Well I hope you got more modeling done than I. I had nscalerones first Reading Geep done with the exception of installing the rear number board assembly when the piece went "ping" out of the tweezers and into the air. I saw a slight glisten of the part as it reached apogee then disappear into the sea of carpet. I spent at least five hours for that piece, on my hands and knees and still have not found it. Worse case, I'll have to do another number board. Weathering continues, no layout progress. I need more hours in the day. How about you? Hopefully you all have better results than I.
I didn't get anything done on the layout this weekend. Cold water supply to our bathroom sink burst and nearly flooded the room so I had to rip the floor up. Still working on putting new laminate hardwood floor down today (Thank goodness for the holiday). I did pick up some 12 gauge and 20 gauge wire for the layout, itll be a while before I get to wiring, but at least I have it now.
I've made another turnout for the P&SL RR. Code 55, #6. And the next one is in work. :angel: Wolfgang
Our daughter was in town for the weekend, but she spent most of her time with her boyfriend. We did have a couple of great dinners together (lobster at $4.99 a pound is tough to turn down, our our group-cook of pasta carbonara was as much fun to prepare as to eat.) But then, the weather was just so beautiful that I had to spend part of Sunday afternoon riding my bicycle rather than ballasting. I know, I know, get your chores done first..... The pavement is done in front of Zorba's Diner, a City Classics model: Merchants Row now has all its lights installed. These 3 walls are attached, and I'm ready for final assembly and roof detailing next. This is the first floor interior of Merchants Row:
Attempted to install a TCS AMD4 decoder in my GP40-2. Then it happened the insulating bushing disappeared. One member was nice enough to put one in the mail.
TRACK BULLETIN #2011-10-9-1 TO: All Trains to, from, or through Nolan, WV RE: Ballasting Operations at Nolan Yard EFFECTIVE: Immediately NOTE: Ballasting operations ongoing at Nolan Yard. Expect disruptions to train operations in and around Nolan. Contact Yardmaster, Nolan Yard for current operations. NOTE: Yard Limits at Nolan Yard extended 2 miles North and South until further notice. Blocks immediately north and south of extended yard limits will be at Restricted Speed until further notice. NOTE: Be prepared for mainline tracks in vicinity of Nolan Yard to be used for yard operations as ballasting proceeds. Untitled by BGTwinDad, on Flickr A little more brown than I'd originally intended, but it's growing on me. The mainline ballast will be significantly more "limestone", so hopefully the color contrast will make up for the lack of elevation contrast...
Thanks. I'm trying to simultaneously go for ballast that looks realistic and attractive, while also help differentiate which tracks are "yard" or "siding" vs. which are "mainline". The mainline tracks will have a very clean, crushed limestone (well, Woodland Scenics grey) ballast, almost boring... the side tracks will be differently colored. Mostly this brownish, or with varying amounts of brown added. I'm also going to have some "patched" spots... contrasting colors to whatever is nearby, like they had to make a repair and used whatever ballast was in the nearest MOW hopper...
Sounds like a good plan. Now why did you have to mention MOW and remind me I have a whole MOW train to weather?? (9 walthers hoppers + atlas gp38 loco... an impulse fee-pay buy )
Now if I can just subliminally get you to ship them to me after they're weathered.... <presses finger tips to temples>
For the right price I bet it could happen lol. I got a awesome deal... $140 for the set (loco is dcc equipped, loco and all cars have been converted to MT couplers)
Most railroads used "generic" dark grey ballast, or what ever was prevelant in the area.... In any case, I did some touch up work on my Oakwood module. Got Oakwood Road's shoulders finally installed, planted a few trees to replace ones that got beat up coming and going from shows, and some wild flowers got planted. The RPM show and Trainfest are around the corner!
My achievements for the weekend... 1) Assembled a heap of MT couplers 2) Installed several of said couplers on some rolling stock 3) Nicely weathered (chalks, water, and dullcote) a bunch of stock (Kato CSX C44-9W, CSX AC4400CW, 5 covered hoppers, 2 box cars) If you count today (since it IS a long weekend) 4) Converted a Bachmann C40-8 (non-dcc ready) to a dummy, removed truck mounted couplers, filled in pilots with epoxy, installed MT couplers, installed a plow on the front. Still need to weather it, but I'm out of dullcote
After a short bit of ballasting last week i was able to get most of the tunnel portal and trestle in. Looked like a mess at the start.. Slowly got better.... still need to make a few adjustments to the bridge and also need to tie in the actual tunnel portal. And it all needs another coat of sculpta mold. I must say that i like working with the crumbled paper and plaster cloth. The "mountains" seem to come out much more realistic compared to my poor attempts at sculpting foam.
I refurbished all the trucks on my old N scale Texas Special passenger train that I built up 20 years ago by kit bashing and painting a bunch of Atlas Rivarossi cars. The train has many miles of running on NTRAK layouts so the metal axles on the original trucks had eroded up through the plastic truck frames until the lower part of the frames would drag going over switches and crossovers. I applied AC glue to the inside of the cone shaped bearing cups in the side frames. I did not fill them all the way but left a nice round dimples after the AC dried. I made an N scale tool modeled after the ones available in HO that I have where there is a cutting point milled into each end of an axle. There is a thumb wheel to turn the tool to cut new bearing cones into the side frames. After cutting the new bearing cones I mounted new MT wheel sets into the trucks and they roll better than they ever have. They are the old MT pizza cutter wheels but for NTRAK running I don't care. I can hardly see them anyway.
Open House big success about 150 visitors came in and everyone had a good time. only one derailment all day when a wheelset fell out of a MT truck. layout progress continues tree clinic was a big hit
I got the all of the roadbed laid for the outer loops. I used the 3 mm floor pad to make the roadbed for the end that has the double loop. On the single loop end I used Woodland Scenics foam roadbed.
I am dying to know what those armatures are made out of, and how they were made: the finished product looks excellent, and I'm trying to build a collection of methods to try once I get around to making the 300 or so I'll need for my 'appalachia' Nice to see that your open house went over well, hopefully you got a lot of nice compliments for all your hard work C
trees are furnace filter on bamboo skewers, secured with a bit of tacky glue, and trimmed to desired shape painted brown, grey, or both, coated with cheap hairspray to stick foam to tree
