Some pics of my new 3rd level."5/27 Video added"

Wow - that's impressive.  Just keep going up!

I really like the mural of the village houses that ehco the shape and style of the house in the foreground.  That's a really nice detail, a great way to use the backdrop of the riser for the next level.  

Nice job Chris, It si still nice to see a tinplate setup.

Chris,

Most impressive!

Who made the mountain with tunnel in the second photo?

Bob

Hi Bob. The mountain is a Lionel mountain I had bought for a Christmas display but decided to go another way with. Now I had this huge mountain taking up to much room so I decided to incorporate it into the second level. I repainted it to "Some what" look like a tinplate pre war tunnel. I added the house I got from a good forum friend of mine and glued that on then 3 coats of high gloss over the whole thing.  Here is a little better pic of it.

Chris

That looks terrific. If I hadn't already built my own, I would have to borrow your concept  Do you have any videos yet of the trains running on it? The mural is an inspired idea, really nicely done.

Bruce

Hi Bruce. Thank you and yes I do plan on doing a video that I'll add to this post in the next couple of days.

Thanks for posting the updated layout pictures Chris, it looks great.  I recently picked up a  race car set myself and was disappointed in the quality of the track, is seemed pretty flimsy, like they should have used a heavier gauge metal, did you find that to be the case as well?  I have yet to run it, does yours run well?  Last question, do you run each loop of the race car set on a different transformer or both on the same transformer?

Thanks,
John. 

Nicely done

Waiting now for the video.

Hi John.  The track is a little thin but I think that is the way it was which is not a problem so long as you mount it to a flat stable surface. Be careful working with it it is sharp."Yes I have cut myself with it"   It runs great;If they start running sluggish just make sure the track and the pick up rollers are clean. I have them running on a ZW on seperate handles. They will run fast so watch your speed! I hit one of the ZW handles reaching for something and the orange car jumped the track and the driver and co pilot got launched! They were OK but not happy with me for a couple of day's!

I still see some room between the top level and the ceiling........

The problem is the fan is already flush mounted to the beam. I don't use it much anyway which I knew when I built the top level.

Chris, could you recess the fan into the ceiling?  Probably a dumb idea on my part.

Thanks for the post, it is fantastic.

Al

Another idea is to shim the blade brackets under the blades themselves , maybe some washers, etc,,the idea being the brackets at the same elevation but the blades would be higher..would they clear the beam then?

Bruce

My thoughts exactly. Fender washers, rubber and steel sandwich, and white paint.

 Chris, The layout.... Wow! The race cars... icing on the cake. 

Video added.   Enjoy! 

Very Nice!  Congrats on the CTT pic also.

Jeff Davis

Chris:

Excellent.  I just am sitting here and have the video running - like a window into your train room.

I feel 50 years younger just watching that! Big dumb smile on my face!

Two thumbs up because I only have two. Inspired me to get back to the layout. 

Bruce

That's really nice Chris.Tinplate has always been a very soothing.

Hi Chris,

    Looks great, Nice pictures and I enjoyed the video.

Thanks for posting,

Alex

That video does make you smile - lots of fun!

Chris,

Great job!

Love those race cars!

Bob