Hey guys my was great, Aside from being crabby all weekend from just not feeling good. We went up to georgetown and I rode the Loop!!! It was great, unfortunitly we had the desil switch engine pull us up the hill as something happened to the timeing of the steam loco. We did however get the steam on the way back down. I will have some pics up soon as I have to take them and have them devoloped at my uncles place then have them scaned in and put on a disk.
Sunday was a lazy day at the apartment. I got the foam sheeting on my layout glued back down to the layout ( I didnt know 7 months ago to take off the plastic sheeting) and I added another 1/2" to the base. I am going to be putting down road bed in the next couple night’s.
Well, as planned, I did get most of the defunct Scollay Square subway station done. (Scollay Square, by the way, is mentioned in the old “Charlie on the MTA” song. That station is now gone, replaced by the unimaginative Government Center station.) It doesn’t look like much yet, but the wall parts are all cut to size and painted, so they just need to be glued in place. I pulled out the last piece of old brass track on my layout (I knew it would be a dead-end scenery siding when I put it down as one of the first rails on the foam, as much to test the procedures as anything else) and now I’ve got to finish ballasting that section before I can go any further with the station. I’m working on the Campbell shingle roof for the truck barn now, again it’s almost done, but last night I decided I needed sleep more than I needed to finish the roof.
On the non-train side, we went to a Red Sox game and saw a win. The guy two seats over from me caught 3 foul balls, so I probably was on TV a couple of times. Sox won, and the guy, to his great credit, gave the baseballs away to little kids.
After eight weeks of walking past my layout and seeing about 8 square feet of hardshell, I couldn’t stand it any more and sprayed it down and added some ground foam. It actually looks quite good, I am very pleased to say, although I need some burnt grass or something lighter to add to the ground foam. I even trimmed and painted some faux fur (the snow white stuff from Wal-Mart) that I had embedded in some fresh plaster along part of my right-of-way. It doesn’t look half bad as a representation of dried grasses and reeds.
This has got me wanting to jump back in after a very slow summer of MRR.
After trying to do too much too fast to make my layout look passable for a presentation in early July, I took the summer off from MRR. Now I’m slowly getting back to it, replacing all the #4 turnouts in my yard ladder with #6’s. I’m taking my time and making sure I do it ‘right’, so now even though the layout looks like a construction zone I still enjoy doing the work, it’s a great blood-pressure-reducer!
OK you’ve aroused my curiosity, how about some pics?[8D]
Mine was great, Saturday I ran trains on the Club layout, and Sunday was my birthday, I got a couple Atlas Articulated Racks, a couple covered hoppers in N scale. In HO I got the 5 pack of Athearn CNW covered hoppers, and an Undec SOU style SD24. I’m gonna turn it into CNW SD18 6629
I had a fun filled weekend that started on Friday morning and ended Sunday evening.
Model railroading wise, I spent about 6 hours in the train room on Friday finishing up the benchwork for the lower level layout on the north wall bracket system and extended the double main line sub-roadbed about 8 feet along the eastern wall. Then printed and attached another 8 feet for the next section of double main line.
The rest of the weekend was devoted to family events, NCSU football game and YMCA Family Fall Fest at Camp Kanata on Saturday. Four hours of yard work with the CFO on Sunday afternoon, then dinner with friends at an Italian restaurant Sunday evening.
I finished re-motoring my Bachmann Lafayette with a Mashima can motor. It now runs both smoothly and quietly, and has pretty good slow-speed control. Because of the motor’s high RPM, it runs at about 100 scale MPH at 12 volts, but hey! It works!!![:D]
Next, I’ll hopefully be able to add extra pickups in my Bachmann DeWitt Clinton, because it can’t make it through a switch unless it’s going unrealistically fast. The engine’s wheels are metal, so I may be able to put the pickups there and wire it to the tender, which is where the whole drive system is. The Lafayette has 6 wheel pickup in the engine, so it doesn’t have a problem with stalling on switches.[:D]
I would, but my dinosaur Pentax is filmless, and I have no digital. It’s either train and modeling stuff or it’s a decent SLR. So far, the SLR keeps getting sent to the back of the line.
I can’t recall where I saw this, but you place fresh goop/plaster where you want the grass, invert the fur strip, press it gently into the plaster, and let it dry…thoroughly. Then you grab hold of the weave and rip it away from the plaster. It works! As far as painting, I had read that it doesn’t take paint well…Harold Minkwitz had a good tutorial on his website (pacificcoastalairline), but he used a dye. I dry-brushed with a mixture of the cinammon coloured acrylic artist’s paint and the yellow. As I say, it was my first such effort, and I haven’t really looked at it other than to go, “Hmmm!” I’ll dare a better look in the days ahead when I plan on adding more.
When I have a picture, I will post it in a new thread…hopefully not far ahead.
I had a great weekend!! I got home from school on Friday. Went on the internet for a while. Then went outiside to paint my bike. While I was outside my dad came home (he owns a small used car lot for a side job) and was driving his 1969 Orange Cadillac Coupe Deville convertible. One of my other intrests is old cars and have had a lot of fond memories in this car through my life. So we ate dinner,then My Mom,Dad,and me went out for Ice Cream. And then came back. Me and my dad cleaned the Caddy,then went for a drive in it. Got home wemt on the computer and started planning next Falls project. A Pennsylvania RR based N scale RR. Still planning that. lol Saturday I went to my grandparents house for the day. On Sunday me and my dad went to a car show. Then up to the car lot to watch the Patriots game. My weekend was fun. Selector. I to am eager to get going on the trains as I have not done much since May. Tim