BEER BARN

[MisterBeasley]

Yeah, I just had my 2-year anniversary on this forum a couple of weeks back.  I spent a lot of time learning and planning before I ever went to Home Depot for layout materials, and then even that sat in the garage a while while I got up the courage to actually cut wood and commit to a design.  Didn't break ground on my layout until April of oh-five, but it's sure been fun ever since.

Despite the unseasonably mild weather, I managed to get some layout time in.  I was happy to be outside painting Floquil Weathered Concrete on my new highway bridge, because that stuff has a powerful after-odor that invariably gets the women upset.  (You know, the wife that stinks up the house with tuna fish, and the daughter whose nail polish collection would rival a chemical plant in New Jersey.)  It also felt weird to be putting in the driveway edge-marker stakes (for the plow in deep snow) in a T-shirt.  I got the bridge in, though, and I ballasted the siding up to the Burns Coal and Oil Company, so that corner of the layout is pretty much done.  Once the glue dries and I scrape the loose ballast off the tops of the ties, I'll get some photos up.  Or maybe I'll just spend the day running loaded hoppers up the hill to dump them in the pit.  I dunno.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

My 2 year anniversary was june 21st of this year. I've been here 2 1/2 years now. How time flies when you're having fun!

[Dave-the-Train]

Good evening everybody.

A merry Christmas from me to you.

Where's that pic from?  Staffordshire Dales? ... or foreign parts... Derbyshire?

Don't know about that side of the pond but Sainsbury's have just got a load of "starter price" Jacobsen Czech)  beers and Brakspear's "triple".  Hic!

Have a good Christmas everyone!

[Dave-the-Train]

Just had a thought...

What's the music around this joint?

I'd go for George Thorogood, ZZ Top, Dr Feelgood and Ry Cooder (Get Rythm).

Parked outside?  (though I'm getting a cab home) A Harley Springer... if I can't find a 40s Indian.

(Dreams, all dreams. Was on night shift again).

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good evening everybody.

A merry Christmas from me to you.

Where's that pic from?  Staffordshire Dales? ... or foreign parts... Derbyshire?

Don't know about that side of the pond but Sainsbury's have just got a load of "starter price" Jacobsen Czech)  beers and Brakspear's "triple".  Hic!

Have a good Christmas everyone!

Northumberland.

[mikesmowers]

Afternoon all, Joe, I'll have a cold one over here,      I KNOW IT'S EARLY    LOL    I'm thiristy, been building fence today.  I have been putting up a stock panel fence along the creek and taking down the electric fence. Plan to run some barbed wire along the top, to keep the kids on the creek and away from the biting donkey.    Yea,  Really!!!

     Keep up with the flu remendys, Like my smart great grandmother used to say "A shot in the glass beats one in the as*''                       Later.      Mike
 

[MisterBeasley]

A beer, Joe, the usual Harpoon.  And don't call me Ishmael.

Boy, this ever happen to you?  You click on a forum post you want to read, and there's something else entirely there.  Like I clicked on page 50 of the Beer Barn (hey, 50 pages.  Not bad for an upstart thread, eh?)  Anyway, I ended up in the middle of a political diatribe.  Some thread about the Dopepartment of Homeland Security (DOHS) and it looked like the Libs and Cons were trying to out-do each other in saying how bad it was, and how it was each others' faults.  Well, that's what happens when you take all those "Doh's" that come from Homer Simpson and turn them into a government agency, I guess.

Anyway, I put the finishing touches on the highway bridge over the tracks today.  It was a day of applying paint, applying putty, waiting for paint to dry, applying hydrocal mortar, painting over the putty, spraying the hydrocal and so on, some up in the trainroom, some down in the basement and some outside in the back yard.  (Yeah, T-shirt weather again in Massachusetts.  Weird.)

Here's the bridge and some foam supporting it, pre-scenery a couple of weeks ago.  There's some styrene in the background as the road runs down the hill and over the tracks beyond at grade.

 

And here it is now, pretty much done:

 

[SqueakyWheels]

Mister Beasley,

 

Do you do fine work, or what? You sure look like you have it mastered. Great looking photos. Wants me to scrap anything I am doing, and just sit here and watch you work, ha.  It will turn me into a computer chair MRR'er. Hold on, got to get up to get a towel, and wipe the drool off the monitor.

 

Please, keep it coming. I got to rob ideas from somebody, no?

 

I have ripped back up half the track of a double oval from a 4X8 layup. The elevations were just not right, so have to do it over again. It's hard to believe how much difference 1/16 of an inch (2 scale feet in HO) can do for unforseen consequences. 

 

Now I will have to go back and fill in all the cracks of the joint compound.

 

I am German. If there is a hard way to do something, I will find it. 

 

 

[MisterBeasley]

I am German. If there is a hard way to do something, I will find it. 

Is that a German trait?  My wife's not German, but she's the same way.  I call it Martha Stuart Syndrome (MSS.)  She thinks that if there's an easy way and a hard way to do something, it's somehow "better" to do it the hard way.   I've been scolded for the way I tie up bundles of yard waste that are going out to the garbage.

My secret is to carefully crop the photo.  An inch to the right of that scene is a cluttered mess resting serenely on a pink prarie.

[colvinbackshop]

Coffee and a bowl of oatmeal this morning Joe....Need to off-set the high cholesterol diet of yesterday! Even while caroling at nursing homes, seems I can always find the high fat stuff...

Good to see you droped by Squeaky...Haven't seen you for a while. As far as ripping stuff up and putting it all together again, to get it right; I think it's got to be a part of the hobby we just don't get to read about in the pages of the mags. It can't be just you and me!!

I can say that I'm in your camp here. I've been re-building for years now. If I could or would have done it the way I wanted (in my head or on paper), done it right (with out that darn "learning curve" thing) and had unlimited funding (I'm always experimenting with methods) I could be running a lot more trains these days, because a lot more of the pike would at the very least have more trackage down.

Latter guys....

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I guess that explains my father. He always finds the hardest ways to do things. Come to find out, he's part German, reckin that has anything to do with it?

[mikesmowers]

   Morning all, Joe I'll Have the scrambled eggs with some of your vinicent (SP, Deer) sausage and black coffee

   Mr. B you really do make a road look real I like the colors, I must venture into the train room and check, I thought I saw a couple of my automobiles on your layout LOL Santa Clause is supposed to bring gifts not take the ones I have.   Good looking road.

    Cooler here today and I plan on some time in the train room today, I have a couple of rolling stock that will not stay coupled on the curves, Time to introduce them to Kadee. I think I will take the rolling stock and weight them according th the specs. 1 oz +  1/2 oz per inch if I am correct.   Later      Mike

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Rolling stock that comes uncoupled on the curves, boy, that'll sure improve your mood, LOL. That brings back memories of when I was using horn-hook couplers. Some I couldn't get to couple for anything, some wouldn't uncouple for anything, others came uncoupled anytime they felt like it, and some actually worked halfway decently. When I started the conversion to Kadee's, it was just a couple or three cars at a time. After a few weeks and only a dozen cars done, I decided to buy all that I needed plus some spares and do them all at once.I had some vacation time coming and decided I would use that time to get them done. A weeks vacation time? Yeah, I should have them done in that time. The first day, Monday, everything went fine. I got 23 cars done. However, the second day, Murphy decided to raise his ugly head. The heater element in the hot water heater went out and had to be replaced. Naturally, this was not an easy thing to do! The element had been in there for some time and was determined to stay in there. After 5 1/2 hours, I finally got the water heater fixed. After a brief rest, I got 5 more cars done. The third day! I didn't get any cars done on the third day because the water pump on the car decided to spring a leak, thus I spent the entire day on that. The fourth day, Thursday. What would we do without Thursday's to muck up the works! While cooking breakfast, the microwave decides it's time has come and melts it's cord and tries to burn the kitchen down. I spent 2 hours cleaning up the mess and then another 2 hours finding a good, cheap microwave to take it's place. I found an 1,100 Watt GE for $88 at Wal-Mart. Now, half the day is gone. I settle down to convert some more cars over when the power decides it's time to put me back in the dark ages. There was my work light gone, so I moved the operation outside. Everything went well for a little while, then a couple of kids saw what I was doing and came over to watch. A few of them decided they wanted to help, and after a little instruction, they were moving along like a couple of old pros. Now, anybody who knows anything about kids knows that their attention span can be really short at times. This was the case after about an hour of changing out couplers. But hey, they got 17 cars done! The fifth day, Friday. Friday was perfect! I got most of the remianing stock changed over. Now all I had left was several new Athearn locomotives to convert. After 3 hours, they were done and I had the weekend to look forward to, but that's another story.

[MisterBeasley]

Ah, coffee, OJ and some egg's and sausage. 

Yeah, it's an exotic color for the pavement.  Not!  I used generic cheap acrylic, color: Gray.  The road is made of Durham's Water Putty, which I had one heck of a time putting down.  It came out all lumpy, and it got ruts, and parts of it flaked off and had to be patched.  I guess that's why it looks so much like the roads I'm familiar with.  They build them the same way, I'm sure.

Still working on the lines.  I tried masking and painting with white acrylic, thinned a bit so it wouldn't look like it just got painted.  I think that was a poor choice, though, because the thinned paint crept under the tape.  Next I'll try it with full-strength paint.

I assure you, I have clear and clean title to every one of those cars, bought from Wal-Mart's automotive division, mostly.

[mikesmowers]

  Morning all Joe I'll have some coffee and a large hot oatmeal with some butter. Thanks

  Well I see no one made it to the Barn last night I am as guilty as anyone, just didn't take time I guess, was working on the RR finally. I had to go to the bottom of page 3 to get this.

   Plan on some more RR'ind today. Yeaserday I got the trouble making couplers changed, and fixed the caboose so it will now stay on track, and also added some weight to some light boxcars. How would I go about adding weight to a tank car, I can't seem to get to the inside without damaging the car?

    I actually got to put a few miles on the trains  last night, and hope to put some more on them today.   Catch you all later.     Mike

[colvinbackshop]

Good morning! I'll have a coffee and an oatmeal too, Joe, thanks.

Late night last night, with a choir concert to attend before going to work, but it all worked out....Just a late and tired start up this morning.

I too spent a little time in the Trainroom yesterday. Just enough to ballast the new trackage at Sawbill. Of course that is the only track that is ballasted there so far. But, with it being a derelict  spur and having a substantial number of ties missing (more and more as it continues on), I wanted to get it solidly down. Playing with different scenicing and weathering methods on it was part of the fun too!

Mr. Beasley...Looks like the road and bridge crews did a fine job! You mention that the road isn't as smooth as you wanted; did you try to sand it? That can be a tough job...They don't call it "Rock Hard" for nothing. And regarding roads....

So far I have nothing but dirt roads, as my upper level is very rural, but I'm thinking that I may do a "main street" at Sawbill using drywall mud....Anybody done that? 

Mike, I had two Eagles in the tree yesterday and tried to "zoom" in as best I could. I haven't even looked at the photo yet, let alone get it to the PhotoShop, but I hope to do that today, as I also have to do some other photo work (Christmas pictures, that will be going out lats) at some point today. If the Eagle turned out half ways decent, I'll post it.

Got to get out to cut and split a little more wood this morning. Perfect temp. to do so with it being 25 I won't over-heat.

[mikesmowers]

  colvin  I have used drywall mud for a parking area, it works ok and is a little easier to use than the water putty, but it a lot softer than the WP. It doesn't take muchto scratch it. If you color it while you are putting it down it will  be better.   IMO I would stick with the water putty.   Mike

[MisterBeasley]

I did sand the roads down a little bit.  Actually, I also tried the suggestion to add vinegar to the mix to slow the setting time.  That worked well, and the train room didn't even smell like a salad once it set.  I was also able to do some scraping between "really firm" and "rock hard" consistencies, which was possible with a hobby knife blade for about a half-hour.  It took two applications to get the pavement up to the bridge right.

JB, how's the turntable coming along?  I think that's going to be my next project.  I'll have to admit that I've got a lot of "fear factor" starting that one.  I'm hoping to get some solid time in over the holidays to work on it.  Then I can scenic up the rest of the roundhouse area and head for town.

Hey, this is reply number 1000!  Since it puts me at the top of the page anyway, let's kill two birds with one stone and have a round for the house!

[tomikawaTT]

'Morning, Joe.  Just coffee, thanks.  I'll be piloting the pickup into downtown traffic shortly.

Good looking road, Mister B!  The 'less than perfect' look is a lot more like the roads I see in the real world - most of which, even freeways, are a LOT less than perfect.

SqueakyWheels - If you think that being of German descent leads to a tendency toward overcomplication, the History Channel tends to agree (at least in the case of some of the Third Reich's war machines.)  Judging by some of the US armor and aircraft currently in use or under development, there must be a lot of Germans in the defense establishment's design centers.

Not that I'm throwing bricks!  My 'name' grandfather was German, and both of my maternal grandparents were Polish.  I have been known to design and build things that would have turned Rube Goldberg green with envy.  (Some of them actually worked.)

So, why do I model the prototype I model?  The reason is currently on the telephone, talking to her sister in Osaka...

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[mikesmowers]

  Eveng all, Joe set me up with a nice cold beer, and anything anyone elece needs, and put it on my tab, call it a Christmas present.

   I had to laugh a while ago. I went out in the rain to work on an air compressor I sold a man last week, he said the sarter was draging and would not start. When  I got there he did not have the gas turned on and was using a 12 ga. wire for a battery cable. Oh well it is this type people  that make my living.

   Any one know where I can find shims for the worm gears on my P2K's, On another thread someone suggested Kadee coupler shims, may try this, or maybe a beer can cut to shape.

      I'll have another beer, anyone need one while I am in the Christmas mood?             Mike

[mikesmowers]

BUMP

 I just couldn't see this on page two.  Come on beer lovers.

[MisterBeasley]

I'll have one.  Just got in from Tuesday Night Hockey.  Maybe one of these day's I'll have a layout big enough to put a skating rink on.   I've had a box of HO scale figure skaters for years, just never had a place to put any of them.  A full-sized rink is about a hundred feet long, though, so that's quite a bit of real estate.  I suppose a representative one about half that size would work, particularly if it's figure skaters and not two full hockey teams.

It finally cooled down a bit, although mid-twenties is hardly cold for a December night in New England.  Still, we'll be back up in the 50's later on.  I heard the north country will be getting some natural snow, which will certainly help the skiing for our trip next week.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Count me up for a nightcap.

[Ibeamlicker]

I'll just have a Bud,and hey can I have one of those pickled eggs in that big jar.Thanks Joe.

[colvinbackshop]

Good evening gang! Mike I'll take you up on your offer and have a VERY tall and VERY cold one, it's been a long afternoon and evening.

Never did get around to doing photos...The magic smoke has now leaked from both the scanner and the printer!! So, I burned a CD of the pictures I needed and took it to town. You would think that a man of 55 could / should / would be able to use one of those picture kiosk things....But NO! I can not believe the troubles I had. I did however get the pictures I wanted, after much frustration, and help from a teenage girl at the next machine (who was zipping from print to print, cropping, adjusting colors and so on) with the ease of a computer programmer! She was very gracious in helping me and I truly appreciate it.

Let's see...What else? The wood splitter isn't running well again, hunting more and more for the RPM as time passes. I didn't get to the Trainroom today. I've got "use or loose" vacation days to burn and I'm having trouble finding time to take it...Somehow this just doesn't make sense! And, just to add another plate for this old dog to spin (running from one side of the stage to the other).....I'm on jury duty starting tomorrow morning, and for who knows how long!

Maybe I'll just have to "let it go" at the pool and take the remaining days of this week off...Maybe next week too! They'll find a sub for me, right? Yaw, right!

Mike, you make a good point regarding the possible scratching of a drywall mud roadway. Durum's may still be the best way to go here. Or, I just may keep it a dirt main street. Seems to fit the theme I'm going after.

Mr. Beasley, I haven't done any more work on the turntable since the pictures of the deck and side skirting (back on about page 46...I think) being installed. I like to keep a number of projects going and jump from one to another and felt the need to let the turntable rest a bit while doing the derelict spur. I really wanted to tie my programming track into the rest of the pike, so that's where I've channeled my time (as little as it's been) of late.

One more cold one Joe, and this time put the round for the house on my tab. Ho-Ho-Ho!

I really am one of Santa's helpers you know...So I hope you've been good this year!

[colvinbackshop]

Mr. Beasley...............

I totally spaced out a thought I had regarding your idea of a skating rink. You could model a relatively small rink in front of a mirror on a side backdrop! This would make it look huge!

If you ever do that diorama, please let me know. I too have some skater figures, but will most likely never use them on the CCRY unless I do a four seasons thing around the wall (which has been given some thought) but doubt I'll ever do.

Anyway....I have some figures that are near and dear to me, coming from a very special (he really got me going on building my present pike) friend, Allan Morrel. He too was from MA and I could share those figures, knowing that they would be going "back home" again, so to speak. Especially to a real fan of skating.....

[mikesmowers]

  Morning all, Joe I'll have a coffee and Fried eggs and some of you own jack rabbit sausage.

   We got about 1 1/2 inches of rain during the night, the creek is running good, the ponds have a little water in them, the train room is still dry and it's cool and wet. Sounds like a good day to stay in the train room. I may do a little cleaning in there today will probley have guest comming and going this weekend.  You all know what happens when you try to run your trains when you have guest, right   Will check back in later.  Happy Holidays.                 Mike 

[mikesmowers]

Howdy all, Joe I need a beer, looks as if has been slow here today. Maybe things will pick up after the holidays.   Still need some some more train time, seems like something always comes up, know what I mean?   Later...Mike

[jeffrey-wimberly]

It rained here most of the day. Rain, high winds, lighning, thunder. Meanwhile, at the workshop, there were there people working today. We got 66 ammo boxes built in 7 hours. A new record! There's 34 yet to go. Once they're done, the whole shipment of 500 boxes can be sent out.

[mikesmowers]

  Good to see you here Jeffrey, I was starting to get a little concerned, I'd rather not drink alone. Can I buy you a drink?

 

 

                         Mike