Weekend Update 1/30/11

[Philip H]

There's some good stuff here.

Between snow, snow threats, and . . . unique bureaucratic decisions, I spent a fair amount of time home this past week, as did our toddler.  She has learned how to say "Da Choo" whihc means Dad's Choo Choo's.  She also knows that if she says it, she often gets to see the trains run.  Ed will be happy to know her favorite is my Conrail GE loco which she calls Blue.

That meant I needed to get some more of the rolling stock out of the Bad ORder Bin.  By replacing some trucks, wheel sets and couplers, I got the following five cars in service:



It started with this Coil car, which Peanut kept pulling out of the bin while she was watching trains:



And I know the ballast looks tragic, but it's not glued down so it will soon be replaced.

[wm3798]

Bridged the gap across the window, ready to press on to reach west staging and the eventual location of the yard...



Lee

[GaryHinshaw]

No modelling for me (again) but I did spend a fun, if soggy, day checking out the Vancouver rail scene with SirTainly: several grain terminals, the lift bridge over the Second Narrows, and Central Hobbes - a very nicely stocked brick & mortar shop.

I also took delivery of my first international chuck-pack: two BNSF H-II Dash-9s.  These bread & butter locos have been #1 on my wish list since I got back into N scale, so I'm quite pleased.  The only disappointment was that Kato omitted the GPS domes on these models, even though they possess the proper tooling.  Oh well.

Cheers,
Gary

P.S. Nice photo-set Dave!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

More stuff from me this weekend. Joined the two middle sections of the layout together using drywall corner material.

[Philip H]

More stuff from me this weekend. Joined the two middle sections of the layout together using drywall corner material.

1.  WHich layout?
2. Photos?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lol, the NCR and I left the camera upstairs. I'll grab some pics tonight.

[kalbert]

For the first time in months I actually have something to show. I've posted this update a couple other places, but I'm so darned excited I'm putting it here too. I made significant progress getting the shelf/benchwork done for my version of Byron Henderson's San Jose Switcher.

I screwed some cheapo 10"x12" stamped metal shelf brackets to the wall.


Then cut a hunk of 2" pink foam to 18"x72" for the base and 12"x72" of 1/2" foam for the back drop. I used cardstock for the curves on each end of the backdrop.


The screws didn't bite into the foam very well. I used some PL300 foam board adhesive to stick 1x3's on the foam and then screwed them to the shelf brackets. I plan to use 1/8" hardboard for the fascia, the 1x3"s will probably work better for attaching that too.

[SebastianLee]

I didn't get as far as I wanted.  We got our first pre-show of spring with temps nearly hitting 70.   I have a stack of engines that haven't been run in at least a year (ok maybe 2), so I drug out the unitrack and tossed together a test track.  Spent a lot of time scratching my head and taking engines apart.

[BCRail_FSJ]

Had a bit of time to install couplers on 766 and fix some issues with the front truck clearance.   Joined it up with 754 and 759 and gave them all a run on a short DC powered section of track at Taylor.

[Scottl]

I'm new here, but this weekly thread is my favorite.

OK, so this weekend I wrote a report for work, but here are some photos of recent progress...

I'm building a CN-themed layout depicting the main line through northern Ontario.  I'll have a yard at Hornepayne, which is also a division point, and wilderness running outside of town.  The paper mill is not completely to prototype, but there are lots of paper mills in the region.  Here's the trackplan for your perusal.  The squares are 1', so the whole thing is about 7' X 11' X 5'.



I have laid the mainline and much of the yard.  I recently finished the backdrop.  I used 1/8th hardboard, curved at the bends, taped and mudded, and painted with sky blue.  The rest of it is airbrushed with white and a darker blue mixed from the sky blue color.



The newspaper cover is up and now I am working on scenery with foam board.  Hopefully some pictures with next weeks thread!

Scott

[eric220]

This post comes to you live from Amtrak's California Zephyr!

This was the scene as we boarded a few days ago in sunny California.


Modeling is still coming slowly.  I can't really do a whole lot until my new basement is done.  We did manage to paint it over the last couple of weeks, so we're that much closer.



The floor is hopefully going to go in during the week of Feb. 14th.  Once that's in, Altoona will be moved to its final home, and work can finally begin on the rest of the Pennsy!

Until then...

[conrail98]

I didn't take pics, but I removed all the supports for what I though was going to be a valence around the entire layout. I really opened the layout up, I think. I also redrew my staging to give me another 3" on each shelf for a new aisle width in staging of 30". Much more comfortable then where I was at before, just over 24". Finally, I used gift cards from Christmas and bought all the wire I need to run my bus wires,

Phil

[pnolan48]

Lee,

It looks like the river under the bridges flows right out the window to the street below! Brilliant juxtaposition

[esa123]

Great Posts Everyone!

I began super detailing a number of locomotives which have been in my collection for quite some time. One of the first steps in the process was to experiment with ditch lighting. The video below shows my progress thus far (I apologize for the stumbling while speaking, my dogs were begging for a walk and very peristent)! Listed below is the technical data for each engine.

From left to right the following components were used:



1) UP SD70Ace - Digitrax DN163K1D with factory LED on decoder for the headlight and two Golden White mini surface mount LED's, mounted within each ditch light housing.
2) BN SD70MAC - Digitrax DN163K1B with factory LED on decoder for the headlight and two Circuitron 1.4 mm incandescent light bulbs (1.5 volts, 13 ma) as ditch lights through the light tube.
3) BN SD70MAC - Digitrax DN163K1B with factory LED on decoder for the headlight and two Sunny White mini surface mount LED's, connected to each light tube duct via small electrical shrink wrap tubing.
- All resistors are surface mounts which are soldered directly to the F1,F2 position. They are 1k-1/4W for the LED's and 680Ohm - 1/4W for the incandescent bulbs. All components were purchased at Ulrich Models (http://www.ulrichmodels.biz/servlet/Sto­reFront). I also found the following tutorials very useful:

1. Reality reduced Episode 10: http://realityreduced.blip.tv/file/1303050/
2. Digitrax FX decoder Setup: http://www.digitrax.com/ftp/fxsetup.pdf
3. Additional FX decoder effects CV's: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmx/ditch.htm
4. Model Railroader decoder questions: http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/147026/1630370.aspx

More to come with this project but for now this is a start!

Erik

[SAH]

That 10 wheeler looks great Richie. 

A good weekend for trains for a change.  Thursday I made some layout design decisions for now and the future.  Friday evening I rotated the layout 180 deg.  All the sections had been removed for wiring work so I slipped some furniture moving coasters under the base plate and swung the whole thing around.  Well, tugged and grunted it around.  Got the whole move done and resecured in 90 mins though so it wasn't that tough to do.

Saturday ran trains on the Lehigh & Delaware Division (GMR 2007).  JusTrainCrazy & I worked Lehighton yard.  We had a great time getting trains in, swapping cuts of cars and getting trains out.  I think most of the cars we added were going in the right direction.   

Saturday night I painted the lighting valence fascia semi-gloss black.  Today I reinstalled the wired sections.  Only the Litchfield section left to wire and I can get something running again.  YEAH!!!!!

Steve