Welcome back everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend and managed to get a lot done off your model railroading list. Thanks to everyone for the continued support, prayers and well wishes for my father. While he did not come home this weekend, he has made some considerable improvements. Let's get started. Saturday: After a busy week, I got to sleep in and enjoy a hot cup of coffee. I got cleaned up and left to go look at a Ford Ranger that looked like a possible good work truck. Closer inspection ruled this out as rust was everywhere on it, not uncommon for a NH vehicle. From there I went to Concord to help the guys get set up for Sunday's show. There wasn't much for me to do as the club was already running trains so after visiting for an hour I made the one hour trip up north to visit with my dad at the hospital. He was feeling better and I ended up visiting with him for close to six hours. By the time I got home, the sun had set and it was time for bed. Sunday: Was up and greeted with sunshine, something we haven't seen much in NH this summer. I quickly got cleaned up and dressed and went down to Concord to the show. I spent the day walking around and enjoyed a lot of the modular clubs set ups. Here is one of our members HO scale modules built by Joe that depicts Contoocook NH. Most of everything you see here still exists with the exception of the Concord & Claremont line that B&M took out in the early 1960s. These N scale modules are from a small club in the Lebanon NH area. They are constructing the B&M Northern line as it runs through Canaan, Lebanon and White River Junction. I really liked their module construction as the are mainly on wheels and can simply roll into their vehicle and back to their club where they are set up again and used as the club layout. I talked with a member for a bit and plan to check them out at some point. The B&M Historical society was there so I purchased more books for my collection and had the opportunity to have one signed by the author. Other cool finds was a new B&M HO scale caboose and a special Irv Athearn covered hopper kit from the early 1990s. Soon it was time to pack up and I stayed to help the club clean up the arena. With, modules, tables and chairs put away, we called it a night at 5:30. We had our best show in recent history with over 600 tables sold for vendors and 1,000 people coming to the event. All in all a great show for the club. Maybe next year I'll bring my layout. So how about you? What did you accomplish this weekend? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Friday the 25th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a great week, be safe and as always... High Greens!
Good mornin to Y'all, Well, - Friday a summer cold came to visit me. So, Saturday was pretty much a bust. The typical - coughing, sneezing - runny nose. Blah -- Sunday, felt much, much better. (and - as of this morning, it is pretty much gone) I was able to attend to my Cotton Belt F7 project. The lower stripes are about 90% complete. The nosed decals on the "A" units have been applied. - So, making some progress. Tropical storm Hilary passed over us. Pretty much rained all day - Sunday. Y'all have a great week, Wolf
@Jim Wiggin Sounds like a good visit w/ dad, continued prayers. This weekend was productive. Got the new mountain scene (not done), but to a good stopping point which was the goal this weekend. Got the base coat of paint on, plus cleaned up plaster that may have seeped under the masking, as well as touched up the ballast and cinder bed in those areas as well. On to something else for a while. Also picked up the new SUV on Friday and spent time Saturday programming stuff in. Cars "gadgetry" and electronics are a lot different than when I purchased my first car in '72. Everyone have a great and peaceful week!
Happy Monday all! @Jim Wiggin it's great news to hear you dad is improving! My weekend went sort of as planned. I didn't get a chance to visit the new LHS I had heard about but got everything else I needed to do done on Saturday. On Sunday, the wife and I did our normal Sunday morning routine. Later, I did get to the layout and workbench. Made more coffee first and started with a little wiring work. I then added my new carbon black hopper to the end of a freight and let the trains roll while I moved over to the workbench. There, I upgraded two cars to metal wheels and added them to one of the trains on the layout for a test run. Next, I prepped a pair of grain trailers for painting and cut up a bunch of coffee straws for another pipe load project. It didn't feel like I did much but had an enjoyable afternoon. Now it's Monday and back to the grind for another week. Hope you all have a great week!
Saturday was spent with my wife’s family while they were in town. She took them to the airport and I assembled a new bed for one of my daughters. I identified a bunch of n scale items I no longer need-I need to thin my herd-so I posted a bunch of stuff in the swap page. Sunday morning I had an appointment to take my truck in for maintenance at 0900. They didn’t open up until 0905, but hey, maybe a clock is slow or they had an issue. I’m a reasonably patient person. Life happens. So I dropped it off and while I was waiting I walked around the mall area and did a couple of errands. When I came back at 1200 they hadn’t even pulled my truck in the bay. I had been to the place twice before and received slightly above average service, but that had been weekdays. Talked to them and it became clean to me the two guys on duty didn’t really care and didn’t want to do anything more complicated than oil changes. I took my keys and left. I went home suitably frustrated with nothing to show for my morning than a haircut and a pack of razor blades. Made an appointment to drop it off with a place this evening for service Tuesday. At that point I was in no mood to weed the garden with the heat or change the oil in my boat’s outboard-Last thing I need to discover is some hidden problem in the motor. There probably isn’t, but the way that was going, wasn’t going to tempt fate. So I decided to salvage my day and I clear off my workbench and glue foam down on my HCDs. Spent the remainder of the evening hanging out with my family and then worked on the track plan. Kept going back and forth or staging yard stuff. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
@Jim Wiggin glad to hear of your father's improvements. Still saying a prayer for him to continue his recovery. Saturday was a good day. My wife and I did some running around. My wife had a dentist’s appointment. Afterward we hit the produce store, got the car washed, and then stopped at the grocery store. When we got home my wife sat in the backyard gazebo while my daughter tried out the hammock she just purchased. I rounded up a few stray items from the yard and put them away in the garage and did a load of laundry. My wife cleaned and changed out the bedding in the Guinea pig cage by herself. While this may not be considered monumental it is considering nine months ago, she could barely do it. It shows how far down she went because of the blood clot almost two years ago and how far she has come back. There is still a good way to go but she is getting there. I added a cookie sheet outside and under the living room air conditioner, so the water won’t drip down the wall. Sunday, we did some more running. We stopped at Kohl’s to drop off an Amazon return. Then we headed to Delaware to get gas for my car. Price was $3.73 but I paid $3.13 with my grocery store reward points. Then we stopped at the grocery store to get a few things I forgot on Saturday plus a few items we didn’t know we needed Saturday. At home there was some more laundry to be done. On the layout I tested a new B&O Bowser Baldwin AS-616. In DC it ran great, and Bowser did a great job on its appearance. I now need to get a decoder for it. After the test runs, I pulled up some track and over Saturday and Sunday I glued down more roadbed and tacked down track. I finished the two-track mainline so that half of the track for it is now down permanently except for a couple of pieces that I was waiting for the roadbed glue to dry.
What great news about dad! What a great show! Very cool! Down with summer colds! Mountain looks cool. Carbon black hopper. Interesting. Ahhh, foam gluing. Very relaxing. (Is there a laundry tsunami I don't know about? ) Is there a way to train the Guinea pig to clean track? It's a little antsy around here. The American had the pilot installed. Just a while ago. It had to be very rudimentary to allow clearance for the very large coupler hook. It is what it is. This step completes this locomotive. Next will be 2-8-0's that need boiler appliances and maybe pilots as well. We shall see. All have a fine cooler(?) week.
It's been a long week. Monday, was Mom's calling hours at the funeral home, Tuesday was the funeral, luncheon, then a drive out to the Western Reserve National Cemetery for her committal, then back to my brother's house for dinner and a chance fir all the gathered family to finally talk a bit. Wednesday, I got some reading done and took a nap, but was otherwise pretty useless. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I worked on the draft of my research paper and finally emailed it in before 11:00 pm. Sunday was church. I didn't preach, and it was nice just to attend church and sit with my wife, which is fairly rare. After a quick lunch, I went out to the Sebring Model Railroad Club, where I did some bookkeeping and ran a few laps with my new Athearn depressed center flat cars (which ran like a champ). Then it was back to church for a Zoom meeting for our Liberia Farmer to Farmer mission board, then home to relax and finally order my books for next semester. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
Jim - Good to read of your dad's progress! Friday our AQI reached 292. Between lightning storms and the usual stupid people, smoke a-plenty. A light coating of ash on my vehicle that day and the next. Irritated the heck out of my throat and sinuses, and still is... Oh well. It's summer. Nothing really unusual about it here! Happens EVERY year. Got the detailing done on my two new HOn30 hoppers. But then was diverted, (happening a lot lately!), by my other hobbies of collecting hydroplane memorabilia and train orders. But I am enjoying life, so no complaints!
Another weekend without any accomplishments on the railroad. The most I did was create a couple experimental pools for water tests. It rained most the weekend, but it was still hot and the garage was intolerable. My level of commitment seems to diminish the further in life I get. Maybe I am just not in a hurry as I once was. Model Railroading is fun when you have the energy and sunset doesn't trigger a feeling of sleepiness.
