I have often wondered who, and how many voices active on this forum, have, or have had, or are planning to have, or are in the process of constructing, an actual layout.
Several of us have been active on the "What did you do on your layout today" thread, and that is surely a good thing. But overall, given all the voices participating on OGR, I wonder who is active in that way in our hobby.
FrankM, Moon Township, USA
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I have one, and I imagine that a majority of us here do - of one kind or another.
I do also imagine that a substantial minority - but still a minority - do not.
I wonder what the figure is? Maybe that has already been properly researched. Don't know.
====================
Building the turntable several years ago (a flat hides the electrical panel now).
Don't ever do this; write the check, order a nice one, and never look back. Horrible experience.
It does, however, work.
I have a layout, still working on it, "not quite a complete redo" thread. Spring is here, summer is closer than you think, and I have lots of chores, traveling and fishing and sailing to do. So, I will rerail in the fall.
Old photo before start of redo.
Another part before redo.
One part of the redo, mid way in the process. Kind of.
Yes. and Yes.
Frank
I have always enjoyed pics and story line from your layout. Yes I have one. Nothing like yours. New one in the works but for now this one has to do. As for updates other then Kadee conversions I am pretty much at my left and right limits as what I can do to it. Ok some minor things, but I trying to give myself more incentive to build new one by doing nothing to current one. At least that's the idea. If any thing just been doing vids
Frank
Yes I do and have a train room layout with many projects under the table to complete. I spend winter in the train room and this year ;
I'm actually going to abuse myself further this summer 
and work on a G scale train in the yard . 
I can (Hopefully ) have trains in the summer and the winter
Larry.
You know Larry, I can look at your train room and layout everyday and still just says WOW!
Here are some photo's of my layout.
Mark: Very well done winter layout!
No indoor layout at the moment, but I do have a garden railway.
A work in proogress:
RickO posted:A work in proogress:
Wow I think its the first time I have really seen pics of your layout. Summer to winter cool. Nicely done.
My first ever, the Appalachian, Tampa, & Santa Fe was started in fall of 09 and dismantled in Aug of 2012 due to a move. Had a lot of fun with it as you can imagine.
Am now working on our club's new layout that is housed in a 'Train Station' in the western NC mountains, Buffalo Creek Vacations where folks can come stay in a caboose or nice log cabin and soon run trains with us on the premises!
suzukovich posted:RickO posted:A work in proogress
Wow I think its the first time I have really seen pics of your layout. Summer to winter cool. Nicely done.
Thanks for the compliment suzukovich.
I still have a long way to go with the scenery adding more trees, details, structures, signals etc.
Still a novice, I find my more recent work more "convincing" to the point I will likely tweak things I did at the beginning.
Scenery has gone at a s.l.o.w. pace which has been interrupted by running trains and my 3 kids and what they bring with their lives.
As the're getting older I'm finding a bit more time for the layout. Having said that, I kinda like the idea of the layout never really being finished. It seems the added details are endless.
I've recently made more significant progress making it a bit more photo worthy.
Your winter layout is well done, and fitting as we all know model trains go hand in hand with winter.
All great photos above as well. I'm always inspired by other members work, getting ideas for scenes I may not have thought of.
RickO posted:suzukovich posted:RickO posted:A work in proogress
Wow I think its the first time I have really seen pics of your layout. Summer to winter cool. Nicely done.
Thanks for the compliment suzukovich.
I still have a long way to go with the scenery adding more trees, details, structures, signals etc.
Still a novice, I find my more recent work more "convincing" to the point I will likely tweak things I did at the beginning.
Scenery has gone at a s.l.o.w. pace which has been interrupted by running trains and my 3 kids and what they bring with their lives.
As the're getting older I'm finding a bit more time for the layout. Having said that, I kinda like the idea of the layout never really being finished. It seems the added details are endless.
I've recently made more significant progress making it a bit more photo worthy.
Your winter layout is well done, and fitting as we all know model trains go hand in hand with winter.
All great photos above as well. I'm always inspired by other members work, getting ideas for scenes I may not have thought of.
Scenery has gone at a s.l.o.w. pace which has been interrupted by running trains and my 3 kids and what they bring with their lives I can really identify with that one and at times barely keep my head above water or at least it how it feels at times. Isn't being a parent fun?.
As for photo worthy. I think we have all been there. We can be our own worst critics. The ballasting of the fast track really sticks out. Many others have done it here and done right can really blend in to the point of hardly noticing it.
Thanks for the compliment on the winter theme. Reality there are some better ones out there. SIRTs winter module is great. Same as Mark Strittmatter layout and I like what you did with the mountain. I think reality is that winter themed layouts are tough to create just due to the variety of conditions. Partly frozen ponds and streams, Ice effects, Slush and packed snow on roads, and so on to be really convincing..
RickO
Love your corner mountain / tunnel --- How did you build paint weather it etc
Thx
Joe S
I had numerous layouts from 1994 to 2015. Now I'm planning a tiny 3 X 12 layout with 0-27 curves, This layout was in 2008.
Thanks everyone. I really appreciate and admire the efforts you all put into your layouts. I'm confined to an 8' X 10' space for now but hope to gain more when the kids are all gone and we move into a one-story home (ranch) with a big, long basement.
Moonson posted:
I have often wondered who, and how many voices active on this forum, have, or have had, or are planning to have, or are in the process of constructing, an actual layout.
Several of us have been active on the "What did you do on your layout today" thread, and that is surely a good thing. But overall, given all the voices participating on OGR, I wonder who is active in that way in our hobby.
FrankM, Moon Township, USA
Hi FrankM,
Your layout is outstanding! Do you have a YouTube page? Also, I do have a layout but most of the layouts I see on here are nearly complete. Mines is just in the beginning stages of scenery. Many parts still are showing bare plywood 
Working on it. Long way to go and slowing down this spring/summer
Here are a few from my layout...
My layout is my club layout, the GOLDEN GATE LIONEL RAILROAD CLUB. A modular layout that is displayed throughout the San Jose/San Francisco bay area a dozen times or more a year. Here are some recent photos, including those at the Hiller Aviation Museum "Planes and Trains" show this past week.
Ray
It is simple, but it is mine and I have fun with it. The first few shots are underneath my bridges, which explains the poor lighting. My first real attempt at scenery, so I may start doing more of that around the layout. Or, I may knock it all down and start over. Just never know.
dorfj2 posted:RickO
Love your corner mountain / tunnel --- How did you build paint weather it etc
Thx
Joe S
Thanks Joe!
3 or 4 boxes with the flaps cut off turned upside down and openings were cut in the ends just large enough for the trains to pass through to retain the box strength. ( Obviously if you cut the ends all the way off a box just flattens.
The boxes were then glued to the layout top/pink foam with hot glue.
Newspaper wads were taped to the tops of the boxes, to remove any "boxy" shape and the tunnel portholes were hot glue to the box ends and layout top and any gaps were filled with styrofoam pieces.
Then Woodland Scenics plaster cloth was laid over the newspaper and boxes down to the base of the mountain.
After drying, I watered down some drywall spackle into a paste and brushed it onto any of the holes showing through the plaster cloth. Then let that dry.
With the exception of the areas I wanted snow on, the whole mountain was painted with Woodland Scenics c1218 stone gray liquid pigment.
Rocky outcroppings were accentuated by brushing them with Woodland Scenics c1219 slate gray liquid pigment to give some contrast.
The nice thing about these liquid pigments is that they're water soluble. I diluted them fairly well and they become more of a wash that absorbs into the plaster leaving a nice flat earthy finish. A little bottle goes a long way diluted.
I brushed on some white glue and added woodland scenics snow to the desired areas. I sprayed 50/50 water glue mix and added a second layer of snow as needed.
Then a little hot glue on the pine tree bases and poked them through the plaster cloth as desired, and spinkled them with snow as well.
On the right side of the tunnel porthole in my first photo you can see some black felt sticking out I didn't secure properly.
The whole right side of the mountain is not sceniced, and has a piece of removable black felt going across it secured with push pins into the boxes and plaster coth. This allows me to be able to clean the track within the tunnel as well as fix any derailments that occur inside.
NOTE: The portholes visible in my photos 8 and 9 are too close to the curve. This is one of those " I would have done that differently" learned from my first layout experiences. STRAIGHTS ONLY IN AND OUT OF TUNNELS.
If you look closely you can see where I had to "modify" one of the portholes to keep the cab of my scale berkshire from hitting it
All in all, it may sound like alot of steps, but the mountain was easy, went up fast, and ended up looking much better than I expected. Its far from the most realistic, especially when compared to some of the real scenery experts on the forum, but I think it gives the desired effect.
and mine
corsair29 posted:
corsair29, layout looks nice. What's the dimensions?
I can't even imagine having a home without a train layout!
Here is a section of my layout in my last house in PA:
Here is my current layout in CA:
Here is a section of my layout two houses ago in PA:
Posted these over on "Photo" section. Hope cross post is ok. Wife and I enjoy the flexability of changing all the Lego stuff for different seasons.
Eddie
After viewing so many magnificent layouts posted by so many of our extremely talented O Gauge brothers and sisters I hesitate to post anything but in the interests of offering some examples of rudimentary layout construction I offer the following:
The first is my 8x20 O gauge layout; the second is my 4x8 S Gauge layout, while the third is my tiny 3x4 all tinplate layout. The fourth and final entry is our family Christmas 6x12 combination O and Standard Gauge layout.
WOW Guys. We have a layout but, I give up.
Your stuff is so nice compared to my table for running trains for me and the 3 year old grandson I am using on a LOW budget.
I am blown away by some of the work. Makes me want to do more.
Bet you would not want Jordan to come over and run your trains! 
Yes, and a lot of people here are aware of it too. It isn't all pretty and finished looking, but I'm working on it almost every day. It won't have a lot of buildings, lights or accessories. It won't even have that many trees or people. The layout is all about the trains. Over 3000' of track, more than 300 switches, on three levels.
Still have to do something with those walls. But the layout is good for now.
Tim
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