"Friendly Fridays... Some nods to blog buddies."

While I'm appreciative of so much that I have learned from various bloggers and their "do this, but definitely don't do that," type of postings, today I do need to highlight a few authors specifically, but for rather tangential reasons.

If Marty McGuirk can occasionally post his 'Wordless Wednesdays' on something other than hump day, then I reckon that it's more than acceptable for me to issue a 'Friendly Fridays' missive a few hours after the mark... Right?

Pierre Oliver and Trevor Marshall each recently posted delightful entries about hosting a visit from model railroad enthusiast and actor Michael Gross, detailing a full day of hobby-related operating, shopping and dining. Certainly I was familiar with Michael from his television, stage and film roles as well as his work as spokesperson for the "World's Greatest Hobby." But I forgot something very important, especially for someone depicting B&O's Old Main Line.

Actor Michael Gross has served as the celebrity spokesperson for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum. Just click on the sidebar link under References & Resources to see his personal message, videos and full biography. How could I have forgotten?... My bad!

To their credit, Trevor and Pierre reported on their enjoyable day not as star-struck fans, but as participants marveling at the many worlds that our hobby crosses. Check out their blogs on the sidebar if you somehow haven't already.

And if you do watch the latest video that Michael narrates, you may recognize the topic, The War Came by Train: 1865, a very familiar topic per Bernie Kempinski's extensive work. Enjoy.

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   BONUS:  RHETORICAL  QUESTION  OF  THE  DAY...  

 

How did those Thanksgiving travels work out for you last weekend?

 

We New York area travelers know that it's not about 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles,' but  rather, 'Holes, Tolls and River Crossings,' that leave one feeling trapped with no way home.



"Friendly Fridays... the Garden State RPM."

The third annual Garden State RPM was held this past weekend right here in bucolic Scotch Plains. A few of us north Jerseyans help Ted DiIorio each year with organizing and staging the event. Ted is an instructor at the county vocational school where the meet is held. In return for getting the venue for the day, Ted donates some proceeds back to a couple of student organizations, so everybody wins. It's a neat two-day meet with about a dozen clinics, model displays and vendor tables on Saturday and about a dozen layout tours Sunday.


Serious motive power was the order of the day! James Auriemma had two tables of beautifully weathered diesels and rolling stock for attendees to drool over. The number of models on display increased dramatically this year which is a welcome trend for the event.



NYSME member Fred Wadleigh displayed several dozen prototypical trackside structures that he scratch-built in HO scale. This freight house was in fact built three times depicting three different time periods during the 20th century. Here, the all-wood model shows the most recent version and the ravages of time per the photograph.



Any clinician's worst nightmare is a technological snafu prior to presenting. Dave Ramos (seated) came to first-timer Dave Olesen's rescue by switching out laptops and some wires to get the venue's projection system to cooperate. It was deja vu for me as I had the same problem in the same classroom last year. Dave rode in on his white horse then, too.



South Jersey's Ralph DeBlasi gave a very informative Power Point presentation on weathering rolling stock and then devoted several more hours to small-groups in a hands-on clinic stressing three key points: 1- Always work from photographs; 2 - Weather in layers; 3 - Fading is not about what you put on, but what you take off.  See The Weathering Shop link on my sidebar under References & Resources for amazing work and techniques.



Travers Stavac (right) of the Layout Design SIG was available to critique track plans throughout the day. Here he and attendee John McCluskey  discuss some ideas. Travers and group founder Doug Gurin have traveled from the Baltimore/DC area each year to help out.



RPMs are great places to find research materials. Jay Held and son Nick do a tremendous job promoting the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society  schlepping an endless supply of magazines, maps, manuals, timetables, etc. to these types of meets throughout the year.



Daylene Wolf and her main squeeze Alfred, let hubby Norm tag along from Fredericksburg, VA where Norm coordinates the very popular Mid-Atlantic RPM each September. They cheerfully peddled Scotty Mason's products in his absence, while Alfred chilled out all day.

 

By all accounts, the 100+ attendees had a great time and the student organizations made a killing selling coffee and doughnuts throughout the day, not to mention pizza and drinks at lunch. Imagine? I do regret not getting a photo of the exceedingly long line of modelers anxiously awaiting their slices as the pizza boxes depleted at a furious pace. I would've enjoyed putting a caption to it.

If you've followed this blog, you'll understand why I chose not to open my bench work or do my Old Main Line Power Point detailing the conversion from single deck to multi-deck. As Roseanne Roseannadana used to say, "Never mind!"

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   BONUS:  RHETORICAL  QUESTION  OF  THE  DAY...  

 

He may not have gotten the Iwata airbrush or PanPastels kit, but who has two thumbs and parlayed $40 in raffle tickets into this $35 B&O Wagontop, generously donated to the meet by ExactRail?

 

 

...This guy!



 



"Noodling... Can the entry gate be salvaged?"

It was reassuring to see that I was not alone as the "welcome to the club" congratulations poured in from fellow model railroaders over my gaffe with the entry gate. But while many have had their own "been there, done that" moments, it still didn't mitigate the fact that I had a problem of my own creation that needed to be rectified. Did I have the goods to figure something out or was I indeed a free agent going to the village with the winning bid?

Aside from lowering the cellar floor, per my buddy Chuck Diljack's thoughtful advice, I needed to shorten the length of the span or increase the height of the drop. My priority was whatever would be easier without a loss of effectiveness.

The early morning sun poured into my favorite coffee-sipping, jazz-listening, newspaper-reading lounging spot. Meanwhile, the defective entry gate mockingly disrupted my view into the train room. But could it be that the stop plate extension was the sole issue?



Measurements showed that it was very close whether the stop plate was the only issue, so it was removed, but the gate still didn't quite clear the floor. Like my Mets, close, but no cigar. 



The stop plate was mounted to the top of the bench work and a reinforcing 1" x 3" support was switched from the end of the span to the edge of the bench work. Combined with the 1/4" expansion gap that was no longer part of the span's framing, I picked up a full 1".



The sash locks were now placed inside the end of the span while still being assured of perfect height alignment by the stop atop the bench work.



Success! The gate now swings freely and will give me maximum clearance adjacent to the entry. I may add a hydraulic closer similar to what is used for storm doors to assure that the gate drops in a controlled manner.



Here's the reworked version. Still  perfectly level, but 1" shorter and awaiting risers for the sub-roadbed. Scroll down to compare this photo to the first photo in Sunday's post.


It remains to be seen how this will work out once track is laid, but it is very solid. Hopefully the expansion/contraction cycle will be minimal since my basement is climate controlled and the kiln-dried framing has been here for a year already.

I will need to be careful as I build up from the bench work to an overall depth of about 12". The meeting-edge of the span will need to be angled back slightly to allow for clearance when the gate drops down in its pendulum arc. I will do some mock-ups to make certain that that clearance doesn't become an issue. But for now, mission accomplished. More on this down the road, I'm sure.

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   BONUS:  RHETORICAL  QUESTION  OF  THE  DAY...  

 

I'm just saying, but if a recording tells me how much my business is appreciated by the companies that I sometimes need to call, why do they make it so incredibly frustrating to reach an actual human being?