Ho, Ho, Ho...Merry Christmas to all....
It has been a long while. I haven't done a thing in the Trainroom for months! I haven't feeling well (Doc now thinks it is cronic Lyme) and I have been SOOOO busy with work. I really hope to change this scenario soon.
So for now "Here's a health to the company"
Hi, guys. I have been so busy with parties lately.
We have had lots of layout time. Larry laid the track for the staging yard temporarily. The end board is tacked down with a couple of screws. We are waiting for the Walthers 130' TT to come in. (If ever)
I kitbashed from the Walthers Empire Tanning & Leather for the packing plant. It is totally freelance though.
There is a lot going on this week, but maybe we will get some time next week.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Hey, Chuck's here! Joe, a round for, well, the two of us.
I lost an old school friend, too. John Huchra was a world-renowned astronomer, and a former dorm floor mate. He passed away suddenly from a heart attack, with no warning, and not even a chance to say goodbye. I guess if gives us all the more reason to count our own blessings this year.
I've been struggling to get through some of the Phase 2 scenery. This section involves a lot of structures, plus associated urban scenery around it. In my own divide-and-conquer scheme, I've decided to tackle the station, two tall City Classics buildings and a scratch-built liquor store. The structures themselves were time-consuming, but work progressed. The whole final work, though, is one of those things that I've had a hard time getting started. Today, though, I did put down the Gypsolite between the tracks of the staging yard behind where the buildings will finally live. Once I get the ground cover on that, I can complete the dread ballasting job. I can also put down the pavement in front of the buildings.
Inspired perhaps by the seemingly endless street repairs around my 1:1 town, I decided to put in manholes in the streets over here. I have a few of the manhole-caps that come with Walthers Cornerstone street lamps, but not enough to do the job. So, I made a latex mold with the ones I've got, and poured some Hydrocal castings. I embedded them to the right height in the base foam of the layout, so right now they stick up, just like the real ones do when they're about to pave the road, a time period that always seems to last an inordinate amount of time. My goal is to have this whole area complete by the first of the year. We'll see how I do.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Joe, I can't believe it's been a month since any of the regulars dropped in! Where is everybody???
My layout work has been on hold, for a really weird reason. Seems I dropped into my neighborhood book store and saw a familiar face - on a dust jacket. Sally Belfrage, a lovely blonde who sat next to me in my Basic Physics class in high school, went on to become a best-selling author. The book, Un-american Activities, turned out to be a memoir of that period in her life.
It's amazing how little I knew about someone I thought I knew!
After I read that book, I ordered her other four. I'm working my way through them now.
I had wanted to send her a, "Thanks for the memories," note, only to discover that she had died of (outer lung)*** cancer, 'way too young. Her parents reached their mid-80s. She never got to 58. Maybe it's true that only the good die young.
(So, why am I still alive? I leave that as an exercise for the student...)
See Ya.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
All's right in the world. Well, it would have been nicer if the Jets lost, but the Patriots did win over Indy.
Yesterday, the local cable TV came over to my house to shoot some layout video. 3 of us from town had been in a short panel discussion a couple of days earlier, and the plan was to overlay some layout shots on top. I suppose they came out OK, but, well, it was one of those layout disasters for me. Things derailed where they never had before. I got a subway stuck in an inaccessible tunnel. Mr. Murphy, take a bow. You outdid yourself.
So, I spent today in maintenance mode. I ran the CMX machine through the subways. I pulled liftoffs to find problems I even removed one that hasn't been off in years, because of the wiring. Lo and behold, I found the wheel from the PCC car, about where I knew it must be, because, well, it wasn't anywhere else.
The Prodigal Wheel has returned. Now, the fatted calf has been slaughtered, I've got a cold beer, the grill is hot and it's time to cook the steaks. Life is good.
Good morning, everyone. Just some coffee, and maybe a bowl of fresh melon. Thanks.
I love those "Eureka!" moments, Chuck. Something about the way the mind works, I suppose. We think about things "in the background," and sometimes the answer just pops out. That's the way I figured out how to fit in the car float terminal. The key was understanding that the car float itself is removeable, so the benchwork supporting it can also be removeable. With that, it no longer blocks maintenance access to what's behind it, so it fits.
The shoe repair shop is done.
Again, it's a childhood memory. I wanted to put a small shop like this in the "basememt" of a tall building, just like I remember from visiting relatives in Brooklyn as a kid. I found that it's a very hard scene to photograph, though. I made it too deep, but in my defense, the Miniatronics sign fills the shop window, top to bottom, and they put the "shoe" part at the very bottom.
This whole block has the station platform behind it, and four lines of unballasted track, so it will be some time before I can put the buildings down for the last time. But, at least I've got the styrene base in, and the "sidewalk" sheet of styrene is cut to size and shape.
Right now, I'm doing castings of manhole covers. We've had the usual interminable period of road construction around here, and I guess I took my cue from way the prototype guys do manholes and pavement. I took a bunch of the "manhole covers" that come with the Walthers streetlights. They are intended to cap over the sockets if you remove the lights for maintenance or whatever. Since I don't have enough of these covers, I made up a small latex mold from them, and I've begun casting copies. Tonight I'll paint a few of them, and install them where the street will be. For a while, until I pour the Durhams Water Putty for the "asphalt," the good people of Moose Bay will have to live with "raised manhole covers" in the streets. The only difference between Moose Bay and Bedford, MA, will be the pink earth beneath their roads.
Howdy, Joe. Mighty quiet here. I guess everybody's home watching political commercials on TV...
A few hours ago I had one of those Eureka! moments. My layout plan had called for both my coal-hauling normal-gauge short line and my narrow gauge logger to interchange with the JNR at Tomikawa - and I'd been having fun (NOT) trying to figure out an elegant way to fit both of them into the available space. That was done because for forty years or so I had been working with the assumption that Tomikawa would be the only JNR station I could include on my layout.
Then it struck me. In the prototype world, the logger didn't interchange at Kiso-Fukushima, modeled as Tomikawa, but rather at the next station down, Agematsu. My last-in-this-lifetime layout actually includes that station, under the name Haruyama. By moving the logger downgrade to its proper interchange location I de-complicated Tomikawa. There's PLENTY of room at Haruyama for the interchange, the transfer yard and enough buildings to catch the flavor. Not only that, but I now have a traffic source at Haruyama more significant than the freight house. Win-win!
Is there a down side? Only one I can see is that I just rendered all my JNR waybills for loads originating or terminating at the Rintetsu obsolete - they all read, "Tomikawa'" and now it's Haruyama.
Guess I'd better get on making some new ones. See ya,
Hi, Joe. Some coffee for me on this Monday morning. No rest for the weary, I'm afraid. We don't get the day off. Easy commute, though.
No progress at all this weekend. Instead, we took a trip up to Sunday River for the Fall Festival weekend. The highlight of the trip was the annual North American Wife Carrying Competition, in which 50 couples raced, 2 at a time, around an obstacle course. Like ballet, it's a sport for strong men and lightweight ladies. Like grand opera, one of the contestants wore a Viking helmet with horns. And, fortunately, like neither ballet nor opera, beer, pulled pork, hot dogs and burgers were served in abundance.
I'm about ready to start work on the liquor store, and once that's done I'll have that block of buildings in the commercial district complete. Then, I can get them emplaced and cut the sidewalk sections, and that will let me do the shoe repair shop. That's one that's got my excited.
I lost a friend over the weekend. I suppose it's only the beginning of the inevitable, but John is the first friend from my college days to go. So, count your blessings and enjoy every day with those around you.
Good evening, Joe. I will have a Strumpet's, please.
This was a great weekend with lots of progress on the layout. I managed to get 20 Aggro trees assembled. They are now ready for ground foam. I pryed up one of the tracks on the log landing, removed the incline, and placed a level riser. I also reshaped a couple of hills so they will accept more trees.
Larry worked on painting the backdrop, and painted a dump truck.
We exercised the Mallet on the long freight train today.
Mr. B ....... Thanks for your remarks. I like your photo. The scene looks good.,
The Hudson was a gift from my Dad when he brought it home from a trip he took to Japan. I was way too young for a brass loco, and my layout was a very crude layout. The locomotive became a "floor model" plunging to the floor more than once. Eventually, I put the pieces back in the Tenshodo wood box.. Its parts had spent decades in the box, but about six years ago that I restored the engine. I stripped the paint off, and I repaired it. I purchsed replacement brass parts as needed including a good pair of tender trucks. The mechanism itself was in reasonably good condition. I repainted and relettered the locomotive. I had photos of NYC Hudsons for referance. I selected the number on a photo rather than using the original number on the Tenshodod model. It runs rather well inspite of all of its adventures.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
I will have coffee for a starter this morning, Joe. It was in the 30's when I walked the dog and cat. It is bad enough that it is dark. I am not ready for winter.
MrB, Great job on the photoshoping photo. It makes the area behind the building seem deeper. Are you still playing hockey?
Off the layout room to organize my tree and blackberry vine making supplies.
Good morning, all. I'll have some coffee. The fresh raspberries are just about gone for the season. I may get one or two more bowls of cereal with them, but that's going to be about it.
Heartland, I loved your pics on Photo Fun. Is that Hudson #5398? That engine makes it over to my layout on occasion, too.
I had a busy weekend in the train room. I spent Saturday finishing up that back corner behind the Moose Mills building, and finishing the last of the long, narrow strip of scenery between the track and the 45-degree roofline. I put a small photo backdrop of a road going off into the distance, and then continued the road out into the layout. It's the same technique that was illustrated in MR a couple of months back.
I made the Gump Forest National Park sign from a home-made decal and a scratchbuilt wood frame.
Sunday I spent sort-of watching football, but the table in front of me was covered with modeling supplies. I'm working on another City Classics building. I want to selectively light only a few rooms, so I put in a lot of interior structure to separate the floors and even some of the windows, and added floor and wall coverings everywhere, since the front windows are large. I built a "light tree" to position the bulbs inside the building, in the back, but showing through to the front. The building is 5 stories. Like the one next to it, I didn't want to build the bulbs in and have to unwire it whenever I removed the building, because I've stll got a lot of scenery work to do around and behind these structures. So, the "light tree" will let me keep the structure and lighting separate.
Sue says: " will have a Strumpets, and buy for anyone else who shows up"
Here I am !
Cheers!
Joe, I hope that you are getting enough business to stay open. I will have a Strumpets, and buy for anyone else who shows up. It has been quiet lately.
I finished ballasting from the tunnel to the trestle today. My next project is to make blackberry vines, and Aggro trees.
MrB, I hope that you got some layout time after that trip to your LHS sale. Maybe we will see some photos when the camera comes back from Michigan.
Chuck, Are you still getting that warm weather? Did you see triple digits in that recent hot spell?
Good afternoon, Joe. I will have a Strumpets, please.
We did get some layout time this weekend. Larry painted the distant hills. He painted the closer hills, but will probably go back with a lighter color. Those artists sure are picky.
I finished the dirt ballasting in the tunnel. I then painted ties, and painted ties, and painted ties. That has to be the most boring thing that we do on the layout. A few more projects and I will be back making trees again.
Later, Sue
Monday again. Time for more coffee. I really should cut down on that stuff, but, well, I really enjoy it. Thanks, Joe.
It's been Home Alone week for me. Annie is back at school, and Penny is in Michigan at a high school reunion. I've used the time to work on a pair of City Classics structures, 2 of their 5-story downtown buildings. One is basically done, although it needs just a bit more light-leak sealing. The other one has the walls painted, mortared and decaled, and now it's time for the windows and interior detailing.
My "backup" LHS a few towns away had a 1-day, 30% off sale on Saturday. I pulled into the parking lot just as the doors opened. 45 minutes later, I got on the checkout line and waited another 20 minutes to get to the cash register. Hobby Emporium is more of a general-purpose hobby shop. Most of the customers were picking up airplane, ship and tank models, but the train aisles were crowded, too. I picked up some Woodland Scenics trees, a couple of box car kits, one nice Atlas RTR reefer, and a bunch of DPM module pieces. It was a pretty good haul.
One little boy there must have been very, very good, because his parents were buying him a bunch of stuff. He was getting Amtrak engines and superliners, hoppers and well cars, and a turntable and roundhouse. My guess is that his layout is a mixture of everything from Steam Era to Modern, but it's his layout, and he is a kid, after all.
I hope you're all getting some modeling in. I managed to replace that bad Atlas 30-degree crossing with a (larger) Walthers crossing without too much disruption, and I did a bit of back-corner scenic work as well. Nothing's ready for photos yet, though, which is OK because the camera went to Michigan. Cheers.
Good morning, Joe. Do you have any of those gooey cinnamon rolls left to go with my coffee?
I plan to do a little more work on the tunnel before heading out to cut wood this morning. The usual one tank of gas per chainsaw keeps us from burning out. I am hoping for some serious layout time this weekend.
Larry painted the clouds on the backdrop for the new staging area on Sunday. Maybe we will get some hills this weekend.
Good morning, all. Coffee and a Transition Era jelly donut, please, before they made them healthy and cardboard-tasting.
I got an e-mail from City Classics, which has created their own Facebook page. I put up a couple of pictures of their structures I happen to be working on right now. They have a series of 5-story city buildings, and I picked up 2 of them for the long row in front of the staging yard on Beaver Street. I want to hide the tracks without really blocking them off, and a row of tall buildings does the job just fine. I'm putting a lot of "internal structure" into them, so that I can selectively light parts of the buildings that will have interior detail. I just spend so much time on these "four walls and a roof" kits.
Penny is off to a high school reunion in Michigan this week, so I'm planning to fix up that corner with the faulty Atlas 30-degree crossing. I'm replacing it with a Walthers model, but it's larger than the Atlas so there will be some trimming involved. With no other responsibilities this week, I should be able to do all these track things. There's also a 40%-off-everything sale at a nearby hobby shop I go to once in a while. I'm planning to pick up some overpriced trees, some DPM modular parts and maybe another kit or two.
Good morning, Joe. I think I will have a White Mocha today.
The rain stopped for a while. The next front taps into some moisture from a typhoon in the Pacific. We usually don't have this much rain until November. ICK.
This morning, I plan to get back to the tunnel shine removal. Larry is getting ready to start painting clouds on the backdrop for the staging area. I thought that he was cleaning track, and he said, "No, I am moving all the trains out of staging to paint.
Yesterday, we picked up a 4' x 4' piece of 3/4" particle board for the sawmill area. It was in the scrap bin for $2.00. What a bargain. We will be raising the area to 4" above the present level. We plan to draw in the track and keep it under the layout until we reach that stage of construction.
This afternoon we have a MR meeting.
"Morning, Joe. Make mine coffee, and freshen up anyone needful.
Sue, I sure wish you could divert a few of those falling canines and felines this way. No measurable precipitation in the Las Vegas Valley since a couple of watering-can sprinkles last Spring. Lake Mead is looking more and more like a canyon.
I envy you, Mister Beasley. The last time I rode a train was when my sister-in-law last visited us - and that was only the ex-RGS at Knott's Berry Farm. I think there's a rideable train over the Railroad Pass hill in Boulder City, but that's a long haul just to check out a 'possible.'
I've had to re-think and partially redesign my electricals. Seems the 12.6VAC from my 'accessory' transformer, once run through two diodes and ending up half-wave DC, doesn't have enough kick to throw some of my stiffer twin-coil machines. My hot probe is now drawing from a 21VAC transformer that once recharged 18 volt batteries, but I have to separate the hot connections to my rotary switches from the 12.6VAC that powers my indicator lamps or I'll be cooking them. So, back to the drawing board. Fortunately, I left a few unused stud termini on my panel terminal block...
Well, I'm off to the layout room. See ya.
Good morning, Joe. Coffee, please.
It rained cats and dogs last night. No indian summer for us this year.
Back to the layout. I ballasted the upper track with dirt last Sunday. I still need to do a couple of layers in the tunnel. It would be ok, but I want to eliminate the shine when you look through the tunnel.
Home again, safe and sound. I'll offer up a round, since it's Friday.
Serendipity smile upon us up in Maine. Penny saw a notice about a self-directed tour of pottery studios on Saturday, and suggested that we pull up stakes (literally, since we were tenting) a day early and hang out on the mainland before driving home. So, I suggested that she drop me off at the Downeast Scenic Railway while she toured the potters. I got to ride on this:
It's a short run, only a few miles. They run the engine (a 70-tonner in this case) around the train at each end of the line. I rode in the coach, which is not shown. The train was pretty much full, and they said they have been full since they opened earlier in the summer. Good news for train fans.
The weather is turning here. Squirrels bury nuts, some folks put up a couple of cords of firewood, and I've got enough kits and other supplies to keep me going on my layout for the winter, I suspect. We've got a few more weeks while it's still nice outdoors, but then it will be a while before the snow falls and skiing takes me away once more.
Sue said: " ... we exercised the locos only. ... "
Push-ups, by chance, Sue?
Good morning, Joe. Just a quick coffee before I head to work.
I noticed that Tom and Garry stopped by. Fall is here and the layout time should pick up. We did family time this last weekend so we exercised the locos only.
Hello Beer Barn Patrons..
Like Tom I'm not here often. Looks like eveyrone is doing well.
Tom, that's good top hear about your friend in Huntsville. I saw your post about the LHS in Huntsville too.
I'll be passing near Huntsville on my way to Birmingham late in October. Huntsville is a nice city.
On my layout, I continue my large expansion that will include my city.
Hello all! Is surf and turf on the menu?? Guess I'll just take a draft for now. Don't usually stop into this joint. Just wanted to drop by and say HI!! Life has gotten pretty good for me lately. Business has picked up. The $$$ is coming in and most importantly, I MET A REALLY SWEET WOMAN!!!!She's even into trains. She lives about 300 yards from a NS/BNSF double track main line just outside of Huntsville Al. Just went on vacation to see her and went to a couple train museums and hobby shops.I think I may move down there with her and see about volenteering at one of the train museums.I took a bunch of photos I have to post to Photobucket and I'll add a link on the forum.
I hope life is treating you all well too!!!Tom
Good afternoon, Joe. I believe it is time for a Strumpets, please.
This is one of those weekends that you have big plans that change. At the last minute Saturday night, we decided to drive the inlaws extra pickup to eastern Washington for them. Yesterday, we left at 6:00 am and got back at 8:30 pm. On the way back I discovered that the hose on the airconditioning on my car had leaked. No airconditioning, but at least the hotest was 77 degrees. Open windows still work.
I am still thinking of doing the ballast/dirt on 3 feet of the upper track. With company, it is hard to sneak away.
Hope your trip was uneventful, MrB.
Hi, Sue. Just coffee for me. Thanks, Joe.
Busy getting ready to take Annie up to school over the weekend. Like last year, we'll just keep on going up the coast and camp along the way. No computer, and I'd imagine the phone service will be spotty as well. I hope to get to ride the new scenic railway up in the Bar Harbor region.
I'm making layout progress, but I've had a hard time staying focused. Left, right and center, there are active projects going on all along Phase 2. Having determined that the cause of the short circuit over by Moose Mills was an apparently bad Atlas crossing track, I've picked up a Walthers replacement. But, it's not the same size, so some trimming will be in order. Down at the other end, I'm almost done with the low warehouse that tucks into the corner, under the 45-degree roofline. This was a "hot weather" project, mostly done down in the basement workroom where the air wasn't so stifling. Downtown, I started work on a City Classics building. It will be pretty much built as designed, but I did cut down the side walls to fit it better into the available space without crowding the street and sidewalk too much.
And then, there's the swamp. After a wrong-zip-code detour to Rancho Cucamunga, the beavers, tree stumps, seagulls and moose arrived last week. So, I've been doing my due diligence and researching beavers, both to get the right colors to paint the nice metal castings, and to get an idea of what the dams and lodges look like.
Well, I've got to get some cables to send to college, and maybe pick up a different colored rust primer. The one I've got (Rustoleum) is too brown for my tastes.
Bump.
Good morning, Joe. It must be just us. Is the grill open for bacon and eggs?