The changing of the clocks to fall back an hour, the sudden deluge of Christmas ads and much cooler days means more work on the model railroad. How did you do this past weekend? As I said on Friday, I was away in Columbus flying small electric model airplanes in a golf dome all weekend. While the subject of model railroading came up several times, it never went any further than that. Now back home, I set my sights on Milwaukee Trainfest and plan for my departure here on Thursday. So how about you? Did you get everything done that you set out to do? How many went to train shows or open houses? Track work? Decal work? Whatever your progress this last week, let us know, with pictures if you have them. We'll come back here on Friday November 9th and do it again. Please keep our brothers and sisters in NY and NJ in your prayers and donate if you can, they are still in bad shape out there. ​High Greens!
The diesel detail project is done! These are 3 old, old Athearns, and there's a dummy B unit I fixed up as well. The detail kit included window glass, headlight lenses and grabs. The fleet now consists of one powered unit with sound, one powered unit without sound, one dummy unit with sound and on dummy with no sound. I bought the "nose art" decals from Microscale, and made the numberboard decals myself. I did a bit more on the caboose project, too. I bought two sets of Adlake lamps for the rear of two Milwaukee bay-window cabeese. These are nice models, with some interior detail. Since I'll be lighting the interior of at least one of them, I printed up a "tile" floor and some wood panel walls and put those in place, and glued a couple of figures into the seats. I drilled out mounting holes for the lamps and glued them in. The test with a battery looked fine. Now I've got to wire in the diode bridge, capacitor and resistors I need, and attach it all to the power pickup wipers and trucks.
On Sunday morning, I found the time to glue down ballast between the main track and the US 33 overpass, scenic the embankment and "plant " trees. I'm on my android phone, so I'll post a picture later.
The power came back on Friday evening. The linemen were from Kentucky. Thanks guys. Spent Saturday cleaning out my fridge and freezer of the spoiled contents. I didn't lose much as I cooked a lot when the power went off to save it.. Also had to clean up the branches and other debris from my yard. I did get to work some on the T-Trak module.
After Hurricane Ike a few years ago, the neighborhood had a block party one evening at the end of the street. Everyone had cooked up loads of food on their camp stoves before it could go bad and we had a feast. After eating all we could we just sat in our lawn chairs, talked and looked up at the stars. Most of the Houston area was without power so the night sky looked like we were out in the wilderness somewhere. Fortunately we could still get ice to keep a few perishables fresh in our coolers. Of course we had stocked up on plenty of adult beverages that were also iced down. However, the sound of all the gas powered generators around the neighborhood was a little annoying. As the days without power went on, folks were having trouble procuring gasoline to keep them running so things got quieter. We had a cool front blow through a few days after the storm so with all the windows in the house open it was rather pleasant. As for this past weekend, I did some decal work on a few passenger cars I am working on. I need to start getting ready to set up our club NTRAK layout which will be on the local model railroad open house tour for the next two weekends. Went to a memorial service for a fellow modeler and railfan on Saturday. Saw a lot of friends there.
I must have done something wonderful when I reassembled the pilot truck on my Model Power 4-4-0 because it now can pull four (4!) Athearn Overland cars without slipping instead of only two since it was new. I have no idea what I changed to make it work. However, I can explain how I reassembled it if anyone else is having the same slipping problem.
Pat- What are those twigs? They look somewhat similar to dead growth I have seen on a low ornamental evergreen, such as a (Tam) Juniper?
With the twins and my wife all sick this past weekend, I set up the modeling "workbench" on the dining room table, and went to town when it was nap times. With Trainfest a week away, I wanted to get a lot of odds and ends tied up. I painted a ton of shiny passenger and freight trucks Flat Black, installed and painted the winterization hatch on my Soo Geep, installed FVM wheels on rolling stock, and basically did a once over of all my equipment before I throw it in the car Friday morning. I think I'm good to go! Come on over and say Hello to us over at MiNi if you're at Trainfest.
Boxcab, those are cut from ornamental grapevine brooms often cinnamon scented. I picked up 5 brooms on clearance for 50 cents each after Christmas last year. Tracy McKibben using similar material on his DM&IR Hill City Sub.
Messed and messed with a model until I screwed it up. Now I'll have to strip it and redo it all over again. One step forward and three steps back.
I weathered more rolling stock. About 50% of the locos and cars for an ops session have been weathered in the last couple of months. md
slated for replacement in the next 9 months. we will see if the schuedle holds. still have a few more projects in the hopper first. md
worked on the layout, Main 2 across the bridge http://www.flickr.com/photos/37922909@N06/8146030930/in/photostream main 1 progressing http://www.flickr.com/photos/37922909@N06/8149099741/in/photostream
Thank you. Technique is a) airbrushed fades, dirt and grime followed by b) small applications of pan pastels and then c) heavy application of chalks. Finally d) sealed with Dullcote and e) spot paint of oils and rust if appropriate. I am now averaging about 10 mins per car or 20-30 mins per loco for all steps combined including mounting, black lining any grills, masking/demasking and wheel cleaning. md
Sounds more complex than it is. If it takes that short a time, you should do a time-lapse video for youtube, to help people get started.
