I'm back

Well I have to say the last two weeks are two weeks I do not want to happen again. Having spent two days cleaning up the water in the train room only to come home from work last Thursday to find three inches of water at the bottom of the basement stairs. Sometime from Wednesday night to when I got home, the sump pump seized up and the rest is history. The new pump ran for a 1/2 hour with out stopping. And then over the weekend, I experienced a medical problem which has gone and left me laid up for a couple of weeks. So during this time when I can't work on the railroad, I can get back to the work bench and finish some badly need equipment, a.k.a the RS-2 which is number one and some rolling stock. I am OK, but there is going to have to be a change in life style. Luckily I have good people around me who are going to make sure I follow instructions. Haven't read instructions for a kit in so long........oh well.

See ya next time.

What a week

Hi Everybody,

My post is late this week. It was decided that some water was to be stored in my basement last weekend. So much of the week has been spent returning the water from which it came. But before all this fun started, I got the roadbed raised. I also uploaded a new track plan in the design page. I've been refining it and developing what it all look like as I proceed with it's building.

I decided to make the crosscut slots at the bottom of the grade(sounds like I'm climbing the Rockies) first as they would be on the top of the roadbed. I figured a spacing of 1/4" would give the best transition. Well a 1/4" spacing was too much. It made the roadbed flimsy and as I was cutting, the tension in the wood was making some of the tabs to break off, so when I made the cuts at the top which are on the underside, I made them with a 3/4" spacing and it produced a very smooth, gentle transition. I will have to go back and add long splices strips to strengthen the roadbed.

 

The chain tower arrived back home last week. A friend I met on a website for the Appalachian and Ohio Railroad, an O Scale railroad in Colorado which appeared in Model Railroader and Model Railroad Planning did the work for me. I had the sprockets replaced with a 8 tooth and a 16 tooth sprocket. This will give it a 1:2.5 ratio.  The brass washer you can see between the sprocket and the shaft housing is a washer that Bob, my friend, designed so the chain would have clearance  between the sprocket and washer. This change is going to make the RS-2 so smoooooooth.

I also spent time getting my bench mounted drill press all hooked up and running. Sorry no photo. The first project for it will be the drilling of the lamp porcelain base mounting bases. On one edge there will be threaded inserts for attaching the valence. These are threaded for an 8-32 screw. Also needed are clearance holes for the screws that will be used for anchoring them to the ceiling and a pocket for the terminal screws on the underside of the lamp base. This will be done with a forstner bit to make the pocket.

This weekend I will get the homabed strips glued down. I will be using an adhesive caulk for the bonding agent. I used this on the On2 layout and it really holds tight. But it doesn't work well for ties. I tried on the On2 and when I started to sand the tops the ties just started rolling over. And spending some more time getting the basement dry again.

See ya.