This weekend we had my daughter’s softball game and my son had three baseball games. We only made one of his games because he had football camp this weekend. We did the usual grocery store runs. On the modeling front a little got done. Since the coal loads finally dried I was able to remove them and do some finishing on them. I also began assembling a G-Scale building for the garden railroad. Speaking of the garden railroad we placed the buildings and replaced a few pieces of bad track. We are ready to run once the weather cooperates. Lastly I got to test run my new P2K PRR PA1 and PB1 locos. I finally have some passenger diesels.
I was in Rochester NY since last Wednesday. I did manage to install a decoder in one steam loco when I came home on Sunday. I did get over to Despatch Jct. in Rochester and managed to find two old steam loco's to go along with that Southern Kato business car. Stay cool and run steam.....
Well not much modeling since I was out chasing 1:1 trains all weekend! Over three days, I railfanned the Peavine from Phoenix to the junction, hiked to an abandoned tunnel, fanned from Ashfork to Cosnino, and even had time for the AZ Central tourist train. Had a blast and am worn out! Pix and report in a few days (Yes I am still shooting film).
My clinic to the SCWD Youth Group yesterday went well. I was able to keep the kids' attention for most of the 40 or so minutes that we were talking about railroad photography. A few of them took some time after the clinic to try out some of the ideas that were presented in photographing the club layout.
I moved the table, layed out the track, did test runs, then put down what roadbed I had. And started Ballasting.
Well Friday was the start to my weekend, had a buddy from the Bloomington N-Trak come up to railfan the C&I from chana to Savannah and back. On Saturday we did the same thing with two other members of the Bloomington club as well as my wife Tina. Not much traffic on Saturday:angry: Sunday we set up JTW at the first Rochelle model railroad show. It was the slowest show I have ever attended but I made a profit. First year jitters and better publicity next year will help. Sunday night started getting the website built for JTW. I'm out of the office today working on JTW stuff. Good weekend overall!:thumbs_up:
Ran trains Fri nite for a change. Went to the LHS Sat (if you consider a 40 mile trip local) and picked up roadbed, ties, and rail and extended the mainline to Ozark. I'll start building the west turnout this week and hope to have all of Ozark done by the end of the week.
I mostly working on finishing this But I did manage to get my masters for some molds done, and ordered a new pressure pot Tim
Well I was able to complete the painting/decoder install on my newly finished B.T.S HO scale speeder. Its now in MOW service on the railroad
We got quite a bit done. This year's sedum crop was small, but each head was huge, so we got them painted and planted in the engine facilities and farm sections. Then we installed rope lights in the last dark corner, over the East Harbor--my back is still feeling it today. And we did lots of little tasks--substituting couplers on Kato PAs, re-arranging cars in the main yard, paiting odds and ends, etc.
Well, no modeling was done, but I did manage to attend an LSR Cowcatcher Division meeting, where I got a rare opportunity to see an icon of model railroading, Mrs. Bobbye Hall. For those that don't know her, Mrs. Hall was a pioneer in the hobby, becoming one of the first women in the model railroading business. She owned and operated Hall's Hobby House in Dallas as well as brass importer Hallmark Models. The 96-years-young Mrs. Hall was there telling a few anecdotes from her years in the model railroad industry and promoting her new autobiography along with co-author Tim Blackwell, who also happens to be a good friend of mine. (Tim's also an n-scaler and a Trainboarder...maybe he'll chime in) Here's a little more info about the book, http://www.samrarail.org/LSR/BHall.htm and I think they will have a website up in a day or two if anyone would like to order a copy. I was also able to do some railfanning on Sunday, but I haven't had an opportunity to upload my photos yet. I did catch another BNSF ACe, among other things.
Well over the weekend I was able to complete the painting of window trim on one of four sides of a stucture. I also added a small hill to my module. I still have to paint and add scenery but I think that it will turn out quite fine.
Managed to finish the replacement handrail sections on three BN B30-7AB's and add an access door to the cab blanking section on the third unit. :thumbs_up: Also pulled out the SD20 for a rethink of how to complete it....
I can give an answer to this one. Sedum is an easy plant to grow. We planted a few around our garden and haven't needed to give them any extensive care at all. We were harvesting ours after the first year in the ground.
I got my GN passenger train today from Chuck at Feather river. It is cool looking. When I get a chance I will post some photos of it. I got the two passenger cars one with a dome and two sleepers , plus the A & b engine. Alan
Sedum is a perennial. We harvested the first year. It doesn't spread that much here in NM--it may grow better elsewhere. And cottontails--a real bane here--love it, and eat it. We also use yarrow, oregano and snakeweed. These usually require grouping a few plants together. Sedum is good with the "3-foot" rule. The heads seem to get bigger as the plant matures. The trunk is a little skinny, but acceptable to us. If we had more time, we'd wrap the trunks with floral wrap. As it is, we just poke holes in the foam and plant them, so we can go back later. Most of the foam has a thin covering of joint compound, but a little pressure on an awl breaks through. Oregano is the real sleeper. We just started using it. It has about three distinct stages each year. It grows wildly here.
I'm far from finished with this project, but I took a few test shots of a photography module I'm working on. I just used a point and shoot digital for these and didn't worry about depth of field yet. Still playing around with static grass to try and get it to look right. Only thing I haven't tried yet is the static machine applicator that Noch sells. The color of the static grass looks drastically different in actual sunlight, btw. I expected that to an extent, but not as drastically as it turned out.
