jeff train: Work Sessions

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þriðjudagur, 11. nóvember 2014

Work Session Report - November 11, 2014

First of all, to all my fellow veterans and to those who are still on active duty in the Armed Forces, thank you for you services and sacrifices. You're the reason we get to enjoy hobbies like model railroading.

An overall view of the Richmond area as it looked after today's work session.

Progress on the layout had kind of sputtered out a little - I was finding it hard to get motivated to put the mainline back together and finish the track in the Richmond area.
Stic and I had arranged a work session for today a couple of weeks ago - and knowing Stic was coming over shamed me into finishing up the track. I managed to finish all the track on Sunday.
Since I was still left with a bunch of pink styrofoam pieces in the workshop it seemed to make the most sense to spend today's work session cutting the gluing the styrofoam landforms in place.
We made pretty good progress - next step is to carve the foam to shape - which will be as task I'll tackle in short sessions after work in the evenings.
Appreciate Stic spending his day off over here helping with the layout.

Beauregard and Molly are in charge of keeping up morale�. and wrestling!

You can't use an electronic magazine for this! Bound volumes and magazine holders filled with MRs, RMCs, and the like make perfect weights to hold the foam in place as the glue dries! The mockup is a rough approximation of the Richmond creamery.

fimmtudagur, 16. október 2014

Thursday Update

Here it is mid-October and I realized I haven't posted any new posts for most of the month!
Stic has come by for two work sessions - we removed the track and after thinking about salvaging the foam board sub roadbed I decided to duplicate the methodology we used in rebuilding Randolph - basically replacing the foam board with new plywood. None of that was very fun but the result is a much better foundation for the track. I'll write it off to "what I should have done in the first place." Currently the only foam board sub roadbed still on the railroad is in Waterbury - that section is also ballasted so I'm more than a little hesitant to take it out. I think I'll leave it be for now.
The photo above shows the current state of the new Richmond scene. I'm still in the process of figuring out the track arrangement "full size."

This is likely old news to everybody but me, but I used to cut roadbed (cork, homasote, or whatever) by the old "lay in the tangent piece and then place the curved section and slice to fit" method outlined in the old Atlas track plan books. Remember those?
I never had a great deal of luck getting the cork cut just right. Then it occurred to me to take the wider sheet of cork (which is sold to be used under yard tracks) and then trace the turnout on that and cut it to fit. I've already made enough "tie blocks" for all the turnouts I'll need for this scene, and then some.

The other task I've just about accomplished is in the workshop. I installed a couple of more shop lights and added an L-shaped extension to my workbench. I still need to add some pegboard to the back (mostly to cover over the shiny silver insulation!).

Don't let the clear surface fool you - also on the agenda for this weekend is "clean up the other half of the workbench."
Off to watch the Pats game.

sunnudagur, 15. júní 2014

Work Session Report - 15 June 2014

Tom, John, and Ben stopped by a short work session this afternoon.
About a year ago John made a yardmasters desk for White River Junction - he and Tom worked on installing it on the layout. John is an extremely talented modeler - his other hobby is making mandolins - so to say he went above and beyond the call with the YM's desk is an understatement!

But the finished desk looks great, and it's on drawer glides so it can be slid out of the way to keep the aisle clear when it's not needed.

Tom and I spent some time discussing the station platforms and B&M track arrangements by White River Junction station. We have a plan for the area that will maximize the platform area around the station building and make the finished scene close to full size in HO. It's going to have to wait until after the operating sessions in the next two weeks.

Ben worked on passenger car wheel sets.
I did a couple of minor little tasks - adding another set of feeders near the creamery crossing and ballasting some of the mainline track.
I also finished installing the phone system that Mat and Pete stopped by to help with on Tuesday night. The phone system deserves it's own post.
Thanks to all for the help!
As for me, now I have to clean up the layout room and get things staged for the session next Saturday.

laugardagur, 17. maí 2014

Work Session Report - May 17, 2014

Bernie stopped by after his golf lesson and round to patch the gap in the backdrop. While he was here he also tweaked some other sections on the backdrop between Randolph and Waterbury. One neat thing he did was blend a barn and farmhouse photo into the painted backdrop.
Finally, we played around with some static grass before he left. Once he left I got out my static grass machine and worked a little on getting a pasture around the hay barn on the peninsula. All in all, a productive day.
See the photos captions for more details.

When we altered the peninsula last January we sliced right through the backdrop Bernie had painted. Here's what it looked like before the Masonite was installed. For several months this has been a sky blue patch in a backdrop painting.

Bernie got to work blending the new backdrop section into the one he'd previously painted. He didn't want to be photographed today - he was feeling shy�.You can see the sky blue section on the bottom that denotes where the backdrop "splice" joined the old backdrop painting. This went pretty quickly. I think it took him longer to drive out to our place from the golf course than it took to paint the new backdrop!

The finished section is seamless - Well done! There would be no way I could have matched his colors, or frankly his painting ability. A shallow-relief structure will be installed between the track and the backdrop.

Closer to Randolph we added a barn and farmhouse from a photography to the painted backdrop. I think this is from a photo George Dutka sent me a while back. There was a pine tree in the photo obscuring the barn - so Bernie blended some additional painted pines to match the picture. We used Bernie's static grass machine for the grass in this section.

Once Bernie headed for home, I got out my static grass machine and started to dress up the grass in the pasture and along the right-of-way just north of Waterbury.

Christine dared me to put this on the blog�.

þriðjudagur, 5. febrúar 2013

Go With Throttle Up!!

Before leaving for the evening, the tired, but successful
electrical crew (Phil, Pete, Tom, and Mat) pose for the
obligatory group shot.

I blogged last week about the endless series of feeders I was soldering to the track and connecting to the buss wires. Well, tonight a few members of the Gainesville Mafia stopped by and spent a tough three hours getting the layout divided into several power districts, connecting all the remaining feeders to the buss wires, and in general having a good time with a tough, thankless, but entirely necessary task. It definitely sped things along and before they left we successfully demonstrated the power districts were working correctly, and the wireless throttles were all working correctly. I have a few things to button up, but the railroad actually works!
Thanks guys!

sunnudagur, 19. ágúst 2012

August 19, 2012 Work Session Report

Good work session on the railroad this afternoon meant an early start to the new "model railroad season." I'm hoping to get the railroad somewhat operational in the next couple of months - thanks to the good friends who are willing to help it just may happen.
Paul Dolkos and John Paganoni were the first to arrive - after discussing the lighting situation over the main peninsula (long story short - a better lighting solution is now a top priority) Paul got work ballasting the track in Waterbury. This track is in place and "finished" - which means it's been tested so I feel confident it's ready for ballast.

Stic Harris arrived next. After the obligatory tour of the railroad, Stic got to work gluing down some ties for the last two turnouts in Essex Junction - while waiting for the ties to dry he cut up some pulpwood piles for the woodyard to be located on the end of the peninsula.

John got busy filing up some switch frogs and points, and also got some measurements for the White River yardmasters desk - he'll build that at his house in his wood shop.
Ben Hom opened up the rip track and managed to give all the cars currently on the railroad the once over - checking car weights, coupler height and operation, wheelsets, etc . . . He really plowed through the car fleet - we'll have to have him over again . . .

Bernie arrived later than the others and showed my son Matt how to assemble the Alkem C&O Signal Bridge kit (Matt is doing some contract assembly work for Bernie) and then made some repairs and touch up painting to the WRJ coaling tower. That's great, since I need to get it installed on the layout!

Finally, I took the opportunity to review the plan for the industries in Everett (named after a college classmate who was upset when he learned I named the river crossing after another classmate . . .) Looks like we'll be adding a coal dealer and a team track to the scene in Everett.

All in a great day.

Thanks to all for the help!