Late to the party. Our internet has been on/off/on/off... you get the idea. Anyway, no visiting operators this week, been running some trains by my lonesome (I enjoy that, too). Here's a pic of the South Stage when I left it for the evening. Next out will be the short coal extra you see in the foreground. Also, picked up a neat little wreck train crane n' tender car. I will eventually strip the numbers and likely repaint the flat/etc. Remind me (over on my layout thread in the "Off Topic" forum) to tell you why I decided to purchase one. The thingie-ma-bobs in front are: Left four items - Out riggers for the crane car. Right item - crank handle for the boom and hook. Andre
Andre - Good to see a Monon car in your yard. Neat little railroad. Enjoyed watching them while I was at Purdue. They had a major shop and yard in Lafayette - I recall in late 1967 when they stopped all passenger service, they stored all of their passenger and head end equipment there. Neat thing - they used their state's two Big Ten school colors for their diesel fleet - black and old gold (Purdue) for the freight locomotives; crimson and light gray (Indiana) for their passenger locomotives. The freight fleet was much bigger, and eventually, they painted everything black and old gold. Hail Purdue! Huge rivalry between the two universities! K
K: Confession: I am a closet Monon fan... I loved their concept concerning the two different liveries on their diesel fleet! I also liked their fleet. Andre
Andre - I received my current issue of the Monon Historical Society's "The Hoosier Line" today. They have a nice article in there about the end of Monon passenger service, plus some nice shots of a lonely train pulling all of Monon's passenger and head end cars down from Chicago, empty, to the Lafayette Shops, where they sat for a while until being sold off, scrapped or assigned to MOW service. A long train of empty cars. Shops is where I saw them when I drove over the tracks on US 52. Sad to see. I should have pulled off and snapped a few pics. K
Good Evening Friends, Away from the layout this week, but pre-positioned a few photos for a WW report. Last weekend, I finished up the wiring of the new Weir City Brick and Tile section, including the turnout control and switch machine. Figure: Here are a couple of photos with the decapod and @Jim James caboose with lighted marker lamps, demonstrating power in a still photo: Testing New Brickyard Section by rjthomas909 posted Feb 23, 2020 at 3:26 PM The tail track for Weir City that is part of this section provides plenty of room for a locomotive, and 6-7 cars typical of the Crawford and Cherokee. You can see some land forming has begun where we have pink foam board showing through. Weir City Tail Track by rjthomas909 posted Feb 23, 2020 at 3:27 PM This looks to be a significant improvment in operations, in switching Weir City's house track, which includes a grain elevator, the team track/freight spot at the depot, and one other spot that was a mill on the Sanborn map. I was also able to finish up the three new FastTracks turnouts, gluing down and staining the ties and cutting the frog gaps. Before I blasted off for the airport, I was able to get a rough-in of the track for the new Lightning Creek Mine, including the small plywood roadbed pieces that are used at interfaces. Lightning-Creek-Mine-track-rough-in by rjthomas909 posted Feb 23, 2020 at 4:17 PM The two spur tracks at the back left are for the mine tipple, and seem a bit short. Might make a short extension for this area and extend those another foot or so. The near spur on the right will be another warehouse that did not appear on the earlier rendition. I think this adds another industry for the mine job, and improves this section as a separate switching layout when only setting up part of the layout for working on scenery and some operating fun. Still need to get the connecting track over to the South Cherokee section....maybe by next week. @modeltruckshop , it is looking like snow for us! Warm Regards All, -Bob T.
Sure does Bob!! layout looks great. How big will it be once all this is done? You seem to get the most from your space.
It is about 20 X 20. A two car garage, with an additional workshop space that is about 8 X 12 beyond that footprint.
Except for some sound tweaks and some touch up here and there, the 4162 is ready to release to the roundhouse foreman for duty.
Don, I'm sure that there is room in the tender for this speaker: https://www.parts-express.com/tang-band-t1-1925s-speaker-module-2-1-2-x-1-1-8--264-944 It would greatly improve the sound!
I already had some large oval and enclosure on hand and put it in . Tsunami and Current Keeper are in the engine.
It is a Cal Scale casting. I drill a hole for the bulb and then polish the hell out of the reflector with Brasso, a wood handle Q tip in a Dremel tool. 1.2 volt incandescent bulb.
Man my old ALPS sure makes my decaling look better. Thats for sure in my case. Don, that is one brutish looking locomotive, great job, I have always thought those 4100's were all bidness looking steam locomotives, the size of the oil bunkers and water tanks shows they are made for pulling/pushing all they could do, for long periods of time. Can you believe what ALPS white ink cartridges are going for? WOW! Glad I still have a couple new from 20 years ago.
You have made phenomenal progress on your MRR Robert. Very impressive. I enjoy all posts of your additions as well. Am I wrong to think you could add one or two modules to make a continuous operation? I understand a point to point operation, but it may be nice to have that continuous thing once in a while too. Again great progress/build photos.
I haven't looked at the price and also have one or two new ones. How much are they now? They make a laser printer by HP now that prints white, but the cartridges are super expensive.