Welcome back everyone. I hope you had a great weekend and that my friends on the East Coast did okay through the storm. I called my dad and he said he only got 6-inches where he was in central NH, a mere dusting to a true local, yet the local news still went on about it. Let's get started. Saturday: The wife let me sleep in a bit, but I soon got up and started the day with tea and brain storming. I was able to get a layout plan of my office that should work as an office, studio and layout room in one. We then left so that Ang could indulge in some of her hobby time, and she had a bit of fun. After visiting the first shop, we went to Hobby Lobby so she could scope out a few other items. I found some model brushes I plan to use for weathering as well as some Vallejo Weathering paint and even a new slot car! Soon the afternoon was over but quality time with the future wife is always a good thing. Sunday: I got up and started right away with moving and engineering things to make the office and workshop better. The N scale shadow box was moved once again, along with the work bench and then I realized that the small portable HO Inglenook layout I built for work could double for use on the Live Feeds. At a depth of only 10-inches, it would not stick out as far as the project layout at 15-inches. You laugh, but real estate in this old house is a premium. After designing the plans with a combination of "in my head and build as you go", I had a suitable area to place the layout as well as install a new 4-foot shelf that will come in handy for new Athearn items as they come in. I still have a way to go but an improvement thus far. I then helped Ang get plastic up on out windows as we are expecting our own storm starting Tuesday, then settled down for a nice dinner. And like that, the weekend was gone. So how about you? How was your last weekend of January? Let us know. Well assemble again on Friday, February 4th to start off February right. Until then, have a great week, be safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
Good mornin Y'all, I spent most of both days cleaning my layout. Industrial switching complex is ready for action - I hope - LOL I also started an experiment - I switched out a few uncoupling magnets. To a bit more powerful unit. Let's see how that goes. I may be reinstalling the Micro Trains version. Hope Y'all had a great weekend, Wolf
Attempted to make my own N Scale Kato track feeders to save some money and found it a bit more difficult than seen on YouTube. The solder connection to the rail joiner allows no room for error, as the wire has to then fit through a small rectangular opening in the joiner's plastic holder. The result is okay, but it took far too long to work. I plan to try several more in hope that I get the knack of it.
Got some more color onto the Eastern Segment of the Grey and Grandure Valley Railroad. Sorta a sand color. My stepdaughter, (visiting from Miniapolis), who has *never* painted anything like N Scale figures or ever seen a bison or longhorn steer except in pictures did up 4 of each from a 3D printing company: 'miniprints.com'. She is 32(I think), OCD and dropped out of high school at 16. She found this '*relaxing*' and plans to do more. The Figures: I mounted them on green cardstock with Elmers mixed with green paint. Um, well, I'll keep at it. PS Inspirational Side Note: She moved in with us when I married her mother, got her GED, Bachelors and Masters in Cyber Security and Computer Forensics. I am only allowed to say, " Your telecommunications are safer because of her, (and many others)." Yep, inner city black girl drops out of high school. What are her chances?
Good morning all, Friday I did make it to the LHS while running other errands. Although they have a large selection of Arizona Rock & Mineral products, they were out of the specific ballast that I needed. So After I got home I ordered it directly from AR&M and also ordered some 2mm foam material that I want to try out for roads. Then got a start on cleaning up the work bench. Much of Saturday was taken up on a long vet visit with our oldest cat. When I got home I thought I would get some tan colored paint down on the bench work but found that what I had was dried out. So I continued work bench clean up and started to lay out how I want the roads and structures to be using some cardboard foot prints and some structures that I already have. By Sunday the work bench was cleaned up enough that I started to put together a wood kit that will be part of the scene. This is the American Model Builders railroad rooming house kit.
Busy weekend here. Friday I got track glued down. Couldn’t find my N scale PCB ties so I used HO ties to attach the end of the track. Had to use my dremel to grind them down to fix the thickness but it worked. Saturday o wired the track I glued down Friday. I also spent the day making hills. They turned out pretty good. Added some plaster cloth then stopped for the night. Sunday I covered the hills with joint compound and added the fascia. After that was completed I cut 8 more conduit legs for the next set of modules. Those are ready to start work on once I get the leg pockets. Today I continue. If all is dry I will paint the modules and then start ballasting and ground foam work. Should be down rather quickly now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Earlier today I did no modeling. I had to get a new cell phone. Mine was arbitrarily shut off last week. Took about four days of anguish and tribulation. I posted about the experience on facebk (if you REALLY want to read about it). However, as of last night, I have completed all the hopper sides (I hope). I will detail the sides next before assembly. (Wish me luck.) Oops. I almost forgot to remind everyone to oil-up their ground hogs for the 2nd.
We did some household chores including vacuuming. The vacuuming came to a unexpected end. I had to clean the roller. I got several handfuls of hair, fur, and string out of it. I finished the coal yard buildings. I still have a few things to do with the yard to make it fit on the layout. I began working on the Golden Valley Canning Company. I assembled the main building and boiler house. I still need to put the roofs and some details on them.
Well, I think I need a weekend to recover from the weekend. got all do that was on the non train list and still managed a little time in the train room. Here's a look at one scene that I made some progress on. Still a lot of work to go on it but it's coming together.
Greetings from the ATL airport on lay over heading to Key West. This weekend I got done what I thought. Put down plaster cloth at the Jackson River bridges. Finished one side and darn near finished the opposite side. Pictures show the finished side and the “almost” finished side. Have a great week all!
Got some more scenery work done on the west end. I'm probably going to call the town Waverly, as that is the area it represents although it is nothing like prototype. Waverly in real life is just north of Sayre, Pa where the LV had a large yard and interchanged with the EL. I decided to model a Greenway/trail along the river bank/levee. Maintained trails like this rarely existed in the 60's, but are everywhere these days. There was a riverbank trail along the Susquehanna where I grew up, but it was really little more than a footpath that my boyhood pals and I (and others) carved into the landscape by using it regularly. Being a runner for many years, I run several of the trails in the area including the canal towpaths, so this was one of those things that a took a few liberties with adding to a scene. I still have a few under the layout connections to make before all the trackage in this section is operable, which is why the picture is devoid of trains. I hope to address this next weekend. And yes I know the roof on the Motel office needs to be reglued. The self stick paper doesn't stay in place well.
After getting all the “honey do’s” completed, I did get a little time to work on my test track. I got the layout figured out and cut down the foam sheet that I am going to mount it on. I still need to paint the foam and get the channels for the wiring cut before I glue the track down. It’s going to look something like this.
Well, I had one hell of a weekend, Friday night was bowling and our team did well the first game, but lost the last two. Saturday, I worked on jackpots and brackets at the Mixed City Tournament for the entire day, but in the evening did a lot of work on building an Exactrail Evans 4780CF Covered Hopper kit, and masking the underframe on a R70-20 Reefer and the sides of a 40' Trailer. Sunday, did the same on the morning shift at the Tournament, and started the same on the second shift, but a team was missing a bowler so I filled in and did a credible job on their team except for missing a couple of spares in the last game, then went home and finished up most of the work on the covered hopper along with doing the laundry. It was later in the evening where we found out that our sewer was backed up and water was spilling out of the shower on the floor and then down to the basement, up until 3:00 am with the plumbers who cleaned out the lines while we cleaned up the bathrooms. Rick Jesionowski
I was digging around in my backlog of stuff for projects when I came upon a hand full of HOn3 kits that I had squirreled away back 40 years or so ago when my dad was planning on adding a narrow gauge section to his layout. Never happened. However, I just decided to start building these old kits. Hey, these are a lot of fun. A tank car, gondola, passenger coach and a caboose. So I am having a grand old time building kits for a change.
Mounted a full-width diaphragm on an 85' baggage car and adjusted the coupler position for good distance. I wasn't totally happy with the way it coupled to my heavyweight cars. To gather more information, I prepped a streamlined coach and did a "test" fit with a second full-width kit. Need to add body-mount couplers in order to get the coupler spacing correct for the coach. So, I made a little progress over the weekend, but have more to do. Stay safe,
