Weekend Update 4/13/14

[up1950s]

[arbomambo]

that junction is just Waaaayyy too cool!
~Bruce

[BCRail_FSJ]

Applied the initial paint and ground cover to the Beatton Bridge scene. 



Having never done scenery before I know that there is more to ground cover than just sifting Woodland Scenics 'blended turf' on to wet paint, but I must admit I am surprised by the transformation.    More shades and textures of foam and static grasses are planned before I get to the vegetation stage. 



 Looks like I will be shopping for scenery supplies at the Supertrain show in Calgary this weekend.

[DKS]

that junction is just Waaaayyy too cool!
~Bruce

http://binged.it/1kDDqKM

[Roger Holmes]

That schoolbus in DKS's aerial view is about to cross 7 tracks.  I wonder how many times it has to stop just to make that crossing?

[DKS]

That schoolbus in DKS's aerial view is about to cross 7 tracks.

Make that 8...

[eric220]

I know what I'm doing for my Free-moN module...

In other news, I've been plodding away at some particularly non-photogenic behind the scenes tasks on the railroad.  First, I brought in a new old laptop to power the JMRI connection.  My old old laptop's copy of JMRI is so out of date that I couldn't just do a direct import.  Oh well, I'm going to have to build a totally new panel for the large railroad anyway, no problem with starting from scratch.  That took some finagling, but that connection is up and running quite nicely now.

Next, I worked on my RR Cir-kits tower controllers.  Up to now, they've just had occupancy detector cards in them that blink away as the trains navigate the layout.  After some more finagling, I reprogrammed one with a different address so that each detected block is reporting as a unique sensor.  I then hooked up a jumper in the main bus wiring to fix a block that was showing false occupancy.  Finally, I documented the sensor names that were being reported as a train traversed the layout.  Everything is now set up and ready to build a JMRI panel to drive some test signals!

TrainCat, I'm looking your way for some on-layout signals to include with the facia repeaters!

[The Beer Baron]

Well I've been screwing around with SCARM for a couple weeks and managed to finalize the track plan for my yard.



Note that this is from a hand drawn, not-to-scale "map" from 1915.



Now if only The Wife would let me build a couple modules..   

[Chris333]

Another school bus:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.650253,-87.686091,3a,75y,276.33h,90.17t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s0clnnqVGVhaSb0_gtKegfg!2e0

[Bruce Bird]

Gotta love Blue Island.....

[S Class]

http://binged.it/1kDDqKM

Forget the junction, check that interchange yard with the balloon loop, scrap dealer and what appears to be a preformed concrete or something mfg to the immediate south west  .


Ed's law for your return loops right there.

[dougnelson]

FINALLY!  All the pieces for the G22b fell together.  Of course DKS' beautiful NZT containers were available in record time for any N scale product.  I had to wait a while to get the TrainCat G22b kit, then I had to wait to get the decals. 

The brass kit went together fairly well.  Painted and weathered for portland cement service.  Photos show these containers regularly had a good coating of cement dust and streaked from the dust mixing with rain water.

All the pieces make a pretty nice model and I have it in time to bring to the PRRT&HS annual meeting 3 weeks from now.





Doug Nelson

[up1950s]

Forget the junction, check that interchange yard with the balloon loop, scrap dealer and what appears to be a preformed concrete or something mfg to the immediate south west  .


Ed's law for your return loops right there.

Within that scrap yard there is a dog bone track or what was a track  .

[wazzou]

Isn't that just a water truck with a leak?

[delamaize]

Isn't that just a water truck with a leak?

this, looks like he went over the scale both ways.....