Over the weekend I managed to decal a 50’ boxcar and a 3 bay covered hopper. In addition I did a lot of work converting a Concor Greenville 60’ Auto box car from a plug door version to one with 2 8’ sliding doors and changing the wheelbase from 41’ to 46’ and add Moloco ACF draft gear to the under frame. Completed a Proto 2000 50’ boxcar kit and it is ready for painting, then started a 50’ Branchline boxcar kit. Saturday I went to the club and we ran some trains and had a bull session on Scale Trains buying Exactrail. Rick Jesionowski
All the news outlets are talking about is the collapse of the I-95 bridge in the Tacony section of Philadelphia. If you have not heard, a tanker truck caught fire under a bridge over I-95. Due to the fire the northbound bridge collapsed, and the southbound bridge is buckling. The highway is closed in both directions. Since 160,000 vehicles use this road daily traffic is a nightmare in the area. As of this morning they have not found the tanker truck or the driver who is unaccounted for. They are saying it will be months before the roadway will be open in some fashion. This is the third time an I-95 bridge has been taken out by a fire. Back in 1994 we had the infamous tire fire, and a few years later there was the tanker truck fire on the bridge over Chester Creek in Chester, PA. In both of those cases only one direction was closed for an extended period of time and traffic could be diverted onto the other side. Saturday was the Delaware County Pride Festival that my son and daughter were chief organizers. The event went off better than expected with little to know hitches. Since my services as emergency supply driver were not required my wife and I made runs to PetSmart, the post office, the hardware store, and the nursery/produce store. I was able to get pet food, bird seed, a new garden hose, some groceries, and some marigolds. Sunday, we planted the marigolds, and my wife harvested some herbs from the garden. I also made a grocery store run. By the evening my wife was feeling rundown more than normal. We are thinking it is the stress from the upcoming surgery on Wednesday. I did not get as much done with trains as I had planned. The only thing I got done was changing the couplers on three box cars and a gondola.
Finished up with the club corner and had everything staged for loading by Sunday evening. This morning got the modules and legs loaded into the truck which was the hard part. Spent some time reviewing how to change Digitrax LocoNet ID's so will be ready if that is needed. Tomorow will go pick up the club trailer and the next day on the road to the convention.
No modeling. Rail-fanning of sorts. We went to Yellowstone last week… now at El Tovar on Grand Canyon south rim. Shot these pictures at the GC train station.
Made it to Mount Shasta as hoped. Busy yesterday so this late. Stay safe, Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
After many delays, my kids and I finally caught up with my wife who left a couple of weeks ago so now the whole family is in our new house in DC. No modeling accomplished aside from staring at the rec room and thinking about the future track plan. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes, I’m in the Army and so I was stationed in Japan in western Tokyo for the past 3 years. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
@r_i_straw, I understand. I was on here early Monday and missed the post(s). I suspect @dti406 wears a blue undershirt with a red "S" on it. @SP-Wolf is the truck man. Changing couplers is important. Convention bound! Grand Canyon train looks sharp! Nice quiet VOLCANO! I have done some "staring" myself. Where to begin? The three locomotives now have steam cylinders and valve chests, Stephenson type. Boiler top appliances are next (I think). Recently I began to think about expanding from one module (one foot by three foot). to two or more. I had planned to use my craft table but when I got the hobby laser, I put the printer on it. So, what to do? I think I can still use it but I came up with another idea. Some years ago I bought an N-scale magazine at a train show. The mag had an article about making a box beam table out of one inch "blue foam". I made one of thirty inches by five feet. Intending to use it if one of my grandsons wanted to run N-scale, it was put in storage. The other day I realized I could use the box beam table by making it adjacent to the current module table/variable desk. I will need to raise the beam table by five inches to make it the same height as the current module shelf or lower the module shelf. I decided to raise the beam table. With that in mind, earlier today (Friday), I bought some one quarter inch all thread to cut into three-inch lengths. All of this expansion and other project work will need to fit in with fishing. Wish me luck. Have a great weekend.
