Weekend Photo Fun 10-14-21-??

Looking spooky Scott great job!

My grandson wanted to run my SP MTH 2 rail scale daylight train and decided to add the shiny Silver California Zephyr passenger set K-Line cars also scale 2 rail. Used a O-120 loop K-Line Super snap for a quick set up need the wide radius the 2 rail scale stuff running all around the house. And also just finished painting up this Great Northern VO 1000 and compared to Crown Zellerbach VO 1000 I painted up earlier in the year. These run great.

I was in Michigan for a weeding this week, so I stopped by the Henry Ford Museum.

An early start this week...

My son and I used to see prototype PPLX rotary hoppers in long coal trains on the former PRR  Middle Division when we would go railfanning.   Lionel models of these cars were cataloged in the 2016 catalog, but did not get produced until this past year. My son went nuts over them, and I ordered him 3 sets of all the numbers (24 cars) for his high school graduation. More recently, we also pre-ordered four of the die cast dark gray PPLX hoppers that were recently released. This past weekend we built a new storage rack for them and FINALLY assembled them into a train. So here's a shot of them crossing the Tuscarora Creek bridge at Port Royal. He took three of the four double end rotary cars out of the train to be prototypical, and sprinkled the four dark gray ones in with the stainless steel cars as per the prototype. They were frequently hauled by SD-60M's, so we created a lashup of three MTH NS and CR SD-60M's to pull the train. Thought you might like to see how it looks now that we have all the cars assembled into a train.

The second image shows some of our train storage racks underneath "View" interlocking.  Depending on their size and how we build them, they each hold either 30 or 60 cars, so they make efficient use of the space under the layout. We have built 15 of them over the past ten years or so.

And unlike my usual images, this week you get to see some panoramic views of the layout, including the fascia and even the floor!

With York coming up next week, that probably does it for the next two weeks! If you are attending York, have a blast. For me, it's my 43rd year of attending!

PRR G5s 5740 is an MTH PS1 model that has been running trouble free on my 12'-by-8' layout for more than twenty years.

MELGAR

Lots of things small things happening this week.....

Ballasting the yard......

I picked up a generous donation for the modular group with some older PostWar trains centered around a 2035....

...and, I packed! No one can mistake which suitcase is mine!

Have a safe and great weekend, folks!

Safe travels to all.....

Peter

Here is the layout (as expanded) I built with my grandson Mason about 9 years ago. Landlord (his parents) cancelled the lease and it was reduced in size then finally taken down a couple of years ago. Great fun while it lasted and wonderful memories constructing it with him. It started when he was 4 years old and is on "pause" now until sometime in the future when the train bug bites him again!

While waiting for my wife at the dentists office, I took some pics of a long trestle I had wanted to photograph for some time. This was originally a two track bridge in Kingston PA used by Norfolk Southern.

A couple shots of my “downtown.”

JDFonz, Just Outstanding!!

                            A few new rides for everyone ...

@JDFonz posted:

A couple shots of my “downtown.”

WOW!!!  How about participating in the "Tall Building Tuesday" thread!!  Looks like this would be a great layout to feature in the magazine!

Shots of the club's permanent layout's double-ended yard, turntable, roundhouse, and control panel/transformer:

As a fairly new member, I found the operation to be very straightforward.  Not shown are the yard transformers: three Z1000's which control one pair of tracks each.   This set-up allows member(s) to assemble trains and move about the roundhouse independent of operations on the four mainlines.

Note:  Click on an image to view full size.

Thanks Scott for getting rolling!   Here are my photo of the fun kind for this fine weekend!  Have a terrific weekend everyone!!  Be safe = Be well!

These to pictures needed to be part of the pre-York weekend group:

Jim and Marty, we will miss you.....but, we know your spirit will be with us!

Peter

Planning for 2021 Christmas Layout Memories

I've settled on a design and a scenery configuration.  Building starts mid-November.

I still prefer pencil and paper over software.  My paper is a grid where each block represents 2'x2'.

Lower Level track and scenery plan ( the red rectangle lower left will be a 4'x7' elevated plateau.  In my drawings dotted lines are ramps.

Plateau:

I plan out everything.  This image shows lockon positions (the red circles) and placement of dummy pins for track "separation":

I also plan out what elements will be connected to each of my 2 AIUs, including how I will name them in the remote:

And finally, I also plan out how I will layout the Homasote pieces.  I put down same-sized blue board first and run wires in the gaps that I leave between then.  Then I cover that with the Homasote:

My goals were very, very simple and basic for 2021:

1. Have the lower tin-plate trackage reverse direction

2. Have a smaller than usual 4'x7' plateau

3. Use the MTH bridge

4. Use my 10' long ramp.

5. Plan on 2 AIUs

I absolutely LOVE the planning stage, more, I think, than building and running.

- walt

@walt rapp posted:

Planning for 2021 Christmas Layout Memories

I've settled on a design and a scenery configuration.  Building starts mid-November.

I still prefer pencil and paper over software.  My paper is a grid where each block represents 2'x2'.

Lower Level track and scenery plan ( the red rectangle lower left will be a 4'x7' elevated plateau.  In my drawings dotted lines are ramps.

I plan out everything.

I absolutely LOVE the planning stage, more, I think, than building and running.

- walt

Walt,

That is an outstanding piece of planning and comprehensive design. Doing it with pencil and paper makes you think carefully about the best way to build the layout. In my opinion, it may even be easier than using software. Very nice!

MELGAR

Thanks Melgar.

Scott: I always enjoy seeing images of how you change the layout for different seasons.

JDFonz: beautiful !!!!

- walt

I moved to a studio apartment earlier this year and wanted some way to run my smaller trains. I picked up an old 8’x30” table by the street. The table is old but made of thick plywood and the folding legs are heavy duty. I cut the table in half and added some support so I could add hinges. Then I cut a 4x8 piece of plywood into 2’x4’ sections, then drilled holes thru the top plywood and the table structure so the panels could be bolted on top. The idea being this layout is modular. I find the process to set up takes about 25 min including laying the track. Id like to someday screw the track to the individual panels so I don’t have to take the track on and off each time and I can add limited scenery. I really enjoyed building this as Ive been wanting to build a modular layout for a while. The only issue is weight! This thing is heavy!

Nice job, biscuittag97. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Sitka and Walt, thank you for the compliments. Walt, that is some pretty impressive planning for a temporary layout! Looks like a whole lot of work ahead!

Alan, I have thrown a couple pics on Tall bldg. Tuesday, way back at the beginning of the thread. As far as the magazine feature, holy cow, that has always been my goal. How can we move forward with that?

thanks, Joel.

There were three Southern Pacific gondolas at the end of a CN freight train speeding East on the GTW railroad tracks in Michigan.

It has been just over 25 years since the Southern Pacific merged with the Union Pacific.

Andrew

Atlas O Chicago & North Western Evans Products 53' double plug-door box cars to accompany the Atlas O Chicago & North Western extended-vision caboose.

Andrew

Falcon Service

@stangtrain posted:

Here is the layout (as expanded) I built with my grandson Mason about 9 years ago. Landlord (his parents) cancelled the lease and it was reduced in size then finally taken down a couple of years ago. Great fun while it lasted and wonderful memories constructing it with him. It started when he was 4 years old and is on "pause" now until sometime in the future when the train bug bites him again!

Really nice layout for the grandson. I bet he had a ton of fun playing with that. What are the dimension of this layout?

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

The second image shows some of our train storage racks underneath "View" interlocking.  Depending on their size and how we build them, they each hold either 30 or 60 cars, so they make efficient use of the space under the layout. We have built 15 of them over the past ten years or so.

And unlike my usual images, this week you get to see some panoramic views of the layout, including the fascia and even the floor!l

Great work as always. Would love to see more pictures of these to inspire a build of my own

@JDFonz posted:

Sitka and Walt, thank you for the compliments. Walt, that is some pretty impressive planning for a temporary layout! Looks like a whole lot of work ahead!

Alan, I have thrown a couple pics on Tall bldg. Tuesday, way back at the beginning of the thread. As far as the magazine feature, holy cow, that has always been my goal. How can we move forward with that?

thanks, Joel.

thanks joel.  we all enjoy the hobby in our own unique ways I guess.  As I mentioned earlier, I love the planning part and get my most pleasure doing it.  I didn't finalize my plan until I drew up something like 15 other designs.  I establish a few 'musts' and let them guide me.  I generally start when the urge hits- which is normally around May or June.

- walt

                                                    New Atlas O cabs...

The photographer caught this old H6b moving a newly painted 50 foot Merchandise Service boxcar to the express warehouse.  That old H6 will soon be cut up for scrape.

The H6 is 3rd Rail (needs weathering) and the boxcar is MTH.

@OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:

WOW!!!  How about participating in the "Tall Building Tuesday" thread!!  Looks like this would be a great layout to feature in the magazine!

Joel, I may have mentioned you should contribute to TBT before but Alan beat me to it after seeing your post.  A mag feature would be fantastic.

@Putnam Division posted:

These to pictures needed to be part of the pre-York weekend group:

Jim and Marty, we will miss you.....but, we know your spirit will be with us!

Peter

Peter, absolutely great pics that definitely needed to be reposted.

Patrick, when did Andre the Giant come to town?

Some more pictures from October 2nd 2021 at Strasburg.

Yesterday, 16 October 2021, the Coast Division of the NMRA sponsored a field trip to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento (the state capital) to see the new Magic of Scale Model Railroading exhibit.  Nearly everyone who attended took Capitol Corridor train #724 to Sacramento.  Train 724 originated in San Jose and stopped at every station between San Jose and Sacramento.

Jack London Square, Oakland, CA

The main Jack London Square Amtrak station.

The Coast Daylight bound for LA was sitting in the station when I arrived.  This is the end of the train.  

This is the view in the opposite direction looking toward Sacramento.  Street running through Jack London Square starts just beyond this photo.  Note the new apartment buildings and wood ties.  

Train 710 bound for Bakersfield with a bus connection to LA arrives from the Amtrak yard.  This train will reverse direction to head to Bakersfield.  

This is the cab end of #710.  It will lead the train to Bakersfield.  

California subsidizes this Amtrak operation.  

This is the other side of train 710s cab car.

Train 724 to Sacramento arrives on the right.  724 will depart about 15 minutes before 710 on the left. 724 is the train that I and the other NMRA members took to Sacramento.  

The Magic of Scale Model Railroading at the California State Railroad Museum.  

A photo John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid occupies an entire wall at the entrance to the display.  The G&D, that was built in the 1950s, is probably the most famous and influential American scale model railroad ever built.  John Allen was known as the Wizard of Monterey because of his model railroad.  

Smuggler's Cove was built by two modelers who had never visited New England.  It is just one of the very impressive displays.

Here are two pictures of the wall of trains in all scales from G to Z.  

The Magic of Scale Model Railroading exhibit at the CSRM is well worth the visit.   NH Joe

With visitors to the club being brought to us by our landlord/Dales Train Station owner Gloria, we keep a Lionel handheld locomotive led freight train on one of the ladder tracks in the yard--usually a Virginian Rectifier or Area 51 RS-3.   Here are a couple our most recent visitors:

I arrived yesterday just after Richard who runs large locomotives:  Big Boys, Cabforwards, ABBA E units, Centipedes, etc.  Yesterday it was his MTH E-6 ABBA and 12 pax cars:

We had a problem running MTH DCS locos last week so Bill W and Les spent several hours tracking down the problem  with the 3 TIUs on the layout (and doing some track maintenance work as well); and, programming the 4 handles the club owns so all was good yesterday for Richard (and his E-6s) and Les who ran his MTH NYC RS-3 and MTH NYC FM H10-44 (now with ERR cruise):

It will be quieter next Saturday with members away at York; but, those of us staying home will assemble a track cleaning train and set it up to be regularly run on Wednesday evenings when we get together mid-week.

Be safe.

And click on an image to view it full size.