Quote from: Mark Dalrymple on March 24, 2026, 04:53:09 PM

Quote from: Michael Hohn on March 24, 2026, 03:26:34 PMMark,

Very fine work.  Excellent recovery on the mistake.  Complex structures present a multitude of opportunities for error. 

Mike

Thanks, Mike.

They do, indeed!  Its not just us modellers.  Over they years I have seen multitudes of manufacturing errors in the building world.  Frames and trusses that needed to be cut down or replaced.  Hours of chasing measurements around foundation boxing trying to find why things aren't working out, only to finally find it is an error in the diagonal on the plan, or they have allowed for brick cladding rather than timber.  Its good to remember these things when you're swearing at yourself for being an idiot...

Cheers, Mark.

There's a prototype for everything (including errors!)

dave

Quote from: KentuckySouthern on March 25, 2026, 11:42:26 AMCan't see the image.

You know the 'rule', wait 10 minutes. It's the picture of 'hay forks' from that link you provided.

dave

Here are pictures of the prototype (from BESTTrains website)

There's no pulley on the prototype, but that door hanging in mid-air on the wall is definitely in the prototype.  There's more space on the prototype to turn a wagon than I have.

Mebbe there was a hay door in the gable where the window is now, and I should have put the pulley right under the eave.

Anyway, thanks for the 'hay trolley' link.  Interesting stuff!  Now I need to figure out what to put on the running end if I add the rope to the pulley.



dave

Ok, a question for you 'teamsters' out there.

The hay wagon rolls up the slope underneath the pulley, and they start unloading.  But how does the hay wagon get out of there?  Would the teamster back the wagon down?  There's not enough room to turn the wagon.  Or, the teamster could back the wagon up the hill.   

I'm thinking "pull-up the full wagon, back-down the empty wagon," but I know nothing about managing a team of horses.

Anyway, the plan here is to spray that part of the grass mat and remove most of the grass, and then put road-dirt in place.  

dave

I've been thinking about fishing a rope through the pulley.  I did drill out the hole so I could do that.  But then I'd have the typical modeler problem of how to make a piece of thread look like a rope.  

The shingles are Bar Mills, slightly worked over.  I described that a couple pages back.  

dave

The Mezquita mosque in Cordoba, Spain.  The columns are recycled from Roman structures.
This is one of those buildings where photos just don't do it justice.  After the Reconquesta where the Christians retook Spain from the Muslims, they built a small church in the middle.  Even Charles V was unimpressed by that.  

On elephants:  A friend was named to run a part of our program that I thought was particularly messed up.  I told him, "Congratulations on being named 'Commander of the Lower Deck of the Ark'.  " 

Another open day today, we'll see if I build up steam to work on the scenery.  My Woodland Scenics barbed wire fence arrived yesterday, those look pretty good.

dave

It's a little detail, but the pulley will explain that door 'hanging in midair' on the terrain.


dave

Quote from: elwoodblues on March 24, 2026, 10:51:00 AMA member of the modular group gave me a 5mm planetary stepper motor with gearbox and asked me to come up with a way to sketch to use them to control turnouts using an Arduino. 

Does your friend have a source for those at a good price?  I've looked at them, but they were a lot more expensive than conventional servos.

dave

I had a 4Runner as a rental car once, I hated it.  So to each his/her own...

Today's photo is a Roman bridge in Provence:

And an extant monument dating to 1st century AD.


It's sunny here with puffy clouds.  The dusting of snow we got last night should melt quickly.  I need to go to the store today, otherwise an open day.  So I might tackle some scenery.

dave

Well, mixed results on the honey-do items.  The kitchen sink drain is plumbed differently than the bedroom drains, so I could not remove and clean the trap.  But I did run a brush down as far as I could into the trap, and the drain does seem to be running better.

In the basement, since the GFCI was tripping even after we replaced the pump, I talked to the plumber.  He agreed next thing to try is replace the GFCI, which I did.  I think there's one more component in that system, so if the new GFCI starts tripping, that'll have to get replaced too.  

Now on the positive side:  Today, in what might be the first time, I went into my boxes of detail parts and found what I was looking for -in the first box-.  That's the pulley on-a-bracket set from BESTTrains castings.  I cleaned that up and primed it.  I'll finish painting it tomorrow (paint the pulley dark grey), add 'rope' and install it on the barn.

dave

Quote from: Bernd on March 23, 2026, 02:11:27 PMYou're welcome Dave.

Here are two very close up's of the bass wood and balsa. You can decide for yourself of the quality.





Personal opinion. I think for the price of the tool it is well worth the money. Just buy one less of those fancy DCC locomotives and you can get this tool and make future work much easier for you.

Bernd

I'll watch for a sale...  If I got it for less, it would be worth it just for cutting styrene.

dave

Quote from: ACL1504 on March 23, 2026, 04:04:40 PMI can understand your friends problem. I have a friend whose driveway slopes down to the garage door. Every time it rains, the garage floor get wet.

We had that problem on our first house in NH.  What was worse was when the water froze, and the garage door was frozen to the floor.

Good luck bringing the walls back into plumb!

dave

Thanks for the comprehensive test.  On the wood pieces, is there compression on the one edge of the wood?  It kinda looks that way in your photos, but I wasn't sure.  

The cuts in styrene are nice, that makes this tempting for me....  Mebbe I should subscribe for Grizzly's sales.  (I have 2 different Grizzly dust collectors, one a cyclone and the other an overhead finer filter unit.)

dave

Jeff, I bet your supervisor is enjoying access to the yard.  I know my dogs were really happy when they could get back out on the grass.  Just be careful, you don't want to end up on the wrong side of the examination table...

It's a rather dreary day, temperature right at freezing, with chance of rain or snow showers.  Should be nicer, tomorrow.

dave

Rick's off doing a long hike today, so we'll see the results tomorrow.

A little bit off the beaten track, Eisenach Germany, Bach's home town:






Not sure how much time I'll get in the train room today, I have some honey-do house maintenance tasks to tackle once I'm back from German class.

dave