Welcome back everyone. I hope you had a good weekend and accomplished a lot. Let's dive in. Friday: I got off work at 3:45pm and got a text from the boss that he was able to get everything loaded and was no longer in need of my help, so we ordered a pizza, and I worked on the American Flyer Christmas display for the remainder of the day. Saturday: Angela and I had planned to have a date day and make Christmas chocolates together, however, the chocolate she had would not melt correctly. After fighting with it for what seemed like hours, we determined that it had gone bad. I spent more of the afternoon staining the legs for the Christmas display and trying to finish it up for installation. Later that evening we met the Granddaughter, my daughter and her husband at the Bloomington Zoo for the Christmas lights display. It's always exciting to see how excited the kids get for the Christmas season. After an enjoyable evening with everyone, we stopped by a new to us restaurant for a quick dinner then went home. Sunday: After a bit of coffee, I was off to the garage to try and finish up the American Flyer Christmas Display. Paint applied, legs done, track installed, we left to go get our Christmas tree. Our usual Tree Farm was out this year, so we went to a Tree Farm that we used to go to over five years ago. We found a nice 6-foot tree that easily fit in the station wagon, and we were soon home. The rest of the evening was spent with me finishing the Christmas display. By 6:30, the display was up, trains were running and success! We then put the tree up and at 8:30 after cleaning everything up, we called it a night. The tree will have to get decorated this week. Christmas has definitely taken over this household. So how about you, what did you accomplish? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Friday, the 15th, the last day of Hanukkah, to start the process all over again. Until then, have a great week, be safe and as always... HAPPY HANUKKAH & High Greens!
Good mornin to Y'all, I am making good progress on Samples Sales: The starting point: The empty lot Asphalt laid down: Jr's office and his inventory: I still have to weather the asphalt and add some signage Thanks, and hope Y'all have a great week, Wolf
Friday: After fighting traffic on the way home I worked on the outside Christmas decorations until I ran out of extension cords. My wife and daughter worked on finishing the inside decorations. Saturday. My wife and I dropped off returns at Kohl’s for Amazon, and UPS. Then we wandered to the local Ace Hardware store, and I got some extension chords and hooks. My wife grabbed some more Christmas decorations. Next, we got the car washed and stopped at PetSmart. We finished with a good filling dinner at Crackle Barrel where my wife got some more Christmas decorations. When we got home, I finished the outside decorations except for one item, the train. I entered some new tank cars into the inventory program. Afterwards my wife and I sat down and watched “Meet Me in St. Louis.” Sunday. I did some laundry. I moved the decoration bins from the first floor to the second floor. My daughter and ran to the grocery store. My wife, daughter, and I watched “Mircle on 34th Street,” and “Christmas in Connecticut.” I continued entering some new tank cars into the inventory program. I began working on the Ashmore Hotel. I opened the box and looked over the pieces. I cleaned the wall sections of any spurs and flashing. I then sprayed them with Dullcoat in anticipation of painting mortar lines and details. @SP-Wolf great job. What did you use for road and sidewalk?
My Accomplishment: Learned a lot about painting irregular foam surfaces. Still working on 24" mountain which has patches of base white shoing through. Hope everyone did better than me.
Saturday was spent watching the Army-Navy game and doing a few choirs. Sunday I was a bit tired and then rain kept us in, so mostly loaded. But I did do a little more track planning before getting frustrated about how to fit in a couple of elements. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Happy Monday everyone! We got almost all the errands done that we needed to over the weekend and even got the laundry caught up. It was rainy and wet all weekend so again, no opportunity to purchase wood for the fascia. I did look though and the pickings are slim but I do have an idea now at least. Didn't really accomplish much at all. Installed metal wheel sets on 5 cars and test ran them for a bit. Opened up and looked at a kit mainly so I could get the instructions out and see what would be involved. Since the main parts will need a nice coat of paint, it will wait for another time. Picked up some jewel cases form a couple of TB members that will work for some of my bigger cars so I put a few to use right away. Cutting the foam nest for them took more time that I expected but was worth it. That's about it. Hope you all have a great week!
Good morning all. This weekend went as planned. Not much active modeling due to our family Christmas get together. It was fun, there were about 25 folks here mostly family but also some good friends we always include. Later in the afternoon many folks wandered up into the layout room and watched trains run. I had a small local freight pulled by an RS-1 on the east bound line and an Allegheny pulling a large "peddler" freight westbound. Here's a shot of Allegheny 1618 coming by the newly installed SL cabin. Have a great week all.
I've been working on building D&RGW AX-41, a Jordan Spreader. This is a 3d print kit from Etsy. As faithfully as I can, I'm detailing it in accordance with the prototype. As such, the power unit and pump are custom. I added more handrail supports, ballast weight over the rear, various tanks where necessary, and enclosed the blade to cab area with styrene sheet.
@Tompm - Thank you For the road: Woodland Scenics - road system. For the sidewalks: Fine N-Scale Best regards, Wolf
Weekend went as planned, bowling team took a hit as the other team got 19 Brooklyn strikes and we lost one game and total pins. The club was open both days this weekend so a lot of time was spent running trains and talking with visitors. I did manage to finish adding all the detail parts to the 60’ ACF boxcar I was working on along with painting the roof silver. I also painted a covered hopper and 50’ boxcar. In addition I put up the new drapes my wife ordered and did the laundry. Rick Jesionowski
Well, the beginning of the weekend can be summed up as "did not go as planned." I had expected to finish my sermon, and my homework, on Thursday and have much of the weekend to catch up on chores, the fix-it pile, and train stuff. Instead, my wife messaged me, I left work, and we spent the day at the ER in Cleveland. By the end of the day, they had run lots of tests but didn't really do anything, and we felt as if we'd wasted the day. As a result, on Friday my wife still wasn't feeling great so I worked from home but did homework, finished my sermon for Sunday, and did my laundry. Saturday, I was up early to head over to Massillon (30 min. away) where a group of us bagged 3000 pounds of potatoes donated by the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC). Half of those then went to a food pantry in Massillon, and brought the other half back to the Community Food Pantry and the Alliance of Churches bread ministry here in Alliance along with about eight cases of potato chips that the Massillon pantry had in (over)abundance. After we dropped off the potatoes, my wife and I made stops at Kohl's and Tractor Supply to pick up Christmas gifts and then in the evening met one of our "bonus kids" (a friend of our kids who has spent MANY hours in our home) for dinner at Bob Evans because he wanted us to meet his fiancé. This is what 1500 pounds of potatoes look like in the back of my half-ton truck. There's still a little movement left in my shock absorbers, but not much. Sunday was church, with a Christmas luncheon afterward featuring music by our children's choir, vocal choir, and bell choir. After that I went home, changed clothes, and went out the the Sebring Model Railroad Club for an hour or two where we rearranged some workbenches and traced out some wiring, but didn't otherwise get much done.
Good morning everyone. Everything with the train show went as planned. We used both yards and had the largest layout at this show but did have more problems than usual but with fixes and work arounds we got it all running and everyone enjoyed themselves. Attendance at the show seemed to be very good considering the fairgrounds was charging more for parking than the price of admission to the show. This was the first Great Train Show in the SF Bay area in almost 4 years. Next one will be in San Jose in late February. The big club yard got put back into the trailer, but I came home with one of the DC Throttle boxes and both ends of the small yard which all need some repair. My train show weekend is still not quite over as I need to take the trailer back to its shed later this morning. Our layout early on Saturday before the show opened: Overview of exhibit hall. Mostly layouts to the left of the white posts and all vendors to the right of them. Wishing you all a great week and see you here again on Friday.
While organizing my train room I came upon a stash of DCC decoders that I forgot about. Just what I needed to convert the power on my PRR Broadway Limited train so that I can run it on NTRAK setups where DCC has become the norm these days. I converted two E8s and my GG1. The group that I have been setting up with lately does use a G scale decoder to run one loop, usually the Yellow Line (without using the address 0 option). It basically ties the motor output of the decoder to the rails where you can run an analogue train on that line while using a DCC wireless throttle. But I like to leave that open for the guys who have no DCC locomotives. Only one person can run a train on that line at a time.
Hey All, A busy weekend. On Friday, I was able to escape work a few hours early and put some time in on a couple of car projects. I am working on a pair of cars for the Neosho Valley Lines and subsidiaries. I'll show pics there when closer to completion. On Saturday, we had an excellent NMRA Lone Star Region (Division 6) luncheon, which is an open invitation to the community of railfans and modelers. A turnout of almost 30 people, a couple of nice presentation, a gift exchange, and a visit to Brian Kelly's home where he is planning a big layout expansion. Sunday included a Zoom meeting with Division 5 of the NMRA LSR, featuring the President, Gordy Robinson. Gordy gave a great overview of 3D printing of free-mo modules and a few NMRA updates. I also made some progress on a new addition to the "Wichita & Northwestern" fleet. This really nice Trinity 3-bay hopper model from Athearn came as a Cargill-lettered car, but road number and reporting marks easily removed with Solvaset. Added W&NW home-brew decals and away we go...we'll get these decals clear coated and some light weathering...will be one of the newest cars for the layout. Yes, another hopper! Take Care All, -Bob T.
I am nominating Mr. Wiggin as the new model railroad tornado. (I hate it when chocolate goes bad. ) Nice looking car lot and farm. Ahh, waiting on "The Ashmore". Good things and mountains take time. I hate it when I get frustrated. Jewel cases for "jewels". I can relate. SL cabin looks outstanding! The Jordan spreader is turning into a work of art. Covered hopper on the rails. I hope Mrs. Pastor John finds a resolution and gets well soon. I am sure you were honored to meet the fiancé, Tons of spuds! N-Trak layout looks superb! I like to find stashes. Nice luncheon pic. When I am in a pic like this, they refer to it as a rogues' gallery. Can't have too many hoppers. Seems like I am detecting a laundry sub-theme or is it just me? I am currently building a clerestory end section mock-up. Looks like the working plan is working. More work is needed though. Have a great week.
I know it's been a while since I posted anything. It's been a year of changes. Last year we purchased a "retirement home" in coastal South Carolina. Since Lori was still working, we stayed there through May and then returned home to NY and rented it out through the end of the year. I spend most of the summer working on our NY home, rebuilding our deck, painting inside and out, and other tasks. Lori is stepping down from her full time senior management role, and will be taking on a part time role to manage an expansion project. We will be returning to SC in early January once again as snowbirds, while we try to figure out whether we remain snowbirds, or permanent sun seekers. As is normal, I saw little of the train room until late fall, and even then I was mostly running trains, working through all the little nits I would encounter with control or track issues. At some point, frustration drove me back to modeling, and I have been working on scenery and details since, with a focus toward making the layout more "photogenic". There's still quite a bit to do, which certainly won't be done before we head south, but here's a few pictures of my latest progress. Sorry to be so long winded--thanks for reading this far. And even though I haven't posted much, I've been checking up regularly to see some of the fine work being done here.
Nice to see your layout again! I love that you've included the historic grocer's warehouse in your Binghamton station area, so nice to see. I caught the building in this 05/28/1983 shot there.
Looks like a nice load for gallons of Canadian Vodka. Did a bunch back in Wisc. & UP Mich. Long, long time ago. We used it in the tractor.
Perfect place for an Alco portrait! I've stared at the photo of that building in the Locomotives book with one of EL's SD45-2 for hours, trying to decode the palimpsest of painted-on signage. Lots of fascinating history in there. Thanks for posting that one!
