Apologies once again for the lack of a Friday Thread. I'm politely asking for patience as my life has gotten complicated once again and the things that I enjoy doing, I have little to no time to do. I hope that things will get to some form of normal at some point in the not so distant future. I was unable to do anything train related this past weekend, so I'll open the floor up to you guys. Show us what you did and as always, images help inspire motivation to fellow modelers. We'll get together again on Friday the 22nd and do this all over again. Until then... ​High Greens!
It was an "away weekend" for us, so not much got accomplished. I did pick up my #5 right turnout from my LHS, after weeks of back order, so I've got all the track needed for the Phase 3A expansion. After some measuring, I will need to add another section to make the staging tracks long enough to actually hold the trains I want to run, and that will require a few more sticks of flex track. We were up in Maine visiting our daughter and watching her compete in a triathlon. She took second in her age group (yay, Annie!) and was very happy with her times. I did a trail bike ride on the Eastern Trail, a bike trail that's at least part old roadbed, although I'd have to research what lines. The Trolley Museum people said the right-of-way was an old trolley line. I think I've actually got my wife psyched to hop the Downeaster up to Maine and then take the Maine Eastern excursion train from Brunswick to Rockland. We usually stay at the Saco Motel when we visit that part of Maine. It's an old place, well maintained, with that retro feel that brings me back to my childhood. I remarked to the couple in the room next to ours that it was nicer than a luxury hi-rise hotel. He agreed, we got to chatting, and lo and behold I'd met another model railroader. And all day and evening, I was amazed at how many train horns I heard as the Downeaster passed through town on its northbound odyssey.
I got a box of Penn Line passenger cars at a yard sale last week for $1. They were poorly hand painted and no trucks, but the price was right. Looked like 2 baggage cars, an RPO, 4 coaches and an observation. Baggage cars stripped easily in alcohol, the coaches wouldn't after 14 hours. Tried brake fluid and damaged 2 of them. Oh well, not sure what to try on the remaining 3 cars, whatever the last owner hand painted with sure is tough. Not sure what to do for trucks yet, going to take a set of buckeye 6-wheel trucks off an Athearn crane and see how the underframe rides on those. I unpacked another box of locomotives and reference books and put them away. I also programmed my Atlas H16-44 and ran it around a little bit as well. I finished planting trees around the route 4 overpass and worked on the background rolling mill as well. Sent from my LG-P930 using Tapatalk 2
Got roofs put on the two buildings for my Avrams Bakery project. Plus, I had a Tichy tank car that I painted several weeks ago. This weekend I tag-teamed between the bakery building and decaling/weathering/finishing the tank car.
Cleaned up the bench work a bit to get ready for a little modeling work. I am at a loss where to start up again. I have so much that needs to be done :/ from building structures to wiring to laying track. So much to do so little time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
I had torn out my HO scale Castor River bridge and replaced it with an O scale logging bridge but now I'm building a separate On30 layout and keeping my HO scale Zalma Branch so I rebuilt the original bridge. What a pain in the butt! Luckily I salvaged the old trestle pilings and reused them. A little more Magic Water and some weeds and I'm back in business.
^Yep. I have a huge supply of Champ Decals including about 20 something tank car sets. I wound up w/ 3 sets of "Skelly Gas" decals. Thought they were cool. Probably the wrong car and certain car details, but the effect turned out the way I wanted.
