Week 185

Week 185

Sunday, February 11, 2018 thru Saturday, February 17, 2018

Sunday, February 11, 2018

TRAIN SHOW

DuPage County Fairgrounds, Wheaton IL

I bought the "Twins". C44-9W for $85 each.

After the train show I came home and did some more work on downtown Melrose Park 

Merchant's Row II

Now the windows are installed.

Length: 00:00:08 sec.

The bay windows drying.

Ready for assembly.

First two walls.

Next two walls.

Another view.

Added corner bay window and door.

Another view.

Monday, February 12, 2018

Train Day!

Rob Fair 6:30-8pm 1.5 Jordan Osborn 6:15-7:30pm 1.25 and me 6:15-8pm 1.75
We got more than we bargained for tonight.
Take a look...

Upon arrival, Rob Fair, checks out the "twins".
Very nice models.
Now let's see how they run.

It didn't take Rob Fair long to get to work on the concrete bridge for Melrose Park downtown area.

Jordan Osborn working the trouble shooting list.

With one run completed, our SD40-2s head into the East End of Proviso Yard.
Nice work locos.

Here's a video of our SD40-2s coming into the East End of Proviso Yard.

Length: 00:00:21 sec.

This picture shows the approach of the C44-9Ws coming into Proviso Yard East End.

This video shows the new C44-9Ws heading into the East End of Proviso Yard.

Length: 00:00:26 sec.

This video shows the C44-9Ws leading a train past Melrose Park station.

Length: 00:00:25 sec.

Jordan Osborn did a great job engineering some trains tonight.

Rob Fair continues work on the concrete overpass.

Jordan Osborn turns the page of his troubleshooting log.

Jordan Osborn calling it a night...

Just about ready to put the overpass in place.

A few more adjustments.

There you have it!
Ready to go.

Now for the installation.

Overpass in place.

Adding one road section.

And now, the other side.

Rob sent me a text after he left for the evening that he inserted a metal ring over the "pea" light.
Do you see it?

This is the spot light on the other side that doesn't have the ring on it.

And finally, Rob Fair asked me about the parking lot lights.
The light at the corner of the building is 7" away from the row of 5 lights.
Each of the 5 lights is 6" away from the other for a total of 24" plus the 7" to the corner building light.

There you have it. Thus ends today.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Mission Board meeting 6:30pm

Prayer meeting 7pm

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Train Day!

Valentine's Day!

Ash Wednesday!

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Neal Berg, Ida Zielke, and Henry Zielke came to visit tonight.
We ran some trains, but no pictures.

Friday, February 16, 2018

Heading to Chicago to stay at John & Sue Rodger's condo.
Jan and I went to Museum of Science and Industry to view the train layout.
Even Jan was impressed.
Check out these pictures/videos of our experience.

Downtown Chicago from a bird's eye perspective.

Overall view from above of the layout

Length: 00:00:18 sec.

1. Start at Chicago...

3. ...across the Rockies...

2. ...out to the suburbs...

4. ...and into Seattle WA.

Even had lights dimmed for night traffic.

This video shows the trains running at night.

Length: 00:00:29 Sec.

This video shows the maintenance engineer getting ready to replace the spare locomotive with the original locomotive now finished from the repair shop.

Length: 00:00:18 Sec.

Illinois State Building, Thompson Center

Looking down one of the Chicago downtown streets.

Chicago Board of Trade Building.

Union Station with the Trains shown underneath.

The building in the middle of the downtown section is Merchant's Row II from Walther's.
It's the same model I bought for downtown Melrose Park.

I was able to talk with the maintenance engineer who works full-time on the railroad.
In one of the videos you'll see him getting near the train in Seattle to swap out the spare for the permanently assigned loco just returning from the repair shop.
He told me there are 27 trains running at one time including the main and branch line trains.

This video shows trains a stack train and mixed freight approaching Seattle WA

Length: 00:00:47 Sec.

This video shows the same intermodal from the video above coming into Chicago via the suburbs.

Length: 00:00:18 Sec.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

More downtown Chicago time.
Jan and I took a tour with Chicago Architect Tours and found this very cool model of downtown Chicago...

If you look closely you can see Olgivie Center and the UP West Line approach tracks.
The approach tracks start right about where the forehead of the man with the camera bag is located in the foreground.

Look at the model above and find Soldier Field.
We stayed in the building near that location.
Right across from the Field Museum.

I've circled the building where we stayed.