We are back for what was for many of us, a cold, cold, frigid weekend. How did you do this weekend? We were supposed to get the tree on Saturday morning but freezing rain that came in after work on Friday and continued through out Friday night into Saturday, made the roads treacherous at best. We left the house at 10:15, crawled down our street and after going a grand speed of 2 mph, Jess slowly went down a hill. I say hill in the most generous of terms as this is after all, Illinois, however she spun left, she spun right then did a 360. At that point we decided on going home. Basic physics and common sense was in order. Later news reports proved my decision was sound as everything from SUV's to minivans were in ditches or in front yards. After returning home, I fired up the airbrush and worked in the shop all day. I was able to get the last of the painting done on the GP30 as well as fashion some angled nose grabs for a customer's U boat plus a lot of other odds and ends. Sunday was a new day, the sun was out and the high was 3 degrees. Angela and I fired up Jess and after a three hour odyssey of roads that were good all the way to down right skating rinks, we returned victorious! For us Jeep fans, this would be the perfect Christmas card. With tree inside, finally decorated and the Christmas train down and set up, we can now say we are ready for next weekend. So how about you? How did you fare, this last weekend before Christmas? Let us know. We'll be back on Friday the 23rd to start the process all over again, but I think we will all be pretty busy. Until then, have a great week, stay safe (and warm) and as always... High Greens!
I had a pretty productive modelling weekend. Started off with some touchup work on my mainline trackage (painting). Then, I worked on some parking lots in Oxnard. The station, South West pipe and supply, SP office and the greasy spoon. I also put in the road to the SP company housing units. As well as the road and ramp approach to the PMT ramp. And - the access road to the north yard tower. Hope ya'll had an awesome weekend, Wolf
Not much. Family Christmas party Saturday and Sunday trip to the movie theater put the "kibosh" on any significant modeling. I was able to do some minimal wiring to start connecting boosters as well as I started soldering the leads on a Digitrax PM42 circuit breaker board. I hope to "chip away" at finishing that during the week so my 10 days off during Christmas will let me get to other RR chores.
The temp hit minus 23 degrees Friday night so I decided that a nice warm train room in the basement would be a good place to be. I broke down and cleaned all of the track on the layout for the first time in years. My layout is DC only and I haven't had any problems at all with my DC locomotives, but a couple of the few DCC locomotives I have would momentarily stutter from time to time. They are a lot more picky then DC locomotives. The worst offender is a little Bachmann 2-6-0, probably due to it's light weight. I don't run it very much because it is a real wimp when it hits a grade and I do have a ruling grade just above 2%. I usually use it to pull a passenger train with a couple of extremely free rolling Con Cor passenger cars. We start with the train at the station at Logan and then departing. Here it is about to get onto the main line and head up the grade to the next town. Here the train is enter Churchill and to the station and then departing to Anceny. No photos of Anceny, can only post 10 pics. Aftr Anceny, the train stops at the station at Gallatin Gateway and then departs then heading south to West Yellowstone. Sure a lot warmer running trains than going outside.
Got nothing done like I wanted. With Christmas next weekend I probably won't get anything done until the 1st. Merry Christmas all!
Family Christmas Saturday; Friends Christmas Sunday; I managed to get the pool working but neglected to check the BBQ, so that will need work. Summer is nice In the layout room, I screwed all the L-girders together. So I finally have a slightly-flat slightly-rigid base to draw track plans 1:1 on Promptly started rethinking the whole helix area..
