TLOC
Well-Known Member
Willie, we have plans!Good Morning All. Currently clear and 81°, heading for a high today of 109°. But we're expecting a cold front on Thursday at just 98°!!!
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At least that's what the weekend crew at the NWS has left us with this morning. Won't bring out the blue jeans yet though. That won't happen until late-November or early-December. It did reach 109° here for a couple of hours yesterday. It's been a warm summer for us. We normally count the 100°+ days; this year we're counting the 105°+ days!
If I saw temperatures like that in August, it would actually be the end of the world and I would be in heaven. Heck! We rarely see anything below 78° in August.
The usual Sunday around here yesterday, Mass, bed linen laundry and Chicken Parmesan for supper. Made homemade spaghetti sauce from Tomatoes that I canned in 2024. I miss that this year, but keeping the Tomatoes going this summer would have been an exercise in futility. We did get some fresh ones for about two months though. Trees everywhere are losing their leaves from the drought.
Today starts with the dishwasher. Maybe a little light outdoor activity with the weedeater this morning.
Spent a little time out in the train shed yesterday afternoon. Made a test-pour of clear gloss coat in a different plastic swimming pool on Saturday, which came out OK, so I made two pours in the real model yesterday. So far it's looking good. Spent a little time combing the layout for falling figures and uprighting them. As I may have posted a few weeks ago, the Woodland Scenics "Scenic Accent Glue" that I had originally used 10-12 years ago seems to be giving way now, and I am using Aleenes Tacky Glue or Elmer's White Glue now. In the process of looking the layout over, I have found some damage that appears to have been caused by the loose kitten who was trapped in there a few weeks ago. Nothing major and all repairable, but some in less than advantageous spots that will require some patience to fix.
Tom O - Your friend is really dangling temptation out there with the Foss River trestle.
Today is the 88th birthday of composer/guitarist/ and sometime singer, Mason Williams (Classical Gas). He was also a comedy writer with The Smothers Brothers, Glen Campbell and Saturday Night Live. He originated the "Pat Paulsen for President" series of sketches for the Smothers Brothers and discovered Steve Martin.
Also 88 today is David Freiberg, bassist/singer for Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship, and briefly the Jefferson Airplane.
Everybody have a great Monday.
John the owner will trace out the trackage and all the data points he needs for installation. I will put that template on my shelf above my workbench. We are thinking 12 or 13 steel towers built to the full height of 10”. We will adjust the terrain for the heights actually needed. No scratch building or kit bashing should be needed. No trestle support is higher than 12.5” from level. Then in the time I don’t know what to do with myself I can work on the Foss River Bridge. We’d like the scene to be done by Memorial Day 2027.
Once we receive and build the 1st pair of steel towers we will know better. I will build 2 of the towers and another friend the balance after we determine how many are really needed. I have 4 girder bridges I can assemble straight from the box we need to use to see if it works, the Foss River bridge uses 32’ and 48’ girder sections. The 32’ sections will need to be cut down from whatever Central Valley Model Works or Micro Engineering has in stock. No 3d printing needed!
I am working on 50 birches which are about 16 hours from completion and 63 Trembling Aspens barely started. I’ll finish the Birch and Aspens. That’s for the Michigan UP layout. The 110+ Maples and 20 conifers the other good friend/chauffer now will build for 10/7.
The Foss River scene needs 50% Douglas Fir trees, 30% Western Hemlock and 15% western Red Cedar trees per the US Forest Service data. The remaining is a 5% is a larch pine tree. They also are needed for the balance of this PNW triple deck layout. But 1 scene at a time. The maple Trees friend says his wife will help him so he’s also going to do the Douglas fir trees. He’s tired of wiring layouts so it’s a diversion for him. The hemlock and cedar someone will do but it definitely won’t be me.
Terry will become the project manager for the Foss River Bridge scene project. John’s wife will become the project manager for all trees and the Marquette Ore yard and dock project. John’s wife was one of the project managers for the huge medical software campus down the street. 10 years she had an onsite office for the contractor in charge. Terry is very organized and they get along great so I don’t have to worry about schedules.
We’ve been talking about dividing up the trees and other projects now that mainlines are mostly completed on the current 2 building layouts on the rides to work sessions and Op sessions. Finally we did it with help from our wife’s. The scheduling was really becoming a headache once we got the Michigan UP layout operating so with Terry and Lynn’s help things should go smoother. Also the owners Bob of the UP layout and John of the PNW layout promise no more surprises. I gave my project schedule to the girls and they are meeting at a coffee shop this afternoon to change it!
It will all work out
