Week 322

 Sun, Sep. 27, 2020 thru Sat, Oct. 3, 2020

This Week's Goals

1. Finish trouble-shooting green traffic lights in downtown Chicago

2. Trouble shoot locomotive derailment near Kedzie Avenue

3. Finish installing yellow overhead traffic signals on Lake Street.

Sun, Sep. 27, 2020

Special Guests:

Charlie & Ida Zielke

Charlie plays with Thomas the Train Engine.

Video of Charlie in action...

Length: 00:00:26 sec.

Mon, Sep. 28, 2020

Train Day!

with Rob Fair & Jordan Osborn

6-7:45pm 1.75 hrs.

Lots accomplished.

Take a look...

Rob Fair getting a close-up look at the trouble area.

Jordan Osborn at the controls.

Taking a lap around the layout.

Video of Jordan taking the train on an overland route.

Length: 00:00:30 sec.

Rob Fair works on making the RR straighter.

The trucks on the train were navigating this part
of the track very roughly.

Hopefully this will solve our problem.

Goal #2 Complete!

Now it's time to finish the green traffic lights
in downtown Chicago.

While Rob Fair works on the traffic lights, I'll
work on adding the yellow overhead traffic light
here at Lake Street. (This is Goal #3)

Rob Fair and team celebrate our accomplishment!

Length: 00:00:07 sec.

Jordan does a jig!

All green lights on and working properly.

Very nice work, Rob Fair!!!

Goal #1 DONE, Complete, Finished!

Tue, Sep. 29, 2020

No train activity today.

Wed, Sep. 30, 2020

No train activity today.

Thu, Oct. 1, 2020

Tonight I will finish Goal #3.

Let's see what that looks like...

It took me a while to get the plastic straw down the
opening for the wire to pass through the layout.
I used some liquid soap and got it to go through okay.

Jordan Osborn stopped by but didn't feel too useful,
so we stopped operations and headed over to his house
to watch some of his video games.

After my visit with Jordan I came back
to finish the yellow traffic signals.
You can see the yellow traffic signal
in the top part of the picture.
At the bottom of the picture are
my tools and solder equipment
to connect the wires together.

Here you can see the east side signal at
Lake Street is installed.

These videos show the working traffic signals.

After installing I was surprised by the results.

Check this out...

Length: 00:00:14 sec.

Here's a look at the east end of Lake Street

Length: 00:00:28 sec.

And here's a look at the west end of Lake Street

Length: 00:00:09 sec.

Fri, Oct. 2, 2020

After subbing today I came home and found a surprise in the mailbox. 

I could hardly wait to install what came in the mail.

Check this out...

A #6 Left hand Atlas Code 100 Nickel Silver turnout.

This will "pave" the way to the Powder River Basin.

A view from Powder River Basin heading back to
the layout.

And now for the really BIG show!

Our first run into the Powder River Basin

Check out these next three videos...

Length: 00:00:21 sec.

Second line of cars into Powder River Basin:

Length: 00:00:23 sec.

And finally, the last batch of cars to load PRB coal.

Length: 00:00:23 sec.

After filling the cars with coal, 

they are now ready for the return trip east 

to the power plant in Melrose Park.

Length: 00:00:22 sec.

One final view before we move out for
our return trip east to the Melrose Park
power plant.

Sat, Oct. 3, 2020

No train activity today.

We visited James & Natalie in the city...

Week 321

 Sun, Sep. 20, 2020 thru Sat, Sep. 26, 2020

This week's goals:

1. Finish putting piles into files (notebooks).

2. Paint "sky" on mirrors over West Chicago

3. Trouble shoot and solve traffic light display in downtown Chicago

4. Repair damaged car lights in downtown Chicago

Sun, Sep. 20, 2020

Mon, Sep. 21, 2020

I got up a bit early today and did some work on Goal #1

Getting closer, but still a ways to go.

Train Day!

w/ Rob Fair 6-8pm 2 hrs.

and Jordan Osborn 7:30-8pm 1/2 hr.

We started off trying to figure out what happened to the green traffic lights.

Length: 00:00:18 sec.

Another video of the traffic lights...

Length: 00:00:22 sec.

You can see one set of green lights are on...

This is over one block east and all are in working order.

Back to the original location. Still not working.

Let's tackle Goal #4.
This is the infamous "Jack Fisher" car he "pulled out"
inadvertently disconnected the wire that powered the lights.

With the power "on" we can see the lights are not working.

With Rob Fair supervising the operation, we now
can see he has fixed the problem.

Goal #4 Complete!

Now on top the next trouble-shooting project.
Goal #3.
Trying to figure out why the green lights are working.

I was stirring the paint and thought
this was an interesting perspective.

While Rob is trouble-shooting the traffic lights,
I will paint the sky.

Trying to capture the "BEFORE" picture.

And now, the AFTER picture.

Back to Rob working in the guts of the city.

Hey, who dat?
It's our buddy, Jordan Osborn who came to "peek in" 
on our progress tonight.

Peace Out, my man!

Tue, Sep. 22, 2020

No train activity tonight.

Wed, Sep. 23, 2020

Still working on Goal #1...

Thu, Sep. 24, 2020

We are going to finish this tonight!

OK, here's the plan.
See if you can spot what changes in the next few pictures...

What changed? The office supplies...
Pencils, Pens, tape, scissors, three-hole punch...gone!

What changed?
3 ring binders and calendars...gone!

What changed?
2 sets of binders, CCT notebooks...gone!

Goal #1 Complete.
Piles into files (three ring binders) DONE!

This is where the 3-ring binders went after
the dining room table.

Looks like this could be another goal in the
not-to-distant future.

Final resting place for most of the binders.

I'll keep the calendars with receipts under the printer.

Fri, Sep. 25, 2020

Jordan Osborn stopped by for about an hour today...

Jordan Osborn getting acquainted with our new binders.

We also ran a 30 car train.
Unfortunately we found problems with the second
C40-8 locomotive derailing at Elmhurst.

We will tackle that little problem on Monday with Rob Fair

during our Train Day!

Sat, Sep. 26, 2020

Here's another landing place for other 3-ring binders.
These are the ones I'll use to check and record rolling stock records.

Week 320

 Sunday, September 13, 2020 thru Saturday, September 19, 2020

This week's goal:

Simple

1. Finish electrical work on car light North Chicago

2. Landscaping between South and West Power Districts.

3. Finish organizing the piles into files.

Sun, Sep. 13, 2020

No train activity today.

Mon, Sep. 14, 2020

Train Day!

w/Rob Fair and Jordan Osborn

6-8pm 2 hours

Hopefully we can finish off goals 2 & 3 tonight.

We thought the lights on the cars were too bright.

So we decided to use a lower voltage transformer.

In this picture Rob Fair prepares the ends for hook up.

Jordan catches up on some paperwork.

Hopefully we'll get these four car lights lit up tonight.

After reattaching all the wires and starting over,
we finally finished the task at hand under the table.

I also added just one resistor and that helped with 
the brightness of the lights.

It's a bit tedious and uncomfortable,
but we got the job done.

Goal #1 Complete!

After we finished the car lights we went on to 
work on Goal #2.

Rob Fair checking out his work.
Very good!

Goal #2 Complete!

Time to clean up a bit before we call it a night.

Have a great rest of your day!

Tue, Sep. 15, 2020

No train activity today.

Wed, Sep. 16, 2020

No train activity today.

Thu, Sep. 17, 2020

A little work on the piles to files project.

Still working on taking the piles and putting them
into files (notebooks).

Fri, Sep. 18, 2020

Still trying to finish Goal #3 this week...

It may not look like progress, but there is.
I've finished putting piles into files for Prototype pictures,
Rolling Stock, Locomotives, and now working on Structures.

The "files" are the notebooks you see on the far left chair.

I'm going to really work diligently tomorrow to finish goal #3.

Sat. Sep. 19, 2020

Let's see if we can tap off goal #3 today...

Still too much to process.
Goal #3 will need to move to next week.