Ah, the admirable art of compromise, when both parties believe they have outwitted the other. Though in this case, I believe it is the cats who are winning.....hboy:
Cats are funny. They like to squeeze themselves into tight places but let a human (kid-type humans, that is) try to put them into one and all hel* breaks loose. Would it work to record the sound of a vacuum cleaner and have it playing near the layout when you're gone or do some of them actually like a vacuum cleaner? Doug
They are impervious to the sound of a vacuum cleaner, drill, saw, and anything but the sound of the mailbox flap. That causes them to charge the door. And they are excellent at going into stealth mode, even the Big Guy except for Halfbit who's disabilities tend to make her a Klutz. That would just cause the others to think the big guy is calling and rush to the sound. I have come to accept that they are on a higher intelligence level than we want to admit. They can pick out the warmest softest spot, recognize certain brands and bags of food as theirs, and know my Wife's work schedule better than I do. Plus contrary to all the so called experts they have a unique language among themselves that they communicate by. And one at least has an advanced degree in urban planning, I suspect Deekus, who has been pointing out my layout mistakes to me since I started. Worst of all I have found that at least three of them know how to open doors. I fully expect that when I finally get the wiring hooked up, the last track in, and the power pack hooked up that one will be operating trains, so that the others can chase mini meeces.
Installed the last pieces of the engine service area including two outhouses. Now just have a boatload of scenic work to do in the area. But all that is going on hold for awhile while I address the upper meadow Feline issue. Spent a good part of today digging in my structure storage boxes for structures to go up there with the aforementioned resort idea in mind. Came up with another log house I had built plus three resin cabin kits I did not know I had, and a small shack. I have two Alpine style two story log structures and one will go up in the meadow along with these structures. The other will be located down on the lower level. The small shack I am going to put a hole in the roof and simulate a small abandoned and burnt out cabin. While I was working on the window trim on the cabins I was looking for the source of the deep rumbling noise that I was hearing. Sounded like a piece of heavy equipment outside my window. Turned out to be the Big Guy asleep on the window platform above my work table and snoring like a champ. And it looks like I will end up fabricating my own small horse barn as the original sources and some of my small barn and shed buildings appears to be out of business. And dangit they had some nice little laser cut wood structures that would have been right.
Layout work is on hold while I tackle the high meadow problem. Had three Sylvan cabin or summer kitchen kits that I decided to assemble and locate in the meadow. They can be built as either the cabin or summer kitchen which would be attached to a larger wood framed house and I am doing these as cabins. Knowing what I do now I would not purchase these except maybe to set way in the background. Typical of a lot of resin casting these have spots, particularly on the window frames where they did not mold well. You have to cut out the excess material in the windows which is sometimes thick and others thin and easy to get out. Mostly a P.I.T.A. though. And don't get me started on warping. I would rather have cut out some flash and inserted some quality styrene windows and doors. The brick foundations do not fit the bldg. no matter whether I follow the directions, which are as usual poor, or try to assemble another way. So I cut the foundation to stretch it and then on the back where it shows created a hatch to a crawl space to cover the scale foot gap. I may try trimming up the windows some more before I glaze them. I will use Kristal Klear for the glazing. The small cabin that I had picked up years ago at a show for about 50 cents was converted to my burnt out bldg. with a little carving and paint. I also put a few penetrations in the metal roof and applied some black and red for rusted areas. I am going to relocate the lighting struck Eagle tree closer to the spring with the Feral Hogs and then build up some brush around the little cabin. May see If I have a model A or T to rust up and set beside it.
Finally got around to ripping out part of the upper meadow after a lot of thought. Pile of rocks brush and trees below and a thinner vegetation meadow. The upper meadow now rid of a lot of vegetation. After trying the other small train station up there it was still going to be too large for my taste. Got to looking at the 2nd hotel, which was part of a two bldg. kit, and decided it would serve as the station, post office, and resort hotel. One less structure giving me the ability to keep the meadow slightly open, but not wide enough to accommodate a feline butt. The big dead tree gets moved closer to the spring and the burnt out structure goes there also. Still working on the cabins and just have the chimneys to mount and the steps to place for each one. So this will probably occupy the rest of the week in this revision.
I spent some of my younger years in what used to be a two room log cabin that had shotgun style additional rooms added to the backside that projected back. The only heat was from two sources, the kitchen stove which also provided hot water from a side reservoir, and a pot belly in the 2nd room. No heat in the back. Guess where I slept. Yep the very back shotgun room under about 6 inches of quilts. Outside 2 and 1/2 holer for natures calls and a hand pump in the backyard from a well for water. No TV just a radio and an old single bulb that dangled from a cord from the ceiling provided light in each room. Electricity was the only modern thing about the place.
Sounds similar to the house were I was a boy. Originally built as a 20 by 20, ten feet were added on about the time I was born. It originally had a wood stove, which had that same water heating system. I split kindling and stocked the wood box. Other heat was a carbureted oil heater. I worked, but getting the whole place warm was a chore. Hot by that furnace, cool in the corners, especially in winter. No insulation in the walls, except some newspaper. We did have indoor plumbing, but it was almost as cold as outdoors, until an electric wall heater was added. The wood stove went away in 1959, thankfully, for an electric oven and water heater. A few years later we even got a phone, then a washer/dryer.
I installed one of the finished cabins and removed a few more trees for now. I also installed a chalet type two story small house and all are glued down now along with the hotel. The big ranch style house I am debating on whether to use is sitting behind the hotel. That structure is built from some mini wood dowels as a log structure with two porches. Since I have the other two cabins to place up there, the burnt out structure, and a small chapel bldg. it may take up two much space. Also still debating on whether to do the small horse barn/shed and fenced pasture. I also will replace some of the smaller trees with some of the larger ones that were removed. I want to semi hide the structures and give the area a heavier wooded appearance.
People have no idea today of living like that. They think roughing it is a day where their electric gadgets get no reception or power when the batteries go dead. Luxury was my Grandmothers old electric powered washing machine we had to tote five gallons of water to. And she had a modern version with an electric wringer that could flatten some fingers.
Yeah. A different life. Surely wasn't rough as the depression. But memorable all the same. Before we got our phone, we had to carry laundry across the farm to our grandparents. Multiple slogs, back and forth, in rain and snow. It was tub/wringer style. No dryer. Everything was hung in that basement, dried using a small wood stove. Except in summer, then outdoors. My father had found a WWII surplus intercom system, and had a wire running over to the other side of the farm. When a phone call came in, they'd holler at us to run over, or take a message for us. My mother never learned to drive, thus some activities were hikes or bike rides to get there and back. No 'soccer mom' stuff those days, many women still didn't drive. In winter when weather was bad, the power could be out a long time, multiple times. The water system on our farm crossed a river and was knocked out almost every year. So we had to carry water from a spring across the farm. Or in winter we'd melt snow in the bath tub, passing buckets of snow in through a window to full that tub. Frequently the road would wash out. My father would drive as far as he could, hike out to the highway and hitch a ride to work... Yup. Some memories. And it was not a bad life at all. I had my Lionel and other trains.... My grandfather made certain I had a place to keep and run them.
And no school buses for the city kids. Nowadays if they live 6 blocks or less to school they are still bused. Living in the country when the snow drifts got too deep the school bus did not run. I can remember walking in the snow, through the drifts, uphill both ways to school. In high school I went out for track. No such thing as a late bus. So I ran home across the fields after track practice. When I entered the military after high school I was in danged good shape.
Having been hatched in the late 60's, and having been raised by my grandparents who became Mom and Dad to me, life wasn't that rough. we did live out in the country. at that time anyway. The street that passes by the house used to be a dirt trail. Then they built on to the neighborhood as urbanization took place. Sadly, you may have seen that very road on tv. We lived a block or so from Columbine High School. Hard to imagine now that place being what it was when I was young. My Mother the biological one lives in the house now. The big park north of the school used to be a huge ranch. My Dad and I used to walk over, jump the fence and go pheasant hunting there lol You mentioned the intellect of cats, John. I wholeheartedly agree. I have 2. My Bengal, Tasha Lynn has the largest vocabulary I have ever heard in any 4 legged critter. She thinks her little world here is her jungle... including her peoples and my layout. Tigger, my big 20 pound fella, at times will take an interest in it and jump up on it. But he was born in a barn, litterally... So his main concerns are food, warmth, and lovin. In that order. He's a very intelligent one also as he has his need to supervise. I also have a Border Collie. Mae West whom is a very intelligent one. She chases Tasha into the bedroom when Tasha's "Bengalness" is getting out of control lol Im enthralled with your thread and im following with interest and jealousy! I just started laying track on mine and im already having to tear up a section to fix an issue!
Best laid plans aside there is always going to be something that needs to be tweaked somewhere. Early in the build of this small module part of what will eventually be a larger layout I ran into an issue with the height of the upper level. Based on the track plan that I followed and redesigned a little bit I had found I had simply managed to get the upper area too high over the lower level resulting in a grade that was at best atrocious. Spread out over more length it would have worked but the length I needed to keep. A non negotiable dimension. Some temporary track a few cars and a Shay proved that. So back to the drawing board and I ripped off several layers of the upper level lowering the height. I also extended the incline through the curve on the left stretching out the grade and lowered the percentage some more. So that made the 2nd time I adjusted that trackage for the incline. I ended up with an overall 5% grade with just a short, less than foot of 7%. The railbuses made their way up and the Shay with a short 6 car consist made it up. I double headed the Shays and brought and entire train of the length and number of cars I originally intended to the top. I even stopped and started on the grade. In my original planning for the point to point layout, which this is just a component of, I envisioned using double headed and even triple headed power for all mainline trains leaving the port area and proceeding to the end of the line. So I am pretty much in the ballpark. Another revision has come in the lower area where I could not fit in what I wanted without again doing some earth moving which I did. One thing I am not is in any hurry to finish this. And the planning is proceeding very carefully with the concept that this will undergo some revision when it gets incorporated into the bigger layout eventually. The lower part of the incline will eventually gets abandoned and becomes a road. The mine will be accessed from the upper main and remaining part of the incline that goes through the meadow. The trackage in the tunnels goes away along with the lower continuous loop and the trackage in front of the station becomes a passing siding and the engine service area also goes away to become another small rail served industry. So folded into my layout planning for the current configuration is planning for a future reconfiguration. So this little layout is for now a stand alone but at some point will just be one of a number of small modules. On the feline front all is quiet for now. Mainly because the prime suspect for messing with the meadow is at the vets getting some surgery done. Which does bring about a thought about a repellant. Mention the word Vet and they all disappear. Bring out a carrying cage and they all disappear. Hmm set a carrying cage with the scent of the Vet clinic under the layout. Motion activated recorder that utters the word Vet mounted under the layout.
Photo of the new upper meadow layout with all but the stable, under construction, shown. Note the small chapel with the pointy little bell tower in the middle. Old burnt out cabin near the spring with an old rusted antique car with a rumble seat. The road will come in between the two cabins near the turnout soon as I dynamite a rock out of there. Stable will go at the top of the photo alongside the stream. Close up shot of the cabin old car and the spring. Four of the five Feral Hogs can be seen. One is laying and nursing two piglets will the old boar is near the rock. the 5th one is at the bottom of the picture not shown sitting in the mud. Laying out the sides for the stable. It is of leftover thin scribed wood. Dimensions will be 42 foot wide by 12 foot deep, by 12 foot high. I have some old Dutch doors that I had from a big assortment of styrene doors I collected years ago so they will be the stall doors. Corner trim molding will be styrene angle. Base and roof will be scrap wood again. I may have enough tarpaper left over to do this roof with and if not then shingles or metal roofing. I have two small out bldgs. that will go with it along with enough fence and gates to do a small pasture. Once all the structures are in then I will be installing the road, parking areas, and bring ground cover up to the building bases and replanting trees.
Well my prayers are with the lil one at the vet. My Tasha has had her fair share of the vet. Typical Bengal teeth issues, etc. Tigger... just for checkups. He's pretty bulletproof. I guess there is some credence behind the things said about purebreds and hienz 57's. I'm slightly frustrated at the fact I'm a career electronics tech, and power routing frogs to make them more dcc friendly. lol. On my ground level, I can conveniently use tortoise switches.. problem solved. 2nd level. if I get piano wire to lengthen the actuating rod for the tortoise... then I fear I'm running into geometry issues as the actual "throw" will be greater than their optimum of 3/8 inch. My turnouts are either electrofrogs or atlas snap switches. So I find myself looking at the cost between replacing with insulfrogs, or going the frog juicer route. Lol On the upside I'm catching up to you! I have half my ground level trackwork done! Lol! I was thinking about doing the same. incorporating this into a larger layout. (That is once I'm employed again and get to a point I can buy a house with a large basement. But. I'll use this as my learning platform. Tear it down when I get to that point and salvage what I can.
