And more sorting...

The boxes/items in the Train Room are now sorted by type. This makes it a lot easier to send them to their appropriate spots in the rest of the house. Projects for this Labor Day weekend in the kitchen and garage will make room for large sections of these items to depart. Many of the tubs on the right side of the status picture below actually contain train/railroad items, so they will be staying in the Train Room.
Last weekend, the Poynters and Gamsbys camped in West Yellowstone. During some free time, Bill and I built a wooden steam locomotive model from a kit I received as a gift.
On Monday, a special 3-car passenger train was parked at the depot across from my workplace. This may have been a special MRL business train, or a charter.
Well, it's almost September, so I'd better get going!

 

Boxes/items now sorted by type

Wooden steam locomotive kit completed while camping

Special visitor to the Depot

Extra shiny engine pulling the passenger train

Westbound from Billings, I believe the fourth locomotive, MRL #51 (an SW1500), is en route to Livingston for repairs, since it usually remains in the Billings/Laurel area for switching duties

Consolidation and Christmas Decor

Over the past week, I set up my workshop in the garage, thanks in part to a borrowed hammer drill for concrete drilling. This drill was so fun that is spawned other projects as well. I built and installed a railing for our front steps, and moved some theatre items about in the garage to make space for tubs that were sitting in the Train Room. Most of these tubs contain Christmas decor, and I consolidated several small tubs of stuff into a few big tubs of similar stuff. Amber helped with hanging up a railroad-themed welcome sign, pointing to the Train Room door. I also moved furniture around in the Train Room to their actual proposed final positions. They will have to be moved again when the room gets repainted and re-floored, but it gives us a good idea of what space will be available. So I'll leave you with a few updated views of the Train Room and hallway...

Train Room as of 8/22/2013. Believe it or not, things on the right side of the room are much more organized now.

The first artwork to be hung in the basement. Thanks to my wife for hanging it up :)

Sorting, Storing, and Shelves

This week produced much progress inside and outside. Again, not much in the Train Room proper, but in the rooms where the non-train stuff will be moving to. I'm in the process of hanging some more shelving in the garage, thanks to a new concrete drill bit. We may be able to offload some items thanks to the discovery of concrete forms. And thanks to the concept of compression, I was able to store 4 tubs of items in one large tub. All of this is paving the way for items to come out of the Train Room and into the garage. I got new tires for our lawn mower, and was able to push it to the back yard for repair. And, as a bonus, I repaired my bicycle and took it for a few spins around the block. Stay tuned for more improvements ~

I purchased a pair of cufflinks at the Northern Pacific Railroad Historical Association swap meet in Billings a few weeks ago

Here are some trains and etc currently stored in one of the Train Room closets... this needs a bit of improvement...

New Additions and the Path Ahead

This week marked a bit of progress in the garage, which will make progress in the train room possible in the coming weeks. We can now make a full circle around the center storage shelves, which will make it much easier to sort and store items from the train room in the garage. Amber took a trip last weekend, and snapped some railroad photos for me. I also purchased two O-scale freight cars on the Trainz.com auction.

The challenge ahead... this will soon be the train room, but a few things need to move first

New additions to the O-Scale fleet

Amber got to see some trains on her trip last weekend

Beginning the Journey

The purpose of this blog is to help document and share my railroad-related endeavors here in Billings, MT. I will share more background as we go, but for right now the goal is to have a functional O-Gauge model railroad set up in our home this Fall (2013). Several pre-steps must be taken in order to make room for the planned 8x7 semi-scale layout. I'll provide a bit of status here each week, but for a while there won't be a whole lot of trains involved. So, stay tuned and check out the progress ~

Above is myself and the CB&Q Nebraska Zephyr, during our recent visit to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL

And next is a glimpse of the Springdale, Cedar Ridge, and Geronimo City Model Railroad, which was constructed in my parent's basement from 1995-2007.