I had originally posted a longer post here for WMA but the Trainboard Data base crashed and lost the post forever. I really don't want to re-post the whole thing over again so here is the short version. Friday I took Angela and Jared up to Potter Place so they could see exactly what I was trying to achieve in N scale. Many questions were answered and the rumor of the B&M PS-1 box car being painted were true. I hope to post pictures of this later today. Saturday came too fast and before we knew it, the time to pack the car, load up the bikes and grab breakfast with my parents before the 20 hour plus trip back to Illinois was upon us. We left NH at 11:30AM on Saturday and reached Illinois at 8:00AM Sunday. So how about you? Did the heat slow you down on progress? What was built and painted over the weekend? Let us know, with pictures if you have them. We'll all get together and do it again on Friday the 26th. Until then, stay cool and... High Greens!
I had big plans for this weekend. I was going to finish installing foam risers on my HCD, and hopefully start laying cork roadbed. But then the wife wanted to go to home depot and I wound up installing a backsplash in the kitchen instead. Proud of that project as I am, I wish I had worked on my layout for more than the 5 minutes I was able to. So basically, all I accomplished on it was cutting to size two pieces of balsa wood that I will glue together to make more rigid, paint, and add two plate girders to the side to create a small bridge to go over a two lane road.
I, too, had great plans, but not much came of it. Penny had to fly down to Florida to help out her parents, so I was up before 6 to take her to the airport, and Saturday was just kind of a hot, tired day. Sunday, though, the weather improved and I actually got out for a short healthy excursion on my bicycle. I've been working on the brick tannery buildings, but mortaring isn't coming out the way I want it. Instead of a clean separation of bricks and mortar, I'm getting a washed-out look as the mortar paint won't flow nicely, and gets all over the brick surface. Over the weekend, I tried applying a satin finish to one of the wall sections, in hopes that it would improve the flow, but that did no good. Now that the heat has subsided, I think I'll repaint a section with a different brick paint (I've been using primer) that may give me a surface more conducive to mortaring. My short covered hopper that will be delivering salt to the tannery came in. I opened the box, along with the boxes for the two Tichy boxcars that will bring in the hides, and painted and weathered the trucks. In terms of actual "accomplishments," that was it for me.
Friday night saw me running two back to back locals on a friend's N scale NKP layout. This led to some wheel replacements Saturday and Sunday. I also got the last storage stuff out of the train room (it got filled up when we went to Charleston for work earlier this year) so there's mostly room to maneuver. And while not modeling per se, I managed to pick up a used heavy duty Dremel tool at the local building/architectural salvage place yesterday.
Well, this was one of the "rare" weekends I got done what I wanted to. 1.) Got almost 1/3 of the wall insulation up in the attic train room. 2.) Finished decaling several models I'd painted. Now they just need weathering and overspray.
I went down to Chuck's on Saturday to pick up my Atlas GP40 in UP paint. I spent a couple of hours shooting the breeze with Chuck (always fun) and then did my usual Saturday shopping. Sunday, I spent part of the day cleaning the track on my layout. The track has been collecting a lot of dust while I wasn't working on the layout so I took my time with a Brite Boy and a brush. Before I leave for work this evening, I'm going to try a run a train and then work on any trouble spots.
The start of my vacation got off to a rocky start when a line of very strong thunderstorms went through my area Friday afternoon - power was lost around 3:30 pm at my place and wasn't restored until 12:45 am on Sunday morning. No trains and no coffee make Mikey go something-something... So I went off to a small train show in Long Sault, Ontario, a few klicks east of Cornwall. Passed the time, was a nice day for a drive, and picked up a few items, including a couple of freight cars from my youth (nostalgia strikes again). Top of the list was a Spectrum 44-tonner in great shape for only 30 bucks. I plan to repaint it for Canadian National. It's much better built and detailed than the Spectrum 70-tonner I bought a few months ago. I got my train fix, my coffee fix, and didn't go crazy.
