Week 295

Sunday, March 22, 2020 thru Saturday, March 28, 2020

Sunday, March 22, 2020

As promised, here's the pictures of the finished project I started yesterday...

Looking back on the cubbies.
Now all the light bulbs are stored in the cubbies which leaves room for the spray cans.

Now doesn't that look so much neater?

Monday, March 23, 2020

This week's project is to begin work on GLOBAL 2.

Global 2 is located just west of Proviso Yard and east of the I-294/I-290 overpass.

I've picked out the switches to use and layed them out at their proper locations.

Now it's time to cut the cork track base.

After cutting the cork track base it's time to glue them down.

Once in place and the glue doing it's job, it's time to weight it down and wait for the morning.

Another view of the finished work done today.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

After the glue dried, I removed the weights and this is what it looks like before laying the track.

Now it's time to lay the track back down and put it in place.

First I used the Atlast Code 100 flext track I purchased at the train show a few months ago.
But I came up with a better idea...

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

You can't see it here, but instead of using the nickel code 100 track I used the old flex track I had from my previous layouts.
Why did I do that?
Most of the time these tracks will be used to store the well-cars so I didn't feel the need to have great conductor rails.

Thursday, March 26, 2020

It turns out I'm going to need the full sheet of cork board so I had to remove the wedge sticking out at the base.
This shows the weight on the repaired section of cork board. I'll need to wait the rest of the day to finish this part.

Now that we have the details ironed out it's time to go back to laying track.

Another view BEFORE laying the track.

Finding the right size flex track to put in place.

Lining the track with a straight edge to make sure they are parallel and straight.

Once again, so many tools and equipment on the layout for every project.

Friday, March 27, 2020

I finished the parallel tracks and now the curved section.
I'll tackle that project tomorrow.

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Here are the tracks layed out and spiked down.

Another view.

As I thought about the trucks going in and out of the yard, I thought I needed to extend the cork to the south.

So I went back and brought back some cork and cut it to fit and started glueing it down.

Here's the last section with the glue on the "floor" and the cork ready to be put in place.

Everything in place and ready for the weights to keep it all in place.

Now I need to wait until the weights do their job.
We'll see how it looks in the morning.

Looking from afar at all the tools and equipment around the project area.

Week 294

Sunday, March 15, 2020 thru Saturday, March 21, 2020

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Continued from last week...

Making progress on the yard and approach tracks to the Power Plant in the Industrial Park.

The Yard is ready for the first coal loads.
They are waiting to enter in the background.

Wow! That was fast.
Here are the 24 cars in place.
You can see the remaining 6 cars ready to be pushed to the other side of the power plant.
But wait...

The other side isn't ready yet.
Guess what I'll be working on this week?

Monday, March 16, 2020

 Before I get to the Power Plant entry tracks we need to finish some projects for...

Train Day!

with Rob Fair 6-8pm 2 hrs.

Rob is securing the velcro to the side of the building so when the base of Chicago Downtown is lifted the buildings won't fly off.

After affixing the Velcro we went back to wiring the car lights.

Rob checking to be sure the correct wires are attached to the correct leads.
When you wire in LED you must attach the positive side to the proper wire on the LED - it's the longer wire (I don't remember if it's the anode or cathode side).
Oh well...

Not quite finished.
You can see the white car in front still needs to have the lights wired.

Here you can see all the cars are wired up.

These too are good to go, except one car does have a headlight out.
I'll need to have a police car on his/her tail to give them a warning ticket.

Here are the weights in place to keep the Velcro attahed to the side of the building...

The other Velcro is on the base where the buildings will fit.
After the buildings are put in place I'll place another piece of Velcro to attach to both of these pieces.
The one on the base and the one on the side of the building.
Make sense?

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Rob and I finished last night with two more cars to go.

Tonight I wired those up and now all the cars with lights in downtown Chicago are wired up!

Take a look...

The next video is much better with the view at night.

Length: 00:00:30 sec.

Same video but now it's night time...

Length: 00:00:28 sec.

Now back to the other side of the power plant.

Wow! That was fast.

Another view from further away.

DONE!
I think this is going to work quite well.

You can see the mainline locomotives in the background that will push the remaining cars here.

Remaining cars in place.
The locomotives will park in the other track when their work is complete.

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

The Crockett family came to Saint Charles to visit for a couple of days.
Joshy Crockett at the controls.
We actually did some train operations and had a good time.

Josiah Crockett finding another place on the railroad to view the happenings.
I was showing him the progress at the power plant.

Watching the intermodal train returning to Global 1.

Length: 00:00:18 sec.

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Josiah running the mixed freight.
He was very willing to run them not too fast or not too slow.
Good job, Josiah!

Here's a video of Josiah in action...

Length: 00:00:31 sec.

Josiah back at his "normal" spot.
He got in trouble because he was touching the cars and made them uncouple.
He told me it wasn't nice of me to correct him because I said he knows he shouldn't touch the cars but he did anyway.

I think this is the video of Josiah getting in trouble...

Length: 00:00:08 sec.

Friday, March 20, 2020

Today, James and I had to run some errands.

One stop was at Ace to get some supplies for this project.

Take a look...

Since I couldn't use Velcro on the corner building I came up with a different plan.

First I had to drill out the holes for the nuts in the base of the building.

Here are the four nuts in place at the four corners of the building.

Next I need to line up the nuts with the holes in the first floor ledge.

Then I inserted the tube and ran a screw through the tube to the nut at the bottom.
That should hold the building in place when the floor is tilt on it's side to work underneath downtown Chicago.

Yep!
It works.
You can see the Velcro is holding the other buildings in place.
And...

...the nuts and bolts are holding the corner building in place.
Mission accomplished!

I forgot to take the BEFORE picture.
But this AFTER picture shows the new switch I had to install (the one on the right) since the previous switch machine was too tall so the snowplow on the locomotives got caught on it. This one works much better.

Saturday, March 21, 2020

After talking with Jan today about all the work going on in the train room (she is feeling a bit infringed upon) I had to move the light switch that controls the lights over the washer & dryer so it's easier to reach and Jan doesn't feel she knocks down things hanging on my workbench.

Here's what I did...

Take a look:

See the light switch in the right center of the picture?
That used to be tucked behind on the wall so you had to reach across the board where the items are hanging.
Those are the items Jan would knock down when she went to turn on the light switch.
I showed her the new location and she's satisfied with the change.

Then I moved into the paint storage area and will mount this cubby rack.

There you go. I moved all the light bulbs from the shelves in the back so now we can store other stuff on the shelves and have easy access to the light bulbs here in the cubbies.
I'll take another picture of the cubbies all filled up.

Check next week's blog for that update.