Week 244

Sun, Mar 31, 2019 thru Sat, Apr 6, 2019

Sun, Mar 31, 2019

Moved Train Day from Monday to Sunday this week so I can go out to dinner with my Dad tomorrow for his birthday with Mom and Jan and Ben.

Jordan Osborn wasn't going to stop by, but it was good to "get out of the house" so he came by to hang out for train night tonight.

Rob Fair working on the bridge supports.

I repaired the broken coupler from last Wednesday's train day.

Did some painting tonight too.
The bridge supports - now ready to install the  LED lights.
I also painted the CNW Power House smoke stack.

Rob Fair cleaning up the workbench.

Jordan Osborn, "It was a productive evening!"

Mon, Apr 1, 2019

No train activity today.

Celebrating Dad's B-day instead.

Tue, Apr 2, 2019

No train activity today.

Wed, Apr 3, 2019

Train Day!

w/Dean Hatzis, Jordan Osborn & Cameron Passaglia

4-5:15pm (1.25 hrs)

Cameron was our videographer tonight.

I enjoyed watching his productions.

An interesting perspective.

Cameron Passaglia getting ready for tonight's train session.

Jordan Osborn flashes his peace sign.

Dean Hatzis will layout the bridge works for I-290 and I-294 before his final gluing everything together by next week.

Getting the trains running...

Our first video of the night produced by Cameron Passaglia.

A roadside view of the 31 car length train.

Length: 00:00:31 sec.

A continuation of the same train...

Length: 00:00:31 sec.

Located a car that needs some attention.

Now our train is down to a 30 car length train.

Length: 00:00:30 sec.

Last but not least, the same train coming around the corner in the South Power District.

Length: 00:00:32 sec.

Nice work Cam!

Finishing the night attaching the LED lights to the bridge supports at Fulton St. and Milwaukee Ave.

Time to go, but let's finish this last bridge support before we leave.
Curt Berg on the left and Dean Hatzis on the right.

Thu, Apr 4, 2019

No train activity today.

Fri, Apr 5, 2019

I had some time today after subbing today to work on the train from 4-5pm 1 hr.

This is the section Rob Fair worked on Sunday night.
It was set over night for several nights waiting for the glue to cure.

I trimmed the corners and painted the base yellow.

We also glued down the LED lights on the bridge supports.
Here they are after the glue cured.

Here are the bridge supports loosely in place.
Fulton Street.

Bridge supports loosely in place. Center support is under construction.
Milwaukee Avenue

This is the back side of Milwaukee Avenue.
The conduit (black straws) for electrical lines are in place.

This is the back side of Fulton Street with the electrical conduit (black straws) in place.

Finally, I used black sharpie pen to darken the LED light strips under the bridge on top of the bridge supports.

Next step will be to solder the wires to the LED light strips and then wire those up to the transformer.

We're getting closer.

Sat, Apr 6, 2019

After the funeral today and watching the Zielke kids, I had about 1 hour in the basement to play trains. Here's what I did...

First I painted the base of the middle bridge support yellow.

Then I took the tape off the top to prepare to paint that part gray.

Before I paint the top gray I need to tape off the yellow.

There you go, the top part painted gray.

I have some gray paint so I decided to go ahead and paint the walls gray.
BEFORE

Here are the walls  painted gray.
AFTER

Walls painted gray on Milwaukee Avenue.