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Slow around here ... so who is working on what?

Some projects I've got going...

50 cent dumpster....some styrene and paint...



Gotta rust up those cars...

Cheap toy tow truck...just repainted with primer...



Weathered beaters...







Scratch built auto repair in progress ... $10 of styrene and brick ...still neads some painting and lots of weathering





So, instead of building more structure and tracks, this is what I've been working on.

What are you all working on?

CTA Fan
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Love the work you have done CTA Fan.

I am working on a new subway station that is still a work in progress. A few months ago I solved a problem of my wife's furniture being in the way of my subway line by building platforms for her furniture chest and having a tunnel for my subway to go through it. There was a lot of room left within that platform box, so I had the idea of having a station inside also. The problem was that even though there is a hidden access door on the side of the platform, who wants to view the station on your stomach. So I thought of installing a mini wireless video cam inside the station. I received the cam yesterday and it is installed and working to my satisfaction. Below are some images on my TV of the beginings of the station platform.


Mini video cam view of new 14th street subway station. More details will soon be added like stucture beams,tiled wall,station signage and more.

Photobucket

Photobucket

The reason why the red subway in the video picture is not showing up red is because of the type of lighting in the station and not a defect in the video cam. Currently I have eight 18 volt bulbs that are the only source of lighting inside. There may not be an easy solution to this problem, so I may leave it like this.

Update: Lighting problem solved Thanks to Walmart and an inexpensive 14 watt undercabinet fluorescent light fixture. When the station is completed I will post new photos with the much better lighting.
Last edited by N5CJonny
I thought you'd never ask.

Saltaire is the southern terminus of my under construction Triboro Rapid Transit System. Located on the Atlantic shore it has all the flavor of Coney Island thanks to the nearby Idlewild Amusement Park. Residents of Emerald City flock here every year during the summer months.

The four track Saltaire station complex is five train sheds long (Bridge Boss) capable of berthing any six car subway train at it's platforms. South of the station lays a maze of turnouts (Ross) that lead to the Wavecrest yard. Hugging the boardwalk is an elongated reverse track encircling the yard. "Salt" tower protects the interlocking for the northern approach to the terminal. This is where the double track main line splits into the four terminal tracks. The double crossover is made up of one #4 left and one #4 right turnouts and two double slips, all Ross. The crossing itself is 28 degrees. And therein lies the problem. 28 degree crossings are not available commercially. Not wanting to give up the terminal throat to a more space eating design, I decided to lay my own crossing. Confused Not sure what I was thinking of at the time.

Sooo..............this is what I have been working on.
Please note, these are early construction pictures, so use your imagination. If you do you can almost smell the popcorn and hot dogs.


Overall view of northern approach to station terminal. Interlocking in question is at bottom of photo.







Close-up of the interlocking.


Progress.


More progress.


And still more progress





I still have the center "Diamond" to construct and of course get the whole thing to work electrically.
Right now, when pushed, all the rolling stock seems to track through it with no problems.
Lots of work left to do yet.
3rd Rail 600V:

Wow! Amazing!

So this weekend I had some time, I don't know if this is politically correct...

In Chicago, the Cabrini Green Public Housing projects...



My version...



All of these buildings are now torn down, but I remember the Brown/Ravenswood line rolling past. Kind of like the opening credits to the old TV show "Good Times" - I used to like watching the 6000's roll through Chicago.

All buildings - paper....I'm too cheap for the real thnig.

CTA Fan
Hey Thirdrail. Nice looking train sheds,love the color choice. Thanks for the plug also.

jim r from bridgeboss.com

quote:
Originally posted by Thirdrail600v:
I thought you'd never ask.

Saltaire is the southern terminus of my under construction Triboro Rapid Transit System. Located on the Atlantic shore it has all the flavor of Coney Island thanks to the nearby Idlewild Amusement Park. Residents of Emerald City flock here every year during the summer months.

The four track Saltaire station complex is five train sheds long (Bridge Boss) capable of berthing any six car subway train at it's platforms. South of the station lays a maze of turnouts (Ross) that lead to the Wavecrest yard. Hugging the boardwalk is an elongated reverse track encircling the yard. "Salt" tower protects the interlocking for the northern approach to the terminal. This is where the double track main line splits into the four terminal tracks. The double crossover is made up of one #4 left and one #4 right turnouts and two double slips, all Ross. The crossing itself is 28 degrees. And therein lies the problem. 28 degree crossings are not available commercially. Not wanting to give up the terminal throat to a more space eating design, I decided to lay my own crossing. Confused Not sure what I was thinking of at the time.

Sooo..............this is what I have been working on.
Please note, these are early construction pictures, so use your imagination. If you do you can almost smell the popcorn and hot dogs.


Overall view of northern approach to station terminal. Interlocking in question is at bottom of photo.







Close-up of the interlocking.


Progress.


More progress.


And still more progress





I still have the center "Diamond" to construct and of course get the whole thing to work electrically.
Right now, when pushed, all the rolling stock seems to track through it with no problems.
Lots of work left to do yet.
Thanks Jim,
As you can see the sheds are still a work in progress. I had to stop working on them until their more permanent home was finished. Temporarily storing them on the layout was starting to eat up to much real estate.
The paint is out of a rattle can from one of the big box stores. The color is Oregano by Rust-Oleum Painters Touch. Everything was primed and painted before assembly. The roof is Oxide Red primer also by Rust-Oleum.
To keep everything square, finally assembly took place on my wife's Silastone kitchen counter tops. Eek
Best to do this when she's not home.
quote:
Originally posted by CTA Fan:

So this weekend I had some time, I don't know if this is politically correct...

In Chicago, the Cabrini Green Public Housing projects...



My version...



All of these buildings are now torn down, but I remember the Brown/Ravenswood line rolling past. Kind of like the opening credits to the old TV show "Good Times" - I used to like watching the 6000's roll through Chicago.

All buildings - paper....I'm too cheap for the real thnig.

CTA Fan



Terrific! You just need a few squad cars parked outside the building. Wink
quote:
Originally posted by jerrymouse25:
N5CJonny,

Would you mind sharing where you purchased your mini-wireless video cam and your overall impressions of the video quality and battery life? Do you stream this to your TV or laptop?

Thanks!


I purchased it from a place called Eminent_shop on Ebay. See the link below.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wirele...&hash=item3cbc767887

The item cost was $23.49 with shipping from China. For my purposes it seems to work well, but the range of operation is not far and the reception adjustment is very very sensitive. If you are just slightly off on tuning you loose reception. It is a wireless cam with a receiver that hooks up to your TV. You can run the cam wireless with a 9 volt battery or use a tiny power supply that comes with the unit to plug into a wall outlet. Picture quality is not bad, but occasionally it can get "snowy" if you are too far from the wireless cam. I do not think it would work very well in a moving train as you would probably loose reception at times. As far as battery life goes, I have not tried it for any great length of time, maybe 15 minutes or so. For the money and the way it is being used in my case it fits the bill.
Just put the finishing touches on "Northside Auto Repair"...







I've got to scenic a base, but its done enough for me. Funny thing, even though I don't use a flash, my weathering always seems washed out.

N5CJonny ... that's a great idea for a camera. Could that camera be adapted for railfan / point of view videos? I tried one railfan window video and it turned out very shakey ... Cab Ride View I guess I'd have to figure out how to record...

Thirdrail600V - I never occured to me to hand lay 3 rail track. What are you using for rail? I use Gargrave track, but I CANNOT stand the little track connector pins.

Also ... I think I may have a BIG problem... My son, for his HO layout, wanted a subway train for Christman. So, just picked up a four car Redbird HO set off of Ebay. Looks like I've got at least a loop of HO structure to build now. Looks like I'm going over to the dark side ... NYC subway in HO, no less.

CTA Fan
quote:
N5CJonny ... that's a great idea for a camera. Could that camera be adapted for railfan / point of view videos? I tried one railfan window video and it turned out very shakey ... Cab Ride View I guess I'd have to figure out how to record...


CTA Fan- That was a great Video and again I love the work you have done. Simply fantastic job on everything.

I have not used this cam for anything other than stationary use, so I cannot answer your question on using it as a mobile rail cam. I would imagine that it would not come out as well as your video came out because reception is too sensitive to movement. Sometime I will have to try it out and see.
Thirdrail600V:

Thanks for the comments...

You couldn't have said it better in your last paragraph. I agree 100 percent. I tried years of trying to model CTA in HO. I just gave up. What you see is really my first true layout. HO - I just couldn't get past trying to find a brass model, count all the rivets, paint it, figure some way to run it, then build a layout.

My uncle, God bless him, got me started in traction/transit years ago when I was a little kid when he gave me a Model Railroader magazine from 1976 that had El train modeling in it. He models 0 two rail with live overhead wire, but his layout is the same as it was nearly 35 years ago. I can't spend 30 years building one model...

My shelf layout is two years old. Third rail and all, it just runs. That is what I like. Plus, O scale structure is just so much easier to build.

I think transit could be a really growth opportunity for the hobby if people just gave it a chance. Its easy and doesn't take a lot of room. Plus, it really is a lot cheaper than other models. OK - approx. $400 for a four car set at list, but that's all you need. The structure is really cheap, one of these days I'll put together a how to. What I do is so cheap and easy I think anyone can do it with not a lot of space.

I don't knock those folks who really build nice models. I just think there is plenty of room in this hobby for various levels of fidelity. Hey, just having a train running is better than most.

CTA Fan
quote:
Originally posted by CTA Fan:
Slow around here ... so who is working on what?

Some projects I've got going...

50 cent dumpster....some styrene and paint...



Gotta rust up those cars...

Cheap toy tow truck...just repainted with primer...



Weathered beaters...







Scratch built auto repair in progress ... $10 of styrene and brick ...still neads some painting and lots of weathering





So, instead of building more structure and tracks, this is what I've been working on.

What are you all working on?

CTA Fan
I am nearing the completion of my 14th street station with only the wall behind the Lov train to be done. The picture below is a picture from my tv of the video cam image. Focus settings on the video cam has been a problem as I am trying to get the best balance between the close and distant objects.



Photobucket
14th Street (IRT West Side Line)


ps- For some reason the image on my TV is a lot clearer than the image seen here.
Last edited by N5CJonny
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