What did you do on your layout today?

Art, it's not easy. It just takes persistence. If you find yourself stuck on a project, just switch to a different one, and think about the one that you're hung up on. I do that all the time, and sometimes come up with better solutions by putting off construction.

Now get busy! Don't make me come down there.

 Elliot,

Good advice.  I had a manager once who used to say that.  Many want you to keep banging your head against the wall until you finish it.  

I am building a girder bridge over a dry wash canyon on my southwest-style layout. I was very pleased with the Scenic Express "girder bridge plate" from cast resin as the basis for my bridge. But the smooth interiors of those bridge plates seemed unprototypical. So I fashioned some triangular supports from 3/8" strip styrene, alternated with some small vertical supports. Glued the triangular supports on about 2 1/4" apart. Spray-painted the result with the dark green color of my bridge. I'm pleased with the results.

   Bob A.

Bob - That is a great improvement.  It really looks fantastic.

Art

Thanks, Elliott.  I needed that.

Art

Good evening

Picked up some furniture for the basement. thought it might be nice if people had a place to sit and watch trains.

Clem

Clem, are you having another open house?

Bob,

Your girder modification is just what that bridge needed.  We've seen scads of girder bridges just like that.  I like the green also.

I'm sort of "late in the thread" with this post, but I finished another installment of the "BACKSHOP" and got it into my editor yesterday.  So today, I started on finishing up the scenery walls of my roll-away canyon and trestles module.  I've got to get that done before the end of the next two weeks to meet the next print deadline. 

I sure hope this thing is going to come out like I'm planning it.  Sometimes I get apprehensive about how things are going to work, even though they always seem to come out OK. 

Sometimes I feel like everybody out there thinks I should just KNOW how all this is done, and naturally expects me to come up with all the answers.  I usually don't HAVE all the answers but, due to the beauty of writing and sitting back and analyzing what I've written, it just SEEMS like I have all the answers. 

Thank goodness for all you guys out there that I don't hesitate to call on when I need advice!  I really appreciate it!

Jim,

I have been very interested in your series.  I am sure the layout will turn out quite well.  This is one thing I have learned on this forum; things that forumites present are often trial and error on their part, but turn out great.  It gives all of us encouragement.

here's what I have done tonight and yesterday. spent more time making retaining walls than anything but it has to be done. decided to add a spur on the front. need to add a 5" X 12' board to the front to support the track  ran trains last night and tonight alittle you have to run just to have fun with them or you will loose interest first time a long train made the incline to the second level after it was reworked. I tried the other day with a steam engine 4-6-0 pulling 8 Madison cars and threw a traction tire. replaced it with a new one and tried again and it went up fine. this time was 13 cars and it never slowed or nothing.

Yesterday I put in some risers for the second level.  I measured the height, leveled each riser with great precision and ensured that each riser was absolutely level with every other riser.  It was a thing of beauty.  If only I had figured what the height should be correctly it would have been a great success.  Unfortunately I did not so I got to take it all down and do it again.  Great precision, very bad accuracy.

Al

I moved trees and buildings around to help me decide what my village would look like. As you can see, the lucky residents will be treated to a Cool Whip storage tank that dispenses Cool Whip on demand. 

Jhainer; that is shaping up to be one fine layout.

Good morning Mark

Not yet just thinking of the future, last open house I noticed a few things and now is the time to correct them. I also installed a new guard railing that no one will ever see.

Clem

Thank you

Spur track is in. and it's just about right in length I do have one more hopper on it's way so then it might be to short but we will see.

not bad for 7 bucks in wood.

the hopper train fit there but it also fits under the layout in the yard so I am thinking maybe put passenger cars there and building a second level there for a station. who know yet just a idea. and yes I used the water tower to hang my hat since I am a displaced Michigander if anyone wants to know its a Detroit hat I wear it proudly here in Ga.

I spent the day erecting the first leg of my new BridgeBoss elevated system.  I am replacing my old risers to create a more detailed interesting double track system.  I have spent a great deal of time thinking this through.  I assembled the parts earlier this week and today actually cut the risers to fit the configuration. 

busy working on the spur all day. here's todays results.

The other day I picked up some MTH spline cars 20-95035 tried to find out the minimum curve size well comes to find out 054 after I got them. My tightest curves are 031 so this wasn't going to work for me . tried them out and they could do the 048 curves but not the 036 or the 031 so with a little thought and a dremel tool they now navigate 031 with no problem and you would never know I did the mod. I now have a 5 car spline set.  

I finally got the freight door finished and mounted on my Korber background building.  

Door looks great Zeke. Also the patina on the window frames really strikes me as believable. Nice work.

I really like it too.  It has a more authentic look than a plastic door painted to look like wood.

Art

worked on putting foam around the lower tunnel and ramp tunnel and then ran all 3 Union Pacific Diesels. gp20, SD90, SD45T-2 pulling a good portion of my rolling stock. No passenger stuff this time. there all parked under the layout.

 Kinda boring video but here it is

I finally ran one of the two Gang Cars I have. It has been a long time since I ran anything. I was becoming more of a collector than a operator.

If I want to look at trains, I could have bought the catalogs or went to a railroad crossing. It would have been cheaper. 

I hope to do more in the train room in the upcoming days, weeks, and months. Preparing for my new arrival, Lionel Vision Line  UP # 4014 Big Boy.

SantaFe28 

Patrick was over yesterday, and finished the next section of the backdrop.


I feel like I've said "sanded, primed and painted" an awful lot lately. Unfortunately, there's about 200' left to do. Hang in there Patrick. The good news is we have other things to work on for a while.


While Patrick was doing all that, I made myself useful by laying a bunch of track.


The hump yard is getting closer.


The actual hump goes back in the corner. The center lines for the mains are drawn all the way around the big curve.


I did some more track work today. I'll post more pics this weekend.

How dare you blow off trains for your wife

Tearing it down.  Should be 100% down before I go back to work Sat afternoon.  Will start the rebuild sometime in the early spring.  

Actually I rather get all backdrop FINISH so Elliot CAN work on tracks anytime!

I removed a cobweb stretching from a building roof to a fence around a motel. Then I removed a dead Ladybug, and dusted-off a '59 Cadillac limo. Phew!

Joe,

I love it!  The common maintenance work we do, but never report to others.  I wonder if the ladybug was the victim of a hit and run where the driver of the Caddy fled the scene.  

Finally added one of Lionel's die-cast ES44AC's to my locomotive roster. 

Paid through the nose for it, but well worth it!  UP #7454  What an incredible locomotive, best diesels ever made in my humble opinion.  Will shoot a video later this weekend and post it up.  

Got 2 more custom painted cars added to the roster. 

Superb job, Zeke!!

Thank you, Mark!

Making rock moulds and retaining wall moulds also seam sealer moulds. fixed an old lionel fa #218 I think it's a Fa who knows but anyways fixed it I had added tmcc and railsounds to it and sometimes it would work sometimes not come to find out had a loose wire in it stripped back the coating and tightened it up back where it belongs . then decided while I was in there might as well put a led headlight in it so I took a small brass tubing and cut it to fit the hole in the nose where the light goes through and insterted the led and wired it up. now it had a very bright headlight and runs half way decent now too. with good sounds. My challenger came back from Gunrunner john can't play to much need some smoke fluid so I ordered 3 bottles today of mega steam.  my 1/43 scale semi and trailer showed up and test fitted them on the spline car and with a little fiddling they fit and look about the right size the wheels are about 1/16 to wide but with a little pressure on the wheels to slide them on the axles harder they fit on the spline car the box are the same height and width just a tad longer but that is ok and the height is little higher  distance from wheels to bottom of the box. so all in all the 1/43 scale trucks seem to work. I'll post pics later of tehm I didn't have my camera up there at lunch when I test fitted them . the truck I picked up the photo below is it I picked up 2 of them . figured I would go up there get the photo's and edit the post here it is .

Nothing really glamorous, but needed. Did a physical check on inventory.

That can be a real job in itself.