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Latest news from the Pacific Northwest Railroad. Update 12/16/13 Just a test with microsoft Expression Web4 dfjsjkfak;lsjfkla;sdjk;lasj;lkadjsf dfklasfl;sfa;lsfhak;lsfkl;ads dsfklasljkfhjaljksdfh;lasfl Update 10/27/12 Amazing how time has passed. I can't believe it has been almost 6 years since I have posted on here. It has not been from my lack of interest in model railroading. Life has taken so many turns since then. The biggest was the passing of my father. A tough period in life but something we all have to experience. He will forever be missed. Also the passing of two of my close commercial fishing friends of 35 plus years. On a brighter note both my children graduated from college and both got good jobs and are now married. They have blessed me with two grandsons from my son and one grandson from my daughter so far. Family means the most to me. With the sale of my service provider my web sight went dormant for a while and I had no access to it . I now have my own domain name and a new host and have been working on getting it back in order. I can't believe how bad the photos are that I had taken back then and hope to upgrade them soon. I have posted an updated track plan for both decks. I am back working on my own layout trying to get the last of the track painted and ballasted. Been adding more trees, but need hundreds and hundreds more to get the look I want. Got my town in place for good and are ready for the last of the hydrocal to cover the last bit of plywood showing.
Update 11/26/06 Its been a
long time coming to post some progress on the PNR. And as a matter of fact there has not
bee a lot of progress on my home layout. I have been putting a lot of effort on our club
layout. (http://www.bsme.org/) I have made some progress on the base ground cover and did
some more backdrop painting. I have added more trees and am in the process of making more.
I have got the intermodal area ballasted and painted the concrete. Got the foundations in
for the rest of the buildings behind the yard area. (check out the layout pictures page) I
have also been trying my hand at weathering some rolling stock and have enjoyed that. Update 1/21/06 Well what's new on the PNR? Got two neat things for the layout for Christmas. One is called TrainSpeed. It is a digital readout of the train speed as it passes over the sensors. Now we have a grasp of scale speeds and can operate the trains more prototypically. No more racing around the layout, speed limits must be obeyed! Another is called a RRampMeter. It is a digital readout of track voltage and current used on the layout at any time. Great way to keep track of condition of DCC and its usage. I also managed to put decoders in two Life-Like SW1200's and put strobes on their rooftops. I have got DecoderPro, a program for programming decoders via computer, and have it hooked up to my command station. Just in the learning process but looks to be a great tool for programming decoders. As for modeling projects, I have been working on a lighthouse for the club layout and a propane delivery truck. Look on the projects page for pictures. Until next time... Update 12/01/05 Well the layout is slowly progressing. I have been working on the sawmill area and have got all the buildings and foundations down in place and ground cover and a lot of trees planted around it. I sure has taken on a new look. I have been working on tunnel liners and tunnel portals for the area at the end of the center island. Then I can cover the last of the foam with hydra cal and get back to making more trees. I have not had any operating sessions lately, I guess too busy modeling! I have also been very busy working on a water front scene for the club I belong to. Docks with a cold storage, a fish cannery, a restaurant and tackle shop. Also a light house which has been a fun project. Look at the layout pictures for some updated ones around the saw mill. Updated 9/25/05 It has been a long time since I have updated my progress. The first new change is that I am now on DSL and what a difference from dialup! My DCC conversion is continuing with more loco conversions. The track is all up and running and we have had operating sessions since the conversion. Anyone thinking about converting, don't wait, do it NOW! It is very much worth converting. Operating the layout is so much more enjoyable with DCC. I have still been busy working on the club layout and it has cut into my own layout progress but I am still making progress. My wife has sewn up curtains for the bottom of the layout and they look great. I have been making more trees and worked on more of the scenery. It is exciting to get more plywood and pink foam covered up. Since my last update I have developed a product for our hobby and got that to market thanks to my friends at New Rail Models. It is called a THROTTLE POCKET and goes on your layout to hold your DCC controllers. Go to their sight and check it out. They have many other great products. I have been scratch building some things for my saw mill scene. A live deck with debarker, bark hopper and a saw dust loader and am working on a lumber storage building. I did receive my undec Atlas Shay and what a fantastic loco that is. With some custom decals it will make a great addition to my saw mill operations. I have been continuing to work on powering some MOW vehicles. For the club I have been working on some docks and buildings for our water front scene. I even fabricated a crab pot to go on the dock. Details are so much fun to make. I also have chosen to scratch build some tunnel portals for a different look. I have posted some pictures on my projects page of some of these projects. I hope to add some pictures to the layout pictures page soon of my over all progress. Thanks for visiting my websight and I will try to post updates more often. I hope you enjoy my progress as much as I have. updated 1/10/05 Wow time flies. The holiday season has came and went. Before that it was all work at the BSME club layout. We are making great progress on the new layouts there. We had a successful open house season in December at the club layout. As for my home layout Christmas was good to it! It is now converted over to DCC control. It now has a Digitrax IR Chief command station installed. All the dc block switches are gone! Things are up and running but some minor track wiring is in order to make it operate efficiently. Track feeder placement is different in DCC than DC. Wow what a difference in operating the layout! Can't wait for the next ops session. I am working on installing decoders in my older locos. Getting the milling of chassis figured out and fitting the decoders. Things are progressing well. Will take some time to get the motive power converted over to DCC. Hope to have more pictures to post soon. updated 9-04-04 Well getting back to working on the Railroad. Have been working on gluing down track, pulling nails that I used for temporarily holding it down, filling in ties next to where the rail jointers are and ballasting the track. This time I am choosing to paint the track first and then apply the ballast and later weather between the rails with airbrushing and chalk. I didn't like the look of rail brown and so I am using roof brown. I spread the ballast with a small cup and a brush to get the look I want and then I wet the dry ballast with alcohol in a sprayer and then glue down with 50% white glue and 50% water with a splash of alcohol as a wetting agent. Check out the layout pictures page for some pictures of my progress. I wouldn't say ballasting is the most fun but the reward of seeing the finished look is very worth all the effort!
update from 5-04 It has been a while since I
have updated this sight with my progress.
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