Taking a break from the Machine shop build to tackle this:
   

A really neat little kit of a Christmas tree dealer. It's available from Interaction Hobbies as a special Christmas give-away if you order 30$ or more. I had my eye on a couple kits from their web site and this caused me to pull the trigger.


   

The kit includes the caboose tree farm shack, three cut-out Christmas trees and signage. I need to get started on it as I promised my wife the finished model by Christmas.

WPMA-40 picking up cars at Pier 32.

Bruce

   

Going to start a new project 
   

I like the large windows and the overall shape of the structure. The main structure has a footprint of 6.2" X 4.8" without the two annexes.  There are the two add-on structures, one wood storage shed, and one brick boiler room.  The kit comes with a number of exterior details, and a second floor, but no interior. I plan to fix that:
   

I've collected a number detail parts/kits from Interaction. I have their machine shop tools for the lower floor and Office furniture and equipment for the second floor. I also plan to build a boiler for the boiler room and add stairs to the interior. I may still scratchbuild a few other parts and add a few others, but the basics are there. 

   

This is what is included in the kit, laser cut walls, floors and roofs. The main windows are plastic castings and there are other 3d printed details.
I should be getting started on this in the next couple days.

Taking on some fuel     
Charlie

Hello Blue


My writing abilities are at the bottom of the scale but I wanted to tell you about my recent visit with Wayne and Ed.(CNnutbar).


I left home at 4:30 AM on Tuesday hoping to make it by noon, and I did arrive at the hotel in Grimsby at 11:30


I took my grip to the room and headed for Doctor Wayne's. We spent several hours visiting over a cup of coffee, and a trip to the train layout provided more time to tell lies and I got time to admire the extensive second layer addition Wayne has done in the last 8 years.
                   




Wayne followed me to the hotel and we went to supper and I called for an early quit to rest for the next day.
The accommodations at the hotel were quite nice and I did enjoy the time relaxing and I caught up on some needed rest.


The following morning we went to CNnutbar's and he became the chauffeur for the day. We made a brief stop at the Kinnear yard and saw a trio of locomotives there. 
       


The next stop was at the parking lot for the Royal Botanical Garden for some train watching from the pedestrian walkway over the tracks. We didn't linger there but we did manage several photos of a GO (Government Ontario) train

       


From there we went off to God's country to visit with Wayne and Ed's friend Gord.
Gord models the 1920/30's era and has some beautiful models of trains and a great model of a ship. Sadly I got so busy listening to these guys very interesting conversation I got very few photos of his layout.
           


From Gord's, we went to dinner then on to Ed's house. I got to see his great model of the Leetown Division. He claims it is more a diorama because there are too many trains to run. I feel the pain as my layout is cluttered with too many trains. Here are some of my photos for your pleasure, though not near as great as the ones that Ed posts.
                                       
 He does have an option for a second layer which he is considering and I wish I had that option but I don't think I have the design to do it.


Wayne delivered me back to the hotel and visited for a brief time and we said our goodbyes.


Thursday I left the hotel before 11 AM and went to Fort Erie to take one of the ladies on our Samoyed rescue group to lunch. She lived in Hamilton when I visited in 2014 and supplied accommodations for my stay then but I cut my visit short before I got to take her to dinner. She recently moved to Fort Erie and her little place has a balcony that you can see trains crossing the Niagara River. I did take her to lunch and then I hightailed it across the border and beat the 3 foot snow storm that hit Buffalo later Thursday. Even at that by the time I got to the NY/PA border Interstate 90 was closed west of the Ohio State Line. I always go south on Interstate 79 at Erie so it didn't cause me any delays and the roads were clear even after a brief whiteout south of Erie.
Charlie

Here I am with another car question (don't worry, I'm still model railroading!) … Since the beginning of October, our 2011 Mazda3 (with 200,000 km) has been making a squeaking/creaking noise when travelling straight at low speeds. This noise is intermittent and seems to be worse after we’ve used the car for 30-60 minutes. 

It also seems to disappear once the cold weather arrives. Just recently, winter has suddenly hit us and the temps have dropped to around freezing or well below freezing. So now the car is not squeaking much if at all.

When the noise does happen, however, it's so annoying, that it’s stressful and distracting. Sounds like the car is going to fall apart.

So far, I’ve taken it to 4 different garages and all say all of the suspension elements are fine:
• local garage (whom I know & trust) — couldn’t find anything wrong, assured me it was OK.
• Midas — same as above.
• Mazda Dealer — also couldn’t find anything obvious, but said that an engine mount and a tranny mount needed replacing. I had the engine mount replaced at my local garage (cost $174). Squeak is a little better but still there.
• Muffler Shop (whom I trust) — also couldn’t find anything wrong but they suggested replacing the muffler (they said, once the muffler gets hot after use, it shifts around).

I think my best course of action is to go back to my local garage and get them to replace the failing transmission mount. 

Open to feedback & ideas!
Thanks in advance.

A couple of good friends visited the Leetown Division recently---glad Charlie made it home beyond Buffalo before the snow storm

   

Hello,

the title is correct, not the narrow gauge K-28 but instead the standard gauge C-28 is the object of this thread.










Two years ago Brasstrains had a selection of these brass imports from Key Imports. One was unpainted with some traces of this infamous red foam. One was painted all black and this one shown in the pictures. All 3 were offered with just the same, and i mean very special, low price. I could'nt resist and kept my eyes to this little green loco.
Several weeks later the package arrived here on the other side of the big pond.The photos were made immediately after unboxing.
This is just a introduction what i have had purchased.


Lutz

An ex-coworker of mine has a little bit of the bug.  He's retired and stops by occasionally to see my progress.  His typical involvement in the hobby has been setting up something for Christmas, but he has some space available in his basement.  He has a few locomotives he'd like to bring over and operate on my layout, but mine is DCC, and he inquired about retrofitting his locomotives.  

I call Sam "Mr. Microhands".  Seriously, he has really tiny fingers and hands and we'd always employ him for tightening fasteners in really tight quarters.  He's also a Ford guy - drives a 66 Fairlane as his daily driver, has a 66 Galaxie convertible, does all the maintenance and repair on them, has a '60 Impala and his wife has a '69 Camaro R/S.  He's also an electrical engineer, so I anticipate he'd have no issue installing an encoder.

Figured we'd start slow and easy - he bought a Digitrax encoder (no sound) with a harness with long leads that we're going to fit into an Athearn blue box Alco 1000 switcher.  It'll be good to have some foreign power run through the gorge at some point soon and I'll get some pictures.