Glueing feet whilst listening to Arlo G . . .

It's been hectic, family wise, so not much modeling gets done.  However, I'm improving the feet on my modules.  With the change over from (bottom adjust) bolts to (top adjust) set screws, I needed to do something with the sharp end of the set screws. At first, I just tried to blunt them on the grinder, so they wouldn't scar table tops or tear cloth drapes.  That was only moderately successful, and needed improvements.

So, I settled on adding acorn nuts to the ends.  I like the solution, but the final part came clear when I saw the feet at the North Texas T-Track group.  They are using standard hex nuts, but epoxy gluing them in the screws.

So, I adopted the epoxy idea, and am epoxying the acorn nuts to the ends.  Much better, in my humble opinion.

This afternoon, I've completed my second set of 24 set screws.  With the ubiquitous 1/4 - 20 threads, of course, per TTrak guidelines.   I've used 2"
and 2 - 1/4" set screws. I tend to favor the 2 1/4" version. Just something
personal.

The first two dozen are already installed, and about half of these are designated for specific new modules under construction.  After that, I need to survey which older modules will benefit most from being upgraded.

I have plenty of acorn nuts.  So far, only about half of the bag bought a while back have been used.  So, another buy is in order.  I can order boxes of 25, so I'm thinking two boxes will be about right.

Arlo does the definitive "City of New Orleans," for what my opinion is worth.

Fall IS a four-letter word

I haven't done much model building lately.  I tried to break the front sidewalk with my right knee.  The concrete won.  After three trips to the doc, x-rays (out-patient, he doesn't have a machine) and a DVT scan (ditto), I'm fortunate that nothing broke or cracked, and there are no vein blood clots developing.  Those things are nasty, at the least. 

So, having scraped a deep layer off the leg, and who knows what soft tissue bruising, I am on the mend.  I didn't even try to drive for a month or five weeks - trying to lift the foot from the gas to the brake was too painful to do properly. With not feeling worth anything, I haven't done any work on the layout or the buildings. 

Now, I'm not fully back, but much better.  I even spent a day in 8th grade ELAR class (as a sub, not a student. Duh.)

However, I did spend some time on the layout module arrangement plans,  and I shook them up just a little bit.  I'm marrying two multi-module sets together.  Only one end loop had to be set aside.  Here's the new plan (subject to tweaking):

That's the Trans-Tropics on the right, and the Clovis, Jal & Kermit as the five modules on the left.  It's going to be a long winter's project, especially in the garage.  At least, here in North Texas, we usually (ha!) get a decent number of mild to warm winter days.  So, this garage layout won't have to wait for spring.

Now, work on the buildings is moving forward on the bench.  Two Randy Brown models are progressing. They are Tiny's Diner and Paco's Tacos. These will go on the Taki-Tiki, somewhere.  So much else to figure out there.

Even the unused end loop from the CJ&K will get its' scenery as well.  Big plans, I just hope not too big for me.  We'll see.