Hey Bill,Zealot is not cooperating, won't let me post the next installemet of the 2-6-6-2 story. I"m going to see if this quick reply will get their computers out of whatever rut they are in. I can see a preview, but the submission doesn't take
Hey Bill,Yes there is sound in that tender. we will see how bad or good it sounds after Blair tweeks the cv's, and find out if I should have spent a little more and got the Soundtrax decoder.
I likewise missed the train club, and if you only visit Mr Jack Black on New Years eve, perhaps it's time you upgrade to maker's mark, Henry McKenna, or even Knob Creek. (several years ago Knob creek was the smallest distillery in the country, they trippled the size if thier distilery, and were still the smallest!)
More work done on the ore transfer, still needs a roof, some more stairs, and the conveyors, but here are some picks
the 2-6-6-2 is ready for testing @ the club, and MDC shay #7 is on the worlbench to get NWSL axle gears. once it runs well again I might have to do some detail lettering and painting for it, as it used to be almost as well behaved as #8, just a little faster.
Bill Nelson
That is a nice looking model. Hope to see it running soon. Maybe we should take the plunge and offer up one of the MDC Shays to Blair for DCC and Sound. I'm game to try it but was thinking about "rail slider" pickups to encourage better electrical conductivity.I got some fresh paint on # 7, while looking for that donkey crew I found it's original boiler, so I took a photo of the dull side of #7, which shows the boiler shape better, along with the original boiler.
The domes come with the conversion boiler, the stack and headlight came from an AHM J W Bowker . Not only does the conversion boiler look good to my admittedly reactionary eye, but it wieghs twice what the MDC boiler does, helping make these little critters into hill monsters.
Bill Nelson
Nice work Bill!!! That is one big tree those little guys felled. I would be proud and pose for a picture too after that monster fell.some of the guys who didn't make the selection to be on the big donkey crew, ended up working in the woods @ Terrapin knob. they posed for a group photo, after felling the biggest tree on Iron mountain
Bill Nelson
That scene has been in the works for a long time. I left a gap in the forest, so it would be possible to see the top of that hill, where I want to have more logging scenes. including some skid roads, and another high wire operation that could carry logs to the main line just below the 1st sander's ridge tunnel. that would block the main when log cars were loaded, but there is no room for siding there, and that might be an interesting operational monkey wrench to throw in the works, in the very unlikely case that someone actually got comfortable operating on the mountain division.
Well that Gap in the woods started to look unnatural, and so my tiny brain started to ask the question "what makes a big hole in the woods", and after a long time of asking myself the question I figured that the answer was a really big tree that is not there any more.
Now if you look at that trees neigbors, the big ones are pretty big made with hydrocal on wire frames. Way way back when I was working on a logging scene, My Mother cane in and said " That's not right!" She picked up a log off a Keystone buggy, held it up to a puny comercial HO tree, and said "How are you going to get logs like this out of trees like that? She then went and brought me a coil of wire, and showed me how to twist out a wire frame for a tree that was big enough to get logs out of.
So a bigger than average tree had to be humongous! I bought a bunch of Balsa blocks, and the larger elements of that tree are carved from balsa blocks; once down to the smaller branches, sticks and twigs do the job.
That scene needs ground cover, and I'll have to figure out how to model the brush smaller limbs with leaves still on.
I'm not real satisfied with that picture, My 8megapixel camera doesn't always auto focus right, and has been taking fuzzy closeups I need to go on line and check a manual, and see if I've got some auto focus option that will work beter, may shoot some with my 6.3megapixel camera in the mean time. I really want to get one of those 10megapixelSLRs, but am too cheap.
Very cool aerial views there Bill. Glad you got a little moonlight last PM. I enjoyed seeing you guys at the operating session.Late night out last night out @ Dr Toms C&S for a little operating session. (Tom, Jennifer put the top down on the miata for the ride home). I got up early to load the woodstove, and was limbering up and getting tanked up on tea, getting ready to cut some firewood when the bottom dropped out. The heavy rain made me cancel my firewood plans, so I started getting my workbench ready for the football game this afternoon.
We had some light bulbs out on the chandaleir, and It was time to change all the bulbs to dalyight bulbs to help my wife fight seasonal affective dissorder, so I raided the compact flouresents to replace some of the bulbs out in the RR room.
The DG CC & W is light by flouresent lights under the upper decks, and by track lights on the ceiling (I want to add flouresents to the ceiling too, but that will be a big operation)
way up by the ceiling I realized I had some interesting views, so I took some photos with the camera almost touching the ceiling. some of these came out well enough for me to share. They include clear photos of Smaug one of my more elusive residents, up on his favorite perch; up on a ledge above the South fork ov Crooked Creek, before in plummets int the Gizzard. He isn't real obvious, but he Has a comanding view of the Gizzard, Sander's gorge, Terrapin knob, Ridgemont, and the valley below.
While up there i got shats of the ore transfer and the log reload that give a little better idea of how the narrow gauge fits in to the bulk materials operations.