MORRISTOWN & ERIE RAILROAD - WESTERN DIVISION

[Erieman]

Wow!  I love your rocks - and can't wait to see the trees you will be making.  What an artist!

TJ,

Thank you for your kind words. I have been researching trees for quite some time now and will start modeling tests soon. I have a habit of building several different ideas to evaluate which I like best. Tree making will be fun and time consuming, because i am going to need a lot of them. I'll keep you posted on my tree progress.

Frank / Erieman

[Erieman]

Frank

You have made some serious progress between your yard work sessions.  It looks great!  Enjoy your weather we still have a foot of snow on the deck. I want to get the grill going!

John,

Sorry to hear that you still have snow, but that will make a bountiful crop of flowers in the spring, whenever that will be. Ah, my back yard. All the rocks are in the center area and look good. It took some 136 bags at 50 lbs each to fill the area; one at a time. Don't ask what they cost. I still have to add a few more drip lines to the remainder of the new plants, then finish burying the rest of the night lighting wiring. The night lighting really turned out fabulous.

I am making progress on Essex Fells Junction. I try to get several hours each day on the project. Tree making will slow the progress down, but I hope to finish the area by sometime in April.

Frank / Erieman

[Erieman]

Well, I worked in the yard till about 2:00 and I have been painting in the train room for the past couple of hours. finished painting the rear mountain area. Then I started, or should I say, finished painting the waterfall. since part of it was already painted, I had to blend in the colors. I will probably have to use some A&I to highlight the waterfall. I'll test that after the current paint dries.I can't wait to try the waterfalls, but that is another day. I found a couple of rail brown spray cans so I can paint the new ties and rails. Looks like that will be tomorrows project. Well, the boss is calling my name ( as opposed to calling me a name) so I will sign off for now.

Frank / Erieman 

[ak-milw]

The waterfall area is very impressive, nice work.

[Erieman]

The waterfall area is very impressive, nice work.

Andy,

Thanks for stopping by. Glad you enjoy the waterfall. Still a long way to go in this area. Here is another viewpoint to show you the height of the falls. The rocks still need better definition and then there is the waterfalls. Been playing with some ideas to create realistic waterfalls, so-o-o stay tuned. This area still has a long way to go to completion. Again, thanks for watching.

Frank / Erieman

[GPdemayo]

Frank:

That canyon and trestle definitely have the "WOW" factor!

[Zephyrus52246]

Nice rockwork and trestle, Frank.


Jeff

[Erieman]

Frank:

That canyon and trestle definitely have the "WOW" factor!

Greg,

Well if you liked the last bridge, this one isn't bad either. After painting the waterfall rocks, I realized that there was another rock escarpment on the other side of the island. So-o-o, today I started, or should I say restarted the continuance of painting the rock formation in Little Falls. Due to Honey do lists, I was not able to complete the total wall of rubber rock, but there is always tomorrow. Enjoy the pic.

Frank / Erieman

[Erieman]

Nice rockwork and trestle, Frank.


Jeff

Jeff,

Thanks for stopping by. Glad you enjoyed the rock. As I  mentioned before, I have been using the latex rock formations from Cripplebush. The waterfalls is made up of several pieces, mostly left overs, that I glued together to form the waterfall. As I told Greg, i found that i still had more painting on the other side of the island in Little Falls. today was spent doing some of the painting.
One thing leads into another, so the painting in Little falls means that I have more rock formations to install in the town, which is to the left out of view. I'll take another picture tomorrow and show everyone what I mean. So-o-o, for the meantime, work in Essex Fells Junction is sharing my time with Little Falls. That's okay with me as long as I get time to spend in the train room.

Frank / Erieman

[gnatshop]

OH, the hardships of retirement!
Most folks don't realize the hard decisions of where to spend your time and what gives the most enjoyment!
Not to mention keeping keeping the HEAD BOSS happy at the same time!! 

Hard decisions never end!   

[Erieman]

OH, the hardships of retirement!
Most folks don't realize the hard decisions of where to spend your time and what gives the most enjoyment!
Not to mention keeping keeping the HEAD BOSS happy at the same time!! 

Hard decisions never end!   

Good Morning David, assuming that you get up this early!!! Retirement is what you make of it. The important thing is to stay mentally and physically busy. Keep the temple happy. And "THE BOSS" happy as well. Back in the train room today. Lots to do. First off, I need to start my division newsletter. The last one was 70 pages. Secondly, getting back to installing track in Essex Fells Junction. and thirdly, doing whatever the "The Boss" wants me to do. Well, maybe.

Thanks for stopping by. more pictures to follow, hopefully later today.

Frank / Erieman

[Erieman]

Betwixted or Between - Well, the reason that I haven't posted in the past few day is as follows. Essex Fells Junction is a simple junction going to feed the steel mill complex with materials for making steel. Just out of sight to the right is where the steel mill begins. The operative word is "begins'. I have a very large folder of magazine articles on steel mills. I also have a fairly large photo library of layouts that have steel mills on them. so-o-o, by starting this junction, I have had to make a decision on one facet of the steel mill - does the delivery track go behind or in front of the structures? So, I took a piece of white foamboard, put it on the floor, and looked at my choices by placing as many of the components that I have in different arrangements. Whew. that blew the day, but a decision was made. It has a direct correlation with the tracks that I am installing. Want to make sure that the curve, height, etc. are correct. Decisions done and now it time to install the track. In front of the structures won.

The other subject that has slowed me down was the painting of the rock. After completing the rock painting on the falls, I continued around to Little Falls / Ironia. I won't say time was wasted, but just prolonged. On top of that, I did not complete that task. The painting became installing more rubber rock, cardboard grid, plaster cloth, etc.,etc.. So, I have put up my paint brush and have gotten back to working on Essex Fells Junction.

Oh. I forgot. Have you ever gotten in the mood to do something else? I purchased a beautiful Diesel engine from Auscision Models in Australia. By now you are probably thinking that I have gone totally bonkers!!! I saw this engine a couple of years ago on the internet. The engine is a "B" class diesel. Sort of reminds me of the double head engines that the Jersey Central had. What really sold me was the herald on both ends of the engine. It looked almost exactly like the ERIE diamond with the wings on both sides, except it had two letters "VL" in the center of the diamond. It looked like the letters could be removed and the Erie diamond installed in its place. Right on. Done and it looks great. Back in the box. Fast forward about two years to yesterday when I got the sillies to install a Soundtraxx decoder. The decoder has been another box right next to the engine. Well, another day and a partial install. This is not an open and shut case. It has required some plastic removal in the fuel tank for the speaker and total removal of the dc ready electronics board because of a height issue. Potentially I will finish the install in the next day or two. I need to get some holey P.C. board to build up, install, a few components, the Soundtrack decoder, etc.. I'll post a picture of the engine when done. It will really look great with a coal drag or passenger cars, but that is another day.

Frank / Erieman 

[S&S RR]

Frank

The new work is looking great.  I understand about the planning and design time - I find it one of the best parts of the hobby.

Speaking of planning I wounder if you can do me a favor. Can you measure the height of the tower on your Salyes mill?  I'm doing some design work (see my build thread for details) and that would really help with establishing the shape of the terrain.

[Erieman]

Frank

The new work is looking great.  I understand about the planning and design time - I find it one of the best parts of the hobby.

Speaking of planning I wounder if you can do me a favor. Can you measure the height of the tower on your Salyes mill?  I'm doing some design work (see my build thread for details) and that would really help with establishing the shape of the terrain.

John,

I stand corrected. I put my glasses on and then looked again. 58 feet, not 60. It's hell to grow old.

Frank / Erieman

[ACL1504]

Frank,

I love your work, second to none my friend, second to none!

Tom