So how did you do this weekend? I finished wiring the utility poles on the Water Tower Diorama. The results can be viewed at Water Tower Diorama and WWF 12/12/04 . I paid for my latest acquisition from Ebay, an IHC 2-6-0 Camelback lettered for the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co., the parent company of the LNE. Also wrapped my son’s Christmas gift, G-scale Bachmann Rocky Mountain Express. We went to the Greenberg show in Fort Washington on Saturday. The show was disappointing. My wife was looking for G-scale stuff. She found very little and what she found was either MSRP or higher. I found a lot of HO but again there were no bargains. The few guys I found with deals had nothing I needed. First time I walked out of a show empty handed. My daughter did get a combination hairbrush and mirror.
I wired up the last turnout at the upper level of my layout. It took a total of 9+ hours, but I was able to figure out how to wire an Atlas Connector for spurs within my reverse loop. I also cut a plate girder bridge in half, attached to each end of a truss bridge (truss too short for span) touched up the weathering on the plate girder bridge and glued together. I also broke my airbrush. A year ago, it would not have upset me since an airbrush was not even on the horizon of possible acquisitions.
Nothing. Spent Saturday finishing Xmas shopping and buying a 10' stepladder so that the Xmas tree decorating party on Sunday would be safe. Spent Sunday morning on the ladder putting lights on a 14' high, 300-lb tree. Hosted party. Showed off railroad, and gained one more convert.
I finished the last of the wiring on my S scale layout. I connected the Digitrax system to the layout and rain my one locomotive and train for the first time. I was able to run over all track on the layout with great success. All and all it was a most rewarding weekend of modeling. Now its time to tackle the backdrop painting and fascia over the holidays.
Managed to get my outdoor photography session done, will upload to RailImages later this week. Began my overly-ambitious Holiday Weathering Project - - 23 cars in total, we'll see what really gets done by the end of the month!
Added details to my Life Like Alco PA. Before: After: Same pics as I posted in WNFF, but I did actually do this over the weekend.
What I had planned to do was somewhat different from what I actually did, but (aside from getting the lawnmower running to mow the yard one last time- yes, you CAN do that in Texas!!) I did accomplish the following: </font> Strip an SW7 shell, find a matching cab from my parts pile, and get the chassis to run properly</font> Paint said shell white, and mask it for painting red later on</font> Paint three Athearn 70-ton quad hoppers boxcar red and Glosscote, for later decaling. These three hoppers will then enter the roster for chat hauling service.</font> Paint a GP40-2 shell white, in preparation for masking off sections to paint Mandarin orange</font> Replace a truck assembly on one of my Atlas-Roco GP40s to get it running again. The shell that sits on it is a model of Texas, Oklahoma & Eastern GP40 D-12.</font> Install Intermountain 36" wheelsets on a new MDC covered hopper. This is part of an ongoing project to replace all the wheelsets on my rolling stock to metal- no set time frame has been established to do this</font> And finally, make the connections needed to hook my new airbrush up to my compressor, thus not having to rely on canned air (stuff gets expensive over time)</font> That, and eat a bowl or two of chili while watching the Cows lose another one...
Nice PA, Flash!Where did you get the numberboards for the PA's? Are they the Kato ones and which part number were they? I have used two pair (which were 'obtained' in rather dodgy circumstances ) on a couple of Soo FA1's and am looking at having another couple of pairs for 'ron. As for modelling, fiddled with the underframe and trucks from an American Limited 85' passenger car core kit. Nice trucks for those you put together yourself and the working diaphrams are excellent. Now to get together enough information to consider modelling the North Coast Limited of the mid-50's. Bob, good idea getting away from those propel cans... what a pain they are! Oh, when you come to weather the GP40-2, place a piece of tape under the window above the boxes before starting - saves having to repaint white when you put the BN re-number on.
I'm still working on the turntable/engine facility module. I'm just about finished with one of the two Atlas Roundhouses that I need for the module. I have wire the track in the roundhouse and cement the track to the base. Stay cool and run steam....
I finished assembling a structure kit obtained at the Wakefield show, then had to take up a siding and relay at a slight angle to get it to fit! Looks better now though as the siding is not parallel to the backscene
I started working on scenery this weekend. I completed about 12' worth on one of the branchlines. I need to add some more trees to fill out the scene. The branchline terminates at a large cement mill. There are about 10 other industries on the branch line. The facia will be painted a dark green.
I finished my wireing and found i had a short. Thanks to some help on this board and one other i finally got it fixed tonight. will be working on wiring in reverse loop and seperate programing track. Have been using all Kato plug and play parts. Even for wiring. This system is real good for us non electricly inclined folks.
