Welcome back everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend. It looks like there was some freight car building, painting and decaling and a new layout being designed in a soon to be vacant bedroom. @Hoss congratulations to your son for serving our country and being a helicopter pilot for the U.S. Army. Let's get started. Saturday: Well, it went as expected, however I did not sleep well into Saturday morning. I did manage to get up and get the charge I needed with coffee and a few YouTube videos in the workshop. Once sufficiently woken up, I got cleaned up and headed north with the F150. It looks like all the engine work we did was a success as she drove great the whole trip with no dash lights. Once at the father in laws, the rusty wheels and dry rotted tires were removed, loaded up in his F150, taken to a tire shop and dismounted then it was off to find OEM looking wheel paint. Once that was done, we removed the rear axles to the Falcon and I was right, the wheel bearing had departed a long time ago. Those will get sent to a local shop for removal and replacement. We then had dinner and Ang and who had joined us earlier, and I went home in her car. Sunday: Did not go as planned. Another sleepless night due to severe leg cramps that have been bothering me lately. At 7:00AM, I got up, made coffee and stumbled into the workshop. Even three cups of coffee could not overcome two nights of bad sleep. The weather was not as warm either, cloudy with a north wind keeping temps in the 50s. So, I stayed indoors and rested. Later it finally warmed up to 67 so we went and grabbed a burger, then I checked the motorcycle and gave it a test run before calling it a day. Maybe next weekend. So how about you? What did you accomplish? Let us know. We'll assemble again on Friday, the 10th to start the process all over again. Until then, have a good week, stay healthy, be safe and as always... High Greens!
We were off to our son's graduation most of the weekend. Lot's of windshield time, but an excellent graduation ceremony. I managed a little time to work on the GP-18s for the W&NW project, redoing some decals. I ordered some new number board decals from Fusion Scale Graphics, added new cab numbers from a Smokebox Graphics set, and new, larger cap heralds from Bill Brillinger @ PDC. I have the second one underway and hopefully have the pair ready for weathering by next weekend. We'll see, as work has been brutal the past month. Have a great week All, -Bob T.
Good mornin to Y'all Hope Y'all had a great and very productive weekend I made some great progress on the F9M's Decals are done: Most details are on - details ready to be painted Y'all have a great week!! Wolf
Happy Monday all. This weekend I got to spend Saturday AM and yesterday afternoon on trains. The rest of the time was spent doing "errands" and thissa & thatta for the Mrs. Also early Saturday afternoon while I was out I dropped by the Raleigh Train Show. Didn't buy much but did pick up a few goodies. Most of my visit there was talking to a local hobby shop owner at his both, then spent some time at the NMRA booth local chapter. Yesterday I spent time weathering a few cars that needed... well, weathering. Also weathered the F7 ABA units. Those only now need couplers, diaphragms, and then some speed matching on the decoders. After I weathered the new Milwaukee Road boxcar, I put it on the layout to do some work. Everyone have a great week ahead.
Saturday-As expected, I didn’t get any modeling done with my brother in law and his family in town, but I did have a captive audience to bore to tears-showed off the benchwork so far and described the way forward. He was in town from New Orleans last week for a work event and his family came up over the weekend. They may move out here for her career in a few years so we showed them around the area and just got caught up in general. Sunday we took the whole gaggle into Old Town for brunch and some sightseeing. Whenever they got busy with their baby I kept looking at bridges over the Chicago River. I think I’ve convinced myself to make a bascule bridge-using a Walthers or Kato double track truss as the base and then scratchbuilding the rest of the structure. Fellas-don’t (let your children) forget about Mother’s Day next weekend. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Happy Monday, yet another weekend has disappeared. Definitely went too fast and didn't go much as planned. Friday night after dinner, I had planned to spend a little time at the workbench but the wife wanted help with some stuff so no train time. Saturday was the neighborhood yard sale. Did okay but after that all day, clean up, and a quick trip to the grocery store, I was done in. Sunday started off okay. When I did finally get to the workbench, I managed to complete the dcc install I had planned. Then put a second coat of paint on one of the hopper car I had actually planned to start decaling since I noticed there was a ridge along the car on both sides that didn't get covered with the new color as well as I though originally. The decals for the gons didn't work out so back t the search on that. My stomach was bothering me a little all morning and it got little worse as the afternoon so when the decals didn't pan out, I pretty much decided I wasn't up to continuing for the day. That about wraps it up. Hope you all have a great week!
Howdy everyone. I spent a handful of hours over the weekend working on a benchwork and track plan for a spare bedroom in my house. Here's what I got so far...
I spent Saturday sorting and reboxing the majority of my uncle's HO collection, his books and DVD's. He passed in November 2022 and since I'm the "Family Train Geek" now, I have been slowly dealing with it all. I will have a table or two at the Pensacola Railfest in two weeks to sell a bunch of it off - proceeds to go into the family trust my uncle left behind to help care for my cousin, who is physically disabled. I was rewarded for my slavish like work with dinner out with the family - which was really a delayed birthday dinner for me as well since i turned 53 on Wednesday. Sunday was yardwork day (!), Laundry and helping my youngest daughter cook dinner for the family as part of a Girl Scout Journey.
Very little, yet again... Been sick since mid-last week. Muddled through the work schedule. Car broke down. Fun stuff. What little was accomplished amounted to accidentally finding a package of (N) BLMA lift rings I had been searching for a long time in my mess. Why was it where I found it? Oh well. I have found it. Until I misplace it again.
Friday, I finished adding all the detail parts to the 40' Brick Boxcar and it is ready for painting, also picked out the cars I was going to take to the club to run on Saturday. Saturday, went to the club and picked up my new DT&I SD38's that I had ordered, since I knew these were coming I made up a train of all RBL and XLI boxcars that were in Campbell Soup Service. After I got home did not do any modeling and we watched a strange movie "Burn after Reading" a black comedy about the CIA etc. Sunday, I did the laundry and while at it painted the Southern Brick Boxcar and assembled and painted an Atlas 23,500 Gal Tank Car kit and an Intermountain Railway ACF 4650 CF Covered Hopper kit. Here is the completed 40' South Brick Boxcar before painting! Rick Jesionowski
Family arrived and we enjoyed a nice weekend. Managed to squeeze in a little railfanning and made a start on another batch of puffball trees.
The weather pretty much dictated what got done this weekend. It also dictated my pain level which was from moderate to high. I got some laundry done with the basket lifting and moving them from floor to done by my kids. We ran out to Target and PetSmart. On Sunday I did some light sweeping around the kitchen and breakfast nook. I had enough fur to make another animal. Te cats denied any of the fur was theirs and blamed it all on the dog. I brought an almost empty bin from the basement so the wife could put the last of the Easter decorations away. I am debating if I can carry the bin back to its spot in the basement or if I will require assistance. There was one incident this weekend that deserves its own place. At approximately 5 AM Saturday morning my wife and I are rudely awoken by the sound of our smoke detector. It made five loud screeches. We both get up and I throw on my slippers and a jacket. I then go around and investigate every room in the house from the attic to the basement. Finding nothing I now venture outside and walk around the house. Satisfied there is nothing going on I reenter the house and into the kitchen I go. Suddenly I am ambushed by 3 cats, a dog, and 2 Guinea pigs who demand their breakfasts now. Since 5 AM is their usual feeding time during the week I give in. After they are fed I return to bed and pull the covers up. As soon as I start to drift off the smoke alarm goes off again. This time I go rummaging for a new 9V battery and upon finding it I replace the old battery. The alarm has not made a peek since. If this is the new low battery warning, this particular alarm is not long for our house. I ran another long train this weekend. Using my new Atlas Master Series Silver edition Penn Central GP40’s. I ran a manifest train of 34 cars. I did have trouble with four cars that required me to pull them out of service. All were 50 ft boxcars. They were two Athearn blue box kits and one 1st generation Athearn RTR car. The fourth is a brand new Rivarossi car. I managed to video the run.
Three cups of coffee! W&NW looking cool! F9M's looking very crisp. I love it when a new boxcar goes to work! I love it when a gaggle goes to brunch. I too have learned to postpone delicate work if not feeling well. Spare room layout looks interesting. Sounds like a 53-year-old is well fed. I am hoping that sick and car breakdown go away permanently. Anticipating seeing the new paint job on brick car. We have a returning "puff ball champion"! Caution! Those Guinea pigs are mean when riled. Friday seems another world away. Prolly' worked on window frames or glazing. Glazing on Saturday. Left at 2P.M. to go to granddaughter's graduation at University of Alabama. I never seen so many graduates! And this was just one college group. Huge numbers out there. Sunday was off day. Earlier was cutting window frames from excess glazing material. Next, more of the same. I hope to install all these into walls soon. Have a safe healthy week.
Friday, my wife and I headed into Canton to visit a friend from the equestrian ministry that we volunteer with who was in the hospital with multiple abdominal inflammations. On the way, we stopped at the County Humane Society to drop off a donation of several months worth of newspapers to help in caring for the animals there. On the way home we stopped at the BSA Scout Council office to pick up some forms and merit badge books for Horsemanship and Railroading, got gas (because Canton stations were 30 cents per gallon less), and then a stop at Kohl's for some towels that my wife uses to make cute hooded animal towels for kids (and adults). Not much else was accomplished other than starting some laundry and ordering my books for the summer semester. Saturday, we were up an moving early for a trip to the aforementioned equestrian ministry in Magnolia (about 45 minutes) to volunteer for the day's Kids' Club activities. About a dozen kids played games, had lessons on grooming, leading horses, saddling, horse anatomy and, of course, lunch. By the time all the kids were picked up and we drove home, we were pretty well done for the day. Another load of laundry was started but not much else. Sunday, was Children's Sunday at church, then a quick lunch, an even shorter visit at the home of a church member for their 60 birthday open house, then out the the Sebring Model Railroad Club for our monthly business meeting. At that meeting our new 75th Anniversary (technically last year) freight cars were unveiled and released for sale (I will post something in the Special Run forum later this week). As a result, as treasurer, I was very busy collecting dues and payments for the anniversary cars, as well as a few hundred dollars from sales at the last train show. After our meeting, a few more details were discussed about a revision that will be made to our port facility which is currently under construction. Apparently, one siding was not properly accounted for, and now requires us to move a seawall to make room for it. In any case, progress continues. In the evening, I finished my laundry and dabbled at sorting out stuff I brought home from Dad's workshop, but not much else.
Thank you. It took some negotiating back and forth (reducing colors, etc.) to get it to look nice but still hit a price point that we thought was reasonable. We are pleased with the end result. We purchased two runs of 50 cars (same car with two road numbers). If we sell all 100 of them then we will consider producing other special runs in the future which might be a more general (not specifically an anniversary) club car.
True Confessions I've been cheating on my layout. Yep. I admit it. I have been under the thrall of my game, (EDCE). I promise I'll try to get some time in. Well, enjoy the week everyone.
I applied some additional paint, grabs and ladders to my Joe in progress. Working on the chassis this week. Coming along... Cheers -Mike
Friday: Went according to plan. Picked up a few groceries at the local store and Costco. Grabbed some lunch with my mother-in-law’s friends. The eye appointment took longer than expected. Bonus time for me as I don’t go into the clinic. Filled the time with a nice long walk along the old Chehalis Western right-of-way turned trail. The Reign won their soccer match in dramatic fashion that evening. Completed my drawing for the next, hopefully final, iteration of boiler. Enjoy the utter simplicity of conical sections tilted slightly from the horizontal. Saturday: Drove to Kelso in the rain for the train show. I didn’t make any purchases, but thoroughly enjoyed myself. There were a few layouts running including Lionel, FreeMoN, T-trak and Z. I checked out several tables, pawed through the boxes of free magazines and chatted with a couple folks about books and laser engravers. Nice way to spend a morning. After a couple stops to buy some jigsaw blades, I treated myself to a cheeseburger at regional institution Burgerville. Then more driving through the rain back to Shelton. Sunday: Started off with morning soccer. Another win! Then we were off for some bacon and eggs followed by a quick stop at the grocery store. Weather was reasonably good, so we went for a long walk. Dinner was Mexican for Cinco de Mayo. The final soccer match of the weekend was a draw. All in all, a good weekend. Got the necessities taken care of and had a little entertainment. Stay safe,
Saturday was a weird one. Early, I worked on a CN SD40-2W that's been sitting on the to-do list far too long (the de-DCC-fying job). Amazing how some wires come loose when you're not even touching them. Some of the lighting wires needed a re-soldering, as did one of the motor wires (it didn't move anymore). It seems my relationship with small wires is about the same as that of Sideshow Bob's relationship with rakes... I have better luck soldering surface mount components the size of poppy seeds to circuit boards... Later that morning, I made a trip up to a tool and work equipment store north of here, basically checking out the place for small tools and stuff. Came back with some goodies. Call it a Toy'R'Us for big boys... But Saturday afternoon, despite the skies clearing out, I was so tired I slept the whole time. Sunday was better. Not as busy but felt a lot better than Saturday. The one who coined the advertising slogan "You're not getting older, you're getting better" needs a good talkin-to...
