Made a little progress today thus far. Scrapped Combine 02 and salvaged its chasis, making some appropriate repairs. Had to make a few reapirs on the hoppers in the yard as well. Worked on the door to the enginehouse and have just about finished the fifth and final flatcar/gon conversion. Will prolly finish it up and get it painted, and make the last two coal loads.
2040
Final tally for the day, got the chasis for the 'new' 02 rehabbed and painted. Also finished up the last flat gon conversion and have them stenciled with appropriate numbers, 103 and 104. Finished the door for the enginehouse and mounted it. Also dug out the castings for the unfinished hoppers and started working on one of them. Perhaps I'll be able to do it up tommorrow.
Sunday, October 2, 2005
1945
Welp I guess I can call this a successful weekend for the railroad. Not only two gons and a chasis for a new cabin, but today I finishd the next to last 40 series hopper and got it painted. Also made up coal loads for the the pair of gons. Sorted out the castings for the last of the 40 series cars too. Now to design a new series of hoppers as well as the new carbody for Cabin 02.
Monday, October 3, 2005
1700
Got my Supter Valley book today and the ET&WNC tome arrived on Saturday. Along with the Uintah book I think this batch of 'research material' has had the desired effect. I've finally got the gumption back to work on railrodish projects again, and get some stuff cleared off the bench that has been collecting dust. Figger to get the last 40 series hopper turned out by the end of the week, and I believe I will make the new Cabin 02 a weekend project. I'll get the basic layout done in CAD one evening this week, so I'll have templates to go by. Not sure how I wanna do the cupola just yet. Looked at both Sumpter Valley and ET&WNC practices. Looks like it will be the weekend of the 15th before I can get any hardcore trackwork done, so I guess I'll devote the next little bit to rolling stock construction and design, with a fair bit of operational experimentation thrown in.
I have decided that I need 5 more coal cars of some sort, and the 'Macadoos' with the outside A frame bracing similar to the ones I did on On30 should fit the bill nicely. 10 cars can be accomodated nicely at Port Lavender, with the boxes, tanks and flats tossed in to keep things interesting, with 5 more cars at Anns Creek. I beleive Port Lavender can be operated by having a 10 cars in it most of the time, either dumping, or ready to make another trip to the mines, while the other third of the fleet will be loading at Anns Creek. Theoretically, 20 cars can be accomodated, with a string dumping at PL, a string ready to depart PL, a string in transit, and a string loading at Anns Creek, 5 being a magic number.
For now, revenue freight will just be cut into the coal trains, since I don't currently have passenger cars or a passenger engine. I will remedy that soon by finishing the Combine 03 and I have determined that my next locomotive project will be a 0-6-2T passenger engine like the Uintah used. It'll carry road number '1' and be named the "Wayne Pearce" in honor of my good buddy Tiny (not to be confused with Tiny the Brake Dawg) who passed away back in August. I have a Bachmann Big Hauler that I bought from him shortly before his passing that will fit the bill nicely.
Tuesday, October 4,2005
20:45
This evening was pretty darn good as far as I'm concerned. Right after work I dug out the remaining freight cars and did what repairs were necessary to them. Fabricated some new links and replaced the old finishing nail coupler pins with the new pop rivet ones. I finished the wooden parts of the last 40 series hopper, and began the design work on the new Cabin 02.
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
07:37
Seems no matter how I try to simplify things, I seem to have a desire for the complicated. I'm considering reinstalling a spur at Anns Creek to be used as a staging track to represent a tie mill, this will give me more reason to run a daily mixed train. Not only to pick up ties at the mill, but to deliver other supplies to the lumber road. The lumber co will theoretically have its own rail line with its own locomotives that may appear from time to time. I have the spare turnouts and trackage to put a few industries into Anns creek with little problem. One spur for the mill, one for an oil loadout, and perhaps a commissary track.
13:20
What to do this evening? It being such a pretty day, I wouldn't mind running trains just a little either, even if it is just banging them around the yard a tad. Might lay out some track componets just to see what it looks like and get an idea of the operational capacity. At least I'll have a good idea of what I'll have to do track wise next weekend. Looks like I might have been a bit premature on painting the chasis for the new 02. I'm going to have to rebuild it a bit wider than it previously was, which will mean new end beams and reapplying the castings. So many projects, so little time.
Thusday, October 6, 2005
05:38
Had a great evening, JRVP and I ran trains, experimenting with operations in the Port Lavender Yard. No6 carried out switching duties of course, and No7 was the road locomotive. This time we actuallly "dumped" cars on the dump track and built a train of empties to run down the hill. I used the mainline as a fiddle track, and removed the boxcar around the corner of the house, and added a flat of crossties. For now general freight will run in the coal drags. I beleive I have more than enough room at Port Lavender, to keep trains sorted and running. I may have to press No9 into coal service and let No7 run general freight before its all over. Will have to search out a source of ballast and get the mainline and Anns Creek back in service so we can run the whole shootin match.
Looks like rain most of the weekend this week, but I had pretty much planned on a car building binge anyways. Didn't get anything else done last night, (cause we ran trains til after dark) but I plan on outshopping the last of the 40 series, and getting quite a bit done on the new 02, would be nice if the Real World wouldn't interfere too much and I could get it finished. Like the idea of starting the design work on the new 50 series hoppers, and sometime next week making masters for the gussests and hardware for the cars.
Friday, October 7, 2005
08:40
I love rainy days! Although I had to being all the rolling stock in last night (someday I will have a covered storage area) its so nic to take the coffee and the laptop out into the Shop on a cool, grey, rainy morning and tinker on whatever presents itself while listening to the rain on the roof, and watching it rain through the open door. This morning the plan is to work on castings for the hopper and to do a little design work on Cabin 02. I printed out the side elevation that I did in CAD and I'll see how that looks up against the chasis.
20:23
Got a lot done today! The last 40 series hoppr has been outshopped, and I got a good start on Cabin 02. I decided not to widen it any, and its to the point that I'm starting to put the metal roofing on it. Beleive I will wait til after its painted to put the wwindow glazing in it. I do beleive that I will be able to get it finished tomorrow.
Saturday, Octobr 8, 2005
10:17
Not out in The Shop as early as I thought I would be, but then again theres something to be said about sleeping late occasionally!!! Plan for the day is to get the 02 outshopped, I'm starting on the metal for the rest of the roof, then onto the styrene for the doors. Already have ladder for the ends, theycame of a damed boxcar that I retired. Just a few detail bits are all thats left to do after those parts of the construction are done. She'll roll into the paint shop this evening hopefully.
22:00
Cabin 02 went to the paintshop right on schedule. Gotta say that it looks pretty darn good too. Still need to do a little touch up painting and stencil on its road number and then its done. It got could enough yesterday that I had to plug in the heat in The Shop to get the paint to dry. Winter is a comin. Looks like Combine 06 is the next project to work on, its the only unfinished project left on the bench.
