Week 68

Week 68

We had to move our Train Session to Tuesday this week due to Kingdom Fest at Church on Wednesday. It's going to be a busy day on Wednesday, so we moved our train day to Tuesday this week only.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

 Dave Worley came over to run trains.

But first, he fixed our fire place gas valve.

Thanks Dave!

 Dean Hatzis worked on fixing the right curved switch.

Check out next week when we install the fixed switch.

 Dean Hatzis and Ed Nelson working on Metra/WeGo Yard tracks.

Ed Nelson and Dean Hatzis continue their work at the Metra/WeGo Yard.

.45 seconds
Dave Worley running steam engine to end our session.

Week 67

Week 67

I stopped at Menards this week to pick up some Suitcase Connectors.

I went to the West Chicago Menards and then checked at the Batavia Menards.

Both stores carry Suitcase Connectors aka Tap Splice

On to our Train Session...

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Welcome to our Week 67 Train Session

 Dean Hatzis and Ed Nelson begin the night troubleshooting some rolling stock.

This seems to be an ongoing maintenance project.

 Josh Jones and Jordan Osborn begin their session at the Union Station Terminal.

Their job tonight will be to calculate how much track and how many switches to purchase at the November 8th Train Show in Wheaton.

 Dean Hatzis and Ed Nelson move from rolling stock maintenance to track maintenance.

We had a problem with some buckling rails at the Proviso Yard Westbound Mainline.

 You can see the mainline track buckling better in this picture.

 Two work crews hard at work.

 Jordan Osborn brought a notebook to take train notes.

This will be used as a handy reference.

 Dean & Ed found some more track problems in the Metra/WeGo yard.

This is the best time to troubleshoot trackage.

Once we put the ballast in place it will take a bit more effort to fix any trackage problems.

 Whoa! Dean Hatzis at the controls. 

It won't be long and we'll be using DCC.

As soon as we get all the mainline feeder wires connected to the bus wire we'll be ready for DCC.

Josh Jones taking some final notes/calculations for November's Train Show purchases.

.34 seconds running time

One last look at UP Dash 9 coming down the mainline

Week 66

Week 66

Sunday, October 11, 2015

This week started with a real special event.

Our own Carlos Baez got married today.

Here's a picture of his bride and the groom dancing the night away.

Carlos and Lynn Baez

Wednesday, October 14,2015
I was shocked to see Carlos today! I thought just getting married he'd be adjusting to his new life with his new wife. Well, since she was still working, Carlos made a stop at the shop today.

Here are some pics to capture the goings on at this week's train session held today

 Welcome back, Carlos Baez. We missed you.
Carlos got right to work and installed two ground throw switches.

 Ed Nelson found this job. He decided to layout the tracks at the Union Station Terminal.
Now we just need to purchase the remaining switches needed to finish the task.

We decided tonight to move our electrical connections from the phone wire to the bus wire.
We discovered there was a short somewhere in the connections.
The light on the transformer would dim as the voltage increased.
Carlos went to work, flashlight in hand, to solve the case.

 Ed continued his work at the Union Station Terminal.

Doctor Carlos found the culprit. Discovered fairly early in the process.
Notice the white wire on the inside (left) of the right pair of wires and the orange on the outside (right)?
Well the pair on the left has the orange on the inside (left) and the white on the outside (right).
That's what caused our short.
When we connected the whites together and the oranges together, this caused the bad white/orange wires to be mismatched with the good white/orange wires.

Does that make sense? It sure doesn't after I read this post.

.42 seconds
A partial panoramic view of the layout.
Before making the complete panoramic view we discovered more trouble-shooting would be needed. Not sure what happened at the end of the video, but it doesn't sound good.

I remember what happened:
The problem we encountered was a bad connection on the elevated inside track.
That will be fixed when we finish the suitcase connections of the feeder wires to the bus wire next week.

Dave Worley at the controls.

.37 seconds
Love this overhead view of the UP Dash-9 coming into Proviso Yard.
Notice how it snakes through the yard throat on the east end.


Dean Hatzis was under the weather tonight and unable to attend.
Jordan Osborn wrenched his back, so he couldn't make it tonight either.

Week 65

Week 65

Wednesday, October 6, 2015

The Train Crew decided to take today off.

Curt went on vacation.

Instead, I have a special page for you to view.

While I was gone I visited the Norfolk Southern RR Museum in Norfolk VA.

Check this out by clicking on this link

Week 64

Week 64

brought in much better progress as you will see in these pictures...

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

 Dean Hatzis getting ready to start the work day.

As you can see we've cleared out the Metra/West Chicago yard.

This is one of two projects to work on this week.

 Ed Nelson getting some tools ready for Project 1.

 Jordan Osborn is my "go to" guy.

If I need a tool he is the guy to "go to".

Yeah, it looks like he's sitting on the job, but really he and I worked on Project 2.

We picked up where Carlos left off on the feeder to bus wire suitcase connections.

So all our work tonight was done on the ground.

 Back to Ed and Dean working on the Metra/West Chicago yard.

I purchased a slip switch at B&G this afternoon.

They are figuring out how it fits into the yard.

 Making progress on Project 1.

Jordan Osborn taking a look over their shoulders.

We had a visitor. My son, Ben, stopped by to say, "Hey".

 The three amigos putting the finishing touches on Project 1.

 Another shot...

And then across the isle.

 Here's the finished product.

Can you spot the slip switch?

I needed the slip switch so the commuter coaches from the cleaning tracks (foreground) wouldn't have to go back through the repair shop to get back to the yard.

 Jordan and I nearly finished the feeder to bus suitcase connectors on the Proviso Mainline tracks.

Wires still hanging from the elevated mainline tracks to the right.

Neat and tidy on the Proviso Mainline tracks to the left.

One more shot of the suitcase connectors where Carlos finished last time and we picked up this time.