While I Was Gone

When I have to travel for work, I try to spend some time in the evenings planning what I would like to do the next time I can be in the train room. Sometimes I work on an operating plan or just think about the list of to do projects and determine if I have the right materials to start (or more hopefully finish!) a particular project. Over the last couple of weeks, I can up with a list of supplies for several of the started projects. Of course, this was a fairly specific list. I checked the hobby store in Mooresville NC where I was working and did not find much. Last weekend, Lisa, Nicholas, Adam and I made a tour of the local shops (The Hobby Shop, Hobby Lobby and Smitty's) and believe it or not, I came up with almost nothing - I did get a couple of jars of paint.
I had looked at my usual mail order places but could not find what I needed. Lisa suggested I try Amazon because she has had a lot of success using them and with our Prime membership, shipping is usually free. Monday evening I went "shopping" and had to restrain myself a little when I realized the shopping cart had over $180 of "needed" supplies.
OK, so some of the items were more "wanted" than "needed" so I paired it back and placed the order. When I got home Thursday night, my first two (of five) shipments arrived with some tree materials (finally get to cover the hills on the layout!) and the bridge pier and abutment for the truss bridge. Nice!

New bridge supports

The bridge is important because it marks the end of East McKeesport and partially hides the outer mainline disappearing behind the city's skyline into the two staging tracks. I was a little concerned that the abutment would not fit between the wall and the edge of the track but it's perfect.
A little weathering and I can cement then in and build the girder track that is supposed to look a little like the bridge that parallels Rt 22 across the Ohio river between Steubenville OH and Wierton WA.