It's been close to 110 here in Brown (oops, meant Green) Country, and my layout room has no AC vents, so long sleeves are out. I can relate to your heat issues. I do like the idea of the small dry-erase board, as we used them at our hospital lab for the chemistry analyzers to pass along messages to each shift. It could come in handy for, say, a larger layout quite easily.
I have one I take to buy & sells. (I purloin it from the kitchen) Upon it I write "Please ask to be shown the merchandise. If I drop it, my loss, if you drop it, your purchase!"
Friscobob: Haven't really had any heat issues. I had one section of track I just installed under the window and had ballested kink, but I think that was more due to the sun shining directly on it, rather than heat itself. I kinda needed the board myself. I kept forgetting issues with motive power (hence the "notes" section) and I always forgot to mention track defects such as switch speed restrictions to guests so I put that up there. Traingeekboy: Yeah, I figured my posts needed more content. Thus why the larger breaks between updates, I'm waiting until I stockpile enough stuff. Mike: Thanks, I wish some of the engines had more detail/better weathering, but that's all future projects.
been a while since I've been able to get out to the shed. Hectic life, but I kinda expected that. Have actually had a little time off recently and I went back out to the shed, and discovered I had tenants! Yup, spiders. The cars were knocked over by the wind rolling in through the window, not the spiders! The caboose got it the worst! Still need to clean it off! I purchased a few things to finish the upper level of the layout, including flex track. I bought a package of woodland scenics 4% grade risers to make the grade up to the top, looks a little out of place for being "Kansas" but its cool non-the less. Starting on the benchwork for the upper deck today while it's cool outside (actually cloud cover today, I'm impressed!). Will try to post some more photos later.
With the top level you've got the opportunity to model a different state (destination) because as you've noted it wil be "not in Kansas anymore". haha.
check a page or so back, I already drew up an operational plan for the layout, won't be leaving kansas.
Oh, I just thought after that tornado knocked over your box cars, you might have been doing a "Dorothy and Toto". hehe.
Good thing you mentioned the wind. If spiders had done that, I'd be packing up and leaving the territory!
I always heard "they grow 'em big in Texas" but in Colorado it must be outrageous. Glad to see the spiders didn't cause the tornado. Like others, I've been reading but haven't said much. Good to see the progress!
Little bit of an update. Layout is down for the moment, I had a bit of benchwork that I decided to level out that wasn't quite so level. Got it all finished and then realized by adjusting it, I had screwed up the trackwork around the duckunder. Minor but would require a bit of removal to fix. Then I decided since I was going to remove that section of track, to just relay the entire East side of the layout, Been have some minor problems over there because it was the first section of track completed and also very hurried, before I had a plan all laid out. So thus I'm going back and improving this section of the layout. Replacing the 18" radius snap switches with #4's or #5's. Upping the mainline radius to 22", and adjusting the mainline around the depot area to accommodate my new American Model Builders station. Should have all this completed tonight after work. The benchwork for staging has been completed and I have about 50% of the track on it. So far its working fine. I also have "moved" the layout base from Kansas to Colorado. Why you ask? Well at the hobby shop I work at we keep the books behind the counter and I had the opportunity to look through some when business at the store was slow. I found 3 books that had numerous pictures of the La Junta Division, "Santa Fe Trackside", "Trackside around Pueblo", and "Wheat Lines and Super Freights". Particularly what caught my eye was the large number of branchlines the Santa Fe had in Southern Colorado. Something I was never aware of. I made plans to model this area until I started looking at the Joint line. Between Denver and Pueblo the Santa Fe had a pretty large presence with the C&S. I figured I could model a section of the Joint Line Fictionally. I bought a BLi SW7 in BN colors and sublettered it for C&S, and then placed a pre-order with my employer (hobby shop) for a BLi Santa Fe E8 so I can model the Joint Line trains. Eventually I would like to get a D&RGW unit or two to operate run throughs with. Will keep me busy! None of this of course changes the track plan given a few pages back, but will change town names and traffic flow. Allowing me to invite friends over for operating sessions rather than just having a 2 operator max. I have plans to extend the upper level now as well as a switchback for a C&S only branch. Heck who knows, I have a bit of an itch to model some CF&I (Colorado Fuel and Iron) narrow gauge equipment, Maybe I'll mix that in the upper deck. Anywheys, I'll get some pictures of progress tonight!
at that time I was so focused on the Howard branch because thats where all my available research material was on. Now I have more resources to get ideas on the layout for CO.
kinda a bummer, my MRC prodigy express finally bit the dust tonight. Been using a different power supply than designed for it. Had some major adress and control issues for a few months and tonight it just died. No power light upon being plugged in, nor any signs of life. Oh well, guess I'll be getting a new system at work tomorrow.
On one hand, it's good to hear you're tweaking the layout for your personal modeling preferences. On the other, it sucks that your control system died.
Thanks, I kinda like the concept of trying an area I had only thought of modeling before! I've done Kansas on my Three previous layout (one even had a tornado siren just for kicks, wonder what happened to that.....) and I had once thought of modeling Colorado in the area I live in. I'm half tempted now to change a little history to say that the Denver and New Orleans Trackage through Falcon and the area I live in was left intact. At least the one nice thing about having to buy a new control system is that, because I work at the hobby shop, I think I can get a nice package deal going.
Oh to have worked at a hobby shop, as a kid we had I think the only model shop in town not far from where I lived. I can remember being very envious of the guy that worked there. Mind you, nothing would have got sold if it had been up to me.
Thanks for following my progress along this current layout guys. Some things have recently come up in life that will require more of my time, and with college looming, I don't see the layout getting any further along in its current state. A bit too much to chew at this time for me. In addition part of my shed is being re purposed because my elderly grandmother is moving in with us, taking over a bedroom that had been used for moms crafts and storage. So the shed is going to be split between me and some storage boxes now. I'm not saying this is the last you'll hear of the shed division, I do plan on rebuilding it, but on a much smaller scale (thinking a sectional 4x8), something that I can take with me easily when I move for college, something that I can take to shows to promote the hobby, and something that I can accomplish in what I consider a reasonable amount of time. The layout will probably be coming up this weekend, and I'm taking the chance to do a little upgrading with the smaller layout, so I'm probably going to be ditching the Code 100 rail, and choosing something more prototypical looking. Its been a fun run while it lasted and I'll be starting a new thread for the smaller layout..... someday, hopefully not too far away. thanks for the participation and encouragement. James B Patterson
I've enjoyed following your progress - but I know how life can have plans of it's own! Good luck and I'm hoping to see your next layout when it starts.
