Weekend Update 3-9-08

[wm3798]

All right you slackers... Pony Up!

Lee

[Bob Bufkin]

I ripped out the last of my old track and gave a general cleanup of dirt and dust.   Tested the coupler height of a bunch of passenger and freight cars.  Converted about a dozen freight car trucks (got rid of the old crapedos) and got about 120 more to go.  Also converted some passenger truck wheels to FVM wheels which I ordered from Chulvus (finally got some of my money).  Spend more time working on my layout today then I have for months.

[Wlal13again]

A while back I picked up some 90 tonners to do paint outs for my own shortline, the Philadelphia & Easton, heres the first one..



Rich

[wm3798]

Here's some of the action you missed yesterday.  Actually I missed most of it, too.  These were some of the the trains I re-staged this morning for some photo run-by's...

First, the grain extra powered by Bobcat's N&W Centuries...

Here it is clearing the crossover at North Junction.


AJ-1 clears Maryland Junction while a coal extra arrives eastbound on the Thomas Sub.


Here we see AJ-1 crossing the Youghiougheny on it's way to Ohiopyle

There were, of course, some "lease units" on the layout yesterday.  Here's the pairing that Ed brought to amuse us:


and we had some help switching Westvaco, thanks to Brian's GP-35.

That sucker needs some serious weathering applied to it.


A splendid time was had by all.

Lee

[Bob Bufkin]

Your right about the Rock unit needing weathering.  Think they are the only units which made Penn Central units look clean.

[bobcat]

Glad to see my units are earning their keep.

Got some scenicing done at the club(sorry no pics yet) and been working on the grades on my home layout.

Finally able to work on the home layout after evicting my son and moving his HO into another room. He was occupying the floor of the room.

Seems like it has been so long since I've actually gotten anything done.

[Caleb Austin]

Lee, nice shots, those conrail units look sweet going across the bridge.

Nothing new for me this week, but I'll be getting my new track this week so I can start on my layout in earnest. Woot!     

[Norm P]

Got my door mounted and braced, and one layer of foam glued on.  Also got the walls of the MAC factory together. 
This week I'm hoping to start roughing in a track plan and industry placement on some project paper placed on the foam.  I'll probably have lots of questions for you guys in the next few weeks if the search function doesn't cover things for me.

[RockGp40]

Your right about the Rock unit needing weathering. 

You think that is clean, you ought to see my "Bankruptcy Blue" string of power! A GP40-2, 4 GP38-2s, U25B, and some other GPs without their true Rock grime.

Very little of my collection is weathered. All in time.



Does anyone know if the CNW had any GP-30s? I want one after being at Lee's house yesterday.

[Iain]

I worked on my Norfolk Southern 2-8-4


The trailing truck still needs some work

[dclyde]

1)  I installed digitrax drop-ins in a pair of Kato E8As.
2)  Installed some nuckle couplers on a dummy E8B unit in preparation for installing sound into it.
3)  Installed a M1 in a Bachmann Pennsy Doodlebug.  I don't like the amber LED and need to replace it with a white one.
4)  Took off a couple of unnecessary control panels and then rewired that portion of the layout.
5)  Ran the new Athearn Big-Boy for awhile to break it in.

Otherwise, not much was accomplished.

Oh!  BTW, I also did 3 loads of laundry for the wife.  How else do you think I was able to play with the trains all weekend.

Dave

[seusscaboose]

1)  I installed digitrax drop-ins in a pair of Kato E8As.
2)  Installed some nuckle couplers on a dummy E8B unit in preparation for installing sound into it.
3)  Installed a M1 in a Bachmann Pennsy Doodlebug.  I don't like the amber LED and need to replace it with a white one.
4)  Took off a couple of unnecessary control panels and then rewired that portion of the layout.
5)  Ran the new Athearn Big-Boy for awhile to break it in.

Otherwise, not much was accomplished.

Oh!  BTW, I also did 3 loads of laundry for the wife.  How else do you think I was able to play with the trains all weekend.

Dave

dave...
curious on your thoughts re: the e8's.... did you consider using the mrc drop in boards with sound?  or was it more just a "straight decoder install" using a digitrax board.  the reason i ask is i am considering getting a couple mrc boards (Ken has one and it sounds justfine) for some E8's... and was curious if youthought about any shell modifications to enhance the speaker (that is. of course, IF you considered a mrc)

E

[UP_Phill]

Not a lot for me this past week.

1. Finished my 2 fastracks turnouts and installed the last of my Tortoise machines.
2. Did some fault finding on a PCM E7....dead speaker!
3. Painted some more track
4. Started building my DCC programming display for the upcoming Brisbane Model Train show. Now waiting on the SPROG and Locsound programmer to arrive.

[Denver Road Doug]

I worked on wiring my detection and transponding and getting everything mounted on a plexiglass panel.



See my TB blog for more details if you are interested...
http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/blog.php?u=707

Also worked in a little railfanning so I'll try to get some pics up later.  EDIT: Here's one...


The remains of a rare Texas snow surrounds a lowly eastbound coal drag being overtaken by an EB manifest freight. (and, moments later by another EB, albeit a less insulting hot intermodal)

[Erik W]

I made 75 or so aspen trees yesterday.  Over the last week I "planted" about 350 more trees.  The 3 1/2 foot section of scenery I'm nearly finished with has 550 trees on it, about 475 conifers and 75 aspens.  I should have this section of scenery done some time this week.  I'll have some photos next weekend.

Erik