Bits & Pieces

Not a lot happening lately on the railroad, but a few things. The picture below is the "after" shot of my ceiling repair from the water damage (see earlier blog postings for the "before" picture). The dummy return air vent covers an opening in the drywall that I purposely left open for future leaks (an optimist?) Although my drywall mud work isn't very good, it will pass the casual glance test. Besides, who should be looking at the ceiling anyway..... look at the railroad!




Bash-0-mania - I'm working on kit bashing a DPM building, #10400. This is my first serious attempt at kit bashing and so far, so good. I'm changing the building from a 3-story to a 5-story, along with replacing the overhead door with a regular door and cutting down the depth of the building. I've been hand sawing the pieces and have put the project on hold until my new Proxxon FKS mini power table saw arrives. The project is taking some time because besides hand cutting the pieces, I've been documenting the project with pictures as I progress.

I'll post pictures of the completed structure "some time in the future".

Work night at Steve's 1-22-10

We had a great time at Steve's on Friday night. He posted his account to the NCIOG blog so I'm adding the pix I took. I arrived a little early and picked up 9 pieces of rolling stock (including an L&N caboose!) that Steve had at a great price. Here the guys are getting ready to assemble & install a side wall. Mark & Keith are in the other room planning on what they are going to do for the electrical work.

Bob did much of the cutting of the lumber for the wall. Here it looks as if he is getting ready to cut off his fingers (which he didn't!)

Ken lends his hand to the cutting process and also finished the night with all of his digits.

Paul brought his "gun" and did the honors on securing the wall base plate to the floor.

I took my turn with the screw gun as Bob didn't want to hog all of the fun.

Bob puts in corner lumber for the small piece of drywall where this wall kicks out.

Keith was working so hard that his tongue started falling out. While he & Mark were doing the electrical work the lights kept going on & off.

Mark wanted a raise, so he got a ladder (ha!). One man working with two men watching - we should work for the government!

Mark and Keith are both experienced in doing electrical and they got a huge amount of work done including installing outlets, light fixtures, and switch boxes.

We had yummy snacks, great fellowship, and a good amount of progress!

Another view of Loco Run on Paul's layout

Couldn't resist posting another run by - I love trains!

Paul's Work Session 1-10-10

Paul did a great job with the write up on the NCIOG blog about the work session at his home. Here's some video & pix of the great evening.


Since I haven't seen trains running on the layout, Paul was nice enough to run a loco around to show how well it tracks on his beautiful graceful curves & trackwork. I wonder if we should always start (or end) our Friday night sessions with some trains running (when possible).



Keith is hard at work making the wall angle brackets for the shelf on the upper portion of the layout by using a completed unit as a guide.


Mark worked closely with Keith and the two worked very well together. Ken is taking care of the glue situation as Bob looks on.


What's Bob so happy about??? GLUE!!! He about wet himself when he saw a HUGE bottle of TiteBond!


Friday nights are about fun as much as work. Mark enjoys Glue Bob's reaction to that sticky stuff.

Paul explains things to the crew for attaching the angle brackets to the wall. What you can't see is that Keith had just finishing threatening to slap me for a "supposed" smart remark. Can you believe that I would ever make a smart remark?



Here the guys are attaching the bracket to the top of the benchwork. The 22 caliber nail set was used to attach the other end to the concrete - POW!



It's always nice to have an extra set of hands. Bob was nice to take this picture so that nobody thinks I was just standing around all night eating yummy ham sandwiches.

While everybody else disappeared SOMEBODY has to do the work, so that's me. (Actually a posed picture)

Here's is a closeup of one of the angle braces installed. Nice and sturdy.



Here I am again WORKING. (Another posed picture shot with the self-timer).


Ken & Steve got the boring job....get it? Lots of holes to be drilled and Steve actually drilled the edge off of the paddle bit.

That's Bob to the rescue sharping the blade bit with the handy-dandy moto-tool.


Now where does this wire go??? Ken quickly figured it out and strung a bunch-o-wire.


Paul in deep thought....or day dreaming about his future empire?



Bob's working with the yellow 12/3 that will be used to hook up the 3-way switches for the layout lighting.


Who left this wire here? (ANOTHER posed picture).

Wire everywhere. The loco cable and the 12/3 got installed on the layout.

Bob insisted on taking this picture because it took he and Steve 20 minutes to PUSH the loco cable through the tunnel.

"Now Paul, the thingies with the green on the end are clamps...can you say clamp?"

Great time, missed you Scott!

Writer's Cramp

I haven't updated the blog in awhile because I've been working on writing an article on how to carve foam to make retaining walls. I don't know if / when it will be published. Below is a picture of the wall made for the article. If it ever gets published I'll post a link.

Operations at Keith's 1-8-10

The NCIOG met at Keith's Friday night and we finished up early. This gave us an opportunity to run trains on his great layout. With the miles of scale track it was funny that three of the trains ended up in the same area at the same time and some had to take a siding. Somebody (we won't mention his name) ran a double red signal! The video below is the train running around the recently sceniced area that Keith as a "Scenery Newbee" did an awesome job! Great fun for all!

Shield built & in place

With the water damaged ceiling in danger of possibly falling I built this temporary shield that I could put in place over the layout. The flat piece is a 4' x 4' x 1/2 piece of plywood with the legs an assortment of scrapes including 1 x 2, 1 x 4, and 2 x 2. I already had the corner gussets "in stock" from previous bench work. The shield is complete at this point. Although the legs are not sturdy, I couldn't use cross bracing and be able to straddle the layout.



Having double doors to the layout room was one of my best decisions that keeps paying dividends! My original idea to install this was to just pick it up, turn it "legs forward" and carry it into the room where I would gently place it over the layout. I quickly abandoned that idea when it became apparent that I'd probably knock half of Hoovertown down in the process!



I decided to take two of the legs off so that I could carry the unit into the room legs down. Before removing the legs I labeled each with a sharpie so that the would go back in the same place (sometimes even I have a good idea!)

Before making the move I positioned the removed legs roughly in place and used a clamp on one to hold it upright.

I carried the unit into the room and set it down resting on the detached legs. Next I crawled under the layout and attached the legs with my screw gun. I even brought extra screws with me in case I dropped one I couldn't reach (another good idea - 2 in one day!)

Here's a view looking up from the floor - you can see the bad spot on the ceiling. I have about 3" clearance between the top of the bridge and the shield. Now I can sleep better not waiting for a possible CRASH! in the trainroom.

A thank you to Scott for his offer to re-direct our Ops group work session to my house in case I need help.

Hosed again!

I was walking by the doors to the railroad when I heard this disturbing sound......drip....drip.drip.drip...with only a few seconds between the drips. Upon investigation I found out that I had a water problem with water dripping from the ceiling and a big puddle on the floor. An investigation as to the source found that it was coming from the laundry room above. The floor underneath the washer was wet, but I couldn't find any leak. I filled the washer with water and skipped to the empty cycle and still no leak. I repeated the fill cycle again and this time let it run through the entire cycle. This time during the spin cycle the washer rocked a little and I could see water squirting out of where the supply hoses attached to the input fittings. I used a pair of pliers to tighten the hoses on both ends and now no leaks.

The hoses obviously were tight originally, but with time the rubber washers had compressed and/or the fitting loosened. A word of warning: If your train room is downstairs and your washer is above, make sure to check those hoses!

Now I've got to build a shelter out of plywood to go over the railroad just in case the drywall decides to let go. The shelter will also stay up during the repair process to protect the railroad from falling drywall.

First Craftsman Kit - Farmhouse

It's still under construction, but this is my first attempt at a wood craftsman kit. I've enjoyed building it and when you consider how long it has taken me so far, that's a lot of bang for my buck when you consider the purchase price and hours of enjoyment. I still need to do touch up painting, add the chimneys, do some weathering, add interior detail, and add lighting. This will occupy a special place in the Hoovertown residential district.

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Christmas Present Early

I've been wanting a steam engine for the layout, but I've got a couple of tight curves so I had to choose a little loco to go around the curves. Since I'm modeling in the 60's & 70's it's after steam, so this loco will be for excursions. Bachmann has this nice little 4-4--0 with sound that fits the bill. It's not L&N, but then it's not uncommon for excursions to "run what you got". It looks & sounds great on the layout. Who knows - maybe I'll backdate to the steam age and become a steam convert?

Click on the picture for a larger view.