We're back, and from the looks of Friday's thread, you all had a lot planned. Let's see how everyone did. As predicted, I spent most of my weekend working on Jess and her hardtop hoist and storage unit. I had to relocate some shop lights and rearrange the garage a bit, but by noon I was working on the installation of the hoist. By evening I was about halfway through the instal before calling it a night. The next morning was set aside for domestic duties and the finishing of the hoist. The weekend was pretty much busy just getting settled in more than anything. Next weekend I'll need to start preparing for the next operatations set in mid September in conjunction with the Monticello RR Days and Decatur Train Fair. So how about you? What was your last weekend in August like? Let us know. We'll all return on Friday the 1st of September to start the process all over again. Until then, have a great week, stay safe and as always... High Greens!
As planned, I got down plywood for another run of main line. I'll probably extend it further before I start putting more homasote and track in. Also, worked on scenery that will be behind "Interchange, VA". This is my first foray into rock carving. I put in several Woodland Scenics precast rock walls and then used carving plaster to fill in. After it dried, I watched several you-tubes on how to carve and gave it a shot. Here are some progressive shots ...
The new LHS is a good source for scenic materials - I walked out with an armload of stuff! They'll see me again, for sure. I boosted the height of my engine shed, as it was a tad low and prevented the doors from clearing the tracks. I wired up my control boxes, then tested and fixed a few bugs in the track wiring - including a real face-palm moment, I forgot to connect the lead tracks to both the yard and the town. All the spurs and yard tracks had power, but there was no way to get there! Bad, bad brain... I started filling in the cracks between the foam panels in preparation for future scenery. Before that I'll need to think about wiring for lighting, for buildings and street lights! I'll look for a small 12VDC power supply at the electronics surplus store. I can get a nice 3A model with wire terminals and an auto cigar lighter plug for about 30 bucks.
I did manage to get some stuff done. I finished off a few cross bucks for my oil derrick scene. As well as getting some fuel and water columns finished up for my diesel service facility (Installation next weekend - ????). I got the diesel service platform glued down. And, I finished up the decoder install in a pair of Lifelike SD-7's (They are now programmed). Hope y'all had a great weekend -- And to our SE Texas friends - hope Y'all are safe and dry!! Wolf
Sounds like what I've used for the past few years. Just replaced it with a 10amp switching supply from a NJ dealer on ebay -9.95 shipped. You just need to supply an AC cord. So far, it works great. Two sets of outputs - have one of those cheap Chinese buck regulars on one turned down to 3 volts replacing some wall warts. Now have one supply taking care of all power except the DCC. Don
Didn't get a whole lot accomplished because it was HOT here and that makes it hard to work in the garage where my layout is. Did get a few things done though: Mounted a TV above my layout and routed the cord to an outlet in the ceiling. Also hung a 4 foot LED light fixture in the ceiling while up there. Ran a HDMI cable under the layout to my laptop so I can watch live rail cams etc on the TV while working on the layout.... Reversed my work station so I no longer have my back to the layout and the laptop can reach the HDMI cable.... Installed another backdrop piece, only 1 or 2 left I hope.... Started some scenery on this end of the layout but didn't get to far. Not sure what I'm putting here yet but wanted to do enough so I can at least ballast the track.... Steve Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
