MODELING It's Monday, May 24th 2021: Weekend Modeling Accomplishments

Jim Wiggin May 24, 2021

  1. Jim Wiggin

    Jim Wiggin Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Welcome back weekend warriors. How was your weekend? Did you get a lot done? Let's find out.

    Saturday: In what was our first real day with 80 degrees, having a cool garage with a lift was great. We drove the son's 2000 Camry to get everything done. Stabilizer links, done. Battery, done. Sanded, polished and made 21 year old headlights look new, done. New cylinder head gasket and hardware, done. I also replaced the flasher unit Sunday and now his car is ready for another 160K. I then took the Mustang home and slept like a baby.

    Sunday: No rest for the wicked. I slept in a bit then started by getting the air conditioner in the office/studio, worked on my box trailer, went to town to get Jared's flasher for the car, and to restock my garage fridge with adult beverages. By 7:00 I was lighting the grill and the weekend was over. Summer does that to hobby time.

    So how about you? Did you get a chance to work on anything train related unlike me? Let us know. We'll re-assemble on Friday to start off a long Memorial Day weekend. Hey, maybe I can get something model related done! Until then, have a great week, be safe, stay healthy and as always...

    High Greens!
     
  2. Tompm

    Tompm TrainBoard Supporter

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    Despite the heat we did get some yard and garden work done. I had to clean the pump in the fountain in the front yard. We ran some errands on both days including taking the wife’s car to Delaware to get gas at $2.94. Best PA price we saw was $3.07 at a Wawa near the Delaware border.

    I did not make any further progress on the Bachmann Diner. Not sure if I will pursue any repairs at this time. I found an inexpensive replacement on eBay and ordered it. I did change out the couplers on one of the Walthers PRR baggage cars. It appears I fixed one of the derailment spots. It was on a curve that passed over a joint in the pink foam. The track bounced some and the front truck of several three axle diesels was derailing. This was only happening to the second unit. The lead unit had no problems. I tacked down the track tighter and thus far that seems to have corrected the problem.
     
  3. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Did you buy a kit for this project? Which do you recommend? Thanks!
     
  4. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    No model railroad progress, but I'm hoping that a lumber purchase is in the near future if I can get my aging pickup truck started. Attended a import car show with my wife on Sunday; just amazed at what owners can do.

    2021-05-23 Honda Engine.jpg
     
  5. SP-Wolf

    SP-Wolf TrainBoard Supporter

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    I got some stuff accomplished.
    Saturday: We purchased a 20" beach cruiser bicycle for our Granddaughter's 7th birthday - she really loves that thing!!
    After that - I restarted an older project. My F7 fleet. Worked on a DF-3 class A-B-B-A set. Stripped an A unit and prepped all four frames for decoders (These are first run Kato's)

    Sunday: Installed decoders in the above frames.
    We then spent the afternoon at my Sister's celebrating my Niece's birthday -- good time!!

    Hope Y'all had a great weekend,
    Wolf
     
  6. rjthomas909

    rjthomas909 TrainBoard Member

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    Murky water pour for Brush Creek diorama is coming along. 72 hours for full cure, so not quite completed over the weekend. Still needs some running water highlights and to hide some of the wicking of the resin.


    IMG_1562 (2).JPG
     
  7. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    I only managed to assemble and place one piece of the lower level benchwork. I intentionally stopped at one so I could work on the staging level and get the track down first.

    [​IMG]


    I also got the subroadbed for the staging level in place and through the wall corner. These are 36” radius curves on a 1.5% climb from right to left.

    [​IMG]


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  8. nscalestation

    nscalestation TrainBoard Supporter

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    I sorta took a step backwards on the layout this weekend. Still failed to get a flasher circuit for the gate to work reliably and then the contacts on the magnetic switch on the gate burned out. I think what happened is that the inductive kick of the automotive relays I was using finally was too much for the little reed switch. So I ordered another magnetic switch and replaced the automotive switches with some modules that I had sitting around that already have protective circuits on the inputs to protect the switch. For now I have decided to forget about the alternating flashing lights and will just have them switch on when the gate is down. After all this I just worked on cleaning up the train room.

    The original magnetic switch removed, waiting for a replacement.
    TBWMA24May21a.jpg
    New gate interlock relays. The 4 on the right are for the tracks and one of the 2 on the left are for the LED's on the gate. The wires from the new switch when it gets here will connect to the black terminal block.
    TBWMA24May21b.jpg
     
  9. Carl Sowell

    Carl Sowell TrainBoard Supporter

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    I did not have any plans for the weekend but I foobied an Atlas tankcar. Foobie, yes, fun, yes:
    [​IMG]
     
  10. dti406

    dti406 TrainBoard Member

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    Well, I got a lot more done than I anticipated this weekend.

    First, took my son and his wife to dinner on Friday to celebrate his birthday.

    Managed to built and paint one of the Front Range, boxcar conversions to TOFC flat, will be decaling it in the near future along with a 45' trailer of which I have already built and painted but not decaled.

    Also painted an Intermountain PS 5277CF Boxcar to be decaled this week. Started work on an Athearn 40' Hy-Cube Boxcar, removing the cast on grabs and replacing with wire grabs from Tichy. Also installing an old Cal-Scale Hydroframe Cushion underframe kit to the kit supplied frame and also added all the brake rodding to make it look better.

    Painted a Tangent Scale Models PS 4750CF Covered Hopper and got it half decaled, will finish this week.

    Have a great week!

    Rick Jesionowski
     
  11. Pastor John

    Pastor John TrainBoard Member

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    Saturday, as expected, I was called upon as husband and principal physical labor, to help with gardening duties with our plot in the church community garden. Unexpectedly, since it was quite warm, we spent a good part of the morning in the garden putting down alternating rows of plastic and landscape fabric, then returned in the evening in the evening to put in seeds, plant from flats, and water everything. In the early afternoon, we set up for our daughter's virtual graduation from nursing school, then went home, crashed, and napped until it was time to return for the evening garden work.

    Sunday I had online church stuff to record and post, then we took the food and last minute items to church for the virtual graduation. It was a nice time with family and friends with food and cake and everyone agreed that although a virtual graduation was quite different, it was MUCH better than sitting in the sun, or in a hot auditorium, for two or three hours. Watching the list of graduates scroll past was a little tedious, but didn't take nearly as long as it would have take to watch all of those names parade across the stage one by one.

    I did manage to fuss with the couplers on one of my flat cars. I switched from horn hook to Kadee couplers a week or two ago, but just wasn't happy with how the truck mounted couplers were performing so decided to cut them off and body mount them instead. I got the couplers cut off of the trucks, but all of our other activities. and my ensuing exhaustion, prevented me from getting much else done.

    Lina Nursing Graduation (cropped with arrow).jpg
     
  12. Tad

    Tad TrainBoard Supporter

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    I installed four decoders, so I accomplished what I was planning on.
     
  13. pomperaugrr

    pomperaugrr TrainBoard Member

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    No photos or video, but I did manage to install a sound decoder in an N Scale Atlas GP9. I still need to program it, but it tested fine. Next will be stripping the paint, adding some modifications and details to the shell and finally paint and decals to represent the Housatonic Railroad's former GP9, the # 7324.

    Eric[​IMG] http://s3.amazonaws.com/rrpa_photos/10149/DSCF0787.JPG
     
  14. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    Looks like an ex-C&NW?
     
  15. gmorider

    gmorider TrainBoard Member

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    Busy folks here. Congrats to the Grad! Saw some major construction going too. We got everything down to my "little project". I stayed with my fifteen year old grandson while mom was out of town for the weekend. So I did some work on the hotel just a while ago. Now I have main door and lobby window arches ready to glue. I am hoping the rest will be a faster build. All be safe and have more fun. :D
     
  16. SLSF Freak

    SLSF Freak Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I did a lot of work on my CF7 - discovered a major ooopsie in my design that required a bit more re-work than I was planning but I'm glad I caught it before sending it to the customer. Got the railing sized and mounted the way I like. I may need to do some more very minor tweaks and then I need to get that fuel tank going but as long as I'm making progress it's all good...


    Cheers -Mike
     

    Attached Files:

  17. pomperaugrr

    pomperaugrr TrainBoard Member

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    Quote: "Looks like an ex-C&NW?"


    The #7324 is ex Conrail. The Housatonic RR painted their fleet in a scheme similar to the old C&NW. Here is an image from "RR Pictures Archive" showing the #7324 still wearing Conrail blue.
     

    Attached Files:

  18. Tad

    Tad TrainBoard Supporter

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    That looks nice. What scale is it?

    I’ve got to get out my two Randgust kits and build those. I also need to finish my two GP10’s.
     
    BoxcabE50 and rjthomas909 like this.
  19. Kevin Anderson

    Kevin Anderson TrainBoard Member

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    It’s been a crazy week, I was able to finish the modules I had been working on. So I set them all up at a loc church, programmed locos and did some testing. Fixed a couple issues and found a few more. Now to get it all fine tuned.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  20. SLSF Freak

    SLSF Freak Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Thanks - It's N Scale.

    Mike
     

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