What did you do on your layout today?

Click photo to enlarge.

     Today I did some train room house keeping and the U.S. Mail Lady brought me Run 282. I started off with the usual fanning through the pages. The first read, was on page 23, Product Reviews, LionChief Plus Lackawanna 4-6-0 Camelback, by George Brown.

     I would like to tell you more, but it would be best for you to "Check It Out & Pass It On." As always the article has a lot of information and is well done and has eight photos.

Gary

• Cheers from The Detroit and Mackinac Railway - "A Toy Train Layout"

Intriguing looking bridge!  Could we have more pics, please?

Mitch

Thank you, Mark, that was fun to read.

FrankM.

Fixed the oversized pickup rollers on my Polar Gi-raffe Express Berkshire; rolling them against the flat side of my grinder wheel (make sure they're rolling freely and are at roughly a 45 degree angle to the motion of the wheel) ground 'em down to factory size, and a minute or two on the polishing wheel smoothed 'em out!  The Berk once again chugs along cheerfully!

Also replaced the rear coupler centering spring on my F3.  Whoever designed that was either a masochist or a sadist, I'm not sure which. 

Sent another order off to Train Tender for more little fiddly bits; I'm stocking up for winter. 

Mitch

With the paint dry I cut the pieces of track and laid them in. I put the station back in and now I'll work on the scenery for that area in back of the station. Pics................Paul

Went to "local" southside Indianapolis train Show and picked up this great scale-size version for $250!  It is a Proto 3!  I love train shows!  

And I'm painting my universal cab holders for DCS Remotes!  These will be color coded as I store friends' remotes here when they come over for "train night!"  I am painting the battery cover on my DCS remote that I may easily identify it without having to look up the remote address!  It will match in color my holder.

Started running some of my Marx engines. Really nice runners. Think I will increase the number-have about 5-6. Have the later plastic "scale" cars plus the tin lithograph ones with the scissors coupler that I really like. They are almost S scale in size and nice lithographing.  Some day I might put down some 027 track for them.

Completed the bench work and roadbed leveling along this wall over the last 2 days.  Adding a cross over and tying the staging yard track into the mainline needed careful alignment, but I thoroughly enjoyed the detailed work.  I have also been adding power feed drops as I go.  The ease of soldering to GG rail as opposed to Atlas ( my previous layout ) makes the process a breeze....and no melted ties either!

Broad, sweeping curves throughout.

Couldn't help posing a few goodies in their new home.

First off, thanks for the comps on the paint job on the 'Berkshire'. 

So this guy comes in the store and says would you like to buy an 0 gauge box car. Turns out to be a CANFOR car with a different scheme than one that I am waiting to arrive from an internet purchase. Immediate addition to the consist!

You're like some cool sculptor, but in reverse. That is, you are making artistic and masterful use of the space first and carving the layout into it, complete with all its curves and straight lines. Instead of taking away material as a sculptor would do carving into stone, for example, to sculpt a statue, you are starting with the space and carving - adding in - the body of your creation. The effect is masterful.

Very interesting to be welcomed in to witness the progress. Thank you for the ongoing ride !

FrankM.

Bruce,

I could never describe it as eloquently as Frank, but I totally agree with his sentiments!  Thank you for sharing how you are making use of the space you have available.  It looks great!

Wow!  I'm completely floored, Frank and Mark. 

Thank you so much for your generous compliments.  Your encouraging words assure me that the layout is indeed headed in the creative direction it was intended.  I hope the minimalist approach can continue to be interesting throughout the build.  A bit more variety than simple sweeping curves lay just ahead.  Stay tuned...and again....Thank you!

Bruce

Today our club on Long Island had an open house and I had fun running my MTH SD70ACe ( BNSF and ATSF) pulling 16 coal cars and caboose.  Of course they were my BNSF ones.    VBG   

Today, I finally got a wiring loop and switch I was able to take apart, placed into a 1944-dated Adlake RR lantern and used a wood base my Dad made to place an electric bulb inside it. It'd already had a small hole at the bottom, probably where it'd already had an electric light.

I'll probably put a hook under the fascia on the layout to hang it from eventually...

I ran this train to celebrate the holiday season!

I'll drink to that! 

Say, did anyone ever do an Olde Frothingslosh beer car?

Mitch

I agree.

Ran some more Marx cars and engines then spent quite a bit of time running my larger Lionel (post war) checking the smokers. A problem developed with a really nice 2065 I have and ended up opening it up, cleaning and lubing everything and runs great again. Ran trains off and on most of the day and night, too.

never seen on in O Gauge, but I bought one for dad in HO.

I think I saw one not too long ago-might have been in O gauge.  Probably at a train show here in western Pa.

The last time I worked on the layout I proved to myself that the MTH WiFi unit was worth the expense and then came up with a solid plan for wiring moving forward. Basically I spent 12 hours figuring out what I'm going to do next. And I cleaned up some junk that was in my way

Started gluing down some clump foliage. Got to make up some more trees for the cliffs next to the bridge on the back side..........Paul

Mitch - I think MTH did a Frothingslosh beer tank car.  I know I've seen one in O gauge somewhere in my travels. 

I can only imagine what you do for Octoberfest!

Added a new Grinch. Found him while hunting for a new furnace burner nozzle!

Well what I should of been doing, cleaning up under the layout making room, I got into putting in some scenery. The section I worked on did not have a lot of room, height wise, so with coarse clump foliage and creative accents from Scenic Express I covered the top area. It is a little over 6 feet. A couple of pics................Paul

Continued installing some foam wood grained  flooring in the train room.  Ran a 19 car coal train with a N&W Y6b on the point and a 13 car beer train with a B&O GP9 on the point.

Also surveyed the layout to see where I will put this new building by Woodland Scenics before I ordered from Walthers.

Ordered a Woodland Scenics building from the Walthers Dec sale cat. , using a gift certificate given to me by one of my students.  Found out Walthers was giving an additional 10% off because it is cyber Monday!  Very cool!!!  I love these buildings by Woodland Scenics however... I may have not ever purchased a Woodland Scenics building ( in this case the Corner Emporium ) because they are priced over my budget.  I'm not saying these structures are not worth the $ but their asking price ( even on sale ) is more than I'm willing to pay.  So all in all I paid $50 with shipping.  I can live with that

I like what you did Paul. If I ever get around to cleaning out the rest of my basement, I'm going to add more too extend my layout and maybe do a side by side and switch to GarGraves. Still thinking on that one.

Got these out for a "meeting of the tribe" as us Milwaukee Road guys know what we speak.

M.Mitchell Marmel, Mitch.

Here is some more pictures of the bridge. This is when I first started it I have made progress on it since then. I made it by scratch and had no plans for it. Glad you liked it and thanks for asking about it. I will post some more updated pictures soon.

David

Jeff:  That certainly is an impressive line up of Class "A"'s!  What manufacturers are those engines from?  Looks like the 3rd one over is the Lionel that they did a few years ago, but are the others Weaver ?

I'm happy with just one of those beauties.

Paul Fischer

I decided to do the cliff next and that is a wrap for tonight. A couple of pics..Paul

Looking good !!

A little research reveals both a tank car and a reefer!

http://mthtrains.com/30-73201

http://mthtrains.com/30-78120

A sturdy and practical design! I like it!

Mitch

Jeff:  I had both the MTH and the Weaver, F-7's but both had the same cab # 102.  So I ultimately sold the Weaver, at the October York meet, and kept the MTH.  My "A". is #1 and it, too is a Weaver.  i also have a seven car Weaver train of the original 1934-35 cars, which I am putting decent interiors in.  Weaver used the interiors from the Pullman Bradley cars and they really look dumb in those cars.  The P-B cars had straight back seats that didn't line up with the windows, and I've been replacing them with aftermarket interior seats. 

I also have about 10 of the 1936 and 1938 cars from Weaver.  They actually came with no interiors and dark green windows with four large bulbs in the inside for lighting.  So, I have also been working on these to put interiors and overhead lighting in.  Big job and I really don't have the time to take on the project so it's kind of on hold, for a while.

All of the cars, with and without updated interiors, really look great on my layout and are fairly impressive to my train buddies.  none of them are Western Road fans and if they are dark gray, dark maroon, dark green or dark blue, they don't recognize them as acceptable passenger car consists.  Wish my layout were larger to really showcase my engines and cars.

Paul Fischer