Weekend Update 6/1/25

[bbussey]

I'm impatient.

It's done.

[gi-depp]

weathering a Kato SD70M

[GaryHinshaw]

Not modelling per se, but I hosted my first ops sessions in nearly a year last week (as part of RMMBC 2025):



From bottom to top: a manifest is leaving Bakersfield, a grainer is drifting down through Allard, and a manifest is traversing the tunnel district near summit (a fourth train is somewhere in the Vortex).    I'm not sure who is running the grainer, but they're not paying attention! 

This was the first session I've had where we could test the N-Possible couplers and I'm delighted to say that they performed masterfully!  I had 150 cars converted and 5 of the trains we ran were all or mostly N-Possible equipped.  Those trains were ~30 cars each and they negotiated the nearly constant curvature and gradients with ease.  Those who did some switching also reported good performance with pick uncoupling.

I believe this may have been the first session to use these couplers "in the wild" so I was extremely curious to see how it went.  Kudos to @turbowhiz !

[Dave V]

Late addition. One PRR Plan 57984 Standard Tool Shed, from Keystone Details. It's just here for the photo; it's going on a different module, so don't mind the gap between the sill and the ground.

[R L Smith]

WARNING!! LONG, BORING POST FOLLOWS!  Feel free to keep scrolling... 

My Painted Post NY depot is moving at a glacial pace due to other activities at the moment, but I have finally assembled the walls to the floor. Currently fabbing up the operator bay and the second of two interior partitions; this one has the ticket window in it.  Then touch-up paint, interior items and on to the roof. After the excellent modeling already shown this weekend I am loathe to post my photos. But constructive criticism is always helpful.








Progress on my layout has been sidetracked recently as I’ve been busy with another project. A friend of my wife is a single mom with a 9-year-old daughter named Felicity. They were over visiting a few weeks ago, and out of the blue Felicity asked me if I could make a doll house for her LOL Dolls. Well, my woodworking skills are limited to model railroad benchwork and the occasional bookcase, and my most exotic tool is a chop saw.  And, what the heck are LOL Dolls?  So of course, I said Yes…

A week or so later, Felicity and her mom came over to show me some of her dolls and discuss what she wanted.  She asked for some graph paper and a pencil, and in short order she had drawn a dimensioned floor plan and a side elevation! Not sure that I was doing that at age nine...

This was a rather grandiose plan – not unlike a lot of train layouts I’ve dreamt of over the years, the plan was larger than the practical space available. So like any good model railroader, the next few days were spent watching YouTube videos for ideas and checking my stash o’ stuff for potential supplies. I made a more-modest sized mockup out of foamcore and we had another “meeting” – at which time Felicity produced a “contract” for all of us to sign. (I know for certain I wasn't doing that at age nine!) Then I was off to the big box store plywood and pine.
















So how is this tied to model trains and Weekend Update?  When Felicity came over the second time with her dolls, Ruth asked her if she’d like to see my trains. Off to the train room we all went, and I powered up the layout. It wasn’t 5 seconds before Felicity asked to run one of the trains, and she would not leave until she had driven every train that I had parked on the layout!  She even picked up the cars that were spotted at Hammondsport industries and set them out at the Erie interchange in Bath.

Folks, we may have a future Operator in our midst…

Ron

[Lemosteam]

Finally added ground to the east side of the channel at the waterfront. Tried to weather (dirty up) around the scrap piles with an airbrush, not perfect, but I am happy. Added the bollards and placed the magnetic scrap piles back down. Need to add the office and equipment shop building. Next is ballasting the track, and installing the fencing I showed a while back.

[Lemosteam]

Late addition. One PRR Plan 57984 Standard Tool Shed, from Keystone Details. It's just here for the photo; it's going on a different module, so don't mind the gap between the sill and the ground.

That looks really nice Dave! May I ask what brand and colors you used? Would like to add them to my instructions.

[Dave V]

That looks really nice Dave! May I ask what brand and colors you used? Would like to add them to my instructions.

Kind of an electric mix... Americana Deco Art Antique White craft paint, and Vallejo Leather Brown acrylic. For the craft paint to work, everything gets a primer with Rust-Oleum Khaki cammo paint. The red is a cheapo brick red craft paint, but any red from oxide to bright red would work. The roll roofing is 1/2" painter's tape.

I feel like the brown may be too dark, but I've already been using it, so...I'm committed.

[peteski]

Dave, you are mixing different brands of water-based acrylics.  I don't often use those paints, but when I do I usually don't do that because I worry about compatibility (there are many variants of those paint chemistries, but in your case it looks Ike you lucked out.

[garethashenden]

I don’t get the impression he’s mixing the paints to achieve a new color. I think he’s just using them out of the bottle and they happen to be different brands.

[mu26aeh]

Excellent work by all this week.  I'll refrain from posting anything I've done as to not lower the threshold

[Dave V]

Dave, you are mixing different brands of water-based acrylics.  I don't often use those paints, but when I do I usually don't do that because I worry about compatibility (there are many variants of those paint chemistries, but in your case it looks Ike you lucked out.

I didn’t “mix” anything. When I said “mix,” I meant combination, not a literal mixing of paint together. One color is the trim, the other is the wall.

On all my RGS structures, the walls are acrylic craft paint and the trim is enamel paint. And they look perfect together.

Guessing this was an idiom/language misunderstanding.

[muktown128]

And they look perfect together.

That reminded me of former NJ governor Tom Kean and the NJ ad campaign from the 1980's - "New Jersey and You - perfect together"

[Dave V]

That reminded me of former NJ governor Tom Kean and the NJ ad campaign from the 1980's - "New Jersey and You - perfect together"

/>

LOL. I remember those commercials. And I remember hearing NJ derisively referred to as the “Garbage State” rather than the “Garden State.” But, I can’t hate on New Jersey….my wife was born at Lakehurst Naval Air Station.

[Jesse6669]

This week I finally got some track installed on the East Norwood layout.  Here's the B&O Midland Sub looking east with track 1 installed.   


and did a bunch of 3D printing including several copies of the N-scale H22a for another modeler, several Z scale copies, and some clear windows for the Z scale CR N-20 caboose.  Those are nearly flush, printed with a mixture of Voxelab clear with about 10% Phrozen Onyx resin.