Weekend Update 7/24/11

[wm3798]

Two final projects to mark the end of vacation week...



Finished up the wagon top caboose I was contracted to build for the Brunswick Railroad Museum...  It will shortly be trundling around the small N scale display in the front window of the museum  I've got a second kit, but it lacks the critical etchings for the grabs and end rails... If anyone's got a set, I'd be much obliged to take it off your hands.

Also, completed the brain transplant on LRV 1803

Thereby completing the quartet that will be handling trains between Ligonier and Ridgeley.

So the decks are cleared to finish Russ's HO soundies, and to begin installations in a box full of N scale Ann Arbor geeps!  Should be fun.

[Guilford Guy]

Edit: Skibbe and Mike, that really sucks. Water problems can be a bear.

With the layout house having been taken over by renters, I've resorted to scratchbuilding structures for the layout, such as this freight house modeled after the one in Arlington Center.

[SkipGear]

Skibbe and Mcjaco - Sorry to hear about the rain. I thought I had it bad this weekend but nothing like you guys dealt with. I had a storm that sat over our house and didn't move for about an hour and a half. It was droping at one point 2" in a half hour. From 100 degree heat and no rain for a week to 2" of rain instantly, the ground couldn't take it and it was coming in all around the foundation. The train room took it the worst but we didn't have standing water, just running water. The carpet is soaked, just threw out 20 or so cardboard boxes. I have had two furnace blowers running the basement since last night to dry things out. Fortunately I caught it as it happened and saved everything important. We were getting ready to head to a Reds game, if it hit about two hours later, everything setting on the floor would have been a loss.

Good thing was, we still made it to the game while we let the basement continue draining and the Reds won with a walk of home run first pitch of the bottom of the ninth.

[Sokramiketes]

Thanks all.  The house is the most expensive part of the hobby, and overhead sewer is on my list next.

[mcjaco]

Psshh... 9".  I got 3'.  The Pokie is no more. 

Friday night I moved the entire layout from my garage to the basement after finishing the epoxy floors and primered walls over the past month.  4 hours later it was floating.  And I was moving it back out to the driveway.

Timing is everything.  Largest storm in Chicago's recorded history.

Trust me Mike, I know it could have been worse.  Then again my parents don't live by the Des Plaines River....

Hope all the work you did on the walls and floor didn't get ruined.  And of course, you can always call Modutrak-ers for help.   

[up1950s]

Thanks all.  The house is the most expensive part of the hobby, and overhead sewer is on my list next.

Oh , so like me you have an under cellar floor sewer line . The same happened to me years ago . A sewer guy told me about the " Clog Buster " which comes in various diameters . Years later after I replaced the sewer main and before the city isolated the street water from the house waste water N stuff we had a back up due to a heavy storm . Well I figured if the Clog Buster when stuck in the 4" sewer expanded under hose water pressure to seal it so hose water pressure can build up past it through a small slit in the end ( penus like ) to blow out a clog it will work to stop water n stuff from flowing back in due to the then city's inadequate design . I have a water alarm in the trap at the cellar floor as well as other places so when the alarm sounded I flew into action . Finding the cause early was key , had I not once I popped the clean-out plug there would have been a torrent of a back flow . So when I popped the plug it was not mush different than the ooze through the poor seal . Expecting the back up I had already had the Clog Buster hosed up . I shoved it in the hole a foot or so , and opened the faucet . That stopped the back flow . When the rain stopped for a while , I risked turning off the faucet to see of the sewer water table dropped , it did . I pulled the now shrunken down Clog Buster back out , cleaned it for another day . All I got in the cellar was about a bucket of water , without the clog buster it would have been a disaster like yours Mike .

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