Having literally just pulled in to New Jersey from an all night drive from Toledo Ohio, I can tell you, no modeling (railroad wise) was accomplished. So I'm counting on you guys to show and tell us what you did this past weekend. Post your progress reports and pictures if you have them below. We'll do it all over again this coming Friday. ​High Greens!
I worked a bit on ballasting and scenery at South Slocan junction. I will be starting on replacements for those line pole this week...promise! md
Well, I'm back from vacation, but wife, daughter and camera are still in Italy. I might try the other camera later. I did make a lot of progress with the women-folk out of town. The plan was to start the benchwork for the carfloat support, but I realized pretty quickly that I'll have to build up both the apron and the carfloat itself to get the measurements right, and once I install the apron, it will be tough to work behind it. So, back to scenery. I trimmed a few more pieces of cobblestone sheet to fit, and then painted and weathered them. I've got a small bridge crossing the old mill canal, and I scratchbuilt the girder sides, painted and weathered those, too. This little bridge has street-running girder rail with a cobblestone base going across it, and I must admit that it came out very well. Late in the day on Sunday, I mixed up some Gypsolite and filled in the banks of the canal. It will be dry by tonight, so I can add scenic material to the banks and have that done. When I got home, my LHS order had arrived, so I picked up some streetlights for Mooseport, and also a Digitrax PS-14 power supply. I've got an old PS-2, the sound decoder programmer, but it never worked very well because I was driving it with an old MRC train transformer, and that just didn't have enough voltage for the PS-2. With the PS-14, I set out to program a couple of Soundbugs. One is in a dummy GP-7, so I wanted an EMD 567 sound package instead of the default diesel sound. The steam switcher designated for carfloat work in Mooseport is a Bachmann 0-6-0T tank engine. This is a very small locomotive. Some people have put micro sound decoders in these, but I didn't feel like doing that. Instead, I figured that this engine will mostly live within a few feet of Mooseport, so I mounted a Soundbug inside one of the mill buildings, giving me room for a bigger speaker and baffle. I programmed this one with a British tank engine package, and gave it the same address as the engine. I immediately fell in love with the teakettle whistle.
I am out of town working all week, and I forgot to upload any picture before I left the house last night. However, I painted my scenery base, crushed and sieved dirt material, glued down the crushed tea leaves/dirt scenery and installed several trees cut from a grapevine broom (Thanks to ideas shared by Mike and Tracy). I'll have scenery pictures next weekend. I should have brought some of my numerous Branchline Yardmaster kits with me this week so I don't spend my evenings in the hotel room staring at the TV.... oh well.
Got my two Gettysburg engines lettered and handrails painted. Just need clear coats. Pics in Photo fun thread
