Skip to main content

Mark, sometimes notes are the only way to go!

Jim, I am glad things are getting cleaned up. That will give you more room for something else down the road! I think Mark is right if you need hoppers Menards price is hard to beat right now!

Thaddeus, just from the pictures it looks like it will be a great fit! Cant wait to see how you dress it up with carving or whatever manner your going to use!

Had a load of laundry to do LOL so I thought I would apply some decals to my Cooter's building. Didn't have much luck they did not adhere. I followed the directions. Rather them mess up any more I went and added a LED light to an area in the back of the basement. I did send off an email to Randy at Downtown Deco for help. Forgot today was a holiday so no mail until tomorrow. Maybe later I'll just run some trains to relax after all this housework today LOL...........Paul

Decided to try the "plaster of Paris and blue shop towel" method for some hillside.   Small batches is the key, and instead of a 2:1 ratio, I went 1:1, and found the towels did better with that mixture. Then as it firmed up, I used the paste to smooth out some of the wrinkles in the towels.  Cardboard weave underneath.

imageimage

 

Attachments

Images (2)
  • image
  • image

Time to play catch up, since my last post was Wednesday. Let's start with last Thursday.

I added the 6" ledge to the front of the near track.

IMG_8116

Then ballasted and glued about 7' from the slight curve at the bottom of the picture.

IMG_8117

I added more foam to fill in between the track and the backdrop.

IMG_8118

I glued a bunch of ballast that I had previously spread on the mains.

IMG_8119

I added more around the curve and glued that too.

IMG_8120

You can't see it anymore, but there was a small gap under the track where the ballast and glue would have fallen through. I had to slide the ties out of the way, then I jammed some small pieces of the matching stone that I had sifted out, to fill the gap. Extra hassle.

IMG_8121

I got the ballast spread over a good chunk of the bowl tracks. Only the mains are glued here.

IMG_8122

I got all the switches ballasted. Tedious!

IMG_8123

IMG_8124IMG_8125

That brings us to Saturday. Patrick came over, and we kept working on filling the holes in the lower deck. Here, we finished the riverbed below the ledge I put in Thursday.

IMG_8126

We put in this nifty curved piece too.

IMG_8127

Filled in the back corner with OSB.

IMG_8128

Then moved back up to Chemolite for the final pieces there. I'm just about ready to ballast the upper track here. Still have to caulk the seams.

IMG_8129IMG_8130

With the wood work done, I started adding cardboard to the riverbank.

IMG_8131

From there we moved over to aisle two, and filled in the corner at the west end of Newport. Note all the sawdust. Cutting all these odd shapes requires lots of trimming, resulting in extra mess!

IMG_8132

We moved on to aisle three to fill the huge holes between Hoffman and Chestnut.

IMG_8133

Moving on to Sunday, I cleaned up the sawdust from Saturday. I didn't finish taking pics from Saturday, so I took a bunch Sunday showing what Patrick and completed. We left an access hole. Just to the right of the access is where the Lionel hobo camp will go. This area is just about ready for rail paint and ballast.

IMG_8134IMG_8135

That chunk of OSB sitting up there will be cut to fill the next hole.

IMG_8136

There's not much left to fill in at Western Ave. I have to move all those cars before Patrick's next visit.

IMG_8137

More of Saturday's efforts. I was late taking the pics.

IMG_8138

On to something we haven't seen in a long time, switch throws. About a year ago I added four more switches, but I put off doing the throws because they weren't important. Now I just want them done. One was a simple Caboose Industries ground throw. The other three are my push rod type. Time to make the linkages. This first one will be easy, but wait til you see the other two.

IMG_8139

If I remember correctly, this switch came from forum member Patrick H when he tore his layout down a few years ago.

IMG_8140

Here's the tricky part. I got lucky and just missed the conduit. This will need some special treatment when I do the push rod. At least I can access it.

IMG_8141

This one is far worse. It happens to be one of mine, a Right of Way, salvaged from enterTRAINment. I'll have to stick a tie in that gap. It's located just above Red Wing on a one foot wide shelf, in the are known as Frogtown. The rod is going to be rather long on this one, in order to get to a spot where it can be reached easily.

IMG_8143

Here's the problem, the angle iron and the 1x4 cross member make access nasty. The rod needs to pass through the 1x4, because it has to run off to the right. Fingers crossed!

IMG_8144

I spent hours cleaning up the sawdust. It was worse in aisle two because it got into the ballast. Fortunately it was glued down pretty well.

IMG_8145IMG_8146

I filled in some of the remaining holes along the fascia over at Hastings.

IMG_8148

It's amazing what a difference it makes.

IMG_8149

I'm going to try very hard tonight, not to crash after dinner.

Attachments

Images (32)
  • IMG_8116
  • IMG_8117
  • IMG_8118
  • IMG_8119
  • IMG_8120
  • IMG_8121
  • IMG_8123
  • IMG_8122
  • IMG_8124
  • IMG_8125
  • IMG_8126
  • IMG_8127
  • IMG_8128
  • IMG_8129
  • IMG_8130
  • IMG_8131
  • IMG_8132
  • IMG_8133
  • IMG_8134
  • IMG_8135
  • IMG_8136
  • IMG_8137
  • IMG_8138
  • IMG_8139
  • IMG_8140
  • IMG_8141
  • IMG_8143
  • IMG_8144
  • IMG_8145
  • IMG_8146
  • IMG_8148
  • IMG_8149
Last edited by Big_Boy_4005
Mo985 posted:

Decided to try the "plaster of Paris and blue shop towel" method for some hillside.   Small batches is the key, and instead of a 2:1 ratio, I went 1:1, and found the towels did better with that mixture. Then as it firmed up, I used the paste to smooth out some of the wrinkles in the towels.  Cardboard weave underneath.

imageimage

 

I used the same method but with thinned down joint compound. 

carsntrains posted:
paul 2 posted:

Jim, do you have empty hopper cars. If you do you could buy coal loads for them. Of course Menards has their 11% off sale on right now. Even at their regular price you could get a few hopper cars...........Paul

Paul I will have to look into my "stash" of cars I put in totes when I bought 100 or so brand new ones from my neighbor. 

After going through all those cars.    Not a single coal loaded or empty hopper.   Just a few modern covered hoppers.  Did find out that Lionel makes some Southern hoppers that fit the era I'm going for.  I can only find them in a six pack and they are very PROUD of them!!!!   None of the Menards hoppers would look right to me. 

Jim 

Last edited by carsntrains

Had a great time meeting a fellow local Forum Member, Malcolm Reid, and saw his terrific trans and accessories. This included an animated baseball field where the left hand pitcher went into his windup, turned his head to check the runner at third, the runners at third and first bases moved while taking their leads, and the batter waggled his bat. Awesome.

After figuring out I had no coal hoppers.  I figured out that I have some strange road names in that big batch of cars.  Two coyote chasing the roadrunner cars, and a bug bunny Yosemite Sam chase car.  And some cars had stickers from Charles Ro!!!  Strange I just ordered stuff from them lol   OK back to cleaning..  BLAHHHHHHHHHHHH 

Jim 

Back to trains, I think Jim was talking about his Marx 666 earlier. I pulled one of mine off

the shelf, put a tender, 10 marx postwar boxcars and a caboose behind it and turned on

the power. Lots of wheel spin, but no forward progress. Lubed all the axles but that didn't help

much. It would move a bit with a little push, but not much. Tried 9 cars, no improvement.

At 7 cars it would move on its own, but the marx couplers would not stay together. Perhaps on

a layout with wider turns and longer straights it could do better. 

Trying to get back to my operating sessions.  Restarted session #1 a few weeks ago. Tonight, switched 10 cars at city industries and businesses with Legacy PRR B6s #5244 and made uptrain to move the pickups to the yard.  Tomorrow I'll fire up a consolidation to make the transfer. And then continue with the session as time permits.

Elliot, your progress report wore me out. Remarkable.

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

Time to play catch up, since my last post was Wednesday. Let's start with last Thursday.

I added the 6" ledge to the front of the near track.

IMG_8116

WOW! WOW! WOW!

Looks great Elliot. You are a man on a mission. Tell your buddy he better not stand still for too long- he might get wrapped in plaster cloth . Shout out to Patrick too. He's a good friend.

Bob

 

beardog posted:

Back to trains, I think Jim was talking about his Marx 666 earlier. I pulled one of mine off

the shelf, put a tender, 10 marx postwar boxcars and a caboose behind it and turned on

the power. Lots of wheel spin, but no forward progress. Lubed all the axles but that didn't help

much. It would move a bit with a little push, but not much. Tried 9 cars, no improvement.

At 7 cars it would move on its own, but the marx couplers would not stay together. Perhaps on

a layout with wider turns and longer straights it could do better. 

I didnt try to pull any cars with mine.   But it will find it a home on my layout and be ran after a good cleaning!  Wonder why they numbered it 666.   Kind of freaky. 

Jim

carsntrains posted:
beardog posted:

Back to trains, I think Jim was talking about his Marx 666 earlier. I pulled one of mine off

the shelf, put a tender, 10 marx postwar boxcars and a caboose behind it and turned on

the power. Lots of wheel spin, but no forward progress. Lubed all the axles but that didn't help

much. It would move a bit with a little push, but not much. Tried 9 cars, no improvement.

At 7 cars it would move on its own, but the marx couplers would not stay together. Perhaps on

a layout with wider turns and longer straights it could do better. 

I didnt try to pull any cars with mine.   But it will find it a home on my layout and be ran after a good cleaning!  Wonder why they numbered it 666.   Kind of freaky. 

Jim

LOL Jim, just take it and put in the China Cabinet and see what the wife says! Make sure the 666 is visible !

carsntrains posted:
beardog posted:

Back to trains, I think Jim was talking about his Marx 666 earlier. I pulled one of mine off

the shelf, put a tender, 10 marx postwar boxcars and a caboose behind it and turned on

the power. Lots of wheel spin, but no forward progress. Lubed all the axles but that didn't help

much. It would move a bit with a little push, but not much. Tried 9 cars, no improvement.

At 7 cars it would move on its own, but the marx couplers would not stay together. Perhaps on

a layout with wider turns and longer straights it could do better. 

I didnt try to pull any cars with mine.   But it will find it a home on my layout and be ran after a good cleaning!  Wonder why they numbered it 666.   Kind of freaky. 

Jim

Yes that is a strange number to pick for sure.

Add Reply

Post

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×