Welcome back everyone. I hope you had a great weekend and got a lot done. Let's get started. Friday: Was as expected. I left work at 2:30, ran my errands then went to my "not so local Hobby Shop." I picked up a new Walthers Cornerstone house kit that may be used with the NTrak module as well as some couplers and glue then went home. Saturday: Went as planned. We got up, got ready for the day and I started making my homemade biscuits and gravy while Ang went to pick up her dad from the dealership. Breakfast and coffee were almost done when they returned. We enjoyed breakfast and visited a bit before turning our attention to the Falcon. With me working the starter and the father-in-law watching the carb we could finally diagnose the issue. Fuel was spraying out of the accelerator pump. I switched the bellows and spring, and we were able to run the car. We left our place and drove the Falcon the hour and half drive to his garage with Ang following in the wagon. Once we got to his garage, I parked the Falcon on the lift, and we got started on removing the eight bolts that held on the exhaust manifold. The good news is it was not as hard as we thought it would be but with four studs broken, we still had to remove the head which we were able to do in only an hours' time. With the head off and ready for the machine shop, we cleaned up and picked up grandma for a nice dinner before heading home. Sunday: I started the day by sleeping in and drinking coffee while watching a great video on rebuilding the Ford single barrel Autolite 1100 Carb. I then got cleaned up and made Ang and I breakfast then ventured into the workshop. I started by clearing out the old items that made the old valance and repurposed them as shelving in the garage which worked out great. Nothing is wasted this way. Next, I turned my attention to the layout. I decided to use the wooden brackets I had originally designed for an HO layout and trimmed them down for the shadowbox. I mounted all four after carefully adjusting for both horizontal and vertical levelness then installed them in my wall. I also worked on remounting the top stringers to better hold my LED light strip and installed two bases for the modules to set on. By 6:00pm, chicken pot pie was done, and I was done for the weekend. The wire you see is part of some earlier lighting construction and will be neatened up later. So how about you? What did you get done this weekend? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Friday the 27th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a good week, stay safe and as always... High Greens!
Weekend went pretty well. Saturday I slept in and then watched my youngest’s soccer game. Afterwards I went out to the yard to kill off my garden, and discovered that I still had some peppers growing, albeit slowly. So instead of weed mats, I put down some large pavers in the garden path that had left over from a project. So those are off the patio where they were stacked since July, and out of the way now. Afterwards I did a bit more hedge trimming and took the bigger limbs to the dump. Then I watched my oldest play volleyball and that was the day. Sunday I slept in late and rearranged my mock up on the foam board-I needed to account for a future/planned peninsula and my last design didn’t support it well. The change gave me some additional space so I kicked around some ideas. I finished my volunteer paperwork and then my family and I spent the late afternoon and early evening with another family playing board games and having dinner. When I came home I decided that I “need” another Walthers kit, so I took advantage of an online sale from a hobby shop and bought the Superior Paper Mill kit. The “Kraft Mill” portion will join it’s similar “Metro Power and Light” and portions of “Interstate Oil” and “North Island Refinery” for my future chemical plant kitbash. The brick structure might become a printing company-box cars of paper in, trucks of advertisements and flyers (bound for a quick glance and then a recycling bin) out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Here we go with another week! Friday evening was nice outside, so I got a first coat of paint on some parts and enjoyed the evening. Saturday I was up early and heading to Cleveland TN. I attended the Scale Trains open house and really enjoyed it. Saw several folks from that area that I hadn't seen in ages, met the Scale Trains crew, talked with Shane a little, and took advantage of some neat Open House specials. On Sunday, I was (still am) feeling under the weather so all I did was finish painting the detail parts I started painting Friday evening. Maybe next weekend will be a tad more productive. Hope you all have a great week!
Good morning everyone, Got the oil change done on the truck and did my quota of yard work. Also got a bunch of junk gathered up and put out on the road for an extra trash pickup. Did a final test on each section of the Ntrak staging yard and found one more item to correct. After taking care of that I started to assemble the sections into their storage configurations but noticed how scuffed up the paint on parts of them were. So, I decided to get a coat of paint on those parts what will show during a layout setup. This is mostly the backs of the skyboards. So this will be in my train room for a few more days. And I made some good progress on the control systems for my friend's staging yard. Still waiting on a few more materials.
Friday, I had breakfast, made a brief appearance at the calling hours of a friend's mother, then took my wife to her dermatologist's surgical center to get some skin spots biopsied. I did a little homework reading while I was there but not as much as I had hoped. Once we returned home, I continued doing homework until I ran out to pick up some prescriptions and our dinner from Polinori's, one of the best Italian places in town. Saturday, I did more homework and finished around 2:00 pm. We were expecting our son to drop by and go out to lunch but he stood us up, I guess, so I made pizzas for our late lunch/dinner (ie. Lupper). Before it got dark, I drove over to my parents' house and picked up a couple more boxes of tools and other useful things, as well as a floor lamp that I can use in my bedroom. We're making progress clearing out their house, but it's still going to take a while and I still really not sure where I'm going to store Dad's layout and train stuff until my retirement (or until we buy our own house). Sunday was church, followed by an hour or two at the train club where preparations are well underway for our November open house. I also did a little work on the curriculum that we're preparing for the Railroading merit badge we hope to offer for Scouts BSA. Then it was back to church for a Zoom meeting (two hours, ugh) )with our Liberia mission board, and then home for dinner. I had the evening free and had hoped to do something in my workshop train-wise, but I was so tired that we just mostly watched television. I did, however, sort through the boxes of stuff I brought from my parents house so now I have piles that go a) to church, b) to the train club, c) to the garage, or d) get put away in the workshop or house.
My left hip joint caused me major headaches this week. Even missed some work. So I did no modeling. I dug out a few more cars, and ran a train around my mini-T-Trak empire. Did a little switching. Just relaxed as much as possible, and tried to enjoy playing a little with my toys.
More well done carpentry. Sometimes I "need" stuff too. Sounds like Scale Trains had a nice open house. Paint touch-up looks good. Organization is half the battle. The hip pains seem to come from Satan. Hope your healing is quick. Friday somehow remains a blur. Saturday was a day trip to Mentone, AL, for an arts and crafts show. (Friend was exhibiting paintings.) First thing though (after car fuel) was a car show at Odenville, AL, high school. I was able to use my tape measure to get dimensions (just a few) of two antique cars. Got one pic of a '28 Ford. I will try to use these to make scale autos for the modules. After the Mentone visit, I stopped at Noccalula Falls to check out a Native American Pow-wow. Then it was Home. Sunday was the Helena (AL) Hollow pumpkin patch with three of my grandkids, their mom and two step great-grandchildren and my oldest grandson's daughter. A good time was had by all. Following this was supper at my daughter's home. Next was relaxing! Today after exercise, I began working on passenger car truck measurements and gathering material to build the same. Have a great week.
The weekend sort of went as planned, bowling Friday was abysmal, the shot was almost impossible to get a good carry on every shot, and the entire team was under average as was the other team, but the spot we had to give them let them win 5 out of 7 points. Saturday, I was working the brackets and jackpots for the Women's Tournament, but the computer and printer would not talk to each other so we had to do a lot of stuff by hand, was a real PITA. Went out to dinner with some friends after the tournament and finally got some work on a Sam Rea Shops PC H51c covered hopper kit and also masked the roof on a FMC 5077CF Boxcar. Sunday, I did laundry and managed to paint the FMC 5077CF Boxcar, assembled a Bowser H21a hopper car, and continued adding detail pieces to the H51c covered hopper kit, am now to the brake gear and piping on the A end, which is a lot of fun! Rick Jesionowski
A little progress. The efforts in on my west yard ladders area were stopped as I cannot find my rail connectors. I am bit bummed as I was moving along nicely. The five #8 mainline turnouts along with some double track mainline are glued down. The mainline turnouts will be DCC controlled(DS74 likely) and the yard with caboose ground throws. This section is not removable so I cannot do the wiring at the workbench. I am not looking forward to it, but I will build as many harness type set ups with connectors so there is little to no soldering while under the layout.
Good Morning All, Made it to the train show in New Braunfels Texas this past weekend. A nice morning out for breakfast and met up with many friends. For the most part, kept the spending under control. I did manage to continue weathering the 1920s tank car "fleet" of 4 cars. I also made some progress on a small scratch built depot for a branch line scene. Hope you all had a good weekend! -Bob T.
I got the three of my Atlas/Rivarossi Pacifics that were running poorly back in action with the replacement of their motor brushes. If anybody knows what that's like, these days, that's quite an accomplishment for me at my age and related diminished eyesight and dexterity. Doug
Weekend not going to plan at all... Friday, as mentioned elsewhere, a flat tire on my car and a three-hour power outage kicked off the weekend with a fumble. Saturday. Early I checked out the LHS website, so I could get an idea what's available and.... Anything I would be interested in is either priced somewhere in outer space, not available, or not in store with a two week delivery time.... So I nixed my visit there. Another fumble. If I can't walk out of there with my birthday present, what's the point? It's was my birthday - if there's one day in the year to play the spoiled brat, that's the one! But... on the bright side, in two weeks (coincidentally) there's a hobby show nearby where I usually find something interesting at slightly more reasonable prices. If I'm to wait two weeks, I might as well go there and actually see and feel what I'm getting. Then I went out, on a shopping tour. Everything that could be done before 8 and 9 a.m. was done! Some stuff I didn't find, but I could get that somewhere else, where they open at 9 a.m. Did I say nine? Last time they did. Both places, I get there, walk up to the door and... they open at 10 a.m. Banking hours? Fumble again!?!? I managed to find what I needed closer to home. Sunday, I cleaned my track, went out and got some ingredients to make something I can't get at any restaurant - a traditional dish from my parents' home country. Something I really love and when I ate it, I was in heaven. Finally. I really need to change my quarterback...
Not much modelling achieved but we as AMG (American Modular Group) had a large Freemo Modular layout at the NMRA BR Convention, organised by Black Diamonds and held in Derby Conference Centre (formerly LMS Signalling School). I barely got out of our room and only managed to get a few overall picture from Sunday morning as it was winding down. Overall the modules were well received, few interested parties wanting to get involved going forward. Few operating and technical glitches over the weekend but generally pretty good.
Wow... nice digs for your great setup! Looks like a formal ballroom in an English palace. Half-expecting to see a Duchess walk in...
Sorry to hear about your hip joint problems, Box. I'm not going to make the obvious comment about that being a pain, other than to say I can identify. Mike, sounds like your weekend was one step forward, two steps back. The modular layout is impressive and the great thing is that visitors get to see all the different phases of layout construction. Myself, I haven't been doing much modeling, but have been moving back into my old train room after its 20 year hiatus as my daughter's bedroom. I've been clearing out a lot of junk that landed there and organizing my rolling stock and vehicles in a dresser my dad built for me 60+ years ago. I passed it down to my daughter, but she didn't take it with when she moved out. I'll probably need a second one before I'm finished. I'm storing my rolling stock in trading card boxes lined with thin foam, an idea I got from Jimmy at the DIY and Digiotal RR Youtube channel, and my vehicles in some compartmented plastic boxes I found online. You may wonder why that first box contains 10 67 Fords and two Mustangs, but that's a result of using a Ford dealer for a date stamp on a scrolling era layout. Pickup trucks and vehicles with lights or signage on top, such as taxis and police cars, get a different approach and a set of shelves I built about 25 years ago is back on the wall where it was then. I am determined to finally get around to building a set of doors for it. It will mainly be used to house muy locomotive collection. A lot of this stuff has been boxed, out of sight, out of mind. It's amazing what you can collect over a space of 30 years. Now it's time to enjoy.
Not quite a palace and certainly no duchesses... for all the LMS link... A few quotes from their website and history: "Our beautiful Grade II listed building houses a fantastic array of conference rooms, meeting rooms, 50 en-suite hotel bedrooms and self-catering accommodation. Once home to the British Rail Training College, our elegant exterior, art deco features and distinctive sunken lounge are the perfect backdrop for a corporate event or place to stay for a weekend away." "Constructed as the first purpose-built training college for railway staff, the building which now houses The Derby Conference Centre, first opened in 1938. Designed by William H. Hamlyn, who was the London Midland and Scottish Railway’s principal architect, it cost £50,000 to complete and was the first of its kind in the UK. The School could accommodate up to fifty railway operatives and signallers at once, providing staff with a residential facility in the heart of Derby. For the next 20 years, the building was used to deliver training for the Royal Engineers and The Railway Engineering School." It couldn't be a better venue really, they set up for hosting conferences, have accommodation onsite and 1 mile from the Derby Railway Station. Rumour is we'll be back there in 2025 for 80th
