You may delay, but time will not. Benjamin Franklin

It's been awhile since I wrote a "real" post.  Aside from my yearly Christmas joke post it's been over a month.  Not that I haven't been working on the layout.  I've actually gotten a bunch of things accomplished and will be writing a few blog posts over the next week or two covering them all.

Christmas Eve, one of my presents to myself arrived via USPS priority mail:  GML Enterprises (Model Railroad Electronic Controls) Fast Clock System. 

http://www.thegmlenterprises.com/id19.html 

From the website: "This system design is for one (1) clock controller unit (Model #FC-6) and up to eight (8) remote analog clock units (Model #CLK-x). This CONTROLLER/REMOTE approach allows the installation of the controller in your dispatch panel and placement of a minimum of 2 and up to 8 remote units anywhere on your layout."

My friend Ted Pamperin Has used this system for awhile on his C&O layout so I know it works well.

I chose the 2:1 through 6:1 time ratios when I had this unit built.  The slow pace of operations on my layout will mean I'll probably be operating between 2:1 and 4:1.

All in all the whole system cost me $176 (controller, 2 clocks, optional time ratios).  I think that's a good price for a well built system.  Hopefully I'll get it installed this week while I'm off for Christmas break.

Prologue:

After publishing this post I went down to the basement and decided on trying to install the fast clock.  1 1/2 hours later it was done!  

One clock installed in the layout area.

Control unit installed and working.

I decided to install the control unit in the main layout area.

The second clock is installed inside the helix where it's everybody's favorite place to be a dispatcher.  OK, maybe it's not, but the clock can be easily moved if I move the dispatcher to another location.

The installation couldn't have been any easier and the system works great!  I'm very pleased. :)



 

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Merry Christmas

Everyone!

"I knew I shouldn't have let Craig wire my DCC system for me."

It's Curtains for you Rocky, curtains...

Ever give one of those gifts that give back to you?  I did.  Amy wanted a new sewing machine and we went out and bought her a nice one.  She's been doing all kinds of craft projects and hemming some clothes she used to bring to her mother to get done.  So a natural project for me to ask her to do was to make some curtain skirts for the bottom of the layout.  We found a whole roll of black fabric on clearance at Wall-mart and she went to work on sewing my layout skirting.  She did a great job!  Boy do I love that girl. ;)

My Sweetheart working on the layout skirting with her new sewing machine. :)

As you can see the skirts came out nice.

When we bought the roll of cloth, we thought we had too much.  But as it turns out, we barely had enough to cover the main part of the layout.  I need to go out and find some more so we can do the helix and then the skirting project will be complete. :)

I'm very happy how neat the layout space looks now with the skirting up.  All the clutter underneath the layout is now out of sight.  :)

NJ LD/OP and RPM Meet a Success!

The NJ LD/OP and RPM Meet held Oct. 25th and 26th was a great success!  Though attendance was down slightly from last year, do to the meet being the same weekend as the Timonium show, we were able to raise a lot more money this year.  This time around we were able to donate $700 to help establish a scholarship for Special Education Students who want to further their education after graduating UCTECH plus we donated another $500 to the UCTECH SKILLS USA Chapter to help offset travel costs to go to Nationals this year.  This makes the school happy, which guarantees we can keep holding the meet there, which in turn makes us happy.  A win win if you ask me ;)

My friend and fellow Ma & Pa Society Member Art Kuperstein manned a table for the Society at the meet.  Art also took all the photos in this post.

Rob Hinkle put up a display showing his plans and design for his Reading RR based layout as part of the Layout Design SIG display portion of the meet.

Lots of RPM models and dioramas were on display in the RPM section.

More RPM Models.

The Commodore (Ralph Heiss) gave a hands on clinic on using Pan Pastels for weathering.

I had a display showing scenes from the prototype Ma & Pa that I'm modeling from, along with some maps and track plan.

And yes, I finally remembered to take some  pictures during a open house!

There is a lot more information and pictures on our website:

http://www.hansmanns.org/ld-op-nj/index.htm

On a serious note, we will be changing the meet logo and name next year due to the Operations SIG asking meet organizers not to have them listed as co-sponsors, or using the SIG's name or any likeness of their logo in any meet publicity.  They are concerned over liability issues.  I think it's a shame and short sided on their part because there are so many operations weekends that are put on by the SIG members and those, along with our meet, have always been used to highlight the Op SIG and the benefits of signing up and belonging.  I can only see where this will be harmful to growing and keeping their membership up.  Anyway, next year look for a new name and logo for the NJ Meet which will probably just be shortened to the NJ Layout Design and RPM Meet since the LD SIG doesn't seem to have the same worries as the Op SIG.

NJ LD Sig and RPM Meet this weekend

The second annual NJ LD Sig and RPM Meet will be held again at Union County Vocational in Scotch Plains.  If you are in the area stop in and enjoy 2 days of activities.  Saturday is a day of clinics and RPM displays and an evening layout tour of 3 layouts.  Sunday is a full day self guided layout tour with 8 more layouts to see, including my Ma & Pa Pennsylvania District layout.  All moneys raised after expenses goes towards the UCTECH Awards and Scholarship fund and SKILLS USA.

Check out the website for details:

http://www.hansmanns.org/ld-op-nj/index.htm

All Quiet on the Western Front..

It's been awhile since my last post, but considering not much has happened on the layout since the beginning of the summer, there really was nothing to write about.  We did some traveling, and I finished up work on settling my Mom's estate.  So things have been quiet modeling wise here.

Recently I traveled down to Fredericksburg, VA and attended the Mid Atlantic RPM Meet that was put on by my friend Norm Wolf.  

This is the second year for this meet and it was a lot of fun!  Over 120 people attended, which is almost double from last year!  It's always nice to meet up with friends that I only get to see at these meets and we always have a great time catching up with each other.  Make sure you don't miss this meet next year!


I normally do not take too many pictures of models, but when something that interests me shows up at a meet, I'll take some photos. Two models that really caught my eye were brought to the meet by Matt Hurst who models the Huntington and Broad Top RR.  The H&BT is the other railroad that called the area around the Broad Top coal fields home.  Lesser known then it's more famous neighbor, The East Broad Top RR, it still was a interesting line that you don't see too many people modeling.  Matt's models, two of the H&BT's 2-8-0s, were beautiful and I'm very jealous of anyone who has the talent  to scratchbuild steam locomotives.  Well done Matt!  

Here are pictures of both H&BT 2-8-0s Matt Hurst built.  Numbers 32 and 33. 

Attending RPM meets, and other model railroad events have a tendency to get you going again when there has been a lull in modeling on your home layout.  I'm feeling more motivated and I have been heading down to the basement more frequently since coming back from the MARPM. :)  Look for an update shortly.

Now, if you live in the NY/NJ Metropolitan area or you have allways dreamed of visiting beautiful central NJ, I have just the ticket for you:  Come out to the Second Annual NJ LD/OP Sig and RPM Meet at Union County Vocational -Technical Schools in Scotch Plains NJ, October 25th and 26th, 2014!  

OK so you really never dreamed of visiting NJ.  But I'm sure you'll have a great time, and hopefully get motivated to keep on modeling if you come out to the meet.  We have over 11 speaker/clinicians (including Tony Koester and Bill Schamburg) and 11 layouts on tour (3 on Sat. 8 on Sunday).  Check out our website at:

http://www.hansmanns.org/ld-op-nj/index.htm

Or follow us on Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/574886465899076/

Make your plans now and hopefully we'll see you at the meet!

"Like I said, all comedy is based on exaggeration, big or small, whatever you can get away with." -Drew Carey

OK so I ended my last post with a few exaggerations about my OCD so let me clear up some of them for you:

I had no problem getting the ingredients for Lou Sassi's Ground Goop recipe.  A couple of trips to AC Moore with 50% coupon in hand, one trip to Lowes and I had all I needed to get started.  I'll share some pictures of my attempt to use it for scenery later in this post.

After seeing some undesirable results on a friends layout, I wasn't too sure about using sanded grout for cinders.  But after looking on the internet, I found someone who used it successfully and plan to follow their example.  You can check out what they did here: 

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/7470

That same building site I mentioned in the last post has another huge stack of Blue Styrofoam stacked up.  They really are not scary guys, but then again I have a bunch of Styrofoam down stairs already so do I really need more?  It doesn't matter how much you have on hand, Styrofoam is one of those items you always think to yourself when you see it "should I pick up more just in case?"

Ah, and that pickle car.  I've actually had one for awhile now.  A Heinz 57 car.  I don't know if they actually ever ran over the Ma & Pa but I'll invoke rule #1 on that one just case. ;)

I found this Athearn Car already assembled and it had Kadee Scale couplers already.  All I needed to do was add weight and some code 88 wheel sets.   Maybe I'll get a open sided round tank type car too. :p

The next two photos show a short test section of track in York using the charcoal colored sanded grout I picked up from Home Depot to represent cinder ballast. 

Here's a closer look.  I'm liking how it looks.

The first part of the layout to get some scenery is on the outer loops of the helix, in Yoe.  Here we have the plaster gauze painted brown in preparation of getting a coat of Ground Goop.

Here's the first batch of goop.  I transferred it into one of the many large Maxwell House Coffee cans I've saved.  I sealed the container with plastic wrap then the lid and used the goop a couple of days later.

Here is Yoe all gooped up.  I was very comfortable spreading it out with a spatula.  It was like icing a cake with chocolate icing. ;)

The Ground Goop was easy to work with but the only thing I'm finding I don't like is the drying time.  Well after one day, some spots where I went a little thicker to fill in some dips was still soft, and not totally dry.  I still like working with it so far so I'll be mixing up some more to finish off Yoe and move onto other parts of the layout.