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The 2 halves of the railroad are back together for (hopefully) the last time. Trains are running again!
My 2 C-19 locomotives are out in Ohio for upgraded electronics and speakers - this type of work is definitely something I'm not comfortable with. If you would like to see (hear) a sound comparison of a stock C-19 vs. upgraded speakers, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejHkV1NPMkM - JT Burke is doing the upgrades - interesting guy, his day job is an in-studio and live event audio engineer for professional (he doesn't drop names, but he claims "A-List") artists. He is also a model railroader, and combines the two offering high-end speaker and electronics upgrades and parts for the hobby with his side business. These upgrades will bring my C-19's up to snuff with my two K-27's, and the Galloping Goose, all of which which JT did for me.
Here are a series of shots highlighting the newly finished area, and the now-wired lighting. You can see in the first shot the last area to be completed - this is easily reachable from the front. Dave S. took some of these shots - I guess there is some advantage to losing your phone on a kayaking trip, and replacing it with a new-fangled 3-lens model.
What's missing from the finished area? Cars and trucks. Nothing instantly defines the era modeled like cars and trucks. I have a backlog to build on the workbench.
There are not many choices for nice HO scale vehicles of my era (1939). Most ready-built diecast metal or plastic models are kind of caricatures of the real thing, or modeled as hot rods, but there are a few that are ok. As far as I can find, there is just one company - Sylvan Scale Models - that has a very good selection of appropriate vehicles. Jordan Highway Miniatures had recently ceased production, but they are still plentiful on the secondary market (eBay), and had made lots of nice ones. As you can see, they both come in kit form - Sylvan in cast resin, and Jordan in injection molded styrene. There is a lot of cutting / trimming / filing / sanding to be done, but they build up into nice models. Just below is how they come, followed by some ready for the primer and paint stage:
I cut access holes in the fascia board at the newly-covered tunnel, closest to the windows of the room, because just before I covered it with scenery, I had a track buckle up that I had to re-work. This can happen with changes in temperature and humidity inside the room, causing the wooden benchwork to move a bit. And sometimes the flexed track just tries to regain its once-straight shape. This doesn't normally happen with ballasted track, which is held very securely by the stone and glue, but I don't bother ballasting track in tunnels, which won't be seen. I'm going to have some "curtains" made to cover the access holes.
Once the RR was re-connected, my first order of business was to run a track-cleaning train. The first time into the tunnel where you first walk into the room, the train didn't come out the other end :( Turns out I had a track buckle in the worst possible place.
I was able to saw in an access hole without damaging anything, and with the help of track alignment gauges, tiny spikes, and notched spiking pliers, I was able to repair the track.
It happens to the best of them - you may remember the CSX derailment in Ellicott City in August 2012, which sadly killed two 19-year old friends who were sitting on the Main St. bridge, and were buried in coal. True, they shouldn't have been there. But we were all young and dumb once.
