Northern Pacific and Black Hills

[badlandnp]

Since the Yellowstone is now on the workbench, I had to use the 2511 to pull it's train back to the yard,


Great therapy after a tough day and week!

[badlandnp]

Spent a bit of fun time running trains between times of pulling the engine out of the F250. I could only work on that earl in the day before things got too muddy, after things thawed out,
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Besides working on the Yellowstone, finding the pulleys for the coal bunker, and doing some other bits of piddling around on cabeese and such I did get these two boxcars renumbered, added an NP style doorstop and weathered,
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[bobo1160]

ashes to ashes , dust to dust . if it wassnt for Ford our tools would rust

I feel your pain , I just got done rebuilding our 4 runner after my wife swerved to avoid a deer and rolled it on its side into a creek .

new windshield , fenders , bumper , radiator , headlights , rf door , rr door . rebuilt an a pillar , mirror , 2 new tires and a whole lot of body work and a bunch of other nitpicky stuff like swapping wiring harnesses etc

somehow she escaped out the sunroof unscathed but the truck was pretty much totaled . I just overhauled the engine about 2 months before that happened otherwise it wouldn't have been worth the trouble..

luckily I'm better at fixing cars then I am at modeling

I told her next time just to hit the darn deer .

[badlandnp]

Sounds like it was definitely a Thank the Good Lord she made it roll! Yeah, if I didn't have a need to, I would have left it to rot, but being mechanically inclined, and finding a cheap good engine, I have to fix it. Then sell it off and replace it with an older F250 of better quality than these newer things. At the moment, the engine is the only major issue it has, a few minor ones, but those aren't to be fretted over.

[bobo1160]

all the new stuff is junk , all of it !

[badlandnp]

I quit mechanicing for a living back in 07. I did some on call part time stuff for a couple of years, which anchored that decision. When the big rigs got to the point of needing a computer wiz to change out injectors, and the cars are just overly complex, for no good reason. I will give a nod to engine longevity though. Even a 'junk' engine like the 5.4L 3 V Ford in my F250 lasted 225,000 miles even while making a lot of noise from the phasers. An older engine from the 60's wouldn't do that. From the 70's, some of them do.

Anyway, back to trains. Been home all day working on the engine swap, and listening to the yard crew banging cars around, a lot of hard hits, too!! Must be a bad day for them. But it makes fun for me to enjoy listening to it!

[badlandnp]

Didn't have energy this week to do more than just run a train or two. Spent a LOT of time outdoors in the below zero, fixing broken stuff. Tires a guy out some. So, yesterday, I even videoed a bit of fun,

Two NP trains are meeting in the yard. Almost had a head to head meet!


After that the 2216 finally got to rollin through the badlands,


and on to the next post....

[badlandnp]

....and the final video of the fun running. The local had gotten himself in the way.

But had to slow down for a short freight to back out of the way,


Fun to relax to just rolling them around!

[badlandnp]

I moved my bridge backdrop today. I am getting a slightly smaller scaled one printed for the bridge scene, so this one had to move. And the long stretch of badlands seemed like the right place to put it.

[Jugtown Modeler]

And the long stretch of badlands seemed like the right place to put it.

Really helps make that scene. Your rockwork in combination looks great.

[badlandnp]

It sure adds a lot of depth. Now for more back drops........

[badlandnp]

Just a quick review of three big projects going on, and an overview of the layout room.

[badlandnp]

No changes to the layout, but did run a stock train, first one!

[badlandnp]

Broke out the #4 after a good cleaning. Then ran it around for 2 laps with weight on the tender to 'set' the CRC6-26,


And later ran it on a train a couple of laps while doing some switching, with lots of little issues because I hadn't run the yard for a while,

[badlandnp]

And a throwback video from when I first built the #4,

[badlandnp]

Have been updating my older video's titles, descriptions and adding tags and such. It has been fun to see the progress on the layout over the years, though I do wish things went faster......

Here's a multi train running video from 2017!

[badlandnp]

Been off Nscale for a bit, log-in issues. Been just running trains, but took time to put up the new, smaller scale backdrop behind the bridge,
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And before I put those up, ran a few at one time, just to see if I could get away with it trouble free.


And, yes, no issues!

[badlandnp]

So last night, I raced a couple of passenger trains,


And then put together a freight drag,

[badlandnp]

Happy Easter! Jesus is risen!

And I have been building switches here and there over the last week, getting 3 #6's done and one #8. Then I had the thought, (yes, the thinking thing hurt!, ) and decided it might be fun to do a video of the tie prep for a #8 while the 2511 rolled a freight around. It has been 4 days since I last ran a train, so there is some dust on the rails. Part of the fun and adventure!

[badlandnp]

And continuing in the saga of building switches, now up to 6 #8's after the 3#6's. Here's a long video from yesterday morning, soldering. I got my hand in the way some, will improve next time. Funny thing is, the camera decided that a 30 minute video was all a 'file' could be, so it continued into a second video, seamlessly without telling me!

Here's both.