Brrr ...

Man, it turned cold! And with the precipitation, it's really a small ice storm. There's very little moisture other than a little sleet and snow, and a bit of that melted and refroze.

Work in the unheated area of the shop is not going to happen until it gets warmer. And, the past few days, Cindy and I have been fighting the flu or bronchitis or whatever the current "universal infector" is. Cindy and I did get flu shots last fall, early in the season. Anyway, we are both on the mend, and are recovered enough to get back to work subbing in the schools.

Cindy slid through the ice to school today, and tomorrow's my turn. Yippee. At least it is a delayed start time.

The TxOutlawOn30 Yahoo group has had a couple of discussion items going since the Plano show. One concerns the secure placement of the track ends on the foam-based modules. I have an idea I'm going to try on mine.

That brings me to the other item, the module construction contest. I think that this will be the perfect time and forum to try out my idea. As soon as I have something to show and tell, I'll post it here and on the group, too. In fact, if it works on the new module as well as I think it will, I'll have to find a way to retro-fit the Yellowhouse Switch module without major demolition. :-(

So, I'm sitting here, beating the keyboard, listening to "Classical Pops" channel on Sirius XM off the dish tv system, and slowly working on the resin kits that are staring at me ... I guess I'd best sing off and grab the hobby knife.

Heading for the Plano Show ...

Here's the newly-decaled train headed for Plano across the Yellowhouse Switch module.

There is much detail work left to do on the train cars, but I'm happy with what has been achieved thus far.









These three side dumps are also to make the trip to Plano with loads of potash in them.

The two large cacti just to the right of #74 are used to mark the gaps in the track, needed for electrical purposes.

The potash loads are fresh from a wash in India Ink, then sealed with Dull-cote. When dry, they drop into the side-dump cars.

Each of the three is different in detail. They are very neat set of castings from Firebox Models.

Right now, the only visible animal on the module is this bull by Arrtista. A nice, heavy metal casting, it really makes the module work in my view.

I plan on adding a couple of varmits at a later time. Otherwise, the module is nearly finished. I'm following a "less is more" philosophy here.