Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[MVW]

Good to know you're back at it, Mike!

Jim

[James Costello]

Some more inspiration for you Mike - these shots always make me think of your empire:
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/844891/

[C855B]

Fixed, hopefully...

The elapsed time since the last update is sad, but that there is enough happening currently to post something is a good sign there is still life in this project.

The latest is tinkering with 3D printing, a la a BambuLab X1-Carbon. To test its - and my - capabilities, I did some station signs for the fascia:

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[Ed Kapuscinski]

They look good even if they did print upside down.

[rodsup9000]

  I like that
I'm going to copy your idea, Mike
Thanks

[C855B]

Frankly, I am absolutely amazed by the resolution and clarity. These were with an 0.4mm nozzle, and automatic color changing. These signs are museum-quality. I couldn't be happier.

[C855B]

Again, long time no see. We have not been hanging around the studio much these days. Life has been interfering. Nothing bad, but it's been difficult to break away from obligations especially around the house.

Major happenings around the layout building, however. Latest development has been very disappointing, and there's not a thing we can do about it. But first, a short walk down railcam memory lane. You'll need your browser set for mixed HTTPS/HTTP to see everything.















You get the idea. The railcam failed in freezing temps a while back, previous to my health issues three years ago. I haven't mustered the desire to either get up on the ladder to mess with it nor spend the money it would take to fix it for the third time in the 10 years it's been up on the side of the building. (Professionally I used to swear by Axis cameras... not so much these days. Not durable in the cold.)

Nonetheless, it captured some real humdingers like the RDC inspection car, the Bombardier HR-412, and the GMD1 way, way far away from its home turf.

But the demotivation to restore operation was final as of last week. The view of the tracks is gone. Kudos to the local recreational agency for their green energy project, poop on them for not putting this solar array on their huge roof and taking up the in-town green space instead.

I could put up a 35' tower (which I happen to have) for the camera to have a view, but I don't have the energy to mess with it, plus it would require renting an industrial-grade lift to install and service. Not worth it.

[C855B]

Things have slowed down on the non-trains front, so some of this week was spent at the studio/layout building trying to catch up on things. There is a lot to catch up on.

One priority task was backing-up the software on the JMRI system, which was taking >5 minutes to boot. Found the bug, a slightly corrupted MicroSD card on the Raspberry Pi. Backup to a fresh card solved the problem - start to running now boots in <15 seconds. JFRTM for a few minutes after that was solved. More to come after a few laps with the track polisher train.

Some of the JFRTM was cussing at a brace of BLI E8s that refuses to run smoothly or quietly. About to replace all 30 wheelsets with Kato, especially disposing of the traction tires.

And cleaning up the workshop reminded me of something I don't think I've shared before, hung on one wall:



This is the schedule board from UP's (obviously) Las Vegas station. I picked it up at the last Winterail in Stockton, CA, ten years ago. Great bit of memorabilia that fits perfectly with the LA&SL portion of the layout. I'm fascinated by the ghost of the painted-over schedule underneath the 1969 repaint, which undoubtedly mentioned trains #5 and #6.

Original plan was to hang it outside next to the front door of the layout building, but I'm not confident that it will age well in Midwest humidity and winters. It'll stay inside.

[davefoxx]

Mike:

What’s going on with your layout and the studio/layout building?  It’s been a long time since we got updates.  I saw your post in another thread about a brace of UP FA-1s headed your way, so I’m hopeful that all is well, especially with your health.

DFF

[C855B]

Health is the issue, Dave, both mine and my wife's. Things have basically turned to s**t in the past year or so. She's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I'm going in for a prostate biopsy next week, and both mean lots of doctor visits. She can no longer drive (gets lost), and her two main doctors are an hour's drive away, so I'm her chauffeur. Let's not mention the arthritis in my lower back; I just came back inside from trimming overgrowth from our back fence for which I lasted all of 10 minutes, and that was only necessary because the neighbor's neglected tree fell and crushed our fences in the bad storms here on Monday. Know a good lawyer? 

Anyway, medium- and long-term plan is to modify the layout building to where we can live there, to where the layout is 50 feet away and not a mile away. She wants to expand our quarters into the layout room, and I say, "No. We'll do an add-on to your side, where we can add a real bathroom and bedroom." Lee helped us with plans for a full-boat house addition to the campus, but we had to abort that project since the Alzheimer's is going to determine what we can and can't do, with no predictable schedule.

So, obviously the interest remains, but the time and energy dealing with life stuff is in the way. Hopefully we'll be at least partially settled in the layout building by fall.

Thank you a whole bunch for asking. Lemme tell you, getting old sucks a big one.

[davefoxx]

Mike,

That’s the news I was fearing, compounded by your wife’s ailment and situation.  Take care of yourselves and good luck with the biopsy next week.  Hopefully, you can find the time to enjoy the therapeutic effect of model railroading.  Thank you for taking the time to provide the update.  And, yes, I can confirm that getting old sucks.

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

/>
I get it.

[C855B]

I get it.

Thanks, Ed. Yeah. Now backdate that amount of traffic another 10-15 years with 2nd-gen power and all those screwball doubles. The very few opportunities I had to railfan that portion of the railroad then, there was never a moment when a headlight wasn't visible in both directions. And that was before coal was king.

And I apologize to everybody for the lack of news from here. Both Robyn and I have been dealing with serious health issues, and we barely have the time and energy to do more than run our lives. We're trying hard to downsize and consolidate, but that, too, takes time and energy. We're trying to fix things (most of our friends now have a common first name: Doctor), but none of that happens quickly.

Our best to all.

[Dave V]

Mike,

I'm sorry I missed this back in April. I'm so, so sorry to hear about your news. Take care of Robyn...she's the most important person and thing in your life.

[GaryHinshaw]

Thinking of you both.  Take care.
-gfh