Well it's happened again, another weekend is in the books. How did you fare? Anybody in the Northeast saw a strange weekend. Saturday, it was down right warm and humid which made packing and cleaning the garage easy. By Sunday though, the cold wind and rain was back. My only accomplishment was getting the work shop packed up and ready for next weeks move. I did run the N scale layout some on Saturday morning however. How about you? Did you accomplish everything you set out to do? Post some pictures and tell us what you did this weekend. We'll do it all again this coming Friday the 27th. ​High Greens!
Watching that same weather, I made plans to do my spray painting outdoors on Saturday, and then retreat to the workshop and trainroom on Sunday. So, I got the majority of my cobblestones cut, painted and glued in place. There are still some scenic things that need attention, but I put things in place for this picture of an 0-6-0T tank engine (Bachmann Spectrum) crossing the short bridge over the old mill canal. One of those things that "needs attention" is water in the canal, but at this point you can look down between two old mill buildings and see the bridge and engine in the background, beneath the second-story crossover of the mill complex.
I was able to build the T-Trak yard modules on Saturday and sealed them with two coats of Pollyurethane. Now on to track planning. Thursday evening I went to my towns museum and fitted the drawer carcass under the layout and cut out the opening where the draw will go. Yesterday I cut and milled the lumber for the drawer itself and hope to have it assembled and installed before next weekend.
Oh, I forgot to mention one thing. I went to my LHS to pick up some Atlas flex track, which I'd heard was in short supply. As it turned out, the shop had just gotten in 1 box (25 pieces) of Code 83. I had a couple of pieces at home, but picked up 3 more so that I'll have enough for the Empire Tannery area which will be the next big project after Mooseport. The bad news is, he said this will likely be the last Atlas flex track until October, so plan accordingly.
This weekend I finished making up 30 or so line poles. The vast majority are modified Atlas poles save for the poles and framing needed to carry the wires alongside the Kootenay river bridges. That meant adding over 400 insulators (phew). Here they all are with their basic paint. Now I need to paint 550 insulators! md
Mark - what's your paint formula for those poles? Work has been slow the last two weeks - we had the teenagers here for Spring Break from their mom's; my mom cam in for a week of grandkid therapy, and my brother and sister in law joined us from New York for a weekend in there somewhere. All that said, the paint shop managed to crank out a few items:
The only thing I was able to accomplish was to find out why, my SD-40T2 would derail on the curves. It is supposed to be able to negotiate 18' radius curves and it was not. Come to find out, it was the track. I bought some used track that was a mixture of Atlas, TYCO, and some unknown brand. The TYCO and unknown brand were not meshing correctly with the Atlas track. Causing the derailments. Now I am going to get rid of all but the Atlas track and replace the other brands with new Atlas track. It has only taken me several hours of frustration (to the point of almost throwing my engine across the room) to realize a simple problem. Good thing this is just a hobby! Hopefully next weekend I can get more accomplished.
Quick video - N scale Housatonic RR I got a new cell phone and was able to shoot a quick video of my in-progress Housatonic RR, in N scale. There are thousands of trees needed, weathering, ballast and scenery. The buildings still need final paint, signs and details. [video=youtube;Svj6lZ4PGhA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svj6lZ4PGhA&[/video] Eric
Eric, that's an impressive start, and I'm anxious to see more as you progress. Your track design is quite prototypical with its wide sweeping curves to the side of the industry sidings. Also the trestle is excellent with its areas of light rust.
