more caboose work
got out this morning, fired up the chain saw and cut down a big snag of a tree that I thought was standing dead. No bark remaining on the trunk, but the single remaining limb had some green branches I did get a big load of old dead wood onto the front porch, and skidded the big log up next to my drying rack. I went back into the woods after another standing dead tree, but managed to bump the choke on the chainsaw back on while making the undercut, and flooded it out. My chain saw is a huge High Compression STHIL, and I have learned that if I flood it , I'm not restarting in that day, so I spent the rest of the morning moving and stacking wood, putting the stuff that will be ready in a week or two on the front porch, and putting the truly green stuff in my roofed southern facing drying rack.
After a good three hour work out I got back into the farmhouse, and went to the workbench. I put another coat of Barn red on the ugly caboose, and that didn't help much; the barn red is just too bright. My Georgia clay and oxide red had dried up, so I need to get back to hobby lobby, and restock on those reds, as when I paint with red, it is often a mixture of those three colors.
Needing different paints, I started adding the bay window to a another caboose project. this one is an MDC body from one of their 3 in one kitbashing sets. This body started out intended to be a side door caboose.
I think I have figured out how to number my cabeese. I think the locomotives that will normally be in service as switchers will get a caboose assigned to them, probably one of the more ratty cabeese. those Cabooses will have a two hundred number, followed by the switching engines number ( with a 0 if the switching engine is numbered below 10) I'm figuring with the new plan a full time switcher will be needed in Montgomery Furnace, Flea Creek, Crooked Creek, Harlow, and Ridemont. That would leave me with the need for five switchers.
these will likely be #15 a PFM 25 ton Shay, that has been remotored with a gear reduction motor, and is slower than Christmas; #9 a Westside models Westside lumber co #3 Heisler, that has long been the switch engine in Harlow; #4 A Westside Models class A climax that was born with a 44:1 gear ratio, and has been remotored with a can motor, after it melted three or four of it's original design motors. I will probably want to put #8 , a MDC 2 truck Shay, which has been heavily modified, including a huge gear reduction motor, into switching service, probably in Crooked Creek. It has been in mixed service, but if I reduce may ruling grade to 3.3% from the current 8.5 % it will not be as desperately needed for road service. That leaves me with one more locomotive to assign to switch engine service one possibility for that last switch engine slot would be # 6 A NWSL Sierra #18 (very heavily modified) It is an extremely small drivered Consolidation, in it's last rebuild it got a gear reduction can motor. It will be useful as a road engine, if it will double head with some of my other smaller rod engines, but likely it will be too slow, due to the gear reduction motor, and that might push it into switching service.
Tom's radio throttle will be a welcome addition. it will push me up to six total throttles, and that may be more than the aisle space will allow for use any given time , but If in use I can see which throttles are favored, I can always remove one later, and move it to the club for use on the narrow gauge, where I would like to build a block system there. Carl has two HON3 locomotives, and both are old brass that would be problematic to convert to DCC. I have two HON3 locomotives with Dual mode decoders, and another five or six HON3 locomotives that are DC, and like Carl's would likely need re-motoring as well as adding decoders, and some of the locomotives are so tiny finding room for a z scale decoder and the attending wiring would be near impossible, so unless Carl buys some Blackstone sound locomotives, and is in favor of going DCC the club's HOn3 will likely remain DC.
That's it for now, I need to try to get a nap before getting up to feed my wife this evening, so I can get another nap, before going to work @ 11:00 pm . I spent a bunch of time yesterday morning getting references in line Tomorrow I'm going to have to go out and get a haircut, and try to make my self look more presentable, in case I can fool someone into interviewing me. I absolutely have to get myself a day job with weekends off.
The rest of the cabesse will be in a pool to serve as needed, as many of the road trains will be mixed trains, and not require cabeese. the General Use locomotive will be numbered from 250 up. My highest locomotive numbers at present are my two Little River 2-4-4-2's #21 and #22. I don't foresee my roster ever getting anyway near 50.