Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Just a kit

A wise modeler railroader once said "Anybody can build a kit" - so I did.  Since I had stopped working on my Richlawn Railroad because of possibly moving to Florida I built a kit for my good friend Kevin.  Kevin is an excellent modeler and he has a website at:  http://wnrr.net/

The kit is Laser Art's #603 "Regan House".  If you would like to see the details of the build with more pictures then check out my blog at:  http://kevinkreaganhouse.blogspot.com/

Click on the picture for a larger view.



Rick

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Friday, Mar. 30th 2012 at Rick's

It was a sort of lazy "work session" Friday night at Popsicle Rick's place since he's going to be shutting down the layout when his house sells. So, what to do? The answer of course is to chew the fat, eat the goodies, and do a little "mini" operation session.



Here the guys are in the new crew lounge (Rick's office) which was a necessary move since the normal crew lounge is filled with moving boxes filled with model railroad goodies. From left to right: Band Camp Mark, Packrat Paul, Cave Man John, and Coalfinger Ken. Later Glue Bob arrived with a friend David, but unfortunately no pictures were taken of those guys.



Here conductor Mark keeps a watchful eye on engineer Paul as he brings his train around to the switching area. Both teams started with the trains elsewhere on the layout so they could get a little run time before the switching begins.




Paul brought his own throttle since he is also a Digitrax guy and here he's running his train towards the Lake Linda Industrial area.




Nothing like watching a train go across a trestle by the waterfall! The Hoovertown (unfinished) extension is in the foreground.




Engineer Ken runs his train into the Deer Hollow Industrial area while conductor John studies the work order. Does anyone smell something burning? Could it be John's brain?




Mark and Paul get right to work pulling and setting out cars in the Deer Hollow area.




Now, in all fairness the work to be done by John & Ken in the Lake Linda area was a little more complicated than the other team. Here engineer Ken mans the throttle while John figures out their next move.




It may look tight in this little alcove but somehow the guys made it work. Just imagine if Scott were here! Just kidding Scott - we love you!




For both teams there were some cars sitting on their passing sidings that had to be picked up or spotted at one of the industries which add a little extra fun to the session.




Hummmm.....now if we drop this car and pick up the red one.....or maybe we should pick up the blue one and................... Mark engages all of this gray matter - I definitely smell smoke!





Here Mark and Paul are about finished. Ken & John will finish a few minutes later (remember, their assignment was a little bit trickier).

The operations took about 30 minutes and Rick enjoyed taking pictures and ribbing the guys. After the session was completed we retired to the crew lounge to eat snacks and watch some DVDs of trains (some L&N of course!). Bob showed up with his friend David and Rick showed him around the layout and we ran some trains. By 10pm we were all "trained" out and the guys left.

Thank you men of the NCIOG for a wonderful evening!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Alive & Well, but well.....no postings

For all who follow this blog and wonder why there are no postings, it's Scott Perry's fault!!!!

You see, ever since Scott moved away we've been remiss as a group about getting pictures and doing postings here of our Friday night work sessions and layouts.

We forgive you, Scott!......and we miss you - not just your smiling face, but your energy and postings!

The good news is that we're alive and well and still working on the railroad(s). The Friday night sessions continue and we're strong as ever (less Scott and a few others) but we're just not as verbose.

God bless,
Rick

Friday, September 30, 2011

Video run through of Richlawn Railroad 9-28-11

I've been busy on the railroad and with the help on the NCIOG guys have made good progress. I produced a little run through video that shows the new background mural along with some of the alcove work. It was shot with my MUVI micro camcorder and edited with Adobe Premier V6. Actual proto sound files were used to replace the loco's on-board sound.




Rick

Friday, September 9, 2011

Work session at Rick's on 9-9-11

It had been a long time since the gang had been at the Richlawn Railroad and a great deal has changed since the last work session. In attendance were: Glue Bob, Band Camp Mark, Packrat Paul and his nephew David, Coalfinger Ken, Cave Man John (and his wife Shirley), and Popsicle Rick.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I hoped that Cave Man John would appreciate my new Man Cave sign posted on the outside basement door.


POSTED: Man Cave! Women can visit but only for awhile



What happens in the Cave stays in the Cave. Of course, its an indoor railroad, not a garden variety!



Organization is the key, so I had a sign posted with the jobs along with all of the material and supply arranged for each team.





The guys got a laugh out of my organization, but everybody knew what was supposed to happen.




Team A (Ken & John) worked on the pleating the fascia curtain. Shirley was upstairs visiting with Midge, but did visit us briefly to see the alcove mural. Here's a close up of Ken using the templates to make the pleats. I was originally going to have the guys hot glue the pleats but opted for using a stapler. Not hot glue burns!




Bob & Mark were on Team C - view block installation. The task involved stringing a steel cable and hanging bed sheets to hide the mess (who made this big mess???). Here Bob is asking Mark to hand him a tool.




Ken & John are off to a great start - who will complete their task first and win the prize (there really isn't a prize!)




Team B members Paul & David slapping on the paint on the fascia. The challenge was to get the fascia painted without painting the fascia curtain, floor, self, etc....




Mark & Bob taking a second to get their mugs plugged.




John wielding the stapler while Bob looks on.




Paul pointed out that the gray color I picked for the fascia looks a great deal like L&N gray - I promise I didn't do that on purpose. Could it be that L&N has soaked into my subconscious?




Laundry day? Not exactly, but I'm using the wife's good bed sheets to make a partition to block the view of all the junk! Meanwhile, Paul takes a break watching DVDs of what else? Trains, of course!




Break time! The guys are watching DVD that my sister bought me for my birthday - a 12 DVD set!. I'll use the TV and DVD player during my Piedmont Pilgrimage open house (Oct 15th) to play a run through video of the Richlawn Railroad using my train mounted camera.




So which team won? Well, with the weighting on how difficult and time consuming the tasks were I declare it a tie! All tasks were completed, most of the snacks were consumed, DVDs watched, lies told, kidding done (especially about Bob's unusually SMOOTH legs!) and a great time had by all. Thank you, Gentlemen for you help and fellowship!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Friday night at John Kruse's home 9-2-11

The group met at John's home for a work session and some fun. In attendance were Coalfinger Ken, Packrat Paul, Band Camp Mark, Glue Bob, Popsicle Rick, and of course "No Name" John. John's wife Shirley made some delicious home-made brownies - YUM! After the usual chow down and work discussion we got busy. These pictures are from my cell phone so the quality is not the usual.


John's new "Man Cave" sign was a hit! Yours truly ordered a Man Cave sign as a result although it will be a different style. The sign came in handy as Shirley was downstairs chatting with the guys and John pointed at the sign and brought it to her attention as a hint for her to take her leave. John is either very brave or foolish!



Here's the whole crew (less me) discussing the goal for the evening which was to get the track sub-roadbed roughed in and elevation set.




Bob lectures the guys on the finer points of model railroading.



Paul, John & Bob look at the plan. Paul is the "human elevation calculator" in that all you have to do is give him two out of the three (track length, grade percentage & elevation) and he will give you the third item - all in his head!




Mark is pondering the state of affairs before blazing through his tasks.




Ken is holding this corner in place that kept floating up off of the floor.....or, he is waiting for instructions.




I didn't get any action shots but there was jig saw sawing and drill drilling along with other work happening. I left around 9:30p and they were still going strong.


[Pictures & story by Rick Wade]

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Friday Night at Keith's home 8-19-11


Attending at Keith's home were Concrete Keith (of course!), Glue Bob, Packrat Paul, Popsicle Rick, Coalfinger Ken, Band Camp Mark, and John (nickname yet to be determined).

It was great to see Keith again as he's constantly been on the road for work. Tonight he was tired, but a sport as he kept on going - kind of like the Energizer Bunny!



Mark & Keith interested in ????




Now what was that we were supposed to do tonight? Oh yeh, clean up, clean the track and run
some trains!


Bob get right to work picking up.



Why this picture? Because I LIKE it!



Nice, clean work running the track cleaner over the track. Rick even looks like he is working (sort of).




Bob finished the pick up duty and switched to track cleaning. Who is that mysterious visitor???



Now if we knock out the basement wall we can expand on
to the golf course, and then........................



You missed a spot right there. What would Bob do without Paul's help?


Bob explains himself to Keith. I would have liked to hear
that conversation!


The L&N Boys Ken & Rick show their AWESOME shirts.


After all of the cleaning Keith set out the throttles and the
real fun began.

Mr. Murphy showed up after a few minutes of running and we had a "Naughty Node" that overheated causing a log jam of trains as the turnouts stopped working. It's actually great that this happened tonight as that was the purpose of the session is to get ready for Keith's open
house on September 18th.





Here Keith shows John how to get started.



A great time was had by all - thanks, Keith!


[Text & pictures by Rick Wade]