Welcome back everyone. I hope you had a good weekend and have some progress to report. Let's get started. Saturday: I left work earlier, albeit, not as early as I would have liked and headed to Lowes for Baltic Birch plywood. After loading up the trusty wagon, I enjoyed some pizza with the wife. The next morning, I got started on the newest module project. I had to clean the garage of winter stuff, so the morning was spent cleaning, organizing and putting things away. Finally, around noon, the harmonious sound of the table saw broke the silence. Going from my own plans, I ripped both 1/2-inch and 1/4-inch sheets. Around 3:00pm, I realized I needed hardware and another sheet of 1/4-inch ply. While I was not in the mood for it, the trip back to Lowes was nice and relaxing with the Beatles channel playing. Once home with all the supplies I needed, I finished kitting up the 6-foot module: After a quick inventory I was off to bed. Sunday: Assembly of the 6-foot NTrak module commenced using the NTrak book as a guide. This 6-foot module however separates into two 2X3 panels for easy storage and transport. Since Jess, my railfan Jeep often accompanies me to most train shows, I felt this would be a good route to go. It has taken some engineering to make this work and hopefully the finished product matches my plans and ideas in my head. I was able to able to build the first section, taking my time and ensuring everything was true and within NTrak specs. Now that it is cold again, this project will likely be on hold for a bit. So how about you? What did you accomplish this weekend? Let us know. We'll do it all over again on Friday the 11th. Until then, have a great week, be safe, stay healthy and as always... High Greens!
Was a good weekend. I wound up watching the ACC Women's Basketball Tourney. NC State won all three of its games and claimed both the regular season and tourney championships. Always happy stuff. Modeling on Saturday and Sunday was mostly cleaning up and organizing. I took all of my freight car boxes that are in the train room and organized them by car class. Plus I finished separating C&O cars from other roads. I have about 300+ cars up there with another several hundred in my work shop never built. What we collect over a lifetime. Get's crazy. I purchased more storage bins and have them stacked up under the staging yard. Sunday, I also pulled out one the C&O Intermountain FP7 A-B-A sets and ran that w/ a long string of box cars. Photo's below.
Good mornin to Y'all, Well -- taxes are off to our tax Guy. I messed around with a finicky brass cab forward - made some progress -- but, had to step away. She is fighting me tooth and nail. Changed a traction tire on a brass GS-5 -- success. She runs great. Next, will be adding an oscillating signal light. That's about the extent of my weekend modeling. Hope Y'all had a great weekend and have a great week, Wolf
Moose no know why Moose bother to make plans as they always seem to go all funkular... 1. Tried to prepare a wee canyon for the logging railroad trestle by adding some wet plaster into which to lightly push the trestle supports. Unfortunately, the plaster hardened too quickly, so back to the drawing board; 2. Mrs Moose offered to paint the very wee details on the reefers, then discovered it is not so very easy to accomplish, even for Mrs Moose's skills; 3. Tried to finish the coal dump shed, but it was too cold outside to spray paint the foundation pieces; 4. Was about to start a sand tower when all of a sudden the Moose household mysteriously had acquired the BritBox streaming service and all Moose's plans evaporated... Maybe Moose should take up knitting instead...
Unfortunately, no progress was made on the N scale Housatonic RR. I had intended to work on the solar panel project, but it was a hectic weekend, but with some much needed down time thrown in. My wife and I went out to dinner Saturday night and Sunday afternoon we both watched the UCONN Huskies Women's Basketball team advance to the Big East finals and also watched the Nascar race from Las Vegas. It was good to have a little down time for a change.
Did not get too far on the smaller layout section. Got some insulation board cut up and glued in to create the river banks. Then cut some bridge abutments for the Micron Arts brass bridge that I had finished last year. After that started running some trains then got an idea for a new video so started working on that. Hard to focus on one project at a time but at the same also enjoying myself.
I like what I see here! Chore weekend for me. Also, chore week now. Need spring cleaning. Cab forward fighting tooth and nail. I can relate. Once when I was a security guard at a nursing home, I actually got into two physical altercations. Both of those women were over eighty years old! I will tell you one thing. The next time it happens...I'm gonna' win! Have a great week.
Didn't set any modeling plans for this past weekend. However, I did make it to the workbench for a bit. I found 3 twelve packs of metal wheels last week so I spent some time installing those. Continued to dig trough the first drawer in my workbench desk trying to decide what I really don't need and get rid of it. Hope everyone has a great week!
On Friday the crystal ball was murky. By Satureday morning it was solid black. If taking a walk under the stone arch rr bridge and around through the local station then sure, I did something. If day dreaming about my future layout counts than, ya, I did that too. ☻
Total frustration. For some reason, the bottle of paint I was using went sour. Had to stop and am now trying to salvage the area which used that one color. I just walked away for the weekend, when that happened. Too frustrating as I was making great progress on my little caboose project.
I managed some progress this weekend, in addition to some yard work... A new section for the layout is coming together, one which will provide separation of a yard area from the "Lightning Creek Mine", and change the layout from a "U" shape to a "G" shape. Using my regular torsion box construction method, some progress resulted in the installation of the inner bracing and bolsters. Now for the bottom webbing and some legs and we will be ready for some pink foam on the top. The section will be entirely scenery and built on a 2-inch foam base to provide elevation for a track up on some fill. (click for larger photos). I also acquired a new, small air compressor for the airbrush. The large compressor, better suited to the air nailer, was inconvenient and quite loud. This is a nice, quiet unit and can be kept right with the paint booth. After receiving an a-daptor kit, I was able to hook up the Paasche airbrush and get to addressing the backlog of cars that need weathering. Most of these now have initial fades and gray/black washes. Here are a couple of examples from the pre-1910 fleet that I am working...now to break out the colored pencils and the Pan Pastels.... Hope you all had a good weekend! -Bob T.
As mentioned when I wrote up my plans, I said after it I was biting off more then I could chew. And sure enough, all I got done was testing the wiring of one #6 switch/turnout to AC power. But I did get to test all my electrical/electronics items I ordered to make sure the concept is good. And it appears it will work as planned. Well it's supposed too, as it did in testing. Me thinks this is a week long job possibly? Some of the parts hooked up for testing, ABOVE the layout. Now to drill the holes, drop the wires for both AC switches/turnouts, drop wired rail joiners for DCC, then work underneath the base which means I have to remove from folding table, and lean it sideways to work under it. I attach two small pieces of 1x2 to keep in position while working underneath the base. It still gets a little uncomfortable though. And I have to do this too BOTH 2' x 4' bases. Good times!
Bowling went well on Friday and ended up with a 604 Series. Saturday, went to the club and ran a train made up of mostly my 13 Scaletrains 4785CF Covered Hoppers. and continued work in the evening on the Tichy Hopper Car along with masking a 50' FGE Insulated Box Car for painting a second color. Sunday, I finished the Tichy Hopper and started work and g Tichy Hopper Car kit Walthers Covered Hopper kit Rick Jesionowski
Didn’t get much done. Train show this weekend. Saturday I started out helping a fellow modeler out with an three moderators simulator and sound card. Then I hit the train show. After the show I visited another modeler that had been making some 3D printed leg pockets for my modules. Sunday night hit the show one more time. Then I put a bunch of stuff away and cleaned up my modeling mess from the winter. I placed a few steam locos into the round house and then found I wanted to redo an area that has a dead track on the layout. Looks like I will need to scratch build a special switch to fit the area. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Another good weekend into the books! Saturday: Woke up to the pleasant smell of success. The computer reset I started on Friday evening was finished. The catch in the plan was that the reset wiped out all the apps I loaded over the years. Most are easily replaced, but that will have to wait. I am of the opinion the root cause is the power supply. A long obsolete model with custom connectors. Found one on eBay and it should be arriving in the near future. The system is working well enough to allow me access to this forum. After that I listened in to Lowell Smith's live talk. The RailSmith NP F-units should be arriving this week. I first reserved them in 2017. They were derailed by the factory closure that affected many products back then. Got to hang out with my son for a few hours, too. Sunday: Finally started doing the prep work to add air assist to the laser engraver. Modified the laser module adjustment screw to provide access for an air hose. Test fit the hose and decided on the first "prototype" design. Now I need to find a regulator and fittings to mate the small air hose to the big compressor. Did a little cleaning of the workspace to make it more functional. Nothing spectacular, but I feel good about the direction. Stay safe,
This weekend I got some laundry done, and my wife and I took the dogs to the dog park Saturday since it was approaching 70 degrees (before falling back below freezing) followed by a long walk/hike (2.5 miles) on a local trail we like. It's been a while since the dogs (or us) really had a chance to stretch their legs and they really enjoyed being out and seeing their friends at the park. Natasha (left) and Frodo (right) Mixed in with those things I experimented with how to mount Kadee couplers on this Bachmann $10 find I got last summer at an odds and ends 'antique' store. The coupler mounts were more than a little strange, so I worked in bursts as I cut, glued, clamped, and waited for glue to dry. After the coupler boxes were mounted, I took some more time figuring out how to raise the coupler height. It seems good now, so next I'll work at converting it to DCC. Sunday, I had a retired pastor fill in for me, as I filled in at two rural churches whose pastor died suddenly a month or two ago. I don't have to reach more than twice, but have been appointed as the "pastor of record" to make sure reports get done, go to meetings, do visitation, and officiate any weddings or funerals that come up. After that I went to our monthly business meeting at the Sebring Model Railroad Club and managed to get myself elected as our new treasurer for the next year filling the vacancy created when our previous treasurer died from COVID-19 a month or so ago. Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk
Moose finally started working on the dreaded sand tower & house. Egads, this kit is quite nearly a scratch build!
When the weather is decent, and everyone is healthy, we usually get a few miles in every day. Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk
