Well its happened again. That weekend you were previously enjoying has come to an end. How did you do? After weeks of doing model aircraft work and shows, it was good to once again realize what my primary hobby was. My club, N-Trak of Bloomington-Normal, had a modest set up of T-Trak at this years Train Fair in Decatur Illinois. We set up with fellow T-Trak enthusiast and accomplished modeler, David Holloran. If you have ever met Dave, you'll know that he has some of the nicest looking and detail packed modules out there. Many of his modules have won awards, and he's a nice guy to boot! He brought along at least a dozen modules like you see above and we had three lines running all weekend. The Decatur Train Fair runs twice a year, once in April and again in September. Our club has already requested more space for next April. I brought two modules, Rick's Place and the depot, and ran three trains per day. I set up a modern day grain train, one with Iowa Interstate power and the other with Chicago Central Power. On Saturday I ran early 1980's B&M and early 1960's B&M on Sunday. I also managed to order my Kato CB&Q E5 Zypher set as well as pick up an Illinois Central caboose to run with the Chicago Central train I was running and some BLMA 33" metal wheel sets. The rest of the weekend was spent running trains, spinning yarns of previous train show adventures and making plans for new ones. For me, the next time I set up will be in a month. All in all, a great weekend. So how about you? Where there any trains shows you were part of? Did you stay home and work on your layout or module? Maybe scenery or track work has been your focus? What ever you did, let us know how you did, pictures if you have them. We'll start the process all over again on Friday, September 21st. Until then... ​High Greens!
Still no static grass at my LHS. But, he's got a tracking number and a planned arrival date of Wednesday, so I'm hopeful. When I bought some Woodland Scenics static grass about 6 weeks ago, he admitted that he knew nothing of the subject, and said "so you can teach us all about static grass." I took that as a bit of a challenge, so I've started on a small scrap of foam that I'll decorate with different colors and lengths of static grass. I put in a lot of time detailing F7s, as planned. Unfortunately, a lot of time doesn't lead to a lot of progress. This is slow, tedious work, drilling lots of tiny holes in the shell for grabs. There are 16 grabs on the B units, and even more on the A, so it's taking a long time. I've got all the grabs on the B and one of the three As. They look good. Since the B is unnumbered, and all the As are the same, I've got some decal work to do, too.
I was able to get the sheetrocking in my kitchen done to the point I wanted to be at. Still more to do. I did finish the wiring on my T-Trak yard modules and will set them up tomorrow on my deck for some test runs. Saturday I went to my towns museum to run the layout there for visitors and attended a video and slide presentation on freight operations of the NYC's Putnam Division from the 1940's and 50's. Met an Engineer and Fireman there who ran some of the last steam loco's on the line before the NYC switched to Diesels. Saturday was the 50th anniversary of the abandonment of the line. It's now a paved bike trail running from the Bronx NY to Brewster NY.
My "weekend" is Thursday in to Friday when my love, Lady Grandure, visits. Given that we have about 20 hours together when she is here my modeling was / usually limited to day dreaming. The most recent is a fabulous new design for the "Living Room Division" of the Grey and Grandure. The issue is that even though she would let me have a 24" deep space the truth is it would be tooooooo(to the Nth), much space. My conscience dictates that I reduce the depth to 18"s, sigh. The good news is she may move in within the next 12 months. Hmmmm
Well. I got more lights roughed in. Finished wiring the branch circuits to the panelboard in the train-attic. "Inching" closer to my first inspection. Left to do before.... 1.) Rough in for about 7 more lighting fixtures. 2.) Finish some blocking for future sheetrock at the cathedral ridge beams. 3.) Clean up and file for permit. After that, its on to insulation and then sheetrock. I am aching to finish so I can build the layout and start slappin' down some track. Not having a layout is getting REAL OLD.
