Another weekend that went too fast is now behind us. How did you do? I had a great weekend in Columbus Ohio running T-Trak with my club and meeting up with a few fellow Trainboard members. I was able to find a CB&Q Kato "A" passenger car set that I have been looking for for a while as well as some military Jeeps and some cool 1970's era cars for my layout. The show was a lot of fun and gave me a lot of great ideas for my T-Trak modules as well as my home layout. If you have never been to the Ohio N-Scale Weekend, and your into N, you need to go. The guys from Columbus do a great job. So how about you? What did you get done this weekend? Any other show reports? How about some structure work? Whatever you did this weekend, let us know. Maybe with a picture or two. We'll all come back here on Friday the 23rd and do it all over again. Until then, have a happy and safe weekend and... High Greens!
It seems I spent a lot of time in my workshop, but not much came out of it. But, that's the way of craftsman kits. The roof shingles are all done on both halves of the roof, other than the top which will have to wait until I'm ready to glue the roof down. I've got most of the rest of the depot assembled. I deliberately postponed applying the self-stick foundation stone walls, because I didn't want to get wall paint on them, so those are still to be done, too. I installed a light bulb for the office section. I've got a couple of figures to paint, and that should finish up the interior. Since the windows are mostly 6-over-6, there won't be a lot of visibility into the building, so I don't want to invest too much effort in the interior if not much can be seen. The roof sections have developed a distinct bow to them as I applied the shingles. I painted some white glue on the back side, which helped correct the warping, but now I've got one of them in heavy clamps to flatten them out better. Late on Sunday, I put the whole building on the layout and painted the pink foam around it. With that defined, I was also able to put some Gypsolite nearby. I've got less than half a square foot of pink foam left on the surface of the layout now. The passenger car project got a bit of work, too. I will be naming each car after a "historical" figure, and I've been working on the right method for creating a nameplate. These are aluminum cars, so I bought a small piece of aluminum flashing at the hardware store for 22 cents. I cut a strip and applied a decal for Governor William J. Le Petomane, whose name will grace the boat-end observation car. I printed a few extra decals, so I can try different methods. It looks better on bare aluminum than it does on a painted white background. The car sides are fluted, so I need a nameplate to get a flat surface.
Spent most of weekend 20 miles away in my hometown for an annual festival. I did sell more HO stuff and bought a Trainboard Special Run MI Boxcar. I spent a good bit of time looking for #6 non-PECO switches online ... pretty much nothing out there. I'm inclined to cut down on the number of switches planned on the new layout. If I just buy code 55 #6 frogs and points, I'm confident I can handlay the switches and do ME flex for the rest. Need to find out if ME's HO Code 55 is the same as their N Code 55 rail. If so, I've got plenty of rail on hand for hand laid switches. I have 5 more boxcars and an LPG tank coming in mail today. Most of them are 50' DD Atlas boxcars for the Furniture Factory pool. I need to update my posting in the Swap Meet, as well. Vacation next week, so I wont list any new items for sale until after then. Sent from my LG-P930 using Tapatalk 2
After a very busy and hectic week I was able to spend a little time yesterday requiring my programming track. Today I will be running feeder wires to track laid over a week a go Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
I got the track laid for the roundhouse, the pits are rough cut, but ran into trouble with the soldering. I'm going to ACE to look for the old fashioned lead tin solder and see if I can get the building going. Finding less than a huge bag of Hydrocal is a new problem, any suggestions? Bobby
My LHS carries Hydrocal from Scenic Express. I think it's an 8-pound container. It's a plastic screw-top jar, so that helps keep it dry between uses. It takes me several years to finish that much Hydrocal, and even with the sealed container, the last of it at the bottom of the jar had "gone bad" and would no longer produce a good casting.
