N1GY- The simple Approach to Ham Radio

and My Model Railroad Hobby

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The above two pictures demonstrate that work has begun on the scenery for the extension of the layout. This will be slow progress because I still do not have all of the buildings or structures even purchased yet, let alone sited and installed in their permanent homes. I also have to add roads to service said structures and create grade crossings for the roads to get over the railroad tracks. I have a general idea of where the roads will go but nothing is "written in stone" yet.

        As the above pictures will attest, My children and their spouses have been added to the layout with a storefront or building named in their honor. I added myself to the roster when I renamed Lisa's old insurance office as my railroad design bureau. Lisa has a nice new office in the row of store fronts now on the layout. Now that I have most of the "town"tructures in place I can begin figuring out where the roads will go. The structures still have to be embedded into the scenery foliage etc. but the major part of the work is done. By the way, the three storefronts have photographic interiors taken from photos of store interiors that I found online. 

I finally have all of my children and their respective spouses accounted for on the layout. The last one was Irene, the wife of my son Steve. I was looking for something very specific and since she has always made me feel utterly welcome in their home, I thought what better location than a hotel. I took a while to find one but eventually I did. BTW, the reason for the huge sign on the side of the building is because in my usual duffer fashion, I managed to install the third floor wall on that side upside down. By the time I discovered my error it was too late, the cyanoacrylate glue was solid. So I covered it up. Irene definitely has the biggest sign of any on the layout. I sure hope she likes it. After dinner tonight, I put scenery down around the hotel, including two HO scale patio umbrellas. I was wondering if I would ever find a use for them and today I found it. 

As you can see from the two pictures above, the streets have been "installed" The plan is that there will be at least one more street just to the right of the block of stores and the rest of the uncenicked area around the church will be greenspace or a "churchyard". The area between the tanker truck and the block of stores will host an industry of some sort, I have not found just the right structure for that spot. 

My Model Railroad Page 3

           It sure didn't take long to run out of room on Page 2. We are on to page 3 and the scenery is gradually being installed from South to North. The first scratch-built industry has been installed and detailed. The diesel fuel facility has been added, both await the scenery to blend them into the layout. Those pictures are on Page 2 by the way. I will add more as the scenery progresses.

73.

             My son was down for a few days for a family event. My eldest daughter was ordained as a Deacon in her church. While here he managed to find the time to redo 8 window panels on my florida room which had been letting water in at a prodigious rate from our frequent rains this past summer. Repairing the flooring damaged by said rain will have to wait for the spring. He also managed to completely clear out the florida room of all the empty boxes and other trash that accumulated because dad is such a packrat. He did a wonderful job and I now have a roll-around cart that was under a work area which will be perfect for the next stage of the railroad. I will be constructing a 4 foot x 18 inch? benchwork to sit on top of the cart. This will line up perfectly with the current layout and provide a kind of staging yard to bring trains onto and off of the layout. It might even include a car float (barge) and tugboat as the primary scene on the cart. We will see, but that is well into the future. For now the cart offers me a convenient way to store the less photogenic materials from under the layout. The cart has doors, you see, so the ugly stuff can exist out of sight.

73

Here is the latest picture of the Church. It now haas a walkway, a tree, a church yard with 3 marker stones and is esentially complete. On another note, the road crossing the railroad tracks from the team track to the road system is also complete. Pictures to follow. The bubbling of the backdrop was expected and will be hidden by a cut stone wall at the back of the church.