Happy Thanksgiving to all. Have a safe and wonderful holiday.
Happy Thanksgiving…
Monthly Archives: November 2014
Nothing accomplished.
Sorry to report , there has been nothing accomplished. I know in my last post I said that I was going to bite the bullet, fire up the garage heater and press ahead with the cabinet work for the end of the peninsula. However it got cold here, and not just cold, but dead of winter cold. After a day of work I just wasn’t up to trying to get the garage up to a temp that was acceptable to work in. Temps in Minnesota have been bouncing around in the single digits.
Even though the temps have rebounded rather nicely “the powers that be” have us getting ready to host the family for Thanksgiving. As much as I would to be working on finishing the benchwork, getting together with family truly is important. I do look forward to having everyone over – the in-laws, the kids and the grandkids – there is nothing better. If I can find some time I will try to get some work done, but I doubt that I will. After the Thanksgiving holiday my schedule opens up a bit.
So again I’m sorry, but I would like to wish everyone a “Happy Thanksgiving”.
A quick up date as promised…
A quick update as promised although a couple of days late. I finished the last section of the peninsula wall. It wasn’t as straight forward as the rest of the center wall as I had to angle it to gain clearance for the turn back bulge. Though not that it was difficult, I did want to get the angle correct and make sure that it was securely fastened to the rest of the structure.
After I had the wall in I marked out on the floor the rest of the base cabinetry ( I know again with the cabinets ). The reason for this is because they are an odd shape because of the way the benchwork flares out for the turn back at the end of the peninsula. I wanted to get the angles right for when I cut them on the table saw.
With the sudden arrival of winter here in Minnesota, almost a month early, I’m a bit reluctant to head out to the garage to cut the plywood for the cabinets. Although because I’m so close to finishing up the benchwork and can move on to actually laying track, I’ll bite the bullet, fire up the garage heater and press ahead with the cabinets.
Once I do finish the end of the peninsula the plan is to build the base benchwork for the helix. After that is in place, I will then build the actual helix. I have noticed in other modelers blogs that they tend to leave the helix construction for last. I understand this, as the construction of a helix is a bit involved. However I can’t see putting it off as it sets the track height entering into and out of the helix. If you do the rest first and the helix last, then unless you planned it perfectly, your going to end up redoing something.
But not to get ahead of myself, first I’ll finish the peninsula.
In support of Jim Gore.
I’m writing this post in support of Jim Gore and all the others who have gone through this. If you had not heard Jim Gore, who is a professor of Biology at the University of Tampa and models the Denver & Rio Grande Sante Fe division, had his layout featured in the December issue of Model Railroader. This should have been the highlight of his modeling career ( I know it would have been for me – maybe someday ) I’ve seen the article and his layout and his work is beautiful. However there were several people ( kind word inserted there as I would have preferred to use something else ) didn’t think so.
Jim has modeled a fictional branch of the railroad, one that had been rumored to have been contemplated but never built. He had modeled it using On30 equipment. Side note: standard gauge is 56 1/2″ between railheads, the Denver & Rio Grande was a narrow gauge at 36″ between railheads and On30 is 30″ between railheads. I sure Jim was using On30 because of the wealth of equipment at a reasonable cost put out by Bachmann trains and others. He also had come up with a plausible story as to why he used this gauge.
These trolls had decided that he had gone to far and let him know that what he had done was wrong ( again that was putting it politely ). Now there are always going to modelers out there that don’t agree with something that you’ve done and they usually will politely ( and I truly mean politely ) disagree with you. But these idiots went as far as to contact Jim by e-mail and call him. They totally stepped over the line.
I know to some extent what Jim is going through. Let me explain.
When I was much younger, my father had a friend over who was a “SERIOUS” model railroader. My father invited him down to see they layout. I was playing around with it at the time. Now at that time I enjoyed building things for the layout and running trains, thus a modeler who liked to run trains and not a model railroader. He quickly informed me that I was doing it all wrong. I felt pretty stupid. On the plus side it did make me want to learn more about how things worked on a railroad so that I was “doing it right”. However 40 years later I am still reluctant to join a club because then I would have to have people over who would look at what I have done and would be judging the layout. This blog has been a big step forward to getting past that. Who knows, someday I may join that club.
But getting back to Jim. He was very gracious about all the criticism and kindly replied to it by saying that it was his layout, his reality and that this is only a hobby. He is a better man then I am. I probably would have lashed out at them, making matters worse.
So to Jim, hang in there, a majority of modelers support you and what you have done. I will offer to you the same sage advice that I offer to my grandson when he takes a tumble – ” shake it off buddy “. And remember this, those that can – Do, those that can’t – criticize the others.
Early November Update.
Though I have made progress, it isn’t technically with the layout. As I have been building the cabinets and benchwork and slowly getting all the “stuff” stored away underneath, there have been some items that just weren’t going to fit underneath. These items have been slowly pushed to the end of the layout room waiting to go somewhere.
As they were in the way of the peninsula end construction, that day has now come.
I will be spending this weekend reconfiguring our store room to more efficiently use the space so that I can get these last few large items out of my way. Once that is done I will have the last section of the basement freed up for construction of the peninsula end. I have already got some of it put away and uncovered floor space that I haven’t seen in about 8 months. With the last of it gone I will be able to move forward as there won’t be anything in the way.
I should have progress to report and pictures to prove it by mid week.
Again, stay tuned and thank you for your patience.