Week 352

 Sun, Apr 25, 2021 thru Sat, May 1, 2021

This Week's Goal Planning

1. Finish work on Chicago Terminal Engine Maintenance Shop

This Week: Finish off the details - adding pipes, fixing the lights.

2. Continue work on Clinton Ave. wall sections

This  Week: Finish painting and installing the Lake Street and Clinton Street wall sections.

3. More Work with Locomotives 

This Week: Try to figure out how to get the two DCC engines running with the shell on and no "extra" sounds.

4. Finish work on the upper/lower downtown area Melrose Park

This Week: More of the same...

Sun, Apr 25, 2021

Adding detail to the Locomotive Maintenance Shop at
Chicago Terminal. Adding the piping...

I stopped by Menards to buy some more paint. I took the old
paint can and they replaced it with a new one. Sweet!

Getting all the wall sections painted and ready for installation
tomorrow.

Here's my make-shift work bench and the piping details I will
be adding to the Locomotive Maintenance Shop at Chicago Terminal

I normally don't like to take flash pictures, but I had to take flash
to show the piping details. You can see the shed and the pipes
that go up and over the wall.

Here's a close-up of the same picture above.

Mon, Apr 26, 2021

Train Day!

w/Rob Fair & Jordan Osborn

6-8pm 2 hrs.

Hi Rob Fair!
Today we're doing something off script.
We're going to mix sand and mortar and try to replicate the ballast
at the Chicago Terminal. I'm anxious to see how this will turn out.

Jordan Osborn comes over to offer his hand of support.

Jordan works with Rob to mix the mortar with the sand to make
our new ballast for Chicago Terminal.

We set up a test track to see if this will work.

Now we shift gears and  move over to installing the walls around
Chicago Terminal.

We had a gap in the corner, which
Rob found a filler piece that you
can't even see the gap anymore.
Nice work, Rob!

Here's an elongated view of the newly
installed Clinton St. wall.

A view from inside the wall. You can see the corner piece Rob
put in to fill the gap.

My hands and arms gluing the wall
sections together.

Oops!
Sorry, Rob, I moved as I took this picture.
Here you can see Rob is installing the doors on the wall sections.

This is Jordan's "mad face".
When he came over I didn't respond to his "What's the plan tonight" 
text so he came over with his "mad face" on.

Rob Fair taking the test ballast mixture and spreading it on the
incoming tracks to Chicago Terminal.

Here they are with water sprayed.
Tomorrow I'll come back and check out how it dried.

We really won't know if this worked until we let it dry overnight and check it out.

More tomorrow...

Tue, Apr 27, 2021

Two Videos to capture tonight's work on the RR

The mortar experiment didn't work.

The mortar didn't set up with the sand and water.

BEFORE

Length: 00:00:26 sec.

AFTER

Length: 00:00:13 sec.

Wed, Apr 28, 2021

First thing this morning I checked to see if the mortar set...

This video shows what happened:

Length: 00:00:29 sec.

I've been working on the RR...

BEFORE

This is the next section I'll
be laying the ballast.

This time I'm going to cover
the moving switch parts.

DURING

Project continues.
Now I'll need to spread out
the ballast and then glue using
an eye dropper with water/glue
mixture and a touch of Dawn.

Thu, Apr 29, 2021

No train activity today.

Fri, Apr 30, 2021

Chicago Terminal Ballast project continues...

Working on the ballast under Lake Street "L" tracks.

Opposite view.

After the Water/Glue/Dawn mixture has been applied.

Tomorrow I'd like to finish the rest of Chicago Terminal...

Sat, May 1, 2021

More work on ballasting Chicago Terminal...

Yesterday I spread out the ballast.
Today I smoothed it out and shaped it to what I want it to be.

Here's another view of the ballast in place ready for the first burst of water.

Another view - pre-water.

I've sprayed water on parts of the yard leads.
Other parts have the glue mixture applied.

Here's the final shot of the yard with all the glue mixture applied.

After an hour I removed the tape from the switch machines.

Here's a view from the other side.

AFTER

I really like it!

See you tomorrow for Week 353!

This Week's Goal Progress Report

1. Finish work on Chicago Terminal Engine Maintenance Shop

This Week: Finished adding pipes and fixing the lights. Also ballasted Chicago Terminal Yard and Engine Shop. Lots accomplished.

Next Week: Remove from Project List for now.

2. Continue work on Clinton Ave. wall sections

This  Week: Finish painting and installing the Lake Street and Clinton Street wall sections.

Next Week: Remove from Project List. Take a break.

3. More Work with Locomotives 

This Week: Did not figure out why the two DCC engines running with the shells on make extra noise.

Next Week: Figure this out! If you get nothing else done, get this done!!!

4. Finish work on the upper/lower downtown area Melrose Park

This Week: Did not touch this project.

Next Week: If time, finish details on bridge and underpass - side walks, side walls, etc.