I did not see THAT coming!

When you drive from downtown Twin Falls, ID to I-84 north of town, the road is lined with stores, shops, light industrial, more stores, coffee-to-go places, car dealerships, the Magic Valley Mall, really nothing special...

Suddenly the buildings give way, and you're on a bridge with the most spectacular view:

We're crossing the Snake River, flowing peacefully deep below us in a canyon. The bridge goes straight from one side of the canyon to the other. Once we recovered from the surprise, of course we stopped and walked back to admire more of the view.

East Humboldt Mountains

I woke up early today despite the long drive and alcoholic beverage ingestion yesterday. I went on a short walk through the neighborhood and enjoyed the view of the East Humboldt mountain range. We are at over 5,000 feet. The three snow covered peaks are over 10,000 feet with the Hole of the Mountain peak in the middle at 11,306 feet (3446m).

Wells, NV

We arrived at Angel Lake RV Park in Wells, Nevada. A very nice, neat and clean RV park near the freeway. We're going to stay the night and will leave Nevada behind us tomorrow.

California Trail

I-80 is roughly follow the California Trail taken by early settlers. While it takes us only a few hours to get from California through Nevada, the settlers mostly walked the same distance in about a month. I'm having trouble imagining what it was like, but it surely is more convenient today ...

Lovelock, NV

Lovelock, NV is a little rustic town along I-80 where we stopped for lunch in a small city park near the freeway. They have a nice downtown business district, and I particularly liked their the restored SP station building.

Nevada

The point of a road trip is to experience the vastness of the country. ... If only some stretches weren't this booooooring.

Gold Run

Before the climb to Donner Pass, we're stopping for breakfast at Gold Run.

"HEY LOOK! We found a dinosaur!"

Road trip

We are all set for our road trip. RV is loaded. The house is in good hands. Weather forecast is looking great.

First train servicing the Hallelujah paper mill

Engineer Jim Gifford and conductor Bob Stetson have arrived at Hallelujah Paper with train #380 delivering the first cut of cars to service the paper mill on the lower level at Silicon Valley Lines.

Wildlife on the commute

I barely missed this gopher snake while cycling home today. It was on Coyote Creek trail right under the Silver Creek Valley bridge. I convinced it to get off the trail, just in time before a Mountain Biker came barreling down the trail.

It's the President!

While President Obama was visiting Yosemite, we visited the President at Sequoia National Park.

Chillin' on a Saturday afternoon

Marble Fork Kaweah River, Lodgepole, Sequoia National Park

Tbis 871 (Maerklin 47300)

I picked up a set of the sliding roof / sliding wall cars Tbis 871, formerly Klmmgks 68 (Maerklin 47300) at a price that makes me overlook that the car is from more than a decade after the year my layout is set in.
The doors or roof sections don't actually open on the model. The detailing is reasonably fine and accurate, except for the grab irons, which are just as thick as on the version from the early 1980's. I do like the nice job they did with the various patches and changed lettering. With some light additional weathering these cars will look great on the layout.

47300 comes with four individually numbered cars.

Sealed

The new decals on the Silicon Valley Lines switchers are sealed with Dullcote. Now getting ready for weathering.

Nuts!

Where did I get this utterly insane idea from to populate the number boards on the two SVL switchers?

The numbers are only slightly wider than the blade of the utility knife, and I ended up cutting them out with the fine blade in an Exacto knife. This doesn't bode well for my ideas to renumber some of my German freight cars. Since European car identification numbers are substantially smaller than what's common in the U.S., most of the numbers I will need to piece together have the same size that drove me almost insane here. It did get a little bit better with practice, but I also grew more impatient.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for working with really small decals such as individual numbers in tiny fonts?

Update June 13, 2016:
... and looking at prototype photos of CNW 1078, the number boards are actually not populated either! Sigh. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble here...

Summer is here with a vengance

Yep, it's hot today. Weather Underground reports over 40C in our neighborhood.

Gipfelstuermer

Our visitors have arrived. Thank you for the Mitbringsel, Christoph and Daniela.

Wordless Wednesday

Still Decaling ...

I'm taking it slow with the decals for the SVL switchers. Logos are done and the first round of number decals is now drying.
I changed my mind on which numbers I wanted after I realized what a giant pain puzzling together individual numbers is. Especially for the tiny numbers at the hood and the cab of the engine. Instead I chose numbers that can be cut as one piece from the decal sheet.
I'm using the MicroScale system for this: MicroGloss on the model, MicroSet to glue the decal, MicroSol to soften the decal as needed. Works like a charm. You just need to take your time.

Somewhere in the Black Forest

It's 8:20 in the morning of a nice summer day in 1972 in the Welztal.
Engineer Erwin Mueller arrives early at the north entry signal to Emsingen with a local transfer freight from Prechtal. He walks over to the signal phone box to call the tower and find out why the signal is still showing red.