What did you do on your layout today?

suzukovich posted:

mike g. posted:

suzukovich posted:

As usual a lot of great work.

Elliot love seeing the progress on your layout. Only issue when you show all the details of the wiring I get a headache and my eyes become sore just looking at it.   Made another video with my 3rd Rail CB&Q/C&S SD9s.

 

 

I agree with you about the wiring! LOL. Another great video and music, but your killing me! Being from the west Washington I need some green! LOL

But there is green in the beginning, Burlington Northern Green.   Or do you mean this kind of green

 

Of course I wouldn't want you seeing red either.

 

But after all you do have a new Mercedes Benz to drive.

 

Now your talking! Green with envy. The two videos some how sum up me and my wife. The more Green I get, The redder she gets. But I do love all the colors.

Plus who could complain about such a nice lush plow to drive!

Pulled up my station spur track to remove the Atlas uncoupler section and to level the spur. Kadee's like level track.

Clem

Boy don't they Clem!

I have done a lot in 2 days rearranged 2 tables for the layout and then designed a new layout to match the new configuration of tables then today laid the track out in that configuration still need to do the incline to the upper level but had to redesign alittle I ran out of 048 curves so substituted the o48 curve for o36 should work just fine. I was very shocked everything lined up just where it was suppose to I'm very happy about that . here's some photos don't mind the mess I have stuff laying everywhere.

Finished all the assembly on one side of my roundhouse and wrapped up the landscaping as well. Once the building is completed I'll give it some weathering. 

 Christmas layout  is set up for this year 

 More progress on my signal system 

 Zone one grounds are cut and run down underneath the track 

This weekend I got the Christmas lights on the model of the house I used to live in at Merced, Ca.

I rented the  rear second floor of the house. When I was coming south on Canal street, I could see my Christmas tree in the upstairs window.

Goodnight, everyone!!!

Wonderful, Mr. Rogers.

FrankM.

Alan, It's great that you are able to model something that was in your real life! It puts a whole new side of a story to a layout. I would have to think long and hard of something to model from my life!

Alan Rogers posted:

 

This weekend I got the Christmas lights on the model of the house I used to live in at Merced, Ca.

 

I rented the  rear second floor of the house. When I was coming south on Canal street, I could see my Christmas tree in the upstairs window.

 

Goodnight, everyone!!!

Cool!!!!!!

That's great Alan!

Adriatic posted:

I fell asleep mid post waiting on the attachment tool to show up yesterday.

I had played the shell game with scenery, trying for an "uplifting" scene.

Ended up wanting to sing "One of these things is not like the others" to Mitch.

 Can you guess which of these.5 things is not like the others?, lol.

Six , six ,six , six, let's sing the song of six! How many is six?

Six lifting devices.

(It could have been seven if I had only thought of the helicopter too..darn)

Ah hah, I made you count!

(Too old?  Too "soft"?   https://youtu.be/Qn_Lu6hcLqw    link is broken and won't respond to edits. See next post.

 

Its all your fault.  Ever since this post Those songs from Sesame Street keep playing in my head.

Of course this song would fit here well.

We started work on the harbor area with two different cranes for intermodal activities. Harold is constructing a plateau on the future mountain for the castle and assorted log/timber structures. His older son Josh built a real 'castle' for his home some years ago complete with a turret and a moat! Our host, Buffalo Creek vacations has 4 or 5 log cabins of various sizes for rent which will be duplicated on the layout.

We ran a Lionel 0-8-0 this evening sending it around the outer loop to find weak areas or ones that needed further cleaning. As she warmed up and Jerry cleaned the track in several places we clocked the little steamer at 1:24 around with 22v to the track. Not all leads are in place and we have some tuning yet to do but it's coming along nicely. Jerry and I used a tape measure and tried to measure the linear footage - best we can estimate it is about 253 feet around one loop.

Thanks for all your kind comments, Mike, Frank and everyone else.

I truly enjoy the creativity of this hobby, but enjoy bringing delight to others even more.

Mike, maybe there is a structure you can connect with and model? My buildings have to "speak" to me before I can reduce them to scale.

Today I installed two lighted lamp posts to each side of Our Lady of Locomotion Church.  This meant I had to remove all the shrubs, trees, and flowers from either side of the church not to mention removing all the people figures.

Aside from the church now having lamp lights to both sides, I was able to give the scene a fresh new look by re - placing all the fine town folk.... same folk just in some different places.  Doing this along with re - placing some of the shrubs gives the scene a whole new fresh look!!  Pretty cool!!  

I want to and will be doing this more often to other scenes on my layout.

Alan Rogers posted:

This weekend I got the Christmas lights on the model of the house I used to live in at Merced, Ca.

WOW, I'm very impressed. Great work!

Even my wife, who is tired of seeing model railroad anything, thought it looked good.

Yesterday, I took some photos for a planned magazine article. These were among the ones I couldn't use due to forgetting to close the blinds, but it'll give you an idea what the good shots will look like...

FYI, the exhaust is not photoshopped in. I used the old technique of something blurred over the stack. I think it looks way better than photoshopping in real steam exhaust, as the matching lighting and shadows are in my shots this way.

This weekend I worked on the Christmas village and North Pole areas of the layout.   Decided on final elevations and Dept 56/Lemax type building placements.    I've done 25 buildings so far with about 60 more to go for light strands and placement.   Obviously will have to work on final scenery to make it look better but the rough installation is shaping up nicely.  

Even have a "vice" part of town with a casino, tattoo parlor, bar, and pawnshop....all located under a bridge!   My wife loves it already.

Last weekend was my train club's 32nd Holiday Open House. It was a great weekend. We had a very large turnout. I estimate over 2000 people visited the club over the three days. We had a line waiting to get in from 11 AM when we opened to 5 PM when we closed. I was running trains nonstop all weekend. Good time for both members and visitors. The local TV news showed up unexpectedly on Sunday. A five minute interview resulted in my 30 seconds of fame. Unfortunately we were so busy I wasn't able to take any pictures. Overall it was a big success.

Pat,

I can certainly forgive you for not having photos of the weekend open house as you were so busy running trains for the guests!  That is great that the local news came over to cover your event!  Many thanks for the exciting report!

Pat Kn, That's very good news, on many levels. Good for you! Good for them! Good for the hobby! May I ask what community enjoyed this event and news?

FrankM.

I started dropping all the feeders and wiring them up then was able to get 2 trains to run alittle on what was wired ran both dcs and tmcc making sure everything worked fine. I sure did miss hearing the little berkshire jr with the err upgrade that engine I love the sound on it . here is a video I did right after the upgrade.

I agree, I would be anxious to get the Berkshire running too!  Did you do the ERR upgrade yourself or have someone else do it?

Pat Kn posted:

Last weekend was my train club's 32nd Holiday Open House. It was a great weekend. We had a very large turnout. I estimate over 2000 people visited the club over the three days. We had a line waiting to get in from 11 AM when we opened to 5 PM when we closed. I was running trains nonstop all weekend. Good time for both members and visitors. The local TV news showed up unexpectedly on Sunday. A five minute interview resulted in my 30 seconds of fame. Unfortunately we were so busy I wasn't able to take any pictures. Overall it was a big success.

Me and my 6 year old son were there Friday night and enjoyed it. We did a boys night out seeing your club's layout first, then some dinner and then NLOE's club's layout. Love this time of year when all the clubs open there layouts to the public

Moonson posted:

Pat Kn, That's very good news, on many levels. Good for you! Good for them! Good for the hobby! May I ask what community enjoyed this event and news?

FrankM.

Thanks Frank. The club is in St. James, Long Island, New York. We were written up in Newsday the Long Island Paper and News 12 Long Island ran a short story on us.

Me and my 6 year old son were there Friday night and enjoyed it. We did a boys night out seeing your club's layout first, then some dinner and then NLOE's club's layout. Love this time of year when all the clubs open there layouts to the public

LIKevin, Glad you and your son enjoyed yourselves. That is what make the work all worthwhile.

Mark Boyce posted:

I agree, I would be anxious to get the Berkshire running too!  Did you do the ERR upgrade yourself or have someone else do it?

I did it myself it was a challenge to come up with some sort of tether between the tender and engine computer parts worked good for this then the shell for the tender is metal so I had t get the antenna out of the shell another challenge. then I weathered it my first weathering Job,

It certainly looks dandy!  So where did you end up mounting the antenna ?

Mark Boyce posted:

It certainly looks dandy!  So where did you end up mounting the antenna ?

Drilled a small hole for the antenna to pass thru it pokes out between the tender and engine so that it doesn't hinder removal of the shell but yet still functions .

I thought about drilling a hole and glueing it down then putting coal load over it but I ruled against that idea.

in the video I had upgraded a conventional union pacific sd40t2 and the up 2314 both with err and rail sounds than I replaced a bad speaker in the up 8048 and replaced or fixed the ditch lights on a up 8049 and smoke unit .

They all sound and work nice

To cold to do much else today on The North Bluff.

I have had a Lionel Standard gauge #515 tank car for some time, can't remember when or where I bought it but was always a "project" car. I disassembled it completely a week or so ago and yesterday  I stripped the crappy paint job off the tank.  The paint was thick and tough so tonight i polished it up and will put it back together - I hope !!  Found a nice dark yellow can of paint which I will use on it. Not a full restoration because I am leaving the flat car and trucks as-is.  I have a acquired a pretty respectable Standard gauge collection now and concentrating on getting everything running, The bedroom layout is starting to look crowded with 027 and Standard gauge track.

Did another 6 feet of dreaded bench-work while being grilled by wife on why her locomotive upgrade is taking so long ....

LOL got to love them!

Got my station spur operational, with new Kadee magnets and  a track power off switch, so I can leave a power unit parked there. 

clem

Painted my 28th box of Preiser 65602 Unpainted 24 Seated People for the Lionel 21" passenger cars arriving in 2017.  Finished 672 people so far, with 3 more boxes to do. The 744 seated people hopefully will be enough for the cars. The 24 different Preiser poses allow for conversational groupings inside the cars. The people look like they are interacting, not Zombies looking straight forward.  The details make the difference.  I did 720 people last year for my NYC Empire State, C&O, Wabash and Atlas O Cal Zephyr and Amtrak cars.  The Atlas Dome cars look great with the people visible.

The passengers look great, John!!

Updated my redo post on scenery thread on rebuilding base with Styrofoam for new scenic elements. 

Mudding and taping continued today...

Of course that can only go so far, then it has to dry. Back to my manual switch throws. I worked on numbers 7 thru 10. The rods for 7 and 8 are now in place. Numbers 9 and 10 will be over 6' long!

They only sell push rods in 3 and 4 foot lengths, so that white tube is what I use to splice the red sleeves together. This photo is very busy looking, but for those of you who are not into wiring, neither am I. The white wire is the ground, and black wires from the rails tie to that. The gray wire is the hot and red wires from the center rails tie to that.

If you look carefully, you can see the lower crank arm for number 7 near the exposed yellow rod in the center of the photo. All of the small wires are for Tortoise control, and there is a local panel on the right.

The upper part of the number 10 crank is done. I still have to bend the lower part of the wire sticking down. The only way to do that in this confined space is to bend the clevis loop while it is sticking down, then bend the lower arm up to finish the crank.

I just got finished painting the aluminum casting of this Builders plate. It's not perfect, but I think it turned out okay, considering.

I also put spilled coal and a shovel on the tender deck of the last of my locomotives, and did some touch-up ballast work along the right of way on the layout.

Tonight was The Detroit Model Railroad Club's

Annual Membership Meeting • 2016

Here are a few photos to tell the story.........

The Annual President Award / President Weldon, presents this award to Steve, for all his work on the layout and duties as the club's treasurer.

The Marquee, in downtown Holly, welcomes all the members.

The Model Railroaders in the conference room.

The President shows architectural rendering for improvements for the front elevation. 

Before the meeting we went out for dinner at Avia Family Dining, five doors south of the DMRRC.

Note: No work today on my Man Cave Layout.  It is always fun to hang out with other model railroaders. / DMRRC Founded on January 19. 1935 / 2 Rail O Scale / Michigan's Largest O Scale Club.

Gary

Managed to get my Standard gauge  #515  Lionel tanker together and found some dark yellow paint for it. then I realized a "flat car"  from my big box of cars I bought had the slots for the tank and was in better shape than the original. So I have done a reboot and going to change frames. Plus, after looking at the unpainted tank, I think, I will kep it that way. For awhile, at least. Will spray it with flat laquer to prevent rust. I can always go back and paint it.

Lee I thin it looks Great!

I have not done anything to the layouts since I ballasted that section of track. I have not a clue as to how I am going to do more tracks in that area. I have sort of a mental block. I did run trains a day ago and as I sat enjoying them run my Alleghany died on a section of track I can't quite get to so there it sits for the time being tying up the mainline. Yesterday though I went to the monthly get together for a bunch of us. We do lunch on the second Tuesday of each month. This past luncheon was at the Glenwillow Inn. There is track that is now a short line railroad right by the restaurant. I do not know who owns it but he had his three engines sitting there. So I took a couple of pics of them. That night went to the Tuesday night train crew get together for another good evening of camaraderie. Hopefully I can shake this mental block and get back to laying out track again...........Paul

Good to see you there, Paul.  Some neat operations on the Cleveland Industrial Railroad and that "visiting fireman" engine from the "Cleveland Harbor Belt" was certainly unusual.  As i understand, The trackage is mostly owned by the Wheeling and Lake Erie but is leased to the Cleveland Industrial.  Some of the trackage that is either new or newly repaired actually does belong to the short line.

What did you think of Bob Vicker's collection?  I had seen it some years ago but I was just as impressed yesterday as I was back then.  he certainly knows a lot about some of those very unusual and rare trains, and has made it a lifetime project to acquire them.  If you ask him: "Do they run?" he doesn't know.  It's not important that they do .

See you next Tuesday.

Paul Fischer

mike g. posted:

Lee I thin it looks Great!

Thanks, Mike. I was looking for a, "Just yanked off the locomotive right before the scrapper arrived and never cleaned since," look.

paul 2 posted:

I have not done anything to the layouts since I ballasted that section of track. I have not a clue as to how I am going to do more tracks in that area. I have sort of a mental block. I did run trains a day ago and as I sat enjoying them run my Alleghany died on a section of track I can't quite get to so there it sits for the time being tying up the mainline. Yesterday though I went to the monthly get together for a bunch of us. We do lunch on the second Tuesday of each month. This past luncheon was at the Glenwillow Inn. There is track that is now a short line railroad right by the restaurant. I do not know who owns it but he had his three engines sitting there. So I took a couple of pics of them. That night went to the Tuesday night train crew get together for another good evening of camaraderie. Hopefully I can shake this mental block and get back to laying out track again...........Paul

Paul, that track is owned by the W&LE. The CHBRR and CCRR have the railroad north of Bedford and they store the engines here in the siding in Glenwillow. The Ex. Santa Fe #2519 unit is owned by Larry's Truck Electric. It's a GP35u. My barber where I get my haircut, is right near where your at when you took the photos and so when I visit there, I've seen quite a few trains in the past. As you can see in the videos, here is what I saw in Glenwillow since 2011.

Well Lee, You hit it right on the nose!

Fixed a broken coil wire on my 2065, and now the E-unit works again! 

Nothing much new on the gi-raffe front. 

Mitch

Tom,

What a nice collection of videos!  Glad to see the regional railroads have been busy out your way!

Not much today, Scored 7 Lionel CTC lockons I needed on the bay. Will run trains after dinner.

started my winter cleaning. started pulling all the buildings, automobiles off, and wiping everything done. gets pretty dusty over the summer.

Some cool work posted as usual.  Pat over 2000 people and a line to get in that's great,  For you, The Club but most important is the exposure the hobby gets.   Now that your a local celebrity, , What's next?    Santa Fe VA looks good so far. Look forward to seeing completed Christmas layout.  

For me, Made another video with my new to me Atlas RSD 7/15. I was also playing with the filters. Feel free to be critics.  

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Nothing much new on the gi-raffe front. 

Mitch

That's good... thought you were going to try and convince us that Santa's "eight tiny reindeer" we actually gi-raffs in disguise   

Apples55 posted:

That's good... thought you were going to try and convince us that Santa's "eight tiny reindeer" we actually gi-raffs in disguise   

Just HAD to go there, didn't you?

Mitch

Every one knows that it is really gi-raffes that pulls Santas sleigh and Mitch is Santa.  Tried to snag a nice gi-raffe car at the TCA show but no price or dealer so  no deal.  Maybe next show.

Mitch,

Merry christmas to you too 

Ran trains last night before going to bed.  I enjoyed the show totally!!!

I usually run some trains before bedtime then plug in the bedroom layout and run a satandard gauge and an O gauge on my bedroom RR layout.

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Apples55 posted:

That's good... thought you were going to try and convince us that Santa's "eight tiny reindeer" we actually gi-raffs in disguise   

Just HAD to go there, didn't you?

 

Mitch

Oh no you don't Mitch... just because I open the door, that doesn't mean you and your happy herd of holiday gi-raff hoofers need to charge on through   

And a very Merry Christmas to you, the herd, and not to be forgotten, Norma Bates Kitteh and Sylvia Siamese.

Today I ran a couple of trains while moving boxes to get at where my Rail king  Alleghany stopped dead. I found when I picked up the tender something was rolling around loose in there. When I opened the tender up apparently a diode or something came loose from the board. I found one of the guys in one of my train groups said he could more then likely fix it. So Monday morning I will be taking it to him and hopefully will be getting it back and running again. It is one of my favorite engines to run............Paul

Updated with photos my redo scenery thread about fitting 1.5 inch foam base for new scenery. Thinking about hot glueing cardboard latice to foam before plaster towels vs. foam glue. Your thoughts?

With holidays, got back to my steam coach project/challenge for the first time in over two weeks. Using a Marx 999 mechanism and a Walthers combine kit. Have the  "power truck" turning under the body, but it won't be good for O-27 curves.  This may be my most challenging project, until and if l attempt to build the 2-4-4-2.  Sure wish there was a source for smaller steam drivers. This is an earlier steam coach with a horizontal smoke box sticking out of the front. Another hoped for steam coach is a Unit-Stanley or Baldwin, which will look more like a gas electric.  It will really need small drivers.

Getting closer to having the subroad bed laid for the Cabin Lake Sub.  Kyrian is soooo helpful!  Great to have her onboard.

Kerrigan posted:

Getting closer to having the subroad bed laid for the Cabin Lake Sub.  Kyrian is soooo helpful!  Great to have her onboard.

Kerrigan, Such a room full of treasures (!!!!) :

Kyrian; the developing layout; the trains behind the protective shrouding !!!!! You are a very fortunate man!

FrankM

Looked at potos of old PRR passenger stations. http://www.west2k.com/pastations/pastations.htm

It's one of my favorite pasttimes to envision what it was like for the folks to live and commute during the time of steam and examine the architecture of the various passenger stations.  I'm thinking of a small station in one corner of my layout for my redo.

I decided to give the next project the green light: Next micro project

Taking the trains to the people is important if we want interest within our community. The old saw that the next generation of modellers is taken from pre-teens doesn't work (and hasn't for the past forty years), instead I target those who have paid off the mortgage, have too much time on their hands and want something that can be achieved within a timeframe. In short, the active retired and pre-retirement communities who haven't already committed to a lifetime of golf.

The tiny layout featured above can be built within a year and will provide a great deal of personal satisfaction for those baby-boomers who grew up with plastic kits and still want to do something with their hands and mind.

Tim

think I finalized the track plan. I wish my library's worked in Scarm so I can place the buildings too they don't show up anymore in the library list.

Jhainer posted:

I wish my library's worked in Scarm so I can place the buildings too they don't show up anymore in the library list.

Did you add them to the SCARM lib folder in C:\Program Files\SCARM or C:\Program Files(x86)\SCARM? Isn't that where they need to be?

WAs going to post a couple of progress pics from last night but the place is such a mess that the photos will have to wait a week!  We did re-evaluate an unnecessary 'S' curve that used an 063 switch on the mainline and re-laid about 12' of mainline to eliminate the 'less than 072' turnout. Now its much smoother. 

Harold is working on the highest level mountain in the corner where the castle is by laying mesh and plaster.

I Know it's not a layout, but it's train related. I finished painting 5 of my Amtrak interiors. From gray to blue. and the dinette blue with white tables.

mike g. posted:

I Know it's not a layout, but it's train related. I finished painting 5 of my Amtrak interiors. From gray to blue. and the dinette blue with white tables.

Looking good Mike!

Are you going to add some passengers?

Hi Mo, I am glad you like it, I got the idea from your post a little while age. I plan on passengers, and some new LED lighting, and If I can get more information down the road from you I plan on putting flashing LED's on the last car. Also I need to pick me up a baggage car. for a transition between the engines claw couplers to my Kadee couplers.

"Also I need to pick me up a baggage car. for a transition between the engines claw couplers to my Kadee couplers."

Hey Mike, nice work!! Do you mind sharing how you mounted your Kadees on your passenger cars? I have some broken couplers on some Railking passenger cars.. I'd like to put Kadees on them if it's possible/feasible.. TIA

Hey there Woodson, What I did is took the end with the claw coupler off the trucks and cut the claw off. I then had to mill down the thick part half way so. I then positioned the Kadee so the butt of the coupler shaft was against the remaining part of the shaft I milled down. Drilled holes for mounting screw and bolts as I don't have a tap. I then joined them together, put them back on the trucks and checked them with my Kadee height gauge. If you would like I can send you some pictures later. In it's really easy if you take the time. My cars are also Railking.

Took a break from house cleaning chores to remeasure a straight stretch for a foam bridge wall to make the existing trackage appear to be on the structure. I only need to make one side because the track is close to the wall.  I taped 61 inches of copy paper end to end and drew a possible design. The height will be 9 inches and I have drawn four 12 inch wide arches separated by contoured pillars. Just experimenting for now.  

I sat in the dark trying to keep warm while the power company tried to get the juice flowing.  Wasted day but did go to Lowe's to look around. Was looking for textured paint and I saw a product called "popcorn texture". Saw it as a powder and mixed. Anyone familir with the stuff ??

jim pastorius posted:

I sat in the dark trying to keep warm while the power company tried to get the juice flowing.  Wasted day but did go to Lowe's to look around. Was looking for textured paint and I saw a product called "popcorn texture". Saw it as a powder and mixed. Anyone familir with the stuff ??

unless I'm mistaken it's mostly for ceiling use and difficult to paint over since if it gets damp it comes off in sheets

DoubleDAZ posted:

Jhainer posted:

I wish my library's worked in Scarm so I can place the buildings too they don't show up anymore in the library list.

Did you add them to the SCARM lib folder in C:\Program Files\SCARM or C:\Program Files(x86)\SCARM? Isn't that where they need to be?

yes they use to work I upgraded and now they don't whats funny tho is if I open a saved layout with them in it they all show up in the drawing but still not in the library list.

mike g. posted:

Hey there Woodson, What I did is took the end with the claw coupler off the trucks and cut the claw off. I then had to mill down the thick part half way so. I then positioned the Kadee so the butt of the coupler shaft was against the remaining part of the shaft I milled down. Drilled holes for mounting screw and bolts as I don't have a tap. I then joined them together, put them back on the trucks and checked them with my Kadee height gauge. If you would like I can send you some pictures later. In it's really easy if you take the time. My cars are also Railking.

Mike nice work..  I would to see how you did it too. Pics please.

Just hanging out in the train room, with my two grandsons.

Hanging up some Christmas lights and running some trains.

Merry Christmas from: Gary • Adam and Noah

Suzukovich, I will try and get some pictures taken tomorrow. But till then take a look at what I picked up in a great trade.

mike g. posted:

Suzukovich, I will try and get some pictures taken tomorrow. But till then take a look at what I picked up in a great trade.

Nice..........

Thanks,

Gary, Looks like the best time spent! Love spending time with my grandsons and granddaughter!

trainroomgary posted:

Just hanging out in the train room, with my two grandsons.

Hanging up some Christmas lights and running some trains.

Merry Christmas from: Gary • Adam and Noah

Gary, The junior engineers are really cute!!

Today I added a couple trees to the layout, tested a couple of engines, and then ran some trains for a while: a Southern Pacific SW 1, a Southern Pacific cab forward, and finally a Shay log train. I changed the trucks on the logging caboose last night. Here's a short video of the log train today. 

Well yesterday I pulled up one section at a time of track to put the quiet board back down . I got 3 sections done and feeders dropped to those areas and now have one full loop per say its really not a loop it would actually be a dog bone working so now I can have a  train running while I'm working again. it seemed once I got the one loop running I didn't get much more done other than running a train or two. I guess that's what it's about running trains. My granddaughter came up and wanted to dust off the buildings again I think she likes this layout better as it's more her height. she grabs the 5 gallon joint compound bucket and stands on it and can see everything now I was making a video of the trains running and of course a 5 year old has no concept of papa is recording but it's all good . I have a feeling the older she gets the more she will do on the layout hopefully I really enjoy her company when up there working on the layout but sometimes when I am doing major rebuilds like  right now she has a tendency to get in the way but it's funny at the time I get upset but after I think about it and wouldn't have it any other way.

Uploaded a video of my 'Flyonel' AF Missouri-Pacific passenger set.   Sure runs smooth.

AF passenger train

Great looking log train John. I have always been partial time shays.

Ran some trains last night.

Uncle Fester, Nice video of your reefer train. I run a varied consist of reefers behind a PRR M1a. The smoke and steam action on your loco is neat.

Pat Kn posted:

Great looking log train John. I have always been partial time shays.

Thank you PAT KN!

Made this piece to finish bridge over the hallway.  

this is where it goes. Need to make it look like a railroad accessory instead of a chunk of aluminum hanging from the ceiling.  Open to suggestions as to how to accomplish that?  Right now thinking some plastic to make the sides look like girders and some flat silver, rust or black paint.

All I can say is I wish I could weld like that. I think your on the right path with your ideas. I sure would like to see more pictures of your layout!

Thanks Mike.  Here are a couple more pics. And thanks for being a marine. 

Went to the train show in Kirkland Ohio today but came home empty handed. Although there was a decent number of three rail product there what I was looking for wasn't. But ran into a bunch of the local train group guys and it was nice to chat with them for awhile. So I think I go up and run some trains for a bit then head to the basement and layout some track because I got an idea and do not want to take too long to lay it out otherwise I'll lose the thought .......Paul

Mmmmm...I can smell the arc and taste the disc.

   C&O if its not too late or impossible could you flip it and do an "under girder" to retain as much view of the train as you can? Or use that metabo and cut some out to leave railings? Leave excess and bend in an angle iron look? You will lose a lot of view from the floor due to the angle, as an up girder.

I can't really do much on the underside because of head clearance, tall guys already have to duck it.  I think you are right it hides too much of the train need to hack on it some with the metabo.  

You forgot to mention the black boogers with the smell and taste

Uncle Fester posted:

Ran some trains last night.

Nice to see you post the great video!  While I keep in touch, I haven't seen you post here for a while!