Tales from the Treatment Room

[Mike Boucher]

Today the weather was in the low 40's (F, not C!) in the morning, with a forecast of a cold front and snow flurries moving through in the late afternoon.  The rest of the week is supposed to be in the teens as the highs, with lows down around 0.  Saturday and Sunday it snowed all day, dropping a whopping 2 inches or so, and some people are saying another inch on Wednesday, others are saying up to 8 inches, depending on the track of the storm.  That means today had a pretty small window to do some airbrushing out in my garage.  I figured that I could keep the paint warm long enough to paint 4 of the 6 cars I've built in the treatment room, so I grabbed the two Slaters P.O. wagons, the GWR fruit van, and the MR cattle van, mixed up the 4 colors I use for weathering, put on my respirator and went out to the garage.

To keep the paint warm enough, I put some hot water in a ziploc bag, and put it and the bottles in an insulated bag with it.  Great idea, except when I pulled out the 4th color the ziploc bag had opened, and some of the water had leaked into the paint bottle, diluting it significantly more than I had planned, so it was too watery to spray.  Not a big deal, as the 3rd and 4th colors are "dirt" and "earth", and I just switch between them to weather the underframe/chassis.  So, all 4 of these were painted with the same dirt color.

 

Here's how they came out.

 

 

 

 

 

The one thing I didn't do was weather the roof on the fruit van and cattle van.  That's because the cattle van roof isn't attached yet, and I figured 4 colors was about as much as I could handle outside before it got too chilly.

So, I consider the two P.O. wagons completed.  Next step is to brush weather the inside of the cattle van, put in hay and cows, glue the roof on, and wait until the next warmup to weather the roofs (and the other two cars!)

So now for the questions about the cattle van...

 

- What would the inside of the cattle van look like?  bare wood? (assuming things needed to be cleaned out well after transport)  Dark, stained wood (assuming that the manure would stain the wood), painted the same color as the outside?

- There's an interior divider.  Was that to keep one cow separated from the rest, or just to make a smaller space so the cows couldn't move around as much?
- How many cows would be put in one van?

- I'm assuming there would be hay spread on the bottom of the van.  how deep?  And would there be a bale somewhere for the cows to much on during transport?

[BR60103]

I think the divider was to reduce the space so that the cattle were kept standing and couldn't fall over. 

I don't know British practice, but Canadian National cattle cars were whitewashed about 1/3 of the way up the sides (on the outside), sometimes more.

There is an extremely collectible mistake by Trains Miniature where the white was applied to the top of the sides.

[highpeak]

According to "British Goods Wagons" by Essery, Rowland and Steel, the insides were washed down and limewash liberally applied. The book notes that the use of limewash had been discontinued for the past 20 years. The authors' foreward was written in 1969, so it would seem that limewash went out of style after WW2. The authors speculate that it was replaced by some other less noticeable disinfectant. For a pre-war wagon the interior should probably be a dirty white with dribbles of the stuff on the outside.

 

Geoff Kent in vol 2 of his 4mm Wagon trilogy published by White Swan suggests that limewash fell out of favour around the time of the grouping (1923).

 

This picture might help: http://www.nrm.org.uk/ourcollection/photo?group=Derby&objid=1997-7397_DY_9165 Note that the wagon is equipped with screw couplings and extended buffers. The screw couplings would help give the cattle a bit better ride than the typical loose coupling. The book I have quoted notes that some cattle wagons were fitted with vacuum brakes and through steam pipes as cattle were sometimes conveyed by passenger train in the pre-war period.

 

From the same source, b.y 1887 there were three sizes of cattle wagon in use in England and Wales, and different rates applied to each type. The movable partition was introduced so that large wagons could be reduced to the medium or small size, avoiding having to build different types of wagon. The different floor lengths were 13ft 6in, 15ft 6in and 18ft.

 

Nice work on the wagons! Painting is where progress usually grinds to a halt for me, I don't get along well with the airbrush. Those wagons look pretty good, traffic-worn but not filthy.

 

I'm not sure there would be hay on the floor as that might make the floor slippery especially when it got wet. The book is silent on that matter though. 

Edited January 21, 2014 by highpeak

[highpeak]

Further browsing on the Railway museum site shows this picture http://www.nrm.org.uk/ourcollection/photo?group=Derby&objid=1997-7397_DY_9164 which not only shows a partition in the wagon but suggests that contrary to my earlier statement, hay seems to have been placed in the wagon, at least it looks like some is sticking out through the slats at the near end of the wagon and the caption suggests that feed was placed in the wagon.

[jamie92208]

Mike

 

The divider was to do with the charging regime.  There were small medium and large wagons with different capacities and levels of charge.   Eventually the Midland decided to only build large ones and put the dividers in but only charged according to what the farmer/cattle dealer ordered.

 

Lime wash was used as a disinfectant but was discontinued in the early 1920's I think because of evidence that it could cause pain and sufferring to the cows feet.   The suggestion about feed behind the partition could possibly have been done but I've not seen any evidence of it.    

 

Jamie

[Rumblestripe]

Regarding the partition, I was told that it was due to "canny" farmers ordering small cattle wagons in the knowledge that there weren't many of them on the system and that nine times out of ten a "large" would turn up, so the Midland put in the partition which was locked in place to prevent said "canny" farmers magically enlarging the wagon.

 

Translation for Mike: "Canny" is a northern English expression expressing the admiration of one who is cleverly miserly with money.

[jamie92208]

Regarding the partition, I was told that it was due to "canny" farmers ordering small cattle wagons in the knowledge that there weren't many of them on the system and that nine times out of ten a "large" would turn up, so the Midland put in the partition which was locked in place to prevent said "canny" farmers magically enlarging the wagon.

 

Translation for Mike: "Canny" is a northern English expression expressing the admiration of one who is cleverly miserly with money.

And from personal knowledge Yorkshire farmers are very canny as a breed.  After all Tykes (Yorkshire people) have been described as scotsmen with their pockets sewn up.

 

Jamie

[highpeak]

Some interesting details on the development of the locking partition bar (or at least one version of it) are at http://books.google.com/books?id=_oE-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA311&lpg=PA311&dq=taite+carlton+cattle+wagon+partition&source=bl&ots=edTOHHhmp6&sig=grgsDAl3jYR9gSXXJbSkW5WO-Mo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KSXfUtnZNJfLsQTfwoL4BQ&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=taite%20carlton%20cattle%20wagon%20partition&f=false
The firm of Taite and Carlton were based in London and appear to have been agents for a wide variety of devices http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Taite_and_Carlton

 

Connecticut is getting heavy snow tonight, a chilly 11F, a good night to be doing some modelling (or mucking about on the internet researching cattle wagon partitions).

[Mike Boucher]

Nice work on the wagons! Painting is where progress usually grinds to a halt for me, I don't get along well with the airbrush. Those wagons look pretty good, traffic-worn but not filthy.

 

Initially, I wasn't good with an airbrush either.  Then someone suggested a Paasche VL.  I bought one, played with it on some "$1 bin HO trains" at a local train show, and I've been weathering ever since.  I found a 2nd at a yard sale for $20, so now I have two of them!

 

There was a Model Railroader article several years ago by John Pryke called "Quick and Dirty Freight Car Weathering", and that's the technique I use.  After a few tries, its pretty easy, and as you can see the results are acceptable.  You can download it as 3 pdf files on the "Greenfield New and Hobby" website (http://www.greenfieldnewsandhobby.com/free-downloads.html).  There's a lot of other crap on that page, so just search the page for Pryke.

 

And Thanks to everyone else for the info about the dividing wall.  Interesting stuff!

[Mike Boucher]

Been a few weeks since I typed an update, but I have been making progress...

My treatment schedule changed, so instead of 5 or 6 hours 1 day a week, its 1 hour long 3 days a week, except for 1 monday a month when its a long day.  So, the modelling sessions have been shorter, but more frequent.

 

For the past few weeks, I've been working on the roof of the N scale factory, starting to build details.  Each kit came with a square ventilator to put on the roof.  Those will cover the smokestack bases which aren't being used.  Unfortunately, the pieces are molded such that it leaves huge gaps at each corner.  So, I used my "top secret homemade filling putty" to fill in the gaps.   Here's a pic of one with the filler applied (but not sanded), and one showing what it looked like before...

 

This wound up taking a few treatment days.  Glue them together on one, fill the gaps and let them dry on another, file/sand and then 2nd application of gap filler on 3rd, file/sand and attach roof on 4th...  And they wound up looking like this when done:

 

 

My filling putty isn't all that top secret, its pretty simple.  When I finished a bottle of the Tenax glue I use (similar to MEK, if not identical), I poured a little bit from the newly purchased bottle into the old.  Maybe 1/8" deep.  Then, take a bunch of styrene scraps and dump them into the bottle.  The solvent melts the styrene.  Every day, stir it up a bit until everything is melted and has a consistency slightly more watery than peanut butter.  If too solid, add more solvent.  If too watery, add more styrene.  Apply it like you would any other filler.  Since its based on plastic solvent, the filler bonds with the plastic.  When dry, its as solid as the styrene, and can be easily sanded.  When you're running low, pour in a little more Tenax and more sytrene scraps.

 

Next was to work on something to cover the hole where I cut out one of the stack bases.  I decided to make a small dormer, using styrene sheet and scraps from the roof.  This took more than a few treatment days as well.  After I had it built, I thought the front of the dormer looked too plain, and was pretty large, so I found a small window on the sprue which isn't used in the kit, and cut a hole in the dormer to fit.  Would have been much easier if I thought of that first...

 

Here's the dormer, and then sitting in place on the roof (not glued on yet)

 

 

In order to make this so the peak was level, I used this great little tool.

 

 

 

When the scale is in the slot, its square.  When not, you can tighten the thumb screw so it holds whatever angle you want.  So, I used it to copy the angle off the ventilators, and then transferred that angle to the styrene sheet.  Bingo, one level roofline.

 

After this, I thought that the window didn't look right, so I decided to make it a louvered vent.  I removed the mullion, and then took some .020 x .060 styrene strip and glued it the window.  Here's the result:

 

 

 

And in that last photo you can see I filled in the "hole" in the roof between the ridge cap and the roofing.  Once again, using my "no-longer top secret homemade filling putty"...

 

Next was to make roofs for the bump out sections.  The "short" one I wanted to reasonably match the roof.  I took some .040 thick styrene, cut to dimension.  Then glued on .010 x .030 styrene (IIRC) to simulate the roofing seams.  Once again, this took WAY longer than I thought it would, probably 4 sessions...

 

 

The other side, with the full height wall, I decided to put on a flat roof inset between the brickwork.  That means I need some form of capstone.  Some .030 x .080 styrene was cut to length, and every 1.5 scale feet, I scribed in a joint with my knife, so it looks like individual stones.  Here's the result:

 

 

So, here's an overview of what the roof looks like with all this added, as of yesterday...

 

 

Now for some painting on the roof before I do too much more with this kit.

 

Yesterday was the long day, so I also brought in the MR cattle van to weather the interior.  I took some "railroad tie brown" paint, watered it down about 50%, and brushed it on the inside, covered the floor and partway up the sides/ends.  Nice muddy, manure-y color.

 

 

Of course, with the roof on, you can't see this too well, but it does look darker than it did when it was just gray.

 

And finally, over the past few weeks, I put on two coats of sanding sealer on the O scale C&O caboose.  Now that the wood is all sealed up, time to start working on the brake gear.  Some parts are from an extra Intermountain brake sprue I picked up at a model RR show, some the original whitemetal castings from the kit.

 

 

The whitemetal castings aren't glued into place, as I need to build up some mounting blocks so it doesn't look like they're just hanging in mid-air.  Also, the brake cylinder sits too low, the rods wouldn't clear the framework, so I need to build that up a bit.  I used the plastic triple valve, as the detail on the plastic was much better than the whitemetal.  The tank and cylinder were pretty much the same, so I used the whitemetal for whatever little added weight I get.

 

And that where I was as of yesterday.  Wednesday and Friday I'll probably work on finishing the cattle van, just to get one more in the "done" category.  Time to add some hay on the floor, put in a few cows, and glue the roof on.  Then back to work on the Caboose.

[Rumblestripe]

I am seriously coveting that "Lufkin angle tool" (it's probably in contravention of a Commandment or two). Lovely thing!

 

Nice work Mike

[highpeak]

Most kits make little or no provision for an accurate representation of the way in which  brake system components were attached to cars. It can also be a trial to get them all to sit at the right height to run piping or rods properly.

I offer some pictures I took of the underneath of a MEC caboose in Pittsfield ME for ideas as to how you might represent the mounting of the bits and pieces. I think I would probably attach the components to the floor via some sort of discreet pin arrangement and then make a cosmetic bracket.

 

[station cat]

I think it should be straw on the floor rather than hay. Hay costs more than straw because it has far mre nutritional value - and tastes better. So I  doubt anyone would waste hay by using it as bedding.

[Barnaby]

Only just found this thread Mike but what a great read it is.

It grabs me on many levels from your determination to fight your illness to some excellent modelling both on the portable "medical" work top through to your workbench.

I'm another who admired you angle gauge even looking up the manufacturer Lufkin in Milwaukee, some very nice vintage pieces on there.

 

Great stuff and be strong with your illness.

Added to my ones to watch list.

 

Regards

[Mike Boucher]

Unfortunately, I lost a few of my photos of work in progress.  I suppose the positive side of that is that progress was slow, so I didn't lose a lot!  Anyhow, I've been working more on the brakes of the caboose.

 

On the brake sprue, I found a bracket intended for the triple valve, and it still works just fine.

 

In that photo, you can also see that I've added a small styrene patch to represent a plate which would have been riveted onto the main frame rails.  This plate is the anchor point for the brake rigging.  Everything else in the brakes is "floating".

 

From the other side.  the bracket to mount the brake cylinder needed some modifications.  I had to add length so it would attach to the main frame rails, and also needed some filing away so the height would be right.

 

 

Finally, the first brake lever needed a LOT of modifications, most of which aren't obvious here.  Firstly, the original sprue has the two brake levers molded together with the rods which connect them as one piece.  Secondly, the brake levers are angled the "opposite" direction, and on the "top" there was a big lug to attach the piece to the body.  And thirdly, the lever was a little too short for what I needed.  After a bit of thinking, wondering if it made more sense to build one out of scrap, I decided to the cast on clevises were worth trying to "save".

What I did was cut off the lug on "top" and flip the piece over.  Next, I cut off the clevis which goes into the brake cylinder.  I added in a small piece of styrene, and then glued the clevis back on facing the opposite direction as originally.  A little scrap styrene bracing on the "new top" where it wouldn't be seen, and this is what it looks like.

 

 

Believe it or not, those three steps took about 2 weeks!  (at 3 sessions of about 45 minutes apiece!)

 

But, I also did this to the MR cattle van during those two weeks, so it wasn't all spent on the brakes...

 

 

I'm trying to decide if I should add a 3rd (or 4th) cow.  Problem is that the other cows in the package all have their heads down eating, or they're lying down.  If they're lying down, they won't be visible, and with their head down it will look like their head is missing, so neither really works well.  I would need to get another package or do some neck surgery on cows.

 

Only 6 more weeks of scheduled treatment to go, and then its preparation for the bone marrow transplant.  We'll have to see if I'll still be able to glue things together while recovering from that, as I'll have some serious restrictions on what I can do, eat, and where I can go, as my immune system will basically be gone for a few weeks.  I suspect there will be a break of a few weeks where I won't be able work on kits.  If that's the case, I'm planning on doing some CAD work on a few projects I have planned if that's the case.

[Coombe Barton]

With only two animals wouldn't they have been in the small end so that they wouldn't get thrown about by train movement? Thought they packed them in with little room to move for that purpose.

[jamie92208]

A few years ago someone produced a moulding which had the heads and shoulders of 8 cattle moulded into an insert that was designed to fit inside a cattle truck so that from the outside it looked like a fully loaded wagon. As I've slept a few times since then I've no idea who proiduced it but it seemed like a good idea.  As I had a 22 wagon cattle train on Long Preston I chickened out and had it run as an empty en route back to Heysham.

 

Jamie

[Mike Boucher]

With only two animals wouldn't they have been in the small end so that they wouldn't get thrown about by train movement? Thought they packed them in with little room to move for that purpose.

 

The small end didn't seem big enough for two, so I'm going to add more.  I was just looking at the two cows with the head down and I'm going to do some creative cutting and filling...

[Mike Boucher]

And in the "murphys law" category, when I posted the photos of the caboose brake rigging, something just didn't make sense to me. The angle of the brake lever, and the fact that the brake cylinder pushes on that lever, didn't seem to allow for the brakes to be applied to the truck at that end.  If you look at the direction of the forces involved, with the pivot point where I've put it, the brake rod would be pushing in the direction of the truck, which is wrong.  To apply the brakes on the truck, the rod has to be pulled.

So, I did a little more looking, and it appears that there isn't any fixed point on this brake rigging.  That didn't make any sense to me until I realized that cabooses have brake wheels on BOTH ends.  Freight cars have a brake wheel at one end, so one point is fixed.  With brake levers at both ends, that's doesn't seem to be the case.  Still seems odd, as then when the brakes are applied, the forces are going to be pushing on the rod which goes from the "other" end as the brake cylinder, and that will be connected to the brake wheel with a chain in most cases.  Unfortunately, the only pictures I can find of the brake rigging are from an HO brass model, so that's what I'm going with!  If its wrong, so be it, more than likely no one will ever see the brake rigging well enough to tell me its wrong...

 

As a result, the "fixed point" I put in shouldn't be there, that's where the rod to the trucks go.  So, that additional frame piece has to get removed, and another clevis has to be created and glued there.  Oh well, more work to undo.  I'm glad I noticed that now instead of later...

BTW - the trucks for the caboose are on the way.  I found a manufacturer who produced the correct arch bar trucks with leaf springs (Rich Yoder Models) and have ordered a set from him.  They're supposed to be put in the mail tomorrow or Tuesday.  The only other arch bar trucks I found had coil springs, and they would have needed some modifications.

[jamie92208]

And in the "murphys law" category, when I posted the photos of the caboose brake rigging, something just didn't make sense to me. The angle of the brake lever, and the fact that the brake cylinder pushes on that lever, didn't seem to allow for the brakes to be applied to the truck at that end.  If you look at the direction of the forces involved, with the pivot point where I've put it, the brake rod would be pushing in the direction of the truck, which is wrong.  To apply the brakes on the truck, the rod has to be pulled.

 

So, I did a little more looking, and it appears that there isn't any fixed point on this brake rigging.  That didn't make any sense to me until I realized that cabooses have brake wheels on BOTH ends.  Freight cars have a brake wheel at one end, so one point is fixed.  With brake levers at both ends, that's doesn't seem to be the case.  Still seems odd, as then when the brakes are applied, the forces are going to be pushing on the rod which goes from the "other" end as the brake cylinder, and that will be connected to the brake wheel with a chain in most cases.  Unfortunately, the only pictures I can find of the brake rigging are from an HO brass model, so that's what I'm going with!  If its wrong, so be it, more than likely no one will ever see the brake rigging well enough to tell me its wrong...

 

As a result, the "fixed point" I put in shouldn't be there, that's where the rod to the trucks go.  So, that additional frame piece has to get removed, and another clevis has to be created and glued there.  Oh well, more work to undo.  I'm glad I noticed that now instead of later...

 

BTW - the trucks for the caboose are on the way.  I found a manufacturer who produced the correct arch bar trucks with leaf springs (Rich Yoder Models) and have ordered a set from him.  They're supposed to be put in the mail tomorrow or Tuesday.  The only other arch bar trucks I found had coil springs, and they would have needed some modifications.

From experience on old trams they may have had what is known as a sway bar somewhere near the centre of the car.  In this arrangement you have a pivoted bar with a brake rod attached to each end.  This rod leads to the chains and wheels at either end of the car.   The rods that actually operate the brakes are then driven from aother set of rods attached near the pivot point. This creates a lever arrangement that multiplies the brake force.   If you think that this is likely I could post a drawing of the arrangement.

 

Jamie

[highpeak]

It's pretty much as Jamie said. There are some sketches (and frankly some are sketchier than others) at http://www.nmra.org/member/sites/default/files/datasheets/Prototyp/D9o.PDF which may help.
 

These two pictures might help illustrate the relationship between the brake lever that is actuated directly by the cylinder and the lever that is attached to the hand brakes.

 

In this photograph, the lever on the left is operated by the cylinder, the lever on the right is connected to the handbrakes. Winding up either handbrake will cause the right hand lever to pivot such that the end closest to the camera will move to the right, pulling via the chain on the left hand lever (giving the same effect as the cylinder piston pushing on that lever.

 

Here is the cylinder attached to the left hand lever in the first picture, you can also see the chain that connects the two levers.

 

Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest, it was hard trying to get a good angle on some components.

[jamie92208]

As promised here's a drawing of a layout including a sway bar.   Obviously it relates to a horse drawn tram but as mentioned above the generak principle is the same.  Hope it's of some use.

 

All the best

 

Jamie

[Mike Boucher]

Been an eventful week in the treatment room.  First, the modelling work...

 

To get more cows for the cattle van, I did some cattle mutilation.  "Off with their heads!"

 

 

I glued them back on so they were looking up instead of grazing, and then took scraps of styrene to fill in the gap…

 

 

Then used my top secret homemade filler

 

 

And after sanding, a second layer of filler, and more sanding, and some white and black paint…

 

 

I glued them in the van

 

 

And glued on the roof.

 

 

Good thing I did all that work, its so noticeable!

 

 

So, now I've declared the cattle van done, except for the roof weathering.

 

Work on the C&O caboose continued.  I finished the brake rigging.  At this point, I decided to not put on a sway bar (more on that later…)

 

 

If you look at that photo, you'll notice that I've attached 1/2 of the "second" side.  

 

I realized that it would have been much easier to install the end doors with the sides off, so before I glued on the other half of the side, I glued the end doors in and braced them with some styrene.  Then I glued on the the 4th side piece.

 

 

The trucks I ordered arrived, so it was time to figure out how to mount them.  The trucks came with screw threaded mounting screws, which don't work too well in wood bolsters.  Replacing them with wood screws isn't really an option as, from experience, eventually the hole in the bolster tends to strip.  I decided to make some threaded brass inserts.  I measured the thread, and while the diameter was right for a #4 screw, it was neither a 40 or 48 TPI thread.  A quick email to the suppler confirmed that they were metric threads, 3mm x 0.50.  I found an inexpensive set of metric taps and dies at the local Home Depot (big box home improvement store).  I put some 3/16 diameter brass in my small lathe, drilled and tapped with the appropriate tap, and cut off to just over 1/4" long, which is the size of the bolster.  (obviously this was at home, not in the treatment room!)

 

 

At the same time I made 4 similar inserts from 1/8" brass, about 3/32" long, tapped 2-56, to mount the couplers.  I drilled holes in the appropriate locations, and used 5 minute epoxy to glue the inserts in

 

 

Attaching the trucks and couplers, and the caboose looks like this now:

 

 

But now the problem…  (and there had to be a problem, didn't there!)

 

The wheels hit the triple valve and the brake cylinder!      

 

 

Looking at the drawing in the instructions, I put the crossmembers in the place they specify, but not the brake cylinder.  This is because one thing I've noticed in the prototype photos (and also model photos) is that there is a metal frame centered under the caboose to hold a rerailing frog.  The underframe diagram in the instructions show the brake cylinder where that frame is, so I know that the instructions have the brake cylinder in the wrong place.

 

In all the prototype photos I've found, you can't see the crossmembers because its too dark.  The only underframe pictures I can find are of an HO brass model.  Those are the pictures I used to arrange the brakes on my model.  Looking closer, it appears that the HO brass model has the crossmembers closer together.  On my model, they're much further away from the air reservoir.

 

I can only assume that the brass model has the location of the crossmembers right, and the kit instructions have them wrong.  If I also assume that the HO model has the arrangement of the brakes right (except for they don't have the sway bar), moving the crossmembers closer to the center will give the trucks sufficient clearance to pivot.

 

So, in a nutshell, everything I've done on the brakes has to be ripped out, I have to also take out the crossmembers, move them closer to the center, and redo the brakes.    

 

Wish I had ordered the trucks earlier, as I probably would have found that problem before getting this far…  I'm guessing I'll have to use styrene for new crossmembers, as I'm sure I wont be able to get the original ones out without ruining them.  I'll probably use sheet brass to form the "top of the T" so I can emboss some rivet detail in.

 

So, to keep myself from getting to frustrated right now, I did more work on the N scale factory.  At home, I had painted the roof grey and the windows a light grey.  Looking at the roof, two of the joins are way too obvious.  I have to fill them in, but I had used the last of my top secret homemade filler on the cows, so I need to make another batch.  That'll be ready for the next time.

 

 

I also glued in the windows.

 

 

I still need to paint the doors, and make a window for a large hole in the wall where there would have been a door, but cutting the height down its too short for a door, but too big for the window frames which came with the kit.

 

So, with all this, it'll be a few weeks before I get to do any more work.  Last week, I had another bone marrow biopsy (my 4th!) because they weren't seeing a significant number of lymphocytes (those are the cancerous white blood cells) when they drew blood, so they wanted to see what they could find in the bone marrow.  The results from yesterday was "MRD negative", which is a fancy way to say they couldn't find any cancer in the bone marrow either.   

 

Because of this, they stopped the clinical trial 1 month early, so yesterday was my last chemo treatment!  I've been tentatively scheduled to be admitted to the hospital on April 23rd to have my bone marrow transplant on the 29th!

 

I'll still have to go in for occasional bloodwork to make sure the cancer isn't coming back quicker than expected, and also I need another infusion of an antibiotic, so I'll be spending a little time in the treatment room.  But, for the most part, work is on hold until I get admitted.  And hopefully I'll be allowed to do my work then…

 

Until now, thanx for all your well wishes and support over the past 7 months!

Edited March 12, 2014 by Mike Boucher

[shortliner]

Hey, Mike - keeping my fingers crossed for you and hoping all proceeds well - but I have to say it does make typing difficult! 

[jamie92208]

Hi Mike, the cattle wagon looks good.  Just one point which may not be a problem.  As far as I know black and white, Friesan, cows didn't come into the UK until 1947.  I used brown and white shorthorns on Long Preston which Slaters do in White metal.  Fortunately one of my sons works as an agricultural contractor and introduced me to a shorthorn breeder so I was able to get the colouring OK.  Mine were in the cattle dock waiting to be loaded, rather than in the van.

 

I empathise about the caboose and the brake cylinder and hope that it all comes apart OK.

 

In the menatime all the best with the treatment and long may you have those negative numbers.

 

Jamie

Edited March 12, 2014 by jamie92208