Morning all. Joe, I'll have some bacon and eggs this morning with my coffee. Thanks.
It is good to see you again Sue, I was begining to wonder what had happened to you. I have been busy building some structures for the layout and been working some on my yard, going pretty slow but I am doing my best to make it "RIGHT" before I go any futher, I believe it will pay off in the end.
I will try to get some pics of some of the structures I have built and post them here in a day or two, I think they are looking pretty good for such a small scale
Joe, If anyone shows up today set 'em up with what ever they are having and put it on my tab. See you all later. Mike
Good evening, Joe. Fix me a Long Island Iced Tea, please. And please put it on Mike's tab. Thanks, Mike. I will sit here for a while to see if anyone drops by.
MrB is probably off skiing by now. I hope that it is a good snow year. Our snow conditions have been on and off this year. Either too much snow and you can't get there or icy and metal edges aren't enough. Can't wait to see the Clampet's house.
Mike, I have been here but often barely keeping up with the reading. I will watch for your structure photos.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Good evening. Gee, so crowded I can't even find a seat in here. Hope you've all remembered to buy Valentines Day cards.
OK, that's better. Thought that would clear the place out. I'll take a Strumpet IPA, Joe, since Mike's paying. Thanks.
No, not skiing. Sunday we've got an oh-six-hundred dawn patrol flight to West Palm Beach to visit the in-laws. Great place, right on the beach (Atlantic coast) and the forecast is for high 70s, low 80s the whole week. I can take that. We've got school vacation this week. Does anyone else have that? I've heard February vacation is a New England oddity, put in place to keep the ski industry happy. Frankly, I doubt it, but it's a funny story.
Still working on Clampett Corner. I decided I would be very careful and plan the interior from the start. I downloaded wallpaper, floors, carpets and even fireplace photos, and printed them all out. Then I carefully cut them all to shape around the doors and windows, added a physical floor inside between the first and the second. Next, I realized that the windows are really small, 6-over-6 pane things. There's no way anyone will see detail inside that building, even with lights. So I glued one cheap old lead-casting figure inside and called it done.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Hello beer barn folks! If one Mr. B's Strumpet is on tap, that'll do fine. What's everybody up to? I completed a scene on the layout this week, and presently am building a dining car.
V Day? My frined, Gus, and I are taking our wives to Nashville, TN to attend a train show. Nothing but the best for our better halfs!
Cheers!
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Morning all, I know it is almost noon but I will have the breakfast special, if there is any left. Thanks Joe.
I have been working on the Walthers Empire Leather Tanning Structure(s) man there are a lot of parts in there! I got it on sale for $60. from MB Klein. I figure there is a lot of possibilities for scratch building/Kit bashing here so I ordered another one yesterday. I have two of the four buildings almost complete and will start the third after while. Here are a couple of pics of what I have so far:
I think these are what Walthers is calling there Modual buildings not sure. I have a couple of others that I will build later maybe do some kit bashing on my own.
Here is a pic of my very FIRST N scale srtucture, Walthers Glacer Gravel Co. I thought it looks Okay but will be better when I get weathered and set in place on the layout.
Here I have posted a couple of outher you might be interested in. Again I need to weather them and find out where I want them to sit.
I am waiting to get several structures together before I start setting them in place, Maybe I won't have as many regrets. You all have a good day.
Oh, Mr. B I liked your ideas on the chiminey. I am thinking of about a 1" hill around the chiminey with some taller trees and maybe a smaller structure in the grove of trees. Mike
Hi, and greeting from sunny and warm Florida. I'll have a Harpoon IPA, Joe, and one for anyone else who drops by.
We're down here on vacation. I had an unexpectedly "trainy" day yesterday. We went out to one of those travelling fairs. It was a combination of a basic road carny, with all the rides and fried-dough stands, and some 4H club agricultural stuff. Pens of piggys, cows and goats, and a stage where one middle-school chorus after another came up and sang songs that were already oldies when their teachers were born.
To my great surprise, in one of the permanent buildings right down from the Budweiser tanks, sits the layout of the Martin County Model Railroad Club. It's a permanent layout, and it was operating throughout the show, to the delight of young and old alike.
After the fair, we went off to dinner. I was happy to order a "real" beer this time, Bass Ale on tap. When our drinks came, there were two of everything. The waiter explained that it was "twofer" happy hour, and everyone got two drinks for the price of one. And if that didn't make my day, well...
A whistle sounded, and right across the intersection from our outdoor restaurant, the gates went down. I got to watch a Florida East Coast freight move slowly by. It was a hodge-podge of containers in flats, containers in wells stacked double, and trailer-on-flat-car. To my surprise, the trailers were oriented seemingly at random, some facing forward, some back, which I would imagine would be a pain to unload. Later, as I ate some delicious ribs, a second freight went by the other way.
For a guy who's been craving his "train fix" for a few days now, this was a great day. Hope you're all doing well.
Mr. Beasley….Enjoy the vacation! Sounds as though you are doing a bang-up job of that thus far!
We had a mini vacation also….Heading down to the Twin Cities for the MMEA All-State Concerts. We got to see two Jazz ensembles, the symphony, all three choirs (mixed, women’s & men’s), additional collage and HS choirs, bands, orchestras….and so on that had also been invited to perform.
The All-State portions were, of course, the stand outs!! With the best of the best on stage at Orchestra Hall, it just took your breath away. Raeanne didn’t have a solo, but was part of the women’s choir, conducted by Vijay Singh and the voice of those angles was a tear jerker!
Back to reality….I’m once again over whelmed with work, but I am getting out to the Trainroom every now and again too. I’m still plugging away on the off-pike staging (thanks for the input over on the DCC page, Mr. B.) and now have progress to having a good start on the trackage. And speaking of that, I should make my way out there yet today to pull a bit more wire!!
Forgot to mention...Nice work Mike! You are really making progress...Looks good.
Good morning, All. It is too early for spirits, but thought that I should check in.
Great job on the Tanning & Leather operation, Mike. That is N scale, right? We have it in HO, but I am not even close to starting it. I found it on sale, and thought that I had better jump. I am anxious to see how you detail it. Your layout is looking great.
MrB, Eight degrees sounds wonderful. We maxed out at 55 yesterday, and we were in heaven. We got the dirt bikes out and managed to find a few sore muscles.
I will check in later.
Bump.
Have we been on vacation? I was reviewing Mike's layout photos.
Larry did a diorama to show my laser branchline station.
The little station looks like a nice project. Nice trees, too. Is it for a place on the layout that's not ready yet, or did you just build it for fun? And how far down in the forum did you have to look to find this thread?
I realized last night that I haven't had a day off at home since MLK weekend. We've been up skiing every weekend since we got back from that week in Florida. The skiing has been a lot of fun, but it does cut into the train time.
I have almost finished the Clampett Corner section of the layout. It's scenery-only, but the tracks are very close by, and the road in front of the house has become a new favorite rail-fanning site. It does, however, leave me without a pink platform for a can or bottle of my favorite beverage. I'm thinking of looking for cup holders for this. Does anyone know if Wal- or K-Marts have these? Has anyone ever scratch-built a cup holder?
The next project is the old Vollmer coal loader. (Hmmm. I first typed "cola loader." Must have cup holders on the brain.) It's a leftover from my youth. The mechanism for the 2 chutes is a twin-coil machine which opens and closes the doors. I lost one of the cores from the twin-coils, but was able to find a piece of material used in door locks at the hardware store. Last week, I worked on that to add the linkage to the chute door, and it seems to work OK. Next, I've got to come up with a new swivel mechanism for the chute doors, since the old plastic mount is broken.
Glad to hear that you are getting lots of skiing. We have lots of snow but it is like wip-lash. Feet of snow, then it melts to ice, and then it happens again.
I rescued the thread from the search community. It one day off the list.
The station will have a place on the layout, but the diorama was something that Larry did to get reimspired.
Off to work.
Howdy, folks. I thought that everybody had given up drinking for Lent!
(Thanks, Joe. Keep the change.)
Sue, that is a nice little diorama. Reminds me of the things our Japanese brethren do in spaces 'way too small for any kind of an operatng railroad.
Mister Beasley, have you considered making a cup holder out of a somewhat larger cup? If you pick one with the right size open-bottom handle you could screw a few of the omega-shaped clamps used to anchor electrical conduit to your layout's fascia and move it around - and remove it when not in use. In my experience, things that stick out get bumped!
Just came in from the layout space. I've started building the steel stud spiral that is the key to getting the shortline up and over the JNR main line. The rails will be on a continuous curve, but the stud trough will actually be a dodecagon - 12 segments, one every thirty degrees. To keep things thin, the flex will be caulked directly to the steel - probably noisy but makes the difference between 3% and 3.6% on track which will be (to drastically understate the case) awkward to get at. Right now, the best part is that the design drawings seem to be translating nicely into actual metal.
The resident gourmet cook just announced dinner. See ya.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - eventually)
Good morning…
For what ever reason, I haven’t been able to log on / in again. Always getting an invalid password window. After about two weeks I just gave up…Then today it works! Go figure.
Nice diorama, Sue and Larry! I too really like the looks of it and the trees look very nice. How do you do your big pines?
Along with the computer / forum thing being out of commission, I too have had a small set back. Just after our mini vacation in mid Feb. I got ill and ended up having a surgery. Of course this has given some time to play with the trains and I dove into building my DM&IR ore drags.
So far I have all but twelve of the cars built and renumbered, shooting for a total of two, twenty two loaded drags and one empty of thirty two.
Also finished two SD-9’s with two more shells ready to be painted and pulled out the P2K Heritage 2-8-8-2 from storage. Mostly I’m still scratching my head in regard to the steamer….I want to bash it into one of the famed “Hill Mallets”.
I spaced out a comment (maybe it’s the oxycodone) I had on the cup holder issue.
I too want something in place, but don’t want it permanent. It is amazing how as the pink disappears…Spots for beverage do too….
Long story, short: Toni got some of the old style holders that were meant to hang, but they didn’t work on our Sub. with nothing suitable to hang the darn things on. I’m now thinking that all I need is a slot / receiver, wide and deep enough, in the fascia to hang these when needed. I’ll keep you posted, as I want to give it try, doing a build up, before cutting into the already installed fascia.
Hi everybody...
Evidently, I picked a good time to stop in. I really like the ore train with the DMIR units, Colvinbackshop......
Dittos for Larry's diarama, Sue...
I'll have one of Mr. B's Strumpet beers, and I will enjoy the Beer barn. When does karaoke begin?
Cheers.
Joe, I thought I should stop by for a Long Island Iced Tea. It is my birthday and I should celebrate with friends.
Thanks for the comments on the diorama. The trees are timberline scenery. We found those before I started making Aggro trees.
JB, I like the long coal train. Can't wait to see all 22. You have been busy.
First up...I'll buy! Happy Birthday Sue. Hope you have had a good day!
Thanks for the kudos. Actually though, it's iron ore (hematite, the red stuff) from when it was still being mined here. But hey, a drag is a drag!
I'll post a pic when I have it all together.
Good morning! I'll have some coffee and a bowl of that nice fresh mixed fruit, please. Thanks.
Good to see everyone thawing out for the spring. Here in New England, March did indeed come in like a lion, but it's going out like a cold, wet, soggy wool blanket. We were up at Sunday River last weekend, and there are no bare spots on the trails. The woods still have a good blanket of snow, too. We just haven't started to warm up yet here.
In keeping with my philosophy of small, "completeable" projects for these months when I don't get much train time, I got the "wood" grade crossings done for the road by Clampett Corner. It's one of those things that needs to be fitted just right, since the road crosses the track on a curve. Last night before dinner I stoked up the firebox of the Hudson and brought it out for a run over that stretch of track. It's my fussiest engine, and I figured it was the worst-case test for the grade crossing. It ran over smoothly in both directions, and in forward and reverse, too. So, I can check that one off. With the exception of an old car I'm planning to put next to the house, Clampett Corner is now done.
I also dug into the boxes under the layout, and pulled out some more rolling stock from my teenage years. To my surprise, I found another big log car to go with the three I'd already upgraded. I took out a Crown tank car, and another Mantua operating hopper, too. These all have horn-hooks, so I started the process of Kadee-ification. It ground to a halt, though, when I could not find any more 2-56 screws. They're somewhere, but I know I won't be able to find them until after I've gone out and bought some more. Rats.
Well, have a good weekend, everyone. We're going to squeeze in another trip to the mountains, although it doesn't look like the weather is going to co-operate this time around. Rain in the forecast.
MrB, I enjoy your senerios that you report from your layout operations. How was your birthday earlier in the month? Sorry that I missed it.
JB, I am looking forward to those photos.
I have the sew-til-midnight tonight so not much will happen on the layout today. Maybe tomorrow.
Hi, there.
Sorry I missed your birthday, Sue. Still, I bet you don't feel any older than you did on Tuesday...
Well, I now have a steel donut sitting on the new corner L girders - or, more accurately, the steel stud spiral that will carry the coal-hauler up and over the JNR main at the entrance to the Nichigeki Tunnels. Approximately 500 degrees of curvature, 350mm radius, 3.5% grade. "Approximately," because the exact geometry of the entrances and exits has yet to be determined. Of course, I still have three levels of track to build in that corner before the spiral can go in and the scenery can be built...
One of the hangups that has delayed my parade and raised my frustration level has been my quest for a compact, efficient passenger staging yard design. All of my efforts had been coming out either too long or too wide for the space. Well, I finally had a lightbulb moment. The result is only 12 inches wide and short enough - and it can still handle a total of eight (or maybe nine) stored trains, one of which has to pick up or drop a diner to be properly configured (5 or 6 car DMU express, has to run as a dozen or more trains in 24 timetable hours - but only two of those trains are diner runs.) So, now to stop scribbling and start building - as soon as I figure out the electricals!
The reason for the late lights is that I just finished watching Yokozuna Hakuho win the Osaka Bassho - with a perfect 15-0 record. It's his tenth tournament win - pretty good when you consider that he's only 24 and there are only 6 tournaments a year.
Somewhat coincidentally, when the scenery goes in to hide that spiral, there will be a Sumo ring right up front...
Well, Joe's trying to shoo us out so he can close. See ya.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - if I ever build my way out of the netherworld)
Good morning all…It’s finely a SUNNY Sunday! After a week of way warm, we have had rain, snow and cold weather again most all of last week! I’ll celebrate and buy the house breakfast this morning!!
Chuck, man oh man, you are making progress! All that “think work” will pay off in the long run. Still would love to see a pic or two. Did you ever replace your camera and get it to work?
Mr. B, can’t wait to see your excellent work on Clampett Corner. You always have such great detail….Someday I hope I can, I hope I can do as well!
Last evening I finished up five more ore cars and have nine now prepped for the paintshop. Seems I have all sort of the little devils in various stages. Mostly it is coming together, with just a bit more painting to complete….But then I need to find more decals (road-trip to Duluth and the “local” hobby shop) to finish up the last fifteen or so!
Lastly, a question; I am subscribed to the threads I participate in here and lately I’ve gotten a couple of “notice of a post” but I can’t log on from them. Is that just a problem I have here, or are others experiencing this too?
Evening, Joe and everyone. We, the wife and I, will have a bottle of Chardonnay, and the Coquille St. Jacques with rice pilaf and sauteed snow peas. (Jealous? Yeah, that's what I made for dinner tonight. The scallops were ocean-fresh, and just delicious. It's been a while since I made a gourmet feast, and I love every minute of it, both cooking and eating.)
It's been a couple of Resurrection Days in Moose Bay. We left the mountain early on Sunday. It was raining, a problem in the springtime, so we packed and drove home without ever putting on the boots or grabbing the poles. I used the "gift time" to work on the old Vollmer coal loader. This thing has a couple of solenoid-activated doors. The mounts had broken off of one of them, so I fashioned a new pivot with brass tubing and an old rail joiner stolen from old brass track. I put the whole thing on the layout and wired it up. I was actually able to dump a half-hopper full of coal through one door. I've got to boost the voltage up to get the other one to work. I also discovered something I'd forgotten about this old model I built so long ago - the slope wasn't enough, and the coal is too light to dump. I'll have to tilt the structure forward to get the coal to slide out.
Today, I stopped at the hardware store and let myself get ripped off to get a few 2-56 screws at 25 cents a piece. I really needed them for some old rolling stock upgrades. I had to remove the old couplers to make room for Kadees, and the old mounts left me no choice but drilling and tapping. But, now I've got another old tanker and hopper on my layout.
Tonight before dinner, daughter Annie came home with a surprise. She's captain of the high school lacrosse team. She was captain of her freshman team, and took the same honor for the ski team in both her junior and senior year, but this was a surprise. She's not the dominant athlete on the team by any means, but her leadership and enthusiasm, along with her ability to be friends with everyone and bring people together, seem to have won the day. We are proud of our little girl. By the way, she does not like scallops, and had frozen chicken nuggets for dinner while we had our gourmet feast. Someday, maybe she'll change her mind...
Hi guys,
This edition is starting to get a little big, so can someone please start a new edition and link back to this one? I'm going to lock this one now.
Thanks,Erik