Good evening, all. I'll stick with milk, Joe. I'm playing goal tonight.
Terry, nice work on those trees! And the 1:1 modelling isn't too shabby, either.
I'm off on vacation to Florida tomorrow, but over the weekend I got the first section of the new benchwork built and installed. I've even got one short section of track connected up and laying on the foam, although it's not fastened down yet. It's one of the subway staging track, and I ran a subway train down there and parked it last night. Finally, trains in Phase 2.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Miller Lite, joe.
Sheesh, where's everybody?
Planted some of the newly built trees.
Got a new camera, still working on the takin' of pics.
This is what a REAL honey-Do list is. Had to install these last week:
And this:
Terry
Terry in NW Wisconsin
Queenbogey715 is my Youtube channel
Good evening, Joe. I will have a Strumpet's.
You know, MrB, everytime you mention Penny Lane, I have fond memories of climbing at Squamish Chief, British Columbia. It is between Vancouver and Whistler. I know that I have told you before. Does your wife add imput since it is her namesake?
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Well, well, well. Who'd have ever thought that so many of us railroaders would turn into Aggies, eh? Growing plants, or just piggybacking on the weed harvest for our tree armatures. I've still got a few stems left from last year. The new sections will be mostly industrial, but there will be some transitions between the current edges to "tree up" before the terrain gets down to the tracks again.
(Yeah, I'll have a Strumpet Oktoberfest, Joe. Oh, yeah, the frosted mug just makes this beer.)
Back to the tunnels. Other than cleaning the track, I haven't touched the subways in a couple of years now, since finishing up the Penny Lane station. The other night I pulled my trusty Xuron out of the toolbox and snipped a section out of the line. I dropped in a turnout and fitted the rail joiners, and now I've got that branch plus the split for the two subway staging tracks installed. They're both on the "old" layout. I've got most of the pieces cut for the first section of benchwork, too, so hopefully I'll be ready to put down foam and some track over the weekend.
Sue, I've done most of the sawing by hand so far. I did pull out the circular saw for the plywood gussets for the legs, but I cut the frame pieces by hand. To be honest, it's only a bit slower than using a power saw, and it makes a lot less mess. Besides, there's something about making something with hand tools. It's just more, well, personal than ripping a piece of wood with a screaming, spinning blade.
We got the same crap up here in NW Wisconsin, JB!!
I harvested a BUNCH before the junk hit, and what's left outside actually looks ok so far. A couple of sunny days and I think it'll be ok to pick!
I'm back, Joe. I will have a Strumpets, and wait to see who shows up.
Too much chore time. Mowed the lawn, cleaned Pearls kennel, filled the wood box, and made plans for the hand railing on the front porch.
Now to the train room. We will see if we can keep the NP passenger cars all upright.
Hello Beer Barn patrons ...
I feel I should stop by more often. I could use a lot of Strumpets these days.
JB ... I hear you about all the non-model-railroad stuff..... It's been hectic for me. ... I've been tied up assisting my sisters with our 90 year old Mom in Alabama. She has many problems now, and it is rather emotional for my generation to help her though the trials and tribulations of being elderly.
Good news. We have a new grand son in Michigan born on Oct 21. All is well with Mom and baby. My wife Shelley is there in MI while I shuttle back and forth between KY and AL.
Not much new on the layout because of such stuff. I took a sanity break in AL and visited the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum.
I'll wait until evening for the Strumpets. (It's good to know Mr. B. is still in the business.)
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
It’s been a rough week….Late nights, early mornings and too much running! Today I have NO demands, other than the normal household stuff.
So, as long as I have the time; I’ll start with the Big Breakfast, a Bloody Mary and a beer chaser. Thanks Sue!!
Just when you think all is right in the world…You get a new surprise. Seems I get new demands for my time way too regularly!! Oh well…
Today at 1100 I’m off to the Trainroom (I’ll be done with the morning chores by then) and hope to get some wiring done on the staging track. YES! I’ll keep you posted on the progress and send off a few pics too!
Terry: The rain, ice and snow may have ruined my weed harvest this fall. I did get some sumac though and plan to try it for a generic tree. That won’t be for a while yet, as I want to be sure everything is nice and dry! When I get there, I’ll give a blow by blow!
Ibeam: I sure do feel for you, having to cut apart your road!! Ouch!! Hope you can successfully downsize and make it even better in the process.
Mr. B: Sawdust!! I feel your pain and pleasure!
Gotta’ get back to chores, if I want to get out to the Trainroom…
Good morning, Joe. I will have a hot coffee. Sorry that I missed the round last night.
MrB, Yes, sawdust is great, but it amazing where you will find it and for how long. When we transitioned to the larger turntable, we found it everywhere. You will like the code 83.
Oh, looks like I am at the top of the page. I buy.
I've used this line before, but it's more appropriate now, Joe. "Jesus was a carpenter. Maybe that's why I use his name so much when I'm doing benchwork."
Not so bad, really, at least so far. I kind of like the smell of sawdust. It has a "new" feeling associated with it. I've got the basic 4-sided box cut and partially assembled for the first section of The Expansion. It's the tricky part, with the connection to the existing layout. I had to design the part where the new subway staging comes in this morning. The rest is straightforward box frame, but for this part I had to worry about the lower level.
A round of Strumpets for the gang. It felt good to go to the LHS and buy track again. Today's purchase was the last of the code 100, for the subways, but the next stuff I buy will be code 83. Time to turn over a new leaf.
Hello everyone,I will take a large Strumpets.Getting ready for the big move(downsizing).I will be taking a sawzall to the layout saturday.Gonna have to deal with a smaller basement,Oh the humanity........
'Evening, everybody. Just stopped by to share a chuckle.
Just read the Wikipedia article on Franco Crosti boilers. One locomotive so equipped was a Belgian tribute to Rube Goldberg, with three sections hinged together and two boilers joined at the hip (fireboxes, actually.) The wheel arrangement was 0-6-2+2-4-2-4-2+2-6-0 and, with two firemen shoveling, it developed a whopping 3000 hp, or 300 hp per driving axle.
According to the genius who wrote the article, that was, "One of the most powerful articulated locomotives."
Say WHAT!!! An Allegheny, or a N&W A, could develop that much horsepower in either engine. Any of the sixteen-drivered articulateds, compound or simple, could have dragged it away with its drivers spinning futilely in the opposite direction. The USRA heavy Mike, a close contemporary, probably developed more horsepower - with 4/10ths as many drivers and one less crewmember.
Guess why, when somebody on here quotes Wikipedia, I always go looking for a second, better-informed opinion.
(And on that note I'll quietly sneak away.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
colvinbackshop Got the trainroom cleaned up and I'm ready to tie the upper level to the upper staging. It has ben a long time coming!
Got the trainroom cleaned up and I'm ready to tie the upper level to the upper staging. It has ben a long time coming!
Can't wait. Keep us posted.
I'll take a Strumpet..Thanks!
Good evening, Joe. Strumpets soonds just great.
MrB is putting the materials together for his next batch of benchwork. I am looking forward to the progress.
Good to see you here, Garry. You are always welcome. Everyone else should be checking in shortly.
Greetings to Beer Barn patrons. I think it's been a long time since I've stopped in.
Mr. B..... Believe it or not you can now sell Stumpets in our little county in western KY. It has been a dry county until a vote a month ago to end prohibition. Nothing like keeping up with the times!
One of my good model railroad frineds was on the committee trying to get the measure passed. Cheers to him.
Happy model railroading
A good weekend evening to all. Strumpet Oktoberfest for the daring, Joe.
A trip to the Depot. No, not the railroad kind of depot, the Home kind. The place where you buy lumber and foam for benchwork. The materials are on hand in my garage now, and soon the smell of sawdust and the sound of power tools will creep into the basement. I took the advice of some of the folks on the Layouts forum, and found a few sheets of banged-up foam. Not much damage, really, but they gave me $4 off per sheet. Every little bit helps.
I did my lumber shopping while wife Penny hit the mall, and then we met up again for a fine Mexican dinner at a nice little restaurant just north of the border (the New Hampshire border.) Delicious beef chimichangas for me. They don't serve Strumpet, but Sam Oktoberfest and Harpoon IPA on tap are quite acceptable.
My addition will probably have very few trees. It's going to be mostly industrial. I want to get the look of a waterfront with warehouses and cobblestone streets, with the tracks running through the cobbles. Mostly brick structures, including seedy bars and such. In keeping with the rest of the layout, the scenes need to be acceptable for the 1930s or 1960s, depending on which autos, trucks and trains I put down.
I was born in Brooklyn, NY, and that sort of tight, confined urban railroading is in my blood, I guess. Even now, when I ride a train, I'm fascinated by the backs of buildings, dumps and fences I see next to the tracks. Amber waves of grain and purple mountains' majesty is nice, but I'm just more accustomed to dirty bricks and old tires, I guess. Anyway, those are the rail scenes I want to duplicate.
Irish coffee, please. It is 5:00 somewhere.
Yes, MrB, names can be confusing. Chuck from Oregon can be Chuck and Kathy. I think that their original layout was logging if I remember correctly. They invited us to one of their local events.
And the other question is real trees or layout trees for Terry and JB.
Hey, welcome back, everyone. Strumpets all around, for the thirsty and brave.
With fall in the air here in New England, the modelling itch has returned. I'll be picking up wood over the weekend, and hope to be laying track by Thanksgiving. First will be some staging for the subways, not shown on the diagram, but a small effort. I'm thinking of a bit of PVC pipe to use as a tunnel for the approach to the staging, just to have a round bored tunnel section. I don't need to scenic the subway tunnel staging, but, well, I know in my heart I will.
Hmmm. We have a quandry, a dilemma, a puzzle to be solved. In the small confines of the Beer Barn, we now have two "Chuck"'s. What to do? At college, we named our second Gary "Gary Prime," and to this day we call him Prime.
Not sure who has done more trees - Terry, or JB. Certainly, the 1:1 trees are more work.
Good afternoon. It is a little early for spirits here so I will have coffee, Joe.
JB, You will like burning birch. We have found that it burns slowly because of the density. Do you cross-country ski then? That would be cool to not drive to enjoy the sport.
Chuck, Sounds like you are toasty in the garage. That surely helps progress.
yes Sue the garage is heated with a big 300 gallonboiler that heats all 2000 sq ft of the house, and I deiceded to borroy a plan from Ian Rice that has both a small waterfront and axcess to a lumber operation all on a 4 by 8 with a small ext.to the woods. I didn't loose all the brass or metal parts but I'm having a lot of work cleaning these up. chuck
Thanks for the kudos on the trees,guys. They are reaaaalllly easy to make. Not scenic express, but also not $10 a pop either!
My wife is allergic to goldenrod. I've gotta make them in the garage, but if you wait till they go to seed and get all fluffy it's not bad,her words.You can make easily 100 in about an hour. We have a lot of white birch here( the area I model). To make them, I rattle can the trunks flat white, dab it with a black sharpie and you're done.I've planted a TON of them in the last week. I'll try to post pics so you can see what they look like on the layout.Like I said, alone they are so-so, but planted ? Pretty good:
Time zones….
I’m off to work in just a few minutes. I’m wishing for a “time zone” where I don’t have to go to work!! Maybe some day!
Terry: Thanks for the pictorial. That really looks great! I’ve wanted to do the same type of thing with Tansy, Queen Ann’s Lace and a few others that grow around here….But haven’t gotten there yet. Hope to try the experiment very soon and will post the results.
Sue: YES! Most all my fire/fuel wood is harvested here. We have a “60” with about another 300 plus of county land around us. I maintain the ski trails on that land to, so I also harvest a lot of dead falls from across those trails.
Ah, yes, the joys of time zones. Lunch is long gone for us already, but I'll take a virtual Sam Oktoberfest, Joe. Thanks.
I'll be building free-standing table benchwork for this one, too, but I won't have wheels on it like the original section. I decided that the small saving in wood I'd get by attaching it to the wall would be more than offset by the complications of doing that. I'll build it in 3 sections, so I can build it in the garage and carry it upstairs to the trainroom easily, and move it again if I ever have to.
Yes, I need to think about turnouts. I think I'll try a couple of Tortoises this time, just to get the experience of installing and using them. For economy, I'll probably go with Atlas in the staging ladder, since I need something like snap switches to fit in that space anyway. The diagram doesn't show it, but there will be some underground staging for the subways, too. That's going to require some sensing and indicators, which should be another fun learning experience.
MrB, You have lunch, but it is barely breakfast on this side of the world. Half of the effort is organizing your materials. The inventory on the turnouts and track can be mind boggling. Which support system have you decided on?
Ah, lunchtime. I'll have the steak tips salad with the pumpkin vinagrette dressing, and a big glass of water. Trying to lose a bit of weight without suffering too much. Thanks.
I plan to pick up the lumber for the benchwork on Saturday. Penny and I have to swap cars, because she's got the big white van, which the kids call "The Whale," and I've got my little Saturn. Fine for anything I'd buy at the LHS, but not much when it comes to loading lumber and foam. The forecast is kind of dismal for the weekend, which will let me get started on benchwork rather than doing landscape timber replacement in the out-of-doors. We don't know when ski season will start yet, but if anyone saw the Patriots game on Sunday, you saw the freaky October snow last weekend. With luck, I'll be putting down the foam base in a couple of weeks, with track to follow.
Good morning, Joe. I will have coffee to start.
JB, Do you cut most of your firewood on your place? I assume that because you are making trails.
Terry, Thanks for the tutorial. Your forest looks natural. Great photo.
MrB, Are you working on the benchwork yet? It would be great to get most of the track down and wired during the holidays.
Chuck, Are you still having 80 degree weather? One of my friends is down there this week. When do we get to see photos of Japan RR?
Jeffrey, Thanks for stopping by. We are not as active as the diner.
Chuck & Kathy, No fire here. That must have been Rob that you were thinking about. Sorry about your loss. The garage might be a larger space. Is it heated for the damp winters?
Hi All !!!! Is this what has replaced the old diner??? If it is I just sit and listen, but I remember Sue and the train room burned down just after Christmass and mother-in-law also; and Kathy did the same on columbus day this year. What was left was salavged and brought into garage and is growing again. Chuck aka sunset beach.
Hi there. Been a long while since I popped in here. I see lots of familiar faces. I'll take a Bud Lite and be on my way.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam