Welcome back to the gateway to the weekend and welcome to MAY! Personally, the month of May holds a special spot in my heart. It's the gateway to my favorite season, filled with outdoor activities like railfanning. Of course, it also means one of my favorite shows is just around the corner. Last weekend it looked like a lot of maintenance was done, boilers were tested, hotels went up and building was at a feverish pitch. Let's keep it going and see what we have for goals this week. Saturday: The goal is to sleep in but not too much. I need to take the F150 up to Angela's dads. Since this truck is my module hauler and railfan vehicle, I need it in top shape for Galesburg in late June. We need to remove the wheels and tires and get the wheels sandblasted, painted then find some good truck tires. We'll drop off the wheels at a sandblasting shop and hopefully pick them up next week to paint them. It's an XL so no fancy chrome wheels on this truck. We hope to get all of this done by lunch then work on the Falcon's wheel bearings before calling it a day. Ang will meet us later for a family dinner and I may bring the Mustang home. Sunday: Is supposed to be sunny and 80. I want to head out to the garage and work on some wood working projects for the HO layout and a new project for Galesburg. When I go with the NTrak club, my locos and cars are stored in a black case. I would like to build stackable inserts that will allow me to store the N scale models upright and not in the jewel cases. I have a few designs that I think will work. I also need to start gathering and building complete trains I want to run at this year's RR Days. Once I get that figured out, I need to start weathering the cars. I also salvaged all of the concrete roads and foundations from the Galesburg City Job and some of that will end up on my NTrak module. After that, I need to get to work on a few suburban houses and an industry. I'll also finally get the motorcycle out for the first time since last October. So how about you? What do you have planned for the first weekend of May? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Monday, the 6th to see how we all did. Until then, have a great weekend, be safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
Hello and hope all have a great Friday and weekend. This weekend will be some modeling plus taking care of some things for vacation. On the modeling front, the plan is: Complete some airbrushing, install some stationary decoders that have been sitting around. This is so I can move on to my next control panel. Also plan on going to the Raleigh Train Show at the NC State Fairgrounds probably tomorrow. We'll see what goodies (if any) I can scarf up. Must have been "Freudian" of me to clean out the workshop and some cabinets last month. Now I get to fill 'em back up. Everyone enjoy the weekend and happy modeling!
I’m going to keep thinking about bridges for my layout this weekend. What I think I want is a double track bascule bridge. I’ve seen some very nice truss and vertical lift kits in n, but no bascule. I’ve seen the Walthers bascule in HO and need to look at it more and find good pictures and figure out if it would look okay in N and how much I would have to do to fix it. Or really sit and think through how hard it would be to scratch build. Anyone got an n scale bascule bridge? Thoughts? Other than that, not much planned on the modeling front. I’ve got my brother-in-law, his wife, and my 5-month old niece in town this weekend so most of the time will be spent with taking them around DC. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Happy Friday to Y'all Gonna keep working on my T&NO F9M project: Today: Masking then black paint. Balance of the weekend: Decaling Here are progress shots: Ready for primer: Primered: For the stripe - Daylight Red added: Y'all have a great weekend, Wolf
Happy Friday all! Supposed to be a fairly wet weekend here starting later today. Guess we shall see. Have some errands to run after work. Then dinner and just maybe a little workbench time. Saturday is neighborhood yard sale day. The wife had planned to participate which means I've been volun-told to help. Thinking the weather may put a damper on things but either way, it should be wrapped up by 2 or 3. We will probably have a late lunch at that point and then I hope to get to some decal work on some gondolas I want to do. Sunday, I have one more DCC decoder on hand that I can install so that's on the list to do. Will continue to work on the decal projects, run a few trains and see what else I can get in to. Sure hope you all have a great weekend!
Good morning everyone, @Jim Wiggin - I built two of the stackable tray train cases over 20 years ago and they have worked out great for me. Started with some 2 inch tounge-in-groove flooring, it's just right for N scale. Then added 1/2 inch foam top and bottom on each tray. I just received a box of M/T rolling stock which I had purchased from a friend so I'm going to be working with those. Adjusting trip pins, installing low profile wheels where needed, and test running them on the layout. I'll continue work on the hotel structure, hopefully getting the Miller Engineering sign installed. And I may start a DCC install on another of my GP35's. And of course there will be the normal yard work and house cleaning to do. Everyone have a great weekend.
Good morning from sunny and warm Northeast Ohio, rain expected this afternoon and spreading into the weekend. Today I hope to finish with the detail parts on the Southern 40' Brick Boxcar, I found a new dreaded part of the project, removing the plug door rods from the dregs of the resin casting plastic, takes a long time to release and then cleanup one set of rods. Saturday, will be going to the club and I will be picking up a pair of Athearn's new DT&I SD38's with all the correct details, will now sell off my old pair. Later in the day will be finishing up the Brick Boxcar for painting along with continuing some decal work on a U23b, Sunday, will be laundry day along with painting the Brick Boxcar and starting on a new car, don't have any in mind but will check over my stash of kits. Also work on decaling the U23b. Here is the work done this week on the Brick Boxcar, finished all the end detail except for plugging the ladder holes as the car had no roofwalk and had lowered ladders except for the high brakewheel end. Rick Jesionowski
It's Mother-In-Law Macular Degeneration weekend again. This is our almost-monthly trek to provide transportation to medical appointments and do general chores for my mother-in-law. There will be trains. Friday: We kick things off with some grocery shopping. Then lunch at a local cafe. Afternoon takes us to the eye clinic in Olympia with a possible stop at Costco. Back home in the evening and the Seattle Reign soccer match is on television. Despite all that I expect to complete the drawing of boiler prototype revision 6. Saturday: Starting out with a drive down to Kelso for a train show in the local mall. Not sure what happens after that. Well, other than driving back to Shelton. Sunday: Early morning soccer followed by bacon and eggs. The afternoon is unclear. Our original plan was to plant some fruit trees. Those disappeared into the place where lost shipments go. Not sure how you lose fruit trees! Stay safe,
Sounds like the weekend will be a blast! Nothing says lovin' like being "Freudian". I hope the niece does all the driving. Those F9's gonna' be cool. Can't have too many gons. The next "Whirlwind Worker" award goes to nscalestation! Brick Boxcar looks fine. I've been to Kelso. I have to say, this past week seemed squirrely. Much things not model railroad. However, at this point window glazing is underway. Granddaughter's University of Alabama graduation is Saturday. Small chore today. Maybe time early Saturday and should be some Sunday. We will see. Have a fine weekend.
First off I will finish trackwork in staging. Connecting 10 tracks from ladder to ladder is sucking up tons of flex track. Another case of 50 is in order. Then maybe a run for plywood to begin the development of the rest of the mainline.
I finally have a room coming available in my house to potentially use as a train room, so I'll probably spend a little time this weekend taking measurements and working on the beginning of a benchwork and track plan. I think it'll be super simple compared to the "dream layout" I've been drawing up for some future room I don't have yet, but it'll be fun. Maybe a rural single main with a small-ish yard, some local freight, and longer trains just passing through.
Me again from McLain VA where the Sun's rays have gotten a grip on me and dragged me out for walks. Will try to start the finish of the 'Greate Divide' / 'Two Faced Mountain' with Mystrium min on one side and the Grandure Yard on the other. ***Maybe*** even get it painted. Ironically I may be getting more done on the layout this summer than I have so far.
This weekend has not gotten off to a stellar start. I came downstairs this morning and knew something was up as no cats greeted me in the second floor hallway. As I came down the steps one cat was slinking across the foyer coming from the dining room and the other two were sitting in the kitchen looking into the dining room. Once I got into the foyer I saw why; the Guinea pig cage had been knocked off its stand and was on its roof on the floor. Luckily our piggies are not good escape artists as I found one hiding in their tunnel still in the upside-down cage. The other my daughter found behind the stand in an extra house. I had to repair the front panel of the cage and replace the bedding before we could put the piggies back. I have also been experiencing some pain related to the hernia that has curtailed some of my walking at work. I sent my blood pressure readings for the past week to the cardiologist, and she was pleased. I need to get some bloodwork done next week and hopefully I will be able to get the hernia surgery done. The level of discomfort I am experiencing this weekend will determine what gets done. I need to do laundry, but I will not be doing the heavy lifting. We need to run to the grocery store and the produce store. I need to repaint and do some repairs on our raised planter we use for herbs on our front patio. I can also do some of the light house cleaning. I want to continue running trains. I have a couple of Atlas GP-40 Master Series Silver locomotives to test. I also want to the work on the bridge area which means I need to trim down and paint the tunnel portal I am going to use for the roadway tunnel. I may tune up some rolling stock or build a car kit or two.
Alright, my friends...I'm finally in a position to actually start planning for a real space and not just a future dream space. My high school senior will be graduating this month and likely going to serve our country in the Army (he aspires to become a helicopter pilot). Once he moves out I'll be able to turn his bedroom into a train room. I took some measurements this evening and this is a likely benchwork plan I came up with. This will be modern day (2000 and beyond) N scale with a small(ish) yard, some local freight, rural single mainline, and some hidden staging. If I can find a way to make it two levels I will, but I'm not sure if there's room for a helix with a tolerable radius (baseboards are 24" deep). Input is more than welcome.
I have a twin gaugemaster Controller that I use on the test track . It suffered some serious damage a couple of years ago and only one output works now. I'm going to rip out the innards of the other side and install a PWM controller in its place Kev
I may do that once all this rain clears up. That sounds like a good idea, do you have any images you can share?
Good morning everyone, My weekend plans changed a bit, but in a good way. On Friday a buddy called to ask if I would like to go with him to the hobby shop, then to the local train club / museum on Saturday. Of course I said yes, and the rest of hobby time on Friday was spent checking out the Micro-Trains cars I had received last week. Secured a loose weight in a covered hopper, added low profile wheels to two cars, and adjusted trip pins on all. Saturday it rained all day. My buddy showed up at 10:00am and we were off in my truck to the hobby shop and I found 3 of the 4 things I had on my list. Then to the South Bay Historical Railroad Society where they were having what seemed like almost an open house. Saturdays are usually a work day on the building but maybe because of the rain they were running trains. They have more RR artifacts than they have room to display and had swapped some things around and improved the lighting so I spent time taking all that in and visiting with several guys who I knew. Lots of trains running on both the HO and N scale layouts. After spending a couple hours at the museum, it was off to a lunch at a German place for brats and beer. When I got back home, I had several items in the mail box including a large set of 3D printed roof details. Saturday evening and Sunday I worked on finishing the hotel building and used 9 of those pieces on the roof.
