My order at Modeltrainstuff says it’s still “processing” but a big box was waiting for me when I got home - I’ve learned to live with it, they always get the orders out quickly, their traiking system just leaves a bit to be desired. Crazy because their inventory system is great, if it syas they have the item, they have it. Now I have plenty of cork, turnouts, and track. The lazy part? I ordered some of those Midwest cork turnout pads so I don’t have to slice the cork to make neat connections at turnouts. I think I’ll get some more, they’re nice. At least for the ones under the sloped ceiling side, where I have no room to work from overhead and actually see what I’m doing.
You have any pictures to share Randy? I don’t think I have seen a single picture of your layout. Fas as lazy, I got you beat. Been off for 15 days or so and have not bothered to wire a new spur?
I have more projects that I can count, however I am dedicating myself to getting more track down. ANd getting pictures. Not much to see right now except a 8x10 L shaped section of benchwork and exactly 2 pieces of flex track down in the staging yard (the upper right corner on my track plan).
I just spent the last 2 weeks looking at the wiring and switches for my layout, dreading doing it. Got up the last three days with the intention of doing it each day ( I’m out on disability from my job for another month). finally got to it this afternoon. All in all it only took about three hours of actual work, and half of that was finding a loose connection. Sometimes, we just have to do it. When it comes to being lazy, I’m the champ!
Most of the time the things I dread doing turn out to go pretty easy. But, what should be easy turns into a pain in the caboose? Guess I will wire the spur today.
Odd … I too have a nice list of stuff I want to get to this weekend, maybe because I suspect once daylight savings time hits on Sunday I will be delaying the post-dinner trip to the basement and get less done
Plaster cloth at the ready to correct the overly deep trenches one either side of some elevated roadbed.
Mix ALL the shades of C&NW pink lady ballast I have purchased and mix it together to avoid the striped skunk look of some of my ballasting. I will redo it all with one unified shade except where I want some special effects.
More freight car weathering with powders – got my new Dullcoat all ready to go. Jeff Wilson’s brief article in the April MR has got me re-motivated.
Take some flex track and Peco turnouts outside for spray painted weathering. I have delayed too many projects for lack of weathered track, which I do not like to spray paint indoors.
Well, after having torn up all the trackage at Port Able on my layout I finally have it completely redone. Now all track is in place with the exception of the Port Able engine house and my two track staging yard at Port Tyler.
As part of the redesign process, I’ve switched my car ferry from being a three track vessel to a two track one. This necessitated changing the ferry bridge (and the approach trackage) from 3 to 2 tracks. I have the new ferry hull basically complete - it only needs details and paint. It is a free lance design and takes inspiration from various sources - The Las Plumas of the Western Pacific, and the Haida Transporter. I have to say I was fortunate enough to see Doug Hole’s magnificent model of the Haida Transporter at the NMRA convention in Portland and that is what really lit a fire under my butt to make a rail/marine interchange a major part of my layout.
Progress report so far: I got the second staging track started, and also put downt eh roadbed fromt he first turnout on the right to down the length of main behind the yard. I puzzeled a bit how to get a nice smooth curve centerline for the curve, until I grabbed a leftover piece of benchwork wood and drilled a couple of holes in it - one to fit over the threads on my tripod, and the other sized to fit a Sharpie marker. Instant trammel. Got the centerline marked in, caulk down, cork placed and pinned. How did I determine the proper start and end poitns for the curve? Easy. I extended the straigh tlines of the main on both sides til they intersected. Then measured back the desired curve radius and marked those points on the centerline of the main. Thos are the start and end points of a smooth curve of the measured radius.
Yes Ken, there are some new pictures now in the construction section of my web site.
You’re still in winter up there and have the time to work on the layout. My box arrived last week (from NHS Hobbies), but I’ve been doing yard work every day since then. Yes, Spring has sprung here in south Texas and a lot of folks are taking advantage of it with outside stuff. I’m sure I’ll be back in the layout room as soon as our summer hits (probably in a few weeks), as it will be tooooo hot outside.
For some reason, I caught a dose of inspiration this week. With subways beneath the new Phase 2, I’ve got to do the South Ferry station before I can lay track above it. I cast the Hydrocal platform a few weeks back, but I finally got around to cutting the sheet up into 1-inch strips and painting it. (See WPF.) Today, I cast the 3 sections of the station wall. This one was a challenge, because it’s an inward-arching wall. I cut a form out of scrap pink foam, and bent the molds over it, one by one. I was really happy with the results, but for now, they’re raw Hydrocal castings that will need paint and some decals (I’m going to try that this time) to turn them into a model.
Modelling technique: I have some different castings that I needed to trim, smooth and round the edges of. I was thinking of a hobby knife, since sandpaper would just clog up immediately, but then I was hit by that great Zeus Thunderbolt sort of inspiration - how about sanding screen? That’s the stuff you use to smooth out irregularities when you’re doing drywall compound on your walls. (The Brits do it that way. The French Canadians, on the other hand, are meticulous in their mudwork and seldom need to trim that way.) Anyway, sanding screen works great on Hydrocal.