Thanks Rich, Ed and Mike! Bear, you're always good for a few laughs!
It been another three weeks since I posted an update. How time flies!
31 March 2023
I continued working on the stock pens in early March, focusing on the gates for a few days.
On the 13th I uploaded a short video of a sugar beet train on its way to Holly Sugar in Worland, from Casper.
These videos will look a lot better when I get more scenery done!
Middle of the month I started extending the CNW line west fgrom Hudson, onto the new benchwork.
Then it was back to the stock pens on the 19th. After placing several of the pens in their approximate locations I came to the conclusion that the "ground" was just too uneven for the pens to look right when placed. Also, the entire set of pens will be very fragile, since they'll be connected to each other only through a scale 1X6 over the top of the gate posts. I decided to mount the pens on a chunk of foam board, then install that onto the layout when construction is complete. Here I'm trying out how it will all fit at the siding:
And that was it for the pens for now.
Back over at Hudson, I installed the subroadbed for a coal spur just west of Hudson. This will require a code 55 turnout which I have to build, and a couple sticks of code 55 track, which I don't have right now. But the subroadbed is in place at least.
On the 20th I laid the first couple sticks of track west of Hudson towards Lander.
The same day I started adding skyboard over the new benchwork to Lander. By the 22nd it looked like this:
And on the early morning of the 24th I finished hanging all the skyboard sheets for both the Lander and Greybull areas.
About 9:30 that morning Dave from Basin arrived to help me make some much-needed adjustments to the Casper yard throat and caboose track.
A few months ago Dave, a retired BN engineer who ran the line between Casper and Cody, told me that Casper yard, despite being a fairly substantial yard, never had a drill track! Switching was done off the main (what a violation of model railroad rules!!).
I'd been planning on moving the caboose track up near the yard throat in order to extend the A/D track half a dozen car lengths or more towards Douglas, since running all the way down the yard to pick up or drop off cabooses was a real pain. Then Dave made a very simple suggestion - flip around the two turnouts that tie the drill and runaround tracks to the yard ladder, giving direct access from the mainline to the runaround track. As a bonus, the old drill track becomes a much longer caboose track, right where it's most convenient!
On the 24th he showed up to help me make those changes.
This isn't a real good picture of the area before we made the changes, but you can see the area in the distance.
The mainline is on the right, curving around the engine facility in the distance. The track just to the left of it, which ends about halfway around the curve, was the drill track.
You can see the yard ladder in the center to left part of the image, and the runaround track just behind it. The spur to the icing platform and east end industries come off the runaround at the turnout at the left end of the runaround track. That configuration meant that strings of reefers going from the mainline to the icing platform had to zig-zag back and forth from the mainline onto the drill track and then up to the icing tracks. That was a back-and-forth, back-and-forth movement for each cut. What a pain!
The caboose track was at the opposite end of the yard, off frame in the foreground.
We spent about five hours working on the area, rearranging the two turnouts and adding short sdections of new track as needed to tie everything back together. This is what it looked like late that evening. You can see a couple of cabooses in their new home on the old drill track:
I decided against extending the A/D track around the curve towards Douglas. Trains longer than the A/D track will be worked on the main, and the caboose track wil become another small industry siding.
On the 25th I got the repair part I needed for my 3D printer (that's a whole 'nuther story), and got it back in commission. On the 26th I printed out another small house for North Casper.
I also printed the loading ramp floors for the stock pens. These are far too long and will be cut to length when I get around to that part of the pens construction.
I also printed out a bunch of oil drilling pipe racks.
While I was doing all that printing I patched the seams in the new skyboards with Testors and Tamiya styrene putty. A couple days of patching and sanding and patching again gave me passable results, and on the 28th I painted the sky.
On the 29th I wired the new track (all six feet of it!) west of Hudson and ran a locomotive over it as a test.
Yesterday the weather was pretty decent with the temperature over 50 degrees outside, so I took the two printed houses I'd made and painted them with rattlecan paint.
And now we're up to date! I'm going to focus on building the turnout for the Hudson coal spur and then get back to the stock pens, I think.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
Wow Mark! Looking great! I had to do a scroll through, and do some catching up.
Glad to hear your surgery went well.
I've been through a bit of gauntlet myself the last few months. All is good!
Mike.
My You Tube
I sure appreciate how much effort you have put into documenting and sharing your progress here, Mark. Especially helpful is your further explanations of things that didn't quite go as expected and your determination to carry on in spite of setbacks weather large or small.
An Inspiration to us all
Regards, Ed
Mean spirited by Bear, on Flickr
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Pruitt Here's a view looking across the room from near Casper. Lots of lumber in this room now! The layout footprint in the room is now complete.
Here's a view looking across the room from near Casper. Lots of lumber in this room now! The layout footprint in the room is now complete.
Rich
Alton Junction
Thanks John!
Bear, thanks for posting the link to my latest update video.
Bear and Rich, if my ego ever gets too inflated, I know where to go to get it cut back down to size!
Dave, thanks for the kind words. Sadly, when cleaning some resin off the LED screen, I managed to scratch it. I'm now waiting for a replacement screen. That was a very costly error!
10 March 2023
To bring things fully up to date...
Here's the final finished Lander benchwork:
Now it just needs track!
The workbench is now stuffed under the Douglas benchwork:
At the end of February I began working on a small house I wanted to try making with my 3D printer. Here's the real house:
And here's two printed versions. Usually you can just pull the part away from the supports on the finished print, but the roof is so thin it tore up when I did that on the first print, the one on the left. The print on the right I cut the supports away.
I may use the one on the left as an abandoned building somewhere on the layout.
I put Tichy doors and windows in place on the good print:
The last few days I've been focusing mostly on preparing for an operating session and working on the Powder River stock pens. Here's the first few sections of fencing as of early March:
And here's the latest picutre I've taken, on 6 March. Coming along alowly:
Yesterday's operating session went pretty well. Everyone said they had a good time, and I think at least one or two weren't just being polite when they said it...
Hi Mark,
I have been eagerly awaiting your next report! Your progress continues to impress!
The hopper cars came out fine IMHO despite the hassles with the alcohol wash/dullcoat. You are likely to be the only one who notices the slight imperfections.
It was so nice that your friend Walt took the time to visit you all the way from the east coast. That's what good friends do!
I'm glad that you were able to sort out some of your 3D printing issues. I find that learning new computer processes is very hard. It doesn't help that my short term memory is very poor when it comes to learning new computer stuff. Heck, let's be honest. My short term memory is horrible when it comes to learning anything!
I hope that you are feeling well.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Well of course Mark has provided a great update but for those of us who enjoy his dulcet tones…
Well, of course, like the rest of you, I had to look that one up.
I assumed that it was just one more of Bear's mean spirited snipes at Mark's magnificent layout progress.
Dulcet: sweet and soothing. Oh! My bad. Sorry, Bear.
Actually, what I really took note of was the degree of Mark's sartorial splendor. (Look that one up.)
I simply love that button down red plaid shirt.
Thanks for the post, Mark. I don't comment often, but I read all your posts and love to see what you're working on each month.
York1 John
7 March 2023
I didn't realize how long it's been since I updated this thread. Guess I've been a bit remiss.
So lets get up to date.
I continued working on the hopper cars. By 29 January I was in the process of weathering them. I painted the beds a grey Vallejo color, more than drybrushing but not enough to completely cover the slope sheets and what-not. The car at the bottom is one that's finished with chalks applied inside.
Once all the painting of the insides was done, I began weathering the outside by applying a very thin wash of Model Masters flat black cut about 95% with alcohol. I did one side and one end of all nine cars and went upstairs for a couple hours to let it dry thoroughly. When I got back downstairs I was appalled to see wht had happened to the decals!
Come to find out, alcohol reacts with flat finishes like Dullcote (or in this case Microscale's flat finish) and creates a whitish layer! YIKES!
I found I could remove most of it by gently scraping with an Exacto knife. After as much work as I dared do, that same car looked like this:
A bit better, but I was not a happy camper. Nonetheless I pressed on, hoping the weathering would hide a multitude of sins with these decals. I finished up the entire string and put them on the layout. I took this shot on 6 February:
The decals are still obvious, and I'm not really happy with how they came out, but there's nothing more I could think to do. They don't look terrible from a distance though - say the next county over.
I also continued having problems with trying to produce decent 3D prints. I got this mess in late January:
I did get one tiny stack of crates to come out halfway decent:
But after that I kinda turned the corner with the printer. I discovered a well-hidden feature of the Anycubic printer - a print file that allows prints a group of small test articles with a variety of resin exposure times, in one print. Picking the best print out of the batch gives a close-to-optimal exposure time. Once I found that and calibrated the exposure, I started getting decent prints. Here's one of the first ones, three sets of oil drilling pipes on storage racks.
I also started having some success printing tie strips for Fast Tracks turhouts - the main reason I bought the printer to start with. Here's a right-hand set:
Here's a material handler I printed mid-February.
I bought the 3D model for a few bucks from https://www.cgtrader.com/ if anyone is interested. Searching on modelrailroad3D will bring up a bunch of scale models ready for you to print (once you run the model through the slicing program).
I've printed a bunch of other stuff as well, but I haven't put the pictures on my website yet. When I do I'll post them here.
In mid-February my frien Walt came out from New Jersey for a visit.
He's a model railroader, so we spent a lot of time with the trains. By the evening of 17 February we had the Greybull benchwork built:
And on the 18th we added the narrow benchwork that runs west of Hudson towards Lander.
Walt left on the 19th, so I soldiered on alone. I built the Lander benchwork, which is located just above Greybull. Here it is nearly complete:
That brings us up to 23 February. When I get pictures after that up on my website, I'll add an update for the last couple weeks.
I enjoyed your video, easy to listen to. I've always been interested in the machines that make our little scenery display pieces , then again I've always been interested in static grass and bought the ws static grass thingy but have never had enough nerve to really use it so i guess I better hold off on getting a 3d printer. You sir have got a lot of scenery work ahead of you. :) Its funny how quickly we learn how a jig saw and shop vac go hand in hand. Lol
Lynn
Present Layout progress
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/290127/3372174.aspx#3372174
On a serious note, it’s great to hear your promising prognosis, and long may it continue!
Another very good video, Mark.
Also, it sounds like good news on the medical front.
I hope you solve your issues with the 3D printer -- it will be fun to see what you can create.
I'm sorry to hear about the 3D printing issues and the paint problem on the hoppers. I'm sure you will be able to master the printing problems. However, the hopper cars look like a bit of a challenge.
I'm really glad to hear that your prognosis is good after the cancer surgery!
3 February 2023
I uploaded my latest layout construction update video today:
Glad to see that you are back at it!
Thanks for all the good thoughts, everyone! Recovery is continuing. I don't have a lot of stamina right now, but I can still work on the layout in small chunks.
Speaking of the layout...
22 January 2023
In early January I laid the mainline into Basin. On the 4th, the last thing I did before my surgery was wire the mainline into the buss in Basin and run a train into town.
Then I was out of it for several days. I spent two nights in the hospital, coming home on Saturday the 7th. On the 8th I ventured down the stairs (surprisingly easy - I expected to be very weak, but my legs were fine. I just had to be careful not to jar my stomach area too much) and spent a few minutes running a Doodlebug with trailer from Hudson back to Casper. Took all of ten minutes, but it felt really good! Then it was back upstairs for the rest of the day.
On the 10th and 11th I installed the ground throws for the mainline turnouts in Basin. Took about 20 minutes each, and that was all I could manage each day.
I figured sitting at the workbench would be easier, so on the 12th I began renumbering a series of Accurail hoppers with their renumbering decal sets. These will be used for beet service to Holly Sugar. I got the first one done, but the decals were breaking into pieces - one small end number broke into seven or eight slivers! I got them aligned well enough, but it was a real pain. I stopped after the first hopper. Pretty bad looking in this shot, but a few applications of Microsol and Microset helped a lot (no picture though). I ordered a bottle Microscale liquid decal film to coat the rest of the decals to keep them from breaking up. It arrived yesterday.
Over the next few days I built a siding turnout for Basin, then I began installing the siding.
By the 18th I had the Basin trackwork all complete. I wired it the next day.
Then I planned out the benchwork for Greybull, the last benchwork on the mainline.
The last couple days I spent moving the last set of tall shelves in the train room out of the way of the new section for Greybull.
This took a couple days because I can't lift very much and have to take it slow to avoid twisting the wrong way. But by yesterday the spot was cleared.
By mid-February I should be fully recovered (more or less), so I'll be able to build the Greybull benchwork and get it installed against the wall.
Its great to hear that surgery went well and that Mark is able to head back to the basement at this point.
- Douglas
PruittI'm doing fine.
That's good to hear.
Thanks,
That's great news, Mark. Keep us posted.
Thanks everyone!
I'm doing fine. At the risk of too much information, I have six holes in my stomach not counting the actual incision. They're all itching like crazy (that's good)!
Got a bit more active starting Saturday (wife drove me down to the train club), so Sunday I was a bit sore. Today I feel almost normal, and able to get around and in and out of chairs easily. That's the dangerous time - people forget they're on light effort only and often overdo it.
I've been working on the train for a few minutes a day. Getting easier. Will finish up a turnout build this afternoon.
Tomorrow is the surgical follow-up. Hopefully the pathology report will be back by then as well, and the last unknowns will be resolved.
Thanks again for all the well wishes and concern!
How are you doing? I haven't seen a post from you for five days. I hope all is progressing as it should.
Hi Mark!
Good to see you back!!
Pruitt Thanks Rich, which shirts in particular are you talking about? I'll make sure to always wear them!
Thanks Rich, which shirts in particular are you talking about? I'll make sure to always wear them!
Good news, Mark! Very happy to see you are getting better each day.
Glad you are doing well Mark, get well soon, the layout looks great!
Sheldon
Hi folks,
Yes I made it through. Pretty rough few days, but things seem to be getting easier each day.
richhotrainThat is very good news. I can't help but note that the hospital gown looks better than some of those shirts that Mark wears in his videos. Rich
I can't help but note that the hospital gown looks better than some of those shirts that Mark wears in his videos.
Went down to the train room yesterday and ran a train! Felt great!
Be a few weeks before I can drive, but later this week I hope to begin building turnouts for Basin.
Thanks for all the concern, folks!
Very nice to see our pal awake and feeling well enough to say hi. Get well very soon, Mark, and I really hope the operation will turn out to be a complete success.
-Crandell