Subtropical Weather

Our back yard in Kingwood, Texas. We thought we'd left this kind of weather back in Idaho.

Backdrop Postponed

I've decided I'm not ready to put up the backdrop yet, so my Lowe's purchase will wait. I still have some more track to lay, so I'll hold off until that's completed. One project at a time, except...

...I will "convert" my 0-6-0 to an oil burner. It looks like a fairly simple job. I plan to use styrene to modify the coal bunker...cover it, essentially...per some old Model Railroader prototype drawings I found in my files, in particular an 0-6-0 from the Portland, Oregon terminal railway.

Fine Tuning Trackwork, Etc.

Track
I've spent quite a bit of time the last couple of days testing the track I've laid so far. And so far, so good. I've had to make some adjustments, especially at a particular pair of closely-placed turnouts, but these weren't too difficult. My NW-2 diesel seems to run through just about anything without balking, but my 0-6-0 steam engine is pickier, so I use it for my initial testing. It is very adept at finding any spots where the gauge is a hair too wide or a spike hasn't been driven deeply enough and it protruding. Thus, when the steam loco rolls smoothly through a section of trackwork or a turnout, I'm satisfied it's safe to "sign off" on the work.

Backdrop
I plan to get over to Lowe's tomorrow and, among other things, buy backdrop material. I'm going to use Masonite, 1/8" if available. Since my layout is "semi-modular" I plan to cut the backdrop material the same length as each section. It will be 16" high (my layout is 42" high). My corners are too tight to allow bending Masonite, even with soaking it (as Darrell suggested), so I'm going to use the back of linoleum for the corners, just as I did on my Idaho layout. On that layout I blended the segments, including the linoleum, with patching plaster, which proved to be effective and durable (see my photos in last June's postings).

Weird Weather
This is strictly an aside, nothing to do with model railroading. My main reason to head to Lowe's is to buy some material for insulating a pipe leading to one of our outside faucets. A cold wave is heading toward the Houston area and there may even be a little snow on Friday. Last year it did snow, on December 10th, tying a record for the earliest snow here, a record that would be broken if it indeed snows this Friday. This area is subtropical, and on average receives snow every four years, and miniscule amounts at that. So two years in a row? We must have brought along some sort of snow curse when we moved here from Idaho, thinking we'd left that kind of weather behind!!

Turntable Plans and Photos

As promised, these are the plans and photos showing how I constructed and installed my hand-operated turntable. I want to stress that none of this comes from any idea of mine; as mentioned in a previous post, this setup is based on a 1951 Model Railroader article. Likewise, the wiring scheme comes from an installment of the"From Pillar To Post" series that ran in the same magazine in 1949.

Photos 1, 2

These plans are pretty self-explanatory. The only thing I'd point out is that my particular turntable design is based on prototypes where the pit rail wheels at each end of the turntable are all but concealed under the turntable bridge structure. I at first considered adding the wheels, but since they wouldn't really be visible, I left them off for simplicity's sake.

Photo 3

Underside of the control disk, which was cut from a piece of particleboard.

Photos 4, 5

Overall views of the turntable, approach track, and the three roundhouse tracks, each of which are independently powered.

Photo 6

Underside of the turntable pit.

Photo 7

The turntable bridge.

Photo 8

Closeup of the wiper, constructed from 1/4 inch-wide brass, and bent to provide a "spring" effect to ensure good contact with the pit rail.

Photo 9

Pit rail, including one of the gaps; the gaps will later be filled by small pieces of rail glued into place. The coating of glue will act as insulation.*

Photo 10

This is an "armstrong" turntable, plausibly still in use in 1947 since it serves only a small, three-stall roundhouse.

*Nov. 29 note: I wound up using small pieces of rail-sized stripwood to ensure the gaps remained insulated...safer than using rail, even with the glue.

Our Dog

The last couple of weeks have been pretty difficult for Susie and me. Our 13-1/2 year old dog, Daisy, suddenly developed severe, very painful spinal problems and, though our veterinarian did all she possibly could, our only reasonable and humane course was to end her terrible suffering and have Daisy put to sleep.

Daisy was a 9 lb. mix of poodle, Lhasa Apso, Yorkshire, and Pomeranian. She was the kind of dog everybody immediately liked...very friendly, extremely intelligent, well-behaved and loyal. She got along well with other dogs and, especially, with cats.

I have had a lot of pets...cats and dogs...in my 62 years, but she was the very best. Daisy, like many dogs, loved to ride in the car. She went everywhere with us and had been in least two dozen states. We got Daisy when we lived in Portland, Oregon, when she was 6 weeks old. She was an important, much-loved member of our family.

Thanksgiving

My family and I have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We are all in good health and are doing well in every aspect of our lives. We have been blessed repeatedly and abundantly and we are all grateful to God.

I'm especially thankful that we all live close by one another, which is pretty remarkable considering none of us are originally from Texas. Our two daughters' husbands each were offered jobs here in early 2008; at their urging we moved here, too, and we're glad we did. I don't think our gathering here is a coincidence, and I'm grateful to God for that, too.

Turntable Progress

I've begun installing the turntable, which consists of essentially putting it back together after months in storage. The pit rail is in and I'm doing a little refurbishing on the bridge, including new decking and some paint touchup. I'll have step-by-step progress photos in my next post.

I just returned from a visit to the local hobby shop. I'm laying in some supplies for projects that will be coming up soon, such as plastic brick sheeting, which will be used for my new depot and for a partial rebuilding of my roundhouse. I was satisfied with the roundhouse when I built it, but I think it can be improved.

I'm also stocking up on paint. In recent years I've switched entirely from oil-based to water-based "railroad" paints. I like the lack of odor and easy cleanup with water-based paint and the ability to mix the railroad paints with other acrylics. My local hobby shop has only some oil-based paint on hand, but was happy to order the water-based I want.

I had an interesting conversation with the hobby shop man, who said he seldom gets a request for paint or other scratchbuilding supplies these days. He thinks the craft of building models from kits is disappearing, along with scratchbuilding. He said many younger hobbyists seem baffled at the very idea. My son-in-law Craig, who is in his 30s and who does scratch and kit building of aircraft and ships, has noticed the same trend in that type of modeling.

It's a hobby, so to each his own, but I get a lot of enjoyment out of building. I find it relaxing. I get completely absorbed, and I don't care how long it takes. I've had projects take days, weeks...a wooden passenger coach actually took years! I kept it in a shoebox and worked on it when I felt like it, and had a great time in the process.