Week 287

Sun, Jan 26, 2020 thru Sat, Feb 1, 2020

Sun, Jan 26, 2020

Train Show Today!

2-4pm

Invited Neighborhood and Lord of Life Church Family

NOTE: as you read the captions, please let me know if I have ANY misspellings! Please!

Sign to guide our guest to the Train Show...

Outside our home at #60 Whittington Course

Our Special Guests who came today were...

The Crew
Jordan Osborn and Cam Passaglia
Not shown: Rob Fair

Bill & Nancy Gatfield
Lord of Life Church
Bill showed me some cool pictures of the trains at Fermi Lab
(I bet you didn't know Fermi Lab had trains)

Mark McMahon
Lord of Life Church
Mark took some pictures on his nice camera to compare these with the next Train Show pictures to check on progress.

Even the children came!
Three Grandchildren on the left and twin friends on the right.
Ida Zielke, Henry Zielke, Mabel Zielke, April Tecuatl, Mia Tecuatl

Pam Hendricks
Resident of Whittington Course
Our Association Board President.
What a treat to have her come!

Jerry Richards
Lord of Life Church
Jerry took the invitation very seriously and felt it wouldn't be right to be invited and not come.
Thanks for coming Jerry!

Carol & Steve Fabiani, Lenny Peterson, and grandson
Residents of Whittington Course
More grandkids would've come, but they had to stay home due to illness.
Get well soon!

Steven Fields
Rob Fair's friend came from Lake of the Hills
He specializes in adding model Locomotive details.
He left today with one of my Metra locomotives to add details and a decoder.

Rob Linke
Lord of Life Church
Rob was very kind when he observed evidence of "Vintage equipment & Thrifty spending"
In other words, "Old equipment & Cheap spending"
All good!

Boh & Kevan Ketterling with grandkids Joh'O' & Ben
Residents of Whittington Course
I was at a basketball game at Saint Charles East High School in December where Dr. Ketterling was recognized at halftime for his service as a team doctor for many years at Saint Charles East High School.

Christina Vosteen & Tom Rogers
Tom is a resident of Whittington Course
Tom is a board member of our Neighborhood Association
Christina is the pastor of the Methodist Church in Western Springs IL

Also attending but not able to take their pictures were...

Amy Blackford (Pastor Matt's wife)

Kyla Townsend and daughter, Eva

Lord of Life Church

Mon, Jan 27, 2020

Train Day!

with Rob Fair & Jordan Osborn

6-7:30pm 1.5 hrs.

Jordan Osborn at the controls preparing for tonight's train runs.

Rob Fair preparing tools and equipment for wiring up the lit cars in Chicago downtown area.

Rob Fair's workplace for the evening.

After running a few trains I worked on the car loads that will eventually look like coal loads.

Rob Fair finishing up tonight's work under Chicago downtown.

Jordan Osborn taking notes and getting the most out of his candy cane pen.

So long until we meet again.

Tue, Jan 28, 2020

Updating the blog tonight.

Wed, Jan 29, 2020

Train Day!
with Cam Passaglia and Jordan Osborn
4-5:30pm 1.5 hrs.

We ran a Metra Maintenance Special tonight.

Length: 00:00:14 sec.

Here's another look at our Unit Coal Train...and a way freight...

Length: 00:00:22 sec.

Thu, Jan 30, 2020

No train activity today

Fri, Jan 31, 2020

No train activity today

Sat, Feb 1, 2020

No train activity today

Week 286

Sunday, January 19, 2020 thru Saturday, January 25, 2020

Key: NTA=No Train Activity

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Today I ran some test trains to see what speed each throttle would be set to for 1 lap equal to, or close to, 5 minutes.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Train Day!

with Rob Fair 6-7:30pm (1.5 hrs.)

Rob Fair came over for trains tonight.
Here he is getting ready to wire up the cars with lights.

As Rob worked on the wiring, I secured the crossover switches so they wouldn't neve cause electrical problems by switching which caused electrical shorts. I failed the troubleshooting so we came up with a different plan.
Crossovers on the mainline before entering Chicago Terminal.

Here you can see the pins I drove in to keep the switches in the proper position.

I also secured the railings on either side of the bridges over Milwaukee Avenue and Fulton Street.

This is a very interesting shot.
Rob is standing on the floor, but I'm also taking a picture of Chicago Downtown which happens to be on a 45 degree angle.
Here are some of the cars he wired up so they'd be lit up.

Back at the Terminal crossover I've got some braces to hold up the fences while the glue sets.

Then I went to the workbench and replaced the battery in the caboose.
I need to always remember to shut off the power so they don't run out of juice overnight.

After replacing the battery I tested the light...

Length: 00:00:07 sec.

The white strips are glue in the channels to secure the "EL" tracks in place.

Half is secured, now I need to secure the other half.
They line up pretty nice.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

NTA

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Train Day!

With Cam Passaglia and Jordan Osborn

4-5:30pm (1.5 hrs.)

Getting ready for the train show this Sunday...

First some videos...Cam behind the scenes...

Length: 00:00:07 sec.

And...the unit coal train coming around the bend...

Length: 00:00:18 sec.

Cam and Jordan getting ready for the operating session tonight.
Making sure our trains are running fine for the Train Show preparation this Sunday.

At the controls.

In the corner displaying the grove of trees.

A manifest train heading through Oak Park.

Length: 00:00:31 sec.

A view from the South Power District...

Length: 00:00:11 sec.

Cam working with the camera that was going bazurk!

Jordan Osborn keeping his hand on the throttle and his eyes on his train.
Or is he making sure Cam doesn't fall off the ladder.

A final video for your viewing pleasure...Chicago near north...

Length: 00:00:15 sec.

Thursday, January 23, 2020

NTA

Friday, January 24, 2020

NTA

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Getting ready for the Train Show tomorrow.
Mainly cleaning up different areas of the layout.
Check this out...

Here's my workbench BEFORE.
Pretty nasty.

Workbench AFTER
Nice and neat and tidy.

Grain Elevator/Melrose Park BEFORE

Grain Elevator/Melrose Park AFTER

Bellwood/Wheaton BEFORE

Bellwood/Wheaton AFTER

UP Global 2 BEFORE

UP Global 2 AFTER

Chicago Terminal Lake Street Bridge BEFORE

Chicago Terminal Lake Street Bridge AFTER

Week 285

Sunday, January 12, 2020 thru Saturday, January 18, 2020

Key: NTA = No Train Activity for today.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Had to move Train Day tomorrow to Train Day today!
Just like last week.
Rob Fair & Jordan Osborn
3-4:30pm 1.5 hours.

But first, Jordan and I stopped by the Midwest Train Show in Wheaton.
Here's what I found and what I spent:
Entry Fee: $7
5 trailers and 1 container @ $5 each: $30
5 pieces of Atlas Code 100 3' flex track: $20
Total Spent: $57

Rob Fair gets busy drilling holes for cars with lights.

Jordan shows his game face in recognition of the NFL playoffs happening today.

Remember that ball from last week?
After cutting it up and placing the pieces on the track, it appears it could use some touch ups.
See all the white showing through?

The first go around was painting the white parts bright green.
Too green we all thought after finishing step 1.

Step 2 was painting over the green with brown.
Much better.
Step 3 will be to reglue some of the loose pieces.
That should complete this project.

After drilling all the holes for the cars with lights, Rob begins connecting the wires.
But first we need to check the power supply.

After testing the power supply we found the 20V AC was too much. We tried the 9V AC and that was just right.
Next week we'll begin connecting the cars together in series and try to have this project finished by Train Show on Sun, Jan. 26.

If you look closely you can see a mark on Rob's forehead where he was wearing the headlamp (see previous picture).
It looks like a helmet mark so we did another tribute to NFL Playoffs with another "game face" pose.

Monday, January 13, 2020

NTA

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Clean up day!

The first thing I did tonight was to fix the corner grove.
Here's the finished product.
You like?

A little tour of the changes made tonight.
Part 1

Length: 00:00:32 sec.

Tour continues...
Part 2

Length: 00:00:28 sec.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Train Day!
with Dean Hatzis & Jordan Osborn
4-5:30pm 1.5 hrs
Welcome back, Dean Hatzis!

After giving Dean the Grand Tour we got down to business.
Here's Jordan giving his typical greeting.

Dean will be working on the California Ave. Metra Maintenance building.
We're trying to figure out if we have enough windows and doors to do the job.

Time to call it a night.
Dean will take the mock up buildings and begin the project in the next few weeks.
Looking forward to seeing the end results.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

NTA

Friday, January 17, 2020

After subbing I was able to work on the RR

Working on the entrance to Global 2 on the west end of Proviso Yard.

I'll lay out the track and then cut out the cork and then secure the track to the cork.

Getting ready for the Train Show next Sunday afternoon.
Here's the Train Order Board for the Train Show.

I also made a dispatcher's log to coincide with this Train Order Board.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

NTA