So Anyway..........

[dharmon]

I have to be honest, the past three weeks or I have done absolutely nothing with regards to model railroading, other than read the forums ever now and again, a few magazines and a spend a few hours down at the club, and that was spent more on adminstrative stuff than running trains. Not that I haven't wanted to but, the wife has once again made large donations towards the pensions and college funds of Lowes and Home Depot shareholders and I have dutifully playing the role of day laborer. "They" call it home improvement. I see it as somewhat strange that I have to go to work to relax.....

So anyway.....what are you folks working on?....train related that is....The last thing I was working on was another CF7 for my Maritime roadname, which is near completion...and just starting on a pair of SD40-2s for the same. There's more waiting in que, but I think they'll be waiting a little while longer.

By the way, this is a thinly veiled attempt to hijack the forum from bashing and flaming.

Dan

[Anonymous]

I wi***hat had a place to run my BNSF EMD SD70MAC's and my BNSF AC4400CW's.
BNSF railfan.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dharmon



By the way, this is a thinly veiled attempt to hijack the forum from bashing and flaming.

Dan

Bravo Dan [:)]

Now may others follow in your footsteps and do a little walking on the keyboard. [:D]

There have been several threads lately talking about military equipment and military railroads. So I have been thinking along those lines too. Some of the larger railway guns are just models for show and not really rolling stock. They would still make an interesting scene for a side track though. I have heard that they would "hide" in tunnels during the day and come out to lob one large shell at a time. So maybe a tunnel and the gun would be an idea to consider. <Jim is just doing a little thinking out loud.> [;)]

[fiatfan]

Between regular summer activities, family visits, and yes the ever popular majority stockholder's lists of non railroad upgrades, I have had very ltiitle time myself. I have managed to assemble a transistor throttle and have been trying to get that to work but have had limited success. All of the smoke escaped from one of the component this evening so it's back to square one.

Good luck on getting something done!

Tom

[Big_Boy_4005]

The world's largest garage sale!!!!

I'm pretty much in the same boat gondola with you Dan, train wise speaking. The sale will be entering its third weekend, with no end in sight. Revenue has been fair at best, but the mountains of clothes do not seem to be shrinking. I have promised myself that my truck will be back in the garage before the snow flies. In the meantime, I am here off and on, but not for hours on end as before. [swg]

By the way, I bought a bunch of lumber for my layout, but I am using it for the tables for the sale. So, when the sale ends I can get my stuff back.[banghead][:P][sigh][(-D]

[Anonymous]

I've been trying to clean up my train room and organize things when I have the time. I was hoping to spend fridays paycheck on lumber for my empire but I have other things that need my attention. Hopefully I'll have enough money left over to finish my benchwork. We'll just have to see. Everyonce in a while, I'll get an idea or find a peice of track and through somoe track down but it's becoming rarer and rarer. Money and time have been short lately.
Andrew

[Anonymous]

I'm working on a better roster for the AS&N and working on an operating plan.

[simon1966]

I have fixed my 2 track problems that were causing my BLI Mike to derail. I re-laid the trackage into my mine complex. I built the Walthers New RIver Mine and modified it to look like my prototype mine in central Illinois. I used my airbrush for the first time to paint it and am really happy with the results. I made about 40 trees using Supertrees (What a great product this is!). I hope to get them installed on my hillside this evening. All in all a good week. My wife was at a bead show last weekend and attending some seminars at a local fabric shop this weekend, so I have had plenty of time without the boss!

[tomwatkins]

Bravo Dan,
Getting away from the flaming and bashing is well worth trying to do. We also have a number of home improvement projects underway. I just finished stripping wallpaper and reapainting in the kitchen and we're well underway with planning the redo in our daughter's room. Plus this time of year gardening and yard work are are constant and ongoing.

Despite all this, I'm making steady progress on the railroad. I've got the mainline and sidings in on the last section to be revised. I'm currently installing the roadbed for the Graham County RR, which is a small shortline RR. It will run from a siding and interchange through the wall to a staging track in an adjacent room. Once that is comp-lete I can get started seriously on scenery.

Have Fun,
Tom Watkins

[bcammack]

I've not done much. It's still allergy season (at least it feels like it to me) here in Houston. I have trouble working on fine details of N scale stuff with a piercing sinus headache. If I bludgeon myself with sufficient medication I am no longer in possession of the necessary motor skills to do the work anyway.

[Anonymous]

I just got an MRC Tech 4 220. Man, that thing is tight! It's the best DC power pack money can buy.

[SSW9389]

I've been making some signs on photopaper for the train club and weathering a few freight cars to keep in the game.

[Anonymous]

Well......we (as in spouse and self) are painting our house. Got the front and two sides done, still need to do the back if we can get some rain free days under 90 degrees. Have you priced Sherwin Williams Durations exterior paint recently? Eats up a lot of model railroad budget! I am also in the building stages of a small business, so past week between the two about 90 hours of mine time was consumed. I did manage to order the car card/waybill package from Micro-Mark. I'm anxious for it to arrive, so I can try and find the time to enter the data on the cards.....hmmmmm. Before we started the house painting project I did get some additional track ballested. By this time next year I'd like to be trying to find time for structures and scenery and an occassional operating session with friends. I did get the workbench "sort of" cleaned up last night and that will make any upcoming model building projects more pleasant.
What I need is a climate with consistent temperatures near 75 degrees, no grass and a house that paints itself. Maybe vinyl siding is in the future, eh?
Over the summer I have managed to back date my rolling stock to the 1960s. We were running late 1970s stuff. Nice to see running boards again!

[Anonymous]

In my above post I used the term "benchwork" when I should have used "workbench".
Sorry for the mistake.

[Anonymous]

I have a maintenance schedule for my layout. I'm supposed to be cleaning track today, which is why I'm hanging out here. Hey, it's model railroad related, besides, I might get a tip on how to make my track self-cleaning.

[rayhippard]

Lucky for me that it rained Sunday. Went to Menards for blacktop driveway sealer and convinced wife that I should save gas by getting materials for new train room that my son and I are building in my garage. Size 14' x 18'. We put sealer in corner and got the walls done and the door installed. Sooooo--- I'd say a good day for workin' on the railroad !!! Now at work and doodleing layout designs. Great day to all.

Ray

GREAT NORTHEN LIVES ON !

[Anonymous]

Dan, I can really empathize with you (empathize means "to suffer with".) LOL It's amazing how I have to not only work so hard to make the money, but to then have to work even harder after that hard earned money has been spent (at Home Depot, Lowe's, etc) doing major home projects including adding two rooms to the house - doing everything myself (framing, electrical, HVAC, drywalling, etc) but the carpeting, installing lawn sprinkler system and lawn, adding a patio, painting the house (inside and out), putting on a new roof on part of the house, major landscaping, etc ad nauseum (which means "to the point of disgust or getting sick)". Get this, we bought the house new and have only been in it for 11 years. I am unfortunate to have grown up in a family of contractors and to own the code books, and worse yet - to live 3,000 miles from my contractor brothers and cousins. So it has all been a team of one!! Now you know why I feel justified in spending as much as I have in this great hobby of ours. I feel I've more than earned it. LOL It's a wonder I have any time for the hobby. So I can really appreciate what you are saying. I go to work to get a vacation. Pardon my venting here, in an unusual sort of way! Thanks for listening.

Greg

PS - A word of advice to those who are about to get married - after the honeymoon, play dumb, ignorant, and incompetent with regards to anything mechanical or involving tools. Be all thumbs / have two let hands, claim a history of medical conditions in your family,etc. Otherwise, be prepared to learn to hate the likes of Home Depot.

[Anonymous]

Greg - your last paragraph above really hit home ! My home.

I too have stayed away from this Forum for the past week or so in the hopes that I'd come back to a peaceful and friendly place to talk trains and modeling, and the first two posts I make have to deal w/ how I'm fed up with all the garbage that is infitrating and polluting this forum lately. Go figure - there I go getting sucked right back in !

The past week or 52, I've been remodeling, re-landscaping, painting, plumbing, ducting, trimming, framing, wiring, one house to get it sold, and then my wife buys another one that "just needed some flowers, grass seed, and a little paint." Right. We weren't here but a month, when we maxed out the 10% off one-time newcomer discount from both Loew's and the big orange box store. Now I know why HD's stock is slowly rebounding! Here we go again, or should I more acurately state, "here I go again. . ."

At least the past two week I have been framing the basement for my wood shop and model railroad room - a luxury that I have never had, and have certainly earned, for all the 'honey-dos' that I have had to do all of the 23 years we've been married. (Shouldn't there be a 'honey-due' for guys, since they have a 'honey-do' for us?)

[Anonymous]

I've been adding a few scratchbuilt details to a Walthers Dash 8-40B that I picked up as a non-runner on eBay - fixed the fault and it now runs well, I've since added the anti-climb pilot that came in the box and fitted Kadees. Most recently, I've drilled holes in both pilots to take some fine wire - representing mulitple working cables. I found that single wires from a multi-core telephone cable are ideal for this - with the insulation on they make a good representation of the horizontal wire running just below frame level (not sure what purpose this serves, I just copied the arrangement seen in photos), and with the insulation stripped this wire makes good MU cables. I also have an Athearn Dash 9-44CW dummy in BNSF livery awaiting assembly, and have built the first (my LHS still has some of the kit versions) of a planned train of Walthers auto-carriers - the covered variety. I'm aiming at creating the consist shown here: www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=63825

[joseph2]

On these hot days I enjoy going into the cool basement,drinking cold beer,building any kit handy,and reading old issues of Railroad Magazine.Later on this summer I would like to assemble a Bowser locomotive and watch the Shays at Cass,West Virginia.Joe G.

[dickiee]

Thanks, Dan and all who have responded with their information about what they have been doing...It is most welcome to read!

I am STILL building my "train" room in my pole barn. I had to completely re-work my wood shop in order to carve out a 15x15 space. This project has been on-going since last Thanksgiving and is starting to finally get close to being done. After being out of the hobby for approx. 20 yrs. I am in AWE of all the improvements that have been made. DCC was just in the designer stage when I left the hobby and by the look of the ads in MR I got back in just in time to enjoy all the new products. They say you can't take it with you so I am going to blow it all on the trains. The kids can get their own money. BLI, Lionel, Trix...bring it on.

Of course now that summer is here, the heat and my 66yr. old bones and muscles are not being very co-operative. I have to just put down the laminate floor and I will be able to start un-packing a dozen or so boxes of "old" railroad stuff and going through it to see if any of it is still salvagable. Meanwhile, back to the drawing board and plans for the "last" layout. This is FUN but my back hurts!!!!

dickiee

[Anonymous]

Well I've been staying away a little myself. I've been tinkering around the trainroom alittle but nothing too serious. Right now I'm in the process of eliminating a nicotine addiction. This is no time for working on an expensive model even though I am a big ball of sunshine right now[banghead][censored][B)]. Should be through the rough part soon. Thank God for Zyban!! After this is done I'll be back to work on the train room with more money to spend on trains[:D]. If my wife hasn't killed me before then.[:D]

Jeremy

[dharmon]

Well it seems that most of our summers so far has been focused on infrastructure work..the infrastructure that houses the trains. I envy those of you that have been getting to work on the train stuff.

Jeremy..I understand the nicotine monkey..he and I tangle from time to time, and there's no easy answer. Particularly when working on projects.

Okay enough of the fun stuff. Been doing stucco work this evening and its time to clean up.......until tommorrow....second coat........ahh to get back to that CF7..

....oh yeah.....Railroading_Brit....thet multi strand wire thing for hoses sounds good...I just ripped some out of a wall......thanks

[Anonymous]

Infrastructure,,,,yeah thats on my list too. It seems the little furballs have figured out how to breach the computer/train room door, and have been caught lounging on the workbench.[:(!] It wasnt really a door to start with, kinda more like a king sized baby gate. So off to Lowes I went for a slatted bifold door that fits like a glove. As soon I I get the finish stained to match, it will get hung. Better the door gets hung than one of the cats![}:)]
Then its back to the 3 brass caboose kits I've been working on (on and off) for the last 3 weeks. I'll be chanting,,,,
" I'll get them done,, I'll ge them done,,I'll get them done.." Sound familiar???

[Anonymous]

Last Friday I picked up a LARGE Z shaped N scale layout that's going to be used to help get Youth and adults in this area involved in model railroading.
The layout is in 4 pieces.
A 4' x 8' section, Two 3' x 6' sections and a 2' x 6' section.
This link shows a few photos of it.
http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=10371

I've also been working on a couple of HO projects. Some photos are posted in this thread.
http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?p=108734#post108734
My son and I have also been working on some bicycles and a Honda motorcycle we got at a moving sale for free.

[dharmon]

Well I took a couple of hours the last few evenings and just about finished up the CF7 I was working on. And since I had the airbrush out.......I dirtied up some of the locos that had been much too clean for too long. What a nice break from stucco, stone and 2x4s....this weekend's forecast isn't good though......currently looks like a strong chance of light to moderate tile, followed by occasional periods of paint.....so I better treasure the moment while I have it.....maybe I can get started on those SD40s.....

[cwclark]

well let's see...where (did) do i begin? since March..I've...build all my L girder benchwork, half the layout has sub roadbed ...half the lay out has track and turnouts layed...(so that's 24 turnouts, 16 tortoise machines in operation, an entire box of 100 -3' sections of flex track layed minus about 8 pieces, 4 boxes of cork road bed, one of 4 power pack s in, a control panel done...(sort of...got to wire it now for a second throttle and a walk around throttle )...a wye installed...(more switches, turnouts, and track laying)..oh..and a backdrop semi completed (with clouds)...yep!...been pretty busy!..i wonder what my wife has been doing these past few months?..her tahoe is always in the driveway!

[krump]

the kids are visiting at my sisters... and my honeydew list includes levelling a spot on the yard for the 18 ft diameter pool we just bought... think we've almost got it done, assisted by some extra sand. The kids are gonna love it - and since it's 4 ft deep I'm sure we'll all cool off now and then. bought the little guy (age 5) a Spiderman swim gear setup - mask, flippers, gloves... what a riot!
oh yeah the kids also want their rooms painted - Spiderman theme for the 5 yr old, and our girls share a room so they want purple, and light pink (someone,... please, TELL ME THAT THIS CAN WORK - yikes, what have I gotten into??? - I need help here !!!) - that said, it brings me back to the days in grade 9 when myself, and 4 of my best friends formed a club called The RSPPP... "The Royal Society for the PREVENTION of PINK and PURPLE" - I kid you not !
That was then, this is now - my two daughters each have a favourite colour - you guessed it, one loves Pink, the other Purple - Circle of Life thing I guess, and a major backfire.
cheers,[8D][8D][8D]

[sparkingbolt]

I have been working on motorizing an O scale track crane. It powers the boom up and down, the hoist also, and swings 360 all day long. It just runs so sweetly! I am now on the final part, just adding decals and weathering. It isn't mine, I was hired. That's my official project.

But

I just aquired a whole slug of various HO items for myself on eBay, some have arrived some are still coming. One was a Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 that was sold "like new" but was actually pretty abused. The seller wasn't a modeller, and didn't know. Anyway we struck a happy compromise, and I kept it. Got it running well too.

Among the other eBay stuff was a case lot of locomotive junk, (one mans treasure...) Which has significantly furthered some of my other wannado projects. Model RRing is alive and well this summer. Dan

[Fergmiester]

It's been a good month. I've just about finished the turntable bridge, just needs paint, handrails and a gear. I built a Blair line general store and a Branchline house. Pictures to follow.