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Orionvp17
Fireman
Premium Member
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 Posted - 02/07/2019 : 11:28:36 AM
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Looks good to me! Looking forward to seeing this operate some fine day....
Pete
in Michigan
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Country: USA
| Posts: 7570 |
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 03/08/2019 : 12:28:50 PM
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Thanks, Pete. Fate willing and the creek don't rise.
One of Rapido's RDC-2s arrived last week. I sent it out on the main for break-in. The baggage-end ('F' mark) truck didn't track very well. Per the instructions, I tried bending the baggage steps out a bit, but no joy. After a number of derailments I investigated:
I could feel something catch as I moved the truck around: the red power feed wire shown above was bent upwards so it would catch on the underframe at certain angles. I used the back of a hobby knife to bend it back within the confines of the truck frame. All happy now.
Most of my recent hobby time has gone into prep for my Railrun op session next month. Some of that may show up on my operations thread, though maybe not till after this weekend's outage.
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James
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6903 |
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 03/30/2019 : 6:46:16 PM
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It's been a busy three weeks - the Town Meeting, then the Hub Division's Spring Training event, then lots of paperwork and house cleaning getting ready for tomorrow's wedding. But some railroad work did get done:
I decided the Market Sq. waterfront terminal of the City RR branch needed a guard to protect teamsters from careless elbows. I used 5 mm acrylic scraps from the hardware store, so it took a while to get the angles right.
And my stepson has been asking for projects. I started him out on an Accurail 3-bay 70 ton hopper kit. He had lots of questions about the instructions, as an exploded view needs familiarity with the end result to work as instructions. But he did a good job and asked for more. So I gave him a P2K 50' end-door automobile car kit someone else had built the underframe for. Again, lots of questions, and a few lost and broken parts I got out the magnifier to remedy. But a sound result. Here he is with his test train.
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James
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6903 |
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Orionvp17
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 03/30/2019 : 7:02:16 PM
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Looking Good James! Nice to have a Crew to help! 
Best wishes to all!
Pete
in Michigan
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Country: USA
| Posts: 7570 |
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 04/01/2019 : 1:51:16 PM
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Thanks, Pete. Late yesterday, after the wedding crowd had departed, my stepson asked for another project. I gave him a second P2K 50' auto box, which he finished before bed. I need to teach him a little more about applying solvent cement, but a good job throughout.
I think next I'll give him a Tichy flatcar kit. Slightly different style and it will need painting. Which will fit in with weathering the rest of his fleet.
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James
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6903 |
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Orionvp17
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 04/01/2019 : 1:59:32 PM
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Life is Good! 
Best wishes to all!
Pete
in Michigan
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Country: USA
| Posts: 7570 |
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BurleyJim
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 04/01/2019 : 3:05:58 PM
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James,
Fine looking young crew member you've added. Again, congratulations on getting all the work involved in gaining the new family. Excellent!
Jim
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| Take the red pill |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6325 |
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k9wrangler
Engineer
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Posted - 04/01/2019 : 4:20:07 PM
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Nice to have a crew with enthusiasm!
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Mega Dittos
Karl Scribner
Manistique, Michigan |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 12078 |
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Grubes
Crew Chief
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Posted - 05/11/2019 : 12:04:12 PM
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James
Nice to have family interest. Maybe you can give him all the jobs that you avoid!
Congratulations on the family event and on the great progress on the layout.
Dave
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Country: USA
| Posts: 630 |
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/12/2019 : 11:28:26 AM
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Belated thanks, Pete, Karl and Dave. Aside from yesterday's op session, not much has changed on the Eastern route since April - school vacation included a multi-day visit to relatives and since then I've spent a lot of time on Seashore Trolley Museum's track and equipment. That will taper off when the Museum opens 7 days/week on Memorial Day. And I've bought a bunch of lighting and signaling parts which I plan to post about.
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James
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Edited by - jbvb on 05/12/2019 11:28:55 AM |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6903 |
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/20/2019 : 10:04:33 AM
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More than a decade ago, I started the Franklin St. area in Bexley. I needed clearance underneath for Bexley Yard's switch controls and the track through Bexley Tunnel, so I used 1/8" hardboard to support buildings and street. I left the rough side up so scenery and road materials would adhere better as the hardboard (probably) flexed.
Later, I'd used commercial plastic cobblestone on Railroad St. and, looking at Franklin Street's rough texture, I had an idea: It wasn't great cobblestone, but in the '50s many New England cities had covered the traffic parts of busy cobblestone streets with asphalt, leaving strips of stones in the gutters. I applied some "Cape Cod Gray" stain to the hardboard and liked the 'feel'. But I dithered over whether I should add a trolley track, and what paving scheme would avoid cracking.
Saturday, my lighting project motivated me to finally repave Franklin St. I masked off strips along the curb, then painted a test section with black satin finish latex, and sprinkled it with 'Part C' colored sand from Spectralock's StainProof Grout system. After it dried and I brushed away everything that didn't stick, Natural Gray (left) came out too light, but Raven looked good.
I went ahead and did the rest of the street. I clearly didn't burnish the tape down into the texture perfectly, but as I recall that kind of repaving job, they didn't always get picky with full-size sand for perfect coverage of the edges of the asphalt pour. If it bothers me later, I can weather the black down easily while detailing the gutters.
Next, three WeHonest street lamps should give decent coverage, and then some attention to Gorin Machine's truck dock area.
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James
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6903 |
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Orionvp17
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/20/2019 : 10:26:07 AM
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Good start, James!
Trash, streetlights, maybe a mail box and a Gamewell Box (fire alarm call box) on the light pole, some peeps going to or from work and you'll have it. Streetcar is optional, but since you're in the streetcar business anyway, well.... 
Apropos of nothing whatsoever, Bowser has some New Orleans cars with DCC and sound that look a lot like the Type Five cars in Boston, so there is that....
And when the cracks appear, simply fill them with very dark grey paint, a couple of shovel-sized and not-very-well-done "hot top" patches, and perhaps even let the cobblestones sneak up through a couple of places where the plows have destroyed the asphalt and the Highway Department crews decided that the holes weren't worth taking another shovel-full of patch off the truck.
I'm sure you get the idea!
Pete
in Michigan
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Country: USA
| Posts: 7570 |
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jbvb
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/23/2019 : 10:30:28 PM
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Thanks, Pete. So far I've drawn in some drain gratings, but this led the small fry to criticize my 'cheating'. This afternoon brought me to 'first light', which led to a test photo after sunset:
The sidewalk needs adjusting, the mill's doors need steps, I need a permanent Colonial Inn structure, No Parking signs, meters etc, etc. But I am astonished how well my Pentax Kr's automation handled this 15 sec. f/32 exposure. All it needs is dialing down the Exposure Compensation for the reshoot.
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James
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6903 |
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Frank Palmer
Fireman
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Posted - 05/24/2019 : 09:08:47 AM
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James, pretty soon you'll need a traffic light.
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| Frank |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6163 |
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Orionvp17
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 05/24/2019 : 10:19:55 AM
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Looking good, James. Not sure about Frank's traffic light, but I do think you should have a cop ready to check the IDs on those kids headed for the Coco Club! Don't want any "issues" in this town!
Nice job on a scene that is coming together quite well.
Pete
in Michigan
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Country: USA
| Posts: 7570 |
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