First I apologize for no Friday WMP thread, work had taken over to the point that I could not post like I normally do. With that said, my weekend was spent doing an outdoor model airplane event in southern MN. I had a good time, but was reminded that trains are my primary hobby. Saw some cool small towns with rail activity which gave me ideas for my own layout, one of the beauties of traveling on the road. So how about you? What did you accomplish this weekend? Let us know, with pictures if you have them. We'll do it all over again on Friday the 9th. Until then... High Greens!
I got nothing. Between Saturday birthday parties at the zoo and Sunday block parties on my lawn (!) it was all I could do uncrate a couple of new acquisitions in the layout room. Pics tonight.
I had the weekend to myself, with wife Penny still in Florida taking care of her parents. I brought back an old project that has languished - lighting a caboose. This is a Milwaukee bay-window model. I added an interior, Tomar lanterns on the back, and a light inside. This also required power pickups. I struggled with the last part, but finally tried putting a loop of stranded wire around each axle and tying them together. Yes, it's only 2 wheels per side, but it's only a caboose. I added a big capacitor inside to to help ride over the rough spots. Overall, the effect is good, but the light glows through the car roof and I'll have to fix that. But wait! There's more! I also kept going on the Tannery project. I started installing windows, and got the Boiler House building walls assembled. I put the roof sections on, and decided that I need to get some brick sheet and make up liners for the insides of the parapet walls above the roof, because these are pretty obvious on these buildings. It's a small detail, and not a big job, but my layout is low enough that the viewer sees a lot of rooftops, so adding this makes a significantly nicer model. The Tannery will require hides and salt, so I've been making up a decal sheet for two Hide Loading Only boxcars, and a covered hopper for the salt. I started assembling the hopper on Sunday. It's a nice Bowser kit. The boxcars are Tichy's, and all are undecorated.
I am almost finished with a repaint/detailing job on a Spectrum 44-tonner, to represent CNR 1 around the late 1950s. I need to get some N scale boxcar decals for Canadian National to fit just over the number.Eventually I'll fashion a four-sided rooftop numberboard assembly. Here are the before/after shots.
As good as this looks, I'm afraid I'm going to still have to feign hurt over it just because that is an evil thing to show off around Milwaukee Road fans... It hurts their feelings.
