Week 198

Week 198

Sunday, May 13, 2018 thru Saturday, May 19, 2018

Sunday, May 13, 2018

Mother's Day!

Spent time with family today.

No train activity today.

Monday, May 14, 2018

Train Day!

With Rob Fair and Jordan Osborn.

We three worked from 6:15-7:45pm (1.5) tonight.

Rob Fair assigned the Kedzie Avenue hand rail guards going up the stairs to the station platform.

Another view of Rob Fair working the wire to use as hand rails.

Jordan Osborn at the controls waiting for his assignment.

Trouble shooting the Metra Commuter derailment.

Length: 00:00:09 Sec.

Rob came over and it behaved beautifully.

No more derailment.

Go figure.

Here's Rob Fair shining the light on the possible derailment site, but with no derailment in sight.

Jordan Osborn showed me a note about the rail gap near Kedzie Avenue.

I took a look and fixed the rail gap.

This video shows the unit coal train running smoothly over the adjusted rails.

Length: 00:00:32 sec.

Rob Fair's finished work for the night.
Very fine detailed work.
Nice job, Rob, very nice - as Ed Nelson would say.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

I had to get some things done before tomorrow's Train Session.

Since we're installing the plexi glass tomorrow, I had to remove the old non working utility poles. 

In order for the wire to go thru the hole without catching the sides, I installed straws down the drilled out holes.

Here you can see the straws coming thru the board and the wires pushed thru the straws.

On the top side are the "new" utility poles now installed.
Actually I just re-positioned these from the California Avenue access road to here.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

TRAIN DAY!
With Dean Hatzis (4-5:30pm 1.5), Josh Jones and Jordan Osborn (4:30-5:30pm 1)
Ed Nelson called me again today and said he couldn't make it.
Still not feeling quite right.

We got quite a bit done tonight.
Check this out...

Our first order of business tonight was to install the plexi glass.
Here, Dean Hatzis, removes the trim piece so the plexi glass can be put in place.

Plexi glass in place, now we need to secure the screws.
The plans for the plexi glass is to protect the Kedzie Avenue tower from errant elbows.

Dean Hatzis secures the plexi glass and the trim piece with screws.

Job complete.
Only took 15 minutes.

On our way over to Central Control Tower we stopped at Lake Street.
I told Dean I was going to buy a steel girded bridge over Lake Street, Chicago.
We may need to notch out a top section so we decided the firm up the bottom with this 1x4.

The is the BEFORE picture from underneath.

This is the AFTER picture showing the 1x4 firming up the bridge support above.

This bridge will be removed.
The new one will replicate the prototype much better.
You will see...

Jordan Osborn and Josh Jones report with the DD drinks in hand.

Finally, Dean Hatzis and I took measurements for the cabinet Dean will make in the near future.
Won't that be nice to cover all that mess?

Thursday, May 17, 2018

No pictures today, but I did run the unit coal train into Proviso CNW yard.

Friday, May 18, 2018

Some train activity today...

I put in an order online and went to B & G TrainWorld to pick it up.
Here's what I purchased.

And here's how much it cost me.

I went downstairs and started getting ready to put in the traffic signal lights in downtown Melrose Park.
The prototype doesn't have traffic signals but I'm using creative liberties to make it happen in my world.

Saturday, May 19, 2018
I was up early this morning and prepared the urban steel overpass for modeling later today.

The "out of the box" pieces need to be painted before gluing together.

First I coated them in brown for the aging look.

Flip over and do it again.

Then I painted both sides black for the finished black look.

Here the pieces sit quietly waiting for assembly.
Hopefully I'll come back after supper and finish this project.
More later...