Greg@mnrr
Section Hand
Good Morning Everyone....sunny day after yesterday's snow storm, but cold and will get even colder as the week goes by. Maybe a half a foot of snow yesterday.
Started the day by working on taxes and I'm 80% finished. Again, I owe Federal so I'll mail the taxes on April 14th. Last night the neighbor did our driveway with his snow blower and then he and his wife came in for a couple of cocktails. He's a computer IT guy so should I ever have any problems he will come to my aid.
Today after lunch will be a train day and I just have some smaller projects to work on. The swampy area with the green slime needs some growth around the perimeter of the hollow as a starter for day's projects along with a coal hopper that needs some black oil paint weathering on the chutes. Then the track cleaning of the mine spurs I been putting off and I'll use a track cleaning train rather than cleaning the track by hand. I'll sit on my elevated chair and run the train as if I was switching the spurs. This will be a good test of the trackage by running the train back and forth.
Still haven't decided about ordering that CN GP9 locomotive especially after I saw that Scale Trains has C&NW model that looks great. Even on sale!!! I have a Jack Daniels Whiskey 1.75 bottle that I use to collect my spare coins and the contents should be enought to paid for the locomotive. Even being in the hospital for the extended stay and re-hab I still managed to collect some coins.
Patrick: If you want to start with DCC, I found some real deals on decoders on some of the websites and EBay. Several years ago I purchased six NCE decoders for $35 on EBay. A Digitrax Zephyr would be a good start in DCC for only $235 or even less on some web sites. This way you would avoid installing the DC blocks. My first DCC layout started as a DC layout with blocks. Just a suggestion.
Willie: Nice work on the silos. Do you plan to do any weathering? That Majestic feed store looks so prototypical and I like the two trash cans in the front of the building. I'm hoping for space for some silos on my layout expansion areas. OK Willie...an Athearn or Scale Trains locomotive for e??? Which would you purchase if you were me???
That's about all for now.
Greg
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My MNS SD39 which was mildly weathered by a fellow in Ohio by the name of Steve Hurt whose been on MRH videos with his weathering projects. Great runner with DCC and sound. Many don't know that the MNS was a branch line in Minnesota and had only 86 miles of trackage and was under SOO Line ownership until the SOO when bankrupt.
The New River Mine on the CM&N railroad. The mine spur trcaks are on a spur that comes off the Saxeville Interchange. There's three tracks which areat eye level so the engineer must use the twin signals (three) above the spurs tracks to determine which route the turnouts are set. Tomar signals were modified and black flat black to be installed on the structure and mini 12 volt lamps provide the illumination. The building light fixtures are from Walthers and there's three more fixtures on right side of the building that isn't shown. The mainline is below on the right.
All layout incandescent lighting operates on 10 volts or less to prolong life life.-Greg
Started the day by working on taxes and I'm 80% finished. Again, I owe Federal so I'll mail the taxes on April 14th. Last night the neighbor did our driveway with his snow blower and then he and his wife came in for a couple of cocktails. He's a computer IT guy so should I ever have any problems he will come to my aid.
Today after lunch will be a train day and I just have some smaller projects to work on. The swampy area with the green slime needs some growth around the perimeter of the hollow as a starter for day's projects along with a coal hopper that needs some black oil paint weathering on the chutes. Then the track cleaning of the mine spurs I been putting off and I'll use a track cleaning train rather than cleaning the track by hand. I'll sit on my elevated chair and run the train as if I was switching the spurs. This will be a good test of the trackage by running the train back and forth.
Still haven't decided about ordering that CN GP9 locomotive especially after I saw that Scale Trains has C&NW model that looks great. Even on sale!!! I have a Jack Daniels Whiskey 1.75 bottle that I use to collect my spare coins and the contents should be enought to paid for the locomotive. Even being in the hospital for the extended stay and re-hab I still managed to collect some coins.
Patrick: If you want to start with DCC, I found some real deals on decoders on some of the websites and EBay. Several years ago I purchased six NCE decoders for $35 on EBay. A Digitrax Zephyr would be a good start in DCC for only $235 or even less on some web sites. This way you would avoid installing the DC blocks. My first DCC layout started as a DC layout with blocks. Just a suggestion.
Willie: Nice work on the silos. Do you plan to do any weathering? That Majestic feed store looks so prototypical and I like the two trash cans in the front of the building. I'm hoping for space for some silos on my layout expansion areas. OK Willie...an Athearn or Scale Trains locomotive for e??? Which would you purchase if you were me???
That's about all for now.
Greg
###################
My MNS SD39 which was mildly weathered by a fellow in Ohio by the name of Steve Hurt whose been on MRH videos with his weathering projects. Great runner with DCC and sound. Many don't know that the MNS was a branch line in Minnesota and had only 86 miles of trackage and was under SOO Line ownership until the SOO when bankrupt.
The New River Mine on the CM&N railroad. The mine spur trcaks are on a spur that comes off the Saxeville Interchange. There's three tracks which areat eye level so the engineer must use the twin signals (three) above the spurs tracks to determine which route the turnouts are set. Tomar signals were modified and black flat black to be installed on the structure and mini 12 volt lamps provide the illumination. The building light fixtures are from Walthers and there's three more fixtures on right side of the building that isn't shown. The mainline is below on the right.
All layout incandescent lighting operates on 10 volts or less to prolong life life.-Greg