The East Coast Large Scale Train Show is over for another year. For many, Easter is here and Spring abounds all around us. A wonderful time to be outside.
No matter how you celebrate Spring, we wish you the best. Embrace this wonderful World we live in. Get out and do something or sit inside and watch it through a window or on the Weather Channel. In a free society, the choice is yours.
Wow Ric, that is pretty deep!
Let me get my waders on. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)
Ha Ha Ha! Lemme get the shovel.
Just kiddin’, Ric. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
Made my choice today Ric
Thanks for the post Ric, and it was great to chat with you at the D&B.
My job activities have tapered some, and it was great to get outside today and enjoy the amazing weather we’ve been having here in Maryland. True, my back and hips are hurting after a couple hours of picking up branches and pine cones and trash and whatever, but being out there, mowing the lawn, getting the sprinkler system going, and just getting things ready for the season, was wonderful.
There are weeds all over the layout and, for that matter, all around the house. That’s on tomorrow’s agenda. Nice to be outside though.
CJ
Steve McKenzie said:
Made my choice today Ric
Me too, or should I say Me three since I had visitors…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Now those are two rednecks if I ever saw 'em, Ken. Just saying…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif) It was a beautiful day to enjoy a well designed and built layout.
Beautiful weather here in Chicagoland also. Got outside at 0830, laid down some patio blocks around one of my raised beds that sits on the low side of my yard (swamp), chives are doing real well down there, they’re already a foot tall. Straightened the back fence, 60mph winds a few months ago, combined with the wet ground at the low end of the yard, tilted the fence to a 70 degree angle, and filled & tilled all the vegetable garden boxes with manure and topsoil. Finished up by 1300, all ready for plants in a couple weeks.
Work on the layout tomorrow.
Today, before the thunderstorms rolled in, I was able to finish the rehabilitation of the railroad.
I discovered that the far side of the lower reverse loop has sunk. Bringing it back up to level is a project for another day.
Then I ran the first train of the season.
As per tradition, the first train of the season is my Bachmann Reading passenger train.
Here we see it crossing the repaired Saw Mill Run bridge.
And then it rolled off the track after the switch for the lower reverse loop. Here one branch on my boxwood had sagged, and was now inline with the locomotive’s stack. It was an older growth branch, so I hated to cut it off, but the railroad must run. After trimming the Boxwood, the train ran for almost 2 hours, before the thunderstorms rolled in.
Got outside today to actually run trains for the first time this year. Very warm and sunny Easter Sunday. Perfect for not picking up any tools !
The last of the snow is just about gone and most of the frost in the ground. Today I did some basic raking of leaves and twigs and spent some time working on a place to put my miks challenge building which will actually end up aspending the new 7/8th scale Popham station, next to the peir across the tracks from the old 1 to 20 scale station. I was working too hard for photos. Maybe tomorrow.
Sue and I spent the morning walking the beach at the real Popham…beautiful as ever!
Western NY continues its variable Spring weather,
Following 81 mph winds which “removed” some of the dibond top and track from our raised railway 26" of snow buried the whole thing. We enjoyed a weekend steaming on the portable at a Greenberg show then the propane delivery truck backed over our curb valve and the town dug up part of our front yard to repair the leak between rain storms. The ground is too wet to pick up the tree debris so we hitched up our trailer and drove to Myrtle Beach, SC. The rest will wait until we return.
It’s beautiful here!
Tom,
Chickening out! Didn’t invite the rest of us to SC.
Returned to my place for the season to find a mess. Well, I gotta remove a downed 20" cherry from the storm. It sure made a mess of the train. much track to replaced and many buildings destroyed by the limbs.
Thomas,
Where are you located?
Can you post any pictures?
Maybe an LSC member is near enough to help you out.
Maybe you can apply for FEMA funds! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Spring has arrived here. Did some cleaning up on the layout. One of the advantage to running all winter long, not much work to do for spring cleanup. Just need to add a fresh coat of ballast in areas and re level some track. Other then that just enjoying running some trains in the nice weather and fighting the black flies.
I spent all day Saturday on my knees, doing weeding / spraying around the house and layout. Not exactly fun, but I try to make it pleasant with old chair pads to kneel on, a decent shade hat, and sometimes the radio on. Especially compared to the prior week I had at the office, it was very peaceful.
I have tons of stuff to do on the house, and after that I’ll get to the layout maintenance & eventually running. I’m tempted to feel stressed. But you know what, I’m gradually learning that the hobby doesn’t require me to meet any deadlines. Unlike other areas of life. And that’s just fine by me.
Cliff
I actually spent a couple hours weeding this weekend myself. It’s not my favorite activity, but it’s rewarding: the layout looks a lot better when there aren’t foot-tall weeds growing in the “forest.” I usually run trains while weeding (assuming the weeds are not clogging the right of way) because it’s both soothing and a reminder of why I’m weeding, but not this time. I found a dead frog on the tracks… and he’d apparently been there a couple of days, because the frog juice caused a good bit of corrosion on the brass track. So I need to sort that out.
Also, the power booster on my NCE system croaked (see what I did there?) over the winter, so I can’t run the big stuff that is DCC. I do have a couple of DC-powered locomotives and some live steamers to run in the meantime, but that’s something else to get fixed before running season really starts. I’d better get a move on, because now that spring’s here I only have until June to run trains before it gets too hot and I’ll have to take a break until fall. Probably the only thing I miss about California is the weather.
The next two weekends are busy for me. My son turns five on Sunday, and I just bought a new truck (a humvee of all things) that needs some work. But I’m hoping to take a couple hours off from work mid-week to clean the rails and finish spring track maintenance, and then I can run trains as time permits.
This is the first year I have not had to weed. One of the benefits of an elevated railway, but I admit, not as pretty as ground layouts. Will be adding live plants this year to the benchwork to attempt a compromise and have trains run through the flowers. Track and ballast maintenance was also less this year another good thing. I know about the heat…hard to handle the track in June here. I wait for cloudy days and the rainy season.
I spent a good part of my day cleaning the layout and the surrounding area.
I also sort of finished my water feature. This is how I left it …
I got the spillway working just the way I wanted it to look / sound …
Now I had to dress it up a bit
