Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 49°. Yesterday's high of 69° was a bit warmer than the forecast, supposed to reach 74° today. Mowed some more parts of the yard yesterday, still need to venture out to the "back 40" which includes a 300' drainage swale that still has some water in it. Meanwhile my neighbor mowed about 1/3 of my hayfield (~4 acres) over the weekend. There's no fence between me and the uphill property west of me, and he works both at the same time.
Meanwhile the fiber-optic crew continues to lay the conduit across the front (east) side of my property, they seem to get about 350'/day, so they should be over to the next property later today. There's still a big hole on either side of the easement road/county road intersection on my SE corner; they're supposed to install a "vault" on my corner. They have filled in the two boring pits that they dug along the south side.
Out in the train shed, I accomplished my two goals, albeit simple ones. Added some various shades of paint to the ties and touched up the sky backdrop. I did spend some time (for the third day in a row) rehabbing one of the structures that I removed. It is a very old Magnuson
resin kit. Any of you who have built these kits in the past will understand the issues. I originally had a minor warp which I was able to remove with a hot water soak. I then used Walther's Goo to assemble the walls. One corner became slightly separated over the years and I tried to fix it using Goo again. After 36 hours with clamps and weights, it seemed to have re-adhered. But NO! A few hours after removing everything, it separated again. After scraping the old adhesive out, I used some Gorilla CA gel this time, with the same clamps and weights. We'll see this morning. I am going to have to touch up the paint now as well. Fortunately, I write the paint colors used on the original instructions and put them in a file cabinet drawer. So I do know what color I used and still have some of it. Today's other plans include ballasting the spurs and possibly starting the roads/parking areas. Once I get the Magnuson structure off the workbench, I will also add some signs and other minor details to all of the structures.
OK, I can't compete with Chet's rail picture of the day, but here's one from my layout along the same lines.
I don't provide much of a ROW along my lines!
Greg - Good luck with the backdrop project. Looking forward to seeing what you can do. As you might have seen from my pictures, I only attempt simple blue skies with green horizons. I do have a few places where I have added some background structure pictures in places, something that I am contemplating on the current scenery improvement project.
Curt -
Willie- Thank you. Oh no, your layout scene looks like the apocalypse has occurred!
That's not the worst, there's areas that look like a tornado passed through!
I'm looking forward to this area, as my scenery skills have gotten better and now that I have completed benchwork, wiring and main line construction, I can devote more time to scenery if I can leave the throttle alone.
I am totally unfamiliar with coal trestles but I am admiring your work and learning a bit about them. I actually have two but don't know if I can incorporate both of them into the layout. One of them will definitely be used at a crushed rock/landscaping supply dealership. Coal is not typically used in my modeled area except by power plants.
So today is Manatee Appreciation Day. I guess that we should all kiss a manatee to let them know that they are appreciated. However
Curt or
Phil are the only ones who might have any living nearby and that might still be a several hour trip.
Everyone have an awesome day.
That was a good idea to keep the paint colors you used on your buildings. Those resin kits can be a bear to work with. I have built a couple of them but prefer wood kits or plastic. 
