I have tried to work on my layout and some small progress has been made but not a lot….. or at least I don’t think it has. Sometime I’ll post an update at some point but I just haven’t felt like it. My passion for the hobby just isn’t there right now but I have some good friends that keep me involved one way or another in the hobby.

I just thought I would let you all know I’m still here and haven’t given up but I haven’t got the drive to push myself into getting a whole lot done yet either.

Later

Al

1994-2012

Mark A. Bishop; of Lower Coverdale, NB; passed away at The Moncton Hospital, on Tuesday,  January 3, 2012. as the result of a motor vehicle accident. Born in Moncton, NB, on July 20, 1994, he is the son of Allan R. and Cheryl (Hyslop) Bishop.

He was employed part time at the Pinewood Subway. Mark was a Grade 12 student at Riverview High School, he was a member of the Riverview High School Football Team and he loved skate boarding, long boarding, wrestling, hockey, baseball and taekwondo.

He was always thinking of others and was a participant in the Breast Cancer Pink Ribbon Relay for Life.

Mark enjoyed life, and with his no fear and outgoing attitude he was a friend to all that knew him.

He will be sadly missed by his loving parents Alan and Cheryl Bishop of Lower Coverdale; maternal grandmother Goldie Hyslop of Hillsborough; paternal grandfather George Bishop of Albert Mines; paternal grandmother Marlene Chapman of Salisbury; step-grandmother Jean Hyslop of Caledonia Rd; his brother Nick Bishop (Terah) of Lower Coverdale; his nephew Benjamin; uncles Darrell Bishop (Kim) of Ponoka, AB., Gary (Linda) Bishop of Pine Glen, Tim Hyslop of Stewiacke, NS., his aunt Cynthia Hyslop of Riverview; also by step-aunts and step-uncles, many cousins, his good friends Joey, Tyler, Bradley, Matt “Big O”, Laura and Kathleen, as well as his team mates and his many friends.

He was predeceased by his maternal grandfather Doug Hyslop.

Resting at the Riverview Funeral Home, 214 Pine Glen Rd. Riverview, with visitation on Friday, January 6, 2012 from 2:00 to 4:00pm and 7:00 to 9:00pm.

The funeral service will be held at Riverview Funeral Home Memorial Chapel on Saturday,  January 7, 2012 at 1:00 pm with Pastor Jim Eagles officiating.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Mark’s memory made to Breast Cancer or to the charity of the donor’s choice would be appreciated by his family.

Interment will be at Wilmot Memorial Cemetery, Lower Coverdale in the spring.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Riverview Funeral Home 214 Pine Glen Rd. Riverview, NB (506) 857-9544

Online condolences can be made  at www.tuttlefuneralhome.ca

MARK, WE MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU MORE THAN ACTIONS AND WORDS CAN EXPRESS!!! I WISH WE COULD HOLD YOU AND TELL YOU THAT ONE LAST TIME.

I LOVE YOU SON!!!!!!!!!!!!

DAD

I havn’t had as much time lately for the layout but I have managed to get a mainline run through the middle of the three towns with passing sidings. The main line has reached the third town but not into it. The line has also been stretching out toward the first town but has only gotten a short distance as a bridge was needed to span a creek.

I’ll get a better write up with photos and names later.

See Ya

Al

The question of  turnouts and how am I planning to control them has been asked so I will address that here. One big word here Micro Engineering code 55. I have been building my turnouts using a jig I purchased from Fast Tracks and even though they are coming along I ran into a problem with them that I didn’t notice until I was getting ready to use them. I thought I was being very careful but the wheels are getting pinched in the Wing Rails. Not sure what I was doing wrong but I will definitely be watching much closer next time I build one. In order to get a couple trains moving a little quicker I have purchased a number of Micro Engineering turnouts. These are spring loaded so they can easily be switched with a pick or finger but I will likely eventually have a unit installed underneath to keep fingers off of the layout  as I am also thinking of installing operating switch stands. The turnout control will very likely be either the Fast Tracks Bullfrog or a home made style or a combination of each. One problem I am coming up with is finding a small piano wire for these small turnouts. I have asked at hardware stores and they look at me as if I’m nuts and tell me they have no idea what I’m talking about. If anyone knows where I can find piano wire please let me know.

Going to try and get the rest of the plywood levelled and cork down this week.

Later

Al

Even though he can’t handle a shovel yet……. heck, he doesn’t even weigh as much as a shovel full of coal, You can bet your boilers and connecting rods I’ll be teachin’ him to be an engineer and how to handle a throttle as soon as he is able.

Wolf will say that once traffic starts to move and is generating revenue for WV, the settlement of Wolf Valley will get a big boost.  Wolf says they have already made plans to build a yard and Engine facilities on some of the family property in the settlement. This land has been owned by the family since it was founded by Northern Wolf back in the mid 1700’s. Northern Wolf was a Master Carpenter from The West somewhere. No one is really sure as to where exactly as he was always moving to where the construction jobs were. When he retired he made his way east and settled into this valley.

Wolf Valley is only one mile from the small town of Cole so there is strong speculation that Cole will benefit as one of the founding towns of the railroad but again no one is saying anything as to whom will benefit.

Wolf also says that it takes a lot of equipment and financial support to start a railroad and that they have been negotiating with the Canadian National Railway (CNR) but is not saying as to what extent.

I guess we’ll just have to stay tuned and keep an eye out, an ear to the ground and soon to the rail.

See Ya

Al

Now to find my wife and explain why it wouldn’t be a good idea to put him  in the family room and oddly enough she agreed. “What do we do then?” she replies, “Welllllll” I said with what was probably the biggest, sheepish grin anyone could have, “What about my train room?” Now I am sure this is what she secretly wanted to do anyway but didn’t dare ask. “You’d give up your train room?!?!?!” So the negotiations began for me to acquire the property rights of the larger room. Now I can only have half of it right now but that will at least get me started. Within a year or two the rest of it will become my train room. After the boys finally move out the old train room will become the crew lounge.

The designing has already started for the new layout and bench work will begin very soon. I even have the material ready for the bench work. The only thing holding me up is deciding on the elevation which will be decided before the weekend.

WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! FINALLY the beginning begins

See Ya

Al

It was nothing more than terrific!!! We had a great time and Newfoundland is beautiful!!

We had planned on leaving Saturday morning and driving to Sydney then getting a hotel for the evening. This would give us time to go see Fort Loisbourg Sunday morning and then head back to the Ferry for our 2 o’clock departure. Friday night after work we decided not to leave Saturday, instead we would leave around 5:30 am Sunday Morning. This would save us a few dollars and we could take our time and pack on Saturday. We woke up Saturday morning and changed plans again…..made a few calls, packed and were on the road by 11:30.

Sunday morning we headed to the Fort but never having been there we underestimated how long it would take to see the place. It was at that point we decided to see the Fort on the way home instead so we headed back toward the ferry. It wasn’t a total loss though, we stopped at the Louisburg Train Museum and this Cool place

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The ferry left right on time and about half way over I took a picture of the one we would come back on and kinda like the shot.

We arrived in Port aux Basque just before sunset and my first sight of a Newfoundland town was just what I expected.

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We drove for a couple days up through Grose Morne on our way to Lans aux Meadows where we seen our first moose and the first settlement in North America from the Vikings. Got to see the buildings and how they were put together. It was a pretty cool place.

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Later that day we were able to get up close and personal with some Iceburgs and whales.

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Took another couple days as we headed to our friends place on the East end of Newfoundland by Trinity Bay. When we arrived there we were surprised to have had our own place to stay. Michele and Mike, had a summer home there and let us use it while we were there.  Bob, Diane and Annette were great tour guides as I know we got to see and hear things from this area that a regular tourist would not have. Heck we even got to pick what they call Bake Apples which is actually a berry and in the process I even found a couple Picture plants which happen to be the provincial flower of Newfoundland. These plants eat insects by collecting rain water, mixing in their own chemicals into the water which attract and ultimately drown the little buggers. Pretty cool huh?

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Here are a few pictures of scenery followed by a few I was playing around with some settings on my DSLR wannbe.

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I had a great time would like to once again thank Bob, Diane and Annette for the greatest hospitality anyone could ever have received. Thanks!!!

See Ya

Al

Next week this time I’ll be in Newfoundland on holidays. We leave bright and early Sunday morning to head to the boat. My oldest son (father to be) will be house and cat sitting and later next week my wife’s brother will be here as well while he comes this way for his holidays. I’ll post some pictures later when we get back.

On to the railroad. I just finished my (or at least what I hope to be) my final plan before I start to build. I have struggled back and forth and played with plans having hidden staging and finally decided against it for now. Not knowing how much this will get run when completed I decided that cleaning track in hard to reach areas was not going to be “fun”! So here I sit ready to start and now coming to the realization that I have to figure out if I’m lazy or just a very good procrastinator

I have a few things to tidy up in the train room now as it has become a bit of storage area since I wasn’t building anything in there at the time. After I get back from my holidays it will be time to actually buckle down and TRY to get things started!

See Ya

Al

I have two HO steam engines with sound in them that I planned to eventually detail a bit to  better resemble (but not necessarily perfectly) the CNR versions. One of them is currently being leased to the Bayside and Tidewater Railroad. Liking the sound I decided that that my CNR Atlas Classic RS3 (in Green and Gold) should also get sound and a deal was made to purchase a sound decoder for this unit. At the same time I finally decided it was time to put a decoder into my Proto 2000 CNR SW9 and one was purchased last week. Last weekend I installed it in my switcher thinking this would be a fairly simple project and I’ll have it running in a short time……….hmmm not so much as you will soon find out. This little problem is what started my “infection”!!! Read On.

The install was easy even if this was my first one. Now I also have never programmed anything before on my Zephyr. I bought this Zephyr on ebay a couple years ago and figured I better learn how to use it as DCC to me (other than running on someones layout) is still a bit of a mystery. I found the book that came with it and started to read, this is when I discovered there are pages missing from the manual . Now off to Digitrax website to download the manual, read missing pages and realize this should be easy. Well I was able to program in the number of the unit and it would read it back but for some reason I could not get it to move no matter how hard I tried. The next night is “Train Night” so I take it with me to see what I have done wrong. Within a two hour span of getting there is when I became “sick”.

First Trevor looks at my work and says it looks good so he put it on his track and tries it with his Lenz system, It works!!! He puts it on his Zephyr…. it works there!!!!! I still haven’t revisited my Zephyr yet but I know it worked before so maybe I had a loose connection or something…I hope. This is about where I started to feel “I’ll”.

I mentioned that I wasn’t changing the cab light to an LED as it is quite a job to take it apart. Trevor had it apart in less than 2 minutes. Now I’m looking at the inside thinking everything is black, Luc is building a brass caboose at the workbench and I mention I should paint the interior green and the men as well. Luc perks up “While your at it why don’t you change the stacks, put the proper horn on it, add a bell………..ect, ect.” I’m thinking OK maybe this isn’t so bad, then it gets worse!! We realize my RS3′s body is pretty solid and there is no real area for the sound to come out. Once again, Luc chimes in with “No problem! You can file out the fan and replace it with a brass one drill out the screen in the exhaust, put on a CN bell, proper numberboards……..ect, ect.” Now I know I’m ill ’cause I’m gonna do it.

Once I get the parts I’ll start taking pictures…. Wish me luck!!

See Ya