Weekend Update 2/15/2015

[chuck geiger]

are you building a new layout, or just weathering portals?

Notched for her pleasure

[superchief]

Mark the layout is looking GREAT!! glad you touched on the operations, can you show a close up of a couple of your car tabs? I have some colored tabs for marking a car once I find it in the yard made from Plastruct I beams. I still use a computer program for car forwarding, and had been leaning to car cards with a picture on the card but with almost 800 cars on the RR not looking forward to that!! I read your articles in Model Railroad craftsman and you noted color and markings would like to see one. and I am with you it has to operate GREAT first and looks are second, but you have the best of both worlds!!! Thanks, Gordon

[mark dance]

Mark the layout is looking GREAT!! glad you touched on the operations, can you show a close up of a couple of your car tabs? I have some colored tabs for marking a car once I find it in the yard made from Plastruct I beams. I still use a computer program for car forwarding, and had been leaning to car cards with a picture on the card but with almost 800 cars on the RR not looking forward to that!! I read your articles in Model Railroad craftsman and you noted color and markings would like to see one. and I am with you it has to operate GREAT first and looks are second, but you have the best of both worlds!!! Thanks, Gordon

Hi Gordon...I use a simple spreadsheet to model the industry demand then the tags are selected as riding waybills effectively.  No databases! The whole car forwarding system was covered in a much too looonnnggg Dispatcher's Office article last year.  Alternatively this video covers everything...the tags specifically are shown at the 12:40 point.

Hope this helps.

md

[Santa Fe Guy]

Over the past week I finished painting three loco's for my friends Mexican RR. During the weekend I started to apply the decals to the first loco a B23-7.
Here is the first shell starting to receive decals, this one for N de M.
A long way to go yet.
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These were taken in my newly arrived light box using 5500 globes with just a small amount of brightening.
Rod.

[GaryHinshaw]

Started to work on Tunnel 9, thanks to @ednadolski and @GaryHinshaw for the supplies:

Love it!! Is that where you are planning to put it on the HV?

I wish I was anywhere close to doing some modeling like that* but I am still grinding through helix construction, turnout construction, track laying, Tortoise installation and wiring, and control panel designs.  I have been having fun learning jmri and working out how to control track routes from control panels.  It's awesome how simple it is to learn and use.  Some day I'll post photos again, but it's still mostly bits & bolts at this stage; nothing very photogenic.

*The closest I come to modeling these days is track ballasting.  I'm doing much of it as I go, and I now have 85' of mainline completely finished.  Sadly, it takes me about 3+ hours per foot to get a product I am happy with, which includes individually painting the Pandrol clips on the concrete tie track.  The vital stats: 28,000 clips painted and 300 hours of hobby time logged.      I'd have it no other way though.   

[unittrain]

Started to work on Tunnel 9, thanks to @ednadolski and @GaryHinshaw for the supplies:

That portal looks perfect! Is that cast from Hydrocal? I'm currently building some bridge abutments out of styrene was thinking of using them for masters to create a mold to get more of an authentic look out of concrete or plaster.

[tom mann]

@ednadolski made  that a few years ago out of Portland cement. My memory is that it broke and I, knowing that I could hide the cracks with weathering, took it off his hands.

[HuskerN]

Here is my 20' slider chassis that I finally got around to adding primer.  Fits a 20' container perfectly.





HuskerN
www.nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I was trolling.
Maybe only @Ed Kapuscinski gets the joke.

Lol, I just saw it. Excellent. Dave, I'll fill you in next time I see you.

[sirenwerks]

I did nothing model related as usual.  I did take a signifigant step back from modeling for a while, clearing out the room in my apartment slated for modeling (that was the intention at least, when I finally got done with all of the estate crap I am still dealing with) in preperation for my fiance's daughter.  The fiance is the significant act of the weekend... 

I traversed the technological and language barriers of a Skype call to Morocco to gain permission from her father and then proposed.  And she said yes!  Maria and I plan on getting married before the end of March in a civil ceremony, with a real wedding in Morocco in the future.  But in terms of modeling, with her and her little tornado of a two-year-old, I now have significant reason to buy a house once the dust settles.  There is a basement in my future, real dedicated layout space!  I just haven't explained what model railroading is to her yet...

[ednadolski]

@ednadolski made  that a few years ago out of Portland cement. My memory is that it broke and I, knowing that I could hide the cracks with weathering, took it off his hands.

Correct, anchor bolt cement cast in a form made from stripwood.  It cracked when I removed it from the forms, guess I didn't have enough release agent.

(I never could figure out a way to do the cast-in construction date over the top of the opening   )

Ed

[SecretWeapon]

HEY HUSKERN, I saw your KW K-100 & bought it.

[MVW]

I traversed the technological and language barriers of a Skype call to Morocco to gain permission from her father and then proposed.  And she said yes!  Maria and I plan on getting married before the end of March in a civil ceremony, with a real wedding in Morocco in the future.  But in terms of modeling, with her and her little tornado of a two-year-old, I now have significant reason to buy a house once the dust settles.  There is a basement in my future, real dedicated layout space!  I just haven't explained what model railroading is to her yet...

Congrats on the impending nuptials ... and future basement. 

Jim

[reinhardtjh]

I just haven't explained what model railroading is to her yet...

Congratulations and good luck with the explanation.  Can Model Railroading be explained? 

[arbomambo]

Also...just about to declare this 1' T-Trak module 'done'...added a few trees, and a few more Showcase Miniatures power poles...just needs a few little extra details and fascia paining...
Bruce