Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[SSW7771]

Bummer, I hope you have a speeded recovery.

[C855B]

Thanks! So far it's mostly a nuisance more than anything else - just can't do any heavy construction-type stuff for a while. If I can get Robyn to schlep a couple storage totes in our "project room" to make some space, maybe I can use the downtime to actually do some modeling. Now there's a novel idea!

[Scottl]

Sorry to hear that, speedy recovery.  Maybe some modelling? 

[reinhardtjh]

Time to play with, er, I mean test Robyn's FEF!   

[MVW]

Bummer, Mike. I hope you're able to get back into action soon.

Jim

[C855B]

New developments with our wonderful neighbors:

21-year-old Dillon ***** of Locust Street in Centralia posted $150 bond and was released after being arrested for possession of 2.5 to 10 grams of cannabis.

This is the drug dealer. BUSTED! Evidently not for dealing, but caught with enough on him to make things uncomfortable. My contacts at the city and PD evidently came through. We noticed there was very little traffic in and out of the apartments today, and no vehicles anywhere when we were at the building a few minutes ago. That is amazing. Total quiet, for the first time in months.

And who is it on TRW that has the sig quip about loaning somebody $20, and not seeing them again? It works in real life. One of the troublemakers actually tried to be nice most of the time, was just given to bouts of gross stupidity, and he had bad friends. He would occasionally knock on our door, usually with me up on the lift, hitting me up for $10 "for gas". I would normally turn him down since it was always a Friday night. But six or seven weeks ago was a sob story about wanting to go visit his kids 50 miles away, had no gas and no paycheck for several days - a situation I knew to have shards of truth. So I reach in a pocket, hand 'im a twenty, "Will this do?" "Oh, gosh, yes!" Since then we've waved once or twice in passing, but, better yet, he has left us alone. "Best twenty bucks I've ever spent!" I tell Robyn. Rumor has it he left for good yesterday for Montana or something like that, so there you have it.

I won't count my chickens yet, but there may yet be peace at the layout building. Maybe we can come and go without getting riled about the mess next door slopping-over into our space.

[sigh]

Back to modeling, BTW! I just had our friends at Showcase Miniatures gather together signal parts for LA&SL-spec searchlight signals. They were a mix of the SP- and C&O-style kits. This was prompted by finding 0404 (1mm X 1mm!) 3-color LED chips, so am going to try my hand at putting these in the head vs. the fiber. I need to find a stereo microscope to work with these chips, so I'd better get off of here and order it.

[wm-webb]

Revenge is a dish best served cold...

Stay alert my friend, for the enemy walks among us, and has nothing to lose...

[C855B]

Rodney's ribbing me about working on micro-signals instead of making hay with the layout building means it's time for an update.

Things healed-up just enough this week to finish unloading the truck to get the 1:1 railroad ties in place around the property. We also had a few sheets of drywall to unload, but I had to cut those in half lengthwise in the truck to make them light enough for me to carry. Which was OK, the sub-project they were for needed 2'x8' sheets, anyway. The truck had to be emptied to pick up the 14 cases of ceiling tile that arrived last week, so with those here we have the big supplies on-site for hanging the ceiling.

We are at the point to move materials around again to get access to work areas. A little smarter this time, I borrowed a pallet jack from the museum. Volunteer who brought it by commented, "I think it might be leaking." No s---, the seals are shot. It can't lift a thing. So we have yet another project-before-we-do-a-project. I power-washed the accumulated oil leakage yesterday, the overhaul kit is on its way, and hopefully it'll be a quick repair.

Big news is we have decided to hire out the drywall in the layout room. A recommended contractor comes by tomorrow for a quote. There's just too much for the two of us to handle, and judging from our poor performance with the studio ceiling, we take way too long to mud and tape. I figure I can start layout construction a good three or four months earlier by letting somebody else do this. I have a little bit of wiring for the theater lighting before it is covered, and there's insulation on the west wall to finish, so with that to do plus moving stuff out of the way (and fixing the pallet jack!) the next few days will be somewhat under the gun in order to have the drywall guy start next week.

[C855B]

Another red-letter day. Drywall going up:



I expect that wall to have paneling up or close to it by the end of the day, and the wall on the left started. The seal kit for the pallet jack was back-ordered, so wrapped up the overhaul only yesterday. Thank goodness, just in time to move stuff around as the drywall guys make headway.

Next? Mud. The guys working on it now just hang it.

[davefoxx]

Woo hoo!  Look at that beautiful open (and insulated!) space.  I can't wait to see you getting to the layout building phase.  Ever closer!

DFF

[PRRATSF]

It's great to see everything coming together. It's been quite a journey so far.

Sam

[C855B]

Spent the day battening hatches at the building for tonight's expected 12" of snow. Biggest concern is ice dams in the area over the layout room, especially since there is much insulation on the walls but nothing yet on the ceiling. So the layout room has been isolated from the heating systems, passageways to heated spaces covered, and we are closely monitoring the temperature under the roof. Fingers crossed.

Some headway on the drywall this past week. Snow issues notwithstanding, the crew will be back on Tuesday to finish the east wall (right side of pic below). However, I will wave them off of most progress on the last (south, left in pic) wall since it is not ready due to the temporary insulation. At any rate, the mudding contractor is expected to be by Tuesday afternoon for a quote.

Once the mud is done we'll paint a strip around the top so I can put up the ceiling grid supports and get that going. Most of that pile o' materials in the middle is for the ceiling, so once it is in place the view should be awesome!

[C855B]

Nothing significant to report on building progress in the past week. Super-cold weather has played havoc with the drywallers' work schedule, so we shut off the heat in the layout room until they could clear up another job. Latest info is work will resume on Thursday, with roughly 10 more hours of cutting and hanging. That moves mudding to next week, provided the mudder can juggle his schedule accordingly. By then weather should improve and the furnace won't be quite as strained to keep up with it.

In the meanwhile I've been working in the heated spaces addressing a punchlist of minor trim-outs.

Only slightly related to the cancelled observation deck, I realized a couple of days ago that with benchwork occupying the entire room there was no place to sit and "play dispatcher". Everything to do with operating the layout was going to be on my feet. That is not acceptable - I would like to be able to run mainline trains and watch the layout comfortably seated. That's going to take some manner of deck, like it or not. Fortunately, there is space I can steal. If some of you will recall from two years ago, one of the key mods dressing-up the front of the building was a broad porch. So... how about a bump-out under some of the new porch roof? It's structurally sound and integrated with the building skin, I have the extra exterior metal, and it's fully within my skill set. Only downside is opening up the wall you see at the right (above pic), requiring demo of new work. I can live with that, as this is something for future development proximate to the last phase of layout construction - 4 to 5 years down the road.

This bump-out would create an alcove, which I visualize as a deck two to three feet above the floor (plenty of room under the porch roof). The deck would accommodate a DS station, two or three operator positions, and standing room for visitors. All I need to do is work on line-of sight issues, which may in turn modify plans for the branchline on a second level.

So here's the layout plan with the bump-out shown. I think there are no changes to the track plan since last discussed, or, if so, minor.

[C855B]

Drywall paneling done. Finish guy comes tomorrow for spot mud at the top so I can get started on the ceiling grid.

[GaryHinshaw]

Epic.  The only thing that gives me pause is how long it would take me to fill that space with N scale trains.  But I'm really excited by the imminent prospect of watching you do it.

BTW, I'm not sure I get the appeal of the operator's desk.  The DS I get, but do you really want to watch N scale trains from 40' away?