Happy New Year! Joe, I'll have the lunch special. Thanks.
I was doing the final work on the N scale bench work yesterday and was cutting the last angle for the curved end of the layout when I got my hand a little to close to the saw blade. Yes, it bit me pretty good. I had to make a flying trip to the ER for repair. The Doc put in 2 stitches on the inside and 9 on the outside. I will try to be more careful in the future. Remember.. A 72 tooth blade will cut flesh really deep and fast! I hope I didn't dull my blade.
My nephew has joined the forums. I got an e mail from him yesterday with the info. He is the one I got the N scale set for Christmas. He really seems to be enjoying it, Another newbe for us to teach the ropes to. I hope it turns into a lifetime hobby for him. I am sure he will be posting here in the future.
I guess I will go for now, the lortab is kicking in and must take a short nap, then up to the trainroom to do more work, Hopefully with no more accidents. Mike
MERRY CHRISTMAS
I haven't been in much because of power outages and just plain snow.
MrB, It sounds like Annie's goals are similar to what mine were at her age. I went to school 45 minutes from skiing. She is one motivated young lady. I enjoy your reasoning behind the names on your layout. Miss Penny is a great name. By the way, Penny Lane is the name of a classic route at Squamish, so that has two great reasons.
Chuck, Congrats on the 6000 post. So you may get to shovel snow? We have mostly given up, other than a path to the woodshed. I never thought that I would be anxious for rain.
Jay, Does the whole nation have snow? Our snow usually only lasts a day or two, but 10 days and not leaving, ick.
Mike, How is your layout change coming along?
We aren't going anywhere today, but just plan some quite layout time.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
modelmaker51 I just wanted to wish you all happy and safe holidays! Chuck, I think we would all like to see some photos of your Japanese prototype layout! I guess I'll tear myself away from the workbench and go shovel some more snow. Merry Christmas! peace and love, Jay.
I just wanted to wish you all happy and safe holidays! Chuck, I think we would all like to see some photos of your Japanese prototype layout!
I guess I'll tear myself away from the workbench and go shovel some more snow.
Merry Christmas! peace and love, Jay.
Emphatically second the motion! (If the weather weenie is right, I may be shoveling snow in the morning!)
Apropos my Japanese prototype layout - since all existing track is intended to be hidden, it's completely detail-free and could be anywhere. Also, I just realized that there isn't a single steam locomotive currently active on my layout which follows a prototype that wasn't built elsewhere! The four teakettles currently heading up trains are two Baldwins, an Alco and a (German) Hohenzollern! Except for the Alco, all were built from kits manufactured and purchased in Japan.
Well, it's getting late, so, Merry Christmas to All - and to all, a good night,
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - eventually)
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL
Joe, I'll have some bacon and eggs this morning with black coffee. Thanks. I have been pretty busy lately with Christmas and all to get much done on the layout but have found time to run some trains in the evenings. I am slowly but surely progressing in my journey into DCC. I installed my first N scale decoders in a couple of Atlas GP 40's yesterday, Man do they run great! I am enjoying seeing more than one train running on the layout. I have been doing a little more on the mountain, after the holidays, I plan to get back into it and make some serious progress. I still need to finish the rest of the bench work and lay a lot of track.
I am planning on going to Okla. City after while to spend Christmas with my brother and the rest of my family. I really enjoy the little ones this time of year, They seem to have so much fun unrapping there Christmas presents. I got my 3 YO great niece her first Thomas Train set and a set of cars to go with it. I also got my Nephew (now 21 YO) a starter set by Bauchman. He seems to like my trains a lot so I am hoping he will turn into another Model Railroader. I built several more of the wood trains like I built last year, hay, I have several more nieces and nephews this year.
I will go and have my breakfast and ger ready to hit the road, You all have a safe and happy holliday. Mike
and all of you have a merry xmas and be safe in your travels whereever they may take you---
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
Top o' the evenin' ta ye all. Joe, an Irish coffee, if ya please. Sure, an' that hits the spot.
Cool and blustery here in Sin City - not the weather for outdoor painting! Nothing like what you folks in more northerly locations are getting, thank the Force (or whoever.)
Sounds as if both Annies have their courses well plotted. Here's hoping there won't be any uncharted reefs along the way. In the same vein, I saw a cute little tyke (3, maybe) with her mother in the store when I stopped in to pick up a few things that SWMBO needs for the holiday meal. Reminded me of my daughter at that age. Of course, my daughter is a grandmother...
One small step for photographic progress - I finally got the memory card out of my wife's camera uploaded to the computer. Included are a few layout photos. Now all I have to do is get them from the folder to ??? (Also included are my granddaughter's wedding photos. My great-grandson is going to celebrate his first birthday in about a week...)
I've been cruising around the forums, putting an oar in occasionally to stir the pot. Fun!
Edit - Just noticed, this is my 6,000th post! I didn't know I had that much to say.
Well, time to head for the barn. See ya,
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Good day all:
Well, I have finely have gotten back to the Trainroom a bit!
I got a little more track down at Cascade Junction, only a VERY little remaining there with a siding for the helper engine, and I’m so close to having that area done.
Also moved over to Skibo and got some of the landforms glued in place there. Hope to get there again today before work to do some final fitting of the cuts. I want to make sure all the rolling stock that will run on those two lines will actually fit before doing any landscaping.
All of the Nutcracker performances went real well. Raeanne danced (all three solos) the best I’ve seen! I didn’t mess up too much and so what more can you ask?
Mr. B give your Annie a big congrats from me. Sounds like she is on the right track! Soon both our Annies will be off on new adventures….Where did the time fly off to?
Tis’ the season Joe…I’ll have a mulled red wine and I’ll buy a round for house too.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all.
Hi, Joe. I'll have a Strumpet Lager tonight.
Sue, Annie is interested in biomedical stuff and psychology right now. She's always enjoyed her science courses, so I suspect that's the direction she's heading. I think it's a great field to be in for the 21st century, so I'm very happy with that. Her choice of schools is also based on proximity to skiing, though. And, we did hear about the Whistler gondola. The news hit about a week before Sunday River opened it's new high-speed chair/gondola combination (the "chondola") so I'm sure they were watching carefully so they could see what caused the failure and make sure it wasn't a problem with the new one.
I've had some train-time over the last few days, thanks to a pair of one-on-top-of-the-other snowstorms that started Friday morning and didn't give up until Sunday night. I was happy to stay indoors most of the time, and I managed to get a lot of work done on Moose Bay. The fishing boat from Frenchman River came in last week, too, so I started working on that.
Now, this is a weird tale. While putting some gray paint on the boat, the first step in its weathered paint job, I began thinking about its detailing. I figured right away that it needed a name. One choice was to name it after my wife, and "Miss Penny" came to mind. But, she's already got a major roadway and a subway station named after her (Penny Lane) so I latched on to "Andrea Gail," the fishing boat in The Perfect Storm. I kind of liked it, so I went off to google up some images, mostly to get an idea of which font I might use for the name on the stern. I found a bit of history, too. She was built in Florida in 1978, and, to my great surprise, her original name was "Miss Penny."
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Joe, I will have a Irish Coffee. It is plenty cold here.
Congrats to Annie. Sounds like she has done her homework. Does she any plans for her major? Glad someone is getting some skiing done. Did the gondola failure at Mt Whistler hit your news?
Time for a celebration, Joe. This is the season for "early action" college applications. Back when I went to school, we only had "early decision," where you made a commitment to go to that school if they let you in, and they told you early enough so you could apply elsewhere if you didn't make the grade. They now also have "early decision," where they'll give you an answer about December 15th. There's no commitment here, so a student can apply to a couple of schools and at least get the pressure off a bit. As you may have guessed, Annie got two letters back, with two acceptances, from the Universities of Vermont and Maine. There are still other applications out there, but this was a smiles-all-around event.
Tomorrow I hope to get to my LHS for stuff that's been there a while. I never got there last week, with the ski trip and all, so I'm looking forward to the sound in my S1. And, I can get started on that boat.
Boy, everyone is getting weather. We have 6 inches of snow. I should be able to get out for work, but I suspect that Larry may not. He left his trailer at a local restaurant parking lot, so only the truck is on the top of the hill. Larry pulled me behind the quad on the toboggan. I did get rolled a couple of times.
I had better fix dinner.
A Shipyard Ale from Maine, if you please. That's where we're spending the weekend. Thanks.
Mighty cold here in the literally frozen North. We had some heavy-duty rain on Friday, which ended up as a heavy ice storm just outside of Boston's Route 495. Southern New Hampshire, including lots of shopping malls, was mostly shut down due to power failures. The Sunday River ski area fared better, keeping the juice on all the way, but we feared the dreaded boilerplate ski conditions when the temperatures dropped into single digits over night. But, the groomers worked their magic, and we had a really nice, although very cold, day on the slopes.
Finishing Moose Bay is the next step on my layout, but as the holiday season approaches it may take a bit of time to find a bit of time. The boat model should be at my LHS by now, and in theory the switcher I brought in to get sound should be back, too, so I may just relax and run trains.
How is everyone else doing weather-wise? This ice storm was a near-miss for our house, and it's a reminder of how unpredictable this kind of thing can be around here.
Howdy, Joe. Been a while. Sapporo, dozo. Arigato gozaimas'.
Mister B, the whole of Moose Bay is looking good! I especially like that bridge painting scene.
Speaking of painting, I just got all the wooden trim on the house cleaned up and ready to paint - and the weather turned hostile! Cloudy, cutting wind, rain and possible snow forecast for the next week... This is what I moved here to avoid. Of course, my son reports that he just got snow at my former home.
With exterior painting on hold, finally got into the layout room and did something beside run trains. The bypass track which is serving as my temporary main line now has safety rails. Hardly put a dent in the pile of empty saltine cracker boxes I've been collecting for the purpose.
Don't know if you've seen my thread on my latest derailment-prone acquisitions. They really weren't intended to be run 'as-is,' but the temptation proved fortuitous. Even my 'designated derailment checker' had missed those two glitches.
Hope everyone is on track for a joyous holiday season. See ya.
I finely made it in…….
I’m not sure what went wrong, but I wasn’t able to login!! Maybe its all the new "stuff" going on here!
So…Nice to see all the nice work and see you folk here at the “Barn”.
MRRing has been on the back burner and will continue to be so, until next week after the performances of the Nutcracker. Then I get to play with trains!
Soooo…With that, I’ll buy a round. But then I need to stumble off to bed before I turn into a squash!
Thanks, MrB, for buying the round. Yes, the Seahawks, UW and WSU, are all doing poorly this year. So what else is new.
I your fence keeping the hobos out? Moose Bay is really coming together. I can't believe that you had enough good weather to pave 100 scale feet. You must have good workers.
Have a good week.
Sorry, Sue. My Pats came back to beat your Seahawks. But, I'll buy a consolation round if it makes you feel any better. Strumpets all around. As they say, "Nothing goes down like a Strumpet."
Here's the latest on Lady Buc's, the old bar that my Mom found at a yard sale almost a half-century ago. I took off the old "Java Dive" signs, and turned it into a clam bar by the shores of scenic Moose Bay, whose primary scenery is the odd pink water.
I got the chain-link fence in the back done during the week, and today I got enough un-interrupted time to pave about a hundred scale feet of roadway with Durham's Water Putty and get it re-colored to dingy gray asphalt.
The boat kit isn't here yet, but the camera came back surprisingly quickly. Sony got the camera on Monday, according to UPS tracking, and I had the camera in my hot little hands on Friday afternoon. It's hard to ask for more than that, really, and as you can see, it's working again.
Mike,
1part celluclay, 1 part perilite, 1 part dirt colored paint, 3/4 part white glue. I found it in MR, Lou Sassi's recipe. It may have been something similar like vermiculite, but I used what I could find. I am not sure if it gets as hard as drywall mud, but mixing paint in it makes it like mud.
I'm back again tonight, Joe, Set us all up with whatever they are having. I'll have another beer. Thanks.
I was just reading Sue's post and was wondering what it is that you all call "Ground Goop"? I have used a thinned mixture of drywall mud and water to the consisity of paint. Is that basically the same stuff?
Later, Mike
Joe, I will have a red beer. I have been liking the taste of bloody mary mix in beer. That was a favorite back in college.
Well, I did get some ground goop done yesterday. Talk, talk, talk. I finally did it. It usually takes a couple of days to setup. Maybe I will find time for photos. The next batch will be a contunuation of the riverbed. When that becomes hard, I will start applying the river.
Evening all, Joe set me up with a cold Bud Lite. Thanks. Been busy today, Christmas Shopping and fighting the traffic and crouds, I am in real need for a cold one!
I have been able to get a little done on the mountain this week, cast more rocks and put some of them on the mountain and using spray foam and blue foam and plaster cloth I am about ready to plant the grass and trees on most of it. I am ready to get it to looking like something besides a pile of builders foam.
Mr.B, I too like the bridge it looks like it is in need of the paint, keep us up to date if you will and I will try to post some pics of the mountain when I get the greenery on it.
You all take care and have a good evening. Mike
Beer-thirty is the time, and beer-thirsty is me. I'll have a Harpoon IPA, please, Joe, and check around if anyone else is as dry as I am. Thanks. Mmmm, frosted mugs, too...
Sidetracked again. Sunday I went off on the "Tour de Chooch," New England model railroading's answer to French cycling. Fortunately, you don't have to wear those tight black shorts. Instead, you're given a map to a bunch of open house layouts. I suppose I could have bicycled, but everyone else was driving, and the sleet and cold rain would have made for a less pleasant experience. I managed to get to 4 of them, all closely located. Two were very operations-oriented, and the others had very nice "complete" scenery (as nothing is ever really complete.)
I'd been thinking of getting a small boat to put into Moose Bay, and one of the layouts on the tour had exactly the one I'd been looking at. So, I'll order that one and see how it goes. In the meantime, I got most of the plaster cloth covered up with turf and ground foam, and I'm working on the parking lot out behind Lady Buc's clam bar. That's going to get a chain-link fence, another new modelling challenge. But, the camera has made it back to Sony in Laredo, Texas, so hopefully the boat, fence and camera will all come together for a Moose Bay Christmas in a few weeks.
It is too early for Strumpets, so I will just have coffee.
MrB, I like the colors that you have chosen for your rocks, and the rust on your bridge shows that it definately needs a coat of paint. Can't wait to see the water in Moose Bay.
I'll take a sixpack of strumpets to go Joe,I am going to set up my lawn chair and watch them guys paint that bridge.Throw some hot open turkey sandwiches in the bag also.Looking great Mr b!
Good morning. Just coffee today. That bucket o' eggs was too much. I hardly had room for lunch.
I borrowed Annie's camera, and got a few shots of Moose Bay. This is looking in from the edge of the layout at all the new rocks:
This is an overview of the whole Moose Bay inlet area. The pink base will eventually be all water. The white area is just plaster cloth, which will get Gypsolite and scenic cover.
A frosted mug of Strumpet sounds great, Joe.
I forgot the Greased Lightning, so I will try to remember with my next trip to town. We picked up a pizza, and I got distracted.
I poured myself a glass of that Greased Lightning degreaser and downed it with my bucket o' eggs. No, not really. I'm sure the bottle says not to do that, but I'm not such a dang fool that I need to be told that. Joe, I'll have a Strumpet IPA in a frosted mug. The turkey is finally wearing off, and there's room in there again.
The steep cliffs that are the borders of Moose Bay are in place. I spent the day cutting and shaping the second casting, after doing a color match last night. Thanks to the cool weather, the glue dried quickly and I was able to get on the plaster cloth, too, so I'm ready to apply the Gypsolite in the morning. According to UPS, our camera is still somewhere between Shrewsbury, MA and Laredo, TX, so I may have to borrow Annie's camera to get a shot at this point. I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Unfortunately, I had to remove the Moose Bay Bridge to do this, so my mainline isn't open for business at the moment.
How can anyone eat a bucket of eggs?
I plan to pick up some greased lightning when I head to town later today.
Thanks, Sue
Good morning, all. Tuesday, but virtual Thursday in this short week. I'll have some coffee, of course, and bacon 'n' eggs this morning.
Sue, for my first round of Bragdon rocks, I brought everything up to the layout and cut and shaped it. As we discussed last week, the castings came out very thick, and were difficult to bend at all. I got a bit of bend out of them, though, and since I was mostly putting them on flat walls anyway, it was more an exercise in cutting than bending. My mold is 9x12 inches, so I get a lot of area with a single casting. It's only a 3-inch vertical.
The second casting came out much better. I did the Vaseline and laquer just the same, per the instructions. I used less of the hardshell foam backing, though, and I refrigerated all the resin components (satin and hardshell) to increase my working time. After I pulled the casting from the mold, I took the whole thing to the sink and sprayed it with degreaser, and then gently scrubbed it down. Then I applied the gesso, powdered tempera and washes as before. It came out much better this time. Still, I'll have to color-match the final washes against what's already upstairs.
My scene doesn't require multiple castings, like you would with a larger rock face. So, I can get away with doing all the coloring on the bench. If I had to join multiple castings, though, I would save the last wash or two until everything was in place, to get a smooth match between sections. As long as I can soften it up with a hair dryer to shape the final pieces, I think this will be a lot less messy.
Thanks, Joe...
Uh, anyone want to split this order with me?
I will have a Strumpet's please, Joe.
Garry, Somehow I missed your NP. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday because it was the only time that my niece would be around. She is in her last year of vet school, and had just taken boards. Now she is gone until after the first of the year. My weekend was crazy.
Some of our locos don't always fit 100% prototypical either. It is your own world, so what ever makes you happy.
MrB, I will pick up some greased lightning before my next attempt. Did you use it on the mold? That was a good idea to do the washes somewhere besides the layout. Did you shape it, and then take it back to your workbench?