The weekend has just left the station, how did it turn out for you? Illinois has skipped fall this year in favor for a earlier and colder winter. Temps dipped down to -5 this weekend for us so not much reason to go outside all weekend, perfect for train work. Saturday I finished up some locomotive DCC programing and test run a few Atlas Geeps on the layout. Sunday I finished a CB&Q gondola I had purchased at Galesburg last year on the bargain table. I body mounted a pair of Z scale couplers and installed a set of BLMA metal wheels and test run it. Just needs a bit of weathering. Next the big project. The old table top N scale layout was coming down in favor of a more modular and prototypical set up. I carefully disconnected everything and spent a while carefully removing all my code 55 turnouts. Fortunately all my turnouts came up without any damage and most of the flex track was salvaged. The pink foam was pulled up from the plywood base and fascia removed. If I have time today I'll sand the top and prepare the table for it's next life. I hope to pick up supplies on Wednesday to start the new modules on Friday. My excuse to stay home rather than participate in the running of the idiots on Black Friday, a tradition that my ex-wife loved. Fortunately Angela feels the same I do so I may have some help on this next phase of the project. So how about you? How did you do this past weekend? Let us know. It maybe Black Plague Friday (can you tell my feelings on that?) but we'll be here ready to hear of your Weekend Modelings Plans. Until then, have a happy and safe week and... Happy Thanksgiving! ​High Greens!
It was a great weekend for trains for me, too. With a relatively mild Saturday and predictions of cold weather on Sunday, I started by rattle-can painting all the remaining tannery roofs, using Rustoleum textured & speckled black paint. I love that stuff for roofing. Next, it was off to the Greenberg Train Show. I had no particular plans, other than hoping the "little nuts and bolts" guy was there, which he was, so I filled out my collection of 2-56 hardware, and picked up another set of small clamps. I got some detail parts, although not the ones I hoped for. (I found parking meters and mailboxes, but no crates and boxes.) Then, I found something I had no intention buying, but how could I resist an Athearn Milwaukee Road Baldwin S-12? OK, it's a bit on the "vintage" side, DC only, and I'll have to isolate the motor, but it runs well, nice and slow, and it was....$15. This will be hours and hours of "play value" before it even gets on the track. Then, it was time to work on the tannery. I added railings to all the loading docks and stairways. The didn't come with the kit, so I drilled small holes in the "concrete" and bent floral wire to shape, then glued the railings in and painted them yellow. To level out the building bases with the Hydrocal castings for the pavement, I glued pieces of foamboard in place after painting the edges dark gray, in case anything showed. With the bases in place, I can now start cutting the castings to shape and fitting them in. Finally, with my new collection of small screws, I put a couple of old Talgo tank cars back in service, adding new couplers and trucks.
No model trains this weekend, my little world became sadder when my beloved "Mike the cat" died in my arms late Sunday morning Mike liked to sit with me in the train workshop, he wanted to see what I was doing. His death tore a huge hole in my life. Randy
Sorry to hear about Mike the Cat, Randy. Sometimes, our pets really become one of the family, and it's really hard to lose them.
Cold and rainy weekend. Saturday I volunteered at the Rosenberg Railroad Museum. I cleaned out and did maintenance on the old MoPac caboose. Some of the plastic windows had clouded over so I used an auto headlight restoring kit to get them back to where you can at least see through them. After coming home and a warm shower I worked on the T-Trak module I have been building.
I finished up my Spectrum H16-44 and reassembled everything. In all, I made it work (it was inoperative when I bought it, a motor contact was touching a very dirty part of the frame), I added a horn to the right side of the cab roof, an antenna on the left cab roof, and since the model had no rotruding stacks, I fabricated some from some old tubing stock I had that was just the right size for the job. Paint and decals for CNR 2206, and after a test run she's ready to go.
