Good Afternoon Everyone....sunny and a perfect fall day here in this part of Wisconsin.
Just returned from the cabin...95% of the exterior work is done for winter and just the water shut down and draining is the only necessary task other than bring home some liquids that will freeze over winter. The Mrs. did the bulk of the work. The deer are really on the move. Saw two bucks with eight does eating grass along the road one night.
Did some unassisted walking this weekend and it felt great! Tomorrow my will be my first attempt to do the basement stairwell and get to the train room.
I'm looking for a device that I've seen used by telephone service techs and electricians to trace wire circuits. It's some type of toner, but I don't recall its name. I have five different busses for the layout wiring. There's one buss each for DCC, LED's, incandescent wiring, Tortoise switch machines and accessory power. I started to color code each circuit, but like many modelers I ran short of wires and mixed wire colors. I can trace wire circuits with a multi-meter by testing for live circuits at terminal blocks, since I can turn each circuit on or all individual circuits off at a control panel. With just one circuit on I can test for just the active buss. The circuit tester would come in handle as a tool. Anyone know what tool I'm thinking about???
Some of my weathered pieces should arrive by mail tomorrow and others at a later date. I like weathering on rolling stock but I'm having a hard time considering weathering on well detailed locomotives like the Rapidos I have on order or some of limited run Athearn locomotives. Some pieces of rolling stock will just have a coat of DullKote.
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Willie and I know others in the hobby who like myself have spent a ton of money on model railroading over the years. The Mrs. has some idea of the amount of $$$ I've spent, but so far she doesn't know the exact figure. Hey, life is too short, so have fun while you can doing what interests you. I wonder if the main model railroad items like locomotives and rolling stock are covered by insurance under a lost settlement for the limits of insurance purchased for Personal Property coverage.
Even with my modest layout in a 12 x 16 finished room the costs to construct the layout was notable with just the room construction costs, the electronics, DCC and scenery costs adding up.
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Hobo, I did an Excel spreadsheet for my locomotives and have a partial completed for rolling stock.
Chet: Great phot of the box car with the track cleaning pads.
Not much other railroad news to report.
Sherrel: I like my 2014 Chevy Silverado and I still find different electronic features that I didn't know I had in the vehicle. This is my sixth pickup and by far the most fancy vehicle...but at a cost. My first Toyota pick up truck that I purchased was a spartan vehicle and didn't even have a radio.
I think my first project after running some trains is to install a welding flashing circuit in a junk yard on the yard.
That's enough for now....
Stay tuned.
Greg
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My main control panel for the layout wiring busses. Some additional panel switches have been added since this photo was taken. The panel is a picture frame and 1/4" Lexan for the panel's face with the interior surface of the Lexan painted. On the lower right is a Tony's Exchange Ramp Meter for DCC and the meter above it is for the layout's incandescent lighting voltage.-Greg