Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and maybe some time to do a bit of model railroading, maybe even a few model railroad items appeared under the tree. Let's see how our long festive weekend was. Friday: Unbeknownst to me, Angela got off work early, so we were able to get the rest of the Christmas items purchased and finished before the weekend. Saturday: As planned, I slept in and made coffee and did a bit of planning for the 2024 year. I have a lot I want to get done in terms of model railroading so I wrote it all down and will start following the timeline once the household resumes a normal schedule. I then spent the rest of the day wrapping presents before stopping so Ang and I could meet my buddy and his wife for dinner. Sunday: Largely a repeat of Saturday, coffee, wrapping and repeat. Later that evening the wife surprised me with a Christmas Eve candlelight service held at a local church. This was a nice tradition I have not participated in for many years, and it was very uplifting. Once back home we continued wrapping and for the first time ever, we were done by 10:00pm, not midnight as in years past. CHRISTMAS: The big day arrived yet the dogs still managed to let us sleep in until 7:30. After coffee and some cinnamon rolls, getting cleaned up and dressed up we left for Angela's grandmother house for Christmas dinner. The gathering was small, only us, grandma, Angela's dad and Angela's niece but it was enjoyable. After gifts, we headed home for Christmas with the kids. We got home and soon Jared and his girlfriend arrived followed by Shelby, her husband and the granddaughter. I think the granddaughter and I had the most fun. The Paw Patrol slot car set that grandpa got her was the hit not only with the granddaughter but everyone else as impromptu races were held throughout the evening. With everyone having to return to work on Tuesday, the holiday revelry ended around 7:00pm and Ang and I relaxed with two worn out puppies. And with that not only another weekend but another Christmas was in the books. So how about you? What did you do, what did you accomplish? Did you get anything new for your layout? Let us know. We'll be back in a few short days, Friday the 29th to assemble again for the last modeling plans of 2023.Until then, have a good week, be safe and as always... High Greens!
Not much happening. Enjoyed running a train around my mini-T-Trak empire. Have been trying to letter and number some HOn30 log cars. Slow process for my shaky hands., but they look OK.
Good mornin to Y'all Hope Y'all had a great Christmas!! I did work on my H12-44 project. The SP unit is just about all decaled up -- Only the air tank stripes are left (I think - I have to look it over one more time - to see if I missed any other decals) The ATSF unit -- Not so good. I had to remove the stripes I had applied (To start over) - I fouled them up something fierce. Oh well - so goes complex decaling. Y'all have a great week!! Wolf
I worked on the track plan, got almost finished, but the when I tried to open the file again on Monday while the kids were busy playing, the file was empty, my work wasn’t there, got an error message instead. Disappointed is an understatement, however I remember the all the elements and how they generally went together. So I’ll try again later this week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Happy Tuesday all! Feels like the last few days were pretty much a blur but was a good weekend with the family. Didn't get much train time but still made a little progress on the new fascia and prepping parts for install. Ran a few trains and that was a bout it. Now back to the grind. Hope you all have a great week!
Re-laid my track not allowing the luxury of 'slightly kinked' Kata track will 'let' you do that most of the time. It resuted in : Ran trains for the 3yo grandson: He quickly learned how to turn them on himself: Notice the power is in 'neutral' That didn't last long. ☻ Got *exactly * what I asked for for Christmas: Walthers GP9 and the 2 Red/White/Blue easily seen cars behind it. I am taking suggestions for naming the mountain behind it.
Good morning all. I hope every had and is still having a great Christmas and week. Saturday, I broke out the air brush and painted the windows and doors for the country store/gas station. Also painted some details. Also wrapped presents while the Mrs was cooking and prepping for Christmas Day meal. Sunday, I put the windows in the wall wall sections. That was about it. We made the short trip up to Virginia later Saturday afternoon for a family Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas day was awesome. My son came over and went to Mass together. Then in the afternoon, the kids and their families got here for presents, dinner, and a great time. This week will probably spend some time at both the workbench and in the layout room. Will also watch a lot of college football this week. Thursday NC State and Kansas State play a bowl game in Orlando. Want to see the Wolfpack get that 10th win. Have a great week all!
Good morning everyone, hope you all had a good Christmas weekend. Christmas here was very quiet and enjoyable. I did get some time in the train room and did a bit of scenery work on the hillside at the eastern end of the layout. Got an application of sanded tile grout completed over the entire area. Then got some finished scenery material applied to the area on the far side of the road. I alternated between the layout and the work bench. Got most of the parts for the GHQ crane painted. Because of the scenery work, no trains were being run around the layout, but I did practice with the new UT6D throttle in the staging yard and once I got the hang of it, I really like it.
The reference photos I found on the internet indicate a 1960's vintage. The kit came as a clamshell but I seem to remember seeing some modified to have and electro magnet. I am considering doing that myself and setting the clamshell to the side. I've also seen photos of very similar prototypes set up as a drag line. Here is a great reference on the prototypes: Bucyrus-Erie, Ruston-Bucyrus, Komatsu-Bucyrus Scale Models (bucyruseriemodels.com)
Well, I'm still tired. Thursday, I stopped on the way home from work and picked up parts of my wife's presents and stocking stuffers at the local confectionary that does awesome chocolates and nuts. Friday I was up early and stopped at the farm store for horse-themed gifts, insulated socks, and other additional stocking gifts for my wife, followed by a stop at Aldi for fruit and few other stocking gifts. I also picked up a few tool bags that were on sale at Harbor Freight. Another trip out was to pick up some Pepsi and other soft drinks were on sale at another store, plus, since it was next door, pick up some carry-out at the Chinese buffet, and since it was in the same plaza, some gifts for the dogs at Pet Supplies Plus. That evening, I continued my mission to clean all the carpets in the living room and dining room and wrap some of the procured gifts. Saturday, was more wrapping, plus a trip to Walmart to find the windshield de-icer that I wanted to give to the kids (and my church secretary). I had also hoped to start a project to string a CAT5 computer cable to the other end of the house, but was again stumped when I discovered that to do so will require that I make a huge mess removing and reinstalling a pile of blown-in cellulose insulation. I could still do it, of course, but that makes it a much bigger project than I had anticipated. Sunday was our really long day. As usual, I was up a 0530 to get ready and go to church for Sunday morning and our celebration of the fourth Sunday of Advent. Then home, change clothes, a quick lunch, and my wife and I headed downtown to volunteer with an annual, non-denominational, outreach to the homeless, with a hot meal (for 155+ people), hats, scarves, winter coats, socks, hygiene items, free haircuts (32, I think), and other things. In all, 175 persons were given some kind of assistance. Around 5:30pm I went home, changed clothes (again) then returned to pick up my wife and go to church for our Christmas Eve service which was quite well attended (compared to recent years... and included a visit by one of our resident bell-tower bats). We were both exhausted by the time we got home. Monday, since we only have big kids, I slept in (until 7:30), then got up to clean the bathroom, make cinnamon rolls, and make other final preparations like filling the Christmas stockings. The kids (the ones that still live in Ohio) came over around noon and we had lunch, opened presents, then watched football and generally just hung out until about 4:30 (just before it started getting dark). After that, I fell asleep in my recliner for a while, and then to bed around 10:00. I did receive some train themed Christmas ornaments, and also a gift card to the hardware store that will certainly be put to good use. Tuesday, I continued cleaning up from yesterday, did a little work on the "train corner" in the basement I promised to clean up before the end of the year, started laundry, and now I'm back in my office at church so I can work on my sermon (even though the church office is technically closed) because, in addition to this being a short week, we have a funeral on Thursday that will consume most of the day. I hope that all of you had a blessed holiday regardless of what you choose to celebrate.
Ran my annual Christmas Train on my layout, basically the same train set I got for Christmas 50 years ago, which I fully blame for ending up here... Good memories of Christmases past, with family, a big tree and hearty meals. (on hearty meals, I finally got an air fryer/oven - it has officially replaced Ye Olde Toaster Oven) I hope you all had a great and Merry Christmas with lots of trains!
A little late in posting, but the weekend went well except for the modeling. Friday, met with my Brother from Toledo, his daughter and her husband and son, my Wife, 2 Sons and Daughter-in-Law at a place called Fat Cats in the Tremont District of Cleveland. We all had a good time and filled everyone out with all the goings on for the last couple of years. I then went to bowling that evening and the team and I did well for a change. (And we celebrated my birthday). Saturday, did a lot of wrapping and stuff from Amazon was still showing up at the door, later in the evening I did manage to get some decaling done on a 60' Auto Parts boxcar. We did go to a neighbor's house for a Christmas Party. Sunday, finished the wrapping and loaded the car to go to my Son's house for a Christmas Eve party as they were going to the Daughter-in-Law's parents house on Christmas Day. I got some really good Scotch and a PC Color Guide Book, along with some modeling tools for use in the near future. Monday, just laid around not doing much, except for some decaling, my other Son stopped by after visiting the in-laws and we had dessert and coffee together. Rick Jesionowski
