View allAll Photos Tagged IMPROVEMENT,
This is the Mattel couch I repainted. I was having trouble figuring out how to raise it up because it was too low, and had these little knobs on the bottom. I ended up sawing off the knobs and adding some little legs made of balsa.
The KCS Laredo Sub used to be track warrant, but traffic growth pushed the installation of CTC, as seen here at the crew change at Speer, TX outside of Robstown. February 2015.
You know how they say 'if you got nothing nice to say, don't say it at all?' Well, yeah, that's pretty reasonable for pretty much any context. Anyway, I have a lot of negative things to say about CNs take on the Illinois Central heritage unit. But then don't we all? However, I will say one nice thing this time. I completely missed it until my buddy pointed it out the other day, but CN evidently removed the IPO25 sticker on the sides of the nose like a year ago. It certainly makes the unit look a little better than it did previously. Promise I won't complain about the... issues this time around.
We started our chase of the CN 3008 down in Tuscola. Starting at about South Tuscola, something is putting on a speed restriction of just 35mph between that end of the siding and CP Champaign. It's been like this for over a week, I dunno what's up with that. Anyway, it made chasing this fella down that much easier. Can't complain about that, hey?
CN3008 (IC Heritage) / CN3219 (CN100), CN M396 @ Tuscola, IL
Lots of enhancements to the downtown area. Some new "multipurpose paths". Sidewalks for pedestrians, bicycles, golf carts. I road on some of the new additions today.
The weather was beautiful. 68°F! Maybe more days like this to come.
When I go for knockoff sets, I don't buy them just because they're cool-looking. I'd still go for Lego over anything some cheap Chinese company can produce with stolen ideas. But they do have one advantage in that they offer parts Lego hasn't yet and quite possibly never will.
Boju's been coming along slowly, but it was great to see my wish fulfilled in finding green Exo Force arms to fill out her sides, at least for now.
And here's some proof that I did not in fact scrap Onuku v3. Not much has changed on first glance, but I did get some nice brown click joints that I've always wanted for his chest.
This is the best one yet, the dark brown Exo-Force hands I got from the mini armada and another set that recently arrived were perfect for finally giving Kopen a proper gloved hand.
And finally my collection has grown enough to where I can finish out Balenis' hands with black Mixel joints. I always hated the odd splash of grey, especially the ridiculous stripes that resulted from Lego's colors.
With aid by the white space person the blue space guy improved upon his own design by adding an I/o dish along with a classically designed power source and side seat for a camera operator.
I got a few quick shots of this mom who was watching a kids' ball game. Her son is on my son's team. I did quite a bit of tweaking to this one. Compare to original in comments. What do you think? I'm sure a better portrait could be done, and realize she does have a bit of a squinty look (it was very sunny) , but I'm just working on editing.
121 in 2021
#102 - Tools
I decided to try to improve my sketching skills this winter - I have assembled the needed tools, now let's see what I can do with them.
Thank you in advance for your views, comments, and faves. They are much appreciated!
Fun pic. It's a wet miserable day, so I thought I might give 'art' a try. Perhaps the next attempt will be a wee bit better.
This store is one of the few supercenter stores closed in the January 2016 Walmart store closing wave. There were 269 stores closed (154 in the U.S.). Of those closings only 12 were Supercenter stores. The closing wave included mostly smaller stores like Neighborhood market and Walmart Express.
This is an approximately 192,000 square foot Walmart store that opened on August 26, 2009. This is the Hartland, Michigan location I'll post the pictures of the closed Bedford, Ohio Supercenter as well within a couple weeks after finishing the Hartland pictures. These and many of my Bedford pictures are currently floating around elsewhere online.
I believe the big box retailers were overly ambitious when they built up at the intesection of U.S. 23 and Highland Road. Due to the recession, a lot of developement due to happen around this intesection never happened. Target doesn't seem to be doing that well either here. Meijer is the only store that looked like it was doing well in the area. Then again, the Meijer locations around here seem distributed weirdly. There are three Meijer stores on Highland Road within 20 miles of each other yet Fenton (a decent sized city to the north) does not have a Meijer. Both Walmart and Target have stores in Fenton though, so I wonder how many people come from Fenton to go to the Hartland Meijer. I also imagine the grocery section at this Walmart contributed to its closure. When I was at this store, I noticed a bunch of grocery items, on the shelves, that were months expired. I doubt Meijer lets that happen as much. Since Meijer is a Michigan based company, they probably have a more loyal following in the area to begin with.
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Here's some publicity from Park Lane southbound. To me it reads that route 436 has been improved, and as a result no longer stops here... rather insensitive terminology to give to passengers that may have relied on the route to get from Central London to Lewisham. I can see the word "improvement" being used rather sarcastically in complaining communications!
I keep studying this picture and wonder if my composition was a bit lacking. I have re-cropped and included a bit more to the right that I hadn't included before. I wonder if trying to capture both the pond and the marsh made for a poor composition.
So how does it look now?
OM-2n | 50mm
"There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle." Deepak Chopra
© copyrighted
The Transit fleet on purchase by Stagecoach was quite modern, with a fleet of Lynxes and reasonably modern deckers in the shape of late model Fleetlines and Dominators.
Stagecoach drafted out the Fleetlines (to United Counties among other places) and sent in Titans and also some ex Busways Atlanteans such as 110 EJR110W; seen in 2002 on Stockton High Street, it is now preserved in Sunderland Busways colours
Day 329 (9/3)-Improvement begins with I. My new little Minions helped me share a great quote. Improvement starts with I for a reason, I am the only one that can improve myself. ODC Begins with I.
The train and buildings are nothing new, but the city looks a lot more refined mainly because the streets are paved. I have installed cork strips along the mainline and passing siding prior to adding brick passenger platforms. Right now the tracks look like they are on a viaduct when viewed from the outside. The actual corners of the layout not only show exposed Styrofoam; they look a bit like a limestone quarry because of all the plaster splatters where I juggle the wet plaster cloth pieces prior to slapping them onto new scenery.
In a few weeks or months, I will build up the ground level along those corners and shape the scenic transition toward wooded mountains. Along this curve is a 2% grade to climb toward the upper staging yard. When I first elevated the tracks on SubTerrain 2% Inclines, the train station and town buildings were left in a bowl, so they also had to be jacked up on 2" Styrofoam sheet or 2" Risers as shown two photos previous.
Our local eagles have been very busy working on the nest. They should be sitting on eggs in the next few weeks.
Nelly is pleased by the improvement in Internet connectivity achieved by switching from a local service provide to a Starlink satellite connection.
Previous DSL download speed: 13mbps
Previous DSL upload speed: 1.25mbps
New download speed: 280mbps
New upload speed: 25.75mbps
14 November - A Doll A Day 2024