Week 356

 Sun, May 23, 2021 thru Sat, May 29, 2021

Count	Priority	Key
3	A	Top - This Week
5	B	Top - Next Week
4	C	Mid - This Month
6	D	Mid - Next Month
2	E	Low - This Year
3	F	Low - Next Year
6	G	Completed/Done!
29

Project Priority List
Priority	Origination Date	Latest Update	Project Name	Project Description	Done! Date
A	5/11/2021	5/23/2021	Facia Labels	Major landmarks	Started labels
A	5/11/2021	5/16/2021	PRB Overpass	Prepare for illuminated truck headlights	Started first section
A	5/18/2021	5/18/2021	Purchase one more early overpass kit	Need one more section to complete this project
B	5/17/2021	5/17/2021	Wire up the lights for the trucks on the PRB overpass	Will need to purchase another packet of early bridge works by Rix
B	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	West Chicago Station	Platform/lighting
B	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Finish Bridge/Underpass	Melrose Park downtown curbs, sidewalks, gutters, buildings
B	5/13/2021	5/13/2021	RIP Shop track floor inside building	do this before ballasting
B	5/15/2021	5/15/2021	Extended East yard at PRB	Tracks 2,3 extended 2 inches
C	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Winfield/Berkeley Station	Platform/lighting
C	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Oak Park Marion Street Station	Lighting/kitbashing
C	5/13/2021	5/13/2021	ballast RIP Shop	finishing touches
C	5/18/2021	5/18/2021	Mainline ballasting	Between Crossover #2 and WeGo Diamonds - back tracks in front of WeGo downtown
D	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Oak Park Marion Street Downtown	Streets, sidewalks, gutters
D	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Redo Digitrax Sound Decoder	GP50 #53 w/Carlos
D	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Install Sound Decoder	F40PH #138 w/Carlos
D	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Building under construction	Chicago Downtown - cross beams, flooring, lights, facade
D	5/20/2021	5/20/2021	Purchase UP5 and cable	For Global 1 switching
D	5/13/2021	5/13/2021	Ballast mainline through WeGo	Paint ballast first
E	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Wheaton/Bellwood Station	Platform/lighting
E	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Grusome Casket Co. details	Scenery landscaping, grass, parking, sidewalks, etc.
F	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	West Chicago Downtown	Building/Street lights, sidewalks, curbs, gutter
F	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Install Interior lighting	Commuter Cars/Cabs
F	5/11/2021	5/11/2021	Purchase Interior Lighting	Commuter Cars/Cabs

Sun, May 23, 2021

Working on A Priority Project #1

I'm going to try filling the top gaps with glue to hopefully make it more level.

We'll see...

Mon, May 24, 2021

Train Day!

w/Rob Fair 6-8pm 2 hrs.

and Jordan Osborn 7-8pm 1 hr.

Rob Fair will be working on locomotive CNW SD40-2 #6922.
It has performed poorly - mainly terrible sound as it runs down the track.
Rob is going to research and figure out why this happens.

First step is to take off the shell and look around.
Here Rob probes and pokes around.

Then he attaches the wires from the throttle to check performance.

With the shell on it sounds horrible.

But with the shell off it purrs like a kitten...

Length: 00:00:14 sec.

Meanwhile, I'm checking my labels to make sure I have
them all. From Chicago Terminal to Geneva.

Calling it a night.
See you again soon!

Tue, May 25, 2021

First order of business tonight is to change out the old labels with new labels.

Here are the BEFORE and AFTER pictures...

BEFORE                                           AFTER

Worked on moving all the Commuter Coaches/Cabs to the California Avenue Coach Yard

All four active coach/cabs in place at California Avenue Maintenance Facility

Drone view of the four commuter trains.

And this is the workhorse that moved them from the Chicago Terminal to this destination.

I also added the Amtrak train to the mix.

And finally, an empty Chicago Terminal just before filling the station for the evening commute.

Wed, May 26, 2021

It's very interesting how projects get added to the list last minute...

I started bringing the commuter trains over to California Ave Coach Yards and realized I need them to fit into the yard. In order for that to happen I need to expand the tracks to the west. Right now the tracks are about half a car too short. Here's some work I'll need to do to prepare the way for the new tracks.

First I put in some cork to match the existing cork.

Jordan stopped by to give me a pre-Father's Day gift from him and his mom, Chrissa.
Thank you Jordan and Chrissa!

I'll also need some new track bumpers so I put these together tonight.

Thu, May 27, 2021

Raining day means time for trains...

Here's where I mounted the pre-Father's Day gift from
Chrissa & Jordan! Thank you!

Meanwhile...what's going on in the basement?
You'll see in the following pictures I need to expand the size of the Coach Yard.

I tried using cork but it turned the cork was too thick.

So I switched to using the "asphalt" as the base and that turned out "just right".

Next thing to do is glue it down. Then wait for the weights.

More building to prepare for the weights.

This will do just fine.

After waiting a few hours, it's time to lay the track.

Add the bumpers.

Check to see if each track will fit 3 cars. That was the goal.
As you can see, it will be a little tricky since two of the tracks overlap the others.

This is what the Coach Yard will look like when the cars are ready to return to Chicago Terminal.

An EMPTY Chicago Terminal since all the cars are being serviced at the Maintenance Facility.

A FULL Chicago Terminal ready for rush hour.

One more adjustment. I needed a little more space so I added a piece of cork at the end to extend
the bumpers.

What's left?

Just need to put up a wall around the tracks to protect the train property and the quarry.

Then I need to ballast the tracks. I should be able to get this done this weekend.

Fri, May 28, 2021

A few more details to the end of the Coach Yards...

I added a piece of cork at the end to extend the track just a bit more...

Then I sprinkled with ballast...

And finally, glued the ballast in place.

Sat, May 29, 2021

I mainly worked on the computer today putting together the operations worksheets.

This is the drawing I used to switch the cars at Powder River Basin.

The drawing became this worksheet so the engineer
can follow the steps to switch a train and then to make the 
return train back to Melrose Park Power Plant.