Hot Date on Saturday Night

Last Saturday night Adam, Sara, and Emerson were going to a birthday party for Adam's dad. So Barbara and I were going to keep Carly for them. But, the VFW Post was having a Luau Party that we wanted to attend. Barbara was playing bridge and we we going to meet at the post. So I picked up Carly and took her to the post with me. She was the best looking girl there. We had a great time!!!

Emerson stayed with us last week for a couple of days. he was playing in his room and then he came upstairs to show me sometning. If you look on his shirt, their are a bunch of sticker letters just below OSHKOSH.



Those letters spelled his name. He attached the letters himself, in the right order, and none of them were upside down.I think that was pretty AMAZING for a lad who won't be 4 till next month.

Carly's First Birthday Party

Friday was Carly's first birthday so we had a party for her at Andma and Papa's house. We had 13 children and 16 adults. Everyone had a GREAT time and the pizza was good.

here is Carly opening some of the wonderful gifts she received. She has her birthday taiar one, showing she is someone special.

This is Carly befor she had her birthday cake!

And this is her enjoying her cake. time to enter her in another "messiest baby contest".

A Mountain is Born

Once the track was operational, I decided to add a mountain in the corner of the layout as my first scenery project. The first step was to add support in the corner using some Masonite left over from my control panel efforts. next I crumbled up sheets of newspaper and taped them together. Then I taped all the balls of paper to hold then in place.

Next I applied plaster coated sheets over the paper mound to to provide a hard surface. While the plaster was drying, I mad rocks in a mold using more plaster like material called Hydrocal.

The molded rocks were then glued to the mountain and painted. The first coat was yellow, followed by coats of brown and black paint. I then painted the mountain with earth colored paint.

Finally I added grass coating to the mountain, using several different colors. also added small rocks along the bottom, simulating rock that have broken loose and tumbled down the mountain. I hope to place a water tank and a cell phone tower on the mountain. Then it will look like the hill I see from the house.

My next step will be to layout the road system for the city of Galville and the supporting industries.

Cumberland Railroad is Operational

Here is my new Louisville and Nashville EMD SW7 switcher. I bought it last week at the Tennessee Central RR Museum. That gave me incentive to finish the wiring of the layout.



This is the first operational run of the Cumberland RR. The train is en route to Galville with raw materials for the local industries

This picture shows the control panel for operating the layout. The actual layout is shown at the top with the turnouts (switches in real RRs). I painted the control panel white, then marked out the layout using 1/4 inch tape, then painted the panel black. When the tape was removed you get the layout . The lower left shows the 8 switches for controlling the turnouts. Note that two switches are not wired yet because I ran out of the proper wire. The center switch with the two red buttons control the power and direction to the track because of the two reversing loops. The power pack is to the right. The green light indicates I have power and no short circuits in the layout. WHOOPEE!!! The power pack provides AC power to operate the turnout switches and DC power to operate the train. Everything is pretty calm on this side of the panel.

This is the backside of the control panel and drawer. Its not so calm here. A real rats nest. I will be working to solder and tape all the connections and neaten the wire runs. It really does work, though.

Control Panel for Model RR Taking Shape

Here is the drawer that will support my control panel. The drawer will not win me any prizes in woodworking, probably would get me a D in 9th grade shop (the last time I did any woodwork). However it seems to work. The actual control panel will cover the drawer and show the track layout plus the switches necessary to control the reversing loops and the turnouts (model RR terminology for switches). The control panel has the first layer of paint (white). I will but 1/4" tape down to show the track layout. The next step will be to paint it flat black and them remove the tape, showing the track layout in white. The final step will be to place and wire all the control switches.

Visitors from Virginia Beach

Yesterday Jim and Jude Hoover visited with Barbara and I. Jim and Jude were our neighbors in Virginia Beach and great friends. We picked them up at the Wyndham Resort and Nashville and brought them to the wonderful city of Hendersonville. We showed them our house since it was their first visit with us since we moved here. They we we took them to lunch at Mimi's restaurant at the Streets of Indian Lakes. Then we shopped for awhile and returned to our house to discuss old friends. The visit ended when I delivered them to the airport for their flight to Virginia Beach. A GREAT time was had by all.