Week 463

 Sun, Jun 11, 2023 thru Sat, Jun 17, 2023

Sun, Jun 11, 2023

Working on the RR...

Two separate times this afternoon. 1/2 hr. each time.

The first 1/2 hour I wired up the south side of the tracks.

The next 1/2 hour I wired up the first 5 lights on 
the north side of the tracks.

You can begin to see how the downtown lighting will be taking shape.

I added two more lit lamp posts to Marion Street.

Here's a closeup of Marion Street with half the 
street lights wired up.

What's really cool about these lights is the reflection off the building windows makes it look like the building lights are also on - but they're not.

Mon, Jun 12, 2023

I got up early this morning to work on the LED light registers. 

I installed and soldered 12 of them under the table this morning.

Here's an overall shot under the table of the 12
resisters I will solder to the positive LED lead.

A closeup of the work I finished yesterday.

Another view.

One more view. It's a mess, but I don't know of
any other way except this way.

This is the first section I started on yesterday.
It's the street section south of the tracks.

Train Day!

w/Jordan Osborn & Marcus Thorsen 6-8pm 2 hrs.

Opening discussion before our session tonight.

What about UFOs? Does the govt. really have evidence?

This is the piece Marcus brought tonight.

Marcus also brought some switches for me to pick
and choose.

Here's the one I will use.
Thanks so much, Marcus!

Cutting the opening for the signal bridge.

Putting the piece in place.

Jordan keeping calm at the Control Tower.

Use the hot glue gun to secure the wall piece in place.

Here's the line of wall sections Marcus
has made for this part of the layout.

Now it's time to run a train.
Marcus comes to work on the RR, but also likes to 
run trains.

Our test train waits patiently along the elevated track
and the new wall sections Marcus made to enhance the layout.

Tue, Jun 13, 2023

I got up early this morning and finished the wiring for the Marion Street lights.

Connecting all the commons and positives together.

More views of the spaghetti mess.

I'm hoping this will all work.

YES! It does!

All of the lights on Marion Street are on and operational.

Night scene.

Full street view.

I also turned on the Oak Park Marion Street Station lights.

And then tonight...

Starting over on the Train Order Board

BEFORE

The full Train Order Board before clearing.
The time frame for this board is
from January 19th to April 10th 

REFRESH

Getting the Board ready to start all over.

AFTER

I'll show you the Board after I complete this schedule tomorrow...

Securing the street lights in place and making sure they are at the same level:

Cutting "blocks" to make sure each light pole
is the same length.

"Blocks" in place. Ready to glue the posts in place.

Same view, night scene.

The first light pole on the left has no "block".

That's because the wires are too short. 

I need to lengthen the wires under the street 

so the pole can be extended above the street a bit more.

Wed, Jun 14, 2023

I added the additional wires below for the light post on 
the left foreground. Then I glued in the posts and the heights
for permanent placement.

Still working on updating the Train Order Board.
This is the worksheet I use to classify the trains
in Proviso Yard.

After I finish the worksheet, I will have a very good
idea where all the cars for every train set is located.

Thu, Jun 15, 2023

I got up early and worked a bit on the RR...

I made 4 blocks to hold the light poles in place for
gluing securely in the most consistent way possible.

After the first poles set this morning, I set the next
four pieces in place before supper.

After supper I used those same blocks to place the
last four street lamp posts in place.

Let's take a look and see how the tall street lamp
posts look from a distance.

Look beyond the tracks too.

Fri, Jun 16, 2023

Quite a bit of work done on the RR today...

This morning I finished up the paperwork.
Let me explain...

This sheet helps me assign
the locomotive power to an
individual train consist depending
on activity.

I use this worksheet to schedule trains out of
Proviso Yard and then into Proviso Yard.

After the worksheet is finished I use this form to
do a mock up of the Train Order Board.

Finally, I complete the Train Order Board with
Priority markings, locomotive assignments,
 and directional movements. I will wait for the
run to assign the Engineers & Conductors.

This afternoon, I needed to prepare Proviso Yard for
the first train out of Proviso Yard on the Train Order Board.
See the red hopper with the tab on top on Track 2 on the CNW (left) side?
Those cars need to be moved to Track 3b on the UP (right) side.

I'm moving those seven (7) cars from CNW side to
the UP side.

After clearing the crossover I'm ready to take that
same crossover to the inside track and then into the 
CNW yard at Proviso.

Those seven (7) cars are now in place.
Can you see them? Count from the mainline to the 
right. Track 1, 2, 3. The red hopper is visible in
the foreground.

The last thing I need to do is to place these 10 test 
cars in their respective train consists.

In this picture you can see I've placed three test cars.
Look for the card labels in the middle of each test car.

You can see two more in this photo.

Two more in this photo.

And three more in this last photo.

That makes 10 altogether. If you counted 12 you are correct. 

Two of them were leftover from a different session. 

Good eye!

Sat, Jun 17, 2023

Leaving for Vail CO and the Meyer Family Reunion.

Jan's side of the family.

We arrived at North Platte NE home of the largest railroad yard in the world. Bailey Yard.

Here are some pictures close to where we stayed.

A stack train ready to depart east bound.

An arriving wb stack train.

My cute granddaughter, Lissette, came to the rail
yard to look at trains with Boppa.

Finally, an incoming wb mixed freight arrives
Bailey Yard.