Lets share our model railroad projects that we are working on and the progress made during this time of social distancing and isolation

Here are my latest. 

John, The puzzles are great!  The boy in the bottom one reminds me of me back in the late '60s.   We built a Thomas Kinkade train puzzle a month or so ago, but I forgot to take a photograph before my wife took it back to the thrift store.  She does that, and it's a lot of entertainment for 50 cents each.

@Jim Berger  Those look fantastic!  I have a few of these to do as well and I hope mine look as good as yours!  What data sheets did you use?

rjsmithindy posted:

I purchased my first Menards product- The Melrose Park Train Station.  I needed a ‘whistle stop’ off the main line and this was perfect. I changed the town name using my computer and printer.  I also added a bit of fall color to the tree to fit in with my other landscaping. Menards even included a lighted Ford pickup with my purchase so I parked it nearby and it looks great.

I thought the lighting was a bit too modern being bright white, so I replaced the lighting with a couple strips of ‘warm’ LEDs to tone it down a bit. It might be hard to tell from these photos but here is a before and after comparison:

Looks much better with WW LED's. Don't know why Menard's doesn't offer the option.
The CEO insists on WW Christmas lights. She says the cool white's look to harsh.

In  between puzzles I worked on a small area on the other side of the tracks. Trees made from sorghum heads and experimented with static grasses. 

I’ve had quite a few random Plasticville, Ertl, and other structure pieces in boxes for a long time.  I tried to make building flats representing what you’d see in any northeastern small railroad town during early diesel years.  

An Ertl two story farmhouse became a high rise apartment building. 

Is your ‘59 Testa Rossa in dire need of a tune up?  Surely someone can handle balancing 6 Weber carburetors... I believe most small blue collar Pennsylvania towns had a Ferrari dealer...

The war surplus B-26 you converted to personal use has low compression on the left engine’s #17 cylinder... Thankfully there’s a Pratt & Whitney service center specializing in radial engines in this small town. 

Another common item in small PA towns were privately owned helicopters.  You knew your town had arrived when factory trained technicians could work on your chopper.  

I have no idea what this business is, but two Ertl barns donated their walls for it. 

Tom

SteamWolf..  really like the Unique Rock Island AA units.  I have a couple of the same and find them, the story about Unique Trains, interesting.

  I started work on a 14in Gun Railway Car for my military consist late last year.  Making it from use of material, parts, scrap I have laying around to see just what is possible without simply ordering everything.  I have had to purchase some additional styrene sheets and some brass tubing, but not much else.  In between during needed Spring storm cleanup, moving forward with more detailing on the 14in gun.  Did not originally plan so much details, but it has gotten to be the way to go for this endeavor.  Enjoy looking in junk drawers and coffee cans for whatever looks like will work as starting points.

Jesse   TCA  12-68275 

texastrain posted:

 Did not originally plan so much details, but it has gotten to be the way to go for this endeavor.  

Wow....now I know what to do with all my old trucks!

Tom

Tom, yes!!  I simply started with some mdf I had and cut out the rail carriage form and put together with JB Weld.  Used different sized brass tube to make gun barrel, held together with JBW.  From there just made use of whatever I had around to made it from.  Working from old pics (1930 to 1948) and some side view drawings.  Scaled off the pics and taking it from there.  Enjoy the research as much as the scaling and build, though I am getting "caught up" in the additional detailing not originally planned for.

Jesse

@Jim Berger

Jim, Nice job on those cars. FYI, If you run down Rt 7 near the Northern end  of Martins Ferry OH (1/2 way between Steub & Wheeling), you'll see a lot of crushed stone hoppers and processing plant and if lucky a WLE loco and also sometimes on the bridge over Rt 7 at Mingo Jct. where Wheeling Pitt Steel mill was.   Also, FYI, Patrick's Trains in Wheeling WV has Wheeling Pitt and WLE locos and running stock (MTH)

TomSuperO posted:

@Jim Berger

Jim, Nice job on those cars. FYI, If you run down Rt 7 near the Northern end  of Martins Ferry OH (1/2 way between Steub & Wheeling), you'll see a lot of crushed stone hoppers and processing plant and if lucky a WLE loco and also sometimes on the bridge over Rt 7 at Mingo Jct. where Wheeling Pitt Steel mill was.   Also, FYI, Patrick's Trains in Wheeling WV has Wheeling Pitt and WLE locos and running stock (MTH)

Tom, Thank you for commenting on Jim's cars.  Somehow I skipped seeing them.  Yes, excellent job, Jim!   Three years ago, my wife and I took a trip from Butler, Pa through Wheeling to Marietta and Parkersburg, before heading over to Elkins.  Yes we stopped at Pat's trains (Excellent), the ancient highway bridge over to Wheeling Island (No we didn't stop at the casino) then down Rt 7.  We saw some trains with what looked like stone.  What railroad is that south of Martins Ferry, and do they bring stone north to this processing plant?  Or is my geography a bit skewed?  

franktrain posted:

Upgrading my postwar ZW whistle selenium disc's to diode's. 

Got the diode's installed into my ZW. Works great!

Starting a new project for a friend, American Flyer wide gauge loco maintenance and repair. This should keep me busy for a while.

Frank 

 Converted this old Marx 7" gondola from 4 wheels to 8. Decided it needed to keep it's tab and slot couplers as well as the tilting couplers. 

Transition wall is ready for concrete painting 

I made spaghetti!

I just finished this guy made from 2 broken cabs from my junk box:

Lionelski posted:

I just finished this guy made from 2 broken cabs from my junk box:

That's really neat!

George

Excellent looking job on the Texas Special, Ski!

wall is ready for layout

Replacing a wheel on my Hornby GW No. 2 special tank, but the wheel is still in transit from the UK

I’ve finished up building these three model kits. These are Walthers, and Roundhouse HO kits. They are part of a PRR fast mail train.

sign on top is motorized

Well, I finally got around to adding interior lighting to my German Buffet car, not the best photos, but I am pleased with the results.

Miketg

Thanks for the kind comments on my Texas Special caboose project guys! This was my 3rd stretch and 14th custom caboose. Between these, and road name cabeese produced by Lionel, I now have road name cabeese to match all of my Postwar diesels.

Mark, I'm flattered that you frequently remember my nickname from my teen years, even though I only mentioned it once since I joined this forum in July - a special thank you for that.

To make room for a 10’ row of Bilt-E-Z and Marx Tin Town Hi Rises and solve a operational issue, I had relaid a bunch of track.  My wife was out in the garage which is rare and she mentioned how much better things looked without my large plateau. I hate when she’s right. Guess who’s tearing up all the track again.

Steve

I started converting my layout to vintage OO from Lionel.  New Gargraves track is on order but wont be shipped till they get off lock down.   Love Hudsons, but a full scale O gauge one looks a bit silly on a 4x8 layout.   This is the Semi Scale one(like a 773), I am working on buying a full scale set now(have one found, just have to sell off a few things to afford it).   Stay safe everybody.    AD

I purchased the Built Rite set 15 years ago with the intent to someday
copy and increase the size to add to my other cardstock buildings. Someday
is now here.

Built Rite Toy Village Set #556 was made by the Warren Paper Co,in the
30's or 40's. The comleted set has large tabs that can be seen in the
comleted models. The set consisted of 6 houses, a drug store, a fire
station, a railroad station, a school, a church, and a business block.
The scale of the buildings is about HO size.

I scanned house #1 and increased the scale by 1.5 times which makes it
about the same as Plasticville. I judge this by comparing a plasticville
man to the front door, if he fits then the size is right.

I used Microsoft Paint to clean up the holes for the tabs and then printed
the results on cardstock. I then glued this to another piece of cardstock
to make the thickness double. I then cut the pieces out with a xacto
knife.

I glued 3/16" bass wood to the edges and assembled the house. The
finished house can be seen on my layout.

Due to numerous things going, no trains have run since Dec 28. Cranked one up today to test my track realignment. Ran well.

Steve

I added another dimension to my puzzle building. Quite challenging , I might add. 

I've owned this MTH #193 Industrial Water Tower (30-90210) for a while but the flashing light on top was burnt out.  Today I fixed it. 

I ordered this 5mm flashing LED from Evan Designs for $3.75.  Now the water tower is better than new.  I would also like to admit that I just turned 48 years old and this was the first time I've ever soldered (other than copper pipes that is).

Recently, my wife read me a funny quote that I thought was apropos of times like this.  I'll paraphrase:

Today I accomplished a chore that I had been putting off for six months.  It took 15 minutes.  I will learn nothing from this.

@John H posted:

I added another dimension to my puzzle building. Quite challenging , I might add. 

John, Where did you get that puzzle! I think my wife and I would have a blast with it!

Mike H, Nice job on the water tower! Do you need a flasher for the light or is it built in?

@John H posted:

I added another dimension to my puzzle building. Quite challenging , I might add. 

I did that puzzle years ago. Yes, it is quite challenging.

Mike, Here is one of a number of them on ebay: Item: 223897794686

I've had this Woodland Scenic B-ball set of figures and hoop for a few years and figured now was a good time to make it come alive. 

Neighborhood folks together with the employees of the Morrison Door Factory built a half-court Basketball court for the neighborhood kids.

They are a patriotic bunch so the bench is Red, white and Blue!  (Also, seemed right now that the "Dream Team" of 1992 is being highlighted. Notice, a young Micheal Jordan is defending the Board!  Clearly this game was a good one, drawing a crowd.

The scene is not complete. Much to do scenery-wise, but I like the placement in the layout. 

Up close and personal!

@mike g. posted:

Mike H, Nice job on the water tower! Do you need a flasher for the light or is it built in?

No, sir.  All you need is this LED.  It has everything built in.

Well this is my first real attempt at building a layout.  From ping pong table to using the garage room I had available.   Now I just have to develop the track plan.   Built it to be able to at least accommodate an outer 063 loop.   But being stuck at home, timing was perfect as I basically had to move everything out of the garage and into the other garage then also reorganize that garage also.  Picture shows the before and then after or its current state with playing with track positioning and thinking about where buildings that I have can possibly go.   Hoping to work on a track plan this weekend or find a software to start the next phase.  

L shaped layout with 10ft across back by 18ft with a depth of 6 ft.  

@John H posted:

In  between puzzles I worked on a small area on the other side of the tracks. Trees made from sorghum heads and experimented with static grasses. 

 Some very nice looking homes', and your trees also look very good'..Nice work'.. John'..

@ToledoEd posted:

I've had this Woodland Scenic B-ball set of figures and hoop for a few years and figured now was a good time to make it come alive. 

Neighborhood folks together with the employees of the Morrison Door Factory built a half-court Basketball court for the neighborhood kids.

They are a patriotic bunch so the bench is Red, white and Blue!  (Also, seemed right now that the "Dream Team" of 1992 is being highlighted. Notice, a young Micheal Jordan is defending the Board!  Clearly this game was a good one, drawing a crowd.

The scene is not complete. Much to do scenery-wise, but I like the placement in the layout. 

Up close and personal!

 This looks very good Ed'.. The wife asks'... is it a poor neighbor hood, as the two boys in the first photo arent wearing sneakers'....😁 🏀👍🏻 As we sit here and laugh out loud'..as this scenario makes us smile'... Nice work Ed'...

Transition Wall is in