Old Mister Beasley Said "I'll do it eas'ly" A CMX car he did try. The job was a winner (He used lacquer thinner) And said, "What a good boy am I." The weekend brought unseasonably warm weather to New England, so I was able to open the windows for ventilation and take on the necessary task of track cleaning. I knew it was time a few weeks ago, when my subways started stalling out in the tunnels, but I like a warm day with no other projects to get it all done. We had some friends coming over for dinner Saturday, our traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage celebration of St. Patrick's Day. I used the opportunity to clean up the trainroom and make it "show ready," something I haven't done in a while. I got a little real modeling done, just a small team-track platform, and I cut a section of cobblestone sheet for the street in front of it. I started painting and weatherning that section, as much as a test of how I'm going to do this as anything else. Sunday was the Greenberg Train Show nearby. It was fun, but I was a bit disappointed. This is a "Toy and Train" show, and it seemed that the toys were taking over. There just wasn't much HO at all - with a number of the regular dealers skipping this show, to be replaced with more Thomas booths. They even gave one corner over to a large slot-car track, 8 lanes, $3 for 20 laps. I think the oldest racer was about 8. So, did the lure of warm temperatures and chirping birds get you outside, or did you just open the windows and keep on modeling?
Looks Like with the time change, I'll be handing this thread off to Mister Beasley once I move back to Illinois in six weeks. Saturday was spent railfaning one of my favorite short line railroads, the Bloomer Line. I had good word on Friday afternoon that the crew was heading out of Gibson City at 6:00am. I arrived in Gibson City just a little past 6 and caught three units and a long string of grain cars. They ended up breaking the train up in three sets in three towns and I got some great shots. I'll post some when I get back with my own computer. Sunday I took the kids to walk the old ICG line out of Champaign. We found an old work site as well as an ancient link pin bridge. Next weekend, I'm back in NH and VT for more full scale action. Great weekend in the heart of Illinois!
Well, let's see... Saturday I attended an operating session at a friend's house, then went trackside to catch a few 1:1 models in Norfolk Southern paint go by... "caught" a pair of Northbound mixed freights... Next I managed to get two "days" of operations on my own layout, re-adjust a wonky servo motor on a critical turnout, and masked and repainted a locomotive and caboose I've been working on detailing. In all, not a bad weekend...
I was able to get down to my towns museum and do some wiring on Saturday. Sunday I drove up to Albany and used my T-Trak modules as well as my clubs corners in a show along with the Albany N scale club.
Got highway signs installed along my road, and finished up most of the scenic details around my road/highway bridge.
I worked on some bridge abutments, using an idea I had to simplify it. I cut foam to shape, then smeared with a thin coat of spackle.. roughly applied. When dry I sanded it just to remove the high peaks.. then scribed in the stone joints. The long lines are a razor saw, then I scribed the individual brick lines with the 'ol exacto. I still need to apply some decent coloring, but you get the idea.
Finished painting, detailing and decals on my C630! I'll weather it slightly when the time is right, using the makeup method (I tried it on a GP7 a couple of weeks ago, and it's great!). Waiting in line for painting and detailing work: Atlas RS-11 and RS-1. Both will be in the old CN green and yellow scheme.
I managed to get quite a bit done this weekend. I was able to fabricate, plaster, and paint, some landscape forms (just enough so I can get track laid on it). I was also able to ballast about 5 feet of track. Also, I found out (the hard way) that Peco switches are "power routing". So I had to spend time soldering electrical jumpers. Now the switches have power all the time. Overall, a good weekend modeling.
I spent much of the weekend putting Micro-Trains #1025 couplers on dozens of Intermountain tank car kits I won on ebay. Today, I start putting 1025 couplers on dozens of their 40' reefers. I'm about to go crazy.
FINALLY finished the trunks of the grape vines in the vineyard and started working on the foliage/leaves. Using furnace filter and NOCH leaf flake for it.
That is a very clever idea and it looks fantastic! I did not really accomplish too much this weekend or last (did not post last week) as the weather in Minnestoa was great! I did manage to work out some issues with my passenger trains for the basement layout and did some more planning work for the far in the future attic layout. The biggest task was orsering the remaining planned DCC components for the layout. I have six DS64 stationary decoders en-route along with some other electronics. Over the next few months will work on structures, wiring, installing fascia, painting, and start of scenery.
LOOKS IMPRESSIVE THE SCIBING IS PERFECT thanks for the idea.......the color is fine to me,use a wash of alcohol and india ink applied with a brush to accent your scribes and weather it.......GREAT JOB
Went to the Chicago St Patricks day parade and rode the Metra Electric,thats the highlight of trains for me for the weekend. Jim where are you moving too in Illinis? Bout time you came back to the state of confusion!
Jess the railfan Jeep and I are coming home on May 1st. Can't wait. Railfanned the Bloomer line Saturday and got some great pictures. It will be nice to see all my old friends again, oh yeah and my fiance' too!
thanks guys I forgot to mention, that last pic is with an ink wash.. I may add a very thin tan wash...
