Monday morning is here again. As I said earlier, I was on the road and other than find out a few of my RC buddies are also into model railroading (one in Z, the other live steam G) I did nothing on my layout. How about you? Saw some good posts in the Friday thread, lets see what you got done this weekend.
I got my firewood under cover in my woodshed. I was able to lay out the pattern for the box to make my DCC system portable and I was able to begin working on one of my clubs T-Trak corners. I'll finish them up during the week. Maybe it's time to start a thread of what you have planned for the entire week. Retirees like myself probably do a lot of work during the week and people do work on and run their trains all week too.
The joys of home ownership got in the way a bit over the weekend. The main water line into the house sprung a leak at the top of the meter. I could have handled that easily enough, but the shutoff valve wouldn't close, so now we've got a plumber coming in today. Since the pipes are hidden inside a sink counter, I had to dismantle that so he could get in there and work. What's more, that sink is in the basement, where I rinse my brushes and mix plaster, so I ended up competing for sink time in the kitchen. Still, I managed to get a bit of work done. I just got in the zone of hand-painting window frames on the Merchants Row kit, and then I did some masking and spray painting of the front wall. Sunday came around, so I clicked on the TV in the train room to watch football, hauled the parts upstairs, mixed up some Gypsolite and proceeded to work on the layout and the kit while spending 6 hours watching football. This is a flat-roofed building, and one thing that's always bothered me about these is that quarter-inch or so above the roof, where the inside surface of the walls is exposed. In the past, I just painted it gray and forgot about it, but lately I've been cutting thin strips of brick sheet to fill that gap. I think it gives a much more finished look to the roof, and since my layout is relatively low, I look down on the roofs of every building in town, so they are an important detail. It's kind of tedious to cut and fit all those little sections, but it's the perfect kind of job to do during the frequent commercials on NFL football.
What did I get done this weekend? For the first time in many years, I got my railroad ballasted (even if it's only 16" worth)!
just been playing with ideas for throwing turnouts.. and getting a new HCD layout goin in the garage, before it gets too cold
Most of my weekend consisted of taking care of my wife and my son's funeral. I did manage to find time while my wife slept Saturday evening to paint the foam board and the road bed. I am off this week taking care of the wifey as she recovers, so I plan to get a good bit done this week on the layout since nothing else is pressing. I also began laying out and gluing down my Central Valley ties and switch ties. My Coide 83, 70 and 55 rails came last week, just need to get some spikes and start laying!
As I'm typing this I'm sitting here hugging my little now 1-year-old tightly and praying for you and your wife, Pat. My sincerest condolences to both of you. As for the weekend, I got a lot done. First, the boxcab is getting close to completion: Got some Dullcote on it and started weathering. Also decided to put a brake hose on it (when I found a little piece of black wire that looked reasonably to scale). I think they came out nicely. The window glass is in, weights are in (needs more), and Hetek here on TB has sent me instructions for the coupler conversion kit so I can make an adapter for my short-shank MTLs to go on it. After that, a little more weathering touch-up and add the headlights (when the LEDs arrive) and this sucker is finito! And hey, there's still time if you want to join in and build your own boxcab. I also got to spray Dullcote on the 59-tonner and the idler/reach gondola, as well as the F9 and caboose my son and I were working on for him to play with, then got to weathering all of those, too. Still needs couplers and more weathering, but I did finally finish the chassis mods this morning and, with the weights inside, it pulled a bunch of cars with ease. That said, my son and I also tested the boxcab and 59-tonner on the test track/curve. Sure was nice to see them moving under their own power!
Pat, you and your wife are in my thoughts today. My sincerest condolences on the loss of your son. My accomplishments were mostly confined to the cleaning up the work area and the troubleshooting variety. I am trying to figure out what to do with our club's DB-150 booster that's acting up. I have a few OpSW options to try and then it's probably off for service as I think we may have had a hardware failure.
Well I set out to catalog my engines and rolling stock in an Excel spreadsheet. I got through all of my engines and what I thought was all of my Micro-Trains and then this morning I found another box that had more MT's. When I had all the stuff spread out I realized, "Ruh Roh, I've got a ton of stuff!" I cringed every time the wife walked into the dining room where I had it all laid out, lol. Hopefully I'll finish up with the rest of the MT's and all the other rolling stock tonight. Then after I return from my hunting trip it's time to start building a layout again.
My deepest sympathies to you and your wife, Pat. I made a start on my 23x27 inch British diorama which will have a stream and ford and a small railway station and I painted the loco house for the New England layout
Mike, that's a beautiful job. What is at the edge of the eaves? I hope it's not a gutter, or similar that would block snow, slush, and melt water from flowing off the roof which could cause ice dams. On the other hand, I'm pleased to see that the eaves are short, any longer would definitely cause ice dams to build. In case you're not familiar with the term "ice dam", they are ridges of ice that form along the edges of eaves next to the roof line. Ice dams form when the base of the snow pack against the roof starts to melt from the small amount of heat leakage. The resulting film of water flows under the snow pack towards the eave. However, if there is any distance or a blockage between the warmer roof surface and the edge of the eave which is below freezing, the water will refreeze and build a dam. Ice dams become a problem when they build back up the roof and block the flow of melt water. The melt water then backs up and flows under shingle tabs and into the attic, thence to the second floor, and the living room, and finally into the basement. You can always tell which buildings are poorly insulated, because they are the ones that have little snow on the roof, but thick on the eaves. Also when the owners are out in the middle of the night trying to break up the ice dams, while their wives are inside mopping and swearing...trust me on this one, not a happy day in Paradise. :tb-hissyfit:
Hank that's very interesting Thank you! Yes they are gutters. I will remove them on your advice. And no, I have never heard of ice dams. I was pretty happy with those gutters too :tb-biggrin::tb-biggrin: but that's ok. I'm grateful for your help. Thanks for taking the time to explain it all. Information as good as this is hard to come by!
Hey Mike, before you do anything foolish like removing your gutters, where is this building located? If it's close to the Coast, like within 2-3 miles, then the warmer ocean water, being a heat sink, will raise the ambient temp 10-15 degrees, possibly preventing or lessening the formation of ice dams. Back in February, 1971, when I lived in Burlington, Mass, we had about 28" of snow in 24 hours. When I called my boss in Lynn, MA near the water's edge to tell him that no way was I able to make it in that day, or possibly the next two or three, he asked what I was talking about. He said it was raining cats and dogs at the plant, so I'd better show up. So there you have it, welcome to coastal New England weather in the winter.....:tb-hissyfit:
Hank it's Calais, Maine. I can't see any gutters on the shed - I just assumed they would be there. http://www.thebluecomet.com/mec565calais.jpg http://www.thebluecomet.com/mec581calais.jpg Removing them will reduce the eaves to closer resemble the original. Mike
G&OM 3207, I'm sorry to hear of your families lose. My Grandfather taught me this prayer: “ May GOD keep the beloved soul safe from harm and comfort you and your love ones, in this darkest hours. GOD be with you my friend.“
Thanks for thoughts and prayers. I managed to nearly complete tie strip installation in the yard: Of course, check out my blog. I am finally trying to stay semi-current with it.
Candy, sorry to hear you were sick. However, I'm glad you used the past tense implying that you're all better.