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Round in Circles or Point to Point - isn't the point to make it seem like we are not really endlessly going back and forth or spinning in circles with no purpose? 4x8 is just a bigger challenge.

As far as a song - Billy Preston is certainly up there along with Johnny Cash - but there is the old "I've been working on the railroad"

City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman / Ribbon of Steel by Gordon Lightfoot / Rock Island Line - sung by Johnny Cash  / Midnight Train to Georgia by Jim Weatherly / Chattanooga Choo Choo by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon

There are many more - but Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull has to be up there - although the lyrics are a bit edgy for today and not a happy ending.

Of course for all you scouters and campfire singers there is Patsy Atsy Ori Aye - I learned this with  slightly different title and lyrics , but close enough. Just don't drop the dynamite sticks in 1846! Ours was 1850's sounded better than 1840s.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Very dashing looking!!

I remember the first time my grandson saw our wedding pictures, he was about 5 years old. He looked at the pictures of us and then at me and asked, "What happened to your hair?" Everyone around thought that was the funniest thing they had ever heard in their lives.

I really take after my grandfather on that, he was snow white by 30.



@Whit M posted:

I am not sure of the rules, would my holiday 4 1/2 X 5 feet fit the rules.

You're in  and welcome aboard!

The requirements for inclusion are very simple...

A. The layout can be no larger than a 4x8 sheet of plywood or what can configured from a single sheet (32 square feet in area)

     1. Hollow core door slab layouts are definitely allowed

     2. Multiple levels are allowed as long as the "footprint" of the layout does not exceed the 32 square foot rule

     3. The control panel size doesn't count towards the 32 square foot

B. It can be temporary, permanent or even seasonal since many 4x8s are set up during the Christmas season

C. In keeping with its seasonal origins the main focus will be S and O gauge, however if yours is one of the other gauges you are still welcome to join.

Century Club updated membership:

Century Club Members
1. BYIENGST
2. Whit M

We gotta ways to go on this one!



Jerry

Last edited by baltimoretrainworks
@Will posted:

Gerry, how is that coming? I know you had to add slats, but it's looking a little bare.

Slow!  My want to re-wire the layout and all it's accessories using period-correct cloth covered wiring in several different gages was cause for some delay. Then sourcing a bank of pre-war knife switches for the control panel, then the track cleaning- removing and re-tinning and replacing of track pins, etc. all seems to take forever. It's a little further along than that photo shows...but not much.

Last edited by G-Man24
@palallin posted:

Oh, no you don't!

That layout is far too cool to let languish.  You have become one of our TinPlate Standard Bearers!

Funnily enough, a chum of mine with a peculiar sense of humor was postulating some time back about making a streetcar layout where all the tracks had been paved over and nothing but diesel buses were there...  No action per se, just buses sitting there.

Mitch

Next up is an updated membership list, I've added Jim Barrett to the Honorary membership, an oversight I can't believe I made.

Founding Members
1. BaltimoreTrainWorks
2. Amfleet25124


Charter Members
1. RSJB18
2. Conductor Earl
3. bptBill
4. CA John
5. Walt Rapp
6. M. Mitchell Marmel
7. OKHIKER
8. Coca Cola Guy
9. Nucci
10. Rich Wiemann
11. CSXJOE
12. graz
13. Melvin P
14. Mrhobby052
15. Khayden93
16. palallin
17. John E K
18. Miggy
19. pdxtrains
20. SouthernFan56
21. randr
22. Will
23. Dave Warburton
24. GG1Guyy
25. Diverging Clear
26. Penn Flyer
27. Coach Joe
29. JohnnieWalker
30. Robert S. Butler
31.Mark Boyce
32. Jon Stachowicz
33. Madockawando
34. ScoutingDad


Honorary Members
1. Harry Miller ... My grandfather
2. Jerry Makowiecki ... My dad
3. Thor Sheil
4. Alan Arnold
5. Allen Miller
6. Rich Melvin
7. Ed Boyle
8. Jim Barrett
9. Putnam Division





Up to 34 Charter members who have embraced the 32 sq foot empire!

I've kicked around this as a possible membership card for the first 48 Charter Members.

FRONT SIDE.....

48clubcard

BACK SIDE....

Once we get within striking distance of the top I'll have some made up. It will be about the same size and thickness as a credit card but I was thinking of taking the 48 off the back and just putting the wording in the center in keeping with the whole Art Deco thing of sleek and minimal, what say ye?



Jerry

Proud to be a charter member of this fine club!  I love the membership card idea and initial design. Thanks for doing all this!  

@Apples55 posted:

Better be very careful, Mitch... Number 1 will send the big bouncing white ball after you for illegally infiltrating The Village!!! (One of my favorite shows as a kid, even if I never really understood half of what was going on)

That last episode of The Prisoner was totally nuts. I don’t think even the writers knew what it was about. Maybe LSD, considering the era...

@ScoutingDad posted:

Round in Circles or Point to Point - isn't the point to make it seem like we are not really endlessly going back and forth or spinning in circles with no purpose? 4x8 is just a bigger challenge.

As far as a song - Billy Preston is certainly up there along with Johnny Cash - but there is the old "I've been working on the railroad"

City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman / Ribbon of Steel by Gordon Lightfoot / Rock Island Line - sung by Johnny Cash  / Midnight Train to Georgia by Jim Weatherly / Chattanooga Choo Choo by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon

There are many more - but Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull has to be up there - although the lyrics are a bit edgy for today and not a happy ending.

Of course for all you scouters and campfire singers there is Patsy Atsy Ori Aye - I learned this with  slightly different title and lyrics , but close enough. Just don't drop the dynamite sticks in 1846! Ours was 1850's sounded better than 1840s.

Don’t forget “The One After 909” by the Beatles, either. From the Let it Be album.

Proud to be a charter member of this fine club!  I love the membership card idea and initial design. Thanks for doing all this!  

You're welcome Dave! Hopefully once this Covid crud ends a few of us might meet up at York or Allentown to swap war storys about how we overcame the limits of a sheet of plywood.

On that note, I'm in the planning stages of a display type layout on a 36" hollow door core and I like the this idea I came across for the base...

Lionel dealer display layout with accessories [image 1/1)

or this type...

Train of Thought | Lionel trains layout, Toy train, Lionel train sets

But instead of just arches or the word Lionel put  "The 48 Club" across under the edge between the legs in Art Deco MN letters like in the logo but long ways...

But I'm currently not finding any online sign people that will do the Art Deco MN font and my skills with a router or scroll saw aren't quite up to the task. I'm thinking the letters and border would be raised in black with the base being yellow. My original plan was for the legs and edging being a semigloss cream to recreate an older display look but I'm open to them being black.

As for the Club card and certificates I'll be finalizing the card this week end and hopefully can fix the issues I have with the certificate, mostly when I try printing one it comes out slightly off center enough it's noticeable and the  48 club header seems to be a bit fuzzy or out of focus looking and nothing I've tried so far seems to fix it. On the plus side I did find my pack of parchment paper but I have only 49 sheets to work with and I don't remember where I got it from so I really can't mess up any of them!



Jerry

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  • mceclip0
Last edited by baltimoretrainworks


But instead of just arches or the word Lionel put  "The 48 Club" across under the edge between the legs in Art Deco MN letters like in the logo but long ways...

But I'm currently not finding any online sign people that will do the Art Deco MN font and my skills with a router or scroll saw aren't quite up to the task. I'm thinking the letters and border would be raised in black with the base being yellow. My original plan was for the legs and edging being a semigloss cream to recreate an older display look but I'm open to them being black.



Jerry

Maybe get the  letters cut in black vinyl from a sign shop and apply it to a smooth surface painted in a bright rattle can yellow. I think that would do the trick. Black legs, definitely. (True 3D letters could be cut wth a CNC but that font would make it hard to get a good job- so thin in places. The vinyl would come on a sheet and so keep its alignment.)

And the layout would have to be set at night with a little dry ice fog, streetlights and the club building prominently featured. Do it!

x

Last edited by Will

You're welcome Dave! Hopefully once this Covid crud ends a few of us might meet up at York or Allentown to swap war storys about how we overcame the limits of a sheet of plywood.

On that note, I'm in the planning stages of a display type layout on a 36" hollow door core and I like the this idea I came across for the base...

or this type...

Train of Thought | Lionel trains layout, Toy train, Lionel train sets

But instead of just arches or the word Lionel put  "The 48 Club" across under the edge between the legs in Art Deco MN letters like in the logo but long ways...

But I'm currently not finding any online sign people that will do the Art Deco MN font and my skills with a router or scroll saw aren't quite up to the task. I'm thinking the letters and border would be raised in black with the base being yellow. My original plan was for the legs and edging being a semigloss cream to recreate an older display look but I'm open to them being black.

As for the Club card and certificates I'll be finalizing the card this week end and hopefully can fix the issues I have with the certificate, mostly when I try printing one it comes out slightly off center enough it's noticeable and the  48 club header seems to be a bit fuzzy or out of focus looking and nothing I've tried so far seems to fix it. On the plus side I did find my pack of parchment paper but I have only 49 sheets to work with and I don't remember where I got it from so I really can't mess up any of them!

Jerry

Very sharp looking idea for a panel under the layout, Jerry!!  Club cards sound great!

@Will posted:

Maybe get the  letters cut in black vinyl from a sign shop and apply it to a smooth surface painted in a bright rattle can yellow. I think that would do the trick. Black legs, definitely. (True 3D letters could be cut wth a CNC but that font would make it hard to get a good job- so thin in places. The vinyl would come on a sheet and so keep its alignment.)

I have found a place in NY that does all kinds of signs, not sure of the cost but I'm thinking maybe 1" MDF or HDU with the letters about 1/2" raised/deep?  (I want the yellow part routed out 1/2"  and the black full thickness 1"). I'm thinking the letters at 6" tall so the signs maybe 48" long give or take. I'll get one made some how, I'm going to send them an email and see where that goes.



@Will posted:

And the layout would have to be set at night with a little dry ice fog, streetlights and the club building prominently featured. Do it!

https://cache.mrporter.com/content/images/cms/ycm/resource/blob/899370/5aa9f6f9483dd1bde8219671fb7ec81e/4bc57022-5280-4322-acac-f19fd99233b2-data.jpg/w400_q80.jpg

1. BYIENGST
2. Whit M
3. GMan-24
4. Engineer Bob
5. lehighline



Jerry

Attachments

Images (1)
  • mceclip0
Last edited by baltimoretrainworks

I have found a place in NY that does all kinds of signs, not sure of the cost but I'm thinking maybe 1" MDF or HDU with the letters about 1/2" raised/deep?  (I want the yellow part routed out 1/2"  and the black full thickness 1"). I'm thinking the letters at 6" tall so the signs maybe 48" long give or take. I'll get one made some how, I'm going to send them an email and see where that goes.



https://cache.mrporter.com/content/images/cms/ycm/resource/blob/899370/5aa9f6f9483dd1bde8219671fb7ec81e/4bc57022-5280-4322-acac-f19fd99233b2-data.jpg/w400_q80.jpg

1. BYIENGST
2. Whit M
3. GMan-24
4. Engineer Bob
5. lehighline



Jerry

What about 3D printing Jerry?

Love the 48 Club concept!  I think I qualify as a member.  I am space challenged, but I don't let that stop me from enjoying O Gauge trains! My portable "layout" is just shy of 16 in wide by 8 ft long - or about 10.5 sq ft.  It features a double track "mainline" with a crossover.  The mainline passes a coal dock that has a spur to spot a hopper.  The other end of the layout has a depot scene and in the middle there is a road crossing that gives me reason to blow the whistle of a passing engine.  (Admittedly, I sometimes blow the whistle just for fun and ignore prototype practice )   It may be small, but I have tons of fun with it. 

Here is a photo of the coal dock scene:

IMG-0176

Here is the depot scene with an approaching PRR K4s, bell clanging to announce its arrival of course!  I use a Z-Stuff lower quadrant semaphore for the train order signal that adds a fun bit of animation.  To the right of the depot is the watchman's tower for the grade crossing.  Having bookshelves for a backdrop detracts from the images, but so it goes with a portable layout.  No matter, when I'm operating my tiny slice of hi-rail heaven its easy to ignore the background and concentrate on the foreground scenes. 

Depot Scene

I plan to expand the layout with a TT and roundhouse to the right of the coal dock, but even then I will be less than 32 sq ft.  I look forward to many years of 48 Club membership!

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Images (2)
  • IMG-0176
  • Depot Scene

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800-980-OGRR (6477)
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