Welcome back everyone! I hope you had a good weekend and perhaps got some things done on the workbench and or layout. Let's get started. Saturday: As planned, I got up early. however, Friday's recon showed that most retail stores no longer have early Holiday hours anymore. I think the online shopping has taken care of that. So, I got up at 5:00am instead and went to the big box lumber store that opened at 6:00am. I found a few things there before giving up in that particular town and headed to another town that still has a mall. By 1:00pm, I was done and ready to head home. The wife went Christmas shopping with a friend, so I had the house to myself for a bit. My boss and his wife showed up with a 4X8 sheet of beautiful Baltic Birch plywood as well as two 4X8 2-inch sheets of pink foam for future modules or layout. Since he is moving out of state, he is liquidating as much as he can. Later Ang came home, and we were both exhausted, so we went to a small restaurant and had a light dinner before coming home and calling it a day. Sunday: I slept in as long as the dogs would let us. Soon coffee was brewing, and I slowly emerged from my slumber. A quick cleanup of the garage was in order as well as the replacement of a few Christmas lights that went out. The last leg of the American Flyer Christmas display was stained, installed and tested under the tree, so I can mark that project as done for this year. I finally got to the candy making and spent the afternoon making chocolates for gifts. We then settled in for dinner and to watch A Christmas Story before calling it a day and a weekend. The weekends this time of year leave me more tired than the work week. So how about you? Did you get anything done this weekend? Let us know. We'll come back on Friday the 22nd to start the process all over again. Until then, have a great weekend, be safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
Good morning to Y'all, I made some decent progress on the Fairbanks-Morse H12-44's Starting point: SP on the right - AT&SF on the left And - ready for decals: Thanks, - and, hope Y'all have a great week, Wolf
Saturday. Things did not go as planned. My wife’s knees were bothering her to the point where she canceled going out. My daughter did go out to Five and Below to grab some things for the family in need. She came home and said it was a good my wife did not go as it was crazy. After my daughter got home, I ran to the produce store and the grocery store. During the day I managed to get a few loads of wash done. I started painting the details on the walls of the Ashmore Hotel. I also put away a bunch of rolling stock that was sitting on the layout. Sunday. My wife felt better and she and my daughter went out. They went to Walgreens, Target, and Michael's to get the last of the supplies they needed for the family in need’s Christmas package. I did a few more loads of laundry and cleaned the Guinea Pigs’ cage. I ran to Michael's to get some new paint brushes as mine were either worn out or missing. I continued painting the details for the walls. I realized I was not thrilled with the color of the walls after painting the mortar. They are too dark. I experimented with a couple of methods, and I think I have the one that works.
Weekend went well; Friday after work I hung out with a couple of colleagues and got to know them better and Saturday I was able to get a few chores done and spend time with the kids. Sunday was great-I met up with [mention]Grey One [/mention] and swapped some things before heading to the Greenburg Train Show at the Dulles Expo Center. We walked around the show, spent some money, and I talked to the guys at NVNTRAK about their club for a bit, which convinced me I need to go out and join them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Seemed like the weekend flew by here. Friday, I didn't get to stop on the way home to get wood for the new fascia as there was another errand the wife needed that was in the other direction. Did get started on the laundry at least. Saturday morning, I finished up the laundry, ordered a couple of Christmas gifts on line and found something for the layout to order as well. By late morning I headed out to get fascia materials. Went to a couple of different stores but didn't find anything that looked good so went with plan B and got a nice sheet of plywood. Once home, I managed to get the sheet of plywood down to the side of the house where the room I have my tools in is at. While I was dragging out some folding tables to set up, it started to sprinkle rain so that was that for the day. Sunday morning was quiet and it looked like it was going to rain all day which of course it did. The wife had several errands for us do so that took up the better part of the afternoon. I spend the evening revising the layout of were I want to place things on the new fascia. Monday/Today, I hope to get back to cutting the fascia and then tonight, we are going to a Boy Scout Eagle ceremony to watch my son participate in one of his friends celebration. Then we shall see what the rest of this last week before Christmas brings us. Hope you all have a great week!
Greetings from a Windy McLean VA. Sunday went to 'Greenburgs' Train Show. Bought a razor saw, toys for grandson and a $5 caboose which will be used as bases for a 'CTTC' aka 'Coupler Transition / Transfer Caboose'. Hence the razer saw. Did a series of photos and posted to the '23/24 Winter Layout Party' Saturday: I don't remember. These grey hairs suck my memory. Oh, wait, Did a video or two demonstrating my 'kludge' using wire to connect cars. Hence the 'CTTC'. Friday?: Seriously? edit: 'CTTC' - I have acquired quite a bit of used rolling stock with horn hook couplers. The transfer caboose has long been an intention.
Despite the busy weekend, I did manage to squeeze a little time in on the layout. Friday night was a neighbor's Christmas Party. Saturday the weather even better than predicted so we did get outdoors for a long walk and some yard work, before going out to anniversary dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant, followed by dessert and a nitecap at Persimmons. The warm weather trend held over into Sunday, and we got out early for our traditional 90 minute run, it was breezy but I'll never complain when you can wear shorts in December here! Then after coffee and house cleaning, I got in about three hours in the basement, doing a little scenery and details and ran a few trains around the layout before settling in to watch the Bills put a hurting on the Cowboys. Now with a little luck, they could sneak into the playoffs and make things interesting, since they seem to be coming together at the right time. I snapped a few pics while I had the trains running. Hard to get the focus right, though.
Good Morning All, Happy Monday! Between other Christmas-related activities and yard work, I managed some progress on these Neosho Valley Lines (NVL) freelance cars. The NVL is the creation of Brad Bourbina in SE Kansas. He was kind enough to trade decals with me, such that I could build out a couple of cars to add to the W&NW (Wichita & Northwestern) project. For the Boxcar (Athearn RTR car), I added a few detail stencils, created in Inkscape to match a similar CNW car. The covered hopper is an Intermountain model that I just stripped of original road name and number, and a few other details to match Brad's cars. There is a Home Shops produced (Tangent) NVL car, recently released... With respect to the new out-building build, most of my Sunday efforts resulted in significant progress on ground clearing. A stubborn Sago palm is just about removed thanks to a new chain saw, so with any luck we'll get the slab poured in January... Happy Holidays All, -Bob T.
Friday, I drove my wife to an appointment in Twinsburg (about 40 min) which was nice as we usually have to drive to downtown Cleveland (70 min) to see her. Afterward, we stopped for lunch and had soup and a pile of nachos so big that we ate on it for two more days. Once home, I met my pastor of visitation and we spent some time with Boyd, one of our church friends that was on hospice, and his wife. Saturday, I got moving early and went out to the train club to drop off the invitation cards for next year's open house as one of our other members wanted some to take to a local train show. On the way home, I stopped at Harbor Freight and picked up an electric chain saw with a 25% off coupon. I still haven't opened it and it remains to be seen if I'll like it enough to keep it. Once home, my wife and I went to Walmart to pick up some pre-ordered groceries. We were both glad that we didn't go inside as they were already crazy busy. After the groceries were put away, we headed out to Mom's house where we spent three hours boxing up things we wanted take home, stuff to throw away, and (me) more matching Dad's N-scale train cars to their crystal cases. Only a few hundred left to go... In the end, we took home another pickup truck full of stuff. Once home and unloaded, I left again to sit with Boyd's wife after I learned that he had passed overnight. Then, on the evening, I spent a couple hours moving furniture and running the new carpet cleaner in the dining room. Sunday, I kept things moving because the children's' Christmas pageant started at 9:00 am and I had a lot to do before it started. I finished my other tasks during the remaining Sunday school time, had church, then returned home. Our church felt more somber than usual as they learned that we had lost three members over the weekend. After an hour or so, my wife and I went out again to a Christmas open house held by one of our church members and after that, a nap. Following my nap, I moved the dining room furniture to the other side of the room and cleaned the rest of the carpets. Later this week I'll try to get the living room and my bedroom done as well. On top of that will be Boyd's funeral, preparation for another the following week, and writing two sermons for Sunday morning and Sunday, Christmas Eve. It's going to be busy.
Good morning everyone, Friday and Saturday I used the break in the weather to blow leaves off the roofs and raked up enough to fill our pair of 100 gal composts barrels. Good thing too as it started raining Sunday afternoon. Besides running some trains which was quite enjoyable, I did make some progress on some layout scenery. The TB Winter Layout Party got started and I made my introductory and goals post. Worked on the road which will disappear into a cut in the hillside when viewed from the front of the layout. This view is taken by a drone (my hand holding the phone) hovering over the town of Carlin. Made up a set of rock castings that can be used on this hillside. These were a combination of Woodland Scenics molds and aluminum foil molds. And I updated my layout drawing which was 2 years out of date.
Due to a lot of stuff going on Friday I did not get a chance to post what I planned to get done, but here is a synopsis of the weekend's activities. Friday, took the wife to the hospital for pre-surgery testing and blood draw, which took most of the morning, late I did some modeling and in the evening was bowling, where I went better every game but the team lost the final two games by just a few pins. Saturday, went to the club and ran some SP engines and cars I have acquired over time, the SP is another railroad with a plethora of car types which make modeling fun. In the afternoon, we decorated for Christmas with putting the tree up and adding lights and ornaments, then in the evening we watch a Hallmark movie and then read for a while. Sunday, did a lot of house cleaning in preparation for my son coming for the holidays, including running the sweeper, cleaning bathrooms and kitchen, all while doing the laundry and putting away the Christmas decoration containers. In the evening I built an Athearn 60' PS Auto Parts car, an NYC hopper car kit and started on an Atlas 50' RBL kit. Added the finishing touches on the kitbashed ACF 60' Auto parts, and painted it. Sorry for the one out of focus picture, it looked good when I first saw, must have been tired. Rick Jesionowski
Good to have building supplies on hand. Interesting F-M's. I think experimenting describes most of us on here. N-Trak club bound. Not good to have all day rain. I have "long intentions" myself. Ahhh, the E-L! NVL...interesting. (@Pastor John) Hard to lose a friend. Great "drone" shot! Maybe the out of focus pic is from a "dream sequence". After trying eight different methods, I have a working prototype for the clerestory car roofs. I plan to start final assembly for these this afternoon or tomorrow. All have a great and safe week.
