What did you do on your layout today?

maybe when you get that unhappy about it,its time to move on.-jim

I made two derby hats, complete with brims...at least, that it was they look like..the

steam and sand dome for the 1937 Alco I am tryng to model.  These out of tube and

sheet styrene and doll house trim I found, with just the right dome peak curviture.

So these are styrene and wood.  Tomorrow they should get mounted on the boiler.

  Tarps over the "Potbelly Swamp Transverse International Rail (Tm)" Rail Road   are holding fine through winds the last few days. Without the clamps too

 And the straights on the PST layout did change to "frosted orange" While the curves stayed nice...

  Turn out the dogs ate one too many pieces, of plastic G track. I used two brands, with adaption mods between them. But just the wrong pieces got left for it to be easy in any way.

I have one straight, one curve, and need the opposite brand of each

  I have enough metal G track, & trains, for a back burner basement project.

 But I want to leave everything outside, and have a few cheap holiday engines, I killed or softened the bells on, & repainted. Those cheap battery RC's are as "command" as I get. Lighting the passenger cars was fun.  

Last night I replaced a few homemade signs near the front of the layout for Llaniog and the office at Pugh's Pit.

Seems like your vandals knew enough about G track to give you the most aggravation!  Maybe you should invest in a guard dog. ;-)

The 'Bark 'n Spiders' outdoor railroad occupies a section of the backyard that was my vegetable garden. The drought here ended my vegetable garden two years ago, and my wife had the area filled with bark instead of lying fallow.  The spiders have taken over.  I am still laying retaining wall blocks for the elevated section of the folded over loop to loop layout.  My wife commented the other day that the O-81 curves looked rather sharp...I brought up the Atlas website and showed her how for a few hundred dollars and a bit more of a bite into the backyard acreage we could switch to even wider radius curves.  That ended that discussion. LOL

Didn't do much today. Waiting on UPS to bring my order from Ross. So I dug out the black paint and painted the fascia, legs and supports with black. Later this week the forecast is for rain and that means layout time............Paul

Disassembled a UP 50th Anniversary offset dome car, "Plainfield," to repaint it in NP North Coast Limited livery.  Finding this car means I won't have to cut an offset dome in a LIONEL 15" coach.

Neat car with full interiors in the dome and lower level, highly detailed truck side frames, stream lighting, antennas, and full diaphragms.

Haven't figured out how to remove the tinted "windows;" they appear to be glued in.  Worst case I'll ruin them and have to replace them with clear acetate or equivalent.

Ordered some more parts and supplies for ongoing projects. 

I didn't know they had trains for pimps!..... 

Gary, there over 300lbs of dogs here. If they were outside someone might have been looking for a new spot to wear their watch 

 Unless they brought Cheerio's 

SOLDERING!!!

A hobby within a hobby.

Ed

I made road guard rails (fireplace matches and corrugated cardboard) to protect motorists travelling my recently-created, rather hazardous dirt road.

THE GLACIER LINE UPDATE:

04-14-2015 I installed the turntable! I had to brace and cut the base and top layer into what had been an aisle space and then proceeded to install the turntable and roadbed. This was done in just under four hours which is really moving. I’m surprised I got this much done. There will be a ton of wiring to do in the lower staging yard

Today I painted my 1st scratch built tent.

6 pieces of wooden matches, hot glue, and a piece of Blue Workers Towel.

It will fit pretty good into the campsite I am working on.

I'm exhausted..Taking a nap now

LOL

Dang!  That baby is gorgeous. 

Bruce

Working on getting some things organized to start building my new layout.  It will be a shelf switching layout in an L shape.  I will start to disassemble my sons layout this week and rebuild him a slightly smaller layout table for his O27 layout.  It will sit partially under my new layout.  

Cleaned up the last bit of tabletop, slopped paint and ground foam all over the place and set up the feedmill.Feed Mill needs painted and weathered, but won't happen for a while.
 

....cleaned the track

My next task!. lol...

The Gi-raffe Express' latest motive power is up and running! 

The former Williams GP-9 is now converted into something vaguely resembling a Lionel Rectifier locomotive.  Only thing left to do is wedge an electronic horn into the works...

Mitch

Scored a 1/43 scale WW2 Command Car made by Victoria off eBay for just $15 including postage.

I'm in the middle of making it look more correct, by doing the following:

• Sanding off the 'invasion' surround star on the hood and replacing it with a simple star as the surround stars were never seen stateside
• Painting the seats to look more like the leather-covered ones that really came on these vehicles (the model had the seat molded in OD green)
• Painting the folded canvas to another shade of OD green as it obviously shouldn't be the exact same color as the metal body of the vehicle
• Removing the markings from the bumpers (it comes marked as a 2nd Armored Division vehcle) and putting my own custom-made fictional RR operating units markings on it
• Sanding off the markings from the rear that are ones you'd only see in England or on the continent, including the "right hand drive- no signals" marking and a load marking for a landing craft
• Removing the extra gas can along the pass side running board
• Painting the exsiting gas can bracket strap the correct color

I'll post shots when I'm done, probably tonight or tomorrow...

I think I might eventually put together a thread here with details on how WW2 vehicles should look on a model RR taking place in the USA during the war.

Spent over two hours gluing cross braces to the new trestle bridge.  No deck laid except for the track but I'll get to it soon.

FINALLY found the root cause for my upper deck derailment issue. Has an issue with continuous but intermittent derailments at a Ross 054 wye. Tried shimming the lead track, screwing it down, using a level, all sorts of things. Got frustrated and pulled the track and was going to pull the wye to send to Ross and whatta ya know? It wasn't the wye. The Section of Gargraves leading into the wye was bent causing a slight bounce as the pilot trucks of my Lionel Scale K-4s 1361 hit the throat of the wye, they would pick the points of the turnout and that would put her on the ground as if 'Ole Scherbear was hanging on the deadman.  A quick replacement and WOW! What a difference. 2.5 hrs running and not a single derail.
Also replaced ANOTHER Z-1000 switch machine. I'm stacking these up like cordwood. I think I killed about 10 of these over the years. Something inside breaks and the motor runs continuously. Luckily I still have a couple of spares.
Miller Time.
  

Well, since I am lousy at soldering, it was a challenge to fabricate this extended pilot

for this Lionel engine (to convert it into a 2-8-0) but when I finally remembered I had

paste solder, and stopped trying with the spool stuff, I got it together.  It is strong, it

is painted, and I will put domes on the boiler tomorrow, paint that, and the end will

be in sight.  The space under the pilot platform does not allow for tight radii, like

0-27, but will work for wider radii.

Here it is:

P51:  Is the prototype for that car built on a Dodge "Power Wagon" chassis?  That flat top hood looks like Dodge 3/4 ton trucks we had when I was in the Army in 1956 - '58.  It sure makes for an interesting variation in a mix of military vehicles.  I don't recall ever seeing one with the door openings left open and with a rear passenger seat.  Which, of course, is what makes this a "command car".  Your "mods" certainly add to the overall effect.

So, where can a similar model be obtained?

Paul Fischer

The Power Wagon came from a postwar development of the Weapons Carrier frame and power train. They used some of the body styling initially.
The command car was a open-top passenger carrying version of the weapons carrier, all were on the same 3/4 ton frame:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...ies#3.2F4_ton_series

enjoyed it......

Finished painting the edge of the where the new siding went in. When I put in a Lionel bumper at the end of the track it was not quite enough to store five hoppers. So I added a small piece of track and made a bumper out of ties. While doing that I ran trains. Some pics of the siding and one of my C-Liner smoking around the curve............Paul

Paul,

Your completed siding looks great!  The ties work just right.  Excellent addition, and the C-Liner is doing it's job!

I finished installation of my new Gantry Crane on the ole layout.  It made a pretty good project as I added rails for it to run on and had to make new spot to mount the crane controls near the main control panel.

Charlie

Paul, that last photo of yours is a real nice perspective shot.   Well done!

Did a little engine maintenance. A new traction tire, lube, oil and filter for the K-4. Ran the layout and smelled hot wire. A quick inspection found nothing. Then I noticed my one MTH bridge wasn't blinking. Seems the newly installed, $16.00 blinking circuit board smoked. Again. I wonder if MTH parts will have them at York.....

Completed lighting on Dennis Brennan and Roger Peterson buildings and ready to place on layout for final touch ups. My wife helped with interiors on both. Suffolk is the home of Planters Peanute and my grandad's trucking moved their freight thus the Planters sign.

Roger's building was Floyd's Barbershop of Mayberry. My wife's family knew Andy as he often was in their shop on the Outer Banks and one was a neighbor.

Super buildings, Bill!  Your wife does a great job too!

Dennis and Roger did a great job on these kits!

Completed lighting on Dennis Brennan and Roger Peterson buildings and ready to place on layout for final touch ups. My wife helped with interiors on both. Suffolk is the home of Planters Peanute and my grandad's trucking moved their freight thus the Planters sign.

Roger's building was Floyd's Barbershop of Mayberry. My wife's family knew Andy as he often was in their shop on the Outer Banks and one was a neighbor.

Thanks Mark. They were a lot of fun to put complete. Supposed to meet Dennis next week at York and pick up his roundhouse kit. That will be a challenge.

Bill Webb: Suffolk, Va. ??   Neat buildings.

Well I was going to work in the yard this afternoon but Mr. Brown dropped off my package from Ross so after lunch I'll install the switch and uncoupler on my siding and clear off the area so it is ready for more scenery when my order from Scenic Express comes in...........................Paul

Bill, anyone... I cannot see these photos. It says "Image not found"...

Is it me or the photos?

It's not you, I can't see them either. Been seeing this kind of thing a lot more recently here, for some reason.