Bump.
Joe, I will buy tonight if anyone else shows up. MrB is on vacation so it might be quiet in here this week.
We exercised a couple of locos yesterdat. It looks like we need to do more to keep things running smoothly. My brother and his family are coming out from Wyoming. I guess it is time to clean off the layout. Time to eliminate the workbench atmosphere.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Thought I had better stop in ...If for nothing else to say HI and let you know I'm still alive.
Summer and work demands are totally out of control this year and I haven't set foot in the Trainroom for some time now...Haven't even read the forum!!
Hope all is right in your worlds.
And with that...Gotta' run!
JB, Amen to that. Some days the computer does not get turned on. Hope you are having a great summer.
'Morning, Sue. Joe, a Singha for me, if you will. Been a while since I had a Singha for lunch.
Been a while since I've been in - mostly because of a minor health problem that has been bothering me but now seems to be fading.
Once again, the forum's resident, "I am the only model railroader, and all those who are not purely prototypical modelers/operators are infidels who must be castigated for their non-belief," has carried on enough to get under my skin. Why that northeastern railroad 4-6-2 thinks he has the Koran of model railroading is totally beyond me. His own modeling (what we have seen of it) is very nicely done. His attitude is as abrasive as Carborundum.
The Sun (and I) are barely up, and the train room is already too hot to work comfortably. Then, too, the Olympics are likely to have my attention for the next couple of weeks. Maybe by then things will cool down a little. (High heat seems to aggravate this health glitch - not wonderful in Clark County, NV, in August.)
Speaking of the Olympics, the big question in my mind is who will be the women's gymnastics all-around champion. Top contenders right now are a Chinese (coaches) trained Midwesterner and a Moscow-born, Texas-bred daughter of two Russian Olympic champions. OTOH, there are allegations that China's bright star is underage. Should be fun to watch this one play out.
Well, She Who Must Be Obeyed wants to go to our local big-box Home Improvement Emporium. Guess I'll duck into the train room and see which size steel stud I need more of. Then, when we get back, I'll call Walthers and order the next round of switch machines and such. Construction WILL resume - as soon as I'm up to it.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Well, Joe, I will climb up on this barstool, and have a cold one. Do you have anything dark on tap?
Chuck, I do think about you in that heat. The few times that I have been with Larry in the truck down there, the heat would sizzle the soles of your shoes.
My order from Walthers arrived today. I will open it later this evening when Larry gets home.
Later, Sue
Hi, everyone. Back home at last. We camped for 7 nights, at a different spot each night. Nova Scotia is a beautiful place, and the people were all very friendly and helpful, too.
They have torn up most of their railroads, though, but they're in the process of turning them into bike trails so we can at least ride along them and imagine what it must have been like. With the low population density and small communities in most of the province, my guess is that even now the economics favor cars and trucks rather than rail. There is still one north-south line running down to the port of Halifax, and we had the good fortune of camping near enough to the line that we could hear the occasional train running by as we fell asleep in our tent.
My favorite beer was Clancy's, a microbrew owned now by Molson, I believe. I had a couple of pints in a pub in Halifax where we waited out a rainstorm.
gear-jammer wrote: My order from Walthers arrived today. I will open it later this evening when Larry gets home.
Wow, that's self-control for you, or a beautiful bit of "togetherness." Imagine, waiting all day for the arrival of your significant other before opening a Walthers package. I usually sneak mine down to the workroom and open it furtively, like a rodent down in his den with a bit of stolen food. Well, a Clancy's for each of you!
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Mr.B.:
I just cought this thread, and what nice work that mill is! It's really quite a project.
Glad you enjoyed camping in N.S., though I hope the weather didn't discourage you too much. They did name it New Scotland for a reason, after all!
The only rail action here are through freights and the occasional VIA passenger link, though the freight traffic has picked up markedly of late due to fuel price increases. We did have a very interesting history railroad-wise, so that's why I chose the 1930s.
And hobby shops are non existant now, Halifax used to have a couple, but they've disappeared, so it's internet and mail order only.
Anyway, keep on millin'. Scratchbuilding interiors is something I want to get into eventually myself, so your work is very inspiring. Keep up the good work.
Hi, and thanks for the hospitality of your countrymen. Yeah, the weather was a bit discouraging this week, but we made the best of it and had a great time anyway.
I did get to a hobby shop in Halifax. There wasn't a plan to do this, but we were looking for a parking place and ended up right across the street from it. It was mostly other plastic models, but there was a train section way down in the back.
I also went through the model train museum in Lunenberg. The owner/operator is having a great time modelling that entire branch of the railroad as it once was. He's reconstructing some of the "signature" buildings, particularly stations and railroad structures, from photos and other observations. He's got a group of modelling "volunteers" to help with the project, but it's going to be a number of years before all the blank spots are filled in.
I missed that shop, I guess! Where is it located, if you don't mind? Advertisement is the weak link in many businesses in Canada, as well as updated, functioning web sites. We Canadians don't seem too comfortable tooting our own horns, even when it would be in our best interest.
My sister in law lives in Halifax, so I visit there fairly often. There used to be a good hobby shop in Scotia Square years ago when I lived there, but now the space is occupied by phone company offices.
The Lunenburg Museum's plan is similar to what I intend to do with my area and as much of the province as I can realistically include, but I may try to stay away from modelling the areas they are doing, I don't want to duplicate someone else's work.
Hopefully they update their site once more work is done, I'd find it pretty interesting, and it's quite a long drive from my home.
-------------------------------------------------
Back on topic, keep us all posted on the mill progress. Your posts are always very helpful, just what the hobby needs to encourage more of us to get started on those projects that are languishing.
Evening folks!
Been awhile since I showed my face in these parts!
How about this use for a beer....BBQ Beer Chicken!
It goes well with....you guessed it a nice ice cold draft beer!
Check out http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/ when you get a chance, a new FREE online magazine for model railroad hobbyist.
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
I am back from the weekend on the sound. Work tomorrow. I will pay for round of refreshments. After all the family stimulus, I will have a tall dark beer on tap, Joe. Thanks.
Glad you had a great week off MrB. The Empire Leather Tanning is a heavy kit. I was impressed. Each building comes wrapped seperately in the box. The 3-in 1 kit we plan to kit bash into background buildings behind the turntable. I need to get that complete before I can complete the roundhouse.
Jcole, Your are welcome here at the Beer Barn. Joe stays open quite late.
Ryan, Thanks for bringing in the chicken. It looks yummy. I will share some with you. How has your layout progressing? We all are busy with summer activities.
Thanks for the offer, Sue. I'll have another Clancy's. That's just one of the nicest beers I've discovered for quite a while. They managed to blend in the hops so smoothly that the flavor is all there, but there is no edge to them at all. Well done, brewmeisters.
I've drooled over the pictures of Empire Leather Tanning. It's a great-looking combination of buildings. I don't have close to enough space to even consider something that large, but it's certainly a nice ensemble, and I'm sure it will add a lot to your layout.
Back to The Mill again. The ladies went their separate ways on Monday, leaving me a few hours without interruption in the workshop. So, I decided to get back to the recommended order of assembly by putting on the roof shingles. This is a long job, and I'd been skipping ahead and doing small sub-assemblies rather than starting it. Branchline supplied a sheet of cut paper shingles, with instructions to "attach to the roof with white glue." Fortunately, I've done a couple of these roof shingle things before, so I carefully measured and marked where each strip should go. Each side of the main roof ended up with 18 strips of shingles, spaced 1/8 inch apart, plus a cap strip.
Here's a tighter close-up of the small roof over the loading dock on the first floor:
The second one needs a bit of trimming once the glue dries, but I wanted to get out a photo while I still had a bit of daylight.
I've assembled the millrace and most of the water wheel. I've still got to put the paddles on the wheel, and complete the rooftop water tower. Then it will be time to move to the layout and start the terraforming to give it a place to live. I've put off assembling the sluice channel and supports until I've got the terrain in, because the support legs will need to be fitted into the slope, rather than fitting the slope to those pieces.
Great work, Mr. B.!
And as this is the beer barn, I'll have a Guinness and watch the workers put the finishing touches on the old mill.
Cheers!
Good morning. It will be just coffee today.
MrB, Your mill is definately first class.
The Empire Leather Tanning will be tight in the space I have, but I can always move one of the buildings into another industrial area. It will be a little kit bashing anyway.
Off to work, Sue
Just checking in...
I'll have the Sat. special and a Bloody Mary, please.
I've got to work on my wood-shed this weekend, but do hope to get to the Trainroom for a bit of R&R at some point.
Mr. B, your work is looking good! Keep us posted.
I am stopping by for a Long Island Iced Tea. If anyone else wants to try one, Joe, mix one for them, too.
JB, Are you building on your woodshed, or are you cutting wood to fill it for winter? We have 3 of 6 rows of wood ready for winter. Busy, Busy. I have been working too much, so not much train time. We usually exercise the locos while we workout, but we are running out of summer.
All this talk of winter's makin' me cold.
I'll have a hot toddy, please.
Ahhhh, I hate winter....
Hi, Joe. A round for the house, for no particular reason. Good to see a bit of a crowd around, and I hope it's not because the weather has spoiled anyone's vacation plans.
The mill scene is progressing. I've carved some foam, and cemented some more, to set up the scene. Today, I did a couple of Hydrocal castings. One's just a straight stone wall, the "dam" wall for the mill pond, and the other is a curved wall around the short stretch of dirt road heading down to the mill. I once again opened up the Bragdon foam stuff, but I think I'll wait until next week for that. (Sue, please give me assurance that just going through the instructions will make it right. Please? Pretty please? With sugar and strawberries on top?)
I was grumbling to the CFO about the pile of "go through this" junk boxes, but I ran into a 4.5 volt, 800 ma wall wart, and it was exactly what I needed for the Miller "Heartbreak Hotel" sign. It's been in dying batteries, and when I cut over to this supply, it was happy again. Now, a 3-volt supply for Suzannes's House of Beef would just about complete the day.
I got the tent set up, aired and dried and put away. So, it looks like we've completed another season of camping. Next time you're in Nova Scotia, I heartily recommend the scallops. We did ours on a camp stove, poached in white wine and butter. (Yeah, I'm a gourmet camp stove guy. Freaked the Chinese couple next site over when they were burning hot dogs while we were feasting on Szechuan shrimp.)
I'll buy a round...Just because it's almost Monday.
Mr. Beasley: I love your comparison of camp cooking skills! I love to cook and eat, either at camp or home! It's a toss up for me as to a main passion (MRRing or cooking) all though I cook a lot more than model...
I did some scallops and shrimp, basted with a peach-bourbon sauce, on my Egg the other day....This evening it was grilled veggies and chicken. OTOH, I didn't get to the Trainroom, between carpentering on the wood shed and the cooking! Maybe tomorrow afternoon after work.
Sue: The wood shed is a new one. I already have about ten cord (max. capacity) in the old one and I am adding an additional shed that should hold about twenty five cord. I really don't need the capacity as I only burn a bit over five cord per season, but it seems that when I clean up trails, wind falls, or have a culling to do, I run out of space to keep the resulting fire wood. Sooo...More space will help keep that fire wood in mush better condition.
It is basically a pole-barn or what folk around here would refer to as hay shed. Just braced poles and roof (no side walls) type of structure. Today I finished all the bracing, the rafters and the purloins. Later in the week (I hope) I'll get the steel on the roof and it will be done!
One more round, Joe...But then I've got to go.
Good morning, everyone. I'll stick with coffee, although it will be beer time in less than an hour. Thanks, Joe.
Nothing terribly photo-worthy going on with my layout. I've been doing site work for the Mill. I made up the stone wall castings, and they're painted and weathered. But, this area is adjacent to both the cliffs that I plan to put the Bragdon foam castings on, and the water area known as Moose Bay, so I'm proceeding with caution as I plan those as well.
Last week was "tax-free-weekend" here in Massachusetts. They have one Saturday/Sunday where all retail purchases under $2500 are exempt from the 5% sales tax. Just to spite the Governor, I went to my LHS, with no particular items in mind. I just had to buy something! I've been wanting a set of the Walthers operating traffic lights, and a couple of the models were on sale in the catalog. So, I picked those up. The problem with these things is the controller module, which I've never seen on sale, at $35 MSRP. I've been wondering about using a different controller, from Bakatronics, that seems like it does the same thing for 7 bucks. So, I ordered one. It's a kit, and I've re-designed the circuit a bit, but I think it should work. After all, it's just driving LEDs, and I know how to do that. Under construction at this moment, but I should have a report shortly.
A mutual friend in town told me of another model railroader who lives nearby. Out of the blue on Monday I got an e-mail from him. It included some photos of his N-gauge layout. I sat there staring in awe. He's done some absolutely beautiful work, with tall cliffs and waterfalls. We've swapped phone numbers, and we'll be getting together. I hope to pick up some water-making tips - the guy is a master at that.
Good morning, Joe. I will just have coffee, please. We were invited to an Open House at a friend's to view his Sn3 layout. His layout is in the current Narrow Gauge Gazette.
MrB, Glad to hear that you are getting to the Bragdon foam. The hardshell is great for river bottoms because it can be water tight. The most difficult part will be working with quantities. Start with the hardshell first. When we bought ours, the directions said to use bubble wrap, but in his seminar, he recommended 2 layers of fiberglass screen door mesh instead. Start with a small piece that you will be covering up. If it is too thick, your hairdryer will not soften it well later, and if it is too thin, it won't paint well. I usually paint it prior to adding ground goop.
Did you get the video?
How long have you had yours? Put it in a warm place to make sure that it has not set up in the bottle. I cut several cardboard 1" x 4" strips for mixing, and 4" x 4" cardboard for spreading.
One hint on painting, don't used alcohol to weather, because it will wash the paint off.
I am due to attack another area. I should do it so that I can give you better advice.
Thanks, Sue. Have another cup on me. Or, is anyone interested in a Bloody Mary?
I've got the video, which I now realize I bought almost 3 years ago with the whole starter kit. The fluids all seem pretty clean and liquid. They've never been opened, and they're stored in the pleasant temperature-controlled environment of the family/train room. Now, though, I realize that technology has overtaken me, and the VHS machine is plugged into a spare old TV in the upstairs bedroom. I'll have to watch it again upstairs.
Did you use the white spray paint as suggested in the printed instructions? That seems like it might be overkill, but I'll probably do it that way the first time, anyway.
I don't think I'll be using the hardshell for this application. I've already got the base, since the rock walls will be backed with pink foam. I'm thinking of getting the pieces formed into place, but not attaching them, so that I can remove them for painting. They are going to be in a spot that's really awkward to get to, a long reach from the edge, so I'd rather be able to paint them on the bench.
Thanks for the hint on the hardshell as riverbed. I need to form the bottom of Moose Bay, and that might be exactly what I need.
I got the traffic light circuit put together last night, and then looked at it and noticed two spots for resistors that were empty. I found one of the resistors, but I'd lost the other, so it will be a trip to Radio Shack to replace it. Last night while lying in bed I realized that the Walthers traffic light LEDs share a common black wire, so I now have to hope that the controller and the traffic light use the same polarity convention, because I don't think I can simply flip the inputs to the circuit.
Well, it's off to deal with the honey-do list before I can make that trip to Radio $hack.
Good morning, everyone. Coffee and a doughnut for me, thanks, Joe.
Well, I'm back from (watching) the Olympics (and these forums during commercials.) All things considered, the results were unsurprising, except for a couple of well-publicized flubs on the part of our sprint relay teams. That a country with four times the population of the US that chooses, coddles and force-trains athletes from birth (at government expense) won the most gold medals is about as surprising as sunrise. Of course, on a per-capita basis, the US more than doubled up on China!
Zero progress on the layout during the Games, of course. I did run an occasional train to blow the dust off the rails, but that's about it. Now I have to re-orient my sleep cycle so that I'll be functional during the cool hours (roughly 5-10 AM) and get back to erecting the next section of benchwork.
I came up with an elegant solution to exchanging loads for empties in the netherworld that involves only two spring switches and allows the use of fixed uncoupling magnets since all movements over them are push movements, not pulls. The answer was to bring the colliery switcher down to netherworld level on the elevator! At the expense of six more inches of elevator I did away with powered switches and potential 'uncoupling in bad places' problems. (I love it when a simplification presents itself like that.)
Well, there's the lunch whistle. Back to the salt mine! Been good to 'see' you all again.
Thanks for another cup of coffee, MrB.
Referring to the white lacquer, it has something to do with the with the chemistry with the petroleum jelly on your mold release. I did have some trouble that Joel seemed to think was too much petroleum jelly. I am tempted to try a beige color next time.
Again, stay away from alcohol. It reacts with the lacquer and damages the paint. Try a small piece first. E-mail Joel if you have any troubles.
I'll have a tall tap and the lunch special Joe...
It's been a whirlwind around here with getting the pool and school ready...Not to mention all the demands for outdoor work and projects!!
I have finely gotten the library addition sided and the wood shed finished! And as of this morning I have gotten back to more cutting, splitting and hauling with just a bit fill the old one and get a start on filling the new. After a couple of heavy storms this summer......I've got wood to cut most everywhere, and I haven't even walked the back 40 yet!!
I do have hobby news too! I got to the Trainroom for a bit one day this week and finished painting the interiors of the dinners and tail cars. If all goes well, I may get back out there over my long weekend.
Hope all is going well on your slices of Earth!!
Saturday, Labor Day Weekend, Beer Thirty PM. I'll have a Harpoon IPA, Joe. Thanks.
Chaos abounds. We're having one bathroom re-done, so we have to share the other one. This was planned during the summer, because it just doesn't work once school starts. So, now we're in frantic mode to get the bathroom painted so I can take a shower there on Tuesday morning, while daughter Annie occupies the other bath doing whatever it is teenage girls do for an hour before going to school. Today was "primer day." It should go faster tomorrow, because all the taping and ding-fixing is done.
I got out to our local You-Do-It Electronics store. It's only about 20 minutes away. It's the kind of store you wish Radio Shack was. I picked up a couple of 4049 CMOS IC's for the traffic light circuit, plus some mounting sockets and circuit boards for them. I only need one, but I figured I'd get an extra in case I fried one. My bill came to a bit over 7 dollars. If I didn't have to get back to finish painting the bathroom, I could have spent an hour wandering the aisles full of cool stuff.
Good morning:
But Joe....Gotta' ask; are you about ready to close the doors? I realize that we are all way busy (especially in summer) and don't take the time to get in to often....but it sure looks like the tight economy is taking a toll, with only a very few regulars still stopping by!
I finely finished up all the interiors of the Flyer passenger cars....riders and all. Next up I hope to get into re-assembly and get them rolling.
An update to my ongoing employ situation: I just got word yesterday that I was successful in posting into a new / different job with the Dist. This one will allow me an opportunity to retire and have health insurance....Both of which seemed totally out of reach before!! This is good, but I will also loose my flex hour schedule and everything (good and bad) that went along with it! I keep telling myself that it's a sacrifice for a feature of MRRing.
Hope that everybody has and / or is weathering the storms.
Later.
Hey, JB, long time no see! (I'll have a Strumpet IPA, Joe. No, I do not want a dang lime. Gimme a break. That's better.)
Those traffic lights up in Moose Bay are slowing me down. I think I made a noble try to get the cheaper circuit to do the job, but in the end it just wasn't going to work. I went out and bought the Walthers box to drive the lights, and today I dove into the installation. This wasn't a job I was looking forward to. One thing I will never do again is put the busiest, most complicated part of of town directly above the subway tracks. The little 1x2 foot section that is downtown Moose Bay is a liftoff, for access to the tracks below. It's got 4 streetlights, 6 illuminated structures, an animated neon sign, and now a set of traffic lights. The traffic lights have 8, count 'em, 8 wires descending into the nether world below the layout. So, as you can imagine, I was glad for a day of piece and quiet with the ladies out and about so I could dig up the streets and install all of this stuff. That job is done, but I still have another set of lights to put on across town, over on Saint Anne Street. Much easier, though, because that intersection just sits there and doesn't have to be removed when there's trouble below.
The remnants of the over-rated tropical storm Hannah are wetting down New England right now. Nowhere near the ferocious "weather event" that the news media seemed to hope for, all Hannah brought was some rain, and not even too much of that. I even got outside to do some spray painting in the middle of the afternoon, between showers.
Well, set up a round for anyone who shows tonight. I'm off to cook some steaks on the grill.
Good morning, All. Just coffee today, thanks, Joe.
I thought that I would rescue the thread. We all have been so busy that no one has come in except MrB. Are we all anxious for winter so we can get back into the train room?
I am off for a cruise next week, and hope that things will settle down when I get back. Last weekend we exercised all of the locos. Some of them were a little stiff. I am hoping to get Larry back to work on his trestle.
It will be nice to have our upper world connected with the lower world. Track cleaning will become easier.
'Morning Joe, Sue. Coffee and a glazed donut, thanks.
Sue, don't tell Larry, but he's following a great precedent - none other than John Armstrong, with the notorious Bentless Trestle that somehow floated his O-scale rolling stock over the abyss on deck girders (fitted with counter-gravity generators?) supported by air.
I've been going 'way back through my archived posts - interesting to note how many posted photos have degenerated to little red-X boxes. It's also interesting to note that the avatars and post counts are the current versions, not those actually used when the posts were entered. And then, of course, there is Mr. Anonymous, whose threads show a title and post/page count - except that there's nothing there.
Had a little health flareup that has effectively put a stop to construction for the past month. Finally seems to be responding to medication - I hope.
Well, I'm off to the (turtle) races. See ya.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - when I feel up to it)