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

Knowing me from past experience, the starter kit ain't gonna cut it. Just gonna send it and get something that will keep me occupied for a longer minute
Looking at this set, the Great North Eastern Railway, from the United Kingdom.
Both engines are powered, so that's cool.
They already have a 5 car add on pack available too. The dining car is powered as well so it should scoot along nicely.


The alternate, being $15 more due to the fancy paint.
The London North Eastern Railway. New this year with no additional cars available yet.
Reminds me of the new UC Health paint scheme, and Coca Cola. Not a fan of Coke, so this one is out.

Then there is the worlds first high speed train, the Shinkansen 0.
But not a fan of catenary lines. They get in the way and it looks out of place without them.

And then the West Japan Railway Company, or the Osaka Loop Line.
Kind of boxy for my taste, but a nice color for a commuter train.

And this track plan, most bang for the buck and i don't have to think about soldering tiny track together. It can be reconfigured a few different ways.
Plus it closely resembles my current track designs. A small loop comes with the starter kit and will quickly get boring.
This sits on a board that is approximately 28" x 14". Perfect for laptop train excitement.

https://www.tgauge.us/

 

But Godzilla add! Shinkansen 0 for the win!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CC5hHpGEA0

 

this what you're thinking or are you just sharing cool videos? Either or are fine by me

 

Just a cool video.

 

This came in today.
The Salon/Bar/Piano car for The Orient Express. Highly sought after and priced accordingly. I scored one.


And as a bonus, it came with a sleeper car, so now there are two sleepers in the consist.

I now have a 6 car consist.

The full set is 8 cars, so I'm....two short.

Experimenting with draw strength, it can pull one more car up the grade, but will slip and stall with the full set of eight. So stopping here. The other two cars in the set are just more sleepers with little value. Most just do the 4 car box set and add the bar car.

 

The noise being transmitted thru the ballast and the rubber base is really bothering me.
To the point I am trying something drastic.
Watered the shit out of it, and half hour later was able to gently pry up the track then scrape the rubber base off.

Closed cell foam track base that's just a touch thicker. Wasn't sure if i wanted to lay it over the rubber, or start fresh. Went all in.

there could be three different outcomes to this.
It works.
No change and wasted time.
Fuck up the track and completely start over next fall.

The difficult spots will be under the bridges due to limited space, and where the wires feed the track. I didn't leave any slack and the underside is sealed.

 

Picked up a baggage/mail car that closely matches the set of three passenger cars I got earlier.
The passenger cars are German State Railroad and the baggage is German Federal Railroad, I suppose that could prolly happen in the real world.

This one has a regular light bulb, but the Constant Light (CL) circuit in the Rokuhan RC-02 does illuminate it with the engine stationary. Pretty darn cool. (LED's would be brighter)

The full consist, 2-6-0, baggage and three 2nd class passenger cars.

Done collecting for now, maybe. there is a King Ludwig set that would be neat. I found the engine for a good price, not running and like new.
The cars for the set however, are made of brass/plastic, very tiny, and expensive.
here is one on fleabay, for $130.00. Not much bigger than a quarter in length.

 

It's going fairly quick. Made it under the bridges no issues, only screwed up a few inches of track on an outside corner that I'll try to repair before I chop it out and splice a section in.
Just a few feet left and I can back fill the landscape scarring and debate on whether to ballast it again.
A test on the upper deck was very favorable, much quieter.

 

Finished. Night and day difference, 100% worth the effort and time.
The rubber bed was noisy from the start. Thought it was an anomaly of small engines. But they ran silent over the bridges. It's clear now why the product was discontinued. That being said, I have 3 N scale layouts with the stuff and they run quiet.
So maybe it was a small engine thing.

They run pretty good for now, damaged track section was as simple as laying it back down and crossing fingers, rails seem to be within gauge. They just popped out of the ties and are floating free.
Hoping a few well placed drops of CA will keep it in place.

 

Slowest practical speed in the beginning, then full tilt boogie at the end.
All the engines vary a little for top end, this one is about in the middle for high speed and is pulling a pretty good load.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUjffifuEDA

Edit;
The legs showed up today. Never been so happy about something so mundane. Table is solid for the first time in two years.

 

https://youtu.be/HVrxZu9uPBs?si=eA3Y83TON31eEGxy

New Challenge- Lego Steam Train

 

With parts of the state under a snow squall alert, my front yard was a nice little slice of peace and quiet.
Installed and sanded the fascia outside. Really spiffed it up, getting heavy now too. Never could have done that without the folding legs, it went right thru the sliding door to the deck.

Cheap ass knotty pine that will look pretty good with some stain.

 

I'm stealing this for the LEGO thread.

 

Some stain and a little polyvinyl acetate on a brush followed by turf to fill in the edges and it looks pretty good.
Needs some lake attention and more random debris.
Edit; the T gauge set shipped from Dublin today, might be here Monday.

 

Might be time to start cashing out on some of my sets.

I have the full set, 4 boxes, 12 passenger cars and 4 powered engines and they have the light kit installed.
Paid around $75.00 each for the A,B,C sets and a bit more for the 4 engines.

 

work blocks the ebay, whats it say?

 

$200.00 for a single box of 4 cars

 

Started re-ballasting the track. Just doing a couple feet for now and after it dries, I want to see if there is any noise increase over that section. Internet sleuthing has resulted with varying degrees of information about the subject. For the most part, 98% would say do it and deal with it.

And due to the taller roadbed and square edges, i am going thru twice as much ballast as before trying to get the slope. Need to find some kind of filler, maybe a bead of caulk around the entire thing.

lake work, the big beach is to cover some uneven surface that won't cover with the water, might bring the bushes farther down too.
This is really an area where I struggle to get something that looks passable.

and pulled this little USB desk lamp/night light out of the camper, it makes a nice mood type light at night.
Gave me an idea for something better, so there is an architect lamp on the way.