Saturday January 18

[TomO/Tloc]

Good Saturday morning. The coffee I'd Maxwell House, hot and heavy! Sodas, teas, milk and juices are in the cooler. Chocolate chip pancakes with sausages or ham are almost ready!

It's a breezy morning with gusts of 17 to 25mph. The normal breeze is 11mph. It's 21f degrees now heading to 23 but the winds will make the "real feel" feel colder!

Hockey rink at 10 something this morning. It's the only game for the grandson today. It's game #61 for an 11 year old. Way too many but I'm the grandparent not the parents. The grandson is playing well with 29 goals and 41 assists after a slow start adjusting to the bigger stronger players. He is a joy to watch.

i have a final clear coat for a diesel and that cleans up (late) my 2024 weathering commissions. Take the pictures and send them off this afternoon. There are no commissions by design until March. 5 diesels due 3/21/2025. I have my layout to get ready for ops. Today the plan is wire in the last 2 of 5 circuit breakers. It's over kill but better safe than sorry. I use a NCE PowerCab with a 5 amp smart booster to power the layout. I can run 4 WiFi throttles using the WIFITRAX WFD31 by


WITRAX Model Science. I've used it for just under 2 years. I have throttle choices of the NCE Power Cab, ProtoThrottle, a TCS UWT-100 and a bunch of different iPhones. The system works great, IMO. The guys this week want to hook it to the house WiFi system to experiment again. That would allow for 8 throttles but we've not operated with more than 3. But let the guys play...

The daughter in less than 2 hours painted the ceiling and walls of the bathroom and my completely empty walk in closet. I did remove the toilet for easy painting! Than she did 3 touchups elsewhere in the house, cleaned up the brushes and was gone. Over the next couple days I will put my walk in closet back together.

TomO

[Onewolf]

Mornin' all,

It's a wet gray cloudy day as the cold front moves through. Early next week is going to be fairly cold with lows in the low teens and single digits.

This morning I drove up to the Home Depot in Lenior City to buy 'select' 1x3 boards to start building the screen walls that support the outside of the upper level benchwork.  These 1x3s are so much nicer than the 1x3s I get from the local building supply place.  But they cost more than 3X so they are cost prohibitive to use for general 1x3 benchwork.

I also bought three sheets of 3/16" hardboard which I use for fascias and 1/8 hardboard that I use for backdrops and coved corners.  And 6 sheets of 1/2 foamular rigid foam board that I am going to try as a substitute for 1/2" Homasote panels.

I also bought a couple gallons of Behr 'Radiant Sky' blue paint that I will use as the base coat for backdrops.

Hope y'all have a great day!

Doug

PS: It's nice that 4x8 sheets fit in the back of the Expedition

[Jim Donovan]

Love the coffee, thanks! My Pacifica also has the space to get 4 x 8 sheets in it BUT NOT as nice as that Expedition does!  Well off to the doctor, I did something to my right foot last week and it is getting worse not better so a Saturday visit, great!

Jim

[jerryrbeach]

Good morning.

Doug, that's quite the haul from the lumber yard.  I'll be checking into your thread to watch you put all of it into the layout construction.   

It is forecast to actually get above freezing in my little corner of upstate NY.  That's just a teaser before the next cold spell arrives tomorrow when we are forecast to see lows below zero and highs not far above that much (all?) of next week. 

Still waiting for the parts I ordered to arrive while watching the USPS tracking shuttle one of my orders back and forth from NJ to NYC back to NJ, again back to NYC, then back to NJ, and finally to Syracuse NY.  Seems like they might be getting closer to my house but they sent it back to NJ yet again.  From there the package went to Albany and then west to Syracuse.  It got to Syracuse late last night, so fingers crossed, it might get to my house on Tuesday since Monday is a holiday.  I swear you absolutely cannot make this stuff up!

I hope everyone has a safe and rewarding day!

[MartyO]

Morning,

Why is it raining?

[Raymo]

Morning all. Been at the spray booth this morning priming parts for a couple of truck builds, heading back to do some painting on a few others. Also need to do a "needs list" for the big Springfield show next weekend. Looks like I might get to use the snow blower I bought a year ago on Monday.. Raymo 

[KentuckySouthern]

"Warm" 30⁰ in my little patch of Michigan, tho it's dropping. Yesterday's sun    is gone...clouds and promise of the end of the world due to the Polar Vortex descending upon us for several days.  We will have some seriously dangerous weather. Not a day I'd want to be tailgating for the Lions game tonight in Detroit.  Folks are excited in the anticipation.

I worked on my layout yesterday after dinner.  I'm trying to overcome a couple years of neglect.  LOTS of track cleaning.  Finding the limitations of the CMX cleaner's track abilities in places.  I'm using the heavyweight chassis of a Walthers DL-109 to pull it and a pair of Centerline cars, also a challenge to pull in some places.  I'm making good progress.  I also ordered supplies to add more facia mounts for the NCE throttles.  I planned on radio throttles, but after experiencing WiThrottle on iPhones recently I intend to get the PC-NCE interface I have and JMRI to implement that.  Time, budget and ability will govern that.  JMRI is exponentially different than the last time I used DecderPro with mixed results. 

Everyone enjoy the day.  Nice to be able to post here with my old iPad Pro that the "other forum" won't allow.  Now all I need is conquer the photo post procedure.

Be well all, safe and warm. 

[GPdemayo]

Morning all.....

[Zephyrus52246]

Morning all.

In the teens here this morning, but will get much colder over the next few days.  

My son in law's parents are bringing over a non working toy locomotive today.  From the picture I couldn't tell what it was, maybe American Flyer.  We'll see if I can get it running.  As I have a drawer full of mostly brass locos with one or another issue, I'm probably not the best "fixer".  

A trip to the Credit Union and pharmacy yet this morning.  Football later.  

Jeff

[ReadingBob]

Morning all,

I've been slacking off all week, workbench wise, and need to get back at it.

Yesterday a fellow stopped by from the company that installed our windows.  We made an appointment with him to discuss new doors.  Our sliding doors don't slide too well anymore and aren't energy efficient.  Best guess is they're the originals and the house was built in 1988 so it's probably time to replace them.  Anyway, he noticed my workbench.  We got to talking about hobbies and he builds plastic stock car models.  I gave him an unbuilt model of Bobby Hamiltons Country Time Lemonade Oldsmobile that I've had for over 30 years.  That made his day.

Have a great one!

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Started out the day with a walk at 57F and damp. Currently in the 70's. MOH and daughter are out of town returning tomorrow.I spent most of the day in the train room.

I hope everyone has a good night.