Weekend Update - May 4, 2008

[3rdrail]

It's Sunday again and time for y'all to share what you've accomplished or attempted in the past  week that had anything to do with steel wheels (or plastic ones!) on steel rails (or nickel silver ones).

I went to work on some cars Thursday night, but my wife had purchased a new watch and decided the band needed a link removed, so spent most of the evening figuring out how to do that instead. Ended up grinding down a screwdriver to fit the tiny screws, which did not work, but it was just a bit from a freebie. Found a set in the kitchen Junk drawer with a small enough blade. Did finish work on the Crazy Crystal reefers, though.

After spraying Dullcote on it, I felt so short of breath I bought a decent volatile particles mask and filters at Home Depot. Should have done that years ago!

[wm3798]

Not much modeling this week, although I did get a chance to throw this together for the monthly photo contest at Scale Rails Online...  The theme this month is "Loaded"


Lee

[MEC_FAN]

Cool shot Lee, hope you win!!!

MEC

[John]

Nothing spectacular .. finished the sub road bed for the upper level .. and got 1/4 of the sub roadbed for lower level done ..

[shark_jj]

That's a really good photo Lee.  I am continuing to slug away on the Curve.  This thing is twice the size of many layouts.  Here we see a set of Geeps and an Alco dragging coal up the hill.  Those hoppers in the background are almost 9 feet away........it's hard to see against the black hoppers but the K4 is in the park.  I hope to have the park finished this week and take some photos next week.

[asciibaron]

i have been finalizing a change to the layout room - i hope to start demo'ing a wall and building another in the next few weeks - just need to get my brother in law signed on to help.  the plan is to close off the area where the layout is and then i will switch to a shelf system.  saves lumber and makes quick work of things.

-Steve

[Chris333]

I added some smaller details to my 0-6-0. I need domes so I ordered a Taig lathe with milling attachment (about time) Guess I will learn how to use it by turning the 0-6-0 domes.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I did a bunch of stuff. Railfanning & Todd Treaster's layout saturday. More railfanning on sunday! Quite a great weekend.

I've posted the Todd photos elsewhere, but here's a highlight

[Erik W]

I’m nearing completion of the last section of scenery on the mountainous leg of my layout.  This weekend I worked on the water in the creek, painted the paved road, and ballasted.  I’m ready to start planting more trees.  Once finished with that, I’ll add the last of the details, clean the track and get trains rolling again.  No photos = too lazy.

Erik

[chuck geiger]

Began the section of the new layout that will sqaure off the room and it's only part not anchored to the wall. Will begin lighting and valances and fascia in the next few weeks.

[Puddington]

Being as this past week became the week from H - E - Double Hockey Sticks at the office my activities were curtailed.... I manged to weather a few foreign road 40' boxcars and did a wee bit of shunting - after getting home between 2100 hrs and mid night 4 days in a row....



Yesterdays afternoon shunt dropped of several TOFC's... this Quebec based trailer is unloaded and ready for it's next assignment. Our local shunting geep is behind.



If you can figure out what a Texas Mexican 40' and a Cotton Belt car are doing in the interior of British Columbia you win the prize !





Some CP rail Pac Man pieces caught some dust and dirt too.....



More contrast - The "old; the new and the visitor....." The Maine Central car looks tired; the old Canadian Pacific 40' is still hard at work 20 years after building and her colourful sister is only 9 months out of a refit and new paint job.....



We ended up with a traffic jam in the small Northhill staging area... oh well, the Monday shunt guys will clean it up....



The sun's getting long in the west  - our geep heads for the barn and some TLC over at the Ridge....

[3rdrail]

If you can figure out what a Texas Mexican 40' and a Cotton Belt car are doing in the interior of British Columbia you win the prize !

Bringing in, er, "undocumented workers"?? ;D ;D ;D

[Puddington]

Correct...the technical term being " unallied labour assistance having not comepletely passed through all required governemnt assistance and who enjoy alternate forms of transportation; living accomodation and human rights"......

The "prize" is, however, subject to all canadian taxes; therfore you can submit your payment in full of $ 34.98 to Revenue Canada..... ;D ;D

[SirTainly]

Since today is a public holiday here, and as tomorrow I have to start doing 6 hours of commuting (thanks to a job relocation as of 5:30 pm Friday) I thought I'd squeeze in some trains:

I cleaned up the garden railroad, and since it looks like I'll be staying in this house for a while longer have decided to go ahead with the the extension that will curve round infront of the gate on a removable section, run along the left of this picture before heading further off to the left of photo and heading back up to the house. The last phase will be to build a link across the patio and make a loop.



I also spent five minutes on my GP40P-2 and removed the corner pieces at the rear of the DB blister to reuse on the steam generator section of long hood.


The other week I said I'd destroyed a boxcar, well I managed to save it via a liberal application of brake fluid (easily removes Tamiya spray paint), and some BLMA steps. Next off some white and green paint for a freelanced scheme for a shortlien that'll make an appearance on my oneday layout.



From a couple of weeks back a U28C that I've started bringing up to scratch. First off was to repair the cab roof which was all pock marked like it had been attached by chemicals, although the damage was below the paint. It'll get some detail parts, If I can scratchbuild out the Sunrise blackhole, filled in pilots and some change to the rear of the long hood to match the SP models. Anyone know if NWSL do replacement wheels for these locos ?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I don't know about NWSL wheels, but I bet you can put a Kato mech under it.