The JSSX This Week, 04/13/19

I attended the Woodstock Train Show back on March 30th.  I didn't have a table this time, as I didn't feel that I really had enough things to sell to make it worthwhile.  I thought that it was a pretty good show though, and came away with a couple of items.

I picked up a very nice gondola, made by Rapido. Painted for the Algoma Central, this will make a real good addition to the layout once it's weathered a bit.  I'll have to make a removable load or two for it also. And the other thing I purchased was a set of 4 modern looking streetlights, made by a company called Dijikeijs.  They are pre-wired, including a resistor, and LED light.

The Algoma Central gondola and LED streetlight set.  The gondola needs some weathering before it goes out on the rails, And I look forward to setting the lights in place and having them operable.

Also while I was at the Woodstock show, I spoke with Peter Mumby, of Peter's Trains.  Peter mentioned to me that when he reads my blog on his iPad, the blue lettering doesn't show up very well against the black background, which makes it difficult to read.  I had no idea that this was the case, as everything seems to show up just fine on my laptop.  I don't use an iPad.  My adoring wife has one though, but I just never really have occasion to use it. I had just always thought that the blue font looked nice.

So, in thinking this through a little bit, I figured that this orange coloured font should show up better against the black background.  So, I gave it a try last week, and sure enough, it's much easier to read.  So, thanks for the heads-up Peter.

Knowing that I've been chipping away at a building a scrap yard on my layout, Peter referred me to a post from September 2015 on George Dutka's White River Division blog, in which the Zubick's Scrap Yard in London, Ontario had been featured. 

I actually found two posts referring to that business. One of them featured this photo that George had taken near the entrance to the scrap yard while he was aboard a locomotive.  So, with permission, I've copied it to show here, and also added a photo I've taken from a somewhat similar view of the entrance to the scrap yard on my layout,

Full credit for this photo goes to George Dutka and his White River Division blog.

When I saw that photo of George's, I had the idea to take a comparable picture on my layout. Here's my attempt.

A while back, I wrote about wanting to change the depth of the MIdWest Plastic plant that's situated against the layout backdrop. Well, I finally got around to doing that on Thursday.It took a couple of hours or so, and some careful work with an Xacto blade, but the basic work is now done.

Here's a view of the building, with about 2 inches trimmed from the back., and the spur track roughly set into place.  The extra couple of inches of separation between the spur and the main track will look much more prototypical and allow for better scenicking 

The MidWest Plastics building has been reduced in it's depth, in order to be able to move the spur track further away from the mainline. I've obviously got lots still to do here, on scenery as well as on the building itself, but that's the general idea anyway.