Good Morning Guys. Clear and 29° on my back porch this morning. NWS is still predicting rain and snow tomorrow. It was nice yesterday with the sun finally out after three days; not sure what time today it will cloud over again.
A couple of giant breakfast burritos for me this morning Flo. Sausage, egg and cheese only. Hold the potatoes. Lots of spicy salsa on the side.
Thanks folks for the likes and comments regarding yesterday's project and review post;
Joe, Guy, Tom O, Patrick, Garry, Phil, Karl, Chad, Jerome, Luke, Hughie, Curt, Rick, Dave, Tom, James, Ken, Gary, Justin.
Once again I am going to put the Year 2020 Review on hold since I haven't had time yet to review it myself. But it will return after I review the 100's of pictures!
Out in the train shed yesterday, I did do some more work on the corner with the trailers. Added trees, bushes and ground cover.
I intend to add more trees as soon as I get some made.
Over to the right of the silver trailer, I added a beekeeping scene.
I'll have to get a better overall view today.
As I move left on the layout cleanup, these are the next structures in sight.
The water tower is easy and I cleaned it yesterday. I'll get that yellow rooming house today. As posted before, it's just stored there for now until I decide what to do with that 96" x 9" piece of layout real estate.
Next over are some structures that will remain. In the background is a plastics factory, think Tupperware, and the pellet silos out front. It is unfinished right now. It wa sset up on the old layout, but didn't transfer well. You can see some parts and the instructions on the roof of the building. The structure itself is made from Pikestuff wall components and the silos came from Walther's.
I'll highlight the front structures tomorrow.
Patrick -
I saw some weird hopper\gondola style cars being pulled this morning. Had rounded bottoms between the trucks (think loco fuel tanks) with tank car style roofs, but the cars were boxy not tank style.
You mean like this?
If so, it's a Bethgon coal gondola, made for rotary dumping. Nearly always pulled in unit trains, never in mixed freights. It's probably not something that
Guy could feature here, as they are normally only present in moving trains from mine to power plants or back.
Joe - Makes it a heavy structure!
Regarding your question to Sherrel about the knee replacement surgery. My wife's first one was done in the hospital and the overnight stay was optional. She only stayed because she got an initial PT the next morning. The second one was done at an out patient clinic by choice, since she chose to do all of the PT herself. It's all about the money that hospitals can extract from Medicare and insurance companies.
Sherrel - Sorry to read about the delay in Kate's knee replacement. Guess that you didn't donate to the right politicians.
Guy - Predictions or not, our weather is greatly influenced by the La Niña weather pattern out in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean. When it's active like this season, our region always experiences a more mild winter. I don't remember whether it affects your weather or not.
I do not fasten down structures except in extreme conditions. I like the ability to remove them for cleaning and maintenance. Also, any external force like elbows, just dislodges them instead of breaking parts off, well mostly.
Very nice shots of the center beam flat yesterday.
Garry - Good that you were able to get implants, I like all eight of mine. Can't tell that they are there except the broken teeth are no longer there. But I like to eat so I needed to get them. What I don't like is being charged the same for teeth cleaning even when the tech doesn't have to clean them.
I do like to get an hour or three in the train shed every day.
Tom - Yes I always ballast first and then landscape. I just get a better feel for the terrain when I do it that way. I know that many modelers do it the other way and I don't make any claim as to which is better. I find that sweeping and shaping ballast against the outside of the rails and ties is easier on bare plywood than on scenery.
Gary -
I read on the other forum that some modellers still add weights to their cars to bring them to NMRA standards, do many of you do that?
I only add if needed. Most freight cars manufactured since the turn of the century already have the correct weight. On my older layouts (not as well built), underweight freight cars sometimes "stringlined" (fell to the inside) on uphill curves and some would also bounce and derail over rough track.
Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend.