Week 142

Week 142

Sunday, April 16, 2017 thru Saturday, April 22, 2017

Monday, April 17, 2017

TRAIN NIGHT!

Check this out...

Rob Fair glues the stone walls to the sides of the stairwell.
The opposite side of the light side is where he adhere's the glue.
After the glue is applied Rob shines on the light and he secures the walls so they won't move again.

Here's a look down the stairwell as the left wall is secured.
Now Rob will work on the right side wall.

Applies the glue.

Adheres with the light side.

Finished product.

Meanwhile...Jordan sorts his paperwork.

Rob Fair then secures the top seal to the stone wall base.

Rob and I tested the 12V LED lights.
Yes, they worked fabulously.

I drilled the holes for the wires in the building and will create a path for those wires to flow through the building and then down in the opening hole you see in the building base in this picture.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017
TRAIN DAY!

Carlos Baez and Dean Hatzis joined me on some projects from 4-5pm this afternoon.

Check out our progress...

Carlos Baez working on the platform lights at Kedzie Avenue Station.

Dean Hatzis working on 3rd Street Crossing at the Geneva Station.

Making progress...

Dean Hatzis making progress on the concrete island at 3rd Street crossing.

Carlos Baez installing room divider to hide the wires in the back room.

Here you can see the concrete islands in the 3rd Street roadway.

Finished product minus the paint job.

One more look at Rob Fair's work from this past Monday.
That's the stairwell down to Kedzie Avenue.

Week 141

Week 141

Sunday, April 9, 2017 thru Saturday, April 15, 2017

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Jordan and I took off to the Train Show today. We didn't get anything off our list, but we did find a great buy. Here's a picture...

$50 normally over $100.
Not a bad deal. In fact, half off is an excellent deal.
On a side note, I turned 60 today. Whoa!

Monday, April 10, 2017 

Finished installing the chain link fence.
Light off.

Light on.

 Unfortunately, the chain link fence is a bit too short (left) compated to the prototype (right).

That's the unfortunate result of this project.

Before I start over I'll get some feedback from the crew.


Tuesday, April 11, 2017
My grandson, Josh, was over this week and helped me repair some cars.

Check this out...

Josh Crockett shows off one the cars he repaired at the workstation.

Josh Crockett shows the underside of the car he repaired.
He put in metal wheels sets and installed draft gear box and couplers on both ends.
I was impressed!

Here's a close up of one of the other cars we worked on.
You can see the trucks in the background have the couplers attached.
We cut off  the coupler from the truck and then reattached the truck to the truck mount.
See the small drill mark near the right end of the car in the middle?
That's where we mounted the gear box and installed the new Kadee (knuckle) coupler.

You can look back at the previous picture and see the finished product.

Nice work, Josh. I think we fixed two cars and got them back on track.

Week 140

Week 140

Sunday, April 2, 2017 thru Saturday, April 8, 2017

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Ben's last day at home.

He's leaving for his new home in New Hampshire this evening.

While Ben was here I did get a chance to work on the railroad.

Here's what I did today:

First I cleared out the foundation for the station platform.

Next, I cut out and installed the first layer - foam board.

After that layer comes another fill layer - the sidewalk hard board.

Finally I cut out and installed the top coat - asphalt layer.

Hopefully this week we'll complete the project.

We'll install the wood trim, metal tops, hand/guard rails, safety stripes.

For another time, we'll also do the platform shelter and signals.

Monday, April 3, 2017

TRAIN NIGHT!

6pm tonight.

Here's the action for tonight's activities:

Rob Fair is working on raising the rail so the plow in front of the locomotive doesn't get caught on the station platform trim.

In the meantime, I'm working on the Western Avenue sidewalk.

We looked at the clearance after Rob raised the rail.
Looking good.

Another shot.
Look how close the plow is to the left rail head.

The finished sidewalk at the Geneva Station 3rd Street crossing.

In this side view of Kedzie Avenue you can now see the rail even with the platform.
Before you couldn't see the rail because it was below the platform surface.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017
TRAIN DAY!
4pm-5:30pm

Ed Nelson, Jordan Osborn, Carlos Baez, Dean Hatzis and me make up our crew for today.

Ed Nelson working at the workbench.

Carlos Baez, yes, it's really him, working on the poles for the chain link fence at Kedzie Avenue Station.

Dean Hatzis glueing the sidewalk down at 3rd Street Geneva Station

Jordan Osborn at the controls.

Finishing touches on the sidewalk at 3rd Street Geneva, IL.

Length: 00:00:25s

The poles inserted ready for the chain link fence.

Some of the cars Ed Nelson finished today for revenue service.

Saturday, April 8, 2017
Working at Kedzie Avenue Station putting up chain link fence.

A series of shots showing the progress of the chain link fence.
Unfortunately this doesn't end well. See Week 141 for the results.

Did you notice how I used both the high warning signs and the low warning signs as my horizontal supports?

Week 139

Week 139

Sunday, March 26, 2017 thru Saturday, April 1, 2017

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

TRAIN DAY

Lots of visitors today.

Check this out...

Rob Fair brought his daughter, Faith , plus installed his stairwell pocket he fabricated in aluminum at home.

Faith, Rob, and Dean Hatzis trim the aluminum to fit.
Faith and Dean oversaw the operation as Rob did the work.

Two of our guest were Noah (right) and his friend (left).

Noah's parents, Tiffany and Jose.
I met Jose as the overnight staff at Lazarus House.

Here's the rest of the crew working on the new track cleaning car sent in the mail to us from Jordan's Dad, Chris.

Here's the track cleaning car in action. Still shot.

Friday, March 31, 2017
Securing the stone walls to the sides of the stairwell.

From the station platform side.

From the Kedzie Avenue side.

I thought the cuts were 1/16th. I found out the steps were really 1/8".
Here' are the first few sections cut out. 

Here are quite a few more sections.
I ended up getting the 90 degree straight edge and that helped a great deal.

I put the steps on top of each other and got a good idea of how high it should be.

This ground level view is a bit better.

Here is the stairwell installed with steps.

Same stairwell but from the opposite direction.

Another view tryng to capture the 3D impact in 2D imaging.

Finally lookiing directly down on the descending or ascending stairsteps
depending on what direction you're going (up or down :)