Weekend Update - 6 April 2008

[John]

Its that time again.

For me, spent the afternoon building and installing upper deck benchwork .. got about 30 feet done .. today will be some more carpentry ..





What's an upadate???  ;D

[DKS]

Actually did some modeling (really rare these days; this opportunity actually was due mostly to an injury which precluded doing home renovation work). Got started on a lumber yard, which is a modified Nail Brothers Salvage kit from Robert Ray.



More info: http://jamesriverbranch.net/project_13.htm

[Puddington]

The week that was... somewhat interesting...

Good ol' Lee got me interested in 40' Hi Cubes - didn't have one and when I found an orphan at the LHS I bought it and started to figure out what I could do with it..... (Bachmann's well known livery fidelity had the plug door painted in ATSF... um...ah... I don't think so, wrong door, wrong number...etc) A little Morning Sun surfing hit upon this.....



I'll be making a few more - appliances from the Great State of Texas will soon be flowing north....

I also got busy on a CPR business car.....well, at least that's what I thought I was doing.....



I was chugging along on CPR shorty number 24 just fine thank you when again Lee (have you noticed how he does this with alarming regularity ?) asked a question...." Why not cut down a 80's rather then use a 60' footer".... dumb question; why use an 80' car for a 60' car when you have a 60' car.... see, it says right here, Car Number 24 is exactly 70'1"..... and... um... ah.....oops............

After a quiet, under the breath word of thanks to the man from the WM, I retreated to the train cave library and got to work...... CPR... 60'... steel side.... gotta be a prototype.......

Ah man......................anything but that !



The Sudbury Division superintendant's car - circa 1970, just my era..... but it's a Pac Man Puppy.... but it's stainless steel painted..... #@!#!#!%$#!%$#

Oh well, on with the show... the wiindows I'd made were close so.....



I still wanna finish the roof vents but I'm taking a break.....



That was the week.....except one little thing......

This...........



I bought this........ let me explain....

Each year or so a gentleman who is a professional set decorator for movies, TV commercials etc... arrives at a Toronto area LHS with one of these. He's built it (and been paid) for a TV spot or some such thing. The LHS holds it and "finds" a worthy home. The guy uses the proceeds for another hobby, or often, I am told, a charity.

This year I got to the LHS to buy some CA and some paint as it was being displayed... a few minutes later it was mine.....

Double main line, Kato unitrack, ballested, Walthers kits all made (and quite well too) with some other little gems, details and all wired...... hollow core door layout, just begging to be modified and linked to my Samuel Ridge.....all for less than the price of a new Big Boy locomotive... even at a the internet discounted prices..... yep; ya; works for me.....





Clearly it isn't what I would have built were I to have done it myself but with a 60 hour a week job; wife and four year old and an hour and a half each way commute to work, plus travel, this is a great "comprimise" for extending the mainline..........

An average week..........nothin to it folks.

[inkaneer]

For the past couple of milleniums [at least it seems that long] I have been trying to finish my Ntrak modules.  There are eight of them.  When finished they make a complete layout that is 6' by 24' and it will all fit in the back of my minivan.  [At least on paper it does]  Six of the modules are straights 6 feet in length.  The other two are the end modules wich are 6 feet wide and 40 inches long.  There were originally 48 inches long but clearances inside the minivan necessitated reducing the length to 40 inches.  Long the way I got some ideas which I incorporated into the modules to allow set up and tear down easier and faster.  When completed and tested I hope to do a write up for one of the mags on it all.   

[justTRAINcRaZy]

We did a show in Hickory yesterday. Those 1 day shows make for a rather long day, but at least you get to rest up on Sunday. We had 1 new module that was rather a hit. Got several good comments.

[wm3798]

That tail car looks fantastic, Mike.  The Gold Medal details really finished it off nicely.  Good score on the layout addition, too...  Now if only I could talk you into code 55 and DCC!

Speaking of DCC, I made a little progress on some of the projects that have landed on my workbench over the last week or two... 


I got this Big Johnson done for a guy over at Scale Rails Online.  I put the decoder in the tender to take advantage of the pick ups back there, and hardwired the front light into the track pick up to cut down on the number of wires between the engine and tender.  I still need to tweek a few things in there to get the shell to sit tighter, but I'm really happy overall with the outcome.


Also replaced a factory board for Bob.  His Trainmaster is shown lending a hand to a Reading consist at Williamsport Jct.

I've also been working on updating and cleaning up my website.  Feel free to stop by and have a look.
Lee

[Ali Kenneth]

Yet again another weekend passes with no modelling done.

This time i have a good excuse, our first child was born last weekend, Jessica May Kenneth, weighing 9lb 9oz. She is leading us a merry dance but i could not be happier.

My next Chuck Pack is coming on Tuesday as well so i have a good week to come.

Alasdair

[SirTainly]

On the positive side, I started my GP40P-2 (sorry about the bad photo, lighting issues)


and this arrived..woohoo!



On the other side, I spent all today painting up a boxcar in my new scheme for my freelanced road, only for the paint to suffer a reaction at the 11th hour. I spent the 12th hour stripping it, and breaking the steps, maybe I'll be luckier next time.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

It was Beer and Bourbon Fest weekend, so I haven't done much modeling, but I DID get some new pics of my Dad's layout that he and I got setup over Easter Weekend.

It's all NTRAK modules in various states of completion. The end loops are almost as old as I am, and are now in their third incarnation. They were recently redone and are awaiting scenery. The module with the viaduct is awaiting rebuilding, but features a creek down the middle that had real running water powered by an aquarium pump. There's a reversible corner that can serve as an inside or an outside corner in NTRAK layouts. The final module is mine. It's an adapter designed to have a onetrak module dropped onto it and serve as the mountain line. I don't have one there, so right now the skyboard is pushed up along the back of it.

From west to east:

[bobcat]

I didn't get much modeling done this week due to work and family obligations, but here are some pics from my club's open house last weekend.









The O scale sized hole on the high line was also done to the main beneath by a member playing with his new Rotozip tool. I'm going to cover the high line in the same fashion as I did on the main.

[skytop35]

MORNING HIAWATHA AT NEW LISBON, WISCONSIN  June 23,1966

[Ed Kapuscinski]

God damn Bill. That's incredible modeling.

[Sokramiketes]

Hey Bill, what's with the gangsta lean?  Or were the shelters built with trees from Lee's forest?   

[wcfn100]

I didn't do any modeling.  But upon arrival of a couple new Atlas TM cars, I put together a MNS blue round-up.




The MNS was a pretty small road that must just be a benifactor of the models that have been released to have such representation.


Jason

[Norm P]

It's not much, especially compared to some of what's in this thread, but I installed a digitrax decoder in my new Kato SD40-2, which was an accomplishment since I was nervous about even removing the shell.  I also spent most of the day Friday railfanning the east Kentucky coalfields--among some other things I captured a unit coal train with a SD80MAC still in Conrail colors in the consist, with a caboose bringing up the rear of the train.