Wordless Wednesday #71

One of the more colorful modern day W&LE engines, #6358 an ex-British Columbia SD40-2 is passing through West Akron on April 12, 2016, Chris Ellis photo

Wordless Wednesday #70

Curves in all the Right Places

Yesterday we had some friends visiting from out of town who know what I'm building in the basement. I figured I should have something a little more exciting to show off than 20+ feet of bare pink foam and wood.

Not a very interesting sight to non-modelers.

I quickly laid out 15' of flex track following the penciled in mainline and using alligator clips wired up my NCE DCC Powercab. As I started making up a train to shuffle back and forth I realized this was also turing out to be a validation test of sorts with the space, track layout and potential train size.

Setting up a typical train at my planned 9-10' length including the engine and quickly proved that my design for Adena Yard works in size and visual space. The train will fit with room to spare in the siding track and the other yard tracks can be filled with good sized cuts of hopper cars.

A westbound coal drag bound for Jewett passing through Adena. With a lone Heavy Mikado it will be a mighty struggle against the uphill grade out of the Ohio River Valley.

Compared to the prototype, the bend in this model version of the yard is somewhat exaggerated but I absolutely love the look. The pronounced curve through the yard will really help to reinforce the idea of an Appalachian coal hauling railroad snaking along creeks and valleys.

While it may not seem like a big step it's little things like this that can help keep the creative fires going. Plus the visitors got a kick out of it later on.

Adena Yard above, usual construction mess below.

Today the train and flex track will be removed so work on adding the backdrop can begin before I get too far ahead myself.

A Visit to the Dentist

I've often seen people saying in various forums about going to their Dentist and receiving more than just a pain in the mouth. These people after telling their Dentist about their hobby, have asked if they could have any old (and sterile!) tools they might be on the verge of throwing out. Typically they claim to have received an assortment of picks and other things.

On Monday I had a regularly scheduled cleaning at my long time Dentist.  At the end of my appointment after he did his checkup I told I had an odd question for him. I explained about my hobby of modeling trains and if he had any old picks or other tools that I might have. I also noticed they weren't very busy so I felt my timing might be good for this kind of request.

He thought that was pretty neat and said he'd be glad to help. We looked all over and scrounged up a good handful of old tools. Even one of his hygienists volunteered some old picks that were broken on one side.

In the end I had an odd assortment of tools that I'll find good use for with soldering, scribing and other possible modeling activities. A big thanks to my Dentist and his staff!

The bounty of new modeling tools.

One of the tools I received is involved in doing Root Canals. The photo below shows this particular tool in all of its long pointy horror. I've had a few Root Canals done and I'm not sure I needed to know what tools were inserted into my open tooth.... Some things are best left unknown.

Holy %$&*