Week 160

Week 160

Sunday, August 20, 2017 thru Saturday, August 26, 2017

Sunday, August 20, 2017

No train activity today.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Rob Fair stopped by today at 4pm worked until 5:30pm

Rob Fair was assigned installation of the handrails at Kedzie Avenue station tonight.

Here he is anchoring the supports for the handrail.

I worked on putting the SD40-2 back together again.
You can see the truck on the left has one wheel set installed.
There are two more wheel sets to go.
The truck on the right is completely apart, but all the parts are ready to go.

In this photo you can see the wheel sets are in place in the left truck, but not fitting properly.
The parts are beginning to take shape on the right truck.

Meanwhile, back at Kedzie Avenue station the left handrail is installed.
Nice work, Rob!

While Rob continued working on the upper stairs handrail, I used the vice in the garage and closed the wheels to fit in their perspective axles.

I had to squeeze them together until they met the wheel specs on the NMRA HO ScaleGauge Guard shown here.

Rob Fair is so handy.
He even fixed the stool with wheels.
One of the wheels fell off.
 But now it's fixed.
Thanks to Rob Fair.

And now back to engine repairs.
The right truck runs very smooth.
I had to take the left truck apart a few times to try to work out the kinks.

And now, back to Kedzie Avenue station.
Look, Rob finished the upper stair handrails too!

And finally, the SD40-2 is back together again.
I need to solder the wires to the truck mounts and the middle motor.
But that, my friends, is for another day.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

No train activity today.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Train Day!

Ed Nelson stopped by for about 30 minutes

Jordan Osborn came late and stayed about an hour.

This is the project I wanted to finish tonight.
I want to install the retaining wall along the side road.
We'll see how we do.

First, I needed to cut the base plate for the retaining wall.

Ed Nelson came by to check on our progress.

Jordan Osborn made a quick cameo, but then stayed to help finish my project.

Jordan Osborn and Ed Nelson checking out the computer train coming their way down Track 2.

Ed had to take off, but Jordan and I continued with the retaining wall project.

After attaching the base with screws, I began to attach the retraining wall.

And Wall-Ah. There you have it.
It will look great once we finish the landscaping.

Thursday, August 24, 2017

No train activity today.

Friday, August 25, 2017

WHAT'S ON YOUR WORKBENCH THIS WEEK?

Working on locomotive UP SD40-2 3571
Trying to get it up and running again.

First Step: Polish the metal strip to prepare for soldering.
I used the dremel tool with the attachment on the mouse pad.

Second Step: Solder the wire to the metal strip.

Third Step: Re-insert the metal strip above the motor.

Fourth Step: Solder the ends to the truck leads.

Saturday, August 26, 2017

No train activity today, except I worked at Kuipers Family Farm as the train engineer.