Weekend update - July 15, 2007

[UP_Phill]

It's Sunday here, so I thought I'd start the thread off.

Did a bit of weathering over the last week....

Challenger



New paint, decals and a bit of weathering for an old Goose

[tom mann]

nice weathering on that Challenger.

[3rdrail]

Got a little weathering done this week myself, no photos yet though. I have been out on the deck, where I take photos, putting plants we bought this week in the pots we bought last week. It's too damn hot to photograph trains out there, plastic stuff might melt! Even the cats thought it was too hot, they sniffed the new plants and came back in.

BTW, I've been real pleased with the application of AIM "medium earth" powder to trucks. That Challenger looks very prototypical for the steam era - not for today's excursion engine, but back when they were workhorses of the UP roster.

[Ntrainz1]

Relaying part of the layout with atlas c55 and adding a spur for steel mill.
[img width= height=]http://lh3.google.com/Ntrainz1/RppnjyTJWgI/AAAAAAAAAJI/bG_Ld_fq_iM/s800/DSCF0123.JPG[/img]

[img width= height=]http://lh6.google.com/Ntrainz1/RppnjiTJWfI/AAAAAAAAAJA/J6t2EbDytXI/s800/DSCF0120.JPG[/img]

[img width= height=]http://lh4.google.com/Ntrainz1/RppnkCTJWhI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/uB_i_ZG2Dt4/s800/DSCF0125.JPG[/img]

[img width= height=]http://lh6.google.com/Ntrainz1/RppnkiTJWiI/AAAAAAAAAJY/VyXXG1FTXrA/s800/DSCF0126.JPG[/img]

I didn't realize how many cars I have with MT PC's. click, click, click

Bob.

[wm3798]

I warded off an attack by a giant preying mantis.  I've also been running my train schedule.  Boy do I need to figure out a way to get to that staging yard.  I've got one yard representing four destinations... it gets real crowded!

Lee

[MEC_FAN]

Well I have not worked on the layout in four monthes, but the last two weeks I've gotten back into it. I'd like to thank Jon (Central Vermont) Landry for helping build my CMR turntable kit, its almost done!! We mounted it into the layout Saturday and layed the track into it. The roundhouse will be scratch built someday.

3 outside tracks on left. 12 stall roundhouse with 9 tracks and 3 stalls blocked up.



deisel tanks and pump house, sand house goes to right of pump house.

[dclyde]

I converted a dozen or so of my legacy rolling stock to Micro Trains trucks/couplers.  I also converted a F7A/B pair to Micro Trains couplers.

I converted the tender of my Big Boy to Micro Trains and started the installation of a DZ123 decoder.  I've finished the frame modifications and isolated the motor so, the next step will be to actually install the decoder.

Sunday I attended the BANTRAK meeting and ran the Challenger with 69 cars.  That was pretty cool to say the least.

Dave

[Zox]

I spent a good chunk of Saturday doing wiring work with MARRS' HO group--they're converting over to something closely based on the new NTrak DCC wiring specs.

[Day One]

Wow, I love the weathering on the Challenger! Beautiful. I hope someday to be able to make mine look very similar.

I'm late to post but I've been VERY busy this week as you'll see below.

One night I decided to finish painting the last remaining unpainted skyboards on the layout. It went quickly so I decided to roll with it and ended up painting the ground and putting down the first layer of scenery. The next night I came back and painted the back drops. It would have been easier to paint the background mountains before I put the ground foam down but it still went fast and looks OK to me.
From winter white out to nice summer.




The piece of mountain below on the right is the far back corner piece on the layout in the pics seen above. The whole section along the wall back there is underneath a shelf and a long reach so I made all the scenery in small removable sections and pop up thru the middle of the layout to work back there. A mountain fill in the hole most of the time.

The crane was a kit I bashed together a couple nights ago.



The next night I decided to redo the electrical shelf underneath the layout. I took out the existing hard to reach and difficult to see shelf that had all the components sitting loosely. I hinged the shelf and hard mounted the command station and new DS64. The power supply and a power strip were also hard mounted to the layout. No more cords laying on the floor to trip on now.






over the course of a few nights I also worked on cutting and mounting the last remaining fascia on the layout.








This view has never looked so good.  ;D

[wm3798]

That's quite a rig you've got there... Have you posted a track plan yet?
Lee