Weekend Update - 08/16/2009

[John]

What have you been up to?

[pfs]

Prepped some ties for dioramas.

n



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[Dave V]

Ballasting and tracklaying on my yard extension...

[bobcat]

Scenery

[Puddington]

After getting "gonged" at work after 25 years of management with the company I spent 5 weeks at the cottage licking my wounds and coming to the conclusion that this may not be a bad thing..... once home there'd be more time for young son and modeling....so, putting on my "Mr. Mom" superhero cape and mask, we headed back home and asummed my new role..LOL

I managed to "almost" finished the second CPR coach resin shell kit; still have windows to do. I hand painted over 30 passengers for this one (at the cottage) so she's 'stuffed"...



I'll finish the windows this week and move on to the next car.

I also lost my mind for a few hours..........

I invited my almost 6 year old son Sammy and his best pal Andrew to paint and decal their own cars today......

I should clarify..... The Samuel Ridge Sub of my Puddington Valley Division is named for my son. The soon to be built for his 7th birthday (he doesn't know) Andrew Junction Sub will be a Unitrack starter for my son's best buddy. The kids love to run my layout and, for the most part run ok..... they wanted to "raise the bar" by making their own cars....."Ok guys" came out of my mouth as my brain said " what the ^$@%$#@%$#!!$#"........Friday was the day.

I designed a simple red and white scheme; red cars with white doors; the PVR diamond on one end and their sub's initials on the other...

The boys were given a few quick lessons on the airbrush (moved to the back yard for the occasion) Gloves, smocks, glasses and face masks were doned and battle was joined.... SOO red everywhere...... but lots got on the car too....as it was 101 F here Friday, drying wasn't an issue......

Dry transfers and decals were used; the boys did most of it....really... I made sure the stuff was "perpendicular"....

Weathering was a mix of me and kids..... here's a few pics of the "SR" car unweathered and the "AJ" car weathered....






The cars look cool........ the boys ran them for over an hour... they raced; switched; and compared their results..... like a few 6 year olds would.......



Does your modeling heart good to see them embracing our hobby at that age.... made me feel pretty good at a time where that's much appreciated.

[diezmon]

I'm finally working on getting my jeep back in the garage.   I've always meant to lift the layout.. and started working on it yesterday. Fun, 89 degrees outside.. ;D

I'm using some old sash window pulleys.. if you've priced pulleys at the hardware store, you'll know why   :


I removed the crank on the winch, and will use my cordless drill.




Hard to tell here, but it's a couple feet off the ground.


I may switch to cable instead of rope.. the rope stretches, more depending on how long the run, so the whole thing doesn't come up QUITE at the same time.  I'm worried about the twisting.. and if it will foo things up on the layout.

[asciibaron]

working on the subroadbed - have the bulk of it laid out - hoping to cut the plywood and some risers today and it it installed.  too many things going on!

[VGN50]

We got some good news today.

Puddington is back.

[Dupesy]

Neat pulley system!  I see Tom stopped by to help out....

[SkipGear]

I posted these earlier in the week on some of the other boards, forgot to do it here so now is the time I guess.

[wcfn100]

I'm patiently waiting on a 1960's 1"/100' track diagram from the City Engineering office of Waterloo IA to finally start building a layout.  I'm trying to decide on Atlas c55 or handlayed track out of the gate.  I could build a condensed test layout that would let me test the operations and scenery techniques before I spend the time handlaying all the track and I would also have a home for any buildings.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to pick up Visual Studio 2008 to get my website up and going.


Jason

[BCR 570]

With tracklaying out of the helix fast approaching, I spent some time this week learning how to handlay track.  Here are my first attempts using Micro Engineering Code 40 rail, Fast Tracks PC ties and fixtures:





The second and third attempts went better than the first.  These will be glued down to my test bed so I can next learn how to ballast and weather track and get the results I am looking for.


I also assembled some Code 55 to Code 40 transition tracks in preparation for making the connections in and out of the helix:



On the left is a test piece of Peco Code 55 identical to what was used in the helix.  At the left end you can see that the rails have been filed down to the first base to create a pad for the Adjoining Code 40 to sit on.  At the right end I filed the underside of the rails up to the top base so I could fit insulated rail joiners to the top base (Peco 55 has an upper and lower base to the rail).

On the right are my two transition tracks, consisting of a piece of Railcraft Code 55 soldered to a piece of Micro Engineering Code 40.  The Railcraft Code 55 will slip into the insulated rail joiners level with the Peco 55, and the Micro Engineering Code 40 will join to my handlaid trackage.  (The insulated rail joiners are required to establish the helix as a separate DCC power district.)  The transition tracks have been tested with a freight car truck, a freight car and a powered locomotive and all seems well with respect to operation.  I will likely shorten the sections a bit prior to installation.

This was a time consuming but necessary step in preparation for progressing out of the helix.  Work has already begun on the sub-roadbed - more next week!


Tim

[diezmon]

Up up and away...


Stepped out of the garage to move the car and saw this...



I guess we know what I'm doing for the REST of the weekend...  >

[wendell camp]

 I amy getting close to building the layout all I need to do is paint the floor. Then I can start setting up the shop wendell

[Zox]

Figured I'd better paint the arch over the road on my bridge before I started putting scenery under it:



It's a lousy paint job, but that just means it matches the real bridge.

Mocked a couple of signs into place, by using photos of the real signs:



Scaled and taped in position:



The lower sign is going to be a challenge--I intend to model the whole "Kankakee Welcomes You," not just the portion that remains. I can't find a reference for it, but I do remember it was just text, so if I can match the font I'll be good.

The bigger question is if the sign was on both sides of the bridge, or just the dam side. The photographic evidence is inconclusive. I guess the safe route is to leave it off the back side for now; it's easier to add it later than to remove it.