Good morning, or not so good morning.
18 degrees to start off the day. Another exciting trip to work. We had a couple of inches of snow during the afternoon yesterday and this morning the roads were a sheet of ice again. To add to that, heavy fog and then the stupid deer are trying to get across the highway. Got close to a couple mussing them by about 5 feet. Lucky that I was only doing around 30 mph due to the road conditions.
Garry - Enjoyed your photo as usual. Excellent scene. I guess we both build about the same way. My layout for the most part is all along the wall nad I built my 1x4 frames for the bench work in 8 foot sections. I did have most of them up before starting to lay track. Hand laying was a slow process, but I really liked the looks of the code 70 track after leaving N scale, with the grossly oversize track. I never really had a track plan, but did know what I wanted to build. Like you, track was put down in arounf 8 foot sections. Structures were built, at least partially so I know hat the foorprint would be and industrial sidings were added accordingly.
In a way I was happy to start using the Shinohara turnouts and flex track when my Kadee spike gun bit the dust. Shinohara at the time had the best selection of code 70 turnouts and this helped speed up track laying a lot. Scenery was also done in sections, like you did. A little at a time. You got more done than I did in a shorter period of time. I had problems needless to say not having any hobby shops around. The time spent working slowly amd making sure that there were no issues with the track work was well worth working slower. As I have mentioned in the past, I have on a couple of accasions left trains running and totally forgot about them and came back the next day and they're still making laps without any derailments. Working a little slower does pay off.
Joe - Interesting photo. Nice to have the firt hand explanation to the picture also. I always enjoy your input. The fire truck is interesting. I know a retired fireman who totally restored the same kind of truck after he retired. Took him a long time. I did manage to help him a bit finding some parts. He knew I did car restorations and through some of my connections, I was able to help him. He uses it for parades or sometimes just drives it around town.
Johnny - Happy Anniversary. It is also my daughters 41st birthday today. I did have to rub that in. I was a state trooper from 1970 when I first got out of the Navy until I left in 1976 to moved back home to Montana. My daughter was born i 1976 and I couldn't see raising kids in south Florida.
Bruce - Nice to see you paying us a visit. Hope you are making progress with the shingles.
Justin - Good luck with the truck. I also can't think of what would have caused the hub to lock up. Hope today is a better day for you.
Willie - You-re going to have to post some photos when you get the scenes populated. Those unpainted figures can be a pain in the butt, but once they're done, they really bring life to a scene.
Here's another rail photo for today.
Later