Another weekend is in the books, and the last weekend of January has past us. Did you get everything done you wanted to do? Saturday as I had predicted was busy with Basketball in the morning and Soccer in the afternoon. By Sunday, the future Mrs. and I were tired and spent the day just relaxing. I spent my model railroad time reading and catching up with both the Railroad & Railfan and Railroad Model Craftsman digital editions. I'll start the process of moving the layout in today. So how about you? I know a few of you went to that big train show in Springfield MA, give us a report! Did you find lots of neat stuff? Tell us what you bought or better yet show us. How about those who stayed home and worked on the layout. How did you do? Let us know how you did, pictures if you have them. We'll come back on Friday the 1st of February and do it all again. Until then... ​High Greens!
Future Mrs.? Is that a change of status? Congratulations. I did get to the Springfield show on Sunday. Great trip - a bit chilly, but clear skies and no precipitation either from the sky or on the ground. I got there early for a change, and had to wait until the doors opened. There were lots of people, but I was able to move easily through the aisles. I had to laugh at the sign that said "No Livestock in Center Aisle," which I guess says something about what the venue thinks of its clientele. I met up with a few faces I already knew, and put faces to online names for a few others. I've learned my lesson about buying stuff I thought I might need, and stuck to things with immediate use. So, another Milwaukee boxcar, an ice truck to put outside of the Sal Monella and Sons Ice Company, and some tires for the pier at the carfloat terminal. I did make one "speculative" purchase - a Miller Engineering sign for Coppertone, with the classic picture of the little girl and the dog. I'm not sure where that's going yet, and it will likely be a year or more before it finds a home. One thing I did decide, though, was that Phase 3 of my layout will have lots more laser-cut and craftsman kits. There were a lot of very nice ones on display. But, I'm not buying them until I have a place to put them when they're built. Back on the home front, the past, present and future Mrs. went out for a few hours on Saturday, so I took advantage of the half-empty garage and spray-painted the carfloat. I generally paint outside, but it's been too cold for that so I used the garage instead. I also spent some time assembling a Tichy flat car, one of three that will be used as "idler flats" for the carfloat operation. They made this kit for people who like to put stuff together. Each stake pocket, a couple of dozen per car, must be individually glued on. It's a good thing they provided extras, because a couple disappeared into the trainroom carpet. Finally, as the weekend wound down, I just ran trains for a few minutes, and smiled. :teeth:. Ha ha. The site software that puts links on things is giving us women's shoes for "flats," a book by a guy named "Miller" on Amazon, and ladies undergarments for "Future Mrs."
I was at Springfield yesterday. I picked up a Bar Mills building kit, a couple of Digitrax decoders, two signals from NJ international and a couple of other goodies. I wasn't feeling that well so I may have overlooked a portion of the show (nothing contageous) and it may have been that I was overdressed for spending so much time indoors.
I've been working on a DPM kit that I've modified a bit into a music store to honor a musician friend of mine. I detailed the brickwork, added lighting and signs and some interior details....
