Weekend Update 12/12/10

[Iain]

I bought another banjo, and played the first one some.

Trying to stay away from the house because the furnace is out, and the part to fix it isn't supposed to arrive until tomorrow.

[John]

a minor injury (tendonitis in my index finger) and the impending holidays, I haven't had much chance.

O the pain of it .. I have been dealing with tendonitis in my achiles tendon for 3 months now ..

[John]

Some of you know that during the NFL season, I skip out on a lot of modeling activities. This weekend was a perfect storm for someone who is both a Ravens and Cowboys fan ..

I left Saturday via Southwest for Dallas - Watched the Cowboys and Eagles from the 40 yard line (btw -  Some Eagles fans are real duchbags - topic for another thread) on Sunday, then drove to Houston for a Monday night Ravens vs Texans game with good seats in the endzone. 

What a great time .. now, back to trains..

[up1950s]

I tore my rotator cuff Oct 18 . I have modeled uncomfortably at best since .

[unittrain]

I've been working on scenery and structures as well as looking into weathering some of my Chessie fleet luckily most of the pictures of Chessie locomotives I'm finding that are in my era (1980) show them as down right filthy as a freshly painted one is just too bright in pictures. The funny thing is I was reading that they chose the brilliant colors so the engines would be really visible to motorists at crossings but yet they are some of the filthiest locomotives I've ever seen!!!

[Mark5]

I tore my rotator cuff Oct 18 . I have modeled uncomfortably at best since .

Ouch. Not fun.

[up1950s]

Ouch. Not fun.

But you have to look on the bright side , it put the halt to fixing my sons house , and that honey due list is going to have to wait . Oddly the worst part is sleeping . My Dr went through the same thing years ago , and had the same complaint . Who woulda thunk .

[GaryHinshaw]

Some of you know that during the NFL season, I skip out on a lot of modeling activities. This weekend was a perfect storm for someone who is both a Ravens and Cowboys fan.

Wow, this is almost spooky.  My secretary's husband is named John, he's retired from the Navy, he's a huge Cowboys and Ravens fan, and I just recently learned that he loves trains.   He even kind of looks like you... 

Separated at birth?   ??? 

[wm3798]

There's a special bond between Ravens fans and Cowboys fans...  A mutual apathy toward the Redskins!

[Bob Bufkin]

Hey, leave my Deadskins alone.

[esa123]

Railwire Weekend update 12/19/10
Time for a late addition! The last two weeks have been filled with house renovations in preparation for Christmas company however I did manage to squeeze a little train work in. I'm working on adding a portable staging yard for my 1x8 ft industrial switching layout. The staging yard is 10 in x 3 ft and works as both a "fiddle" yard and a regular switching yard (minus the turnout leads to save space). All eight tracks line up perfectly with the mainline off my industrial layout; you simple pull/push each track to align it when needed. I only began constructing it but every track will be powered once completed. The extension will also be scenicked to look like a large classification yard (including a back drop and dividers from layout sections on each side). Each end concealed under two highway over pass bridges. Operationally it will represent the north and south bound terminus for all shipments leaving my industrial area as well as the originating location for all inbound products.

Here is an overview of my set up. Two under drawer sliding mounts were used to create the sliding motion I need for individual track alignment with the rail. I would have liked to get a smaller size sliding mount but this is being built in a hurry (for an upcoming visit from fellow modelers) and this was the smallest size I could get at the time. As you can see the 10 in x 3ft board will hold 8 tracks giving me the capacity to hold over 50 modern sized railcars within this space!

 A side profile shot shows how thin everything is.

Connecting to my main layout was actually pretty easy because I used Sievers bench work system which has holes for ¼ in bolts equally spaced every 4 inches. Honestly this standardization makes adding any sort of addition very easy and I would highly recommend doing the same on any type of modular layout.

Leveling System (angle view)

One of the hard parts about making this extension was the precise height restrictions I would need when connecting it to the main layout. Since my main track is on standard N scale cork I needed a way to make very small changes in track elevation so that the rail head height would align perfectly as I don't use any sort of bridge tracks between modules and the staging yard tracks wouldn't be mounted on cork. To do this I attached two 2 in ¼ bolts to the bottom board, these in turn are connected to the next module via 2 in x 5/8 in “L” hooks. Height variations are controlled via tee nuts above and below the L hook which can be adjusted to raise or lower the base board.

Even though the tracks in the pictures aren't flush and glued down yet this view gives an illustration of how tight the fit between modules

Finally, in order to keep tracks from being bumped out of alignment once set I installed a thumb screw which can simply be tightened to lock the movable top track board in place.
Next up is wiring and scenicking!
Best regards,
Erik

[Mark5]

This past weekend I spent some time organizing my train room. Installed some shelves for rolling stock. Trying to get the room ready for some railroad work ...

[93cram]

Neat design Erik ! 
I like your bolt leveling system 

Marc

[esa123]

Thanks Marc! Since this was thrown together with a bunch of workshop parts I had laying around and now that I've had a little more time to think about stuff, I might make the whole thing collapseable so it could be folded underneath the main layout when not in use. That way I don't have to move it each time we set the layout up as right now it straddles a closet door! Food for thought ~

Erik

[lock4244]

I bought a pair of HO cars, one each TH&B and CP Script TLT slab side cars. A gift for dad... he'll put them on a shelf at the cottage in a sort of 'display'. They are pretty nice cars, would love to see them in N some day.

Did some train watching and finally got some snow shots... snowed all day Sunday in the Newtonville / Port Hope area. Shot the 'Turd', a Red Barn leading, an ex CNW C40 trailing, and a few other nice things. If I modeled, I'd do less in the winter as I get out trackside as often as possible. I'll post some pics on the next TPP.