[QUOTE="IronBeltKen, post: 489676, member: 167"
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BTW - my covid test results came back today: NEGATIVE
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good NEWS!
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BTW - my covid test results came back today: NEGATIVE
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good NEWS!
Good evening Shop Dwellers! 48*F and clear in central MD.
Thanks Karl, I do appreciate the offer. I plan to do two rehearsals of the op session - one to find the bugs, and another to confirm that they get worked out. For the more immediate future, I'd like to bring my GP40 #3754 over to your place to have you put a GP40 sound file in the decoder, to replace the GP38 one that it came with.
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BTW - my covid test results came back today: NEGATIVE
Tharrs Baarrz in them thar 'ills, umm, flat areas.Good Morning All. Clear skies and 55° on this fine Saturday morning. Headed up to 85° this afternoon, then a cool front rolls in around midnight and the high tomorrow and Monday will only be in the upper 70's. Then it's back to mid-80's for at least another week. Very slight chance of much needed rain with that cool front tonight.
Mostly did yard work yesterday to the point that I had to take one Advil by mid-afternoon. Today starts with laundry and more yardwork.
With the heightened concerns about the pandemic, I noted that our rural county (Cooke) of about 40,000 people seems to have leveled off with the Covid-19 cases. Still holding steady around 450 cases and only 6 deaths. The county just south of me (Denton) has over 670,000 people in it, with 12319 cases and 155 deaths; also holding rather steady. Most of those cases and deaths are in the southern part of the county where it borders on Dallas. Our county has an about 1.2% infection rate, Denton County is about 1.8%. Two people that I know, but only see about once a year have gotten it, and they were both anti-maskers. I remain vigilant.
Ah! The weekend Flo. How about just a bowl of Corn Flakes today. Hate to say that I am temporarily burned out on bacon and sausage every morning.
Thanks guys for all of the likes and kind comments regarding the layout progress; Jerome, Lee, Karl, Tom O, Chad, Phil, Curt, Sherrel, Garry, Justin, Tom, Ken.
Slow, short day in the train shed yesterday. I did finish the window painting on the last two walls of the DPM structure. Then I touched up the brick and concrete paint where I went out of the lines. While waiting for paint to dry, I continued assembling some of the Bar Mills Insta-Fencing that will surround the diner.
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I did set the plastics factory in place and added some very minor details/improvements to it. I also added that yellow lane marking stripe on the roadway.
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Then I picked up the throttle and ran trains for a while. That's what they are there for, isn't it? Once I do that, all modeling is suspended until the next day. Started to take some action pictures of an intermodal train that I was running, when the battery on the camera died. But I did get a few before that happened.
Coming through the town of Charlottesville.
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Outskirts of Charlottesville.
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Heading into the outskirts of Maultown.
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And a couple of shots at the other end of Maultown as it was leaving.
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Jerry - While I don't like the idea of graffiti in general, I do apply some to some of my railcars as it enhances the realism. I never go overboard as shown in your picture, just a little bit here and there.
GT - I am like you, I don't see myself standing around with a bunch of possibly infected people just to get tested. Testing doesn't get you well any sooner!
Everybody have a great day.
I have to stand around and hand him tools and be a general "gofer" kind of guy.
I checked the MBK and Trainworld websites; neither one of them seem to know these things exist
BTW - my covid test results came back today: NEGATIVE
we are now 32 one-hundredths of an inch behind normal for this rain season which began July 1st.
Good morning fellow Model Railroaders....sunny and looks like a nice fall day here in Wisconsin. Getting ready to travel back to the cabin while the weather remains nice and I love the lower humidity that Fall offers.
Well my trip to the train room yesterday was sort of a bust. While I did run a eight car train pulled by DM&IR power I sort lost interest in modeling when a track cleaning car pulled by a favorite work horse derailed.
"Willie-I have had have lousy luck putting mortar on my 2 brick buildings. I have watched so many videos and read how easy it is all over the internet. My shipping building in the Paper Mill is the Walthers building called Papermill, small sized bricks. But someday it will click and look good. Thanks for that photo and all your photos." -TomO
I may have a solution for your mortar woes. I use Roberts Brick Mortar on my models and follow the directions on the products jar. Once the mortar is really dry I use a cloth to remove any mortar from the brick's surface. You want to have mortar only in the cracks where you normally would find mortar. Important to laid the model on its side and then I use a solution of alcohol and India Ink or AIM weathering solution to fill the cracks. Once dried the mortar has a more realistic gray appearance. The product wipes off so you have a uniform appearence and no brick surfaces covered with mortar. I purchase the product from SouthsideTrains.com.
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When the wash has dried I use Pan Pastels to weather the exterior and bricks. Use as little or as much as you want. Older buildings in an industrial setting has dirt and grime filled mortar joints. Here's a building under construction that represents an older building in my industrial areas of the layout. Enlarge for a better view.
Generally, only newer buildings have clean mortar lines.
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I plan on adding another taller chimney to the roof of this building. I like weathering everything and tend to do heavy weathering on most of my structures and many locomotives and pieces of rolling stock.
Living within driving distance of Walther's, I do spend a bulk of my hobby money (other than locomotives) at Walther's. Walther's has a punch card program that for each $25 purchased you get a punch and 25 punches (I think) fills the card and you get $50 your next purchase.
That's all for now.
Greg
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Morning all.
Had some Amish Crack Donut Holes from my secret stash in the freezer, so I just need a plate of bacon, Flo
Going to tackle the pass-through bridges today. Since my track laying experience to date is a fat Zero/Naught, I'm curious as to how you all would hand this in N scale? Since this is the best place to find the brains of the outfit, thought I'd ask here. Just make sure you get a cuppa joe to wake up the little grey cells.
I'm using Pico Code 80 Flextack and turnouts on the layout. Should I install the bridges into place, painted and weathered, then lay the track on top of that? I'd save out the molded section of Bridge Ties Walther's includes, and install that when I lay the track?
If so, How much longer than the bridge span do I make that section of track? My thought is to make a track section about 2 to 3 inches to each side of the bridge. Strip the ties from the section that will lay on the bridge deck (has it's own molded section of bridge ties.)
Then run flex track to either direction off that part?
Tell me what I'm missing, please.
Geez Karl, has it been a year already since you two tied the knot? Congrats [in advance]...Ken, just let me know when the crew needs to come over, I can pick up Keith on the way. As Far as programming maybe next Sunday? I'm on drugs right now for an inner ear infection, gotta w*rk next Saturday, but Sunday is ok. The following weekend we will be away (1st anniversary get away).