Week 344

 Sun, Feb 28, 2021 thru Sat, Mar 6, 2021

This Week's Goal Setting

1. More Weathering Locomotive Roster 

This Week: Keep making progress...

2. Continue work on Clinton Ave. wall sections

This Week: Let's try to put the walls together and then paint them.

3. Laying more "asphalt" in the Industrial Park

This Week: Let's see where this week takes us...no promises.

4. Finish checking switches and make repairs as needed.

This Week: Concentrate on the yard throat at Chicago Terminal

5. Begin work on the upper downtown area Melrose Park

This Week: Secure the base and wire up the lights.

Sun, Feb 28, 2021

Lots of work on figuring out
how to protect trains that
run down track in the opposite
direction of travel.

Mon, Mar 1, 2021

Train Day!

with Rob Fair and Jordan Osborn

6-8:15pm 2.25 hrs.

We got a lot accomplished tonight.

Check this out...

Rob Fair is finishing up the maintenance &
repairs to all the switches at the Chicago Terminal.

Jordan Osborn greets everyone as we begin
the evening activities.

Getting up close and personal with the switches
under Union Station/Chicago Terminal.

While Rob works on the switches, Jordan and
I prepare to run a test train. The three cars
that went through inspections last week will
make their test run tonight.

See? Rob Fair continues his work on tweaking
the switches.
Goal #4 Complete!

Video of the test train. 

The three test cars are #1 and #13, #14 at the rear

Length: 00:00:31 sec.

Goal #3 cutting out "asphalt" for Industrial Park.

Rob gets down and tackles the "asphalt".

Train B455AWB in it's final leg to Proviso Yard.

A rare photo of me working
"in the hole".

Train B455AWB using Crossover #1 to prepare

to Arrive at Proviso Yard CNW side.

Length: 00:00:17 sec.

Rob Fair painted the switch stand red
for divergent direction.

Tue, Mar 2, 2021

See the "asphalt" plat beyond the bridge?

Here's another view. It's on the right.

I'm going to cut this section into the base
for the buildings.

After cutting to shape, I scored the board
for the sidewalk.

Placed the buildings to check for fit.

Now it's time to paint using concrete-color.

Temporarily put in place.
You like?

Tomorrow I will try to put the stone wall in place to see what that looks like.

Wed, Mar 3, 2021

Working on the upper downtown area at Melrose Park...

After cutting the base, I started drilling the
holes for the lights. Then I realized, I needed
to secure the base to the "asphalt".

After gluing down the base it's time to wait
for the weights to do their job overnight.

Thu, Mar 4, 2021

More work to do on the upper downtown area.

New Goal #5: to install the lights this week!

With the base secured it's time to drill the holes
for the street lights and interior building lights.

Here you go. Installing one light per building (5).
Also installing 5 street lights.

Some of these straws that I use for "conduit"
go in so cleanly and others require some extra
work to get them through all the way.

Here's what the "conduit" looks like from
the bottom after I trim them off.

All the lights are temporarily installed to see
how they all fit and how much lead I have below.

Also getting a head start on the stone walls
which I may get done this week instead of 
waiting until next week.

The lead wires for the street lights were too
short, plus I needed to add a resistor to each
light, so I'm going to add lead wires.

I taped all the wires so the wires will match
up when it's time to solder them.

Resistors added and connections are soldered.
Now let's see if we can get all of this down
the "conduit".

Fri, Mar 5, 2021

Added Goal #5 this week and finished it!

Take a look...

After installing the resistors, now it's time to
connect all the wires from below...

Wires all connected.

SPECIAL GUEST!
My friend from my CRT days in Chicago...
Steve Joe

After my visit with Steve I finished making
sure all the lights worked in my new section
of upper downtown Melrose Park.

Another view of the same scene.

I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

Just one more thing to do.

Paint the gutters by the curbs.

I'll do that tomorrow and this part will be finished!

Sat, Mar 6, 2021

Saturday morning working on the RR

Taping off the gutters...

And there they are...curbs & gutters.

Another view of the curbs & gutters.

Finishing off the filler on the stone wall.

Now it's time to add the sidewalk to the other 
side of the buildings.

Glue in place now waiting for the weights to 
do their work.

Saturday afternoon working on the RR...

First, a quick trip to B&G Train World Hobby Store:

I ordered the blank walls which came in.
While shopping at B&G I also bought the KATO trucks.

Night shot of upper downtown Melrose Park.

Day shot of upper downtown Melrose Park.

And the finished sidewalk, curb & gutters on
the other side of the buildings.

This Week's Goal Progress Report

1. More Weathering Locomotive Roster 

This Week: Keep making progress...

Next Week: 

2. Continue work on Clinton Ave. wall sections

This Week: Let's try to put the walls together and then paint them.

Next Week: Same as This Week.

3. Laying more "asphalt" in the Industrial Park

This Week: Let's see where this week takes us...no promises.

Next Week: Finish laying "asphalt" in north parking lot.

4. Finish checking switches and make repairs as needed.

This Week: Rob Fair checked and made sure all the switches were operating properly.

Goal #4 DONE! Mon, Mar 1, 2021

5. Begin work on the upper downtown area Melrose Park

This Week: Secure the base and wire up the lights. DONE! Used what I had for the stone wall. Need to order more sheets of the stone wall to finish the project.

Next Week: Order additional sheets of the stone wall