Sue and Larry, good for the two of you! You've taken a very challenging problem and turned it into an opportunity for an interesting scenic and operational addition to your layout. Next thing you know, they'll be asking to film the 1:87 version of Emperor of the North on your layout.
Oh, the Sox lost, by the way. Valiant effort, 2-1. We got to see a few sparkling defensive plays, including a guy thrown out at second stealing (good,) and a guy cut down at the plate trying to make it around from second on a short single to right (not so good, from the Red Sox point of view.) Anyway, we had some beers and hot dogs, and a great view. My beer-du-jour was either Whale Tale Ale (from Nantucket, MA) or Whale Tail Ale (from Old Orchard Beach, Maine.) I've been doing my research, but I'm not sure which one it was yet. No bottle caps; it was on tap.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MrB,
The bridge will be Larry's project. I just backseat drive like he does on many of my projects.
Today I mostly worked on my stock yard. I ran out of scale 2 x 6's so I will not get it finished this weekend. I can complete everything except the gates and the loading chute. I am only short 1 or 2 sticks. When I get that complete, I can return to landscaping. Larry needs my lay of the land before he can do much with the bents.
I need to be working on outside fence, but keep working on inside fence. Hmmm. What is wrong with this picture?
It has been quiet around here. Is everyone on vacation?
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Mr. B,
I am some what gealous. I too am a Red Sox Fan. I was there a number of years ago. I sat behind home plate for the first game.ur second game was up on the roof along 3rd. base line. It was great.
GUB
Good morning...Just a coffee to go please.
Got to get to work this morning, but should be done by early afternoon. And I plan on working a bit in the Trainroom during the heat of the day.
Sue, I'll snap a picture or two of what I have in place regarding the wyes.....
Win or loose, a ball game is great fun! I am envious! Haven't been to one this year yet, but I love to listen on the radio! A childhood thing, I guess, with both Dad and Grandpa always with an ear to the radio!
Gotta' run.
Morning, gents. How about Life cereal with bananas and those fresh blueberries this morning? And some coffee, too. Thanks.
My first pro baseball game was the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson. I still remember that first high fly ball. I thought it was going to the moon, but it was just a routine out to center.
My layout is in the "family room," so I have to share it with the family. Last night, I had to be careful going up there, because my daughter was there with her boyfriend making out. Well, at least they didn't leave a mess like Mike's dog....
Good morning. Coffee only, I will be sitting in the back corner booth.
JB, I will look forward to your photos.
MrB, Have you been working on your layout? I know that it is BB season and that does take up much of your time.
I made gates for my stock yard and part of the loading chute. It may be a couple of days before I get back to it.
Better get ready for work, Sue
gear-jammer wrote: Good morning. Coffee only, I will be sitting in the back corner booth.MrB, Have you been working on your layout? I know that it is BB season and that does take up much of your time.
Hey, sorry about the "Morning, Gents" greeting before, Sue. I didn't see you sitting back there. Takes a while for my old eyes to adjust coming inside on these bright sunny mornings. Are you always up this early?
Yes, I am still working on the layout. It's "foundation" work, though, putting in the flat base for the Saint Anne Street shopping district, and some styrene base to contain the water putty roads. It's all foam scraps and plaster cloth, so not much to photograph. (Besides, I don't know where the camera is. One of the ladies has it. Can't be gone much longer, though. I've got the cradle with the charger.) This time, I was smart enough to remember to cut the sidewalk pieces at the same time as the base, so I could use one as a template for the other. Last night, I was down in the shop replacing lamps in an old, old light tower. I couldn't find any directly-compatable bulbs, so I got some others and drilled out the original mounts to fit. I've run out of shrink-tubing, so I'm customizing a bit with the insulation. I think I'll try some of that paint-on stuff.
Afternoon Everyone;
Well, in a little over 2 hours I'll be leaving for home, where we are all meeting for our California trip. I may be just a little excited. Driving to Buffalo and staying overnight .... then....
At anyrate I won't be back til the 30th at the earliest. Have a couple rounds on me. See yas all when I get back.
Good evening all. I'll have a Porter and I'll buy a round for the house too.
Mr.B...A win is a win...No matter the false start, and with the old timers making the difference had to be a good HIGH!
I had a pretty good day with work, chores around the house, a music rehearsal for Showboat and ...YES, some time in the Trainroom too. Mostly I was jus puttering with making some trees but did get a few more things laid out at Sawbill Jct.
Here are the shots of the wyes:
First the overview of Cascade with it's Tara-Foama. This will be home base for Sawyer Lumber Camp #6. This camp has been, and will be place for some time with large reserves of pine log and also pulp down the "leg". With an old boxcar as a storage shed, caboose for the foreman's quarters and office, metal engine house, kitchen / dining hall / cold storage...And some day, a few bunk houses up the hill from the tracks.
Overall of the East end of Sawbill Jct. looking toward Headstrom Lumber and East to the wye.
A little closer look.
I'll have one more, then I need to trudge home. I have to be at the pool early tomorrow and will be there for a LONG day. On the other hand I'll once again have my workweek in. Gotta' love that!
JB, Thanks for sharing the wye shots. I especially liked the abandoned track. Fun.
We might get some layout work done this weekend because the rain isn't due to let up until Monday. I have not even looked at my stockyard since Tuesday when I went to work. My original intent was to prestain the pieces prior to assembly, but with all those tiny pieces, I was sure that I would loose some. Sooooooooo, we will see.
Later, Sue
Hey J.B. nice looking work there, and that old retired track segment leading off into the edge is a great effect.
It is close to quitin time for me!
I see a beer in my future.....
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
Howdy, everybody. Joe, I'll have an Anchor Steam and a bowl of peanuts.
As a special operation for the 21st of July, I put down four yards of flex and extended the track to the end of the roadbed (temporarily ignoring a turnout that will have to be built.) No power leads, no jumpers, nothing but feeding from the fixed end through the rail joiners (Sacrilege!) The designated derailment checker bobbled on some of the joints, but stayed on the rails. Finally, after the work train and the derailment checker got into the clear, I ran a standard goods train and a coal unit from one end of the railroad to the other.
What's the special occasion? I hit the big seven zero today. Hopefully, it won't hit back!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Chuck!
Congratulations on the 12' of flex on the layout, oh, and Happy Birthday!
I'll raise an Anchor Steam too in your honor!
Cheers,
Ryan
Joe, I'd like to buy the gentleman another Anchor Steam for his birthday. While your at it, set up the house. Hey, happy b'day, young man! See how this hobby keeps you young? You don't type a day over 50.
Good morning:
Well...I see I missed a birthday celebration last evening! But, I'll buy a big breakfast for Chuck this morning. And a big Happy Birthday to you! Hope that you had a GREAT day! We too, hope this birthday doesn't "hit back" and that you'll many more!!
Also sounds like you are getting a lot accomplished on the pike. Always a good feeling to be able to run and have the trackwork, locos and rolling stock all happy with one another.
Showboat went well last week, playing to about 2000 with four shows. The hard day was yesterday with both a matinee' and an evening show...But they both were good and we kept the energy level up.
I have the day off today, except for a few chores, and plan to spend plenty of time in the Trainroom. I can even justify it....It's raining this morning, so ANY of those outdoor duties are on hold. Gotta' get out here and do something!!
Chuck. Hope that it was a good one.
Thanks to everyone for the good wishes, though, to be honest, I don't FEEL any older.
Well, after the special run it was reality check time. The temporary flex came up, then I retreated to the site of the first turnout I haven't built yet and went to work with raw rail and files to rectify the situation. This one's a spring switch, so no switch machine or manual throw required. When I quit working today it only lacked two guard rails and about a hundred 'fill-in' spikes - effectively operational, just not 'finished.' (The derailment checker was happy with it, even without guardrails.)
I posted my specific comments to Weekend Photo Fun, so I won't repeat them here. You folks are making me jealous!
So long, everybody. Tomorrow I'll finish that switch.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in 1964)
Good morning all..... A BIG coffee for starters Joe. Gotta' have some stimulant first and then I'll have the breakfast special.
This past week has been REALLY hot, humid and uncomfortable! With the pool down for maintenance, the climate control is also down. When we're running (water in the pool and activities underway) the ambient air is a constant 84 - 85 degrees F. with a humidity of about 45%. Now, I'll give you this certainly can be seen as a warm environment to work in, but now we're just moving outside air.....Soooo....When it's 90+ coupled with very high dew-points, a fella' can work for about 20 minutes before being totally drenched in sweat!!
After three long shifts this week, I was totally out of gas" even though drinking tons of water and eating like a pig! Thankfully, with my flex schedule I had plenty of time off yesterday before showtime and did NOTHING except play in the Trainroom. Also to be thankful for, we had a good rain shower in the afternoon and it cooled considerably (mid 70's) before showtime. And with that...
The third and final week of Showboat performances had a great start with a beautiful evening, a high energy show and a high energy audience of about 700. Really looking forward to doing it again this evening with much dryer and cooler temps., clear skis and an almost full moon!
Trainroom work for the past week has been assembly of a Kibri storage and maintenance structure. It's actually part of a large "factory complex" kit that I picked up a few years ago. The large brick and "add on" structures of this kit are slated to be "August Meininger Brewing" but I never could see the use of this portion in that setting. But, while laying out the lumber yard at the E. end of Sawbill I realized a "spot" on the other side of the team track that could benefit with an addition something??? So, I went to the warehouse (I have boxes of "stuff" in storage) to hunt for that something, finding this kit. The footprint fit and construction began, so I'll now have the lumber yard on both sides of the track and a much busier place too.
If all goes as planed (I again have the day off except for the show) I hope to get some garden work done, then to play in the Trainroom, finishing up that little building.
BTW Chuck: What is your derailment checker?
Hi everyone - a big cold glass of fresh-squeezed OJ for me this morning. Hot in the Northeast, too, and I've got to keep my fluid level up. It's supposed to cool off for the weekend, but we may get some rain at the same time.
Annie's swim team is four-and-oh. The final dual meet of the season is tomorrow. To be honest, I don't think they've got a snowball's chance in Global Warming of winning this one, but I would have said that two weeks ago, too. This is the team that actually recruits swimmers, though, and it's a much bigger club, so they'll have their work cut out for them.
With a bit of bad weather I might get some layout time in over the next couple of days. I've got the Saint Anne Street block all prepped for the "paving crew" to come in and lay down the Durhams Water Putty road. The sidewalks are all painted and almost ready to put down once the roads are in, and I've punched the holes through for the streetlamps and fire hydrants. The cobblestones are all painted, weathered and glued in place for the trolley stop, too, but I've got some scenery work to do around it before it's ready for prime time.
Last night I started working on the Bowser PCC trolley, which has deteriorated over recent weeks to the point where I had to pull off the scenery liftoffs over the subway to get it out of the tunnel. By the end of the evening I had it running well again. I think all it needed was a good cleaning, but that involved pulling out the axles and washing the contact bushings with alcohol to clean out all the crud.
'Morning, everybody. Large coffee and a doughnut, Joe - and keep the change.
From reading around, it seems that Spacemouse and some of the other folks have acquired the summertime blues. Sure hope it isn't contagious!
JB, you asked about my derailment checker. It's a special train of 4-wheel freight cars, mostly dating from the early 1960's, which are variously too light, have pizza-cutter flanges (or worse. Would you believe trapezoidal flanges?) or are otherwise extra-sensitive to less-than-perfect track. Motive power is D50380, a 2-8-2 which is fine running forward, but will drop a tender truck on the ties in a heartbeat, especially when pushing a load backwards upgrade. If I can get that conglomeration of rolling disasters to run through newly-laid trackwork at track speed in both directions facing both ways I can be sure that nothing else I own will even hiccup on the same stretch of rails.
Well, the Boss wants to get started, so I'll have to cut this short. I'll try to get back for a brew or two after the Tour de Shops.
A PBR please.Chuck,thanks for the tip about using cars that derail too often to locate track defects,your advice will be very usefull.I have some cars with sprung trucks and shallow flanges which derail at the drop of a hat. Been a long day loading a unit train of wheat at work,thanks for the beer. Joe
Afternoon all, Joe I'll have a ice cold lemonaid in one of your frozen mugs, Yea that hit the spot.
Been hot here also with the temps reaching neer 100 deg. mark. to hot to do much, like some of you others the humidity is up there also.
Was moving the forks on a forklift Tuesday afternoon and pulled my back and have been home since. The doc says I should be back to normal by Monday. I sure hope so. I think I know what you are thinking, and no, not much work on the train. The doc has me on pain pills and muscle relaxers, I have spent most of the time either sleeping or chasing the little pink elephants out of the house! When I take the pain pills I hardley know who I am let alone find the train room. LOL
I am in the process of repairing the hand rail on my new SF loco that the dog broke. I am also weathering the loco and the ATSF caboose. I have a question about weathering, When I use alchol and very fine dirt and such as a weathering agent, When the alchol dries it leaves a white film on the plastic, what can be done about this?
Joe, set me up with another cold lemonaid and any one elece thats wants one. Later. Mike
Well, it's 5:00 somewhere. I will have a Long Island Ice Tea.
It was a long week and I need to kick back. It finially made 80 here. Wednesday and Thursday were predicted in the 80's. WRONG. Today they said 75. Guess what? It still is 80.
BTW: Check out Larry's Shay video on Photo Fun this week.
I'll have a cold one too...And a round for the house.
Just got home from the show...Another great one playing to around 900 tonight! One more and we put the show away for another year. So far it's been a blast.
Joseph..Welcome aboard. A unit train? Are you working at an elevator?
And Chuck, I guess I do pretty much the same with cars that haven't been checked for gauge or weighted. On the other hand some of those won't run through anything, even if it's all just right!
Mike, do you have any Dull-Cote on those cars? If so, that is your problem with the whiteness coming through. A reaction between the alcohol and the Dull-Cote, it's a given and adds a nice weathering when that is the look you are looking for, but not so good when it's not.
I did get the extra Headstrom Lumber structure finished today.....Almost. I've ended up doing a bit of bashing, leaving open some additional areas and eliminating a set of big doors, but at least it's together! Now for filling a few of the holes where stuff was supposed to be, and of course needing of some extra painting and weathering.
Good morning gang: A BIG breakfast with coffee and an OJ please, Joe.
Sue, nice video! Seems you guys have that Shay tuned pretty well.
Mike, sorry to hear of your back problems. Weren't you just laid up with that earlier this year? I ask, because I have dealt with some major back problems for 20+ years now. Sometimes the "regular" doctors don't really have a handle on the causes. Yes, the pills work in relieving the symptoms, but do nothing for the causes.
At this point I have no disk left at L5 and also have some arthritics (calcification) there! Over the years, I have had the best help with a combination of an orthopedic Dr. (no surgery) but referrals for physical therapy and an occasional chiropractor. Just some food for thought....
Mr. B, good luck to you and Annie at today's meet! Get your fingers nimble for fast action with the stopwatch and tell Annie to swim HARD and have FUN. With my not coaching this summer I've had a lot of extra time....The garden looks better and I've had WAY more time to play in the Trainroom. On the other hand, I do miss it and I'm thinking that it will be pretty hard to pull back once the girls season is under way.
Well...I'm on my way out to the garden to pick beans, peas and broccoli this morning before retreating to the Trainroom.....Before showtime again this evening.
JB,
Thanks for the kind words. You might have noticed our logging company, S & L Timber. Larry did the decals.
I am sorry to hear about you guys and your back troubles. I feel blessed to have avoided it so far.
Have fun on your trainroom retreat today.
Howdy, Y'all. Joe, set me up with two fingers of Jim Beam, then see what these othuh fine folk are a'drinkin'.
Okay, enough of the hokey Tennessee accent (I lived there for twelve years, and still define yawl as a two masted, fore-and-aft rigged sailing craft with the mizzen mast stepped aft of the rudder post.) Today was one of those, "A little bit of everything, not very much of anything," days. During my daily sojurn to the layout space, I:
Then I came back in and had breakfast. Thanks to our present daily temperature profile, the layout space is only inhabitable in the very early morning. (Went out there to get one of those Pepsi botles after the NASCAR race finished - temperature was 110 degrees.)
Well, the Tour de Farce is over for another year. Ho-hum. (I used to railfan by bicycle back when I could actually chase the JNR. One of my favorite routes went up the valley of the Tamagawa to the big dam at the top, and more than slightly resembled one of the Alpine stages. Nice thing was, I could coast almost all the way home. Some interesting bridges, a power plant and the railroad museum at Ome made the rides worthwhile.)
Sue, I liked Larry's latest video. That run out to the end of oblivion rather resembles the way I operate! No scenery yet, so I have nothing to challenge that raw-log beam bridge. Nice.
MisterBeasley, I hope that all came out well at the big meet. When will we get a report?
Well, time to toddle off to bed - walking, not driving, Joe. Thanks for your concern.
Morning, all. I'll have some of that fine coffee, and maybe a bowl of Life cereal with blueberries and cream. Thanks.
The swim meet, believe it or not, got rained out at the end. It's an outdoor pool, and once we heard thunder we had to shut it down. I don't know the protocol on this. Maybe they don't count it, or maybe they just take the score at the time of suspension. Either way, as the league T-shirts say, "Every swimmer is a winner."
After that, I took Annie car shopping. We got her a 99 Corolla with only 64 thousand miles on it, in great shape. Basically, that's exactly the kind of car I wanted for her. All the extra air-bags, too. We pick it up today. At last, I won't have to keep adjusting the seat and turning off the screaming on the radio.
Sue and Larry, your videos are great. I love all the "action" on the shay. I'd love to have one, but it just wouldn't belong on my layout. Maybe someday I'll have more space...
Chuck, it's good to see that you can get a bit of work in on your layout. I've got AC in my train room, and it's often the only habitable room in the house, by my standards. Still, I didn't get to spend a lot of time there this weekend. And yeah, I'll agree with you about the Tour. I was enjoying it until they started pulling out more riders for drug problems. Then I just followed it a bit on-line, but skipped the TV coverage. It was on too late, and there were way too many commercials. Of course, since the TV is in the train room, I could get up and work on scenery during the ad breaks - got quite a bit done that way!
Good Morning Everyone;
I'll have a coffee and an English Muffin if you please. Thankyou.
Well... we are back. 11 Days in beautifull California and 1 day in Vegas. It was great. We did get to do a few rail related things.
First was the Roaring Camp and Big Timber Raiload. This was my first, as well as everyone with me, ride on live steam. We do have live steam nears us in St. Thomas but for one reason or another have never ridden it. I also remember as a kid in the early sixties seeing steam locomotives on the CN tracks near my grand parents house. But these memories are quite vaque. Obviously, I didn't realize the signifcance of steam at that time. The ride at Roaring Camp was great, if you ignore the hundreds of people milling about who had or have little interest in steam. Seeing the huge Redwoods was a bonus. I would deffinitely recommend this to anyone who has any interest in "Live Steam".
Second was the Train Shop in Santa Cruz. Actually this was my first stop. Someone had said this was the best Train store in california. Since I have nothing to compare it to (in California) I would have to say it was great. Picked up a couple of books, some supplies and tools that have never seem back home.
Third and perhaps the best was The Wine Train. What better way to combine my three favorite pastimes, wine, food and trains. Of course we had reservations for the 'Vista Dome" car. We figured this was the only way to go. We were not disapointed one bit with any aspect of the experience. Yes it was a little pricey, but it is a once in a life-time experience. Right?
Well I guess I should do something on my last day of freedom. Tomorrow, back to work. A necesary evil to pay for the next vacation. Will check back in later.