Scattered Thoughts . . .

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....

Y esterday, for the first time, I had the opportunity to run two trains in our garden at the same time.  I was able to run my newly upgraded trolley (reassembled yesterday morning) and my big steam locomotive with its tender and two passenger cars.  I have little to no experience running two trains at the same time, by myself, so I did everything much more slowly than usual.  I didn't want a collision! While I was running these two trains, I kept moving the camera around the garden to get a few different perspectives.  The next time I do this, however, I need to pay closer attention to the levelness of the camera.  The camera I used doesn't have an electronic level so I eyeballed it on the small LCD screen in bright daylight...  less than an ideal way to clearly see things I need to see clearly.  I also need to be more creative and careful with different angles.  That being said, this is a fairly nice first video showing two trains running at the ...

I 've stayed indoors for the most part today.  We've had passing thunderstorms throughout the day today and the heat and humidity is high.  It is still bearable out there but I have no desire to be struck by lightning so I've stayed indoors and done some detail painting. (NOTE:  Later in the day, some severe thunderstorms passed through and the temperature dropped more than 20 degrees and stayed down around 70 degrees for the rest of the day!) For this model railroading project, I am really wanting a nice looking cab so I'm spending a little extra time on various parts of the cab.  Today, I worked a bit on detailing the backhead in the cab with paints and some extra parts.  Now that I see this photo, I can see that I still have a bit more work to do with detail brushes but this is looking great so far... I'm installing a new bell and a new whistle on this locomotive.  Here is the bell, below.  This bell came to me as an unpainted kit so I needed to pai...

I 've been laying low while I continue to recover from my tick bite.  I'm still fever-free which I think is now the start of the third day of no fever so that is good.  I don't want to overdo it so I've been laying low inside the house.  While I'm laying low indoors,  I decided to start on a long-planned model railroading project. The particular trains I've been working on with this project are my largest trains...  narrow gauge F scale trains that run on G scale track.  These trains are quite large so are best suited for an outdoor garden layout unless you have a basketball court-sized building just sitting around unused.  We don't have that kind of real estate so we'll be setting up a small garden railroad in our backyard. About eight years ago, I found a beat-up freight set with a big 4-6-0 steam locomotive that was reported as "not running" at a small train show.  The guy was asking for $40 for the whole set so I jumped on it.  I figured ...

A fter replacing the traction tires on my O scale MTH Hudson steam locomotive the other day, I put my O scale MTH RS-1 diesel locomotive on the test track for a test run too.  I figured it was a good time to maintain and test this diesel locomotive since I was on a roll with all these model railroading maintenance tasks.  Unfortunately, the moment this diesel engine started rolling, the traction tires broke off three of the four wheels with traction tires! I immediately ordered a new set of traction tires that should arrive in the next week.  Installing these four traction tires on this diesel engine should be even easier than replacing the traction tires on my Hudson steam locomotive.  My Hudson steam locomotive ended up being a much easier project that I thought it would be, which was great, but this diesel engine should be even easier.  In the meantime, I removed the RS-1 from the test track and removed the one traction tire that did not break apart.  Ev...

The nine feet of used track that I had ordered online the other day arrived today so I was finally able to run this large Fn3 scale steam locomotive on some track for the first time.  A couple of days ago, I spent a little time cleaning and lubricating this old steam locomotive.  I had tested it, running, while it was lying on its side but I had yet to run it on any track...  until today.  When the track arrived, it was in need of cleaning.  The rails were a solid dark brown color indicating they would not conduct nearly enough of the low voltage electricity needed to power any locomotive.  The rails appeared to be completely oxidized.  Actually, it appears as though this track was barely used and probably spent most of its life on a display shelf which is likely what its primary use will be at our home too (along with occasional test runs).  After a few minutes of cleaning, the tops of the rails were nice and shiny again. I didn't clean any of th...

My model of a Porter steam locomotive. One of the many attractions at the Amherst Railway Society's annual train show has been an operating steam locomotive running on 100 feet of track. This particular locomotive has made the journey from Maine to Massachusetts for the train show the past two years and it has been a really nice addition to this huge show. The Boothbay Railway Village loads their Edaville #11 Porter steam locomotive on a big truck along with 100 feet of track and makes the journey to Springfield, MA just for this incredible train show. I'm sure it is a lot of work but many of us at the show appreciate all their hard work to make this happen. All the kids at the show had an opportunity to learn about steam locomotives as the engineer showed them around the cab. They were able to pull the deafening whistle, ring the bell and even peer into the red-hot firebox. This is a great opportunity for everyone, especially kids, to learn a little bit about these st...

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...

From this angle, you can see the tender marker lights and the firebox glowing in the cab. As I wrote in a previous blog entry a couple of days ago, my O scale MTH Hudson steam locomotive arrived back from the shop. I had sent it in about a month ago to have some major upgrades installed so I was pretty excited to get it back... especially to have received it in the days right after our annual train show excursion! I had the ProtoSound electronics upgraded from version 1.0 to version 3.0. This upgrade is a significant sound upgrade as well as a very significant control upgrade. Slow speed control is outstanding now... slow and steady... chuffing smoke... the sound is great and it runs silky smooth.  This upgrade also included the ability to control the rear coupler with my controller. And, naturally, this useful feature includes an uncoupling sound as it uncouples.   While it was in the shop, I had marker lights added on the front of the locomotive and the rear of th...

Around lunchtime today, FedEx pulled into our driveway... the moment I saw the box in the driver's hands, I knew what it was... my upgraded O scale Hudson steam locomotive! It was packaged exactly how I had packaged it to send it in to the facility to be upgraded. I actually made a box to perfectly fit the manufacturer's box. Apparently, this worked out well since it appears to have arrived safely and securely.  I haven't had a chance to put it on the tracks yet, but it is looking very nice!  I had the electronics swapped out completely with the newest available today. The electronics that I had originally were two generations old and quite lame by today's standards. This upgrade also provides better control, far better sound quality, better chuffing smoke, and more sounds than was previously available. Mostly, however, I'm excited about the better control. Additionally, I had an engineer and fireman added to the locomotive... a firebox glow effect with LED...

Sheila, talking with one of our newest train show fanatics... He went home with a new train set and a few other toys. Sheila and I had a great time at our annual train show extended weekend. It sounds as though everyone who joined us had a great time as well!  My spinal injuries were putting a painful crimp in our time at the show but, overall, we had a great time and are glad we ventured to the show regardless of my spinal injuries. I couldn't walk at all in the days before we left for the show so it was a bit iffy whether I would make it to the show at all. We still probably would have traveled down to see everyone but being able to walk around the show didn't look promising in the preceding days. After having problems getting around the show on my own this year... as well as some problems last year which weren't as bad as this year... and even some problems the year before that were milder (I see the pattern and it isn't a pretty pattern)... I have de...