Week 143

Week 143

Sunday, April 23, 2017 thru Saturday, April 29, 2017

Monday, April 24, 2017

Rob Fair couldn't make it tonight, but Jordan Osborn and Josh Jones did!

We had the closest thing to date to an operating session tonight.

We ran two complete test trains.

One westbound (powered by two CNW C40-8s) and the other eastbound 

(powered by two CNW SD40-2).

Both ran on Track 1.

We did pull a UP train but it stayed in the yard for Wednesday.

Here are a couple of pics to capture tonight.

This is the Dispatcher's Log that shows the two trains we ran.

And here are the two amigos showing their bag of tricks.
Jordan Osborn (left) and Josh Jones (right)

Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Carlos sent me some "What's on your workbench?"

Check these out...

Attaching lights to platform ceiling.

Combining all the wires and getting ready for hookup to power source.

The master craftsman at work...

All the lights glued down, all the wires soldered together for final connection, building glued to roof, really for install on the layout.

All the lights glued down, all the wires soldered together for final connection, building glued to roof, really for install on the layout.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Train Crew Day!

Attended by:
Carlos Baez, Dean Hatzis, Jordan Osborn, and me.

Here's what went down...very exciting happenings!

We'll start with a video...

Length: 00:00:14s

Here's the work Carlos Baez did this week.
Ready for installation.

Station Platform light...ON!

First time this piece of equipment ever in use.
Dean Hatzis cleaning the wheels of UP AC6000.

Another Video...

Length: 00:00:27s

While Dean Hatzis (background) cleans the wheels on the locomotive, Carlos Baez (foreground) gets ready to "juice" the track cleaning car with GOO Gone.

Dean Hatzis and Carlos Baez get UP AC6000 online.

Pretty hard to keep up with the track cleaning car lead by UP SW1500.

I do have another video for you...

The track cleaning car in action.

Length: 00:00:22s

And another shot of the UP AC600 coming right at you...

Length: 00:00:34s

Jordan Osborn kept pretty busy today. He was running the track cleaning consist AND the UP AC600 with 23 cars.

Dean Hatzis finished marking the sidewalk sections.

And finally, our pride and joy - Kedzie Avenue Station Platform all lit up!

Another night shot.

Definitely need to do something about the ceiling floor joists.

Saturday, April 29, 2017
Jan and I were going to go to Chicago for the day, but we had a change of plans.
Instead, we went to Elburn and spent the day with Emily and Mabel, Henry, & Ida.

After supper, my goal was to light up Global 1.

See what you think...

First, I had to install one more tall light pole.
I drilled the hole, put in the plastic tube, prepared the extension rod and then...

I installed the unit in place.
This will illuminate the office area.

Here's an overall view of the four tall light fixtures in place.

It's hard to see, but here is the hookups under the table.
Each lamp is plugged into a terminal block which is wired to one of the transformer wires (direct).

Here are the tools I needed for the job as I worked under the table.

Finished product.
This looks much better in the picture than in real life.
It's much dimmer and more yellow in real life.

You can see the contrast in brightness in this picture.
The street lights look WAY brighter than the tall lights.
In this picture it looks pretty nice.

I wish the lights were brighter in Global 1.
I'll wait for feedback from the rest of you when you arrive this week.

See you then!

for Week 144.

Week 142

Week 142

Sunday, April 16, 2017 thru Saturday, April 22, 2017

Monday, April 17, 2017

TRAIN NIGHT!

Check this out...

Rob Fair glues the stone walls to the sides of the stairwell.
The opposite side of the light side is where he adhere's the glue.
After the glue is applied Rob shines on the light and he secures the walls so they won't move again.

Here's a look down the stairwell as the left wall is secured.
Now Rob will work on the right side wall.

Applies the glue.

Adheres with the light side.

Finished product.

Meanwhile...Jordan sorts his paperwork.

Rob Fair then secures the top seal to the stone wall base.

Rob and I tested the 12V LED lights.
Yes, they worked fabulously.

I drilled the holes for the wires in the building and will create a path for those wires to flow through the building and then down in the opening hole you see in the building base in this picture.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017
TRAIN DAY!

Carlos Baez and Dean Hatzis joined me on some projects from 4-5pm this afternoon.

Check out our progress...

Carlos Baez working on the platform lights at Kedzie Avenue Station.

Dean Hatzis working on 3rd Street Crossing at the Geneva Station.

Making progress...

Dean Hatzis making progress on the concrete island at 3rd Street crossing.

Carlos Baez installing room divider to hide the wires in the back room.

Here you can see the concrete islands in the 3rd Street roadway.

Finished product minus the paint job.

One more look at Rob Fair's work from this past Monday.
That's the stairwell down to Kedzie Avenue.

Week 141

Week 141

Sunday, April 9, 2017 thru Saturday, April 15, 2017

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Jordan and I took off to the Train Show today. We didn't get anything off our list, but we did find a great buy. Here's a picture...

$50 normally over $100.
Not a bad deal. In fact, half off is an excellent deal.
On a side note, I turned 60 today. Whoa!

Monday, April 10, 2017 

Finished installing the chain link fence.
Light off.

Light on.

 Unfortunately, the chain link fence is a bit too short (left) compated to the prototype (right).

That's the unfortunate result of this project.

Before I start over I'll get some feedback from the crew.


Tuesday, April 11, 2017
My grandson, Josh, was over this week and helped me repair some cars.

Check this out...

Josh Crockett shows off one the cars he repaired at the workstation.

Josh Crockett shows the underside of the car he repaired.
He put in metal wheels sets and installed draft gear box and couplers on both ends.
I was impressed!

Here's a close up of one of the other cars we worked on.
You can see the trucks in the background have the couplers attached.
We cut off  the coupler from the truck and then reattached the truck to the truck mount.
See the small drill mark near the right end of the car in the middle?
That's where we mounted the gear box and installed the new Kadee (knuckle) coupler.

You can look back at the previous picture and see the finished product.

Nice work, Josh. I think we fixed two cars and got them back on track.