Cows, Some Long Shots, The Yard, and The Cabin Gets Lit

The Town; and The Cobbler Gets Lights

New Year, New Cabin

Cleaning Electrical Contacts and Wheels

I have read that goo-gone leaves a residue.  I think it probably does but since it cleans things really well and all the trains run great, I use it.  Here is the stuff I use to clean the cars:

Here is an example car before cleaning (MTH MOPAC passenger car):

The Qtips after cleaning:

The same wheel set after being cleaned:

Cleaned and Running

Finally got all the track cleaned, engines and some cars cleaned, landscaped dusted and re-setup....pretty much all good to go expect a lot of ballast and turf has been tore up so will need to address that over time. But at least things are running really well again.  Here are a few shots of the layout since all this has been done.

Rust

At some point during the summer of 2018, not too long after the last post in May, the basement where the train layout is located flooded.  Whether from the standing water or from the ionized volcanic rock placed under the layout as part of the cleanup I can't be sure, but I flipped on the lights to find about 80% of the track covered in rust.  Entire switches just red with it - really unbelievable.  So for rest of 2018, all of 2019, and most of 2020, very little was done and certainly no trains were ran.  Somewhere along the line I started cleaning the track with eraser, scotchbrite pads, goo-gone, and rags.....after the first cleaning I waited months to see if the rust came back.  Since the cleaning seemed to hold (rust didn't come back), I continued and eventually got it all completed in 2020.  So this is the only post for 2019.

3 Trains

New House and Updated Lighting

First Week of 2018

Couple Shots for Fall