Scattered Thoughts . . .

I did some more work on my large scale trolley yesterday and today.  This is the same trolley we have on our mantle for Christmas.  I've never really been happy with the rounded front and rear bumpers that this trolley ships with and I felt the trolley was missing a step for passengers stepping up from the street so I went about trying to resolve those problems today.   First, I started making the front and rear bumpers to replace the rather toy-like bumpers.  Well, actually, I started by cutting off the front and rear rounded bumpers.  The original front bumper can be seen in the first photo below.  Then I designed a new bumper to be made using wood.  I wanted a chunkier narrow gauge look so I used wood for this.  Anyway, the photo below shows the front rounded, hollow bumper that I cut off... Below, is a photo of the new bumpers being glued up... Below is a photo of the front end after I cut off the manufactured front bumper.  I could...

I spent much of the day yesterday working on our garden railroad again.  I stained all of the bare wood for two reasons...  first, bare wood looks unfinished but I wanted more of a finished look and next, the deck stain that I used will help to protect the wood from the elements.  I also primed the new truss bridge.  Right now it is primed black but I will probably finish it with a medium gray color and then weather it. I plan to add some gravel to this front section of the railroad to be used as ballast.  In an effort to keep the gravel from inevitably falling off this elevated train station section, I needed to add some short guard rails along the edge of this decking to keep the gravel up where it belongs.  Once I had cut and installed all of these side rails, I was ready to do some staining. There is a rather stark difference between the unstained wood in the above photo and the stained wood in the photo below... I also primed the new truss bridge....

I had previously written about painting and weathering the new skirting that I had added to the trolley and mentioned that I wanted to do something about repainting the roof next.  I didn't really care for that molded-in cream with a slight green tint color of the roof (top photo at right).  It definitely appeared rather toy-like to me so I wanted to paint it to change the color to something more realistic.   My plan was to chose a color, mix the paint myself to attain the desired color and then paint the roof.  Upon looking more closely at the roof and some of the details that were installed on the roof, I realized that I would need to remove these details first so I removed the pantograph and then removed the wood plank walkways.  I always knew I wanted to make these plastic walkways appear as though they are wood so I figured I would need to remove them at some point anyway.  I originally wasn't thinking I need to remove them to paint the roof but ...

M ore than a week ago, I decided to put together some photos and a video that more closely show the vast upgrades I accomplished on my large scale steam locomotive.  Since I was so busy getting ready for a barbeque with the grandchidren, I completely forgot about all these photos as well as the video until I was showing Sheila a photo of something our grandson, Lukey, noticed about one of my gondolas that I had never noticed.  He noticed that it is a model of a gondola meant specifically to carry gold from mines.  I had no idea but it makes sense since these old ten-wheelers were among the first locomotives sent out to the wild west.   Since I never really finished showing better photos of these upgrades, I guess I'll try to get this blog entry completed before heading to bed tonight. _______________________________________________________ First, let me preface this with a quick update on my health since things weren't so great today.   Quite simply, t...

I put together a short video this morning for Lukey. Lukey enjoys watching train videos whenever he visits us and this video is definitely something he'd enjoy! Another reason for video of a new locomotive is that watching a video playback of anything shows flaws you might have missed in real life. This is especially true with small models and old eyes... it is much easier to see the small details on a video if the video is done correctly. So, I pulled out a camera and attempted some video. Between projects, medical appointments and periods of poor health, I'm putting together a long test track (among many other things) which will run along the wall like a shelf in the back room. This test track will allow me to work on locomotives every now and then when I have time and when I feel up to it. This test track will also provide me with a great way to program my locomotives as well. The track is 12 feet long so it is sufficiently long enough to run from end to end while sti...