Looks like most of the 7/8 scale I declared surplus has sold.  The triple combine is going to New Zealand, now I gotta find a box big enough for it.  Nice little chunk of capitol to reinvest in the railroad!  Will prolly use it to complete  the staging yard beside the Shop, the loop around the garden patch, and perhaps turning the staging yard into some sort of covered storage.

1730

     I managed to get the floor and slope sheet in the 2nd car, and nailed together the frame for a third before I decided it was too cold to be out in The Shop.   This is APRIL!!!!!!  BRRRRRRRR....

Monday, April 16

     Looks like I should just bite the bullet and start making brakewheel and lockpawl molds tonight.  The rest of the details are too simple and easy to be castings.  

     I'm thinking a 4 to 1 or 6 to 1 ratio is gonna be about right for a distribution of rolling stock.  For every 4-6 hoppers I add to the roster, I need to add a boxcar or a flat.  Tankcars may be added eventually but those will prolly be very irregular.  Still not settled on a design for a caboose either.

2000

     Mystery solved about the box from NJ.  It arrived today and much to my surprise it contained 6 of the old Bachmann steel three bay hoppers.  To say the least I'm very pleased.  The hopper fleet has just tripled in size. 

Tuesday,  April 17
5:00

     Still assimilating the bounty of hoppers I recieved last night.  I think it will be a relatively simple process to widen them a tad and make 1:20 cars out of them.

      Having looked at one carefully, I think I can remove the frame and split the carbody in half.  Styrene splice plates can be made for the slope sheets abd th top of the a frame running down the center.  I'm not sure if a totally new frame would be required be it could prolly be made up from styrene I beam.  Thus widened I could have them ride on my cast steel trcks that would make them sit a bit higher, and further extend thier height with side extention.  The result being the line's newest and heaviest hopper car.

 I might cut a couple of the steel cars down to 2 bays.  A 2 bay hopper would be part of a logical progression from the wooden cars, not to mention would be easier to make the longitudinal cuts in the carbody.

     Time to formulate a plan of attack.  Think I will finish framing up the 4 wooden cars and the do clean up from the wood fabrication phase then move on to styrene construction for the detailing of the wood cars and the modifications to the steel cars.  

Wednesday, April 18
0500

 Looks like this run of wooden hoppers stops at 4, used the last of the frame timbers on the fourth car and pretty much exhausted my supply of 1/8 " siding.  I'll need to spend some quality time with the table saw to turn out more.

 I have decided that the first of the steel hoppers for conversion will be "quartered " into two bay cars, that'll keep them in line with the Bachmann On30 cars I have on the indoor line.

0900

 Hoping to work on the wood cars this evening, but i have to do that nasty grass cutting thing first.  The siding is on the sides, I just have to scribe in the individual boards  and apply the bracing to them.

 Still having troble finding a box big enough to ship the triple combine in.  I guess the next optionis gonna be to build a box to ship it in.  1/2 styrofoam coverd in luan with duct tape and brown paper ought todo the trick.   
 

Thursday, April 19
0445

 Built a crate for the combine to travel to New Zealand last night since I couldn't find a box that it would fit in.  Wrapped the car in foam padding, then made a box out of 1/2 " pink styrofoam and duct tape.  Then i armored the box with some luan I had left over.  More duct tape.  Its not real pretty but it should work!  I'll cover the whole thing in brown kraft paper before shipping to improve its looks.

 Didn't get as much done to the wooden hoppers as I wanted last night, ran outta steam.  I did trim up the siding i had glued on and scribed the individual boards.  A jewlers screw driver (flat head) works great as a scribing tool.

 I just couldn't help myself!  I had to do it.  Had to see how hard it was to cut a Bmann hopper in half.  T'was easy with the mini jigsaw and a hacksaw for the really thick bits.  Looks like I'm gonna need to add about an inch in the centerline to get it 1:20ish.  Will put some side extentions on too to give it some additional height.

Friday, April 20
1900

 Great day today.  Got ot into The Shop early today and knocked out the last little bit of the wooden hoppers.  Looks like things worked out just about right, I used up just about all the wood milled to the appropriate specs.  I will be building several more of these in the future.  

 Got The Shop cleaned up and began fabricating in styrene.  I just couldn't help myself, by the time the day was done, I had converted one Bachmann hopper to a 1:20 2 bay car.  It wasn't difficult at all, the whole thing working at a leisurely pace in the space of a day.  Not bad for the average Large Scale project.  One down, 5 to go.  Now I gotta get serious about a numbering scheme. 

Saturday, April 21

 Slept late today, but managed to get to the Post Office in time to get the sold rolling stock ready for shipping.  Bout $18 to ship the hoppers and critter to New Jersey, and $50 to ship the triple combine to New Zealand.  

 Mowed the grass and  speant the bulk of the day cleaning up the yard and flowerbeds.  Gotta lot to do there.  Going to finish up the floors and slope sheets on the wood hoppers before I gotta go out of town tomorrow.  Gonna invest $100 or so in KD couplers this summer and the rest from the sale of the rolling stock in PT lumber to finish the staging yard and a loop for continuous running.  Will be set up to provide for operational interest as well.