Week 481

 Sun, Oct 15, 2023 thru Sat, Oct 21, 2023

Sun, Oct 15, 2023

There was a Railroad Show at the Kane Co. Fairgrounds today.

Jordan, Marcus and I went to see what we could find...

Here's the cost breakdown of what happened.
Two boxcars, 100 Intermountain metal wheel sets,
two decks of playing cards with a cool metal container.
Total $125.55

Next up for Trains:

The cousins were together and Charlie kept asking

about running trains. Before they left for the day,

we went to the train room and played with trains.

At the Control Tower getting ready to run trains.

Here are Josiah and Lissette following Charlie's train.

Charlie is the Engineer on this Metra Commuter Train 1A.

Josiah watches the train closely.

The three of them are "in the hole" waiting their turn.

As Lissette runs her train, Charlie and Josiah watch
the monitors.

Lissette watching her train closely.

She did a great job moving around the layout
with her train.

Finally, Josiah gets a turn at being the engineer.

Watching the train leave Oak Park Marion Street station.

We played trains for 19 minutes and it was time to go.

Mon, Oct 16, 2023

Train Day!

w/Rob Fair (6-8pm 2 hrs.) and 

Marcus Thorsen (6:15-7:45pm 1.5 hrs.)

Our session's opening discussion: The Railroad
Show at the Kane Co. Fairgrounds we attended.

I wanted to work on the Train Order Board, but
Marcus wanted to see some action, so I sent Rob
and Marcus to the Powder River Basin to switch
out the Unit Coal Train.

Making progress. Rob did a great job explaining
what he was doing with Marcus.

We didn't finish the job, but we'll come back to it
soon enough.

Train Order Board final schedule.

Train Order Board cleared.

Train Order Board new schedule.

Tue, Oct 17, 2023

I worked at the workbench tonight putting the new cars through inspection and repairing the commuter car's coupler that broke at out last session.

This is the first car I put through inspections.
I need to move this car from the RIP track to the 
California Avenue PICK track. The reason?
This car is assigned to Mixed Freight 5D and the 
next time that train runs it is going EB. The California
Avenue PICK track is for EB pick ups.

This is the next car I worked on through the inspection
steps. It is assigned to Train 5A and will remain here
for the next WB run of Mixed Freight Train 5A.

This is the inspection results
for the car shown above.

This is the inspection report
for the first car I worked on tonight.

Finally the last car to inspect and repair.
Commuter Car #1002 assigned to Commuter Train 1D.

The previous coupler broke and I had to install a brand
new coupler. It was an EZ Mate by Bachman.

This is the Inspection Report
I used to repair and maintain
the Commuter Car.

Ready for pick up next time Commuter Train 1D
runs by California Ave Maintenance Facility.

I moved the box car for Mixed Freight Train 5D
to the PICK track at California Ave. I also moved
the Commuter Car assigned to Train 1D to the
repair shed shown in the background.

Wed, Oct 18, 2023

More car inspections...

I'm going to scrap the two red cars and try to get
through inspections on the others.

I've removed the couplers and draft gear boxes as
well as the trucks and wheels. SCRAP completed.

I was able to put three cars through vigorous inspections
and hopefully they will all pass their test runs. I have one
more car to do - maybe tomorrow night?

These are the cars I finished inspecting.
They are assigned to Mixed Freight Train 5A.
The next time that train runs is EB, therefore,
they will be picked up here at Track 1 of the
California Avenue Maintenance Facility. 

Thu, Oct 19, 2023

Finishing up the cars at the workbench tonight...

One more to go...

All four cars that were removed from service a
couple of weeks ago and ready to go back in service.

The next time we run this train it will be ready for an EB pick up.

Fri, Oct 20, 2023

I got up early this morning to get some work done on the RR

The first 15 minutes I rearranged the well cars
so they would be in their proper order.

All set.
I knew it took three tracks to hold this train.

Here's Intermodal Train 2B place in f (front),
m (middle), and r (rear) positions.

Now to move onto the checklist.

Having problems with power outage by the
Chicago Terminal crossover.

After testing, I determined the bad joint that needs
to be bridged.

Here's my solder job.

The locomotive is directly over the spot I fixed
and I know it works because the light is still on
plus it ran flawlessly over the rails on the approach.

Total time elapsed this morning, 1.25 hrs.

One item on the checklist completed - DONE!

This afternoon I started a paint project.

Where did THAT come from?

Jan & I were moving some stuff in the basement
and saw all these plants I plan to use for trees.

I decided it's time for action. So I'm painting them
to be used on the RR. I started painting the trunks black.

Flipped them over to paint the trunks' other side.

Now it's time to start with the light green paint.

Flip the trees over to do the other side.

After adding the three other colors, I have finished.

Jordan stopped by and said, "The trees are too dark.
They look like trees caught in the moonlight."

The previous photo was taken without flash.
This one is taken with flash. These are the dark trees.

After painting the trees a more green color, I used
flash to capture the change.

These are the green trees without flash.

What do you think Jordan? Does that look better?

Project Paint Comments for next time:

I painted the trunks black & brown before painting the tree leaves green.

I will switch that order around next time.

Paint the leaves with green spray paint and then paint the trunks black/brown.

I miscalculated the overspray.

Sat, Oct 21, 2023

Let's get started on the Train Order Board.

Kicking off the new Train Order Board with the
Intermodal Train 2B

The first train to depart is Priority Train #1 which is Intermodal Train 2B led by 

Locomotive Power UP AC6000 #7510 Power Code B5

Here's the "light" power on its way to making up the train.

Pulling the first section of Intermodal Train 2B.

Pulling the middle section WB out of Proviso Yard

The full train is on the mainline ready to depart.

Crossover #2 will be the lap counter location.

I didn't get too far before trouble comes...
in the form of uncoupling the first car from the locomotive!
UGH!

I tried to fix the problem by taping the couplers together...

That didn't work.

I called Rob to see if he can bring another long shank coupler which will match the one on the locomotive. I will try to replace the car coupler with the long shank and see if that works.

You can also see the couplers are off a bit at the horizontal level.

Heading WB past Geneva station.

This is where I took the coupler picture. I didn't get too far before things started happening...