Good Morning All. Clear and 55°, headed for the 80's for the next 10 days. Maybe rain this weekend but still warm, that will be fun! Think humidity.
Lots of indoor tasks yesterday since the ground is still too soft for any meaningful activity. Some gardening activity this morning as I need to pick Broccoli and Green Onions. I should be able to get in some yard tasks this afternoon, but not mowing yet.
Yesterday out in the train shed, I resumed with the quarterly cleaning project which has been stop and go since 4-5. For those who have not read the explanation of this always ongoing project before, I repeat here. I have divided my layout into roughly 8 sections, 4 on the bottom level and 4 on the top. Each quarter I do a thorough cleaning of all track, ballast, scenery, structures, vehicles and everything else. So each section gets a visit once every two years. It generally takes 3-4 days each, an hour or 2 every time, and I do other stuff at the same time, including running trains. For this quarter I have already done all track and ground maintenance and cleaning. I started yesterday removing structures and cleaning them at the workbench. While there, I may touch up paint or add details as needed. Yesterday I did 7 structures, mostly just cleaning and replacing roof details that I knocked off. Two got some minor work as well. One is "2nd Hand Rose", a kit from the "Houses of Yesterday" series that were popular in the 80's and 90's. Many companies had this tooling at one time or another, my kit was sold by IHC at the time.
An improvement and one that makes it match with others in this series was to paint the curbs a concrete color.
On another, "Roy's Fix-It Shop", i had to re-attach the sidewalk which was poorly attached to begin with. It is a Smalltown USA structure of the same name.
Today I will finally add some figures to the front. I also added lighting to one of the other structures, but my lighting buss doesn't exist that far yet, which is another project for another day.
I'll be getting to many others today as well, and will turn the corner down another aisle.
John - Great looking plank scenes yesterday.
Tom O/Patrick - Since Texas is where Buc-ee's started, they're all over down here. Something for everyone inside them. There's one near me in Denton TX, just 30 miles away, but I really just consider them over-hyped tourist traps! We do use them for their restrooms while traveling, but there is cheaper gas available just about everywhere. The food is also OK, if it coincides with a meal break for us, but we generally seek out more localized places where we can sit and enjoy instead of eating in the car. At least I haven't found any indoor seating areas in the ones that I have visited. Besides the one in Denton, there are two others within an hours drive of home.
For the folks across the pond, today is St George's Day. I don't remember if it is a national holiday or just another day to go to the pub.
Everyone have a great Tuesday.