Weekend Update 12/24/17

[trainforfun]

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

This is so marvelous !!!!!!

[mark dance]

Merry Christmas all!
md

[up1950s]

Another reason I went with wire thicker than .008" for the main handrails is that I used .008" for the handrail that goes across the front intake grill and for the uncoupling levers. Those, along with hand-grabs (also I believe are typically modeled in .007" or .008" wire), are noticeably thinner than the main handrails on the prototype, as can be seen here...

http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/sw_photos/2282_sp-sw1200-bob_dengler.jpg

To me, the .008" looks just right for the railing across the grill and uncoupling levers. Not sure anything any thinner would work or look right. For the main handrails, I could've used .010" instead but the .0125" to me looks really good in this application and, like I mentioned, it's close to stock handrails on most of my other models and is super durable.

Exact scale in N scale maybe good for a model secured to a track and under a glass half dome , but we need to handle these and they need to withstand those pressures . Slightly over-sized and proportionally different to mimic the rods is smart and looks great . Anybody who knows exact scale , should also know yapping about it , as if to say " na na na-na na I see something to make me look more pro than you " is bad form . Those brace of switchers are top shelf Russ , outstanding .

[up1950s]

If you look closely just at the front of the loco there is a small copper finished eyelet .
There is 6 like that at every 60 degrees .
I used #18 green colored solid copper wire going up at 45 degrees and attached to the trunk .
I used a tie wrap around the trunk to attach the 6 wires .
I used a level to grossely adjust the ring , it's easy to adjust with the wires going in the eyelet , simple and effective .
The ring is moving a bit up and down ( around 1/4" ) with the weight of the train passing but not enough to derail .

N scale is almost silent when they are not moving fast and you can let them running without disturbing people asleep in the house .

I had a Lionel O gauge around the tree and that was another story about the sound , could never run them !!!

So if the tree was mounted on a bearing , the tree would rotate , and the train would run while staying put ?

[chuck geiger]

My daughter send me our 1992 Athearn HO SP Daylight, which was stored for years. I am no Ken Patterson, here's
my Christmas shot. Train 75 from San Francisco to Portland THE SHASTA DAYLIGHT near Weed, CA on Christmas Eve
December 24, 1955.

[skytop35]

Merry Christmas to all !
I had some serious time in the man cave yesterday and this morning. Finished a yellow and gray Super Dome.



Also bought some of the Woodland Scenics plug and play lighting. I love the working streetlights and will be adding more. I need to black out some windows on the building but I had fun adding this stuff and look forward to lighting up the Kingsbury Branch.

[glakedylan]

http://gmld.blogspot.com/2017/12/christmas-wishes.html

[JanesCustomTrain]

Merry Christmas to you. Did you use a different camera than unusual ? For some reason this picture does not look as crisp and sharp as your other pictures do.

Jane

[skytop35]

Same iphone camera but I may have bumped it a bit while snapping the photo.

[jpwisc]

I finished off another box of SuperTrees. This one covered 1 scale acre. 2 or three more boxes and I should have close to enough trees (600 down, 300-400 more to go).
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[nkalanaga]

Richie:  Sounds good to me!  I tried running an Nn3 train around a 12 inch tree one year.  It attracted cats, but ran fine.  It would probably have been easier to rotate the tree and leave the train stationary, as that would likely have scared the cats away.

[jargonlet]

At the December meeting of our local NMRA, we do a one square foot diorama challenge. It is designed to give us a challenge and hopefully a chance to improve our skills and to try something new that we may not have. The challenge was designed by the late great Gary Burdette. We had seven entrants into the challenge. Lots of good work shown. I did mine in z scale.

[Philip H]

Covered hoppers tied down on the CN in Green Bay must mean it’s Christmas.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

This weekend found me heading up to York to get some backdrop photos. The weather was perfect for it.





After being reinvigorated on my project, I started plowing ahead on the most complicated part of modeling York: paving the Pershing Ave street running.


And I did some finishing work on some of my paving from earlier in the week.

[John]

T
After being reinvigorated on my project, I started plowing ahead on the most complicated part of modeling York: paving the Pershing Ave street running.


And I did some finishing work on some of my paving from earlier in the week.

why not just do it in styrene .