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

Does your choo choo have a cow catcher?
Should test it out.

 

The diesels do not, just a flat blade plow.
Some of the steamers do, but the front couplers are exposed and wouldn't allow the cow catcher to do it's job.
In real life though, those things were just to make people feel better. The cow or whatever usually ended up being tenderized under the locomotive anyway.

 

Don't care.
Want video of a cow being launched.

 

The train of cabooses is hilarious.

 

this made me happy!

 

I have a leftover roll of adhesive type roadbed. Cut into thirds, it's the perfect width for Z scale.
Just happens to be enough, when cut, exactly 26' to go with the 24' of track that's on the way.
This was bought originally for the last layout that was completed, around 18-20 years ago.
It's sticky on both sides, eliminating the need for track nails. Which may be helpful with this tiny shit.






I went ahead and made a small board for the original starter kit oval and will make a small display out of that.


the black border is the proposed size of the new layout, 2'x4'.
It suddenly doesn't look big enough when compared to the small oval, pretty sure 24' of track might not fit too well. I might make two boards as a module that can be connected together for added headache.

 

The transformer didn't have any kind of indicator light to inform the user when it's powered up. I like lights and can't leave shit alone, so I cracked open the case and added the small red LED in the upper left corner. Had to drill a tiny hole, add a resistor to the led, insulated the wires and soldered that to the main pcb board. Managed to not break/brick it.
Also managed to not take any pics of the process.




Now when I leave the house the ocd side of me is satisfied that it is turned off.

 

TW search led me here
SPEW
I'm open to explanations
https://youtu.be/wcWQ5NK9-4Q

 

Had to open the transformer to clean the contacts where my oily fingers had touched them as the controller was sketching out at lower speeds.
So a pic of my LED install from earlier.


I seem to have an abundance of bovine, these were actually calves from the N scale set, but they look right at home on the Z scale. So more free range cattle.



Overgrown Football field.


And for those that are looking closely, the board was warped from the beginning, i have it clamped with a backbone underneath, and wetted down in the hopes it will warp the other way.

 

Had to add some bracing underneath to get it to flatten out and it worked.
Glued the shit out of it then clamped the thing to the table and it sat for 21 hours. It's as flat as the table now.


Added some hills and shit while watching glue dry, added that dumb little border around the track.


Filled in the rest of it and stained the rock formations.


waiting on more shit to dry.

 

Can we take a moment and discuss the soybean crayons?
Have you gone vegan? Does the box show nutritional information?

 

I'll never give up the cheeseburgers. Cows are vegan, that's close enough for me.
No nutritional info, just says safe and non-toxic. A quick Google search says, yes, they are edible with very little nutritional value. Fat and gluten free.

 

Still loving all this.

 

Wait.... cows?
Are you eating the little cows too? Or just the crayons?

 

*veal, with a soy sauce.

 

Track showed up today.
Ordered from a U.S. company and came packed in Chinese newspaper. Which I saved, might learn to read it... Wondered why it took so long, and now thankful it showed as quick as it did.

 

Pretty much done except for track ballast. Engine is an era II Bavarian passenger locomotive that was in service from 1925 to 1945.
On my railroad, the MDF Shortline, it has been put into mixed freight and passenger use.

 

so how fast can that bad boy go?

 

they top out around 110 mph.

 

After much drawing, erasing, drawing again, I came up with this plan.
The first one was a duplicate of the first layout I did in here and while it did fit, it was 31' of track and I don't want to order more if it can be helped.
This one is 21.6' of track, which leaves me with one section for any screwups, and it is it's own design. It has just over 5.8' of track length for the grade to use for the approach and departure for the upper level, which is close enough.
NMRA recommends 2% grade, which is 1/2" rise in 24". Looking for close to 1 1/2" clearance at the bridges. No tunnels, the track requires constant cleaning to keep the tiny (very light) little engines running, so it all needs to be accessible.
Debating on having a simple upper level with the trestles in a row vs having the loopy section as the upper area and having the trestles separated. I'll drink about that through the day before cutting anything.

I have another section of plywood, same stuff, 1/4" underlayment. That will be used as a solid base to mount the cut sections, tl,dr...