The National Weather Center has issued a weather warning for the areas of North America: Spring has been cancelled, March will be more snow, more below average temps and more ice storms...................Sounds like a good excuse to stay inside and work on some model railroading! Yes as the calendar flips from February to March, our area is still in a deep freeze with ice and snow storms predicted for the next week or more. No relief in sight is what our local weatherman says so I'll do what I have done the last few weeks, brew up some coffee, key up some pod casts and work on my projects. This past week I was able to get all the track down on my third and final module. Drops were soldered up to the main bus Wednesday night and a test train was sent from one end to the other. Success! I hope to complete or at least get 90% of the electronics done on Module one which is two turnout controls, two frog juicers and a crossing gate system.That will be either Saturday or Sunday as it depends on when we have the sun. The parts I was hoping to get last Saturday, came Monday and since I need natural sun light for photography, working on the diesel project after work doesn't work. At least after next weekend, I'll have a little bit of sunlight when I get home. So diesel detailing one day and layout work the next. Add in the weekly soccer game, shopping and family time entertainment requirement and we'll see exactly how much really gets done. How about you? What will you be working on this weekend? Let us know! We'll come back here on Monday, March 2nd and see how we have done. Until then, keep the space heaters in the shop going, add an extra layer of clothes, stay warm and... ​High Greens!
I fixed my electrical short yesterday when I got home from work, so that is good to go. Already ran U23B #2061 around, spotted a couple minor problems but that was expected. All frogs were fine as dead, so I shouldn't have to feed any of them. I visited a friend this week and ran on his layout a little. He is a Proto:87 modeler, and his layout is always inspiring (and he doesn't even have scenery yet). Convinced me to explore use of Sergent Engineering scale couplers. I just ordered a couple 6 packs of unassembled couplers to test with. I was surprised the bulk pricing was not cost prohibitive, so the possibility of full conversion is pretty likely. Anyhow, I'm going to attach more feeders to buss lines this weekend. Goal is to have 2/3 of the layout wired in and operational.
Jim Wiggins, I'm in the Peoria area and commiserate with you about the weather. On tap for the weekend (providing I can get to my train shed) I'm going to convert my ore cars to a shorter coupler. I'll only be able to run them on wide radius, but I don't run them that often anyhow. Also, several buildings to detail. Good luck!
The weather folks are dangling some close to normal temperatures in front of our noses, so I may be limiting my modeling activities in favor of doing some outdoor fun without the preoccupation of freezing off various parts of my anatomy because of global warming. But I will try to continue some more decal and detail work on the Kato GP35 that will become CN 4000. It may take longer, but if the fun lasts longer, I'm not against that!
I've spent the week skiing, although I probably spent as much time in front of the TV as on the slopes. It's just plain to cold to do this day after day, with single-digit temperatures most of the day. I'm home now, and I got right to work on my grade crossing improvements. I wired up and tested both of the Rob Paisley circuit boards, and they work just fine. The lights flash very nicely, with the alternating flashers doing their thing, and the Tortoise moves back and forth at what appears to be a good pace to drive the gates. The next step will be to install them on the layout and figure out the mounting for the infrared diodes and detectors. This is a fun project.
