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.