Good luck Mark
Andy
Thank you Andy! I survived the tests and am back home. They served a good lunch while I was there. 
I had a 4th floor corner view of town in between tests. Now I can wait and see what Doc says next Thursday!
Hoping all goes well Mark! Prayers are with you.
John, Thank you so very much!! I am scheduled to see the surgeon who replaced my left knee on Monday and the back surgeon Thursday. The preliminary reports from the two scans show a couple bulging discs right above where I had trouble before. We will see what the surgeon has to say. Maybe back to PT again. This week has been more painful. I had trouble driving down to see my parents at the personal care home, and stood half the time I was there to ease the pain. I'm up part of the night, so to be productive here is what I did, standing at the layout edge instead of sitting at 1:00 to 2:00 last night.
Yesterday was warm enough with no breeze, so I sprayed the dull coat on the station wall sections to seal the mortar. I think they turned out pretty good. I've been assembling windows and doors, and the largest windows are installed in the brick walls.
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Mark.....looks great.....and, I hope you feel better real soon!
Peter
Mark the walls came out good. Windows are a necessary pain.
You will be in our prayers for the health problems.
Warmest and the most positive thoughts for you. Be well. And thank you for sharing your rail progress.
@Bill Webb posted:You will be in our prayers for the health problems.
Same here.
@Bill Webb posted:Mark the walls came out good. Windows are a necessary pain.
You will be in our prayers for the health problems.
I see what you did there…windows, pain. Lol.
Mark, best wishes for both of your concerns. I understand back problems and my wife has had her same knee replaced twice in a matter of 3 years. The second time was the super-duper version. She said it hurt less and she was doing grocery shopping (I drove per docs orders) within a week! Hopefully you don’t have to go that way!
Bob
Mark sorry to hear about the recent issues. Hope everything goes well. I was hoping to meet up with you in April at York. Anyway keep us updated and hopefully you can recover quickly. 🙏
I hope you get those discs in line there Mark. My mom has had trouble and they can really cause some havoc.
This is going to be a heck of a building though! I'm excited to see it come together. I can't believe how good things look with a little dull coat.
Thank you everyone!!!
I’m happy with the walls! The windows are a pain (pane) 😄 but worth it! It is an impressive station, and the prototype was on top of the mountain as well.
I was hoping to go to York as well. I’ll just save my money for another time.
Bob, I’m sorry for your wife. I evidently got the deluxe knee right off. The pain seems to be in the knee cap or tendon or whatever is beside it. I can feel something moving that wasn’t when I had my two year checkup in November.
Bill, I’m sorry for your mom.
@Aegis21 posted:Hoping all goes well Mark! Prayers are with you.
John, how are you recovering from your knee replacement?
Hopefully Mark, we will see you at York.
@Mark Boyce posted:John, Thank you so very much!! I am scheduled to see the surgeon who replaced my left knee on Monday and the back surgeon Thursday. The preliminary reports from the two scans show a couple bulging discs right above where I had trouble before. We will see what the surgeon has to say. Maybe back to PT again. This week has been more painful. I had trouble driving down to see my parents at the personal care home, and stood half the time I was there to ease the pain. I'm up part of the night, so to be productive here is what I did, standing at the layout edge instead of sitting at 1:00 to 2:00 last night.
Yesterday was warm enough with no breeze, so I sprayed the dull coat on the station wall sections to seal the mortar. I think they turned out pretty good. I've been assembling windows and doors, and the largest windows are installed in the brick walls.
Great work Mark, It must be very frustrating to revisit your back surgeon... Astounding you can do such nice work with what your back is putting you through. Hoping for the best for you and praying your pain eases up without a surgical direction.
Mark, Outstanding job on the walls! They look great!
I hope your doctors figure out what is going on and get you feeling better soon!
Thank you, Jay, John, and Mike!!
I really think spring York is out for me. Hopefully on a future date.
I did a little more trimming and assembling doors last night, but not enough progress to photograph. I ran a couple trains last evening, changing out one engine. It is nice to have a variety to chose from. The last one is a Protosound (PS1) F3 AA set I got from a Forum member, which looks great and runs great. I think I will get the ERR boards for it and convert it so I can run it TMCC via the DCS remote. The way I set it up, I have to bend down to reach the power handles on the Z4000. I have no problem bending down for a short time, but needing to adjust voltage for my changing grades caused me to shut down after a few laps.
Have a great day and weekend everyone!! 
This knee (so far) has been a lot less painful and I am going through half of what I went through with the other knee. I had promised myself if I make it through the surgery I would break down and get a 3d printer to give me something to work on while I rehab. So it arrived today and after getting it out of the box, some assy is required. I am hoping to be able to make a lot of small detail items along with other projects that are in the works. Thanks for asking Mark, again praying you can avoid that medical x-acto blade and get some pain relief. Also I do marvel at the work you are able to get done, dispite the pain you are in!
I am so sorry that you guys have been having difficulties with your knees and back. My hips are bad but, so far, not SO BAD. I wish all of you a speedy and complete recovery.
I’ve noticed some discussion of York. I’ve never gone but, if it is live this year, I am thinking about it. My only issue is that I would have to leave no later than noon on Friday. Is it worth going for Thursday and Friday morning only?
Mark that sucks about more disc bulging. I guess on a positive you're up at night but getting work done.
Praying for ya
After three back fusions, L3-L4, L4-5, L 5-S1,,,,,,,It follows that once yoi repair one the one below it will fail. Try not to hav a fusion done if possible. My last one failed to heal, so now I am stuck with screws loose in my back. At least I can say honestly, I have a screw loose……
Rich
Nice work, Mark. I never looked forward to putting in all those windows. Hope your medical issues get resolved sans too many doctors visits!
For your water project, I thought to pass this little trick on....I used Liquitex Acrylic Medium to seal the whole bottom and sides of my water area. It is used to seal paintings, but provided a thin, glossy, shield over the whole area. You only needed a small amount, and I tested it in a small, taped, foam rectangle to see if it would leak after I added the water. Of course, you have to make sure you get it in and under all the cracks. Nothing leaked through, and I was able to move ahead with the multiple 1/4 inch pours that brought it to an acceptable level. For that, I used the WS product, then added their water effects stuff for waves and ripples. Also, I always allowed at least a full day of drying between pours.
Hope you can use this idea when the time comes.
Regards,
Jerry
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Very nice!
I had a wide waterfall on my first layout build. I tried using yarn for the falling water. I used WS product. I poured it and let it run down the yarn. It looked good from a distance but not so much when up close. I believe there's a video showing it on my YT channel.
Here ya go - https://youtu.be/tD29H-l_X7Q
@Aegis21 posted:This knee (so far) has been a lot less painful and I am going through half of what I went through with the other knee. I had promised myself if I make it through the surgery I would break down and get a 3d printer to give me something to work on while I rehab. So it arrived today and after getting it out of the box, some assy is required. I am hoping to be able to make a lot of small detail items along with other projects that are in the works. Thanks for asking Mark, again praying you can avoid that medical x-acto blade and get some pain relief. Also I do marvel at the work you are able to get done, despite the pain you are in!
John, I'm glad this knee is going better than the other one!! Congratulations on getting the 3D printer! Making your own small details would be of great benefit. I am always glad to receive prayers!
Rubin, RJ, Rich, Jerry!
Rubin, I'm sorry you have trouble with your hips. I wish you well on that. I'm looking at the York schedule. I think it would be worth it if you went all day Thursday and from 9 to noon on Friday. How far do you have to travel?
Rich, well I had fusion on L3-L4 and L4-L5. All of that healed up nice and solid. I was suspicious that other discs would bulge, so it isn't a surprise. At least you still have your sense of humor with a screw loose.
Jerry and RJ, thank you for the photographs, videos, and description of how you made your water features. Very nice. My artist daughter will know what the Liquitex Acrylic Medium is. That makes good sense to seal the base of the river with that before pouring Woodland Scenics. Since I will only have 'water' descending no more than an inch and probably smaller riffles instead, it won't be like your waterfalls to the floor, RJ. Neat idea.
Thanks Mark, you take care my friend.
Rich
Mark, I sympathize with your back issues, no fun at all. Hope you get some relief from PT. The building looks great, well done!
Andy
Thank you, Andy!! I have to see Doc first before PT or any other treatment. I'll see him on Thursday.
I have some more done on the station that I need to photograph and post.
Good luck at the doc.
Andy
Mark you remain in our prayers for good results Thursday.
What color do you plan for your water? James River green, Tropical blue with a sand effect, rock reflective with some dark holes, my favorite Gulf Stream cobalt, or your own mixture?
Thank you Andy and Bill!
I plan on rock reflective with some dark holes. I’m looking for the clear mountain stream that Dad and his friend could see the trout from the bridge like he used to have me look for.
Mark,
The walls look very nice. I'm glad the dullcote did not take as much away from the color. Please take care man and keep us posted on the doctor's report.
Dave
Good luck tomorrow Mark. Hopefully its manageable with some PT.
Bob
How did your appointment go today Mark?
Thank you Dave, Bob, and Jay!!
Jay, I just sat down at the computer to give an update and saw your question. Thank you very much for asking!! The surgeon said all the scans showed that everything in the spine (discs, vert, fusion) look good. Two discs have minimal bulge, but nothing is close to the nerves. He surmises that the pain down the leg is inflammation from before and from him touching the nerves as he did the fusion. I am starting back on the anti-inflammatory medication tonight and will go back in 2 months which coincides with the 1-year post op date. He said it will probably take 3 or 4 weeks before the anti-inflammatory could give a noticeable improvement. So, I will ride it out in the meantime. 
I took a photograph of the lintels over the doors and windows. From this angle it looks like there is a gap between the windows and lintels, however, when looking straight on, you don't see what is actually the bottoms of the lintels I didn't paint. I'm not going to try to paint what you won't see when the building is on the layout. The window sills are strips that go the whole way from corner to corner of the building with gaps for the doors. I'm going to put them on after I have the walls glued together so I can match them up at the corners.
As an aside, here is a photograph of Bentley from one year ago today that the rescue lady posted for my wife on Facebook. One year ago today, we made arrangements to take on Bentley who was 5 at the time. Monday will mark one year since we met her on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to pick up Bentley.
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Good news Mark. Glad to see nothing more serious… assuming that the anti-inflammatory works.
Now back to the layout.
That’s good news Mark - keep the faith!
Glad to hear the good news Mark. With the anti-inflammatories kicking in within 3-4 weeks, York could provide some nice PT.
@Mark Boyce posted:Thank you Dave, Bob, and Jay!!
Jay, I just sat down at the computer to give an update and saw your question. Thank you very much for asking!! The surgeon said all the scans showed that everything in the spine (discs, vert, fusion) look good. Two discs have minimal bulge, but nothing is close to the nerves. He surmises that the pain down the leg is inflammation from before and from him touching the nerves as he did the fusion. I am starting back on the anti-inflammatory medication tonight and will go back in 2 months which coincides with the 1-year post op date. He said it will probably take 3 or 4 weeks before the anti-inflammatory could give a noticeable improvement. So, I will ride it out in the meantime.
I took a photograph of the lintels over the doors and windows. From this angle it looks like there is a gap between the windows and lintels, however, when looking straight on, you don't see what is actually the bottoms of the lintels I didn't paint. I'm not going to try to paint what you won't see when the building is on the layout. The window sills are strips that go the whole way from corner to corner of the building with gaps for the doors. I'm going to put them on after I have the walls glued together so I can match them up at the corners.
As an aside, here is a photograph of Bentley from one year ago today that the rescue lady posted for my wife on Facebook. One year ago today, we made arrangements to take on Bentley who was 5 at the time. Monday will mark one year since we met her on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to pick up Bentley.
Great News Mark!!!! And on Bentley's anniversary to boot!!! Although the news doesn't give any immediate relief physically, it had to be a big load off the mental aspect you were going through no doubt. Again, you deserve a break!
