Week 183

Week 183

Sunday, January 28, 2018 thru Saturday, February 3, 2018

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Starting Week 183.

Getting ready to paint some buildings.

I can't make anymore progress at Melrose Park until we get those walls painted.

Here's the first step...

These are the four walls out of the box for Merchant's Row II.

Here are the four walls painted white.

 Eventually they will be a yellowish color with white trim and green highlights as you will see in the prototype photo below.

I had to paint the walls white first to capture the white for the windows, then I'll tape off the white and spray paint the yellow. Hopefully the yellow spray paint will match ok.
Finally, I'll highlight the dark green with a brush.

Monday, January 29, 2018

Train Day!
Rob Fair, Josh Jones, Jordan Osborn, Curt Berg
6-7:30pm
Lots accomplished. Take a look...

We began work on Union Station piers.
First measuring locations.

Still laying out the floor plan.

At 6:15pm Jordan Osborn and Josh Jones joined us.

Rob Fair continues work at Union Station.

Josh Jones oversees train operations.

Rob Fair prepares the miter saw for cutting the piers.

Length: 00:00:07 sec.

15 piers in all.

Josh Jones (conductor) and Jordan Osborn (engineer) prepares the coal train.

Everyone keeping busy.

Josh Jones checking the unit coal train on the mainline.

"Out with the old, in with the new", says Rob Fair.
Just like we say for the New Year.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

No train activity today.

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Train Day!
Dean Hatzis, Jordan Osborn and me
4-5:30pm
Check out our progress...

Dean Hatzis holding the tool of the night.
It's a 3/8" drill with a depth gauge attached.
This tool made our work pretty easy tonight.

Jordan Osborn keeps watch over the operation from his perch at the tower.

The work begins.
First we had to drill a hole through the top of the platform, cork and then 1/8" into the particle board underneath.

The drill bit we used was a 3/4" forstner drill bit.
Looks like this.

You can see we're nearly finished with the holes on the top of the board.
We decided to use four columns in four rows.

I had to be very careful even to touch this valuable machine.
But as you can see, Dean actually allowed me to handle it...with extreme care.
Notice  how my knees are bent so if it did fall,  I could cradle it in my body.

The next part of the project involves drilling 1/8" depth holes using a 7/8" forstner bit in the bottom of the top board.
You'll get the picture as we move forward...

After each hole we picked up the loose trailings and kept on going.
We have one more hole to go after Dean finishes this one.

Here's the finished product for the top floor or the base of downtown Chicago.

After we flipped the plywood over with the holes now underneath, we lined them up with the pillars now inserted in the bottom holes.

Another view.

Next week: Dean will bring some 3/4" conduit which we will use as empty pillars for electrical wires to flow through to the bottom of the table where the electrical hookups will be located.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Happy Birthday Emily!
I had a home bound visit in Elgin so I stopped at B&G on the way home...

I returned the crossing signal with sensors since it would be much more complicated to work than what I had originally thought. I purchased the Urban Concrete Overpass (always wanted this model) and the "cat walk" for Kedzie Tower and the paint for the corner building of Merchant's Row II at the corner of Main and 19th St. in Melrose Park.

Friday, February 2, 2018

Jan and I went to Chicago to babysit our grandson, Josiah Crockett.
While we were there, I did some painting. Pretty fun.

You might remember the purchase I made at B&G this week.
I'm painting the tan plastic a concrete color.

I plan to use the concrete side rails instead of the metal rails.

I was painting at their dinning room table.

 

Here's the cover photo of how the finished product will appear.

Then I went on to paint the yellow brick of the corner building in the Melrose Park downtown area.

In process...

Completed.

Saturday, February 3, 2018
Jordan stopped over for about an hour to help me with some projects.

I traced the footprint for the bridge.
Jordan Osborn is tracing the footprint so I'll be able to cut out the pink foam board.

The black lines show where I'll need to cut out before installing the bridge system.

Jordan Osborn taking notes on "Trouble Shooting Issues".

Then I went back upstairs at the kitchen table and finished the end building with red brick.
Next step: dark green trim.

Week 182

Week 182

Sunday, January 21, 2018 through Saturday, January 27, 2018

Sunday, January 21, 2018

I wanted to start building some models, but realized I need to do some painting first.

First I painted the post office main walls light gray.

Then I painted the brick walls to the back entrance of the post office.

Finally, I painted the windows for the post office.

Monday, January 22, 2018

Train Day!

Rob Fair, Jordan Osborn, Curt Berg

6-7:30pm

Finished what we wanted to accomplish and more...

Rob Fair putting the finishing touches on the Proviso Yard spotlights.
We're hoping to install them tonight!

Jordan Osborn very preoccupied with his new phone.

We made a solution of diluted white glue and isopropyl alcohol for the greenery.

We covered both sections in the solution so it would match the existing greenery.
I'd say from this picture it's a pretty good match.

From this angle it still looks very wet.

YES!
We did install the Proviso Yard spot lights.
I really like the way they turned out.

And from the other direction, this is the view.

I wasn't planning on getting this done tonight, but we had time so we did.
This is the BEFORE picture.

This is the AFTER picture of just the center light.

Then we connected all three sets of wires together.
This is the BEFORE picture.

And this is the AFTER picture.
I really like the look.

Length: 00:00:25 sec.

Definitely made improvements but the same car still derails just before the corrected track.

More trouble-shooting on this section on Wednesday...

I'm anxious to see this train run around the entire layout without incident.
We'll see...

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

I plan to purchase some white flat spray paint so I can paint Merchant's Row II tonight either before or after prayer meeting. No can do. It didn't happen. Will try again soon.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Train Day!
With Carlos Baez, Dean Hatzis, Jordan Osborn & Me.
4-5:30pm

We accomplished much tonight.
Check this out...

Carlos Baez made some warning signs and plans on installing them around the retention pond tonight.

Here they are all set for "Safety First"!

Dean Hatzis and I worked on the California Avenue Yard building mockup.

Jordan Osborn keeps track of trouble shooting areas.

The finished signs installed.

Another view.

Carlos Baez moves to improve the Kedzie Avenue alley shrubbery.

Dean Hatzis views the prototype photo of the building he'll be modeling.

We also took some time at Union Station to prepare for the elevated building platform over Union Station Terminal aka Chicago Terminal.

Carlos Baez continues his work on the alley shrubbery.

Adding more shrubbery.

Finally, we did some troubleshooting with the intermodal train.
Not sure why it leans so much on the curves with full load.
Not sure what's going on, but not giving up yet either.

Thursday, January 25, 2018

No train activity today.

Friday, January 26, 2018

I came home from my sub job today and had Jordan come over to prepare for our guest visit tomorrow.

Jordan Osborn helped me move downtown Chicago piece by piece to a new location.

This will be a temporary location until we drill the holes for the base and top of  Chicago Terminal.

Jordan keeping an eye out for the trains we're troubleshooting tonight for tomorrow's operations.

We're moving one commuter train at a time out of Union Station.
We started with the Amtrak train.

Next was a Metra Commuter train.

Here is the entire collection of Metra/Amtrak trains now in California Avenue Yard.

A Metra Commuter train leaving Chicago Terminal

Length: 00:00:19 sec.

The intermodal train approaching Global 1 near Western Avenue.

Length: 00:00:15 sec.

The intermodal train prepares for Global 1 approach.

Length: 00:00:08 sec.

Entering Global 1

Length: 00:00:26 sec.

Saturday, January 27, 2018
A very fun day entertaining guests today on the railroad.
Allow me to introduce to you...

After following their trains around a few laps, Giselle and LJ Havron, got to sit and engineer their trains from Central Control Tower.

Here they are taking it all in.
By the way, they did an excellent job taking care of their trains and keeping an eye on them closely.

Dad (Richard Havron) stayed at a close distance and kept a proud watch on his children.

Here they are in front of the screens.

We had our first derailment at the end of our session, so we paused and took a picture of our damage.
It just happened to include one of the cars from the ROCK, which is Richard's family railroad.
Jordan Osborn looks on in the background.

After the Havron family left, my brother, Bill, stopped by for a visit.
He brought the bus in the foreground and a RR patch from the Kauai RR in Hawaii.
Thanks Bill!