Altivo

But not all that warm. Temperatures in the 50F range, dropped quickly to the low 40s at sunset. Tess got to go out for a couple of hours, which made her happy. I hope she didn't eat too much grass.

Gary did a whole lot of mowing, which generally means he's avoiding something. I figure it's schoolwork.

I put a second light coat of paint on the locomotive shell I'm doing up as a Detroit, Toledo & Ironton model. As it dried, I thought I'd need a third coat, but I'm not so sure now. With the addition of some dust or mud in places where the base orange color is thin, it should appear quite realistically rusty and dirty judging by the color photos I have of similar locos.

Then I have decals to apply with road numbers and logos, and finally a light coat of a clear, non-glossy protective finish.

This morning we went to an open house at the Lake County Model Railroad Club. They weren't charging admissions, but they were holding various raffles. One required a donation of canned goods to the local food pantry, so we took along some canned soups to trade for a raffle ticket. The trains themselves were pretty impressive. The club has been there for 40 years, in the cellar space below a barber and a coffee shop on Main Street in Wauconda. They say they have 350 feet of HO rail installed and operating, but I'd guess at somewhat more than that if you count the sidings and turnarounds. The tracks and tables wind around the space and through the middle, with narrow aisles between them. Much of the humor we enjoy in model railroad displays was present, such as "Dan's Fill Dirt and Croissants" (a scale earthworks with scrapers and trucks, and just a quonset hut for building. I enjoyed finding a sign on the side of a building reading "Play Furt Banjos" and then down the line and around a corner the actual factory building of the "Furt Banjo Makers." I was also amused by one of the club members who said they meet every Friday evening and guests are welcome but "Don't come on the first Friday because that's the business meeting and all you'll see is a bunch of old men arguing." Their membership is not all old, though. There were at least two members participating in operating the trains and explaining the layout who were certainly under 25 and one of them perhaps even under 20.

On the way back, stopped to pick up Gary's new glasses that he ordered last week, then for lunch, and finally to pick up various supplies and grocery items at three different stores along the way. Sounds inefficient, I know, but each of the places is best for some things and not so brilliant for others, and we were going to pass them all so I wanted to take advantage of that rather than making a special trip later.

Came home, put stuff away, took care of critters, and it was time to make dinner. Tonight I did stuffed sweet peppers, something we like but don't often do. (One of the stores had a good price on bell peppers, which is what this dish uses. It isn't authentic Mexican by any means, even though it does use some Mexican style ingredients.) It turned out well.

Next weekend there is a show and sale at Harper College in Palatine, both days, We may go to that as well if we can find time.

Normal. Shopping, chores, cooking...

After dinner I tried some experiments with polymer clay to see whether I really can construct N scale figures. Two bears clowning and a horse engineer sticking his head out the window... They are recognizable, and I cured them in the oven without them melting into a puddle which is what I really expected. The figures need to be a bit tinier, but I'm getting the idea of how to construct and assemble them.

No photo because I used dark colored (bear fur) clay and there isn't enough contrast to see the details. I don't know if I can use different colors of clay at this tiny scale. I expect to have to paint them instead. May try that with the samples tomorrow if I get time.

Also dismantled a GP7 loco shell in preparation for painting. Oh jeez, so many tiny parts. But figured it out and separated out all the necessary bits. Some get painted black, some orange, and the couplers don't get painted at all. Neither do the windows, which fortunately can be snapped out and don't have to be masked individually. I do plan to hook up the airbrush and start this paint job tomorrow.

Also got the necessary decals in the mail to apply heralds and numbers to the two engines after they are painted, and today finally found some semi-gloss clear acrylic overcoat to apply once the painting and detailing is done.

Bed is calling now.

Well on Friday night I predicted a "slowdown" for the weekend and said I was looking forward to it. What we got was in fact a "snowdown" with additional snow each day. Nothing significant, but enough to cover up the ground and roofs each day with new clean white flakes. A total of perhaps an inch or more, not enough to be a big deal, but certainly pretty each morning.

Actually, it has been reasonably warm too for January, with temperatures just below freezing down to about 24F or so.

Gary had a workshop to attend in Chicago, was gone much of the day. I wasn't sure when he'd get back, so I made dinner in the crockpot. It was pretty successful: meatloaf made from ground turkey with onions, garlic, green pepper, etc. and roasted with tiny potatoes and carrots for about 8 hours. Smelled tasty and was ready when he did get home about 7 pm. Now we have three days' worth of leftovers in the fridge so he won't have to cook much this week. Salmon patties from last night, and pizza from Friday, together with the meatloaf will carry us through Thursday. That's my half day of work so I can cook again when we get that far.

All the t-trak module bases are glued and set. Now they need to be sanded and given a primer coat. One is to have a short steel span bridge with a river or lake under it, and furries fishing and canoeing. Another gets a bee yard with bears tending the hives and extracting honey. A third will have the train passing a schoolyard with furry children and teachers on the playground, and the fourth is probably going to have a honey processing plant with bulk honey being loaded into tank cars and packaged honey into box cars for shipment. Gary also gave me an N scale stable building and half a dozen horses in the same scale that I can use to occupy one of the square corners of the layout.

I'm also hoping to prepare passenger cars with furry passengers, conductor, and a post office clerk preparing to snag a mail bag in passing. I'm not so sure I can manage my original design to place a horse engineer at the controls of an N scale GP-7 locomotive, though. There just isn't enough space in the cab of the locomotives. Though they have windows that could be used, the interior space is almost entirely occupied by the internal mechanical parts. I need to do some experimenting with that.

didn't spend any money. Well, except the admission fee. The exhibits were good, though. Even a furry in a lion suit (Lenny the Lionel Lion.)

So sleepy. Can't write more just now. Zzzzzzzzz

Cleaned and checked, they passed their exam this morning. ;p

Gary drove me to Park Ridge, which is quite close to his mom's house, and dropped me at the dentist. They went shopping while I was at the dentist, then we met back up for lunch. Then we left her off at her preferred supermarket and went to a nearby hobby shop to get glue and paint. Back to pick her up at the store, then help carry in the groceries for her before heading home to the farm.

Got back in time to do barn chores and put the outside critters to bed, then Gary had choir practice. When he got back from that we had leftovers for supper.

And that was a longer day than it sounds.

Three items came in the mail. One was a set of three passenger cars for the railroad. The second was an "RPO" cover, a letter mailed in Springfield, Ohio, in 1950 with the cancellation text "Transfer Clerk RMS Springfield OH." The "RMS" stands for "Railroad Mail Service" and means that the letter was carried and probably sorted by a railroad post office car. At that time and place, the train could only have been a Detroit Toledo & Ironton run, either train 1 or 2. Both were mixed freight and passenger, and carried mail. The locomotives in 1950 were 2-8-2 steam engines, as DT&I was just beginning to experiment with diesels for switching in its larger yards.

The third item was the pressure regulator for the air brush compressor. While I believe I understand how to connect and use this, some sort of instruction sheet would certainly have been appropriate. It has none. It also has female threaded connections for both input and output, which are going to require some brass couplings to adapt it to the compressor. I imagine those are readily available, just have to find them.

The passenger cars are two regular coaches and a combination REA/RPO and coach. Existing photos indicate that these are similar to those used on DT&I mixed trains 1 and 2 during the 40s.

Tired of it yet?

Gary wanted to try another hobby shop, this time in Janesville, Wisconsin. That's a bit of a drive, but since he was willing to do the driving, we went. The reason for picking this one? Their name was stamped on a 2002 copy of the Walther HO catalog that he had. He called them, they were open today, and had a different address. They did have the 2012 Walther catalog (which is actually a comprehensive illustrated guide to available train model parts, cars, locomotives, and accessories) for N and Z scale, too.

As it turned out, they didn't have any Kato track, as he had hoped. We need a couple of wiring parts, and Kato uses a custom connector plug. But they had piles of used rolling stock and locomotives at attractively cheap prices. Gary was drawn to a little Diesel switch engine for just $5, and when placed on a test track it did work, but fitfully. He also found an 0-6-0 tank engine switcher for $3, but that one was dead, or apparently. Fortunately I spotted another just like it that "sort of" ran. So we bought them, the catalog, and a couple of cattle cars I picked out. I also got a bottle of orange paint that will do for the GP7 to approximate the right color for DT&I livery.

After we got back home, fed horses and sheep, and then fed ourselves, I put together a 30 inch straight piece of test track with a bumper at each end and started cleaning and oiling the locomotives. Both came back to life, and even their headlamps are working. They run credibly going forward, and somewhat better going backward. I suspect wear on the motor brushes and probably the contact brushes that pick up power from the wheels. The 0-6-0 also suffered from some previous bad repair, as someone had put the rear axle together backward. Once that was corrected, and the side rods synchronized, it runs fairly well.

Here are photos of each:





The steam locomotive has no tender, but it is supposed to be that way. There is a small coal bin visible on the back of the cab, and a large "saddle-like" tank that sits over the top of the boiler to hold extra water and keep it warmed ready for use. Such engines were more agile for switchyard work, but generally not suited to long hauls on the road because they didn't carry enough fuel and water.

I also picked up a book on locomotive and rolling stock maintenance and repair that may come in handy if we keep buying cheap used stuff.

One is PRR and the other is ATSF. Both are metal cabooses when you look at them closely, because you can see the rivets holding the flat panels together. The PRR was owner of DT&I from 1929 until it was dissolved to form Conrail, and the lines did have interchange so I may leave that one alone, at least for now. I still need to find a wooden caboose with a center cupola and four windows on the lower level for use with the steam train. The other metal caboose I intend to repaint in the bright yellow and red scheme the DT&I used in later years. I think the interior walls used to be aqua, too, but it looks like it will be too much bother to get inside there and paint those. Photos this weekend, maybe. They're cute little guys.

Tomorrow is the great Christmas bird count. First time in several years that we've had no snow on the ground for it, and I'm sure that will affect what we see (or don't see.) It's going to be cold, but not nearly as cold as the last couple of years. I just hope the wind stays down.

Just the weather, that's all I mean. Supposed to start raining tonight and continue all day tomorrow. Bleah. No looking at the meteor shower for us.

At lunch time I was able to locate a couple of potentially useful CAD programs for experimenting with track layout. These let you specify the brand and scale of track you are using for your model railroad, and then provide a menu of all the standard curves, switches, straight pieces, etc. So you can click and drag to assemble anything and see how it will fit in a given space and whether you come out even when closing a loop or whatever. Very handy. Also found some sample layouts on our preferred manufacturer's website that use some amazingly clever tricks and arrangements. Some fairly complex layouts that fit in just 2x3 feet or a bit larger.

Received a birthday gift of cash in the mail today that will probably end up buying track pieces for this project.

Farrier comes in the morning to trim hooves, and I'm back on the old Wednesday schedule (no split shift, yay!) so I'll be here to hold them for him. Not a bad birthday present, that. Gary wants me to go with him into Chicago on Thursday to visit hobby shops near his mom's house. He's as enthusiastic about this as I am, or perhaps even moreso.

Anyway, need to find bed for now.

On the spur of the moment this morning, we decided to spend the afternoon at the Great Midwest Train Show in DuPage County. Bit of a drive, but it was a huge model railroad flea market and fun to browse. Here's the point where I'm supposed to admit that I bought a bunch of stuff I didn't need, but the truth is, neither of us bought anything. Still, we had fun and saw a lot of interesting things.

Now, here's a picture of two N scale boxcars with Detroit Toledo & Ironton RR markings:



But I didn't get these at the show. I bought them off Ebay last week for $4 apiece. We saw two or three just like them at the show, offered for the same price. I saw no other DT&I rolling stock, though. If I had seen some appropriate items without markings, I might have bought them to customize myself, though. These two cars need some detailing to make them stand out better, but all that requires is a fine brush and a little thinned down paint. I'll photograph them again when I'm done with that.

I was really hoping to find a bargain on an N scale locomotive, but no such luck. I have very specific ones in mind, and again I want to be able to "brand" them for the DT&I. I'd like a good steam locomotive, and for the post-WWII era I'm after, it should apparently be a 2-8-2 heavy Mikado style engine, at least as far as I can tell from period photographs. I'd also like a GP-7 or GP-9, or even a pair, and preferably the earlier 7. Most of the Diesels we saw were later, heavier models, but the Geeps were what DT&I used at that time period.