Another weekend is in the books. How did you do? I spent the better part of my Saturday working on the shop, re-arranging and organizing, getting ready for the big push of modeling projects that come from February until Galesburg in June. I got about 75% of what I needed to get done and I'm happy with the results. I also got ready for this coming weekend's show in St Charles MO. Didn't touch the T-Trak modules themselves but with shop work out of the way, I can devote my evenings to work on them. So how about you? Are you surviving the "Polar Vortex"? Did it allow you to get some modeling done? I know some of you went to the Amhearst Train Show in Springfield MA this past weekend, let us know how it was. We'll come back here on Friday the 31st and start the weekend right once again. Until then, have a happy, safe and WARM week and... ​High Greens!
Long weekend, but little accomplished as usual. I listed some more stuff to sell on evilbay, still trying to generate some more cash for the layout shed construction. Doubtful I will pull this off by the end of March. I make a couple hundred bucks, then find out the wife went and bought some stuff with the money in paypal.... two steps forward one step back. :headspin: I pulled up several trees and also processed some trees still packaged from by Dollar Tree post-christmas decoration spree I went on a couple years ago. Nice HO-size pine trees with no frosting, pull the plastic white bases off and stick them in the foam base.... worked great. Packed up a total of 46 trees. I need a couple more boxes to pack away all of my tools and my sensitive locomotive projects in progress. The top level of the layout, which neither had rail nor any scenery, was removed and hauled out to the garage for storage. I'm going to try to use this section in the future. I also ordered Golden Yellow, White and Black trim film sheets for the development of the CC&CI locomotive roster. Those should be in the mail this week. I have an Atlas U23B I;d like to get mostly done before it gets packed away.
Finally got some switches in so I can finish laying track. Last night my son and I laid road bed. Then we fixed my challenger. opened the box and the lead truck came off. Then we programmed it. Now to continue the track laying and start building mountians.
The GP7 with the constant-lighting circuit had a lights-out incident. It worked fine after I removed the shell, but when I tried to put the bulb back in the mount behind the headlight lenses, it quit again! I finally managed to get it working again, but now I'm making plans to convert it to LED directional lighting with a homemade light board jammed inside the hood. I'll reuse the diodes from the constant lighting circuit for that.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you my first time weathering project over the weekend. I took one of the stock vintage Southern Pacific open bay hopper and then... (Picture taken from google as I didnt take before picture.) Weathered the HECK out of it. Here are the following result and comparison to other vintage rolling stock. Materials used: My gf's dark brown eyes pencil (female's make-up product or something) and acrylic paints. Eventually I will have to get a dullcoat it to seal the hard work. I am extremely happy with the result and are very confident for next weathering project. Now all I gotta do is go get some more supplies! . Beside that, I have 2 projects to do. I just received some items from Fifer (TCS decoder for GP7, new couplers and FVM wheels). Sitting on my work bench are BN GP7 which will be getting new decoder and coupler. Next would be BN atlas Caboose which will get new wheels and coupler. Have a great week, folks!
