Weekend Update - 9/23/2007

[John]

John, nice work. 

How do you like the Dyson?  I spend far too much time cleaning cat hair out of the filter on my vacuum*, and I was thinking about upgrading.

LOL .. all that crap in my garage and you noticed that .. My wife seems to like it .. I am in charge of the garage . so you can tell I don't know how to use it

*20 minutes, once a month for 4.5 years...18 hours!!! 

Heck .. after 50, your lucky if its 20 minutes once a year  :'(

[John]

Richie .. thats a great story .. and a good looking model

[asciibaron]

i finished up the mods to my layout and started considering phase 2 benchwork...

i still need something for manual turnout control - i'll probably just pickup the CI ground throws and sink then into the homasote.

-steve

[wm3798]

Spent the few free moments I had doing loco maintenance.  Some just needed the wheels cleaned, but most have had the trucks pulled, and the axle bearings cleared of gick.  Had some kitty cat hair wound around some axles, too.

I've got a couple of heavy rebuilds to do, where a bit more frame needs to be cut away to get the shell to sit right, or to keep the drive from binding.

The goal is to have the entire fleet in tip top order and available for service by the end of October.

In an unrelated note, I also started working on a series of illustrations of old WM stations on the Thomas Sub....

Lee

[John]

In an unrelated note, I also started working on a series of illustrations of old WM stations on the Thomas Sub....

Lee

''


Hmmm .. sounds like a book deal ..  artwork with full scale drawings for the WM scratchbuilder ..

[MEC_FAN]

Lot of great stuff tonight. Been working on the layout the last couple of weeks. Added a second track to the helix and put the backdrop around it and painted backdrop.

Built the foam inclines coming out of the helix
and molded in the base scenery (right side of photo) and installed fascia.

Built backdrop on peninsula and painted it. Brought the roadbead across the backdrop and around the end of the peninsula and molded in  one side of the rock cut. Also got the fascia on.

Papermill goes on other side on peninsula.

[RockandRail]

tom,
we went through four vacs before we got a dyson and my wife loves it.   had a kirby, a sears canister, a dirt devil and a something else.   none of them worked well enough.  my wife wanted the dyson and she hasn't complained since.  it really pulls the dirt and picks up dog hair well (and it doesn't smell, like the kirby bag used to).  fyi.
dave f.

[Mark5]

MEC fan - impressive layout room!

Richie, great work.

All others, PDG (pretty damn good).

I got a rock. Well, actually I finally got my new layout light fixtures installed and wired (T8) and then flipped the switch. I was thinking I might need one more fixture and I was ... right. So I gotta run out and buy one more fixture one night this week. Intial sleepy eyed impression of the "sunshine" bulbs is good. Much better than the "shop light" that came with the house and that I hastily hung in the room when I built it.

Next up on my Einstein revelations "next things to do" is to paint the walls above the bench work "sky blue".

[up1950s]

Thanks guys , it was fun and will be nice having something unique in the yards or out on the main . It would be great if Bachmann did a Sperry based on the not so bad chassis and drive . I know if I were the big B I would be looking to capitalize on existing drives . Can't think of a yard that wouldn't be improved with a Sperry . They could do a older type paint job and a newer to cover all eras . It makes no sense why they didn't do it .

[Day One]

I reworked a bit of scenery that I haven't been satisified with. The initial roughed in look of it was decent but it just looked to bland and unrealistic to me. I'm mostly satisfied w/ the results of the reworked area but I still plan on doing a bit more.

Before:


After:


After2:


And just for fun, I did a time lapse video of the rework.
http://dayone.sportbikesnw.com/stuff/worknight9-20-07scenery_web.wmv (~10 Megs)

I also did a bit of ballasting and now only have about a 3 foot section of unballasted track on the whole layout. I think I'll have that done in the next few days too. That's one task I'm glad to be done with! Ballasting has got to be one of my least favorite activities but it makes the Code 80 Track and the scenery overall look soooo much better!

edit: added 2nd after pic since the 1st one didn't really do the reworked area justice.

[asciibaron]

After:

some hooligans seem to have made off with your wheels - didn't even leave the trucks on blocks.  that's a tough neighborhood...

looks good.

-steve

[TrainCat2]

Scott, Incredible scenes from your switching layout. Quite impressive on your attention to the small details that make the layout photos pop out. I always did like the city scene of the ROW passing by the tenaments.

[Scott Lupia]

Bob:
     Thanks for the compliments.  I can't wait to add some of the small details like cardboard boxes, shopping cars etc...

scott

[Iain]

I made some HO canoes for my dad

[Mark5]

It would be great if Bachmann did a Sperry based on the not so bad chassis and drive . I know if I were the big B I would be looking to capitalize on existing drives . Can't think of a yard that wouldn't be improved with a Sperry . They could do a older type paint job and a newer to cover all eras . It makes no sense why they didn't do it .

Maybe they don't know what a Sperry is ...

That said, if anyone bothers to make one (Walthers did one in HO), I'll buy it (given the usual list of prerequisites - decent drive, decent shell, etc).