Kids have been back in school for a few weeks, the garden is winding down, leaves have begun to turn and to fall, and I am redlined in the layout room. I am a happy camper because I can see me running trains in about three weeks…finally!
Two grown daughters have returned home after eight-plus years, but one has found permanent employment about an hour away, and will move out in three weeks (YYYYYYYEEEEEESSSS!!) The other is struggling to get her credentials as a Dental Chairside Assistant acknowledged by the provincial governing body…she moved from Ontario three weeks ago. So far, they tell her she must rewrite all her exams.
This forum seems to have settled down nicely, it is chatty and the threads are topical; nice to see. So, it seems that we are slowly getting back into our fall and winter rhythm. I can’t wait until I couple the H2a coal hoppers to the PRR J1 and crack open the throttle on my section of Horseshoe Curve.
Well, back over here at the other end of the continent, Fall chores like getting the Snowblower out and making sure it will run have become a priority. It is insurance against the white stuff getting too deep…[;)] I still have to finish harvesting the winter squash in the garden. It is a bumper crop this year. I have already given about 20 of them away and there are still over 30 in my little garden to collect. Got given a very large Black Walnut tree that was cut down in my Father-in-law’s yard. Wood was no good to sell (it has a chain link fence going through the best part of the trunk) so I will get to split and stack it for next winter. Still have most of the wood from a huge Maple that came down on a friends property last fall to split and stack for heat this winter and a couple of face cords from my Sister-in-law’s cottage a lake over. Looking at the amount of wood that I have ready to be split on the property, some city codes that are very strict about where it can be stored and the fact that mine is sitting in one of my driveways in plain view, not to mention that the Wood splitter that I often borrow is being put to use by its owner and won’t be available for a while; I just bought a gas powered wood splitter today. Tomorrow I will see how well it works.
On the train front, I am waiting to have the money to get two dozen torti, an AR1, and a couple decoders to finish up some major projects (did I mention I just bought a wood splitter?). I am being content to build some foam mountains…[:D]
The train room is calling but still much to be done outside. As mentioned, the leaves are comming down and the snow blower and lawn mower need to do their semi-annual location swap. With the weather holding nice (in the 80s yeterday and today) there are lots of miles to put on the bicycle and golf cart yet before they get put away for the winter.
I was in the train room briefly one day last week and ran some trains. Found out I will actually have to clean the track. First time since I started laying track about 3 years ago. Gotta love that nickel silver. With the old brass it had to be cleaned about every three minutes!
My wife will be back home tomorrow. She has been helping our son with a garage sale (I hate having those things!). He lives about an hour and a half away.
This fall and winter I think is going to be focused on scenery, details, and some organized operatiing sessions. All of the track is down, most buildings are in place, and I only have one balky switch machine left to fix.
Up’s and downs. Cash is getting to be a problem again, well maybe. Seems we are heading in to the slow season and being new that scraes me a little. Nothing like making $1200.00 in one week then $480.00 the next week to make you wonder.
On the train front, cheap stuff is working great A line hauling 26 car and no derailments for a week or more. B line, pretty good but the long dragg is starting to cause some problem but nothing nasty. Pulling 57 cars (was 63) problems pop up, that is a lot of wheels.
Good news is I have now scored 250 feet of (2 X4) lumber for $4.00. Pulling nails blows but sure cannot beat the prices! All so a board that I like the idea of. So back to the drawing board.
With fall being here, well no more cleaing the darn in ground pool, it is being closed. Boy I wish I never bought a house with a pool. Plus, no more cutting the grass! [:)] Would a out side Rail Road look right on black top?
Oh, new Bi Focal with no lines blows chunks. They will be replaced soon for free, I rather take my glasses off to see that not beable to see the floor I am walking on.
Ken, it can’t be that bad in New Zealand [:P] move over here to Australia where it will be nudging 40c in the next few months.[:)]
as for me, there is sun sun sun and more sun with the occasional bit of rain. The train room hasn’t been getting much attention but my DSLR has been.
I’m also planning a trip to New Zealand to visit a girl in 2008. we will be watching some cricket and going on a pub crawl, but thats for another time [:P]
I’m also probably finishing work on the 20th to have a 10 day break before starting a new job on november 1st.
and before we know it, Christmas will be here and it will be 2007!! which brings the 18th year of my life [:)]
and as ken said, Mowing the lawn and lots of BBQ’s!
My behemoth helix is now four full turns complete out of six, with roadbed laid on the first half of tier five and tracklaying to start tonight. My goal is to have it completed by Thanksgiving, but I’m not sure I’ll make it because…
Over the next few days I have to finish off one wall of the outside of the house where we painted this summer (touch-up paint around windows, re-install downspout, etc), and over the next week or so paint two cast iron radiators before the temperature drops too low. Then I have to install those two radiators plus two others we’ve finished painting already in the house on the second and third floors (carrying those things up the stairs will NOT be fun!!). Installation will take several weeks, because I have to run pex piping for the second floor. While the pex is already in for the third floor, I have to REMOVE the floor in one of those rooms and replace it with 3/4" plywood sheathing (the tounge-and-groove flooring has had its day). Then there’s filling the new radiators, checking the system for leaks, flushing it, blah, blah, blah!
And of course I have to work every weekday.
I try to get in at least a few minutes of tain every day, but sometimes I’m so doggone tired from all the house work that I just plop down in front of the TV or computer and veg out! So things are goin’, but from a model railroading perspective, they aren’t going very fast! [sigh]
October in New England, and the Boston Burbs haven’t had a frost yet, or even close. Can’t tell yet if it’s Global Warming or just the hot air from an election year. (Got 4 of ‘em runnin’ for Guvner this year, so there’s a lot of wind from both the left and the right.) I’ll grill all winter, but I think we’ve boiled our last lobster for the season. My little girl is only 15, so we’re not ready for her to move out yet. The big thing for her on the horizon is the Learner’s Permit at 16. I bet we’ll have to take her down to the Registry for her birthday.
I’ve actually be railroading pretty regularly through the summer, with a couple of breaks. I actually have less train time in the winter, because we head up to Maine for skiing as often as we can once the snow flies.
Unlike many other folks, fall is the season when I have the least amount of time for MRR. The kids are back in school and need help with homework, plus they are involved in group athletics (soccer) and guess who is usually the designated driver! My teenage son who mows the lawn during summer doesn’t have time available anymore to do that 3-hour chore each week, so that uses up more of my own time as well.
Ever since I got my layout scenicked in June and staged a number of photos, I have been in a modeling/operating slump. Clutter has again accumulated on the garage floor under and around the layout, I dread the thought of anybody seeing the trainroom in that condition; I desperately need to find alternative storage for all this stuff that looks like junk to ME, but I dare not toss it (if you know what I mean…![;)]) Soon as I find the other space I’ll have plenty of energy to clear it out and get back into the business of trains.
I somehow got obsessed with trains over the summer – see my layout photos below for the whirlwind progress pace on my new layout. It’s darned hot here in So. Colorado during the summer, so the air conditioned train room is a good spot, I don’t yet feel the obsession for the layout waning, so I see more of the same as the leaves begin to fly. Howzit going? For me, having nothing but fun! [:D]
I got my first two locomaotives this week. I do not have much track to run them on but it is nice to see something moving in there. My wife has been quite ill for the past few months and I have been wearing the hat of a full-time Soldier and single parent because she is on total and complete bed rest. The good news is my two boys(3 and 6) really enjoy watching trains with me and working in the train room. I finished my first model two weeks ago and it was a learning experience. It was the New River Mining Company by Walthers. I can now see how it fits on my layout and how the operations will work. I plan to start the scenery this month and have the coal mining operations up and going.
Going ok here, Though money is tight. We were doing great on saving but deposits for the weding cleared out $500± from the acount with another 700 comming out in a couple weeks. Personaly I love living on $150 for 2 weeks it is so much fun.
Oh well, Cuda Ken sounds like your in catering lol. I used to do that and hated it in the slow season.
Train wise I am contemplateing a redesign on my layout/ track plan and will be laying road bed soon. Take care,
Not much going on lately. Trying to get the old place out here ready for winter. It gets down to at least fifty degrees here where I am in south east Texas…
I’ve added a few new kit vehicles and several pieces of rolling stock to my layout, but nothing major. I was going to buy, build and install the Cornerstone grain elivator kit until I realized it wouldn’t fit anywhere, so I decided that if I just have to have one I’d build it from scratch.
My computer’s been down for several months, but I’m back up and running again. Sure did miss the forum and my morning news reading. E-mail didn’t really matter because the same people that e-mail me can also call or write me on the phone if it’s that important.
Thanks for your replies, Everyone. I appreciate it.
Hey, Tracklayer. You have a good conversation going on with your 4X8 challenge!
Yeah, I am just now realizing how bummed I was all summer. I had to forget about trains due to other commitments, but I had to walk past the 20% completed monster I had begun two months earlier every time I went to the computer to work.
In the last three days, I have built a modest trestle, sized it vertically (close enough) to the ravine it will traverse, and am about to place sills for it. I sprayed fixing glue, sprinkled ground foam and bushes, and will stain the trestle tommorow prior to setting it in place (of course it will be creosote…you had to ask? [:D])
I tell you this because this is where I seem to come into my own. I don’t mean I am any good at it, but that I can look around and see that a bit of green ground foam does wonders for what had taken many scores of hours to get to. It had been all brown/grey hardshell, but now it is like spring all over again! My mood has lifted hugely, and I am finally…actually…enjoying what I am doing. It is such a nice change to be able to focus on this and make pace.
I know that things are different for some of you, and I am sure that it bites. For me, the biting has come to an end. Thanks for joining me in that no small pleasure.