Morning everyone, Looks like Jim got caught up in the Amherst show activities and didn't get a chance to start this weekends modeling thread. If you are going to the show this weekend, be sure and stop by the Athearn booth and say hi to Jim. He's a great guy, fun to talk to, and might just have some cool Athearn models to show off Friday - was a normal work day and after work was full of dealing with the day to day routine. Saturday - Starting with coffee and this of course. Then I'll be off to the train room for a couple of hours. Have a few projects to work on but I think I may just run trains for a bit instead. Then it's off to a full afternoon of errands an dinner out with the wife. Sunday - will start with more coffee of course. In case you can't tell, I really like coffee. For modeling, have a billboard project I'm working on for the layout and I think that will be my main focus. That's what I've got for a starter. Share what you are up to for the weekend. @Jim Wiggin hope you have a great time at Amherst and I hope all the rest of you have a great weekend!!!!!!
+1, see signature Would like to work on the Late Night Hobbies N Scale warehouse. And maybe other projects?
This morning I'm cleaning the kitchen. My wife cooked large amounts of spaghetti and meatballs to take to an outreach program to help feed those in need. She isn't experienced at cooking for large groups of people but I'm proud to say she did well. Along with cleaning up from the spaghetti and meatballs, the kitchen has a pile of my stuff to sort through. After the kitchen I'm headed to my little train room for an hour or so of straightening up. I'm amazed how fast I can clutter up the room and my workbench. After straightening up I plan on finally testing the layout. It hasn't ran in a couple years. Sunday, If testing goes well I'll be removing the roughed in foam sceinic base and figuring out how to best add another track to service the future sawmill lumber yard.
I'll pull one goal from last week that did not get done. I plan to add about 18 sections of flextrack for the mainlines that run behind and beyond my West Colton yard. In order to keep building the double mains I will have to also build some #8 turnouts. The above will leave me about ten sections of Flextrack remaining on hand, so I will consider my next moves carefully. Maybe some more yard development on the east end of the West Colton yard. I also need to fine tune the Taylor staging, clean the helix, and run trains up and back. If I get this one done I could pull the rest my locos and rolling stock out and stage it. Making Model Railroading fun one tiny step after another. My coffee choice today is Black Rifle's Just Black with a bit of hazelnut creamer.
Having survived yesterdays Storm Eowyn, no damage to my property thankfully, should be able to get out and about today. As a change from the endless wiring of Tapton, me and the grandson have started the job of converting all the 00 Nuclear stock to Kadee couplers ( Quite easy as most of the stock has NEM coupler pockets) although there is a lot to do First batch FNA Nuclear Flask wagons (Bahmann, Accurascale and Revolution trains)and the little four wheel PFAs (Accurascale). The armed escort coaches will need Kadee No 5s. The Class 20, 47 and 66 diesels have had DCC Decoders installed and the decoders for the two Class 68s are on order. The Class 87 electric ( An old Lima one) with its body off has had a TCS Decoder installed but I need to add the LEDs and Fibre optics to get the lights working. Some of the other freight cars will need No 5s as well but I've got plenty in stock ready assembled. The Class 31 (top right corner) is an Airfix-Athearn hybrid The bodyshell is a superdetailed Airfix one sat on a PA1 chassis and there is not a lot of room at the end to squeeze a couple box in Kev
You did perform the official taste testing correct Required by law by husbands. Made me hungry for spaghetti & meatballs Your nice people.
No and even more remarkable our dog Allie didn't get a single meatball! In an effort to live long enough to finish my layout, I had plain yogurt and mixed nuts topped of with a small dollop of fig jam.
I need to go thru and fine tune a number of turnouts........a number of them seem to have a "bump" going thru them, and a couple will actually hang up some of my locos (mainly in the yard). None of the yard turnouts are anchored down yet, and I noticed at least a couple of the offending units have a bit of arch to them, so first plan of action is to put a nail in the middle of each one to remove the arch, and then see if further work is needed. I also need to start wiring all the frogs on my mainline......not my favorite job, so that will probably end up being 1 or 2 per sitting till they are done (only about 12 to do, only doing the curved and #10s since the #5s and 7s seem to be fine). And lastly, I need to put a decoder in a Kato E8B.
Started work on lighting in a large warehouse-like building (not the same as last weekend). I decided to use a short length of sticky LED strip - warm white. The wires are soldered to the strip's end contacts and the kit and kaboodle is stuck to the inside of the roof of the building. I tested the lighting effect with a 12 volt DC booster pack, with an ammeter in series to check the current: just under 80 mA! That should push the total current consumption of my town's lighting up to about 250 mA. Nice! Now all I need to do is identify which wires wedged between the edges of two pieces of foam insulation are for one of the three lighting circuits. And fetch some quick-connect connectors (that store is closed on Sundays). I second that. Back in the 70s, when our family was renting a house out in the boonies (back then it was the boonies, since then it was invaded by developers). The landlord was our neighbor and had a dog, Blackie, one of those generic black medium-sized mutts with a waggy tail on one end and a wet nose on the other, and sharp as a tack. Blackie was also my most loyal friend! And he loved licking the dishes and pots clean, and dispose of leftovers, on spaghetti-and-meatballs day. Dogs seem to like Italian food! Another thing I had in common with Blackie...
Thanks for picking up the baton. Hopefully Jim is enjoying the show. Didn't get here myself until the weekend is half over. Only one train related objective: Turn a steam dome on the lathe. Coffee, spaghetti and meatballs, even yogurt with nuts and fig jam. Not to mention good dogs. Quality weekend for sure! Stay safe,
A little late to the party! Friday was getting some cars repaired to take to the club on Saturday and then onto bowling. Saturday, going to the club to run trains and comment on the new stuff out of Amherst that was announced. May get some decaling done on some cars I had painted during the week. Sunday, doing the laundry and then some modeling and continue the decaling. Rick Jesionowski
Yep. Just run trains. Late night warehouse, interesting. Layout test. Yep. One tiny step. I like it when it is quite easy. Seems like MRLDave has a turnout to-do list. Wire ID time. Turning a steam dome sounds a little fussy. Decaling is indeed important. I am on here this Monday due to not getting on here Saturday. I do not know if any will see this post but here is a pic of the latest project. Features: Laser cut sides, doors, and ladders. Brake wheel and brake wheel platform. New stirrup step making technique. Reporting marks, RR name and slogan. About sixty-six parts. Smudges galore at no extra charge. Note: Pic also posted in weekend foto thread.