Weekend Update 7/16/17

[Ed Kapuscinski]

In anticipation of heading to Strasburg tomorrow, I replaced my Amazon Basics camera bag that broke (and that I hated) with something from Lowes.



There's a ton of room, even when I added a padded insert to keep the important stuff safe. It's quite commodious and even with all of existing gear stowed there's still enough room in there for a an entire bottle of bourbon.

[StewRRFan]

Finally making progress on the rolling mill.  Added lights and initial weathering.  Still need to finish weathering and rolling mills. 

[up1950s]

In anticipation of heading to Strasburg tomorrow, I replaced my Amazon Basics camera bag that broke (and that I hated) with something from Lowes.



There's a ton of room, even when I added a padded insert to keep the important stuff safe. It's quite commodious and even with all of existing gear stowed there's still enough room in there for a an entire bottle of bourbon.

Looks like something Charlie Sheen designed .
 

[craigolio1]

Some HOn30 scenery.

Something about this scene just made me want to model a narrow gauge logging railroad.

Very cool.

Craig

[randgust]

After more weeks than I'd care to admit, I finally tore out the backdrop collage behind the Winslow station (which was kind of nondescript Rail Scenes with a lot of trees) and replaced it with actual period photographs of the buildings there.

This was tricky because so much has changed since '72.   I had a good shot of what was then "Winslow Kawasaki", the Westerner Motel, and what used to be the restaurant beside it.   None of them matched the color balance and feel of the rest of the backdrop, and I had to tweak color saturation, balance, and then print them to size and cut them out.   And razor-blade off the old backdrop parts, repaint, and put these on.  The Westerner shot came from a vintage postcard I got off Ebay, and the restaurant building came off of Google Streetview.   

This is typical of the 'good enough for now' combined with the 'I can do that better' that keeps me going.   I was out in Winslow a few years ago and walked behind the depot snapping pictures as I went.   This has much more of the feel now behind the depot.

If you look to the left of the water tank you'll see another local landmark, a Valentine diner that is still there.   That chunk of 'mountain' backdrop will be the next to get cut out and redone.



Trackside perspective:

[Mike Madonna]

Started detail work on my roundhouse. Added a walk way around the whisker tracks and got some oily black down. Next will be adding the steam lines to the outside tracks. And, I am trying to decide what to do with the turntable pit. I am not happy with the weird radial factory "weathering".  -- and, I have a lot of work to do on this entire scene.





Thanks,
Wolf

MMM.... "Garden Tracks!"

Wolf, look forward to seeing more!

[GonzoCRFan]

This weekend I finally got fed up about having a layout physically existing in my apartment for the last 5 and a half years that I haven't been able to run a train on. So I whipped out some flextrack and finished laying a loop to connect the two ends I've been working on.

As usual, it wasn't without it's trials. I completed the loop and started testing...and immediately started finding problems. I re-laid two sections to even out some curves that were too sharp and went to re-test, only for my power pack to overload. I looked all over for a potential short for about 30 minutes, then noticed when I was leaning over the edge, a track that went to the edge had a rail break away from the ties and my damn gut had pushed it against the other. I fixed that and made a pair of terminal joiners so I could finally run proper laps.

So, without further ado:

[JMaurer1]

randgust: Shouldn't there be SOMEONE standing on the corner? Other than that, it's such a fine sight to see.

SP-Wolf: Lovin' it but it all needs to be dirtier.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

This photo sums up my photographic output of yesterday's Strasburg trip.

[Philip H]

@Ed Kapuscinski - if by sums up you mean "dang nab it I blocked a perfectly good shot of a steam loco with another steam loco" then I'll buy it.

[unittrain]

Finally got back track laying and wiring only have about 12 more feet to go and my layout will be ready for the first run, finally, it's taken a long time to lay 60' of double track mainline, if I had it to do over I probably would have went smaller but as long as it runs! Providing sections that we're layed almost 2 years ago operate ok, will definitely have to clean the track!!

[Rich_S]

My HS German teacher was decidedly not so...  We used to refer to her as Frau Cow behind her back.  Aber sie war ein guter Lehrer, der an der Universität Heidelberg studierte.  Und so erinnere ich mich noch einmal Deutsch noch 25 Jahre später.

WOW! You guys have better memories than I. I took German in High School and all I can remember is how to count, recite the German Alphabet and a few simple phrases like Was ist das or Wie alt bist du and don't forget my favorite Eine Bier Bitte 
 

[davefoxx]

@Ed Kapuscinski - if by sums up you mean "dang nab it I blocked a perfectly good shot of a steam loco with another steam loco" then I'll buy it.

Coincidentally, on a railfan trip to Sand Patch two years, @Ed Kapuscinski introduced me to the term "train-f*cked," which is when the train that you want to photograph is blocked by another train.

DFF

[jpwisc]

I decided to try a new method of making roads (Woodland Scenics Paving System). My test site is a dead end road in Rush City. I laid the plaster stuff today, I'll sand and paint it tomorrow.
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[Missaberoad]

Coincidentally, on a railfan trip to Sand Patch two years, @Ed Kapuscinski introduced me to the term "train-f*cked," which is when the train that you want to photograph is blocked by another train.

DFF

We always called it skunked  I think I like yours better...