Happy Wednesday Y'all:
It's a glorious 68°, and breezy, with a brilliant fall sun. Last night, around eleven PM, it rained .10 of an inch, which was a surprise, 'cause the guessers said it wasn't going to rain 'till Friday. So much for their forecast.
I finished reconnecting my layout to the terminal extension. Surprising how US made Micro Engineering, code 83 matches up with Japanese made Kato HO code 83 Ready Track. Just remove the Kato rail joiner and replace with a ME joiner. There is a slight vertical deviation between the ME track on cork roadbed, and the Kato plastic roadbed, but it's not more than a 32nd of an inch. This was a quick fix using what I had on hand, it still needs to be secured, and leveled, but it works! Best part is I don't have to ballast that section
.
On the whole, I accomplished what I wanted, that is running my steam locomotives, including my I1sa 2-10-0 with long haul tender (with very rigid 8 wheel trucks) completely around the layout without incident
. The only down side was that my Bachmann K4s 4-6-2 slipped it's drivers and almost stalled on a 2% grade, pulling a 5 car passenger train. The consist was a Walthers x29 Express box car, a Walthers B60b baggage car, a Bachmann PB70 combine (new release), a Bachmann P70 coach (also new release), and a Branchline 12-1 Pullman
. Do I see a BLI K4s in the (near?) future
?
The old layout gets a reprieve, and I save time and effort, not to mention money
. Now, I resume trying to apply scenery, which is
NOT one of my strong points
.
Terry: That sounds like good news. We are praying for your wife's full recovery. Toot: The spin off of PayPal by E-bay looks to me to be a prelude to another public stock IPO. These things are more common at the end of a Bull market cycle. What you are going through is the frustration of attempting to work a "deal" through electronic means.
Perhaps, you can get the seller to sell and ship to you directly, and not through E-bay
. Curt: Good luck running wire today. I enjoy the photos of your layout. My one complaint, is that you instilled the PRR steam bug in me
.
NHL opening night is Tonight!
If they are doing a preview of Center Ice, I'll watch the Habs @ Toronto. If not, I'll wait for the later game. I can't stand NBCSN's top broadcast team of "Doc" Emrick and Pierre Maguire. The Devils open tomorrow in Philly......Go Devils!!!
Have a great day!
Joe