Its now two days until the start of the National NMRA Convention in Portland. How does that poem go???

'Twas two nights before the convention and all through the house, not a creature was stirring...  they were down in the basement cleaning the layout room and working on the clinics for the convention.

Op sessions on the Bear Creek & South Jackson are continuing. I'm working to get the railroad ready for the National Convention this August (here in Portland).

I had a "practice session" for a local round-robin group. Some of the members are regulars at the BC&SJ, but the big majority are not so it seemed like a time to check out how my layout works with lots of new guys. I did compromise a bit - the Monday guys are not, for the most part interested in TWC or TT&TO so we ran with a foot-board dispatcher and no fast-clock or radios.

Here's a (realy) short video clip I made. This is stop motion animation. About 100 frames = a bit over 3 seconds of video...

Hoarce sez he likes it. Kinda fun although it's a lot of work.

Charlie

I'm sad to announce that my friend Leo Landers passed away last Monday. Leo was survived by his wife Barb and a plethora of children.

If you worked for the SP&S in the 40's thru the 80's you might have met Leo as he held jobs starting from car knocker to road engineer. While working as a motive power hostler Leo had the opportunity to drive the SP&S 700 (4-8-4), one of the two Northern class locos still operating out of Portland Oregon (the other is the SP 4449).

I was asked on another thread how I designed the ops plan for the BC&SJ. Since this i

Op session goals (not in any particular order) for a PEOPLE point of view:

My trusty Weller WTCPL soldering station continues to soldier (or solder?) forward. However, my heavy-duty spade tip for it has terminal cancer is not much longer for this world.

A search of Digi-key and Allied shows no tip available for this model. Ugh.

Does anyone know where I could find tips for "antique" controlled heat soldering stations?

I'd hate to have to buy a new soldering station because I can't get tips for the old one!

Charlie

I played around some more with my new 16"x48" diorama. It's nowhere near as fancy as MC's shoofly track module but it seems to work OK for photography, especially when I take it outside. Here are a few more photos. Nothing looks more like sunlight than actual sunlight.

No it's not a model railroad (or even an ideal one)...

It is railroad related.

It's also rather silly...

http://www.flixxy.com/top-gear-trains.htm

Charlie

I've been taking a break from my column for a few months. In October Up the Creek will be back with the first of a three part series where I upgrade the scenery, especially the creek, at the Upper Bear Creek bridge scene.

This photo a sneak peak of the bridge (though you can't see much of the creek from this angle).  This part of the layout is only 14" wide, left and right from the lead loco, making photography a bit tricky.

I was pawing through piles of old slides looking for one in particular. Instead I found these.

These photos were taken on the previous Bear Creek and South Jackson layout on the Jallen branch line. They reminded a bit of what an old cuss I'm getting to be. So I resurrected my old slide scanner and here they are...

SP 4105 on the Jallen causeway module. I never did much running here on account of selling the house and moving shortly after this part of the layout was completed.