Basement Train Layout: Week 254

Week 254

Sunday, June 9, 2019 thru Saturday, June 15, 2019

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Jordan Osborn stopped by today from 2-3:30pm 1.5 hrs to help me wire up the overpass lights...

Jordan Osborn gives the "thumbs-up" signal on the completed project.

Checking the connections to make sure the lights work.

Night scene.

Later I had 30 minutes to work on some minor details.

Installing lights for the buildings on Milwaukee Avenue in North Chicago.

Disguising the indoor station lights.

Another view of the station lights.
Looks like I need to adjust the roof a bit.

How I plan to disguise the lights in the Milwaukee Avenue buildings.

Monday, June 10, 2019

Train Day!
w/Rob Fair 6-7:30pm

Rob Fair getting ready to finish the streets, sidewalks, curbs & gutters in downtown Chicago.

Rob sets the street sections in place.

Then the sidewalks.

Marking the streets for correct fit.

Applying the adhesive for the final section.

After finishing the streets, sidewalks, curbs & gutters we went to the bus stop to finish attaching the sections.

Applying the adhesive, section by section.

Just about finished.
Only two more sections to go.

After Rob left for the evening, James and Josiah stopped by the house.
Where did Josiah want to go first?
Train!

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Josiah came over yesterday and as soon as I got home from work he said, "Trains? Downstairs?"
So guess what we did?

Josiah is so careful.
He plays with his trains, but when my trains go by, he patiently waits as it passes.

I sent this blog to Natalie and she showed it to Josiah. Here's her quote:

Natalie Crockett

Awww! I love it! He waits patiently for the trains to go by and then plays with his trains 🥰I showed Josiah too and he recognized rob! He said rob fixing trains!

Thanks boppa!!!

And then he goes right on playing with his trains.

Look at the collection of cars and engines he collects from the drawers where I keep old train cars and engines.

While Josiah played, he let me wire up this light at the landing going to the basement.
No more going downstairs in the dark.
I hooked it up to the light switch.
No more changing batteries every month.

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Train Day!
w/Jordan Osborn 4-5:30pm 1.5 hrs.
Cam couldn't make it tonight.

Getting ready to start our session.

The goal tonight will be to install perimeter buildings as well as the Post Office and Union Station.

The square block for the Post Office and Union Station.

Two perimeter buildings in place.
I still need to paint them and build two more.

The Post Office and Union Station in place.
Now we'll cut out a pattern for the asphalt alley.

We cut some cardstock to use as a pattern to cut out the "asphalt".

Here are the card stock patterns and the "asphalt" pieces that I will cut to pattern.

We had to make a few minor adjustments, but for the most part, it went in pretty well.

We cut to fit and now we'll lay down the adhesive.

Look closely and you can see the white glue in place.

Another view of the white glue.

The next step was to put in the "asphalt" and then to put in blocks and weights to hold overnight.
Tomorrow I'll take a picture of the weights and then take them off and show you the finished product.
I'm pretty sure we'll like it.

Thursday, June 13, 2019

As promised here are the pictures of the weights in place and then the finished product follows:

Weights in place.
View looking south.

Wights in place.
View looking north.

Finished product.

Later that same day...

Working a bit on the RR downtown Chicago tonight.

I'm not sure this process will work, but I'm glueing the edges and hopefully this will serve two purposes:
1. Fill the gaps where the building the the ground meet.
2. Keep the buildings in place when I need to work on wiring when lifting the hatch.