Its MONDAY 3-14-05, weekend modeling accomplishments!

We had a busy weekend. Several sport seasons are wrapping up and Little League is beginning. My son had his last indoor soccer game, and my daughter had a basketball scrimmage. She couldn’t play in her regular game on Sunday because we went to see the Harlem Globetrotters. The Globetrotters put on one heck of a show and it was enjoyed by all of us. We also had to do the obligatory grocery shopping.

As far as modeling goes I was able to accomplish a few things on the Passenger Station Diorama. I got the ground shaped and smoothed out. I also got the trolley bridge pier colored and installed. I painted the ground and stream bed.

Here is a picture of the bridges temporarily in place before the ground was painted.



And here is one with the ground painted.

 

I got 3, 10 year old ballasted turnouts ripped out, new ones laid and reballasted. I hope the new ones last as long.

Jon

 

I went to the All American Train Show in LaGrange, met Mr. Denton and Mr. Skibbe, saw the Kingsbury Branch, finished relaying the main line track through W. Berteau (there was a terrible dip), installed five Caboose ground throws, programmed two locos, and began painting track. That's more in one day than I've done in three months....

 

Looking good, Tom!

Due to school, homework, and my stepson's birthday, I got no modeling accomplished.

 

I didn't actually build anything, but I did get over to Menard's to buy a tub of lightweight spackle to use for roads on my NTrak modules. I had planned to try it out on Saturday, but...

If you count Thursday as part of the weekend, we attended an operating session on a friend's HO layout depicting the UP from Portland, Oregon, to North Platte, Nebraska. The layout is about 30'x70' and regularly hosts about 30 operators in a session. I took a few photos, I just need to download them from the camera. We're going back next week for another session.

This coming weekend, I'll be attending the annual train show in Rockford, Illinois, with the Capitol City NGineers, so I won't be building any roads then either. Maybe I can get some streets put down some evening this week.

 

Contacted accountant about my taxes. Almost done. Will be able to contact carpenter this week. I made a deal with myself: Get taxes done and then I can hire carpenter.

Tweaked the Grey and Grandure.
Ordered Bangor and Aroostook GPs for road switching service.

Skimmed: "Track Planning for Realistic Operations"
Page 56 has layout shapes. caused me to think about more plans for a 3'x7' area using 9, 12, and 15" curves.

 

Jeanne and I spent most of Sat. and then Sunday--until the weather turned bad--cleaning up the yard. It's been the wettest winter on record here, which is not very wet by most standards, and her gardens are exquisite as a result. Wet weather also produces a bumper crop of tumbleweeds, which I spent a long time gathering and burning.

On the railroad, Jeanne worked on the diner--pics when done, I promise. I "weathered" a lot of scenery around the layout with washes of india ink.

Under DCC, I've been having trouble with my LL Erie-Built A/B consist--you'd have trouble too, if you punched in 9743 for the B unit when its address is 9473. To think the A unit was strong enough to pull a dead B unit plus a train staggers me. It didn't pull it well, but it did. I finally bit the bullet and made a drawbar between them--they were too strong for MTs.

 

Slow weekend, plus being tired from work. Didn't get around to any RR work until Sat. afternoon since going shopping for the Missus was first priority. On the return trip from shopping stopped by the LHS and found waiting on the front shelf of newly arrived objects an SP&S 40 ft boxcar and some GN express reefers all by MT. Two of the express reefers left with me, expensive little devils, but nice, and of course the SP&S boxcar.

Made some decals for the apple processing plant using a product called Super Cal which is supposed to be for color ink jets. Hah, not in N scale. Lettering does not emboss thick enough for a good decal unless you want a faded, washed out looking decal. Supplied decal paper is too thick and is difficult to set. Plus the sealant supplied tends to run and fade the printed decal at times. Problems aside I still managed to get enough decals to letter the building. Finished up the building and will mount it on masonite later.

Got back at the shop/water tank module today and added cattails to the drainage ditch. Yup thats cattails in N scale

 

Got down to the club friday night, tried to get some kind of understanding of the yard. Finished wiring all but 2 of my little brothers switches, hopefully by next week we'll have the layout ballasted.

 

Let's see:

For what I planned I didn't get too much done. Fri. after work I went a met with a fellow modeler and did some swapping, picked up 7 engines. By the time I got home I had been up 24 hrs so I laid down for a nap and well I was tired- , didn't get up til 2am 12 hrs later, just couldn't get motivated at that time to do any modeling. Did some other things, then finally started the P2K gon, then went through the engines and cleaned/ lubed/tested them. Worked on the gon then engines back and forth. I did manage to get to the LHS Sat. for some parts & a mag, managed to walk out of there w/o a car or engine, whew!
Besides running all but 2 of the engines that's about it, Sunday am, just finished the gon, the Tichy gon is still sitting in the box, but I did brainstorm some ideas on some covered hopper rebuilds. Days off need to be longer -

Hope everyone had a great weekend!-

 

I made some trees from goldenrod and other select natural plants for the switching yard and turntable area.


Stay cool and run steam....

 

Wired up two more signals and had some friends over.
Dan

 

I accomplished a bit early, though I need to learn some techniques to finish the green car to get the full effect I am looking for.

A rehash:

Three Bachman End of the Liners.
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Car 1 is one of those that for no reason at all, it is kept around. Who knows why. By the looks of it, its an exdrunk driver. The pattern on the glass hints at least two occupants, and neither made it. The car isn't even opened much, the engine buried, the whole car no good for about anything...but it is kept around...the local police and fire departments rent it out, and take it around to the nearby highschools and colleges, during alcohol awareness week. Whether the actual crash was truely alchohol related or not, the car has the necessary character to fit the part. We know the doors still work, at least one of them; they weren't cut off. If I do another, I might make sure to model the effects of a Jaws of Life.







I did that patched rust by first laying down a larger stroke of the rust/boxcar red, and then used a brush laden with a little water to remove the still wet paint in the center of the brush stroke. The sides, haveing hardened up, were not affected by the water, but the center came right off. I also took one side of the axle out of the holder to enhance the offset in the frame created by the impact. To get the full effect of the front end, I cut the body alond hte lines of the hood, and where the grill and fender connect.
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This second car is a little less spectacular. The driver backed out of a tight spot somewhere, or got rearend in the rear panel. Pity how such an action renders the whole car undesireable. But no problems mechanically, so as you can see by the vertical lift in the front end, the engine has been pulled, and the hood, being huge and heavy, has closed back up.

I have not done much weathering yet, though it might be fun to do the torn roof look that occurs with vyinl covered hardtops. And touching this one's hood (cutting it out) isn't that easy.





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Get Ready To Rumble!!!!!!!!!!

This car has been pulled out of the yard, stripped, and rebuilt for hopefully two full days of FUN!



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I'm surprised I have not seen more of the bachmann cars end up like this; about the hardest part is doing the headlights. The paintschemes wildly vary from car to car, even if both cars are from the same autoshop/sponsor, and there is a lot of freedom in the accuracy of the paint. Anyways, here it is. And that all blue tire, that is not a fluke, that is called the elders drinking beer standing around and working on the car decided to keep the childern busy by letting them paint the wheels. And though most wheels are done right, not all the kids, especailly the younger kids, got the right directions on how to paint the tires. End result? The ENTIRE TIRE is painted blue. This is actually a historical reference, something my brother did a very long time ago when we were all working on a car. We could even tell which tires he painted when race day came too!
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There they all are, one left to rust, one left to die, and the other waiting for September. yeah, September, because out here, we aren't fully southern...we're southwestern; for the rest of our summer, We prefer to ride bulls and broncos and anything else the breathes! (hehehehe) Ok, yes, we do have dirt ovals around too, and a couple solid raceways...its all flat around here, I'm surprised they don't make an actual 100 mile course.




[ March 14, 2005, 08:36 PM: Message edited by: Benny ]

 

Life Like Proto 2000 GP38-2 factory painted Soo Line 4436. Needs a few mods to be prototypical. The begining of this was posted in the It's FRIDAY 3-11-05, weekend modeling plans! thread. Anyway, I wasn't happy with the first paint job (too thick with the factory paint, plus my paint) so I stripped it back (just the engine room roof section!) and repainted. Looks heaps better.

Next is some cab roof work (beckon, some patches where original horn was mounted) minor paint changes, pilot and underframe detail, ditch lights and of course my favourite - weathering!

 

Dan,

Who makes the signals and what are you using to control them? Thanks.

 

Mark, I make the signal post from styrene and use N.J. Inernational dwarf signals. I then ad etched catwalks, handrails and a ladder on the side. I use spare powerpacks to power them and control them with the toggle switches on the fascia on the layout. The two inside switches control red and green signals and the two outside switches are for the yellow signal.
This one does'nt have the catwalks and handrails yet.
This one is finished but it's kinda hard to see.

Thanks for asking, Dan

 

Dan
I picked up a couple of those NJ signals from the cheapo bin at LCCS. The box says 14-16v. I tried plugging one up to a power pak, but got no lights.

It has 3 lights, 3 wires with resistors, one plain. Thought I could just use 1 wire with resistor and 1 ground?? Am I missing something or have a bad light?

 

Kevin, if you put the plain wire onthe accessories side of the pack and each wire with resistors it should work. Now if it does'nt then you may have a bad LED. I got all that lccs had in the sale bin but now they look so good I'll have to pay full price for the rest I make.
Hope this helps. Dan

 

Thanks Dan. Yeah I must have a bad one. I bought 2 and haven't tried the 2nd. Will try tonight. There were a couple of these left, I think, 3 light for $6. On like a booksheld on the left near the bathroom. I try to go once a week, usually Fridays at lunch.

May be crazy, but I'm still trying to buy a few of the sale cars. New MTs at $5-6 are hard to pass up.

Thanks.
KB

PS - Signal towers look real good. I just ordered a single from Nj and may try to copy it.