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@mike g. posted:

Morning guys, first off, I want to thank you all for your thoughts about me. I am doing fine just whooped working with all this snow we have got and trying to help people why can't help themselves! It really sucks as there are people running around charging an arm and leg to help folks on fixed income. I do it for free as that is what my dad instilled in me! Here is what we have been dealing with and then on to some train stuff! LOL Mind you my deck railing is 6' tall and the snow pile is what was on the ground and the snow I had to take off the roof.

IMG_20220105_075017

Good to heard form you Mike. The bus and ground cover look good.

That is a lot of snow. I've been watching it pile up on the Skykomish Wa. camera on Virtual railfan.

Bob

A few updates from the past few weeks. Saturday we ran trains. This is my 4 year old who loves trains right now more than anything. Trying to feed this as much as possible.

Over Christmas, we built a couple of flats and now need to install them. One has lights (video) the other still needs (pic). They also need some weathering. 





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Lots of good projects, folks!  Yes winter is train time in the north, unless it snows a lot.  🤨

Besides taking inventory and organizing the train room to be better set up for scenery building, I started an Altoona Model Works Branchline Station kit.  The instruction sheets are very well done.  I'm following it exactly as directed.  So far it is a simple box of Masonite sheathed with thin clapboard siding sections.  It has gone together well with Ailene's glue as suggested in the instructions.  The next step is to paint the shell, the roof sections, and the doors, windows, and trim.  I'll use Western Maryland gray with red trim.

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Last edited by Mark Boyce

Hi guys I hope you all had a great day!

Bob, thank you and just so you know the snow is sucking right now! LOL You wouldnt happen to have the link to the Skykomish camera would you?

Terry, 30' is a lot of wire to pull in one day! Looks outstanding!

SuperChief, Great looking work on the flats! Take all the time with your son in as much as you can, it really builds great memories!

Mark, Looking good! I am looking forward to seeing the painted product!

Nothing new from me today as there was more driveways to clear! I hope you all have been able to find time to have fun with your layouts and trains!

Dave,  I like the weathering on the fences.   you might try roughing up the edges of the boards where the large holes are.  Maybe use a razor saw, or fine tooth saber saw blade.  They should have roughed up the mold where the boards are "broken"...    Great job with the decals.   Personally I like the GoodYear sign

Nice job on the telephone poles, Terry.   

Mark,  the Branchline Station Kit is moving along well.

Mike G:   Glad to see "you come up for air",  that relentless snow can be physically and mentally exhausting.  Reminded me of the 2014/2015 winter we had in Boston with 118 inches of snow in about 8 weeks.   Just never stopped. 

I went back scrubbed down the Pennsy Block Walls with some alcohol and water, (just wasn't happy the color mismatch).   Mixed up a new batch of final wash, added more Raw Sienna to the Burnt Sienna.  Glad I did, the color match now is very close.

Got my Union Station LED's over the front doors and windows hooked up today.  I have two chandeliers 2" high x 1.25 inches diameter to install tomorrow.   I like the viaducts I weathered so much, I tore out the hand carved rocks I had at the other end of the layout, and started "cutting" in the viaducts between the upper and lower level at that end.     

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Glad to hear from you Mike.
Terry, the lines between the poles are a nice detail.

SuperChief, great times with a future modeler!

Mark, looks good, looking forward to the paint scheme.

Dave, the fence looks great. Maybe a picket or two that are at an angle? A fence with that many gaps is bound to have a few cockeyed boards. I like the signs on the fence,  nice touch.

Chris, the color is almost a dead match, well done. Station lighting looks great.



Andy

Last edited by Steamfan77
@mike g. posted:

Hi guys I hope you all had a great day!

Bob, thank you and just so you know the snow is sucking right now! LOL You wouldnt happen to have the link to the Skykomish camera would you?

Here's the link to the channel on Youtube. They have cameras all over the country. I can spend hours watching the action.

https://www.youtube.com/channe...kT9bq-1N2BvrsBjhNlag

@RSJB18 posted:

Here's the link to the channel on Youtube. They have cameras all over the country. I can spend hours watching the action.

https://www.youtube.com/channe...kT9bq-1N2BvrsBjhNlag

Wow, that's a lot more than at Horseshoe Curve, Altoona, the closest one to me.

Mitch, is the Frankenswitcher going to get a new paint job?  Razerback?  Something else?

Terry Luft, I like the sag on the wires.  Having worked for the power and telephone company most of my 43 years working, I always wonder what is the best way to get a good looking sag in line wires.

@Terry Luft posted:

I couldn’t find a prototype for this but it seems like a reasonable way to get the phone lines across the canyon. In any case it’s the Central Valley in California, Frank Norris “Octopus”, country so the SP can do whatever it wants.A2ED7821-BF60-4DF1-8587-EC996A46D048

Terry,

I'm with you on this. I know I have seen this done on stone arch bridges but I'm sure there is a prototype somewhere for what you have done. Either way, it looks good and it's your railroad.

Dave

@mike g. posted:

Morning guys, first off, I want to thank you all for your thoughts about me. I am doing fine just whooped working with all this snow we have got and trying to help people why can't help themselves! It really sucks as there are people running around charging an arm and leg to help folks on fixed income. I do it for free as that is what my dad instilled in me! Here is what we have been dealing with and then on to some train stuff! LOL Mind you my deck railing is 6' tall and the snow pile is what was on the ground and the snow I had to take off the roof.

IMG_20220105_075017Mike,  please be careful with all that gratis snow shoveling.  At our average ages our bodies are not prepped for that kid of strenuous work.   "A man has got to know their limitations".

I just replaced a 28 YO Ahrens 24" snow blower for  new Ahrens 24" with better features at half the 1994 price from HD.

After several  volunteer years, we stopped gratis  clearing of out neighbor's drives.  Didn't even get a wave or a thank you.

@mike g. posted:

Morning guys, first off, I want to thank you all for your thoughts about me. I am doing fine just whooped working with all this snow we have got and trying to help people why can't help themselves! It really sucks as there are people running around charging an arm and leg to help folks on fixed income. I do it for free as that is what my dad instilled in me! Here is what we have been dealing with and then on to some train stuff! LOL Mind you my deck railing is 6' tall and the snow pile is what was on the ground and the snow I had to take off the roof.

IMG_20220104_180306IMG_20220105_075017

Now on to some train stuff, last time my grandkids were here I was informed there were no people of color on my layout. My grandkids are part Hispanic, so I spent a few nights right before bed painting some new people of color so they would fit in. My bad!

IMG_20220101_092611

I also had an hour or so to add ground cover to the area I had to widen out for the overhang of my new steam engine. Here is what I have so far!

IMG_20220101_092900IMG_20220101_092909

The Kids and grandkids came for Christmas after the new year, and we had a great time. They gave me one of the best out of the blue gift for my train layout! I have been looking for a Greyhound bus but everyone I found was way out of my price range and low and behold that's what I got from the grandkids!

IMG_20220102_105208

I hope you are all well and having fun with your trains and layouts! Please be safe and it might be a couple days before I get back as I have a few more people to take care of. Now all we have to worry about for us is landslides as we live on top of a hill and if it slides it blocks the road!

Mike, great pics of the snow storm...wow!  The new ground cover looks great!

It's good to see the addition of the "Greyhound" bus to your layout.  I know you've been looking for one for a while...

@Terry Luft posted:

I couldn’t find a prototype for this but it seems like a reasonable way to get the phone lines across the canyon. In any case it’s the Central Valley in California, Frank Norris “Octopus”, country so the SP can do whatever it wants.A2ED7821-BF60-4DF1-8587-EC996A46D048

Terry, I believe this is a realistic representation.  It reminds me of an incident that my dad encountered when he was a young cable splicer for the telephone company he worked at for 38 years.  I ended up at the same company at age 40 until retirement.  At that time the company had telephone cable on the PRR bridge that crosses the Allegheny River at Freeport, Pennsylvania.  Dad was called out to cable trouble after dark.  He was out on the bridge splicing cable and there was a wind whipping down the river.  That was okay, but he said it was really unnerving when a PRR freight came across the bridge.  Now there is fiver optics in conduit.

Well after reading the discussion about having an inventory, I decided I should probably figure out what I have. Not done yet, but I think I bought way too much stuff for my grandkids.   I have a pretty good handle on the engines but rolling stock is another matter. Still have a couple of more shelves to do but in 3 years I think I will have accumulated 30 engines and 140 cars.  When I did my count, if I had a 6 car coal hopper set, I counted that as one. Same with passenger car sets, that is a one. Diesel ABA is also one. Funny I started out buying steamers and now have only 3. I still have a couple more diesels on order (BN) and one of the Big Boys. I am not going to count my post war or 027 cars and engines. Those are for "under the tree".

I guess my question is when do you know you have enough stuff?  OK my absolute limit would be needing to rent a storage unit to keep trains - for me that IS TOO MUCH. So far I have been good at selling off items that did not fit what I wanted to do. Two I am stuck on - A Pennsy GG1 and passenger set and a Norfolk and Western Passenger set waiting for a scale J class 611.  As much as I love the history of the Eastern railroads, I am finding myself building roads Chicago and west, so the Eastern roads do not seem to fit. Nevertheless, I am likely to hold on to the Pennsy and N&W roads as an homage to the GG1 and "J". 

And on another note, the CEO asked me if I could turn one of my buildings into a US Marine Corp recruiting office. My oldest spent 9 years in (enlisted and out as a Staff Sgt) and I agree it would be a nice touch.  Anyone done that?  I know we have several Marines on the forum.   

Jeff

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