As the U.S. and most of Canada brace for either more snow or more below 0 temps, we embrace that weekly tradition - Weekend Modeling Plans! This past mid-week, I ordered all the detail parts I need for my next locomotive project and last night, drove to my not so local hobby shop to pick up the Tam Valley Frog Juicers I needed. I should be all stocked up and ready for the weekend. Saturday Jared has an early Soccer game, then the weekend is clear. I may use Saturday as the day to lay the track on module three and install the two Tam Valley servo drivers and Frog Juicers on module one. If I get this done, I can install the grade crossing equipment and call module one, done with electronics. Sunday would be a good day to start early on a pair of GP38's that will be full detail and painted in a road only a few from Northern Illinois and Iowa may recognize. I love doing odd ball stuff. We'll see if the powers that be will let me accomplish these tasks this weekend. The podcasts are all loaded up in my iPad Mini so I'm ready for the weekend. How about you? What winter modeling survival tools are at your work bench? Let us know! We'll come back here on Monday the 23rd and see how we all did. Until then, stay warm, safe and... ​High Greens!
It will be an abbreviated modeling weekend, as I'll be headed up skiing on Sunday and won't be back until next Friday. Of course, I'm retired and living in an endless weekend anyway. I have some shoveling to do, of course, but this time it's because it's not going to snow. It's going to rain, so I need to clear off the flat deck on the roof, where rain needs to run off, not just sit there and find a way in. I've got everything but the detection electronics for my "Grade Crossing Protection Project." This week, I put together a pair of Oregon Rail Supply crossbucks with flashers for one crossing, and the mail lady brought my NJ International crossing gates, a Tortoise and linkages for the other. I can mount and test these with a 9-volt battery, so when the electronics get here, everything will be ready.
I got my last turnout in place and spiked down. I also started soldering my feeder wires to the buss line. Having trouble getting solder to stick to the buss line, but we're moving right along. Maybe have trains running again this weekend?
I'll continue with the repaint and detailing job on a Kato GP35. It will become CN 4000, replacing an aging Athearn (which was my very first paint job when I re-entered the hobby!) that sounds like an epileptic coffee grinder. If time allows, I'll start on the undecorated Atlas GP7 I bought last weekend, which will become CN 4809. Don't rub it in... It's both... This winter has the personality of an oppositional-defiant teenager...:headspin:
