I know we have all had them, those things that come up and slow progress on building our layouts. I got a double whammy this week. First a pipe blew out in the basement then the LHS called to let me know a part was on backorder. Both can set me back a month or more. UGH!
Actually I knew the plumbing was going to need some help as repairs have gotten more frequent in the last couple years but the bad pipe this week made it painfully obvious that I need to do something before building the layout. Otherwise I may have the 100 year flood in the Flats. So it’s time to start gathering pipe and fittings and do it all now rather than later. This gives me an opportunity to fix some of the designed in deficiencies of the original plumbing i.e. only 1 main shutoff other than the toilets (I have to kill water in the whole house to do any repairs)
The other is more directly related to the layout, specifically a Shinohara DSS that is out of stock and on backorder. This may not be hard to rectify, just need to let my fingers do the walking and see if anyone has one on the shelf.
So what have you guy’s had to deal with beyond the normal stuff like work, chores and family outtings?
Oh, just the usual. The faucet unit in the basement sprung a leak (a pinhole squirter on the gooseneck spout, of all things) and had to be replaced. A pressure-treated board on the deck rotted out. One of the little rollers in the dishwasher broke, and they only sell “the whole assembly” for $45, so I’ll be doing some brass fabrication this weekend. But, I’ve got to make the trainroom and myself “presentable” because we’ve got company for dinner on Saturday. Oh, and I get to cook that dinner. (I don’t complain about having to boil a big pot of water when lobster is $3.99 a pound.)
Oh, yeah, and this month I had to pay my daughter’s tuition and fees for college. I had no big train purchases planned, but seeing the checking account fall by that much all at once is a cruel reminder.
Two and a half yeare ago, I tore out my old layout in the “spare” bedroom
ground zero photo of dismantling:
…and was about to start construction when my homeless and underemployed inlaw showed up- he had the belief it was not allowed to rent a new apartment until one finished the lease on the old apartment and moved out with nowhere to go. Goodbye train room for a year and a half. We finally pried him loose by doing remodeling on the house that would disturb his day sleeping and his asthma. He moved out two days before remodeling starting and returned to pick up mail on first day of work, and found ceiling collapsed where worker fell through from attic, releasing 40 years worth of loose horsehair alleged insulation and real rat droppings. He stopped believing that the urgency to move was entirely made up as just an excuse to get him out.
I solved a friend’s edelay a few years ago when three days before a convention, he could not find scale cows to convert to oxen for a lumber camp scene to enter in amodeling contest. He had tried all sources for 150 miles around. I told him to go into the room next to his workshop, when the train club kept some of its stuff. He said there weren’t any scale cows in the club stuff. I told him to look in my cattle cars. He thought I was pulling his leg. I told him, “Gary, I wouldn’t run a stock train without cows!” Against his better judgment, he checked them out, got his scale cows and won a prize for his lumbering-along camp.
Well I had to replace two decks that had seen better days. Normally I would have taken a day for each of them, but being full of Arthritis it took days and days. As my Aunt use to say “old age ain’t for sissies”. I had to make sure they were up to code seismically so some changes had to be made.
Funny thing while I was building them I kept thinking how strong they were and kept saying to myself that they could support a tank. I then thought of all the way over built benchwork I’ve seen in my time. Made me chuckle. I think I got my benchwork just right this time.[:)]
My wife has a habit of starting new companies, which end up taking all of her time, which leaves everything to me (except cooking, usually - she’s from Italy and can’t help herself). So, in the midst of a money-raising round right now, I’m too busy keeping her sane to do enough modeling. But, she usually makes some darn good money so I don’t complain!
I tore down my old 17ftx15ft garage layout in February to make room for a bigger, better one. But time/money issues have held me back from starting the new construction.
This year I have not one, but two kids in college [Mr. B I feel your pain] - and one of them is my teenage son, who was handling all the lawn care before he went away, so… guess who’s elected to take over those time-consuming chores![|(]
And, this just in: My 21yr-old daughter announced she’s getting married next summer, and wants to have a lavish wedding and invite 200 friends.[:O] Train budget?WHAT train budget?
Backyard and long work hours took out a lot of the summer months. Backyard had became way over grown, my wife wanted it so no one could see in the yard. Got to where I could not stand it any longer. I cut down and dragged out 3 piles of trees and brush the sizes of her Town Car. Hardest part was not he cutting or dragging. Hard part was getting the stuff down after I cut it. My yard is curse with Wild Grape Vines. After cutting something at the base, a 5 minute tug of war ensued to get what I cut down.
Next was The Floor War Long story there. Finally decided to install a new kitchen floor. I am not Bob Villa and have no idea to what I am doing. But I am learning. Main problem is the Wife. I cannot use anything that smells, makes dust or noise to repair the old sub floor?
Brent, nice woodworking. MrB and CSX, I’m dreding the day my boy want to go to college. Ken, I can sympathise on both counts. 2 years ago we had to drop about 60 trees that ranged from 40-50 foot tall. Still haven’t finished cleaning up the brush. Of course we had our ductwork cleaned last month so no table saw in the basement because of the dust. No biggie there, just set the saw up outside the basement window and shoot the wood in and out.
A few years back when my layout was heading down the home stretch to completion 90% there my "brilliant Mensa society member reject wife decided oh it’s Sept. let me turn the furnace on to make sure everything is working fine before it gets cold? Ok not all in all a bad idea but she decides well I’ll jump in the shower while the furnace is running while it’s warm out so I’ll know if there are any problems with it. While in the showers she attributes the insensate beeping to a back up alarm of backhoe working across the street. She comes out of the shower to find the entire house filled with thank god not smoke but soot. She immediately calls 911 (the first right thing she’s done all morning) and runs out of the house (dressed of course) and proceeds to call yours truly who was just walking into a meeting with the company president. Sorry gotta run my house is on fire. I now make the trip back home in record time to find every piece of fire fighting apparatus the township owns in my driveway and in front of my house. It seems that during her test run period there was a power surge which burnt out the circuit board disabling the safety on the oil fired furnace and don’t ask me the hows or whys but it cracked the firebox and almost emptied a 275 gallon tank of oil. Now my the interior of my house is covered with an oily film from the soot and my basement has about an inch of fuel oil. which was over flowing the burm. Needless to say my entire layout was destroyed. Now take all of that and try dealing with an insurance agent who thinks these are nothing but toys. When I pulled out a receipt for a brass locomotive for $1450.00 his jaw almost hit the floor. He told me well if we are going to pay out that kind of money we are going to want the items we paid for. I said sorry ace that ain’t gonna happen your gonna pay to have them cleaned and repaired, which they eventually did after some nice pleasant conversation with my killer shark female attorney who has been rumored to have eaten her young. So
This may seem trivial to some but it isn’t to me. After making a ton of progress on the layout for over a year, this last Sunady I decide to go to the store to buy some snacks.
I drive to the store, get out and lock the door. I walk to the door of the store and push it open. Next thing I remember is about 10 firemen, paramedics and a couple of ambulance drivers standing over me.
Seems my BP bottomed completely out and I collapsed and blacked out on the way down.
Result? 3 broken ribs, one bruised hip and one bruised kidney.
Now I can hardly move, or breathe and the Doc said it would be like that for 4-6 weeks.
Whoa. Compared to that, all the rest of our complaints are trivial. We’re annoyed, distressed and reduced in financial capabilities, but pain is another thing entirely.
I’m sure I speak for every one of us in wishing you a speedy recovery. (Not too speedy. Before you go back to work, you need the therapy of modeling.)
Last Spring I was going to start building a small layout, but it had to be canceled. My dad found out in April that he had prostate cancer. He opted to have the prostate removed as he didn’t want to go through chemo and/or radiation. After his operation, I was in charge of caring for him. It was daunting at first, having to do everything for him and seeing how he was in pain. But, after a while he slowly gotten better. It was a wake up call for everyone in the family. He is back to normal now except for a few minor issues. I have considered the whole experience a blessing.
I got fired from work because I was going to have to take care of him. When I threatened to sue because it violated FLMA, then did everything go back to normal there. Since I am majoring in HR, I knew it wasn’t right and my employer said he could do anything he wanted. I proved him wrong, but thankfully we settled out of court and he hired me as a consultant part time.
I am in my last semester of college, then I will have my B.S. in Management/HR. The next step will be of course to find a job that pays well.
I did get some modeling projects done, but not as much as I hoped. It’s ok though, I can still work on them in the near future.
Also, I want to tell you men out there to get your prostate exam every year and check the PSA numbers. There are NO symptoms for prostate cancer.
Ruderunner, this is going to sound odd, but the major disruption to my layout construction was a complete re-plumb of my humble abode - the key elements of which were at opposite corners of the train room (main service from the water meter, and the hot water heater.) That, plus blast-furnace temperatures (typical of a Las Vegas August.) I finally got in to do some work today, since the temperature didn’t reach 100 - quite.
As for your other problem, if I need a double slip, or two, or six (plus a crossing and a half-dozen ordinary turnouts - and that’s just for the Down yard throat…) I just reach for my pile of stick rail and tie stock. A little time with a flat file, spiking pliers and soldering gun and, Viola!!! Specialwork that meets my exacting standards - which Shinohara frequently doesn’t. Stick rail (from damaged flex track bought cheap) and tie stock (medium balsa bought in sheet form) are never on backorder, and I have about a half-century supply of microspikes (bought when I contemplated hand-laying the entire railroad, before sanity set in.) That, “Month’s delay because the necessary specialwork is on backorder,” doesn’t happen if you hand-lay your own. Yes, it would be quicker to simply plop a pre-manufactured product on the roadbed - as long as the product:
Is available.
Exactly matches the desired track geometry.
Actually meets gauge tolerances, including flangeway clearances.
My dis-satisfaction with the commercial products I tested drove me to swear off all such. The monetary savings are just a pleasant bonus.
As for the re-plumb - it was done to settle a class action suit brought because the builder cut his costs by using a cheap, inferior quality plastic-coated aluminum product instead of pipe that actually
