Weekend Update - March 11, 2007

[SAH]

Took an old Atlas SD-9 apart to prep for a detail job.  Since the NKP is a bit player on the layout I think I'll use the NKP SD-9 to get my loco detailing / painting skills back in shape before I tackle the AC&Y units.  Hunted up all the details parts I've been stashing away all these years and organized photos of the proto unit.

Attended the NMRA Piedmont Div show in Marietta on Sat.  Helped staff the Central of GA Historical Society table at the show.  Met some great guys.  Bought stuff I didn't really need, as usual. :  Found a vendor with a bunch of old, old, old Arnold Rapido freight cars.  Some pretty rough, but I bought a few at 3 for $5 anyway.

BEEEuuuutiful day here Sunday = outside time.  I did spend an hour trying another bare tree technique I've been thinking about involving solid wire, heat shrink tubing and super trees.  Let's just say it was a good idea in theory . . . . .

Steve

[Mark5]

My big thing this weekend is that I bought my first new power pack in over thirty years. I had been putting this off until I got more of my layout done but ...

Intrigued by the rather substantially different test results between my Bmann H16-44 and Lee's (see Bmann H16 thread) - the thread inspired me to get a new power pack ...

I got a MRC Tech 4 220, and wow, welcome to the 1990s! (last "power pack" I bought was a MRC 500N Throttlepack back in say 1974). I also have a Cama cab control which I am certain is decent - but this needs to be wired into the layout, which is still under construction.

The results were better than I expected  (I expected improvement!) - this power pack instantly transformed my worst performer (the Bmann H16-44) into a decent runner (it was a Jack Rabbit). It can now crawl!

The Bmann H16-44 is still a tiny bit "coggy" at slow speeds (as I would expect from a 3 pole motor) but I'm pretty impressed.

This power pack along with my cama cab should easily hold me over until I get around to DCC.  ;D

[pnolan48]

Pete, that couple in the tobacco barn look like they've got other things on their mind than curing tobacco! Litttle touches like that keep visitors form focusing on the whole railroad at once, don't they? 

That's Jeanne. We have a murder scene down by the docks, a prison crew cleaning up some tracks, a redlight district, a graveyard scene, and on and on and on. It's OK by me, as long as it stay reasonable. I have nixed Superman bridging the rails.

[pnolan48]

Pete, how did you do the tobacco?

It's a very coarse--i.e., cheap--piece of artificial turf that I mowed, scrunged up, brushed in different directions, then painted with spray cans. That stuff is pretty tough (or tuff). It's not easy to cut. I have an old set of dog clippers that really didn't like the stuff. I just used on a disposable pair of surgical scissors, and spent a long time clipping and inventing new swear words. I scrunged it with a steel bristle brush of industrial size--that thing looks like a medieval weapon. The turf does not accept paint well, so there probably whole cans of brown and yellow in that small space.

And a little Photoshop around the edges doesn't hurt!