What did you do on your layout today?

I was going to get the last of the blue points in (other than the one borken turnout I plan to fix this weekend) when yet another turnout point bar snapped! Now I have two to fix. Dang it. But now I only have two blue points left to install once the turnouts are fixed.

So, I instead put all the car card boxes into place as that needed to be done anyway.

Man, I'm so ticked about how crummy a design this Micro Engineering turnouts are and how fragile all their stuff is. If I had to do it over, I'd have gone with anyone else's track...

Paul:

Again, spectacular scenery work! I wish I could hire you to work for me.

The show hasn't even started, and I've already adopted a dusty but otherwise functional ZW that some nice little old lady found in her attic and wanted out of the house...

20 volts at all terminals and the pilot and breaker lights work, plus a nice pliable cord.  A good omen for this weekend, methinks. 

Mitch

Lucky man! 

Here's my setup for the 2015 NWA Train Show!

If you're in the Springdale, AR area on Saturday 2/28 between 9 and 4, stop on by!

http://www.trainshow-nwa.org/

Mitch

Looks great, Mitch!  I hope you have a good day at the show!  I'll bet the kids will like the giraffe train!  

As an aside, I've been to Springdale back in the early '90s.  My father-in-law was transferred from Butler, Pennsylvania to the Today's Kids factory in Booneville for the last 10 years he worked.  They lived in Fort Smith.  Once when we visited, we took a trip to Eureka Springs passing by Springdale.  I really liked Northwestern Arkansas!

Mitch, looks great.  So, how much is shipping to 30076 for the ZW you bought from the "little old lady"?

Nothing major this week. Installed 3 pr of Weaver Diecast 3Rail trucks on some old Atlas (pola?) O-Scale ore jennies. Still need 5 more pairs. Getting there....

Not nearly enough today.  Figured out how to screw the new pilot plate on, using the

original plate's location, vs, first pass of having it held on by coupler mount screws. Tested and experimented with different pilot wheels and axles, and the mounting for the pilot truck.  Going to try a Marx #999 pilot truck, as those mounting arms

would work, although I have another Lionel?  set of spoked wheels I'd rather use, for

appearance.  Lots of wheel and axle sets, but most need to be staked to hold on

the the press fit wheels when used as a pilot truck.  Will look at some other upscale locos with spring-loaded pilot trucks to see if I can fabricate something maybe a little more advanced than the Marx gravity pilot truck, although I am fabricating a gravity assembly as the first test version for the spoked wheels, as these wheel are

a lot heavier than the stamped sheet metal Marx ones, and should track better.

I just sand down the throw bars on my two broken turnouts, mixed up and applied a thin layer of JB weld over each. I'll let that dry overnight, then sand down the remaining stuff and try drilling a hole for the blue point wires to control the positions.

I also adjusted two other blue points which weren't quite like I wanted. They both work great now.

All I need is to get these last two turnouts working and get the blue points mounted underneath, then I can operate finally!

I'm also going to the big model train show north of Seattle in the morning and hitting several hobby shops on my way south afterward.

Well;  it's not quite yet "What I did on my layout today"  but more "What am I gonna do today?"  Today the Great Lakes Division, TCA has a train show, open to the public after 10:00 am, here in Cleveland at the Union Hall on Chevrolet Blvd.  I will have a table there to see what I might move.  Stop by and say hello and see what I might have that you "just can't live without".  Not sure of my table assignment but I will have a Milwaukee Road Hiawatha F-7 Hudson out there in plain sight.  Look for that.

When I get home this afternoon is when I'll be working on the layout.

Paul Fischer

Sounds like a good day planned, Paul!

I still keep watching the schedule, and hope to attend some day.

Mitch, say hi to my Dad, Joe D.  He already texted me a picture of the Gi-Raffe Express the Zebra car.  Usually PA is better for trains, but today, I miss my home in Arkansas!

Made up a bunch of trees for down the road. After I had planted trees yesterday I thought it might be prudent to grab a scale auto rack to see how it goes down the grade. My grade is 0-80 curves so I found out I had to move a few trees that the car hit. Today I think I'll chill out and run a few trains. Maybe if I run them fast enough I can get the dust off them LOL.................Paul

Today I found a whole new way to operate, using the variable channel on my dcs. I won't do it routinely but it is a fun new option! 

Tried to figure out how to wire a passing siding off the unused half of my MRC dual.   Layout is 100% conventional.  I want to be able to move one train onto it, park it, and run another train around it, and then be able to  park the second train on the main line,  and pull the other one out of the siding.  I did this as a kid, 50+  years ago.  Trying to remember how I did it.   I used knife switches.  I still have two of them. 

What am I doing on the layout?  I'm vacuuming it.  The biggest headache of a floor layout is the unceasing rain of dust!  And those miserable dust bunnies crawl in everywhere.  Without a vacuum job every week, the layout would soon consist of a vast mound of dust, lint and animal hair.  I suppose I could try to pass it off as a fog bank, but I prefer to remove it before it gets that bad.

lowered some K-Line ore cars by using Weaver trucks and now working on re-lettering them.

Well, not exactly on my layout, but on a layout I sure get my hands into, on, over, and about - Lionel's layout at F.A.O. Schwarz, Fifth Avenue, NY, NY. Today, in the Layout Refinements inventory section of my basement, I finished my plans for and got all the miniatures, ground-covers, foliage, and paints ready to go into NYC to change the Lionel layout over from a Winter/Holiday celebration to a landscape that celebrates Springtime. Lionel's layout stays up all year 'round, in F.A.O., since sales have been so successful there the last several  Christmases.

FrankM.

Your dad very kindly helped me get my stuff home in the snow! 

Mitch

Traction action at the Train Show! 

The future of the hobby:

Not strictly train related, but tinplate, made by Marx and nifty:

Why I spend hours and hours on setup and running trains for the kids: 

And, for some odd reason, I'm now into G scale.  Does anyone have a single truck trolley they wanna let go cheap? 

More pics below!

Mitch

Spent another $100 on tools, supplies, and parts to do a $25 repair job--hobby math, again.

as i posted earlier I am building a small church, country style, has a steeple with a cross, and using GRANDT Line for windows and doors>  This is the window i am putting on each side, four to s aide.  These windows are recessed and i had to build a small jig to outline each window on the side and i used the jig to mark on (scale ) 6' centers  four windows to a side, front door is double and same deal had to build a cut out jig probably will have a access door on the side.

so far actual labor hours in project (actual sit down with wood or tools in hand)  10

got incredible cedar shingles for roof, can not wait to put them up, so so real looking, and the siding from evergreen is so so real also, it is conventional siding

now to figure out how to color the window paines, five of em, but think they have to have color

suggestions, all i can think is clear acetate and paint??

Try colored felt tip pens for your windows. I ould xpriment first, though. I have used them on various projects.

Today I looked at the circuit boards for my signal system.  Then I spent some time dreaming and planning--mostly dreaming.

Norm

Took the day off from construction to attend a day long NMRA local division meet. It was a day of show and tell and general socializing with a few clinics thrown in for good measure. Much to my surprise and delight there were even a couple other 3 railers there.

I brought my laptop with all my pics and the lower deck track plan and gave virtual layout tours.  Seeing as how the layout is totally based on local railroading, it was easy for everyone to understand and appreciate.

In the middle of the afternoon an announcement was made that the 2018 national narrow gauge convention was coming to the Twin Cities and the organizers were looking for layouts to tour. I didn't even have to ask, they asked me. I think my railroad just hit the big time. Guess I better get my butt in gear.

In case you hadn't guessed, I had a good time!

If you are not "in gear," I have no idea who is!

FrankM

That new ZW of mine cleans up pretty good...

Still has a bit of a stale cigarette smoke smell about it, tho.  Next up:  Whistle testing! 

Mitch

I fabricated a pilot truck gravity system that appears to work, but won't do a curve as

tight as 0-31, which test track section I was using. Made out of a brass bar, two brass

wires and a staked axle pressed on to the mentioned spoked Lionel wheels.  Took much

trial and error as this assembly had to operate around the mounted Lionel coupler, which was tried over and under the brass bar that was screwed to the two original  mounting posts. This is a temporary test system...hope to get in some smaller wheels for the pilot truck, and replace soft brass arms with piano wire ones. Now could see that there is room for a shorter pilot plate, so cut an eighth of a inch off the painfully soldered pilot plate, and have it set up in a vise to solder the buffer bar to, tomorrow.

I see I don't have to fabricate elaborate stairs and handrails up from pilot plate, as

photos of Great Western #60 show they were added after 1940.  There is a feedwater

heater mounted on the pilot plate, under the smokebox, and two rod handrails and

simple steps that will have to be added.

I tried a commercial dust filter, and sadly, it didn't do much for my problem.  The real difficulty for me is that space considerations force me to put the layout next to the basement stairs.  So all the dust, animal hair, lint and other assorted airborne matter from the stairway traffic are constantly getting dislodged from the stairs and onto the layout.

I've considered blocking off the side of the stairs from the basement, but that would make them dangerously dark.  Then I'd have to wire up a stairway light...

Nothing's simple.

Thanks Frank. In truth, I could try to be more productive with the hours I do spend. I could even spend more hours, and watch less TV, or just work on small projects while watching TV downstairs.

Three years seems like a long time from now, but it really isn't. I think I'm running about 6 months behind where I wanted to be with regard to track laying. This will be the year that the track gets done.

Hung my new lighting I just picked up. Have to adjust the angles but they really look great! Put in a dimmer switch too!

Nice!  What kind of lights and what kind of dimmer? (I work for Lutron, so I have to ask).  Maybe I can write off my time on this thread as a work expense?

No construction yet - basement not nearly ready - but I did score a bunch of lightly used Atlas O track (my track of choice) for cheap. 

Went to a train show yesterday and picked up a LionChief Plus engine for my grandson to use on the new layout.  By the time I get back to NJ in a few months he will be 3 1/2 and I hope will be able to use the remote.