MODELING It's Monday, January 13th 2014: Weekend Modeling Accomplishments

Jim Wiggin Jan 13, 2014

  1. Jim Wiggin

    Jim Wiggin Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Another weekend has past, how did you do?

    I had the best intentions of supplementing this thread with pictures of my work this past weekend in the vein of "Pictures or it never happened." Unfortunately, Railimages was not working for me so unless I get it working later, you'll just have to trust me.

    Saturday started great. Jumping in the Cherokee, I set my sights on Menards to get some supplies and on my way saw the Decatur Junction RR with two GP16;s pulling a string of covered hoppers. I stopped to get some pictures and was fortunate enough to talk to one of the employee's. After talking with him and snapping some pictures, it was of to the hardware store. Later in the weekend, I was able to mark the mainline and siding onto the 1/2 inch plywood sub-roadbed and trim the sub-roadbed with my jig saw. Later I carefully leveled the module, clamped on the six 1X3" risers, checking that they were each level and secured them down. Not a lot done as I still got shanghied into doing shopping on Sunday. Still a good weekend overall.

    So how about you? What did you accomplish this past weekend? Can you get Railimages to work for you? Let us know! We'll come back here on Friday the 17th and do this all over again. Until then, have a happy, safe weekend and...

    ​High Greens!
     
  2. MisterBeasley

    MisterBeasley TrainBoard Supporter

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    My pictures are still on the camera. But, the progress is right there on the layout.

    The tannery is mostly on a liftoff section. Saturday morning I pulled out the plaster cloth and laid strips around the liftoff border, using clear plastic wrap on the fixed layout side so the plaster cloth would only stick to the liftoff. I let it dry thoroughly, and then trimmed it. Sunday, I put Gypsolite all over it, and tonight I'll go back and put scenic stuff over the Gypsolite to hide the border. By the end of the week, I should have the discontinuity completely covered, and then I can lift off the tannery and see how well I disguised the break.

    I did a bit of detail work, too, adding figures and crates. I got another pair of platform lamps installed and wired, and I fired up the soldering iron to connect all the lights on the liftoff to an automobile trailer plug, so it will be easy to disconnect. I also added scenic material to the area around the pond, which is a couple of work-days ahead of the tannery grounds in scenery.

    And then, I ran a train. I finally picked up my U28B, which I ordered last spring and saw delayed several times. I immediately noticed that one of the truck sideframes had come loose, so I put it back on but it wouldn't stay. On closer examination, I saw that two of the three mounting pins had broken off. So, I used tacky glue, and that seems enough to hold it in place without making the bond permanent. I found what looks like a stirrup step in the box, but haven't found anyplace where it might be from, and there were a couple of loose parts from the roof as well. The front headlight randomly switches from full bright to almost off. Finally, I tried pulling a train with the engine in reverse, and it appears that the front coupler shaft is too short, so the coupler from the first car in the train gets caught on the engine's pilot and causes derailments. The headlight issue is probably a loose wire, and the couplers will be upgraded to Kadees anyway, but you'd think that a brand new pre-ordered engine would arrive in better shape than this one did.
     
  3. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    Spent the weekend running trains, shopping and hanging out with many of my model train friends at the World's Greatest Hobby on Tour show in Houston. One of the NTRAK modules on display there from the Northwest Crossing club.
    [​IMG]
     
  4. Philip H

    Philip H TrainBoard Member

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    Ran trains on friday to test some new track work on a friend's NKP railroad (where I worked two locos with a KCS-Conrail lash up). Built two small Tomy Tec oil/fuel loading platforms for my refinery - these may end up as stand ins for the final racks that I want to scratchbuild, but at least now my tank cars have a place to go.
     
  5. Mike VE2TRV

    Mike VE2TRV TrainBoard Member

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    Other than hacking ice off my driveway and walkways, I fixed the lighting on my Spectrum H16-44 (the one I bought a couple of months ago). I sanded the frame where the light board contacts go (it's one of those split frame jobs), and noticed that the light board itself is very easy to convert to LED lighting. Since the directional diodes were already there, I just added 1k resistors in series with them and put the LEDs in the holes where the bulbs went.
     
  6. SYROUS

    SYROUS TrainBoard Member

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    Been busy working on my mountain base on my layout. First cordboard lattice form, then plaster paper towel shell. [​IMG][​IMG]

    Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
     
  7. rg5378

    rg5378 TrainBoard Member

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    I finished laying the mainline and installing the track leading to the future staging yard. Tested the electrical conductivity of everything (by running trains). Everything is working well. Found out that my tunnel motor is going to need some tweaking to negotiate the 18 inch curves. Next project is to ballast the mainline.
     
  8. Kevin Anderson

    Kevin Anderson TrainBoard Member

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    I have been brought to a complete standstill. I am in need of some switches and everyone seems to be sold out. I attempted to work on a decoder that was installed last year and ended up frying the speaker and damaging the loco power pickups. Now I need a new speaker and to tear apart the truck....
     

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