Just Between You, Me, and the Bingo Card: Life Lessons from the Assisted Living Facility

Many thanks! You've made my week!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=BFy90DlZ8go

 

so i looked up 3 rail trains at work and the websites were blocked.....HR didn't come knocking but im sure IT is watching now....

 

Inspired by the winning bid, and the video above, thought I would carry on with this one.
I liked the idea of mixing the clump vegetation. It does look right at home as a forest with the Z scale.
Need some more mountain and less field coming out of the lakes.

Started ballasting a section. There is a lot of water on that board right now, kind of worried about the integrity of the sticky stuff the track is on. So if it doesn't buckle by morning, should be good to go.
Pretty much covering up most of the sloping rock faces.

 

Start your search with "Lionel 3 rail train"
https://www.google.com/search?q=lio...c0NTNqMGoxNagCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

The most difficult part of the process is foot placement.

Down to the last few feet of track to ballast. Should be dry enough by this afternoon to clean it up.

 

new investment.

Advertised as having a non running engine. Nobody wanted it, typical sale price with running opened box set, around $450.00
5 minutes after that picture was taken. That's not an oil sheen, it's solidified paraffin.

You can see a white chunk of it I dug out of the gearbox cover.

Wheelsets and gears had to be removed with small needle nose pliers. They were locked up tight.

A little cleaning and a few drops of Tri-Flow, choo-choo. Just doubled the value of the set. Took all of 20 minutes.


I paid $250.00 for it.

 

How fast is that going/can go?

 

In real life it could hit 160 km/h or about 100 mph.
On the board, that was about half throttle, fast enough to blur the pic.
It's not fast enough to jump the rails.

 

Busy day on the layout. Added some foothills. Carved foam with plaster cloth.
Just gonna cover it with forest.

And in an attempt to quiet the thing down, I filled the cavity with expanding foam, and covered the bottom with 1 1/2" styrofoam.
It seemed to have no effect whatsoever. Hoping the added landscaping will quiet it down. It got loud after the ballast was done, it transfers the sound thru the board. Seems to be a common issue among railroaders.

And these arrived today. No skyrocketing value, just a good price and thought they looked cool.


I impulse bought a 2-6-0 Mogul last night, it should look good pulling the passenger cars.

 

Fed up with the controller being on the floor.

Need to get some 1x4's and trim out the edge.

Ace and Home Depot both carry folding table legs for a reasonable price. I'll pick up a set of those and get rid of the wobbly picket legs.

 

This one had me worried. Not too many pics here.
Gears are clean and appear to have never been turned. They were stuck solid too.

Not pictured is the broken plastic under the cab that held the commutator in place. My heart sank upon seeing that. A little CA glue, some patience, and i made it to this point.

Aligning the side rods and meshing the tiny gears is tweezer work. Also have to gently push in both copper contacts for each wheel set as you place them, and align the gears and rods and shit. Lot going on.
Ended up running, choppy at first and seems to be improving as it breaks in.

Looks perfect pulling the 3 car passenger set.

 

I'll bid a dollar for it.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/cla...&cvid=758bdf4c95de476694e2ccaee3adbf79&ei=15#

 

These are hard to find for some reason. Amazon carries every variety but this. Adafruit is the vendor I got this from.
I had to solder a resistor on the other ones so they wouldn't go backward. Now I can see the voltage in forward and reverse. May not seem like a big deal, but it allows monitoring of the condition of the engine when you combine it with your ears and visual speed. Less voltage and good performance is desired. High voltage and running like shit means something needs addressed.

 

I have a resident alien.

I thought the wire ran down the center. Bummer, gonna be harder to hide it. Prolly stick it to the side and call it a day.

 

I may have to look into these, technology has finally caught up to miniaturization.
Small enough to set up in the camper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ina7UtH5fY

 

You can hang it on the wall!

 

get real fancy and have a tunnel at each end of that frame the train disappears into and then reappears in another frame further down the wall!