(UPDATED) The 48 Club *** Announcing Division 59 Membership ***

That looks great, Roger!!  I hope you get well soon!

Just to show I'm keeping my hand in. 

Mitch

As one of the founding 48 members I would also like to move up to the 59 club with this years layout . Pulling my old retired 5x9 single sheet ping pong table out of the barn and cleaning it off it now sits in my buddy’s porch with a nice loop of Standard Gauge. Hope everyone has a most wonderful New Year!! Cheers

I really enjoy seeing the creativity these smaller layouts bring out of everyone!

-Greg

@Roger Elliott posted:

Hey Jerry, Did you get any further with the 48 club box car idea?

Roger

I did look into the Ghost Writer but just can't bring myself to pull the trigger on it. And any other option I looked at was either expensive or ugly  ( vinyl stick ons ).  So unless I want to go down that rabbit hole VaGolfer did with the Natty Boh car my options are pretty limited.

In all honesty I've been away from the hobby for a number of months, this is my first post on the forum in months, new job responsibilities, a close friend who didn't pull thru from diabetic complications, storm damage from an F1 late last summer all conspired to really dampen my enthusiasm. In addition to having dismantled my layout for a possible rebuild I had nothing tangible to urge me on and the 48 Club became more like something I had to do and that just took the fun out of it. I'm hoping to get things back on track (no pun intended), probably on a more scaled back level.

One thing I do need to do is get a new version of RRTrack, SCARM is ok but it just doesn't have all the bells and whistles I'd like that I will need when I start the rebuild. It's going to be a 12x12 L , don't worry there is also going to be a 4x8 in the home bar area if I can shoe horn something that "BIG" in the room, probably going to be a 36" door layout in all reality but I can hope. I still haven't told my wife the new train room will be painted black, walls and ceiling, can't wait to see how well that goes over since exposed brick or knotty pine paneling were also poo-poo'd. The framing for the trainroom and bar is about 75% complete, just need to re-route some plumbing and a gas line to finish that and then I can start electrical and then onto the fun stuff....drywall!

So I am still around, I have been lurking (that's how I found out about the new Bob Ross boxcar from Lionel) and the good lord willing and the creek don't rise I will stay around.

Jerry

Nice to have you back Jerry.  My enthusiasm for my layout has waxed and waned a number of times since we moved 4 years ago but the Forum has kept the hobby alive for me.  I finally ran trains around the 42"x96" loop two weeks ago.  I'm now in the process of crimping track ends for tighter pin connections  and will put down an inner loop.  I was looking at compound, 42" and 27" diameter curves but didn't like the look so I believe the inner loop will just be 27" with a straight inserted.

@baltimoretrainworks- Hi Jerry. Welcome back. Sorry to here about your friend and the storm damage. Work duties????? isn't that why it's called work?

Paint the room black and blame the contractor......

Anyway good to have you back. We've been keeping the 48 Club fire burning.

Bob

@RSJB18 posted:

Work duties????? isn't that why it's called work?

Paint the room black and blame the contractor......

I'm one of those dummys who says "Yeah, Ill help with that...sure I can stay or come in early... show me how to do that" then it somehow becomes part of your regular job. I don't mind being considered valuable but the younger ones here like to try and take advantage of it or worse try to take credit for it.

As for blaming the contractor, that would be me , actually the rest of the basement will have a pretty classy look, clubroom lounge chairs, Umanoff bar stools, applewood flooring but I wanted the train room part to have that museum look. The only real sticking point is I would like lights in the train room that I can dim and change to blue for a night effect that doesn't require me to use Alexa or my phone but it's looking like a phone app is the only real option. What ever happened to just having a plain old switch? Maybe with a dimmer? Unless someone has my phone  and knows my access code they can't even turn on the lights  .

Jerry

Jerry, I'm glad to see you here.  Funny, I thought of you last week while I was unboxing the last of the boxes from our move to this house 13 years ago.  Yes, 13 years!  I found my copy of the "Brotherhood of Crappy Basement Layouts" certificate in one of the boxes! 

I'm sorry for all that you have been through recently!  Fortunately, I am now retired so all those crazy things that happened to me that you are going through are behind me.  I hope you get started planning and building your layouts soon!!