Week 340

 Sun, Jan 31, 2021 thru Sat, Feb 6, 2021

This Week's Goals

1. Continue work on California Ave. Coach Yard entrance off Sacramento Blvd. 

This Week: Start stringing up the wire cables on the utility poles

2. More Weathering Locomotive Roster 

This Week: We're going to get one more locomotive done this week!

3. Work on streets/parking lots in Industrial Park

This week: Secure sections of intersections cut out last week.

4. Continue work on Clinton Ave. wall sections

This Week: Paint the walls and install in place.

5. Ballast mainline track into Powder River Basin

This Week: Finish checking connections and then ballast mainline track

Sun, Jan 31, 2021

I've inspected a few more cars to increase the
rolling stock fleet.

This box car needs a lot of under carriage work:
New couplers and trucks and wheels.

Mon, Feb 1, 2021

Train Day!

w/Rob Fair & Jordan Osborn

Time spent: 6-8pm 2 hours

Rob Fair is going to tackle GOAL #1 tonight.
He's going to work on stringing the utility pole cables
to the poles along the access road to California
Avenue Coach Yard

Jordan Osborn with his more serious look tonight.

Before cutting the cables tonight, Rob thought he'd
cut a few hairs as well :)

Trying to figure out how to attach the cables...

Working back "in the hole".

While Rob kept working on stringing the cables,
Jordan and I ran the test train checking for trouble spots.

Here is the test train making it's test lap

Length: 00:00:30 sec.

Another view of the test train taking it's test lap

Length: 00:00:31 sec.

The RBOX yellow box car in the video had some issues.

Jordan and I noticed it would generate an electrical spark over two particular switches during the lap.

I will need to replace the trucks/wheels to fix the problem.

More to come...

Tue, Feb 2, 2021

I finished running the test train.
Here's the 6 digit car on the end of the 6 digit train
C655BEB

And here are the five other cars of the test train
that will be switched into train C355AEB.

Last night Rob had trouble with the cables not 
sticking to the cross bars.
I tried again to make them stick.

So far so good. I'll check again in the morning
to be sure they're secured.
If they are I'm going to paint the wires black.
I'm hoping that will make them stand out a bit.
Right now you can barely see the wires.
Not acceptable.

Wed, Feb 3, 2021

Working on Goal #1 stringing up the cables on the utility poles...

You can barely see the cables in this photo with flash.

I had some black finger nail polish and I painted the
lines. I was hoping this would make them "pop".
It's definitely better than the naked wire.

Hard to see in this photo. I don't see the HD
kicking in here.

Very thin lines, but they're a little more visible
in this photo than previous photos.

After working on the cables, I moved some cars
around. Here are the two 4-digit cars from the test
train put in place in the next train heading out soon.

And here's the rest of the cars being put into location.

Later, I realized I classified these wrong.
I will be moving them one more time.

Operations has taken on a whole new meaning and it's taking some time to figure it out.

But it's all fun in the world of model railroading.

And YES, I'm having lots of fun.

Thu, Feb 4, 2021

No train activity today.

Fri, Feb 5, 2021

I started to wire the cables on the lift out section.

Another angle...

I used a flash to try to capture more of the wires.

Different angle.

Sat, Feb 6, 2021

I was going to wait to have Rob Fair finish the wiring,
but I decided to give it a try and see how I can do.

I tried to get a descent backdrop so you could see
the wires.

I found if I could use the light as the backdrop
I could see the wires much better.

All the tools I need to finish the project.

This picture is taken with the flash.

The wires show up pretty well in this photo. 
This shows the unpainted wires.

And this shows the painted wires.

Are these the same photos or is there something different?

Looking down the Sacramento entrance to the
California Ave Coach Yard.

You need to look really close to see the wires I in-
stalled today.

I really need to do something about hiding the rafters.

Having the open floor joists doesn't do the scenery much good.

I'll need to add that to my Goal list one of these days...

This Week's Goals Progress Report

1. Continue work on California Ave. Coach Yard entrance off Sacramento Blvd. 

This Week: finished stringing up the utility pole wires.

Next Week: Work on landscaping - trees and ground cover...

2. More Weathering Locomotive Roster 

This Week: No progress, not even one.

Next Week: Try one more time to get one done!

3. Work on streets/parking lots in Industrial Park

This week: Did not secure sections of intersections cut out last week.

Next week: What we should've done last week.

4. Continue work on Clinton Ave. wall sections

This Week: Paint the walls and install in place.

Next Week: Same as last week.

5. Ballast mainline track into Powder River Basin

This Week: Finish checking connections and then ballast mainline track

Next Week: Still could use some more track traffic before ballasting.