Weekend Update for April 4-7, 2025

[Paul S.]

Please update us what you've done on your model railroad this week/weekend. This weekly thread is intended for us to post snippets about our layout/project progress, rather than be a substitute for our layout-build or project threads. Think of this topic as a mini update on what you've accomplished during the week/weekend. The administrators/moderators will start a new update thread each Friday.

You can link from your layout-build thread or project to your posts in this thread as a part of a more extensive post there, or visa-versa (post to your build thread and link to that post when contributing to this thread).

Click on a post's #number (right-hand end of the post header) to get the URL to that particular post in your browser's address bar. Then just copy and paste.

So fellow RMRers, what have you been up to this week?

[denny99]

It's been on my workbench for a while, but I repainted two Atlas CSX GP40-2 into two SP GP40-2. By looking at the "after" photo, I see I forgot to install the horns 🤦♂️

Before:


After:



Detailed repainting process is available on the Burbank Branch blog, for those interested
https://www.burbankbranch.com/painti...-a-locomotive/

On the same blog, I detailed how I upgraded from Rapido to MTL couplers
https://www.burbankbranch.com/rollin...ains-couplers/

[BillyJoeBob]

After 7 years the trackwork is complete. My itch…?

Deciding how to use the layout track plan to have the most interesting and longest possible routes with decent train running times.

Started developing train charts.

Looking into developing an interesting “paperless” operation system.

BJB

[craigtownsend]

Unfortunately no railroad work the past two weeks. Life has gotten in the way. Well I shouldn't say nothing got done but spending 5 minutes on a task doesn't really count as progress in my book. But spring break is coming in a few weeks so hopefully by mid April I'll be back with some good updates!

[Paul S.]

Scenery work continues:

https://realisticmodelrailroading.ne...8187#post38187

[TimMoran]

More ballasting and detail work seen here - https://realisticmodelrailroading.ne...8205#post38205

[N Scale Brad]

This weekend I attended the spring open house at the South Bay Historical Railroad Society. I had missed the past couple of these due to attending an out-of-town train show and other schedule conflicts. This museum has both N scale and HO scale layouts. I believe I've shown photos of the layouts here before but what caught my attention this time was that the interurban trolley line on the N scale layout was finally operating. It's a single track about 30 feet long with return loops at each end and a passing siding in the middle. They have this set up to stop at each of the end stations for about 30 seconds the start up again. The reverse loop turnouts move automatically and it's done with some sort of computerized system.

This is the stop at the resort station up in the hills. Still lots to do on scenery here but now that it's running maybe someone will get motived.


And this is the city stop at the other end. Future plans for this line include dummy trolley poles, and a stop at the passing siding.


While at the museum, I checked out the Ntrak club trailer that we keep stored there. It has not been out since December and I wanted to make sure the tires had good inflation before I take it out this Wednesday for the next Ntrak setup. All good.

Back home I worked on setting up operations and doing a dry run in anticipation of hosting ops sessions in the future. I think I had a record number of locomotives and rolling stock on the layout.

[Paul S.]

Of course, the real hurdle with N scale traction is working overhead.

[N Scale Brad]

Paul, the guy who built the trolley actually has several NCat modules with live overhead. For this line on the club layout he is just planning on dummy poles.

[Paul S.]

My hat's off to him, Brad. That's some intricate modeling he's accomplishing. I do like traction, and constructing live overhead would have been a rewarding challenge -- in HO!