Well having to dismantle the layout to get ready to move has given me the opportunity to do some redesign work as I was not really all that happy with some of the elements of the Kingsbury Branch.

Well the basic structure of Middleton Mills is done. Painted and weathered. Have to add the details like vents, pipes, chimney, crates on the loading dock, some workers etc.

First of 2 kits. Found these exceptional looking models on EBay. Do they exactly fit the Chicago area? No not really. But the detail on them is awesome.

Since the better half had to work Wednesday and I had the day off, I decided it would be a great idea to spend most of the day in the train room getting jobs done.

1) Finished installing all the hand throws and fine tuning the turnouts

2) Finished tacking down all the track that had been temporaily laid down to check for use

3) Got some more snipe signs and installed fascia around the layout

4) Installed another Digitrax Universal panel

5) Weighted some more cars until I ran out of pennies

Got the new Bachmann Milwaukee Road S-4 in the mail Monday. Sounds nice. Although the horn volume is quite low. I have the master volume set to 255 and the horn volume set to 255 but its still low. The bell and the prime mover sound just fine though.

Well do I spend over 100 bucks to buy a sound decoder, speaker, baffle etc and then spend hours trying to fit it all into a Bachmann GP30, or go for one already done? Easy answer. A brand new Bachmann S4, Milwaukee Road, complete with sound. Is it Broadway Limited, or Atlas or P2K? No but thats okay. For my small industrial switching layout, an S4 is the perfect thing to work in and out of those tight spaces. Looking forward to hearing it, seeing it and running it.

I have been using snipe signs as temporary structures for a while now so i thought I would share a few pictures. For those unfamiliar with snipe signs, they are also called bandit signs, Buy Your House signs, Sell Us Your Car signs, We buy Junk Car signs, etc etc. Where I live they are considered litter and can be removed from the side of the road by anyone. So I do.

Here is an example. This will be Carbitt Paint. A spot for tank cars, 2 loading door spots and a spot for covered hoppers.

Like the old saying goes. After trying to run some of the new rolling stock I came to the conclusion that the street inside the rails was too thick. Its right up against the inside of the rails causing the cars to constantly derail. So 2 choices. Tear up whats there and replace it with .05 or .10 styrene or carefully remove the inner portion and cut it narrower so it sits down against the molded in spikes. That was less expensive and easier to do. So this morning was spent reworking that.

One box delivered. 16 freight cars for the fleet. Two nice 8-car bundles from one seller on E-Bay. $88. That comes out to $5.50 per car including shipping. I am very pleased with that. All had knuckle couplers. But all wheels will have to be replaced. All cars wil have to be weighted heavy. And of course weathered.

Kingsbury Avenue, all 9 feet of it, is paved from one end to the other. What a project this was! Fitting all the pieces into each turnout was the most difficult part. Good thing I made templates of all 3 sections. That made it much easier. Still tedious, but easier. Now to do some weathering on the surface. Add some manhole covers. Tar patches. Small potholes, etc, etc.