Weekend Update 9/15/24

[Slim Rail Mike]

    This weekend made some progress on the fleet. Got paint on the carfloat hull, and the ferry deck. All the deck furniture that I’m going to use on the tugs is attached. Next step is the cabins and pilot house on the tugs, the bridge superstructure on the the Las Plumas, and the dog house for the train crew on the barge.

[chessie system fan]

I like that low bridge.   

[SP-Wolf]

Hi All,

Making slow - but - steady progress.

Some roof details have been added. Still need to locate for then drill out holes for roof grabs. Then on to the under body. Then a ton of rivets. Then - paint.



Thanks,
Wolf

[milw156]

A little GP30 poking past a building at N Scale Weekend!

 

Bordens's dairy has an immediate opening for a truck driver!

[basementcalling]

Now that I've been back in my place for a month,  but am still waiting on furniture, I started doodling some ideas for the new layout.  It'll go in the save space,  but I want to use less of it for the trains so I can preserve space for a TV viewing lounge. Got the love seat for that for $15 bucks from the H4H Restore.

See my other thread here https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=58474.msg805579#msg805579 if you want to help fill this with a manageable layout. First pic is a detailed map of the basement with key dimensions and two restricted areas.
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Below are initial sketches of potential benchwork shapes.

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Thinking port/ industrial switching based layout with 36 inch minimum aisles, most 48" And 22" minimum radii to allow reliable operations of up to 89 ft long cars with body mount couplers.

Leaning to a version of Bernard Kempenski's Beaumont, TX harbor plan, but a full decision matrix with 9 options is being developed.

[Slim Rail Mike]

Peter,
   I like your reverse G plan. It gives easy access to your lounge area, without walking the whole route. I think you'll enjoy the ample isle space. I didn't catch if you prefer to run through trains or switching industries.
Michael

[dem34]

Bordens's dairy has an immediate opening for a truck driver!

Unfortunately. This is the live footage of the straw that broke the camel's back. A very sad day for our favorite corporate cow mascot. 

[basementcalling]

Peter,
   I like your reverse G plan. It gives easy access to your lounge area, without walking the whole route. I think you'll enjoy the ample isle space. I didn't catch if you prefer to run through trains or switching industries.
Michael

I drifted out of N-TRAK and T-TRAK activities because watching trains go in circles for hours on end eventually gets boring, even if they are 100+ cars long. While I enjoy switching operations, however, a continuous run option would be nice. Thing is in my basement it has to involve lift out sections and holes cut in drywall unless I sacrifice a LOT of floor space to turn back blobs, which I really do not want to do. I like kitbashing industry buildings quite a bit, though an all urban layout requires far more work to bring scenery up to a believable level of detail than rural scenes. Sidewalks and roads are harder than forests and fields.

[nscaler711]

Not getting a lot done lately, but I had this un-numbered GP38 so I decided to give it a rebuild number. Granted, I ran into some issues with the firemans side, but it's not horrible from 2' away.
Did run into an issue with the number boards though, Microsol started to eat the Vallejo paint when I was setting up the decals... So those will have to wait.
I am still not a fan of Microscales decals though. The carrier film is way too big. (I also don't decal a lot because of them so lack of experience yadda yadda)
It is also a Atlas shell on a Walther's GP38-2 Mech (smaller fuel tank) on Atlas trucks. While thats a nut in itself, I have a Walther's GP38-2 on a Atlas Gold Series mech.

[bbunge]

Bordens's dairy has an immediate opening for a truck driver!

Well, the accident had already occurred a little while prior to the big Geeps, when CNS&M car #154 rambled past. 

Bob

[chuck geiger]

Back to goofing around on some small scenes after it finally cooled down from the 115 plus temps to the 90s and 60 overnight to
take a few pics.

[wm3798]

Highlight of the weekend was the visit to Todd Treaster's layout Saturday night.


I had asked the members of my N Scale Hi Rail page to cast their votes for two of five vintage train sets for me to take and run at Todd's, and the winner was my Laurel Valley Trix F units pulling a coal drag.  We set up in the yard and headed east!





The first runner up was the Cincinnatian, my set of ConCor cars looking the part behind the newly revived Key Imports streamlined brass P7.  It ran like a Swiss watch for over an hour.





Lee

[dandopinski]

Some progress on the Briggs GP38-2Ws. After gaining some experience on the GP40-2Ls, I have opted to keep the parts unassembled while adding paint, decals and detail parts. So much easier!



The long hood ends have number boards and class lights, unlike the 9400 class that are rather plain

[x600]

George, I decided to put it back in NEPA where it belongs 




With these legs, rail height is 40" to use with our club's oNetrak annex. My plan is to make it Free-moN
compatible with longer legs. The trouble is that it's 8 ft long and it won't fit in my moose wagon.
 I'm going to try building a weatherproof box to for it so I can transport it on the roof rack.
 My goal is to bring it to Altoona N-Scale Weekend next year and possibly Evanston in 27. 





I finished the wiring, layed and painted the track and ran a MOW train to test it.
Next up is trying to get the color of the viaduct a bit better, before I ballast and scenic the "valley".

Greg O.

[VonRyan]

I spent most of last week and part of the weekend at the National Narrow Gauge Convention selling an On3 brass collection, buying stuff for my future On30 layout, and displaying my Irish Nn3 layout for many curious onlookers.

But, the absolute highlight of the whole experience was meeting the one and only @Chris333