Weekend Update - April 22, 2007

[3rdrail]

What did y'all do on your model railroad "stuff" in the past week? Any interesting railfanning done?

Please share with photos if possible.

I found some slides I'd been looking for for a while, and a Quality Craft coaling tower kit I'd lost track of, but still couldn't find my drill bit set (not the #61-80 one, the 1/16"-1/4" one). The railroad room got a good sort-through, though. Bought another set, but that still didn't bring forth the old one!  :-[

[wm3798]

I started re-working my temporary yard to make it a little more functional.  I'll have photos when work gets a little further along.

Lee

[John]

I cleaned .. its amazing how much dirt and dust accumulates when you are doing scenery ..

[tom mann]

I worked on my z-scale MicronArt brass bridge kit.  It's assembled and painted, but not weathered yet.  I also started weathering an HO scale Athearn tunnel motor that I picked up at the last Timonium show for $cheap$.  Since the water that I used on my layout/module/photo module wasn't drying (I probably didn't mix as much hardener as I should have), I brushed some Liquidtex Gloss varnish on top.  This worked out well in encasing the semi-soft Magic Water and I don't have to re-do the river anymore!  So, I actually got a lot done this week...I wonder why... ;D

[Caleb Austin]

Well after many years with the same 3 x 6 foot layout I finaly moved on. so i sawed the plywood in half(well actually my dad did) and recycled as much of the foam as posable to the new layout( that stuff takes 2000 years to biodegrade.) The idea is that with a smaller layout I can work on making everything as realistic as posable and can take it outside for phography.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh man, I was busy yesterday.

I moved the layout.

It used to live in my apartment like this:



In what used to be my dining room / home office.

Some new couches dictated that that space shrink, so I've now moved it into a part of my place that used to just collect junk, and was like a big open closet.

It's also risen up about 10" too, which puts it at a great height.

Sorry, I don't have pictures yet though. I still have a bunch more work to do before I "unveil" it.

[SirTainly]

After wasting a day trying to build some caboose trucks with power pickup (similar to Lee's) and failing miserably, I decided to finish my second photo module. I needl add a back board at some point but first I just need to work out what to paint on it. Apologies for the second photo's quality, trying to work outside before the sun sets and rushing things a bit. The tunnel motor got photographed as it was lying on the table after a decoder install.

[Bob Bufkin]

Finally warmed up so I had too much outside yard work to model.  Did manage to finish a Fina N-scale B&O wagontop.


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[wcfn100]

Well since I didn't get any respose on my part request, I went ahead and fixed two problems at once.  The Hallmark GP9 had a 3-pole motor that was suspect and I didn't have a long enough univeral to fit so I remotored it with a LL switcher motor.  It runs pretty well but does have a bit of a whine.
I still need to put in the wheel wipers and side frames and then decide what to paint it.




Jason

[engineshop]

I finished the back boom of my container crane.
Next step will be the 4 wheel boxes at the bottom of the crane that move the crane sideways.



More progress photos are posted in the scratchbuilding section.

[Zox]

Nothing really new for this weekend, but I got a nifty picture off a friend's module at last week's train show.  Here's a smallish version:



And a link to a larger version, so you can appreciate his handiwork:

http://lordzox.com/mrr/2007/p4150002a.jpg

My only claim on this is that it's one of the best model-railroad pictures I've managed to take so far. Too bad I can't claim credit for the modeling...

[Iain]

Spent the day scratchbuilding buildings for my revamped trainshow layout.  Also did some work getting ready for the wood boat show next Saturday in Beaufort.

[SAH]

I've been working on the residence just north of the NKP / ACY transfer track on and off for a few weeks now.  It's intended to be somewhat detailed but still a background bldg.  It should look like the real house but not draw attention from the trains.  Still a ways to go.



Here's the prototype:

[Chris333]

Here is my progress with scratch built turnouts. I finished the turnout cluster (16 all in one piece) peeled it from my CAD drawing and started mounting on a board.





And this is the aerial photo of the real yard that I scanned and resized to N and imported into CAD, then traced over it. All tracks match the prototype and all siding hold the same amount of cars as the real thing.

Those grid lines are 7.25" apart.

[TrainCat2]

Spent most of my week's spare time getting the Pratt bridge artwork close to being finished. For a small bridge, it has a LOT of detail that I have figured out how to capture.

Chris, the track work is amazing. Great work as usual.