While rutting around in one of my railroad cabinets looking for a certain item I came across a project I had forgotten about. A set of Stewart FT's, A-B-B-A set that I had modified the B unit on following an article in Railroad Model Craftsman. Unfortunately I can't remember the year and I really don't want to dig through 40 or so years of magazines at the moment.

I've combined what was in this post to the first post.

First off, I have a confession.  I am not a carpenter.  I have never framed a house or built a deck or raised a barn.  Therefore, benchwork intimidates me.  My first layout, a small switching layout I had as a kid was built by my dad.  My second layout was assisted by my dad.  My last layout was entirely built by myself, but it was unstable...and that's being generous.  I knew going into this that in order for this to be an enjoyable layout to work on and run, it would have to have the best benchwork I'd ever built in my life.

I had a gap of about 30 feet in the backdrop between a the scene I completed most recently and one I last worked on just under a year ago.  I figured it was time to finally get this area complete.

  Today I pulled the Shinohara code 70 flex track off of my two extension modules for the Woodland Fill, and re-laid it with Atlas code 55.  I also add some new strain reliefs and tidied up the wiring.

I've always wanted to include a few older style lit signs like the ones pictured here:

Basically just painted signs with an array of light bulbs forming some of the letters.

With the tiny SMD LEDs around these days it would be possible, but the thought of wiring up all those ity-bity LEDs was not exactly filling me with enthusiasm!

**** UPDATE 10-2-18 *****

It's been over five years since I installed my coved corners using Charlie Comstock's styrene method and still no cracks - not even one! Also, no rust!

**** UPDATE 4-18-17

It's been over four years since I installed my coved corners using Charlie Comstock's styrene method and still no cracks - not even one!

**** UPDATE 7-18-14 ****

Just what I need, another project. A friend of mine asked if I would build him a crane for his portable engine terminal which he takes to RPM shows. Of course I said OK, what are friends for. He got me all the items I needed. So I thought I'd share with you the building of the third Athearn wreck crane. I'm going to go about presenting it a little different. I'm going to make a series of videos as the build proceeds and add a bit of humor to it also. So here goes.

Bernd 

Somewhere I heard that there is a new track cleaning (liquid I believe) that is far superior to what everyone is using now. Anyone hear of it? Not sure of the name but is apparently brushed on and does not attract dirt as much as other solvents.