Model Railroading Diary (02-12-10)

It has been a while since I reported my activities on the room my model railroad is in. I have not been as busy as I should be, mainly because my brother has not had space in his schedule to visit. I have been working on the railroad... in his absence.

I have not looked back at other reports to see where I left off, so some of these may repeat what was covered before.

I actually sorted through boxes that was once in the train room, seeing what can be disposed of, what can be concentrated, and what can go elsewhere. I got rid of two trash bags worth of papers that were dumped into boxes and stowed away, to get them out of sight. In the process, I have emptied a whole bunch of boxes that won't have to go back into the train room closet. None of the boxes were completely full
I have gotten to the point where I am digging through the bins and boxes of train stuff. Consolidating is making a difference in being able to find materials later.
I have come to the conclusion that I might not have to purchase anything else again for the railroad. Well, I might need some trees, but they can be made from scratch with little problems and actually look like trees. I have a library of train magazines that tell all about how that can be done using different materials for different kinds of trees.

One thing we needed were momentary switches for the Atlas Snap Action turnouts we use. The yard extension turnouts are all operated manually right now, reaching over the cars and moving the lever on the switch motor. Atlas Snap track switch motors have that great option of moving them manually.
I had purchased a couple of the momentary switches and they were more expensive than I wanted to spend. I was not sure if I wanted to buy any more. These buttons are designed that, you slide the button over to the other position, then push down and it sends the signal for the turnout to move in that direction. These can be used with other devices that call for momentary application of power. While digging through my stuff, I found a bunch of them, with wires and screws. We may need a couple more, but won't worry about that now. I will know when we get to that point. It was fun to find those.

I have gathered some empty coffee containers from at work. I emptied a bin in my sorting, and filled several of those containers with little lost parts details. None of them are full yet, but I have enough people for the layout. I have some little soldiers that I can modify and paint if needed, plus some civilians in various poses. I also have chickens, horses and cows, among my collection.
I have loads of trucks and quite a few scale sized cars. I had found out that with various toys, whether it be animals, or vehicles, They tend to make them with the same amount of material. It is like they are made by weight. One simply has to measure the animals of a set to find the ones that are of the right scale. Elephants, cows and dogs are the same size, so one simply measures them. For one project, the elephant would be the right size, for another project, the dog might be. One simply measure to see what fits. Of course, I am working at 1/8th inch equals a foot, scale, so toy animals are not going to fit my railroad unless they are made for it.

With Hot wheels, Match Box and other similar car toys, I had found that they essentially use the same wheel base and same sized tires. It turned out that their big trucks are roughly the right size for what I am doing. They won't survive someone with a scale rule, but they are close enough to pass muster at a glance, and a hell of a lot cheaper than actual scale vehicles available at hobby stores.
Many Die-Cast cars are the right size too. I had gotten some actual scale cars, just the body shell with the wheels, and then got some Die-cast cars that were also the same style and they were very acceptable in size.
I am not a purist and am quite satisfied with ACCEPTABLE, and not worry about perfect. Of course, the modelers among us can take these cars, and make interiors, add details, paint them, and make them look even closer to real, and they are still cheaper than the scale stuff since many of those modelers would modify the commercial pieces anyway. That was another aspect of the hobby I was aiming for when I had started building structures. I was not skilled enough at that time to actually take the plunge.
I have a couple boxes of regular, well-worn non-scale cars. I guess I will store them until my grandnephew is old enough to play with them. I had accumulated them in my search for the right scale trucks, and got them from my brother’s kids when they went on to other interests.

I have run across a whole lot of tools and parts. I am concentrating them in one general area. That brings me up to something I do not remember if I reported.

Previously I had brought into the train room, two small two-drawer units to hold spare train stuff, mostly broken or retired railroad cars. A few weeks back, I got an idea. I dragged out a dresser out of my bed room, that I was not using. It had some water damage from a leak and I just ignored it.
I got that in place in the train room, moved the contents of the other two units into it. The two bottom drawers are holding what the two other units held and there is plenty more room if I stack things. I still have two more drawers to fill. I have not decided what would be best in there, so I have held off.
I could not put the dresser against the wall, because of a wing wall of the closet and the leg of the railroad layout. I also could not put it underneath the railroad as we are really trying to keep that clear for some work we have planned.
Years ago, I got hold of some material called GATERFOAM, which is foam with wood fiber veneer sandwiching it. It is used in the graphics industry, such as for court cases, as backing for pictures.
I took some of the GATERFOAM and screwed the sheets to the top of the dresser so it spans back to the wall. this gives me sort of a work bench along with the storage below. I have some plastic sheeting somewhere but have not found the roll. I will attach that over the top, to protect against spills.

In the dresser, there was a section with a side swinging door. I think it was for holding pants or something like that. I filled that with almost all the barges we have made for the layout.
The barges are simply two by sixes, with wood along the top edge to act like rails, two tracks down the center, and blocks at one end that was to have couplers on them to help hold the cars in place when the barges are moved.
Our plan was to rotate the barges so we can have a good mix of cars, none of the cars would sit in storage, or sit on the layout forever, and give us another operation, loading and unloading barges.
I stacked the barges, up on end, into the space in the dresser and they all fit, except for two extra long barges my brother had made.
This gets them out of sight, out of the way, and still easily accessible.
BTW, the two drawer sets are in my bedroom and being used now. Great decision.

In sorting through stuff, I have found detail parts my brother purchased to add to engines, rolling stock, around the layout. I have found many building structure kits, a few have not been built yet. I have enough bridge piers to do most of my layout raised up (I hate hills on the railroad so I will never use them). I have one set still in the box. I then have what looks like three more sets I stacked together in a small box. They are all together now. I am also finding pieces here and there in my digging through other boxes and adding them to the set when I can.

I still have more boxes to dig through. and check out some other bins to see what they have and what might be consolidated. I am making headway.

One problem with this project is that things I think we will need in the near future, gets stacked on top the railroad. it is now a mess. Eventually, I will have everything where they belong. I might not be able to put my hands directly on something I need, I will have a better chance of finding them, or knowing quickly that I don't have them.

I have purchased some items for the railroad over the past two months. I had gone to a model railroad swap meet and picked up some left hand and right hand switch motors for the atlas switches. A set of five each. Mom had purchased a big roll of flux core electrical solder at a yard sale and my brother had me make a spool out of wood, something quick and rough, and we wound about fifteen feet of the solder onto my spool so we can now solder wire on the layout. The soldier I had, needed a flux as it was solid core, and I have not run across the bottle of liquid flux my brother was using. I also got some speaker wire at a yard sale, along with purchasing a small spool of wire. These are to connect the switches to the turnouts.

I drew the control panel for the switch yard, with the momentary buttons drawn to scale. I gave the pictures to my brother and he was going to make it out of sheet metal.
I do drawings for a living and have a similar version of the program at home. The drawing part is easy for me.

Switch-yard control panel graphic
with the Atlas Snap Action switches drawn to scale. t

All of this adds up to getting a step closer to having the railroad operating. The big thing is to get things sorted, collated, and in place. It takes time.
Because of all this, I have, been working on the railroad.

Did You write? Feb 08, 2010

Did You write? Feb 08, 2010

One moment, you are sitting, enjoying your life, The next moment you realize that it is almost Monday and you have not written yet. You have a decision to make. Report that you did not achieve your potential, or sit down for a few minutes and write SOMETHING on your present work in progress? One might start on some vague idea that you have no intention developing so you just have something written. If you write, then this note will have done its job. It got you to put something on paper and one step closer to having developed a habit to write.
'What is written, how much is written, is unimportant here. Others might not even consider it writing. As long as you DECIDE to call it writing, it counts. Along with any new writing, and any editing (since few of us can write perfectly the first time, and can be someone else's work), poetry, blogging, article writing, technical writing, world and character development, writing assignments, and even E-mails (as long as it is wordy and pertains to story or writing) can all be writing. Critiquing and other assistance to other writers, also count. It really is what you decide to be writing, counts.

As for me, I did write. I added two pages, which is 1459 words. I expended a lot of words with my writing partners on the story too, and also sat with my drafting program and drew up the area the story is happening, and the bottom floor of the building it happens in. The drawings have problems, but it gives me something to work from.
I am in an excited mode about the story and am already seeing a third new story in the series to get in all that needs to be handled before I get to rewriting the rest of the series. This is a fun stage of writing.

In my story ideas, I am in an idea creation stage. I am coming up with two and three ideas on many days this week. I love that. ON the posting front, I am a day behind. I got home late last night. That does not matter as I still have the whole month to catch up on.
Counting what I am posting today, I have 44 story ideas on the compost pile. Just about all the top ten in the stack is worth writing soon.

I am in a period where I am trying to get ready for an art show at the end of next month. My problem is that there is all sorts of things getting in the way of my spending my weekends working wood. I am going to a renaissance fair next weekend. Another day of not working wood.
I am getting results though. It dawned on me that when I start on a "real" carving, (not little hand held ornament sized figurines), I start out very gingerly, not exactly sure what I am doing. There comes a point where I have gotten far enough to where I can really dig in with gusto as I know what I am doing, at least for a while. Later, I will get into detailing and work gingerly again.
I am working on several projects at once, and this weekend, I made big headway on three projects. I am carving a flower vase where the base has the shape of a flower pot and there are a series of knots around the top that are the centers of the flowers. Last weekend, I fought with the leaf shapes.
This weekend, it actually looks impressive, even if it is barely started. the stems, flowers, and leaves are now raised above the background and really looks like something.
I had to remake a system for making platters easily and figured out a new trick that actually will make it easier to do. I made a platter and did not have to fight it the way I used to, I then printed a picture with a design I needed and have started carving the design on the plate,
I also attached the handle on beer stein I am making and redesigned the mechanism for lifting the lid. the lid is not attached yet, but I solved a design problem I had. My sister in law saw it and said she wanted a set of them. All I can say is that making one has been a trial. I am not likely to make a set...

A friend told about where when he was working in front of the customer, he worked slowly. When the customer left, he would kick into overdrive and get a whole lot of work done while they were gone. it helped keep the customer from watching him work.
For all the above as a story idea,
The watchers insisted that workers work with approved methods on the job. No short cuts, no applying one's self, no making use of natural talent. One is not to make anybody else feel bad because they are not as good.
She was given the job to get a project done for an official festival. She saw she had plenty of time. A month before the festival, the watchers started preparations for the festival and the workers were required to go to meetings, do training work on other one-time projects in preparation. they had less or no time to work on Saturday Workers were expected to work on Sunday, but there were no watchers, which was a day off for them.
She needs to get the work done, along with her normal work, so she decides that, since there are no watchers, no one important is going to complain if she goes against the rules on Sundays.
She comes in early and leaves late(against the rules). Instead of making each part one at a time, she instead stacks them and makes them in batches (also against the rules). She takes other short cuts and she applies herself at the best of her ability, and she is much better than anybody else in her department.
There are complaints by a few other workers about her, but since the watchers never saw her do it, they cannot do anything about it.
When the festival comes up, Everybody is taking advantage of the Sunday with no watchers, having friendly competitions on who can make the parts faster, at a higher quality, and get their other work done besides.
Their division is the only one that was fully ready for the festival. the watchers are really proud of the displays and the division leaders among the watchers all get accolades for their work.
The workers back down on Sundays, taking things easy, but will work at full skills if they have to catch up. That division never had a late project again.

As to the question of the week, I can proudly say

YES, I DID WRITE!!!!

DID YOU WRITE?

Week 526 Woodworking

year 10, Week 4, Day One (week 526) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-06-10 Saturday

78 degrees. fairly clear skies at dawn, some heavy cloud cover mid morning, then blue skies with lots of puffs in the afternoon. Stiff breeze and plenty of sun shine most of the day. it is supposed to get below freezing, at around 50 degrees tonight and tomorrow night. I have to move to a warmer climate. This weather report is brought to you by the Fort Lauderdale Department Of tourism.

I checked in on my stuff at the antique shop. He has not sold any of my stuff. They have been in there a year. So far, he has purchased a few of my cheep items, two saucers and a pear, to make something of his complete. Even so, it is on display. That is good enough.
Next month, I will be bringing my stuff home so I can refinish the pieces that are below my finishing skills.

We went yard sailing again. I ended up with some books, some kitchen stuff, and a bag of plumbing and electrical stuff for my brother.
Mom and emptied the canvas bag that had the plumbing and electrical stuff, and we sorted through it, separating them out in quart zipper bags. We figure there must have been a good hundred dollars worth of stuff in the bag. we took out the screws and fender washers, and still there was loads of stuff in there.
One thing I did was to keep a few fittings to use for ferules for some tools. They are about the right size.

I did get to do some woodworking after lunch. I needed to change the thumb piece on the beer stein. I needed more wood for the hinge itself. I did something stupid. I tried to pry off the piece I glued on, rather than cutting it off and sanding off the remains. It broke off. I then tried cutting that little piece off, and the saw found it so it was unusable. I cut the gap square, then cut a piece of wood to fit in there and glued it in place. Since it is where the thumb lever is going, it won't be a problem. It sticks out from the edge of the lid, so I will have to cut it to size and do some surface sanding. Luckily, it won't matter if it is seen.

I also applied myself to the duckling bowls. They have a saucer like piece around the base to be the feet. I chose which part of the bowl would be the front, and cut the saucer off the back. I then shaped that to match the shape of the bowl. None of them are perfect. They will come out good anyway. I have a lot of work to do on them, inside and out.

While I did not get too much done, I did get something done. That is one step closer to being finished.

Last month, I had taken everything out of my spare bedroom where I have a permanent model railroad layout. All the boxes got stacked in front of my finished woodworking. I have filtered through a good number of the boxes and most of it turned out to be papers to toss out. I can now access my finished woodworking. I now need to take those pieces out to sand and refinish to the level I can now do it. I still have more stuff to sort through and put away, so I am not sure when I will actually get to work on finishes. It has to be soon as I have a whole lot of pieces that need to be improved. I also have new pieces coming up that will need loads of work.

I want to finish adding the lid on the beer stein, which I might be able to do tomorrow. I also have to glue on the lid. Then I can work on the finish of that piece.
I need to do some strip sanding and dremmel grinding on the duckling bowls and finish up the duck heads I made. I need to work on the flower vase, digging in deep to make the flowers and leaves to stand out.
I have decided to hold off some projects until after the art show, but there are some that really needs to be done.
I do need to make some finials for the sea urchin shells. I also need to make a few platters. Whether I will actually have time to make them and get them finished, will be something else. The platters will have to be carved which will take even more time.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.



year 10, Week 4, Day Two (week 526) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-07-10 Sunday

Below 60 degrees strong wind with stronger gusts with wispy puffs, against a blue sky, in the morning. 64 degrees with a weaker wind, great sunshine in the afternoon.
What a difference from the beginning of the winter. When the cold first arrived, we were walking around, bundled in coats, at 70 degrees. Today, I was working outside for a while, noting that it was sharp, but quite tolerable, when I saw the temperature at 58 degrees. that was one shocking surprise. When I was ready to carve, I sat out in the open, soaking in the sun, the wind slightly blocked to make the weather warmth stick with me more. Of course, on the way home, I cranked up the heat in my truck and had the hot air blowing on me all the way home.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.

Mom had a yard sale this morning. I arrived early and went out back to get to work. After dragging out my equipment, fully planning to carve all day, The urge to turn wood came over me and I had a project that would need to be carved anyway.
I dragged out the lathe, after petting the cat twice, and mounted a platter I had started a while back. I had a few mis-steps on centering it, but got it figured out and got it pretty much right. I used some thin double sided tape to attach it to the wooden face plate that was held in the chuck. I also used, at times, double sided tape for the wooden face plate I used to hold the plate in place.
The design of my system is to have one face plate act as a template for cutting out the rim of the base. That rim is then just big enough to fit around the other face plate, automatically centering it.
I made a little mistake on this piece. I forgot about the matching size of the inset of the base. I made it bigger than it was supposed to be. Centering it was out of the question the way I planned. I then got a great idea. Since it was still centered by the face plate held in the chuck. I added double sided tape to the tail stock face plate, centered it and applied pressure with the tail stock. I spun it to make sure it was centered. I then was able to turn the piece around, pry off the opposite face plate and hollow out the inside of the plate. I will have to remember that technique.

rear of light house platter

After I made the platter and cleaned up, I brought an electrical cord out by the shed at the back of the lot. I got a chair, and something to act like a table. I printed a flyer for the art show and cut the light house out. I then glued it to the platter. I traced the line with a Dremmel bit called an engraver. It has a super tiny cutting bit. I got the impression of the light house of the flyer. I cut back the background slightly, around the drawing. It shows a little better what it is going to be, but I will have a whole lot more work to do on it to make this work. I could have worked more, but chose to work on something else.

Light house I am copying


Light house platter with start of carving.
Knot and inclusion is the ground of the light house

I attacked the flower vase. Now that I have a good idea where the flowers and leaves are I dug in deep, sending the backgrounds farther back, and sending some leaves farther into the background so they go under others. This made a big difference in how the vase looks.
I admitted to my Mom that I had no idea how I was doing it, but somehow, it was appearing out of the wood.

flower vase with deeper carvings.

My brother came and he was excited about the stuff we picked up at the yard sales. He was drooling. A whole bunch of the stuff was stuff he was about to buy or would soon be buying.
Mom had gotten him a hundred foot long roll of solder and he had me make a spool so we could have some for my model railroad layout. I took a two by two, rounded the center to about an inch in diameter, and we simply wound the solder on it while it was on the lathe. we tried using the motor to wind it on, but the solder had some weak spots and broke, so we started the end again and I wound it by hand. Got a good length of the solder. That is known as quick and dirty tool making.

Beer stein with handle attached
Lid just sitting in place

For today, I had the best woodworking day in many months. I am proud of my accomplishments. if every woodworking day was as good as this one, I would be in heaven.

Next week, I will be working on more of the same projects. the problem is that we will be going to a Renaissance fair on Saturday. I do not know if I will be able to go to it twice this year. I will have to see. We usually have no time to do anything else after the fair.
I expect any production I do, will be on Sunday.

Will see what I actually do next week.