Vegas report

Business has brought me to Las Vegas many times in the last decade. Each time my interest has been in the fanciful facades and over the top attractions I witnessed at every turn, My all time favorite was the Treasure Island lagoon, complete with fighting ships and a delightful pirate village fronting the street. In the last years the trend in newer properties is a much slicker, modern look, devoid of the elements I love. With this trip I noticed the wonderful themed facades are now quickly disappearing including the Treasure Island village. 

The World of Concrete show has been interesting thus far with so much to see. We've found a few new things we will be giving a try in the future. Tomorrow we return for one last look before we jump on a plane to head back to quiet little Yarrow. After our short visit to the very noisy Las Vegas I can hardly wait.

Ready for color

As Peter, Hailey and I prepare for a quick trip to Las Vegas for a fact finding visit to a very large concrete trade show the crew is busy. First a total clean and reorganize of the shop was in order. Then many of the sculpted features we have been preparing were moved back into the shop for painting. The shop filled in a hurry and in the process created plenty of work for the crew in our absence.

I look forward to returning in a couple of days to a shop with lots of color!

Choo choo

I've always loved steam trains and so I immediately grab every chance I get to build one. In order to build a believable engine I first needed to do a little homework about the real thing. The engine for the Runaway Train roller coaster will be a Porter style locomotive. Its a small 0-4-0 which means it has no pilot wheels, four driver wheels and no trailing wheels. This would allow it to safely navigate the tight corners of a mining railroad. Yesterday I welded up the basic frame and tracks. Today it was time for some running gear detail. 

The steam cylinders were first, short lengths of some heavy pipe cut to length and then some ends welded on. I then welded in a square tubing cross member and it was ready to mount to the frame. The top exhaust manifolds were next.

Then I painted up the wheels with iron paint (which are already beginning to rust beautifully) and mounted them to the frame. The connecting rods finished things off nicely.

There's a little more work required to finish off the frame a running gear but pretty soon it will be time to begin work on the cab and boilers. It will be looking much more like a train in a hurry.