For those of us here in the States it's Thanksgiving and a lot of us will be either going to or being the host of family gatherings and being thankful for what we have. Some of us also have today through Sunday off. Even though many of us may be busy with family functions, there maybe time to sneek in some train time, especially if we can show fellow friends and family. For me I'll be heading up to New Hampshire for Thanksgiving. I haven't been in NH for that Holiday in 14 years and this maybe the last time we are all together. Friday will be spent with tape measure in hand and more time researching the town of Potter Place. The last trip I was able to get everything south of the station plugged in measurement wise. This time I plan to get measurements around the station. I will also spend some time from Andover to Boscawen on the the Northern line and get ideas for the other side of the layout. So how about you? Any way you'll be showing your layout to family? Maybe sneek in some railfan time? While it's an a American holiday we still want hear from our friends from up north as well as over seas and anywhere else. As always pictures are a nice touch. ​Happy Thanksgiving!
Looks like I am going to run a lot of trains this weekend. We are having a special Black Friday Operating Session for all those who decline the gluttony. Also, I hope to make some Penn Central and Conrail freight cars for my layout.
There will be a four-day seminar and operating session on the Saucier Central with the Chief Cook & Bottle Washer of the Beebe River...my brother is visiting over the weekend. :tb-cool:
At long last, a "weekend" with enough time for everything. Our traditional Thanksgiving is a communal affair among old college friends. We share the cooking duties and thus have a wide variety of vegetables and desserts. I made up a cardstock mockup of the Branchline Trains depot that will become my Railway Express building. I have a large teardrop-shaped area that I don't have a specific plan for, but that building will be in it. Hopefully, this will let me visualize the space and draw a better concept. Then, I've begun more detailed planning for the carfloat terminal and dockside scenery at Mooseport. I will likely start the carfloat kit today, just to get the sizing I need. I've got to build out the benchwork a bit, but the plan is to put the carfloat itself on a removeable section that will be supported by some sort of fold-down benchwork, so I can get into the area when necessary. The carfloat is over a yard long, so this will be quite a project. And then, it's the Tour de Chooch. This is an annual self-guided tour of home layouts, one day in northeastern Massachusetts and the other day in New Hampshire, mostly. http://www.trainweb.org/cmrc/TdeC2011.pdf One of these years, I'll put my own layout on the tour. It's a fun event for everyone.
We've got relatives coming down for a modest but nice Thanksgiving dinner. I do the cooking around here and always look forward to feeding folks. As for model railroading activities, I hope to get more done on Grey One's boxcab. And maybe I can print out the number boards for my boxcab and 59-tonner projects. Headlight LEDs will just have to wait, though. And I also hope to do more experimenting and designing for upcoming cardstock model projects, especially the large Van Brundt storage and transfer warehouse. I hope to get some of the sandstone textured spray paint I was reading about on another post here on TB. If all works as planned, I'll cut layers of cardstock to make the raised vertical sections, then glue it all together, cut out the window holes and paint with the sandstone. I'm trying to get a nice weathered concrete look, and will add the appropriate rust and gunk where necessary. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
I have to make an Apple pie tomorrow morning and travel to my brothers home in Connecticut in the afternoon. Over the weekend i'm going to redo the leveling screws on several of my T-Trak modules. I posted the procedure in the T-Trak trainboard group this morning.
Thanksgiving will just be me and the pregnant wife this year. Unfortunately, a core piece of our home electronics system, our Xbox chose this week to go to Consumer electronics heaven and I was informed in no uncertain terms that netflix streaming and video games were an absolute requirement for maternity leave. So I am off to enjoy Black Friday. Something I've managed to avoid for my entire life. The worst of it is that Walmart seems to have the best deal on XBoxes so I not only have to participate, I have to participate at wally world. UGH! Anyway, assuming I survive, I'm hopping to spend some time going through the club's scenery and sorting out the ground foam. I still plan to make my own, but I'm going to start out by sorting theirs. Tonight I'm going to finish pre-painting all the handrails and details on my Cotton Belt GP60 and then later in the weekend I hope to wire up the decoder in it and apply said details. If time permits I may turn a mismatched shell and dummy frame into a Dummy SD40T-2 so I can run my powered 40T-2, GP60 and dummy 40T-2 together as a consist. The club also has a Rio Grande GP40-2 I may add in. Saturday morning I'll likely also be doing work on a retaining wall at the club and also smoothing the rise behind it for installation of a vineyard scene.
