Welcome back everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend and that you got a lot accomplished. Let's get started. Saturday: Plans had changed and so Ang and I went up to Galesburg to see how this years Galesburg RR Days was doing. Yet another location for the model train show and unfortunately not ideal. The building had no air conditioning and with me still in recovery mode, I could only walk around a bit. I did say hi to some old friends and picked up some nice N scale cars from ESM and Trainworx. Ang and I had an early dinner at the Packing House and left town about 4:00pm. The show certainly isn't what it used to be. Sunday: I worked on the Athearn display/switching layout and got a lot accomplished. The moving of vehicles back in forth in the garage due to rain and the heat slowed me down, but I still got a lot done. By that night we fought the rain and and had brats and hot dogs on the grill with my older brother stopping to visit. So how about you? What did you get done this past weekend? Let us know. We'll assemble once again for another Holiday Weekend on July 2nd to start the process all over again. Until then, be safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens! Side note to those who care: I realize some, maybe most of you just want to come in and post what you did and not hear about the inner workings of your author. I understand, and that is why this is down here, however my life has changed this last year and some changes may effect my future involvement with Trainboard. As you know, I was very sick the beginning of the month and I'm still in recovery for Lobar Pneumonia. On Wednesday morning this past week, I learned my Mom finally succumbed to her illness and passed away peacefully at our NH home. Even when we expect it, it still hurts. Railroaders can be superstitious and have always believed that bad things come in three, so it goes without saying that I'm looking over my shoulder for number three. With all of that said, plans for both Angela and I have changed and the next few months, maybe even the year. The future will be a challenge as we plot new plans. For as long as I can, I will continue to do the WMP and WMA threads, however that may change depending on responsibilities outside of model trains. I will keep you posted. For those who have sent thoughts, prayers, positive vibes, Thank you. I appreciate it and our community is blessed to have so many thoughtful modelers.
Thank you for your post and side note Jim. You and your family continue in my prayers. Kept on with building the legs for my new N Scale road, breaking out my home-brew tapering jig to give the legs a nicer look. I'd built the jig 1-1/2 years ago, but then had to set everything railroad aside for a family issue only now clearing up. It's nice to be making some sawdust.
Managed to work on a few building details as planned. Also managed yesterday to extend roadbed for the extension of the city. Now will come building the bridge that will span the mainline over to the new area. Extension work before and after:
@Jim Wiggin - So sorry to hear about your Mom. May her memory be of a blessing. Don't push your recovery. The rest will sort it self out, and you seem to be in the right frame of mind to facilitate the sorting.
Not a lot accomplished. Spent time on the Internet following a powerboat race- my favorite sport! Went through my paints. Have a couple of colors I need to replenish. Decided upon a paint scheme for my tug boat, and now debating it's name. Very shortly I am heading out to pick up a couple of kits I had ordered.
Jim, thanks for all the updates and side notes. You and your family continue to be in our thoughts and prayers. My heartfelt condolences on the loss of you mom. Saturday - Helped my son with his Eagle project by operating the power saw and then standing back and watching him and his fellow scouts build. Sunday - Finished up the rooftop details for the grain elevator. Still maybe a couple of side items to add to the main building but it's almost there! Assembled the rest of the detail stuff from the kits and got some of them painted. Then started on a panel upgrade for a ConCor autorack. Did a tad more than I planned but still doesn't feel like I got that much done. The main thing is it was relaxing. Hope everyone has a great week!
Jim, my sincere condolences and I am truly sorry for your loss. Stay strong and God Bless!! My plans went as -- well... as planned. I made some decent progress on my F7 project -- that's about it. Hope Y'all had a great weekend, Wolf
Jim, take care of yourself and your family. You have our deepest sympathies and prayers. I fully understand the hurt even when you are “prepared.” We lost my father-in-law a year ago and even though he was in hospice for six months it still hit like a ton of bricks. The first ever Upper Darby Pride Festival my son helped organize was a huge success. By the end of the day, he had vendors and visitors asking about next year. He had many politicians show up including the mayor, township council members, school board members, state representative, and US Congresswoman. He was exhausted and not surprisingly considering he was out in the sun for 12 hours and according to his fitbit he walked 20 miles. I drove one of the U-Hauls and helped with loading and unloading. Needless to say, no modeling got done. I did have a scare yesterday. I was trimming our weeping cherry tree when the ladder suddenly sunk on one end. If I would have ridden it down, I would have been flung into several bushes and rocks. I pushed off the ladder and remembering my training from Boy Scouts and various sports, I landed and rolled ending up on my feet in a crouching position. I have a slight bruise on one arm and other than being sore for a time no other injury. Upon inspecting the stone, I had placed the ladder leg on had been undermined by some tunneling critter. Luckily, I was only on the second step when all this happened.
Jim, sorry to read about your mom. Thank you for taking time to keep this little part of your world going. I knew my modeling time would be limited this weekend. Happy to report that I did get the smoke stack base finished on Saturday. The idea is to drill a series of holes, carefully centered, in the boiler to use for mounting the stack, domes, etc. I have the stack drawn and a setup plan ready for when I return to the work space. That will be a little while because the next ten days will be all about family. See you weekend after next. Stay safe,
Finished repainting the Athearn EMD switcher: Other than painting and lettering for GTW 7017, put in new glazing in the windows (was missing), lowered the hood-side handrail a tad, and replaced the incandescent bulbs and constant lighting system with new directional LED headlights. A nice weekend project.
Side note from a fellow modeler: Mr. Wiggin, thank you for letting us know what you have been experiencing. Many of us have gone through the same thing. I does take time to deal with. My sympathy to you and your family. The reason I say thank you is that for me people are what makes the hobby of model railroading as great as it is. The contributions that those I have met or read after have helped me personally. You have been one of those individuals. As I write this, I am on here later than normal due to attending my daughter-in-law's father's memorial service. He was a 77 year old veteran. Sometimes we all just do the best we can. Time is needed for healing. In the end you will be a better man even though that does not seem apparent now. As for progress on the hotel, things have been a little weird. Friday I don't recall doing much. What I did do instead of what I needed to do was pull out my Scan-n-Cut CM350 and start to relearn how to work it. I tried to do a project over a year ago which did not work very well and I had so much on my model RR plate and I was so put out I put it up that long ago. How is that for a run on sentence? Saturday started with a chore. Once completed I decided to go to a peach festival. That's when things got weird. I was in five traffic jams. I got lost in the back country roads only once. First one at road work in a shopping center. Second, after deciding to go south on the old U.S. highway. Decided to turn around. Got on the freeway. Bad move. Number three. No moving vehicles north or south. Inched down to the next exit. Sign said Calera. Oh boy! Bebopped that direction. Came to a "tee". No city sign. Turned left. Drove some. Got stuck behind some road maintenance trucks. Number four. Turned around and drove through the wilderness. By the time I was able to locate myself it was lunch time. I had stumbled into a town not far from where I thought I wanted to go. Drove there. Wanted to turn left and check on the Railroad Museum. Got stuck in traffic. Realized I took a wrong turn and went back to the hamburger place I saw. Got stuck again! Got to food. Decided against the peach festival. Went to the Railroad Museum. They had some new stuff since I last visited. Headed for home. Decided to stay off the freeway. Went through the county seat. Saw a festival underway! Checked it out. I was just in time for a parade! After that I headed home in earnest. Later that evening I did some work with the Scan-n-cut and was able to cut out some useable railcar components. I was elated to be frank. I know by this point some of you wish I was Frank. I hear he doesn't talk so much. Anyway, this week I should be able to work on the hotel and if I am disciplined enough, railcar components. We will see. All be safe and have fun.
I got a little done on the module. Trees and shrubs have been started and the first pour of resin took place. Second our will be Tuesday. I hope to have track down Thursday. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Side note to those who care: I realize some, maybe most of you just want to come in and post what you did and not hear about the inner workings of your author. I understand, and that is why this is down here, however my life has changed this last year and some changes may effect my future involvement with Trainboard. As you know, I was very sick the beginning of the month and I'm still in recovery for Lobar Pneumonia. On Wednesday morning this past week, I learned my Mom finally succumbed to her illness and passed away peacefully at our NH home. Even when we expect it, it still hurts. Railroaders can be superstitious and have always believed that bad things come in three, so it goes without saying that I'm looking over my shoulder for number three. With all of that said, plans for both Angela and I have changed and the next few months, maybe even the year. The future will be a challenge as we plot new plans. For as long as I can, I will continue to do the WMP and WMA threads, however that may change depending on responsibilities outside of model trains. I will keep you posted. For those who have sent thoughts, prayers, positive vibes, Thank you. I appreciate it and our community is blessed to have so many thoughtful modelers.[/QUOTE] Jim: All the best to you. Things have a way of working themselves out, and we are all praying for your recovery. God love ya and stay strong.
Jim, thanks for the update and stay strong, I am sure your will get over all this. Over the weekend I ran some trains over at the club on Saturday and I painted a PC&F 50' RBL and an Atlas C-424. Also decaled the Andersons covered hopper and a PFE 57' Mechanical Reefer. While looking for something else I found a couple of Stewart G39 Ore Jimmies kits that I had not built. So I put them together and put ore loads in them. See you later! Rick Jesionowski
Just wanted to say... Thank you everyone for your well wishes, thoughts and prayers. I and my family do appreciate it and it reminds me of how this hobby is filled with some many kind and generous people. Thank you.
So I actually did some modeling this weekend, after cleaning off 20% of my work bench! Thats Rix elevator kit that is the start of salt unloading for my Sir Lee (or Surly) Salt warehouse set up. The white L shaped styrene piece will be the concrete vault for the below track unloading, so pint and grating is up next.
I feel for you Jim. We lost Dad a few years back and had to move Mom (92) to a care facility last year. She made a trip to the ER and spent most of this week in the hospital with what they think was a bacterial and a shingles infection in her eye. She otherwise remains in reasonably good health, but we are regularly reminded at times like this (and when she had COVID last year), that everything can change in a blink. Prayers for you and yours. Modeling-wise, I haven't been getting much of anything done. I did manage to go to the train club on Tuesday, but no one else was there. Given the high temps we've been having, I'd guess the low attendance has a lot to do with our clubs air conditioning being on the fritz. Hopefully, this week will be better. A week from today (Thursday) we board Amtrak for our trip to New Mexico (from Ohio). So, I need to start packing and figure out which cameras I want to take. Sent from my moto g(7) play using Tapatalk
