Can you believe it? The last weekend in April. Yet, I'm recovering from my first head cold in a year and the temps here in Central Illinois (frost level) are like those in mid March. Hmmm. Oh well, on to the trains! With last weekend being extremely productive to my friends portion of the Galesburg modules, I plan to take a short break in anticipation for one of my other favorite shows, the Ohio N Scale Weekend, which is just a few weeks away. Registration was sent in yesterday, days off scheduled and now to the building aspect. I have one more T-Kit Double T-Trak module I need to build and plan to start that this morning. This one will be in conjunction with the river module I completed last month and will include an old school road side motel like the ones many of us may have stayed in on family vacations in the past. I'll be building a laser cut kit I actually purchased at the Ohio N Scale Weekend a few years back. I also hope to finish the second full detail GP38 which is just the fans, rear fan grab iron and lift rings. Once clean, they will take a trip to the paint shop and have a coat of Caboose red and engine black. Hmm, red and black GP38's that ran in Illinois....Anyone care to guess what road these will be? I'll give another hint. They were a spin off line to one of the Class 1 Railroads and were very succesful when I first moved here in the late 1990's. Of course, domestic duties of soccer games, shopping and family time will keep me busy but hopefully a productive weekend nonetheless. So how about you? What is on your ready board this morning? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Monday, April 27th to see how we all did. Until then, have a great weekend, stay safe and... High Greens!
I've almost finished my MOW tank car made from an old Life-Like model. It still needs some weathering and a coat of flat paint. Besides the paint job, I gave it new trucks with metal wheels and replaced the Talgo horn-hooks with body-mounted Kadees. It's "in service" right now to test it out in a "real world" situation. Over the weekend, I hope to get back to setting up IR LEDs and phototransistors for the crossing gates.
I am building a small passenger platform for Grovemont, no place there presently for the travelers to board, and not enough room for a passenger station. I am making it out of some scale lumber and the base is leftover from a Grandt Line kit. Also, a small package of details, including a mail crane, mail boxes, fire hydrant, and phone booth came last week and some of them will get painted and go on the layout, time permitting...
"Hmm, red and black GP38's that ran in Illinois....Anyone care to guess what road these will be? I'll give another hint. They were a spin off line to one of the Class 1 Railroads and were very succesful when I first moved here in the late 1990's." Oh, the suspense...! I live in central/southern IL but haven't really followed Illinois railroad history, though I've lived here my whole life. Lehigh Valley had that color scheme, I believe, but I wouldn't think that's right. You're a big BN guy, right? But the red/black wouldn't suggest that's right either...????
If they're GP38s but not Dash 2, then I'd guess GTW, a CN subsidiary. Though for a while some of those 38s got the Burdakin Blue scheme. On my end, I'll be heading to the Ottawa Train Expo, which is in a new venue a bit east of Ottawa, in a hockey arena. Last year was disappointing because on top of the $12 (IIRC) entrance fee, there was a fee ($8 in my case) for parking at the very high-end convention center near the airport! :rats: This year parking seems free - Google Street View doesn't show any ticket gates so that's reassuring. I'll hunt for the usual bargains and see the Rapido guys to give them a high five for their GMD-1 and enquire about the FPA4 (what could be finer than a flatnose Alco cab wearing the 1950s CN passenger scheme?) So the Train Pervert will get his train fix until the next one.
I have promised myself time in the train room - but what I need to do is drop feeders. What I WANT to do is just run trains. We'll see what wins!
Maybe I'll work on some scenery for a double length T-Trak module. The DPM building I started last weekend goes on this particular one.
Well the fiancee and I just bought a house this past week (had an offer accepted), so I'm going to be taking care of some stuff to get that ready to close. Come June, the layout will have it's own room! Otherwise this weekend, I hope to get a few things done. Sunday, my dad is coming over to help me finish the legs for the table. All that's left to do is put the joists on the bottom of the table and then attach the legs to that. For those following along, I'm building similar benchwork to the plan they used for the Red Oak Line in February's MRR. Once the joists are installed, I can finish running the bus wires to all of the feeders and wiring for the track should be largely complete. Otherwise, I have my service tracks to finish laying, so I might try to get that done. Off the layout, I bought some weathering powders, and would like to try my hand at weathering some freight cars.
