Weekend Update - 2/28/2010

[Bob Bufkin]

Managed to ballest some more track and do a little scenery.  Finished a Camden & Amboy 1930's tractor trailer which only costed me 2 bucks at the last Timonium show:



My new PCM PA passing the just finished scenary:

[atsf_arizona]

PCR Coast Division Meet coming Sunday March 7, 2010 in Santa Clara, CA


Hello, all,

As a followup to my BLI/Kato PA post above....

As a model RR public service to all, especially anyone interested in DCC...

Wanted to let any of you who are in the San Francisco Bay Area, that next
weekend you are invited to come as a guest to the Coast Division Meet on
Sunday, March 7, 2010 at the Buchser Middle School
in Santa Clara, CA.


Buchser Middle School, 1111 Bellomy St., Santa Clara, CA


Of particular interest and the reason that I post this here....

is that Mark Gurries will be giving two DCC clinics.
Mark is literally a world-known model RR DCC expert and contributor, with
innumerable and continuing support of all things DCC on the various Yahoo
DCC Groups.  We're lucky to have him right here in Silicon Valley.

Guests are always welcome at the NMRA Coast Division meets, and there's no
charge (what a deal!)  Thought there may be many of you who would like to
enjoy these two clinics greatly, and you do get to find out about the NMRA
Coast Division at the same time as well.


Mark's two clinics on Sunday, March 7, 2010 are:

10:00 AM ......Decoder Hardware (selection and installation)
11:00 AM.......Decoder Software (programming and software support)


More about these two DCC clinics (including copies of handouts), as well
more info about Mark, is at:


http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast/meet_clinics.shtml


You get to also have great idea exchange, seeing and kibitzing with your fellow
model railroaders and guests.

Learn more by seeing our web site at:

http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast


Here's what we have planned:

9:00 AM.......Doors open. Free Door Prizes. Buy Raffle Tickets.
9:30 AM.......Get Auction Cards.
10:00 AM ......Decoder Hardware (selection and installation) by Mark Gurries
11:00 AM.......Decoder Software (programming and software support) by Mark
Gurries
11:00 AM.......Model Railroad Roundtable moderated by Jerry Littlefield
12 Noon.........Business Meeting
~1:00 PM*.....Auction starts, Roundtable continues
1:30 PM .......Model/Photo Contest Results – afterward Auction continues
3:30 PM .......Timesaver Results, Raffle – afterward Auction continues if
required

9:30 AM – 1:15 PM:
Model Contest: Caboose, Freight Cars, Maintenance of Way
Photo Contest: Steam Locomotives

Allen Fenton Timesaver Switching Contest (until 3:15)


See more about all this by downloading the March 2010
Coast Dispatcher:

http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast/dispatcher/Dispatcher201003.pdf


There are Coast Layout Tours on:

March 13 & 14, 2010

North East Bay - Andy Schnur is coordinator
If you want to know more about Layout Tours, come to the
meet, or check our web site at:

http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast/layout.shtml


We also have Show and Tell: bring any model to share and show off!
Works in progress welcome!


===============


The Coast Division callboard is online at:

http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast/Coast_Call_Board.pdf

=============


SWITCHING CONTEST

Have a go at the Allen Fenton Timesaver
switching puzzle, Which is a fun, devilish little
switching layout and friendly competition we have at
every Coast Division Meet.

You got to try it!


============

Hope to see many of you Coast Division, Pacific Coast
Region, as guests - if nothing else, you'll love the
DCC clinics - they alone are worth the drive  .


As a public model RR service On behalf of the NMRA Coast Division,



John Sing
Coast Division Model Contest chair-flunkie

NMRA PCR Coast Division Model Contest /
Photo Contest / Show and Tell web pages:

http://www.pcrnmra.org/coast/contest.shtml

[Two Truck Shay]

I finally managed to lay enough track to complete the main line. I can now run a train around the beast. Woohoo!

[wcfn100]

Still not much work getting while playing Mister Mom and having my cousin live with us for a while.

But my chopeed nose SD-7 did get a bit of good news and a little test work done.

Turns out I didn't need to fabricate a new handrail for the fireman's side of the shorthood, I had received a broken part from Atlas.  :-[

I had decided to go with CNW/MSTL #300 which means putting on some angled class lights on the short hood.  I tried cutting and sanding some from an SD24 shell, but the parts are just too small to work with unless I had a dozen or so tries at it.  The next try is to fabricate in place.  We'll see how that goes.  I don't know that I'll be able to resist the urge to put in working lights.

Lumber still sits in the garage for the Dubuque modules, but Wednesday looks promising for working out there.  I guess there's no real hurry until Atlas gets their flex track back in stock.


Jason

[John]

Working on kitchen renovation . .. no time for trains  :'(

[GaryHinshaw]

Stick a fork in it and call it done:



I got a few more pics I'll post later to a separate detailing thread.

-Gary

P.S. In retrospect, I probably should have gone with the two flags scheme in honor of the Canada-US hockey match.  What a contest so far, eh?  [2-2 going to OT as of this writing!]

[Zox]

I'm finally getting back into model railroading mode from after the holidays, snow days, and other days of distraction.

While I was home over Christmas, I finally managed to get the real Kankakee River bridge into a single photo, and tried today to take the same shot of my model bridge:





(Bigger version of the real-bridge picture here: http://lordzox.com/mrr/2010/icbridge_full_real.jpg )

Unfortunately, it looks like the forward extension of the embankment (to bring the end of the module up to standard height) gets in the way. Oh well--it's still kind of a nifty shot, and will be better when I start adding some details like the fence.

[tom mann]

nice colors on that, Gary.

[jsoflo]

Stick a fork in it and call it done:



I got a few more pics I'll post later to a separate detailing thread.

-Gary

P.S. In retrospect, I probably should have gone with the two flags scheme in honor of the Canada-US hockey match.  What a contest so far, eh?  [2-2 going to OT as of this writing!]

AWESOME work Gary! The pain is still too raw for me to talk hockey though, sigh.

Been working on my Walthers Thrall 5-unit wellcar set cut down to 40' wells, now just need to paint the ladder grabirons and add trucks when the BLMA's arrive:
http://picasaweb.google.com/CPJsoflo/WorksInProgress?authkey=Gv1sRgCK7Y9sS1t7TfugE#5443322342262587138


my best,
Jan

[up1950s]

Stick a fork in it and call it done:



I got a few more pics I'll post later to a separate detailing thread.

-Gary

P.S. In retrospect, I probably should have gone with the two flags scheme in honor of the Canada-US hockey match.  What a contest so far, eh?  [2-2 going to OT as of this writing!]

Wow , thats a  perfect detailing and paint job , shame better side handrails couldn't have been found . Such is the bane of N scale . 

[bsoplinger]

What's the thing hanging down on the side above the digit 5 in the cab number? My initial thought was a mirror, upper mount broken off and so hanging upside down, but I'm that isn't what the detail is meant to be.

[Packer]

Gary, nice job on the unit. What color did you use for the dust along the bottom?

David, that's some gorgeous work there. doesn't even look like flat wire.

I fired up my airbrush for the first time, and it works.

I thought mixing the paint and getting the laquer thinner out of the big jug would be the hard part. That turned out to be the easy part. The real fun started when I tried to spray. For starters, the hose (I bought a badger hose) kept falling off. I fixed that by filling the plug so the hose could thread on by more than 2 turns. But then the rubber ring inside the badger hose went missing. I compensated by cranking the air pressure up to 40; however, that may have did something to the hose since some goop is coming out the sides.It also stopped drawing paint up alot. Then when it started back up, it wanted to shoot a stream of paint straight up into the air. I probably should use a paint filter from now on. I probably have more paint all over the garage patio than anything I painted. When cleaning it, I noticed most of the o-rings were missing (no, I never checked in the first place). Luckily I managed to get some that fit out of my box of carburetor parts.





I don't think it's too bad of a job for cheap enamels and a freebie airbrush on my very first try. I will note that cleaning the enamel paints out of this airbrush may be self-destructive. Most of the parts are plastic, so it could end up causing it to break... If it does I'll get a badger since getting parts for a Japanese airbrush would cost more than a new one.

later projects are to try the "fading fast" method

[brokemoto]

Some of you, will no doubt notice the recent acquisirion of an IMEX barn.  It will become part of a livery stable, as, obviously, this is a nineteenth century pike.   Has anyone managed to get the window frames out of these things intact and managed to make 'real' windows?  If so, how did you do it?  Or do I need simply to cut out the openings, destroy the frames in the process and make or buy new ones?

Thank you.

[SkipGear]

I was shooting to have this done today but I kept finding more piping to add. As it stands, I still need to add piping under the cab on the firemans side. Anyhow, it's a quick and simple (that was the plan at least) PRR I-1 stand in.





Still need to build a proper tender for it. It runs really good with a Kato Mikado motor and flywheel in it.

[ednadolski]

Looks great!   What colors did you use for the weathering?

Question:  I only have one GEVO so far, and the ditch lights seem rather dim compared to the regular nose headlights.  Have you noticed anything similar on yoru GEVO(s)?   On my Katos, the ditch light intensity looks much more uniform with the headlights.
Ed