Home entertainment during the Corona-O-Rama

[TitoRock]

On 4/5/2020 at 4:39 PM, Arizona Kid said:

I asked my 14 year old son a couple days ago if he preferred the school or no school option if he had a choice. He picked school. We've got a dart board, basketball hoop, and play chess once in awhile, but he misses his friends coming over. I feel bad for him but he's taking it pretty good considering.    

 You can try ask their friends to some online games or zoom chating or any activities that can make them see during this period.

[Heeb]

6 hours ago, Arizona Kid said:

I stopped gambling at casinos and online sites years ago. The reason they are in business is because they have the edge. I like playing with friends tho cuz it's even steven. 

Now I miss my friends, we always got together once every few months. Yes the rake kills, plus you don't have the benefit of observing the other players, it does get monotonous when you have a table full of good players, back in the mid 2000's it was easy to find the fish because there were so many players, I would have 6 tables going sometimes.  It's something to do during the lockdown though,  besides drinking 

Edited April 10, 2020 by Heeb

[Huggybearman]

My project for the community quarantine!

 

First, a little history for my project.

 

In a town called Barry, in South Wales, UK there used to be, and perhaps still is, a scrap yard that was famous for its disused railway rolling stock. When British Railways changed over from steam to Diesel and electric power a lot of the old locos and rolling stock passed through this breakers yard. Way back, when I was a lad, I had an Aunt who lived not far away and, whenever we visited, together with my cousin, I would always take any opportunity to explore this ‘train graveyard’ as we called it, and spent many hours there. It just seemed such a fascinating place! In the late 60’s and 70’s, even into the 80’s it had several hundred old steam loco’s that were to be cut up for scrap. They also had hundreds of railway wagons that were cut up at various times. Due to the wagons being easier to cut up than the locos, they were done first, leaving many locos languishing for years in the yard. This turned out to be very fortuitous as over subsequent years many locos were saved from the cutting torch and have been restored and regularly run on the many heritage lines that now operate throughout the UK.

Over the years I have built many scale, radio controlled, model aircraft and boats. However, living both in Thailand and now the Philippines meant building and operating them just seemed too difficult. Certainly where we were living.  I have long wanted to build a large model railway, 00 scale, but always life’s circumstances got in the way! Now I am settled here, it seems an ideal opportunity to finally build one. And as my wife is busy teaching English I don’t feel guilty spending time on it!

The layout will be set in the 60’s which is the era I most remember. A period which encompassed the end of steam and the large scale introduction of Diesel and electric trains.

We shall be building a house here in the next year or so and it will incorporate a large hobby room for my proposed layout. Over the last couple of years or so I have been constructing various items for the layout. I have always remembered the endless hours exploring the old scrapyard in Barry, and want to incorporate it into my layout.

During my recent visits to the UK I have acquired from eBay over fifty second hand steam locos, mostly non-runners, which I intended to feature in this scrapyard diorama part of the layout.

 

Since the community quarantine I have used this enforced downtime to start on this ‘project within a project’ and have weathered about a dozen of the locos so far, to reflect the sorry state of them that I remember from my youth. It’s been quite an enjoyable learning curve and there are a few things I want to alter on them but generally I am quite happy with the result.

My only concern is that the quarantine will finish too soon, and I won’t finish the other three dozen or so! 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Huggybearman

[hk blues]

I had a 00 layout a few years back. It took up a spare bedroom - I had a lot of fun building it but once it was completed I discovered I had zero interest in actually playing with trains. 

I regretted chosing 00 scale, should have gone smaller which would have allowed me to build a lot more. I also regretted the layout shape - I chose a T design but it was too difficult to reach the centre areas. A layout running around the walls would have been better but I just couldn't overcome the problem of getting around the door with a continuous layout.

Great fun building as I said, but no enjoyment once finished. And darned expensive too!

[Huggybearman]

6 minutes ago, hk blues said:

I had a 00 layout a few years back. It took up a spare bedroom - I had a lot of fun building it but once it was completed I discovered I had zero interest in actually playing with trains. 

I regretted chosing 00 scale, should have gone smaller which would have allowed me to build a lot more. I also regretted the layout shape - I chose a T design but it was too difficult to reach the centre areas. A layout running around the walls would have been better but I just couldn't overcome the problem of getting around the door with a continuous layout.

Great fun building as I said, but no enjoyment once finished. And darned expensive too!

‘N’ scale, which is considerably smaller than 00 is very popular for that very reason. But I prefer the larger 00 scale as there is greater scope for detailing. My pleasure lies in the building of it, and very probably it will never actually get finished. There will always be things that need building or expanding on the layout. I intend to have it entirely computer controlled. There are some very good systems on the market now. 

[hk blues]

3 minutes ago, Huggybearman said:

‘N’ scale, which is considerably smaller than 00 is very popular for that very reason. But I prefer the larger 00 scale as there is greater scope for detailing. My pleasure lies in the building of it, and very probably it will never actually get finished. There will always be things that need building or expanding on the layout. I intend to have it entirely computer controlled. There are some very good systems on the market now. 

Yes, after spending a bit on 00 gauge track I realised i should have gone for N gauge. It's often more expensive though, and less easy to get hold of. 

My layout was completed too quickly as i bought off the shelf stuff - another mistake but I'm not the greatest handyman!

All in all, a great hobby but probably not for me. Finally sold it all at a car boot sale before leaving the UK.

[intrepid]

37 minutes ago, Huggybearman said:

Over the years I have built many scale, radio controlled, model aircraft and boats. However, living both in Thailand and now the Philippines meant building and operating them just seemed too difficult. Certainly where we were living.  I have long wanted to build a large model railway, 00 scale, but always life’s circumstances got in the way! Now I am settled here, it seems an ideal opportunity to finally build one. And as my wife is busy teaching English I don’t feel guilty spending time on it!

The layout will be set in the 60’s which is the era I most remember. A period which encompassed the end of steam and the large scale introduction of Diesel and electric trains.

We shall be building a house here in the next year or so and it will incorporate a large hobby room for my proposed layout. Over the last couple of years or so I have been constructing various items for the layout. I have always remembered the endless hours exploring the old scrapyard in Barry, and want to incorporate it into my layout.

During my recent visits to the UK I have acquired from eBay over fifty second hand steam locos, mostly non-runners, which I intended to feature in this scrapyard diorama part of the layout.

 

Since the community quarantine I have used this enforced downtime to start on this ‘project within a project’ and have weathered about a dozen of the locos so far, to reflect the sorry state of them that I remember from my youth. It’s been quite an enjoyable learning curve and there are a few things I want to alter on them but generally I am quite happy with the result.

My only concern is that the quarantine will finish too soon, and I won’t finish the other three dozen or so! 

I just love seeing other's enjoying a hobby like this.  RC planes and boats and even some HO trains were my hobbies for many years.  I have narrowed down to USCG model rescue boats and some RC USCG ships.  My other hobby is machining and I have been using this down time in my work shop making some needed tooling for my lathe and milling machine.  Another week or so and I'll be back on the boats.  SO glad also for aircon because without it I couldn't spend as much time in the workshop.

Huggybearman I noticed you have a small paint booth.  Does it have a filter and collection system?  I had been thinking of building a larger one for my model boats.

[Huggybearman]

1 hour ago, intrepid said:

I just love seeing other's enjoying a hobby like this.  RC planes and boats and even some HO trains were my hobbies for many years.  I have narrowed down to USCG model rescue boats and some RC USCG ships.  My other hobby is machining and I have been using this down time in my work shop making some needed tooling for my lathe and milling machine.  Another week or so and I'll be back on the boats.  SO glad also for aircon because without it I couldn't spend as much time in the workshop.

Huggybearman I noticed you have a small paint booth.  Does it have a filter and collection system?  I had been thinking of building a larger one for my model boats.

I really enjoyed my model boat building. I have always gone for the more interesting types, which offer a challenge in both construction and operation. The two I really enjoyed were a hydrofoil which worked very well and was very realistic in operation and a Type 7c U-Boat which I demonstrated in a pool at the London Model Engineer Exhibition in about 1970. It didn’t have proper ballast tanks, but it did have a trim tank which when full would take it from full surface trim to ‘decks awash’ and then used dynamic energy to dive. Radio control wasn’t that sophisticated in those days so it would always surface in the event of any failure! 

In answer to your question, my spray booth does have a sponge filter, lighting and an extractor fan which vents the fumes via a hose out through an adjacent window. I bought it off eBay in the UK for about £60. Probably too small for your needs as it is only about 18” wide and 12” tall. But quite easy to make a larger one using readily available parts from any hardware store.

Ken

 

 

[graham59]

I certainly treasured my 00 Gauge train set, as a youngster...and was a keen steam train spotter back in the 60s.

I suppose I'm also lucky... hailing from York, home of the National Railway Museum.

A couple of pics... first a proper picture of the famous Mallard (at the NRM).... plus my badly-lit effort, with my first Filipina Mrs, and our kids. :)

Good luck with the hobby. What you've created so far, looks amazing.  

 

[intrepid]

Seems like not only people are getting bored and depressed;