Wednesday, March 25, 2015

March 21 Work Session

RIT is on Spring Break right now, so the March 21 work session was somewhat quiet, with only Otto, E.J., and Matt participating (and only because his flight home was rescheduled). Most of the day was spent cutting, measuring, fitting, sanding, and priming the fascia panels in Niagara Falls.


 Portions of the fascia were made narrower so narrow shelving under the layout could be accessed easily. Gentle reverse curves were plotted by tracing around the perimeter of a roll of packing tape.

Matt applied two coats of white primer to the fascia panels in Niagara Falls. The next step will be the application of the final color... What will it be? Stay tuned... See more photos on our Facebook fan page!

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Spring Break!

We are heading into Spring Break, returning on March 28.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

March 7 Work Session


For some of us, March 7 was a very long day! Most of us assembled early so we could head downtown and visit the annual open house of the Rochester Model Railroad Club. One of the oldest clubs in the region, it was formerly the Kodak City Club. Their home road is the Seneca Valley Lines, loosely based on the Lehigh Valley route from Jersey City to Buffalo. Many of our members took advantage of the bargains to be had at the small train show that was in the other room. After we spent some time at the open house, we headed over to nearby Dinosaur BBQ for lunch. The restaurant is located in the old Lehigh Valley station that was located at the end of the Rochester Branch.


We then headed back to the club room and tackled a variety of projects. Elliot and Charles soldered wires where wires had come unsoldered from various rails causing various dead spots. Otto continued work on his retaining wall and bridge abutment project at the north end of Irondequoit Yard. He also paid some attention to the embankment between the coal dock lead and the B&O track that ramps down into the scene. Elliot helped fill in some foam around that area to complete the embankment.


Nick laid down some masonite base around the Niagara Food Terminal to raise the base closer to the head of the rail. This will help support the various pavements and platforms that will be installed here. Later in the day, Joe and Nick measured and hung fascia panels in Niagara Falls. Charles drilled holes and ran wires for a new, permanent cab bus installation.




Monday, March 2, 2015

February 28 work session

We wrapped up the month of February making more progress on several projects. Otto applied a base coat of gray and tan paints to the concrete area around the chemical loading tracks in Niagara Falls. Areas around the platform and some of the siding was also ballasted at this time. Already the scene looks more finished! Otto is planning on kitbashing or scratchbuilding a large, modern steel structure to go against the backdrop behind the loading tracks to complete the scene.

Joe C., Charles, and Elliot installed Tortoise switch machines for the two freight sidings off the running track in Niagara Falls. Joe wired up power to the sidings, which completes last of the trackwork in Niagara Falls.


David S. applied a second coat of joint compound to hide the screw holes in the Irondequoit fascia. These were sanded smooth, and a white primer was applied by Collum and Otto. This will be sanded smooth before the final color is applied. A deep green color has been chosen for the fascia color, which will help make the Irondequoit scene look even more finished.


That evening, a dozen RITMRC members traveled down the Thruway to attend a special invitational operating session at the Model Railroad Club of Buffalo. The club road is the Buffalo Central, a fictional line that runs between Buffalo and Pittsburgh, though they only model the "southern half" which is "somewhere near Pittsburgh." After dining on pizza and chicken wings (a traditional Buffalo delicacy), we received a brief tour to familiarize ourselves with the physical locations of the railroad. We were quickly paired up with experienced operators and the operating session was under way! We all had a lot of fun and we thank our friends in Buffalo for allowing a bunch of trainees to mess up their railroad. We hope to do it again soon.