Its Monday 5-30-05, Weekend modeling accomplishments

Been a very busy weekend. We worked around the house and did some running around. We cleaned the garage out and worked some more on the pool but it is too cool to go in. I spent Friday on the road for work looking at flood damaged roads and canals in Bucks County. That is why there was no Friday Weekend Post.

I finished decaling the Ralston-Jefferson hopper and ran some trains. I also tried to figure out what is wrong with the IHC camelback with no success.

Well this weekend still has one day to go. I hope to get some more modeling done.

 

I finally started working on the Saucier & Southern Terminal Yard, which also serves as an interchange with the Boston & Maine Gulf Division in the distance. The yard throat, freight yard, and freight make-up tracks are in, and the turntable and engine house are placed. The passenger yard and station tracks will go in between the freight yard and the engine house, along with some tracks for miscellaneous storage, etc.



My brother has questioned the logic in having a wye at the interchange and also having a turntable. Well, I had an extra wye turnout in the "junk" box, I think the S&S main with a wye going into the wall under the upper B&M main will be interesting when scenicked, and I like the Peco turntable...besides, it's my layout!

 

I placed some decoders in some loco's and weathered some freight cars.


I also placed a speaker in the chasis of a 50' boxcar. I then took Kato caboose trucks and wired the power leads of a DSX Soundtraxx sound only decoder to the contact tabs of both trucks. The speaker was wired to the decoder.

Now I have a second alternative to the sound on the JJJ&E.

Stay cool and run steam...

 

I placed a decoder (TCS M1) into a Bachmann DD40X.
I hardwired the decoder to both motors and to the light board!
Quite a good improve in this beast performance, but the locomotive is a bit too noisy!

I'm searching for some new gear, because at this time only six ot 8 axles are working. I had to remove a gear in each truck!

Ciao,

 

Nothing. But I got a great workout around the yard. The major event was netting the cherry tree, which is about 20 feet high and 20 wide. A new 10-foot stepladder allowed me to get up high enough, together with a 16-foot pole, to get almost all of it. Of course, I'll have to take it all off next weekend, when we harvest. We will have bushels of cherries this year. Last year we were away at this time, and the birds got everything.

 

Finished up the 2nd of 3 GP30's. This unit is a former Kentucky & Chattanooga GP30 #107. It has nose lights, and is not equipped with dynamic brakes. There are 15 Ex-K&C GP30's on the Chicago, Pittsburgh & Eastern Roster, numbered 3400-3414, all still in K&C Red/Black.

The CP&E painted the new numbers in when the GP30's were absorbed into the roster in 1966, a year later, they painted out the K&C emblem and added the CP&E, hence the difference in shades.


This is Pennsylvania Railroad #569887, an X-29 boxcar. Still plying the rails in 1967 in the Merchandise Service scheme.

 

Well I finally got started on my final layout!. this will be my fifth and smallest ever. I have retired and moved into a condo. First time with no basement. So I made the executive decisions.

N-scale
Shelf Layout 15" x 185"
Era: 1944/45
City/industrial
Peco code 80 trackwork
No train to exceed 10% of bench length (18.5")

I have about 80% of the benchwork completed as of tonight
I know some will say something about a bunch of straight track, but running the same train in circles is not what I want this time. I have been drawn to layouts like the Pioneer Vallye, and Franklin and South Manchester for their city scenes and operating potential.
I tries out my old Bachman 0-6-0 switcher and it still runs so it will be the only power for a while, maybe an atlas VO-1000 later on.

 

Nothing, watched boring movies and slept at in-laws.

 

Well amongst all the hoopla of the weekend, I did manage to put together the 5 pack of hoppers. Still need P2K wheels as the LHS is out right now. The best thing was at the Flea Market on Sunday. A woman had a box of trains, it was a B-mann train set, EZ track, GP40 [ newer ] , 5 cars, power pack, 2 buildings & some other accesories, then there was this other loco in the box. I asked how much, she said $25.00, I looked at the other loco and it was a decoder equipped Atlas SD-35, only missing the end handrails. Didn't take me long to get the money out but keep a straight face. I don't think she knew what it was. Both locos run great and the figure 8 of track is now a test/break in track so I don't have to keep running down to the layout. Sometimes you just get lucky!

I did run trains alot!-

Hope everyone had a great weekend!-

 

Not much of a weekend; went shopping Saturday, mowed the jungle (after finally buying some oil for the mower) and played with OpenTTD - an open source Transport Tycoon clone. Another great way to lose many hours.

Sunday, put down second coat of paint on most of my semi-portable module, and measured up the hilly corner for some foam-carving. Paint looks fairly good (ground cover and buildings will hide the brush strokes), but it did react badly to a pen line drawn on the foam. Might have to find something more opaque and less water-based to try to cover that.

Next weekend? maybe some more paint, maybe some foam carving, maybe build some shelves in the Garage. Should be able to make something very similar to my under layout shelves.

 

Not a whole lot here...I finished another section of framework for my benchwork, and mounted one other section to the wall.

Also did some "passive" railfanning while out and about during the weekend. But no dedicated railfanning excursions.

 

took a Traction Interlock S set to Waterfall and back then travelled passenger to Clyde to work a Tangara to Carlingford and back a couple of times, winter is here I was actually cold.

on the little train side, put the hitches on the AC spines and finished painting my 53' trailer - to run on the spines.

 

Have the first table built. Picks sooner or later.

 

Laid the first track on the new layout! Got about 15' laid on Monday. I laid the last of the cork on the elevated section on Saturday, and sanded it down Monday morning.

I'll lay the track on the elevated track and install all of the switch machines before I install the foam and track on the lower sections. Need to get some piano wire to hook up the tortoise machines through the 2" of benchwork & foam.

If things keep progressing I should be able to run trains on the main line in a couple of months.

Mark in Utah

Mark in Utah

 

Installed sky boards 36" high and clouds. As soon as the additional backgrounds come in I will install them and have the sky boards done.


Mike

 

Town partially came up >>> post & pics here

and painted >>> post & pics here

 

Finally finished my table and contol panel. Now I just need to paint it to make it real "purty".

Then figured out how to wire Tortoises, and power the frog, complete with LEDs. For the electrically challenged, that was a big job! Thanks to my dad, we got it done.

Now, just need to finish wiring, and it's on to scenery.

 

OK, finally have photos to present, to prove I'm actually accomplishing something! Here is my layout room and benchwork, the majority of work having been completed over the last month or so:



Which is a far cry from what it looked like upon move-in:



The first thing you'll probably notice is, hey, your sky starts a little high there. Well, actually the true layout height will be where the green meets the blue sky. The bechwork you see is the lower level staging, and (unless something doesn't work out) there will be another level of staging in between. So I've still got my work cut out for me.