MODELING It's Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024: Weekend Modeling Accomplishments

Greetings Everyone from a chilly Northern VA,
The morning finds me resting up after spending 30+ hours working on th, oh, wait! This is 'Trainboard'.
Sigh, as some of you know I my family from Boston gave me Covid for < don't say that Steve >.
I got nothin done.
By Friday with the pending storm I should be fine.

My Advice:
Check with your doctor
Eat your veggies.
Get sunshine.
Exercise - moderately
Get your sleep
Socialize

 

Happy New Year to Y'all

I made some progress on my H12-44 project.
(I had to start over with the AT&SF H12-44)

Here is the SP version

Hand rails, grabs and sun shades have been added



Painted up - ready for a clear coat



May Y'all have a great and very healthy 2024
God Bless
Wolf

 

Happy New Year to all!

This weekend I spent quite a bit of time on the Bakers Country Store/Gas Station and got it to about 80% complete. Also spent time at the layout mapping out a few things I can go ahead and get started on in the New Year.

It was a great weekend. I started packing away all the decorations I took down. New Years Eve my oldest daughter and her husband came by and the four of us a great evening. Boiled lobsters, had champagne, great conversation and listened to some good jazz all evening. A very good holiday weend.

Have a good week and kick-off to '24.

 

Friday I had off and hung out with my kids for most of the day, which was nice.

Saturday and Monday we hung out and played games with another family.

On New Year’s Eve my family and I stayed up until midnight and played board games for 9 hours while eating all kinds of junk food.

Parts of Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were spent on track planning-a lot of tinkering and elements were finished, but began to reconsider exactly what I’m trying to accomplish. So I’m going to go back and relook my druthers.

It doesn’t feel like progress but I keep reminding myself that I have gotten a lot of elements/scenes built-For example, I’ve got three yards designed, should I choose to use them.


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As expected, bowling Friday Nite went well with the team taking all 7 points and will hopefully leapfrog a number of teams ahead of us.

Saturday, we all decided to skip the club due to a lot of family things, spent part of the day just reading and some cleanup after my son left to go back to Colorado. Started work on an Athearn 60' Auto Parts boxcar, I don't know what plastic they use, but it breaks while trying to remove it from the sprue no matter how careful you are, but I managed to salvage most of the broken parts.

Sunday, did the laundry and managed to paint the RBL that I had finished assembling during the week, and continued work on the 60' Auto Parts car installing the wire grabs. Also started the monthly cleanup of the work bench, sorting and labeling the left over parts to go into the scrap box.

Monday, Finished assembling the 60' Auto Parts car, now need to apply the first color of paint. Started decaling the RBL that I painted on Sunday along with decaling a 50 Ton Hopper car that I had painted previously.

Rick Jesionowski

 

Happy 2024 everyone!

My weekend saw some things go as planned and some things go completely different. Of course, Friday was spot on, work all day and even a little later than planned. Picked up the wife for a trip to Sam's and she added Target and the grocery store as well so that was a full day and then some.
Saturday changed a good bit. The plan was to spend the better part of the day working on the layout projects I have going. Well, the not so LHS was having a sale and it was a surprise to me that the CFO actually approved a visit. So, it was coffee, get ready and start the trek. Managed to see 3 trains along the way there, found some good deals, chatted with someone I hadn't seen in a while and basically spent more time that I planned getting there and being there. The trip home was uneventful and actually light traffic. Had a late lunch with the family upon my return and then did find some time to get a second coat of paint on the new fascia and spend some time going through the new plunder.
Sunday, I was up early and enjoyed a good bit of coffee while installing a few more metal wheel sets and figuring out how I want to approach actually start removing the old fascia. Then the wife was up and it was on to lots of other things for the day. We did have friends over for dinner and to celebrate New Years. It was a nice evening.
Monday started again with lots of coffee. Was up much earlier than I would have liked but that was okay. Posted a special edition Railfan Photos of the Week instalment and watched a couple of You Tube videos. After a late breakfast, the wife informed me that since JP is returning to school this coming Saturday instead of next Monday, that we would be working on taking down and storing all the inside Christmas decorations. The outside lights will stay up for another week. They are easy to take down and at least we get to enjoy them a few more days. That ate up a good bit of the day but once done, I did manage to get down to the layout and remove the first part of the fascia! I also swapped out the trucks and couplers on a couple of the cars that followed me home Saturday. The one I expected to maybe give me issues went extremely smooth while the other that should have been easy didn't play nice but it did get done.

All in all, a good weekend. Now back to the grind. Hope you all have a great week!

 

Good morning and Happy New Year,

The RSV vaccines on Friday were easy and we had no side effects. I did take it easy the rest of the day and was able to do some work in the train room. The tunnel portals for the Carlin tunnels got a shot of soot on the roofs and installed into the hillside. Scenery material was added to the hillside.



I made some tiny Bucyrus-Erie decals for the GHQ crane and after spraying them with 2 coats of Crystal Clear, got them installed on the model. Sprayed the model with Dullcoat and had at first white specks on it but a second coat cleared that up. Ordered some EZ-Line that I will try for the cables. Also painted an outhouse for the scrap yard.



My wife recently had cataract procedures done on both eye's and can't drive until she gets new glasses for distance. So Saturday morning I drove her to the Japanese market to get things for New Years Eve. After we got back my buddy picked me up and we were off to the layout exhibit in Danville, CA. That went really well and was a lot of fun. It was a prototype-based point to point layout set in the 1920's. I learned a lot about a long gone SP branch line that I was not aware of before. Afterwards we had a late lunch at a brew pub across the street from the museum.



New Years Eve my wife made a great Japanese dinner which included long soba noodles which symbolize the wish for long life. While she was doing that I was cleaning house. In the evening we watched our usual New Years Eve program and turned in before midnight. On Sunday I got back out to the train room and started rebuilding the Peco turnout contacts on the smaller club Ntrak yard.


So a good start here for what may be a busy year. Wishing you all a good one.

 

Well... not a particularly busy weekend, but a few things happened.

Thursday we had a funeral at church that pretty much took all day. I went in early to meet the funeral directors and walk the casket in, and didn't go home until after the luncheon was over in the afternoon.

Friday, I worked on a few chores around the house, as well as converting couplers on a NW caboose that the someone gave away at the club a few months back. Friday was also a trip to pick up online shopping at Walmart.



Saturday, our daughter came over for the day while her husband was deer hunting and we went out for a late lunch where I had a half-decent Reuben sandwich to satisfy my New Year's sauerkraut requirement. Otherwise, just more "stuff" around the house.

Sunday, with the choir and organist off for the day, my wife played guitar and led all the music for church. Afterward, we had lunch, and I headed out to the club and ran the NW caboose for a half hour or so, and it ran great.


In the evening, I retired to the basement and worked on bringing a tank car up to spec so I can run it at the club. It's a Firestone "Latex from Liberia" tanker that I picked up simply because we always drive through the Firestone rubber plantation on the way to and from the airport on our trips to the school that our mission is building in Harrisburg, Liberia. It already had good couplers, but I added a bunch of weight, reconnected its ladders, and painted its warning signs.


Monday, my wife was pretty much camped out on the couch, so I alternated between three projects. I trash-picked a nice cat tree a while back , ut it reeked of cat pee and was well shredded , so I'm stripping off all the carpet, scratch-rope, and the cardboard shelf. Once that's done, I may make it a bit bigger and then re-carpet it. The second project was to repair a MoW tank car (former cheapo track cleaner). A shim on one coupler seems to be all that it needed. I'll run it at the Sebring Model Railroad Club on Tuesday and see how she runs.


Project number three took most of my time. At the beginning of 2023, I promised my wife that I would clean up a corner of the basement that had accumulated a pile of train stuff that was gifted to me by friends and retiring colleagues. Her plan is to make that corner, eventually, into a play area for future grandchildren. I had hoped to do this earlier, but going back to school has been a huge time-suck, and since I am currently on our winter break, I thought I had better get at it. and spent the better part of the day organizing, sorting, and repacking things into totes that I can move to other places in the basement or put in longer-term storage in a second floor crawlspace. Other than physically moving the totes to storage, I got that done. The problem is that now I have two totes full of rolling stock that needs to be worked on, and one tote full of antique locomotives that need a lot of TLC before they can be brought back to life. At least I can't complain that I have nothing to do.

 

Despite the blur of activity, I was able to sneak a few hours on the layout yesterday. Friday was Lori's "last" day, she's semi-retired now, her employer "re-hired" her part time to continue managing a project she was responsible for as part of her considerable duties in her old job. They realized it was much more cost effective than hiring a consultant at three times the salary. There was a reception for her Friday evening, and it was great to see how much she was appreciated. Saturday morning started with learning my brother was being transferred to another hospital. They couldn't do much for him where he was, and we needed to get him out of the overcrowded ER there. The home reception was called off as we made the 90 mile trek to see him in the new location, and then went to his house to do some housekeeping for him, and stayed there overnight. Sunday we visited with him and he appeared to be doing better, so we stayed a few hours before returning home. I watched about half of the Bills/Patriots game while riding my stationary bike, followed by another half hour on the treadmill before going to the neighbors for a cocktail, then went out for dinner before making it an early night (I haven't rung in the New Year since 2007). Monday morning we ran in the Track Club's annual "Resolution Run", an easy five-mile jog with a few hundred others, with Chili and Beer afterwards.

I got some train time later in the afternoon, after taking down the tree and putting away the Christmas decorations. Running a few trains before laying down some static grass and scenery details on various parts of the layout. I'll try to take a few photos and post them up later.

Happy New Trainboarders!

Ron

 

My wife was involved with the drug testing on the RSV Vaccine, it was a double blind, but after it was all over they informed her she had actually received the vaccine. She also remarked that she never had a cold or any respitory affects while she had the vaccine and recommends it for everyone.

Rick Jesionowski

 

My wife went to get an RSV shot and was informed that our insurance (which is generally good) wouldn't cover it. Without insurance, the fee was $300. She opted not to get it.

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Things did not get off to a good start Friday. Work was supposed to be an early day but due the flood clean up of the project site I got a couple of hours overtime. The rest of the weekend pretty much went as planned. Made trips to the grocery stores, pharmacy, dry cleaners, and gas station. New Years Eve it was just my wife, daughter, and myself. We made it to midnight and were in bed by 12:30. New Years Day I made dinner, and we watched the Philadelphia Mummers Day Parade. The only part of the parade we are interested in is the string bands and the fancy brigades.

I worked on the Ashmore Hotel. I got all the window frames in place. I added the glass pieces to the front wall.

 

Whew! Good thing power came back. Good advice! The H12-44 looks like a jewel. I love it when a family visit comes together! Three yards in the wings is excellent! Sounds like the new nefarious "shatter plastic". I think the CFO should get a pay raise. (Jus' sayin'.) HOn30 log cars rolling out! Crane looks cool! Latex tanker is very unique. Very glad to brother is doing better. If you got all the window frames in place, you are a modeler among modelers! I am on here late due to chores. (Laundry, wouldn't cha' know.) Sunday evening saw me starting to redesign turnouts. Earlier today, I was continuing to work on that. The old turnout design did not wear well. This project will be job one until complete. Exceptions will probably be made. I heard a superstition that what you were doing when the New Year rang in was what you would be doing the rest of the year. However, I nodded off before I could go over and kiss my layout. Se la vie! Have a great short week.

 

Lots done!

Fuses for the kitchen stove. A new wire cutter/stripper/crimper. Continued my holiday tour of shopping centers to look at the Christmas decorations. Thinking of delicious new stuff to make in my new air fryer/oven.

I also spent some time looking at New Year fireworks on a rail cam in the Netherlands. Here, we have an fireworks show in some towns that lasts 15 or 20 minutes. Over there, it's nuts... it lasts 12 hours and anyone can pitch in! It starts in the afternoon and ends at 2 am on January 1st. On the rail cam, it sounded and looked like an artillery battle was going on.

Every citizen can, unless they're in one of 12 cities that have banned it, fire off fireworks from their yard, as much as they want, up to about 50 pounds total. Sometimes there an accident, when one guy was carrying about 350 kg of fireworks across from Germany, while smoking in his car... and when he threw the butt out the window, it blew back in and right into the fireworks. The car quickly filled with black smoke, the driver pulled over and got out just in time, before his Volvo turned into a pyrotechnic show... What's the Dutch word for D'OH!!!! ?

Celebrate the New Year by blowing up a small part of it...

And, the best for last, painted and lettered an Atlas RS-3 to Grand Trunk 1861 from a Pennsy scheme. Now all is painted (the handrails are finishing drying as I write this) and decal-ed, dullcoated and ready to put back together. Everything went without a hitch.

And it's a beauty.

Photos once the whole shebang is reassembled.

 

As promised:


Sweet.

 

Happy New Year everyone

I spent the weekend doing rock building and bridge flex track.

 

Did you trim that clamp specifically to set the guide rail on the bridge flex track? It can't be a coincidence that the width of the clamp fits perfectly between the rails. Nice work.

 

Fact, this clamp really fits randomly. Sometimes it's simple things that can be used differently.