... RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Here's tonight's RGW update. As I mentioned last week, Scott was making modifications to the new lowboy trailers. Tonight he completed the improvements with decals of reflectors and tail lights. I asked him how it was going, he said they are right behind you. I looked at the desk and said, um, I don't see them. He said look closer. He had used the desk lamp as a holder. Clever. As you can see things look good. He'll still needs to add the oversize load placards and flags, but this is a heck of an improvement. As for me, I completed the ground conveyor at the mill. There is a slight modification that remains, but otherwise this piece is done. I added a sill plate for the underground pipe and added a control valve. I also drilled a mounting hole in the blower so that it slides into the elevator. I finished it off with a control valve at the elevator. The only remaining step is to connect the ground pipes on the left side. I will do that next, then pull everything associated with the ground conveyor off for painting. That should be this weekend. Well, that's it for tonight. As always, I appreciate you taking your time to follow our layout progress. Thanks for checking in! RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Before boarding a plane to Oklahoma, I managed to complete the ground conveyor. I decided to make this unit detachable. As such, I drilled mounting holes in the short pieces of pipe and inserted 1/16th (1.0 mm) rod into the conveyor. Then drilled corresponding holes and attached the small sections of pipe with plastruct glue. I drilled holes in the opposite ends of the pipe and mounted more rod. You can see the orientation marks in the top of the conveyor. For the final attachment point, I drilled a 1.2mm hole in each pipe connector. This allows the rod to seat properly with minimal effort and it will not pull apart without purposeful force. By not being glued, I can pull everything off the base if necessary. That will give us access to the track behind the scene should we need it. Late last night I gave it two coats of primer. Once I return, I'll get it painted and formally installed. Until next week, thanks for checking in. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Just got back in from OK on Tuesday. I spent the evening working on the gravity feed at the Maple Valley Mill. I used a couple of cars to mark the dump pit locations. As usual, I started with a template. Heavy tracing paper and a graphite stick do the trick. Being sure to mark the dump pits on the template. I then proceeded to build the pit using 060 styrene plate and strips. Once built, I ran the car back over to check for fit. I tweaked the length of the center dump pit, adding 3/16 of an inch. This is to accommodate grain cars that are in opposite directions. Then I cut about 24 pieces of 291 L channel which I will glue later in the recess areas with the V groove facing down. I didn't have time to document Rey and Scott's work, but both were quite busy. I'll add a post tonight about what they were working on. Thanks for checking in! RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Great work! The train in front of it gives a better sense of the scale of the installation. Keep it up!
I love your progress Mike! That is quite an industry! I hope sometime on one of your trips I can get you up to Tulsa! Dale
Here's my follow up to Tuesday's update. My evening ended with the construction of the gravity feed pit. I started today by modifying the center opening to accommodate a slight curve in the track. Then I began to add the L channel. As that dried, I went over to the scene and painted basic black between the tracks. I took the piece out to the paint booth and hit it with Vallejo steel, 71.066, went back out to the train room and put it in place with matte medium. You can see the benefit of the black paint, it creates depth under the plate. As another follow-up, Scott was adding pilings to the mill scene. We elected to add these as visual interest. It also allows me to move the structure about a half an inch, creating more room for one more feature I'll add soon. You can also see he added wheel stops to the end of the spur. Rey was up to his usual tricks, completing yet another tweak to the 737 flats and also started accessorizing an old B&O caboose. More next week. Thanks for checking in. M RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
A short and sweet update for tonight's RGW get together. Reynold was busy completing his renovation of the 737 flat, then added some weathering before putting it back in service. Meanwhile ,Doug was updating some loco programming on JMRI, with one particularly unique outcome. UP 4526, an SD60, could not be addressed. After reviewing the decoder programming, turns out the loco address had somehow been converted to 5550. So no way it was going to run on 4526. A definite head scratcher. Anyway, with that going on I painted the ground piping and conveyor. I started with Tamiya flat aluminum. After giving the assembly time to dry, I started painting details. I added AK panel liner to the horizontal seams of the conveyor, then painted the motor Vallejo nato green and the base gray. Also painted the pipe stand base cement. As for the piping, I only added gray to the supports. Before evening's end, I pulled up the weights holding down the gravity feed. It is now permanently in it's home. Well that's it for tonight. Thanks for checking in. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
Not a ton to report for tonight's RGW work session. Scott was able to trim the pilings using one of my Japanese trim saws and then get the building put back in place. I followed that with the ground conveyor and piping reassembly. Now it's time to start planning for the rail and truck loading portals. I'm still working out the details for those. While Scott was busy with the mill, Doug and I were updating the JMRI roster. It's interesting what you find when you look through the roster. Found four consists, none of which are still active but were restricting loco addressability. Got all that sorted out. Then we started doing roster shots of locos on the layout. I just picked a random spot on the layout that had easy access and off we went. Here's an example... I'm not really sure the purpose of these shots, as the thumbnails are microscopic and are only slightly larger when you select a loco. I'm sure there's another reason we'll stumble on at some point. Anyway, short and sweet. Until next week, thanks for checking in. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
On my own tonight thanks to the bug and prior obligations. Took the time to break out some new motive power and get it added to the JMRI roster. Started with this little beauty, a Factory Direct Trains trackmobile. Backstory to this little guy, I purchased this before we even started building the RGW. It's been in a cabinet for nearly 20 years until tonight. It has a two digit decoder, with a very customizable speed table that allows you to increase the kick rate per speed step. I was impressed with how smooth it operated. The other loco I added to the roster was CP7023. An Athearn SD70Ace. It's livery is a tribute to Canada's troops in Desert Storm. This unit is fabulous. As smooth as any on my layout. So many features I couldn't get to them all tonight. I look forward to more time with this one. Finally, I went to add two more to the roster, but alas these were not decoder equipped and I did not have any 21pin decoders in my goodie box. Crud! The CP7020 is another Canadian commemorative loco and the Ferromex is just a cool livery. I ordered decoders tonight, so hopefully we'll have them up and running soon. That's it for tonight. Thanks for checking in. RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
CP's military-themed SD70ACu fleet are beautiful. Very nice tributes to those who put their lives on the line for our freedom and security so we can enjoy that same privilege. And that little trackmobile critter is just plain adorable!
I agree. I've got CP#7022 from the first run and have just received CP#7020 and CP#7023, while I have CP#6644 on pre-order. 7020 is the Army Temperate Regions (also known as NATO Green), 7022 is the Navy unit (USN & RCN), 7023 is the Air Force unit (USAF & RCAF)and 6644 is the WWII D-Day unit. I just need CP#7021 Army Arid Regions to complete the set.
