Prepping for school!

For those of you that don't know, I'm headed by to college this semester! So this summer has been busy trying to save up as much at my now former job as a truck driver. With the end of that job, I've fully moved back in with the folks, which feels somewhat strange in itself considering I've only really visited periodically for the past 5 years. With that, most of the time since I've quit was used to get moved back in to the point of actually being able to utilize my room more fully along with setting up my old 10 gallon aquarium, which has a few new features not seen back in 2000, when the tank was made!

And now back to the trains! A few more voltage regulators have been installed for Durkee Road. They've been installed with a terminal strip between them and the lights, with a few extra spots for future lights. Currently the street lamps and the porch light to the closed café have been done up with the other two lights planned to have one, too.

I've built up a Details West electrical shed for the grade crossing. It still needs to be painted, which might just happen for the next post. Hopefully I can figure out a way for it to have its light, possibly using fiber optics.

Next time the grade crossing should actually have its new gates and IR detection system installed. Might just have to get video of it for next time but don't hold your breath!

I can't remember if I've written about the gate yet or not, so here it is. I made it now a little while ago for the entrance to the warehouse, which SWIFT was not supposed to leave out of. It will likely still be a bit until I install it though.

Happy Modeling!

Another not too exciting month...

This time was again, not very exciting. Mostly got the room cleaned up...

Anyways, I finally got the other two Digitrax panels mounted and mostly hooked up. One of the panels isn't hooked up to the track yet but that really should be fairly quick.

I did finally finish getting the interior of the gas station painted well enough that the black isn't really showing through. Next time, I get to reassemble it! (Sorry no pictures this time, again!)

I got some more LEDs in. I doubt I'll need to order any more any time soon! I did also get some fiber optic cable (.75mm). Might just have to do some experimenting!

The other project that got started is a rotary car dump! This thing is gonna be big, too! The current design is calling for it to be able to dump two cars at a time! The only thing really close is a Walthers kit that is out of production, the Walthers paper mill version, or a custom version! I'm going the custom version for both the length issue and the durability issue. Online research turned up that despite the Walthers kit being designed to be motorized, it just doesn't hold up well to extensive use. The other issue is that due to the kit being made out of plastic, it doesn't have the weight behind it to run very well. Hopefully this works out well! And yes, I found a few options for WORKING rotary couplers!

Next time won't be until Christmas that I get home but it's doubtful that I'll get anything done. Maybe I can make it to the Gadison Pacific's swap in January!