We have made it through another weekend, how did you do? Nothing for me. With a big show for work coming this coming weekend, all my efforts were concentrated on that. Summer is a bad time for me and trains. How about you? I hope you had more success. Let us know what you got accomplished this weekend. Anyone go to the National Train show in Cleveland Ohio this weekend? Give us a report if you did. We'll all come back on Friday the 25th to do this all over again. Until then, have a safe week and... High Greens!
I had a three day weekend, started out Friday morning by cutting down the level of the foam scenery base on the new end section for a smooth transition from old section of layout to the new section. I also removed a section of track on the existing main and replaced with a pair of #6 turnouts. I was surprised how much shorter the ties were on a Micro Engineering Turnout vs the Shinohara turnout and my existing mainline with Central Valley ties. I installed lighting for the workbench on Saturday morning, as well as gluing down cork road bed to the foam base. I'm using N Scale cork road bed from Midwest, as HO width would give me a bed that technically would be too wide. (I want the end of my ties to be exposed a little bit.) I'll be working on gluing down cork throughout the week, hoping to have all of the yard throat, a spur and the North leg of the wye laid out and ready for fine grading by the weekend.
I overcame my startup inertial, pulled out the kitbuilding stuff and started on the Pratt Truss bridge from Central Valley. I made pretty good progress, getting the main base section assembled. I started working on the truss part. That has a lot of sub-assemblies of girders, and their recommended "jig" for it didn't work so well. So, I came up with my own, but it's still going to be a long process. There are 30 of these assemblies, and I can only do one or two at a time and then I have to wait for the glue to set before I can do another. I picked up my curved turnout, but to my surprise (shouldn't have been, I guess) my LHS was out of #5 right turnouts, and they are on back order. Bah. I took a photo of a #5 I've got installed elsewhere, scaled it and printed it, so at least I could figure out the staging yard ladder and pin some track in place to get a feel for the way it will go. I ordered a 3-way turnout on eBay, because those are unavailable at Walthers, too. I've got to get the bridge done first anyway, and then I can do scenery on the liftoff section until my turnouts come in.
After selling my laptop on the auction site to fund buying a violin bow, I had some cash left over. I earmarked it for Unitrack. Purchased the turnout, straights, and bumpers needed to finish out two sidings on my layout. I've completed what I'm calling Stage 1 of the track plan. It's not complete, but the major components are there. Everything from this point on will be gradual additions for an interchange, a small yard, and a few other things. I also splurged and bought the Kato turnout controllers. Keeping them connected to the power pack is a bit of a challenge, and my initial wiring is pretty ugly, but they work! It's a lot of fun to sit there, controller in my lap, and send my train down various sidings. Next up on the list will be freight rolling stock, some Conrail motive power, and a decision on how to uncouple things. I like the idea of magnetic uncouplers (to keep hands off) but using a stick between the knuckle couplers seems to be more foolproof.
Kicked off my vacation with a trip to the Seaway Train Show, just west of Cornwall, Ontario. Bagged two more locos, an F3B (to be painted CNR 9001, completing my collection of all six CN F3s), and a GP18 (currently in the paint shop, to become GTW in green and yellow). I also found Volume 2 of CNR Diesel Locomotives. I really enjoyed the first volume, and I've started devouring this one. I like the little details of the whys and wherefores of CN's diesel purchasing policy. For example, why didn't CN get any more Train Masters? Simple - at over 375000 pounds, that behemoth couldn't be used on more than a small part of the system. And why not more than two GP35s? At 2500 hp, the 567 engine was strained to its limit (much like the 645 in the GP50 later on), and to prevent generator flashover, there was a complicated set of twenty shunts that would have been a maintenance nightmare. Finally, I bought two caps - one that reads "Old Railroaders Never Die - They Just Derail", and the other "Old [steam loco drawing] Fart". I may be only 50, but I'll grow into them...:teeth:
Moving to my new apt. is underway. It's by far the easiest I've been involved in. Remeasured the new real estate for the next version of Siwini Railway, about 5' X 20' kinda. Looking forward to the creation process.
