Week 323

 Sun, Oct. 4, 2020 thru Sat, Oct. 10, 2020

This week's goals:

1. Finish grove of trees and chain link fence

between Global 1 and California Ave. Metra Facility

2. Work on California Avenue entrance.

3. Work on California Avenue out buildings.

Sun, Oct. 4, 2020

Bringing out the coal train from Powder River Basin.

These next videos show the process and movement of cars

out of the Powder River Basin

Length: 00:00:30 sec.

This video shows the hook up to the back of the train

Length: 00:00:08 sec.

Here is the train leaving Powder River Basin

Length: 00:00:30 sec.

And finally, the train makes the crossover to left hand running.

Length: 00:00:33 sec.

Mon, Oct. 5, 2020

Train Day!

w/Rob Fair and Jordan Osborn

6-8pm 2 hours

 Rob Fair starting off tonight making
posts for the chain link fence.

Jordan Osborn greets the crew to start off the night.

My wife, Jan, thought she could sneak by
without making a cameo appearance.
No way, I had to capture the moment.
Although she made it very clear,
"I'm not here for the trains."

A rare shot of me working :)
Here I'm drilling holes for
the chain link fence posts.

Rob Fair has picked up the action and started 
installing the posts.

Rob Fair reacts to a spider on the layout.
I do have several of them that visit now and again.

Now Rob attaches the fence to the posts.
Looks good, Rob!

Meanwhile, back at the control tower, Jordan
and I make lists of Train Types and power units.

Here's the list that matches the power units with 
the train types.

Videos showing the Coal Train from Powder River Basin

delivering coal to the Melrose Park Power Station

Coming from the mainline to the spur line

Length: 00:00:30 sec.

Begin first leg into the yard at the Power Station

Length: 00:00:16 sec.

End first leg into the yard at the Power Station

Length: 00:00:30

Begin second leg into the yard at the Power Station

Length: 00:00:08 sec.

More work on the chain link fence.

Oops!

The very last thing we did was discover a switch stand too close to the fence post. We had to remove the fence post to get to the switch stand. We thought we glued the post to the switch stand. After further review and nail polish remover, I discovered the switch was stuck due to the ballast and not the glue from the fence post. After Rob and Jordan left for the night, I went back to fix the problem.

Tue, Oct. 6, 2020

No train activity today.

Wed, Oct. 7, 2020

No train activity today.

Thu, Oct. 8, 2020

Working on the RR...

Goal #3 California Ave. Metra Maintenance Facility outbuilding foundation

These are the outbuildings that need foundations
added to get them up to street level.

Step 1
Clear the area.

Step 2
Remove the shoulder from the road.

Step 3
Load the shoulder material into trucks.

Step 4
Haul the material away for later use.

Step 5
Cut out template for "foundation".
I'll be using styrene and an "asphalt" layer for the "foundation"

Fri, Oct. 9, 2020

Working on the RR this afternoon...

Step 6
Using the template, I cut out the "foundation" and
"asphalt" layers I will use to elevate the buildings.

Step 7
Here is the cut out piece of styrene that will bring
the buildings up to street level.

Step 8
I may or may not use the asphalt layer.
I need to see how it all fits together.

SPECIAL GUESTS

After dinner, Mom and Dad came down to check on the progress

After giving an update on the RR, I ran a train
while Mom and Dad counted the cars.

Dad still counting...

We had 31 cars on the train.
Mom and Dad ask good questions when the come 
and check out the layout additions.

Sat, Oct. 10, 2020

Work continues on the RR...

Step 9
Securing the styrene underlayment overnight.

Step 10
Putting the buildings back in place and making
determination if we need to add more layers.

See next week's blog (Week 324) for more progress.

Week 322

 Sun, Sep. 27, 2020 thru Sat, Oct. 3, 2020

This Week's Goals

1. Finish trouble-shooting green traffic lights in downtown Chicago

2. Trouble shoot locomotive derailment near Kedzie Avenue

3. Finish installing yellow overhead traffic signals on Lake Street.

Sun, Sep. 27, 2020

Special Guests:

Charlie & Ida Zielke

Charlie plays with Thomas the Train Engine.

Video of Charlie in action...

Length: 00:00:26 sec.

Mon, Sep. 28, 2020

Train Day!

with Rob Fair & Jordan Osborn

6-7:45pm 1.75 hrs.

Lots accomplished.

Take a look...

Rob Fair getting a close-up look at the trouble area.

Jordan Osborn at the controls.

Taking a lap around the layout.

Video of Jordan taking the train on an overland route.

Length: 00:00:30 sec.

Rob Fair works on making the RR straighter.

The trucks on the train were navigating this part
of the track very roughly.

Hopefully this will solve our problem.

Goal #2 Complete!

Now it's time to finish the green traffic lights
in downtown Chicago.

While Rob Fair works on the traffic lights, I'll
work on adding the yellow overhead traffic light
here at Lake Street. (This is Goal #3)

Rob Fair and team celebrate our accomplishment!

Length: 00:00:07 sec.

Jordan does a jig!

All green lights on and working properly.

Very nice work, Rob Fair!!!

Goal #1 DONE, Complete, Finished!

Tue, Sep. 29, 2020

No train activity today.

Wed, Sep. 30, 2020

No train activity today.

Thu, Oct. 1, 2020

Tonight I will finish Goal #3.

Let's see what that looks like...

It took me a while to get the plastic straw down the
opening for the wire to pass through the layout.
I used some liquid soap and got it to go through okay.

Jordan Osborn stopped by but didn't feel too useful,
so we stopped operations and headed over to his house
to watch some of his video games.

After my visit with Jordan I came back
to finish the yellow traffic signals.
You can see the yellow traffic signal
in the top part of the picture.
At the bottom of the picture are
my tools and solder equipment
to connect the wires together.

Here you can see the east side signal at
Lake Street is installed.

These videos show the working traffic signals.

After installing I was surprised by the results.

Check this out...

Length: 00:00:14 sec.

Here's a look at the east end of Lake Street

Length: 00:00:28 sec.

And here's a look at the west end of Lake Street

Length: 00:00:09 sec.

Fri, Oct. 2, 2020

After subbing today I came home and found a surprise in the mailbox. 

I could hardly wait to install what came in the mail.

Check this out...

A #6 Left hand Atlas Code 100 Nickel Silver turnout.

This will "pave" the way to the Powder River Basin.

A view from Powder River Basin heading back to
the layout.

And now for the really BIG show!

Our first run into the Powder River Basin

Check out these next three videos...

Length: 00:00:21 sec.

Second line of cars into Powder River Basin:

Length: 00:00:23 sec.

And finally, the last batch of cars to load PRB coal.

Length: 00:00:23 sec.

After filling the cars with coal, 

they are now ready for the return trip east 

to the power plant in Melrose Park.

Length: 00:00:22 sec.

One final view before we move out for
our return trip east to the Melrose Park
power plant.

Sat, Oct. 3, 2020

No train activity today.

We visited James & Natalie in the city...

Week 321

 Sun, Sep. 20, 2020 thru Sat, Sep. 26, 2020

This week's goals:

1. Finish putting piles into files (notebooks).

2. Paint "sky" on mirrors over West Chicago

3. Trouble shoot and solve traffic light display in downtown Chicago

4. Repair damaged car lights in downtown Chicago

Sun, Sep. 20, 2020

Mon, Sep. 21, 2020

I got up a bit early today and did some work on Goal #1

Getting closer, but still a ways to go.

Train Day!

w/ Rob Fair 6-8pm 2 hrs.

and Jordan Osborn 7:30-8pm 1/2 hr.

We started off trying to figure out what happened to the green traffic lights.

Length: 00:00:18 sec.

Another video of the traffic lights...

Length: 00:00:22 sec.

You can see one set of green lights are on...

This is over one block east and all are in working order.

Back to the original location. Still not working.

Let's tackle Goal #4.
This is the infamous "Jack Fisher" car he "pulled out"
inadvertently disconnected the wire that powered the lights.

With the power "on" we can see the lights are not working.

With Rob Fair supervising the operation, we now
can see he has fixed the problem.

Goal #4 Complete!

Now on top the next trouble-shooting project.
Goal #3.
Trying to figure out why the green lights are working.

I was stirring the paint and thought
this was an interesting perspective.

While Rob is trouble-shooting the traffic lights,
I will paint the sky.

Trying to capture the "BEFORE" picture.

And now, the AFTER picture.

Back to Rob working in the guts of the city.

Hey, who dat?
It's our buddy, Jordan Osborn who came to "peek in" 
on our progress tonight.

Peace Out, my man!

Tue, Sep. 22, 2020

No train activity tonight.

Wed, Sep. 23, 2020

Still working on Goal #1...

Thu, Sep. 24, 2020

We are going to finish this tonight!

OK, here's the plan.
See if you can spot what changes in the next few pictures...

What changed? The office supplies...
Pencils, Pens, tape, scissors, three-hole punch...gone!

What changed?
3 ring binders and calendars...gone!

What changed?
2 sets of binders, CCT notebooks...gone!

Goal #1 Complete.
Piles into files (three ring binders) DONE!

This is where the 3-ring binders went after
the dining room table.

Looks like this could be another goal in the
not-to-distant future.

Final resting place for most of the binders.

I'll keep the calendars with receipts under the printer.

Fri, Sep. 25, 2020

Jordan Osborn stopped by for about an hour today...

Jordan Osborn getting acquainted with our new binders.

We also ran a 30 car train.
Unfortunately we found problems with the second
C40-8 locomotive derailing at Elmhurst.

We will tackle that little problem on Monday with Rob Fair

during our Train Day!

Sat, Sep. 26, 2020

Here's another landing place for other 3-ring binders.
These are the ones I'll use to check and record rolling stock records.