chessie_system3
Well-Known Member
Why does trackwork have to be so tedious?
Justin
Justin
Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXXII
- Thread starter bnsf971
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The speakers are self-contained, with two metal tabs coming out of the assembly to solder the wires on. I'd give it a 2 on a scale of 10. Soldering skills will help.
That's all there is to it. Of course, you do need to make sure theere's room for the speaker, but since they are designed to go into a cell phone, they're pretty small.
gngsquared
Active Member
I am thinking that it is a bad idea to read older threads on this site. I was trying to find information on turn radius sizes and the first thread had a reference to Model Railroading Hobbyist. Hmmm, never seen this one before, got to take a look. Many hours later, downloads of all past issues, checking out the Article Index, and I still have not read the item about radius size. Starting on this hobby is like drinking water from a fire hydrant. At least I have a new way to keep me up late at night.
GarryCBQ
Well-Known Member
Howdy
Justin .... If laying track gets too tedious or anything else gets too tedious, It may be a goof idea to take a break and do something else for a while. ... Sometimes, I put aside one project when it is tasing my patience and go work on another project.
Sam .... If you have a question on how to do something with your layout, feel free to ask it here instead of searching for answers in old threads.
Eric ... Back to IL ? .... I'm guessing your family there cares about you and is offering what they think is the best advise. Best wishes to you.
Terry .... Interesting idea to use iPhone speakers. Sounds good.
Have a nice evening, everybody.
Justin .... If laying track gets too tedious or anything else gets too tedious, It may be a goof idea to take a break and do something else for a while. ... Sometimes, I put aside one project when it is tasing my patience and go work on another project.
Sam .... If you have a question on how to do something with your layout, feel free to ask it here instead of searching for answers in old threads.
Eric ... Back to IL ? .... I'm guessing your family there cares about you and is offering what they think is the best advise. Best wishes to you.
Terry .... Interesting idea to use iPhone speakers. Sounds good.
Have a nice evening, everybody.
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migalyto
Well-Known Member
Sam,
This hobby has a way of doing that! Don't forget about the 1000s of hours of YouTube how-to videos. I spent the weekend on there, and the net getting back ideas. Cant figure out if I want to try and paint it, or going with a printed one.
Boris
Beach Bum
Good evening. 62°, cloudy and raining. Over 2" of rain has fallen today. it's pretty much been a washout.
Recycled I phone speakers, eh? Very interesting...I don't use sound although I do have quite a few locomotives equipped with sound decoders, but none are in use right now. Just opened a divided container of old parts. sorted them and saved about half of them. Moving my parts and hardware to interlocking containers, HD was selling last Christmas...Ran a few engines and cars around. Not much else.
Recycled I phone speakers, eh? Very interesting...I don't use sound although I do have quite a few locomotives equipped with sound decoders, but none are in use right now. Just opened a divided container of old parts. sorted them and saved about half of them. Moving my parts and hardware to interlocking containers, HD was selling last Christmas...Ran a few engines and cars around. Not much else.
3 of the 265,000 lightning strikes across the Brisbane region last night, accompanied with 60+ mph wind gusts.
https://twitter.com/AlexJGregg/status/962622820638314497/photo/1
I mentioned that, although we missed the worst part of the storm the local trees got a fair lashing. There is an Australian Gum tree in the yard of the house 3 doors down that is (was) very tall, estimate about 100'. Well, as of today it ain't any more, all the top branches and leaves have been cut off and munched up. The main trunk and a couple of the lower partial branches have been left. Not sure if any came off during the storm, or just that the residents got a fright watching it twist and bend. The Cockatoos that used it for night time roosts will miss it.
https://twitter.com/AlexJGregg/status/962622820638314497/photo/1
I mentioned that, although we missed the worst part of the storm the local trees got a fair lashing. There is an Australian Gum tree in the yard of the house 3 doors down that is (was) very tall, estimate about 100'. Well, as of today it ain't any more, all the top branches and leaves have been cut off and munched up. The main trunk and a couple of the lower partial branches have been left. Not sure if any came off during the storm, or just that the residents got a fright watching it twist and bend. The Cockatoos that used it for night time roosts will miss it.
migalyto
Well-Known Member
Good morning all,
Starting the work week at 3 degrees, going to a high of only 22 degrees. Looks like our temps rebound some mid week. Might see a 40 by Thursday.
Toot......Sounds like quite a stormy ride. Another month or so out spring storms will start. And the dog will be a nervous wreck. She is 100% accurate at predicting them. We know several hours before when she starts to pace.
Starting the work week at 3 degrees, going to a high of only 22 degrees. Looks like our temps rebound some mid week. Might see a 40 by Thursday.
Toot......Sounds like quite a stormy ride. Another month or so out spring storms will start. And the dog will be a nervous wreck. She is 100% accurate at predicting them. We know several hours before when she starts to pace.
Good morning. It's raining and 63.The temperature is expected to slowly drop throughout the day, until it reaches 35 degrees overnight. The two counties west of here are having flooding issues of the Yadkin River, which is expected to continue until at least tomorrow night. The river is about 8 miles West of here.
N
NP2626
Guest
Good Morning Gents! -20 again, projected high to be 5 above. -27 degrees in wind chill factor with winds of only 5-7 MPH. The winds are supposed to die down in the afternoon. Might not be quite so shocking to be outside for a short bit today. This has been an unbroken stretch of 17 days of zero; or, below. Oh well, we like to think that the cold weather keeps bad people from living here as bad people are to smart to put up with cold weather?!?
I am tired of this! The wife might have pneumonia and I can get shed of this cold. I haven't really done much on my layout as it is only 50 degrees down in the basement with this cold weather! Maybe next year we will be smarter and head down to New Mexico; or, Arizona, during late January/February to get away from the cold! Maybe even Mendota IL would be better!
I am tired of this! The wife might have pneumonia and I can get shed of this cold. I haven't really done much on my layout as it is only 50 degrees down in the basement with this cold weather! Maybe next year we will be smarter and head down to New Mexico; or, Arizona, during late January/February to get away from the cold! Maybe even Mendota IL would be better!
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santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Good Morning All. 20° and party cloudy. 55° expected later today and upper 70's by Thursday, then 40° for a high Friday, continued roller coaster weather. Send rain! Haven't had any real rain since the week before Christmas, officially there was .11" in January. The wheat in the fields across the two roads from me, is less than 5" tall, it's usually up to about 14" this time of year. I'm having to water the garden. Today is my wife's birthday so she is taking off work. She hasn't decided whether she wants me to cook something here at home for her birthday meal, or go out to eat. Needs to decide soon if I have to thaw something out. Surprise visit yesterday from my daughter and two grandsons. They came to offer birthday well wishes and brought along some BBQ in return for keeping their dog the previous week.
Later in the train shed, I resumed work on the latest extension. Mostly removed rolling stock and track that provided temporary storage, out of my way on the existing layout end. There are already a few turnouts installed there to tie into the extension. The day before, I had laid track up to a point where I am going to install a crossover between the main and passing siding, today (maybe) I'll start the roadbed and track for the adjacent yard. I have pretty much decided to set it up as a small classification yard, but will mostly use it as a staging yard. It will have an A/D track and three 25+ car classification tracks, along with a drill track that will be about 12 cars long. It will be a double-ended yard, but the yard lead will be at one end only. There is already an engine facility across the stoop-under section on the existing layout, cabooses will stored on a short spur at one end. At least that's the plan. I am not a user of track planning software, I am working off a rough sketch that in this case is only in my mind, not even on paper this time. Stay tuned.
Justin - Sorry to hear that you find trackwork tedious. I like to do trackwork other than the soldering aspect; I view it as a work of art coming to life. I always have another project that I can switch to if it does get boring, as Garry suggested. I'll detail an already existing structure, improve vehicles by adding silver paint to door handles and mirrors, make a few trees...there's lots of small things to do while you refresh your mind. Hammering away at that trackwork after you find it tedious will lead to mistakes and further frustration. This is a hobby, have fun!
Sam - Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine is a great site. If you just downloaded all of the issues, then we know where you'll be for the next six months! LOL Just don't forget us over here. What is your question regarding turn radius sizes?
Mark - Prayers and well wishes for your wife. Pneumonia is not ever good. That's too bad about not being able to get to the train room. My train shed sometimes gets that cold (50°) when the temperature/wind factor outside drops too low. I have a small electric "oil radiator" designed for small rooms, but it cannot really warm things up to a toasty temperature in a large room. Cannot really do anything that requires manual dexterity, but I sometimes spend the time cleaning, sorting and organizing. Reading some of your posts from the last few weeks makes me glad that I live in this part of the world. I really dislike temperatures below freezing, which we often get, but just not for extended periods, thankfully.
Everybody have an awesome day and a great week.
Willie
Later in the train shed, I resumed work on the latest extension. Mostly removed rolling stock and track that provided temporary storage, out of my way on the existing layout end. There are already a few turnouts installed there to tie into the extension. The day before, I had laid track up to a point where I am going to install a crossover between the main and passing siding, today (maybe) I'll start the roadbed and track for the adjacent yard. I have pretty much decided to set it up as a small classification yard, but will mostly use it as a staging yard. It will have an A/D track and three 25+ car classification tracks, along with a drill track that will be about 12 cars long. It will be a double-ended yard, but the yard lead will be at one end only. There is already an engine facility across the stoop-under section on the existing layout, cabooses will stored on a short spur at one end. At least that's the plan. I am not a user of track planning software, I am working off a rough sketch that in this case is only in my mind, not even on paper this time. Stay tuned.
Justin - Sorry to hear that you find trackwork tedious. I like to do trackwork other than the soldering aspect; I view it as a work of art coming to life. I always have another project that I can switch to if it does get boring, as Garry suggested. I'll detail an already existing structure, improve vehicles by adding silver paint to door handles and mirrors, make a few trees...there's lots of small things to do while you refresh your mind. Hammering away at that trackwork after you find it tedious will lead to mistakes and further frustration. This is a hobby, have fun!
Sam - Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine is a great site. If you just downloaded all of the issues, then we know where you'll be for the next six months! LOL Just don't forget us over here. What is your question regarding turn radius sizes?
Mark - Prayers and well wishes for your wife. Pneumonia is not ever good. That's too bad about not being able to get to the train room. My train shed sometimes gets that cold (50°) when the temperature/wind factor outside drops too low. I have a small electric "oil radiator" designed for small rooms, but it cannot really warm things up to a toasty temperature in a large room. Cannot really do anything that requires manual dexterity, but I sometimes spend the time cleaning, sorting and organizing. Reading some of your posts from the last few weeks makes me glad that I live in this part of the world. I really dislike temperatures below freezing, which we often get, but just not for extended periods, thankfully.
Everybody have an awesome day and a great week.
Willie
Genetk44
Active Member
Terry...I have been looking at the iPhone speakers on the internet since your post yesterday. I notice that one can order speakers for various versions of the iPhone from version 4 to 6S...and most of them are diffrent shapes and sizes and most importantly shape. Do you know if there are preferred speakers for specific locos or not? And is the black plastic the actual speaker box or does one have to fabricate one?
Cheers
Gene
Boris
Beach Bum
Good morning, y'all. 43° and dropping. That's a 21 degree drop since midnight.
Mark: Prayers for your wife, and hope that both of y'all get well soon. I have the opposite effect in my basement train room. it's warm when the furnace is running, but when it gets mild and the furnace doesn't run, the basement gets cold.
Sam: Echoing Willie, MRH is a very good source of information. They also have a decent forum, with some very interesting uploads. I find myself lurking and reading, rather than participating there. I was surprised to find they have a concept of modeling a single town going over there. After reading a few pages, I realized that I was following the same concept on my C&DR build.
Justin: I sometimes get tired of track work, I walk away from it, and later I get back to it. Gives me a different perspective. For instance, I was literally following the Reading and placed a crossover toward the right. it doesn't work as well on the layout, due to lack of room, so I now see where it should be reversed and cross to the left. Compromise, is the key.
Have a good week y'all.
Mark: Prayers for your wife, and hope that both of y'all get well soon. I have the opposite effect in my basement train room. it's warm when the furnace is running, but when it gets mild and the furnace doesn't run, the basement gets cold.
Sam: Echoing Willie, MRH is a very good source of information. They also have a decent forum, with some very interesting uploads. I find myself lurking and reading, rather than participating there. I was surprised to find they have a concept of modeling a single town going over there. After reading a few pages, I realized that I was following the same concept on my C&DR build.
Justin: I sometimes get tired of track work, I walk away from it, and later I get back to it. Gives me a different perspective. For instance, I was literally following the Reading and placed a crossover toward the right. it doesn't work as well on the layout, due to lack of room, so I now see where it should be reversed and cross to the left. Compromise, is the key.
Have a good week y'all.
Genetk44
Active Member
Sam... another great resource courtesy of MRH is TrainMasters TV..... https://trainmasters.tv/
but be careful,it can be addictive.
but be careful,it can be addictive.
montanan
Whiskey Merchant
Good morning. Zero showing on the thermometer with winds blowing around 30 mph. Don't even want to know what the wind chill is. There is some drifting but we were lucks that there wasn't much new snow to blow around.
Eric - Decisions, decisions. You didn't seem very happy when you were uo in Illinois and couldn't wait to get back to Georgia. That is going to be a really hard decision. Glad you got the ride for beer.
Terry - Replacing the speaker apparently made a lot of difference. Maybe we can start calling you the wizard of sound. A cheap and effective fix.
Justin - Like the photo. research can be a lot of fun. You never know what you might come up with. Laying track can be a pain in the butt, but well worth taking the time and doing it properly. I think you learned from your last layout. Makes all the difference in the world. Also enjoyed the CSX video.
Toot - Sounds like quite the storm came through the area. Some light show.
Ken in MD - I had heard about cork underlayment shrinking and you have bolstered the statement. What a pain. I brought my yard and industrial sidings right down to ground (plywood) level. A bit harder to lay track but no problems so far.
Got a little work done on some of the projects on the work bench over the weekend. Got the transfer caboose letter but feel a bit intimidated looking at some of the small parts. Can hardly make them out even wearing a magnifier. I did some more track cleaning on the layout and ran some trains. I found a Bachmann track cleaning car on Amazon and ordered it. We'll see how it works when it gets here. Also did some switching, my favorite passtime on the layout. Here's a Milwaukee Road switcher that started off as an undecorated Athearn unit. It was remotored and custom painted probably around 25 years ago. One sweet running little locomotive. Used to take it up to Great Falls when I was helping them run during State Fair and operators were all wanting to use it because it ran so smoothly.
Here it is spotting a couple of box cars at a grain elevator.
Here's a rail picture for today.
Now to catch up with some of the other posts I glanced at on the phone over the weekend.
Later.
Eric - Decisions, decisions. You didn't seem very happy when you were uo in Illinois and couldn't wait to get back to Georgia. That is going to be a really hard decision. Glad you got the ride for beer.
Terry - Replacing the speaker apparently made a lot of difference. Maybe we can start calling you the wizard of sound. A cheap and effective fix.
Justin - Like the photo. research can be a lot of fun. You never know what you might come up with. Laying track can be a pain in the butt, but well worth taking the time and doing it properly. I think you learned from your last layout. Makes all the difference in the world. Also enjoyed the CSX video.
Toot - Sounds like quite the storm came through the area. Some light show.
Ken in MD - I had heard about cork underlayment shrinking and you have bolstered the statement. What a pain. I brought my yard and industrial sidings right down to ground (plywood) level. A bit harder to lay track but no problems so far.
Got a little work done on some of the projects on the work bench over the weekend. Got the transfer caboose letter but feel a bit intimidated looking at some of the small parts. Can hardly make them out even wearing a magnifier. I did some more track cleaning on the layout and ran some trains. I found a Bachmann track cleaning car on Amazon and ordered it. We'll see how it works when it gets here. Also did some switching, my favorite passtime on the layout. Here's a Milwaukee Road switcher that started off as an undecorated Athearn unit. It was remotored and custom painted probably around 25 years ago. One sweet running little locomotive. Used to take it up to Great Falls when I was helping them run during State Fair and operators were all wanting to use it because it ran so smoothly.
Here it is spotting a couple of box cars at a grain elevator.
Here's a rail picture for today.
Now to catch up with some of the other posts I glanced at on the phone over the weekend.
Later.
GENTS -- It's all addictive! That's part of the reason that I cannot seem to get off "dead center".
It's 53 this morning - high is forecast 56! We actually have mostly cloudy sky with a "mist" of rain. Forecast for the next several days is pointing to a 20 to 40% chance of rain, but I don't currently see any fronts to the West to produce anything. Spousal Unit and I went to an outdoor concert yesterday in the local sports park. The "Valley Winds" swing band was playing mostly tunes from the big band era with a little swing rock thrown in. I have a friend from the Perris Orange Empire RR museum who plays bass in the band. Wife looked pitiful hobbling around with her leg hurting! Maybe some relief today with the Dr.
Mark - I'll vouch for Willie, Joe, and others on the prayers for your wife. You are having a brutal winter.
Good to hear from everyone else, sorry I don't have more time to comment ... keep on truckin ..err railing!
It's 53 this morning - high is forecast 56! We actually have mostly cloudy sky with a "mist" of rain. Forecast for the next several days is pointing to a 20 to 40% chance of rain, but I don't currently see any fronts to the West to produce anything. Spousal Unit and I went to an outdoor concert yesterday in the local sports park. The "Valley Winds" swing band was playing mostly tunes from the big band era with a little swing rock thrown in. I have a friend from the Perris Orange Empire RR museum who plays bass in the band. Wife looked pitiful hobbling around with her leg hurting! Maybe some relief today with the Dr.
Mark - I'll vouch for Willie, Joe, and others on the prayers for your wife. You are having a brutal winter.
Good to hear from everyone else, sorry I don't have more time to comment ... keep on truckin ..err railing!
gngsquared
Active Member
Terry: I lived in Boone fro several years back in the early 80's so I am familiar with the area. Never worried about flooding there, we lived at the top of the mountain.
Mark: Hard to get yourself and the Better Half well when the temps are that low. Don't know how you stand that kind of weather. We had a week here where it was below freezing day and night and I hated it.
Willie: I was trying to find information on radius size for my umpteenth layout idea. I knew that it related to car/loco length and visual presentation but like everything else lacking in hard data. Read the article after my post last night and I now have a handle on that small portion of railroading.
Off today so I hope to work on the layout and have it done. Boy, I crack myself up!
Mark: Hard to get yourself and the Better Half well when the temps are that low. Don't know how you stand that kind of weather. We had a week here where it was below freezing day and night and I hated it.
Willie: I was trying to find information on radius size for my umpteenth layout idea. I knew that it related to car/loco length and visual presentation but like everything else lacking in hard data. Read the article after my post last night and I now have a handle on that small portion of railroading.
Off today so I hope to work on the layout and have it done. Boy, I crack myself up!
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