What did you do on your layout today?

trainroomgary posted:

Their first run will be a pick up at Union Terminal, East St. Louis, Illinois. This will be a non stop run from E. St. Louis to Detroit. They have a load of Lionel Trains.  The truck breaks down on a railroad crossing close to Madison Hardware, will the train stop in time?

Thanks Chris, If you don't mind, I will give it a try.

2860 is on another fan trip.

No photos, but I have drilled holes in the fascia to mount some Plexiglas pieces to cover some spots on the turntables where a hiccup in the DCC could send a locomotive into a half-gainer dive to the floor, as well as one place where the track runs to the edge of the layout at a 90-degree angle and a siding that runs parallel to the edge of the layout, less than an inch away. I also drilled holes in the Plexi pieces I'd already cut to match those holes.

The backdrop for the corner with the one turntable in a corner is done, just need to hit it with paint and ground foam for a background hill look. This weekend, I plan to get a lot of scenery work accomplished.

Well, I can add "rewound the coil from a Marx 438 crossing signal using only two mechanical pencils and a cordless drill" to my Life Achievements List.   E-gads, what an experience! 

But the little beggar WORKS!  Huzzah!

Mitch

Third coat of polyurethane on the Std. Gauge table. One more coat left to do on the table top surface. SHINY, I love it!

Mitch- Are you all wound up about fixing the signal ??  Good job, I have often thought about trying that.

Played hooky from the layout yesterday. Today heading to Mansfield Ohio to a train show at the fairgrounds. Later I'll do some layout work................................Paul 

jim pastorius posted:

Mitch- Are you all wound up about fixing the signal ??  Good job, I have often thought about trying that.

Hee!  Good 'un.  It's really the only way of dealing with a coil that has broken the return wire (i.e. the wire that's all the way at the inside of the coil). 

Basically, you wind the wire from the coil onto the first pencil (which is chucked into the drill), then put the empty coil core onto the other pencil, chuck it and then rewind the wire back on, leaving plenty of wire sticking out to make your connections afterwards.

Happily, you don't need to be quite so precise as the original machine-wound coils in order for the little beggar to work, as long as the coil is wound in the proper direction. 

Mitch

Back to the layout. This morning the wife and I headed to Mansfield to which we thought was a train show at the fair grounds. When we got down there were a lot of cars but when stopped to ask the security guard where it was he said sorry it was a misprint of the date and a toy and civil war show was there. Well that was a small bummer. But since we were down there we made the best of it and found a nice restaurant to have lunch. Maybe it was a good omen. Saved money to get in and save more by no trains there. So once we got back I started working on the corner where all kinds of stuff was piled up. I'll get some dry block or lock on the wall and I can start to set in the table.....................Paul

Staying in O gauge but I'm  the new guy learning G gauge for a simple garden caper with some of this new stuff I just got this month.

It is fun, but definitely on the learning curve with DC two track. But it 's a lot of fun in the planning stage,

What the heck.

It's Toys, isn't that what it's all about anyways ?

Beats blowing sand bubbles

Larry

Got the wall wire brushed and the paint on the wall. Where that wall comes off the basement  wall I am going to open up a 2' opening. Once the wall dries I'll put the next table in place. At the 2' end I am going to have to put some up right braces on the back to hold the Masonite. Hope to get back to it tonight but if not tomorrow an early start. A couple of pics.......................Paul

With Barry's help my mth wifi is now working. 

I then ran trains but there is a short some where. 

Started working under the bridges but can't make up my mind about this house. It may be too big for the spot. The trucks just stuck in for sizing.

My grandmother and grandfather lived in Kentucky.  The L&N Railroad purchased a right of way through their farm.  The tracks ran about 50' from their front door.  There was a 400' wooden trestle that started right in front and crossed a small creek.  Sometime back in the late 80's they filled in the trestle bu burring it with stone dumped from the top and replaced a section with a steel girder bridge where the gravel road and stream crossed under.  There house was about the same width and twice the depth.

Did a bit of brainstorming about the Razorback Traction Co.  Will be doing a full writeup soon... 

Mitch

Been taking a break from scenery and will redirect efforts into electricals.  I have an SC2 and a few switch machines to hook up.  There's also the need to employ the usual signal strengthening tricks to improve DCS.  This also means lots more wiring...something I have been avoiding lately.

Bruce

I finished expanding my on-the-floor-of-the-basement fastrack layout.  Roughly 17' x 17'.  Outer loop 0-84.  Inner loop 0-72.  Attempted SCARM version, but some parts don't join quite properly.  Yard (not finished) is a bunch of leftover manual 0-36 switches.  I believe that I broke every fundamental DCS rule.  For grins, I decided to see if it would work with one drop from the single 180W brick/TIU.  It did!.  No star wiring.  No feeding every 3 pieces of track.  No blocks.  Literally one red 12AWG wire to center rail, one 12AWG wire to outer rail.  All 10 CC switches powered off track power.  I'm sure the purists will banish me.  Barry will beat me with his book.  GRJ will send equations on the electrical engineering principles this violates.   And Marty will explain the potential damage this is doing to the engines. But was able to run two MTH DCS engines without issue, and command the switches with TMCC Cab-1.

Five coats of polyurethane on my Art Deco style Std. Gauge layout table top are done. I love the high gloss look of the Emerald and Onyx colors with the wood grain showing through.

Tomorrow the Blk/Wht marble corners will be glued down.

Set the initial track loop down for a looksee.

WOW. woof.

I'm still working on ground cover and scenery. Trying things on the wye section. This is a fun part of building a layout! 

Carey TeaRose posted:

Five coats of polyurethane on my Art Deco style Std. Gauge layout table top are done. I love the high gloss look of the Emerald and Onyx colors with the wood grain showing through.

Tomorrow the Blk/Wht marble corners will be glued down.

Set the initial track loop down for a looksee.

WOW. woof.

Wow indeed.  It's like the track is circling a reflecting pool or something of that sort...

Mitch

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Carey TeaRose posted:

Five coats of polyurethane on my Art Deco style Std. Gauge layout table top are done. I love the high gloss look of the Emerald and Onyx colors with the wood grain showing through.

Tomorrow the Blk/Wht marble corners will be glued down.

Set the initial track loop down for a looksee.

WOW. woof.

Wow indeed.  It's like the track is circling a reflecting pool or something of that sort...

Mitch

I know, way cool I was thinking that too. Like a smooth, calm lake. The OAK wooden viaduct I found for this layout will look great over the "water".

laid out some of the pieces I already have, just for fun.

Big updates coming soon. I spent several hours today putting down ground cover and completing roads and parking areas. I only have a small portion to complete tomorrow, which I hope to have all that done and the backdrops all covered and in place by the end of the day.

I'm very exited as it won't be looking like a "Plywood Pacific" anymore!

Next come the trees...

Carey, great job on the table. Those choices work very well together and  whatever you place on top will be enhanced by that sheen . When done it is going to look good in the room. Well done.............Paul

Bought the Vanderbilt heavyweight 4 car set at the Raleigh train show.  Also snagged so Plasticville houses.

Lot of great work posted since the last time I looked. Carey your Art Deco layout is coming along real nice. Look forward to the finished project.

As for me, Been repairing a few engines. The big one was incorporating my AF S Gauge PE set into the layout. Now I need to find some S Gauge BN engines.   Anyway made a video of the off season excursion run.

https://youtu.be/Md6jtVoKa38

Well not every day things go like gang busters. I finished sweeping up the area where the table is going. I placed it in there to see what I will have to do for blocks for leveling under the legs. I thought once I passed the drain the floor would return to normal. I was wrong. At the short end of the table I have to add a couple of boards to screw the Masonite into. I get that done I can paint the Masonite and get the table into place. I still have to open up the wall to put another table up. Pic of table 4..............Paul

Finished up my cardboard weave for my mountain, under the supervision of one of the cats (he's taken up residence in the basement in hiding from the new puppy!). 

Ran two trains the whole time, and did a little switching as well.

Ran a little bit of O gauge but hooked up the three big, Standard gauge cars that i painted and ran them behind several different engines. The 380 that I just remotored and my 1835 steamer did the best. My 318 is going in to the shop to be checked over,

Introduced CNJ 832 to 835.

The Blk/Wht marble corner pieces got glued to the layout table top. Very cool 

The more I look at the Emerald green stain with the grain showing through on the layout table, the more it makes me think of cool, green river WATER. Thinking, (I'm thinking), that maybe it should be a large water area... By adding a thin wooden base under the structures done in an earth colored stain, the pieces would sit upon them, i.e., at the water's edge. This is of course perfect with having a 'concrete' viaduct that can be "standing"in the water.

hm... to pull off this hat trick, I may have to get at the very least, a few 9-10" trees.

A rainy and dreary day here in Maryland.   I ran trains and did some scenery work ... redoing some of the area on the " seedy" side of town.  The local freight dropped off a tank car on the siding adjacent to Ginny's Gentlmens Club. I thought it best to install a broken down chain link fence between the club and the grown over rail siding.... adding more bushes and also some male customers ( I mean gentleman ) getting out of a nice red Caddy�� 

I also removed some trailers so the above scene can open up for improved viewing.  

I also worked over the area around the Western Maryland switch tower   Placing a shed just north of the tower and a gentleman name Otto stands next to his BMW motorcycle with side car as a very dapper dude standing next to his Corvette looks on.  

I installed a sidewalk which now runs down the southwest side of Berthas restaurant.... and placing some folks walking on that sidewalk.   

Additionally I reworked the shotgun wedding scene making sure Pappy's gun was pointed at the groom and not the priest .  Sister Breunhilda has planted herself in front of the doors to Out Lady of Locomotion.  She will not allow "this" wedding to take place inside the church.  An accordion player provides the music ��

Well, that's the latest from Patsburg!  

Working on a K-line whistling station for the layout.  The PO installed a light, meaning the wiring is rather Chic Sale. 

 Will be dubbed "Clarksville", so that I can park a Monkeemobile next to it waiting for the last train... 

Incidentally, anybody got a source for K-Line/Marx doors and windows?  If not, I'll bodge something from sheet styrene...

Mitch

Fixed a Fastrack series 1 crossing with gates and flashers that my son Mason bought at a show while we were in the States. 

Typically enough the gates did not work when we got back home and tested it. However we got it for under half the cost of a new one. 

Found that the worm gears and nylon toothed gears in the gate mechanism were not meshing. Amazingly a little brute force on the toothed gear shaft bending it just slightly provided enough moment to mesh the gears correctly and a spray of plastic friendly grease fixed the problem.

Now works great and I have a happy little lad

Nick

trumptrain posted:

A rainy and dreary day here in Maryland.   I ran trains and did some scenery work ... redoing some of the area on the " seedy" side of town.  The local freight dropped off a tank car on the siding adjacent to Ginny's Gentlmens Club. I thought it best to install a broken down chain link fence between the club and the grown over rail siding.... adding more bushes and also some male customers ( I mean gentleman ) getting out of a nice red Caddy�� 

I also removed some trailers so the above scene can open up for improved viewing.  

I also worked over the area around the Western Maryland switch tower   Placing a shed just north of the tower and a gentleman name Otto stands next to his BMW motorcycle with side car as a very dapper dude standing next to his Corvette looks on.  

I installed a sidewalk which now runs down the southwest side of Berthas restaurant.... and placing some folks walking on that sidewalk.   

Additionally I reworked the shotgun wedding scene making sure Pappy's gun was pointed at the groom and not the priest .  Sister Breunhilda has planted herself in front of the doors to Out Lady of Locomotion.  She will not allow "this" wedding to take place inside the church.  An accordion player provides the music ��

Well, that's the latest from Patsburg!  

 

Pat:

These photos are GREAT! I first saw them last evening when you sent me them individually by E-Mail. The stories that go with them really enhance the visual scene. Thank you for sharing them.

p51 posted:

Big updates coming soon.

I didn't get to the backdrops, and a lift-out section of scenery in the back corner didn't get done, but I'm very close to having all the initial scenery done now. Next, comes the backdrops, then trees/bushes and scenery details, as well as completing the ballast (which I did most of the sidings already).

And, a panoramic of most of what I have done:

HMorgan125 posted:

Began laying out the "city" portion of my layout in order to determine location of roads, crossings, buildings, etc. before starting on ballast application.

The photos attached indicate the passenger station in place and an additional platform that I built that will have benches and pole lights.  I am trying to decide whether to stain the platform with a wood finish or colored stain or to paint the platform a weathered gray, green to match the station platform roof, or a brown......suggestions are welcome.

The rulers in place indicate sidewalks.

I had an issue with everything on my SCARM plan fitting on the layout until I noticed that the "road" symbols that I used in SCARM are only 4.9 inches wide instead of the 6 inch roads that I am planning to use.

I decided on a green for the platform and completed the painting this morning.  I was a bit surprised that the "soap stir sticks" used for the planking took the acrylic paints so well...'Next step, get a few weathering powders for the station, add the lights and benches to the new platform and continue buying and placing the remaining buildings prior to ballasting and landscaping...

Today I broke through the wall to run the next table through it. Took all the old lumber outside for garbage day. Need to measure how long I want to make the short table. Once I get that done and run a table along the wall on this side I can lay in my Masonite. Pic of the tunnel burrowing...................Paul