What did you do on your layout today?

Been lazy/burnt out the last couple days. Finally dragged myself downstairs tonight. The last sections of track on the helix and their wires are prepped. Gonna gather my tools and materials, and first thing tomorrow morning, I'm going in, and I'm not coming out til it's done!

 

Down comes the compass and into retirement it goes.

Good production day. I wired 6 long sidings, got then all leveled and screwed down tight. Five more to go and this part of the renovation project will be done. Many would not think this is time consuming, but it is.

 

Hi Mr. Wood (real name?): Very much like the looks of your layout. I see you've repainted some stuff in less toylike colors, such as the #352 Icing Station, etc. Like your use of the light towers also. Nice to see your layout.

 

Thank you Virginian65....  I am not a long term member of this forum and I am amazed at the level of involvement and quality of information provided here.  I am trying to post some of my own efforts and am thankful for your feedback.  Yes, my given name is "Wood". 

While I am a car and train nut, with almost no interest in spectator sports, I did some

graduate work at last night's NCAA Champion U of L, so actually watched Petino hoist

the trophy, after applauding Michigan's previous win, because of a recent tour of the

Upper Peninsula.  And I did get paint on, and half the roof shingled (except for the holes) as miniscule progress on the ghost town store. 

 

Just getting on the work clothes to climb back on top of the engine servicing facility homaboard to finish filling the "dips" in the crack filler.

 

Last step before painting with "ash grey" latex.

Fine tuning, cutting, fitting track. Trains are running very nicely through 60-70 year old 1024 switches. Time to order some roadbed.

54 days and the helix is done!

Now that is impressive...great work.

 

Chris

Finally finished the wiring project for the relocated rail yard. Now it is on to the fun stuff of creating a new business district, a Caterpillar Sales, Rental & Service lot, and a new train station complex that will include a very large new station.

 

Thanks Chris. It works as a great "marble run". I took an MTH Superliner car and turned it loose at the top. It flew down, but stayed on the track.

I made a rutted mud road into my trash trailer park!

Thanks Chad, nobody has ever asked about that before. That is a technique that I came up with many years ago, for use in areas that will be hidden. It serves as a bending form for Gargraves, and also provides for perfect and consistent spacing of multiple tracks. It is made up of two layers of Luan plywood and locks the track in place without screws. It is a little labor intensive to do all that kerf cutting for the curves, but the material isn't that expensive.

The ghost town store is done, and I am pleased...the fallen porch, swaybacked roof,

and general decline came out better than hoped.  This from a box of sticks kit for

which I substituted milled clapboard walls and used just modified plans and some stripwood. Think the complex will also get a saloon, hotel, or blacksmith shop, and station ruins, and hope to get photos up on here when done.

I did more benchwork.  And more of a "for my layout" vs "to my layout" I went to a large train show in Springfield OH. Approx 350 vendor tables. (they claim, i didn't count) I bought my first three cars. The New Haven to join other New Havens I have. The other two just because I like them. They are MTH Premier.

Finished relocating all the barrier strips for DCS/TMCC power.

Today planning to wire it up to the point I can again run  trains (without power to turnouts) for the first time since panel relocation started in November 2012!

Kerrigan,

I recently added a small extension the front of my layout and had to do some panel work and move my ZW and CW80.  Panel re-work sucks.  I also moved terminal strips and had to move my 4 bricks.  not fun

Started turning run-of-the-mill O27 track into something much more realistic.

Cleaned all the track today so I can test run tonight, started hanging skirting around the perimeter, all the ballast is done and 90% of the scenery. Still have to add to my town and build a temporary small village up on the mountain and temporary industrial area.....only 8 more days to go before Blissfield Railroad Days and open house.

clem

Finally was ready to start placing structures in the new business district. We designated the location of 11 pieces and now I have to wire them for lighting.

 

Also extended the waterway to accommodate the new grain mill. The Alex M. creation will look sensational in it's new home.

 

Installed the Flat Iron Building in my City area of the layout.

 

Finally did a drawing for the new pipeline that will run from the refinery to the loading station.

 

Pretty good day considering most of it I was away visiting client sites.

Today was planning and sketching...the nice thing about freelancing is that you can go

where your imagination takes you...deciding what buildings to go with...to complement

the completed ghost town country store...think hotel is out..too much real estate demanded for a credible building...blacksmith is out, as an abandoned gas station is appealing (and I have seen a few of those), and the theme is immediate Post-Depression.  But have started on the saloon...looking at milled siding,....clapboard on the store...so board and bat on the saloon?  Tarpaper rolls on the store roof, so rusty

corrugated metal on saloon?  Will have to use real metal to get it to look rolled up and

stripped by the wind.....Inselbrick was roofing shingle material stamped with mortar lines, colored red with white lines,  to look? like brick when put on the sides of buildings in the 1930's...(not found in the upscale parts of town)  Don't think any

of the brick papers or roofing shingles will accurately convey that effect.....Don't want

it to look like brick..want it to look like Inselbrick...which preceded aluminum siding

which preceded vinyl siding...

 

Today, I tore out and completely rebuilt the eastbound grade up and out of my lower level staging yard. It now has larger curves, better vertical transitions and a more even rise over the total run.

 

I learned a lot on the first attempt and decided that it would totally be worth the time to apply what I learned on a rebuild.

 

It's a vital part of the layout's operation and now it works brilliantly!

- RICH

Charlie will be happy to know the switchback is operational, not pretty but operational.  Just need to lay a little more track and do a little electrical and then clean clean and clean.  Will be ready one way or another for the meet at my house Saturday night.  17 have RSVP'd and a few more will probably come.

Dan

Only put in an hour and a half today, but in that time, I managed to cut in that switch I mentioned a couple days ago. This was a long dreaded project, but once I got into it, it was rather fun and easy. Also got the two legs of the wye bent and ready to install.

 

Patrick is coming over tomorrow. I think we'll be working on bracing a couple sections of the upper deck, finishing the top of the bookshelf, and hanging more backdrop. I'll get back to trackwork on Saturday.

Changed wheelsets on 3 cars, couplers on one car and finished wheel load in gondola.

As of today April 11th, completed projects on the layout every day except 1 this year!

 

ncng

I´ll made a new video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrLuUe166lU

Back under the layout for another wiring session.

Hope to get power back to at least the two main lines today so I can finally run something!

Layout has been down since November for the dreaded turnout control panel relocation from the engine servicing facility expansion work.

And that has totally sucked; not being able to "play!"

Always a busy day when Patrick comes over. Today we finished 32' of bookshelf, and 8' of backdrop. After he left, I finished the wye.

 

Had a busy day friday, wired in the last of the switches then ran trains for a couple of hours to make sure everything is good. Today is clean up the wiring and extend the town.

7 days to go before open house. I'm running to close to the clock.

clem

Last night, I installed pink flamingos, overturned ruined washers and dryers, and trash around my trailer park.  I measured the next ten feet of my country road.  I worked on a balky remote turnout. 

Did some work in the relocated refinery area today. What an improvement this will be when all of the new components are in place.

Geeze am I getting tired of wiring and re-wiring and wiring some more ....

Back under the layout today to find out where the uncoupler wires for the yard ended up .... the seem to have gone "missing ...."

Cleaned the layout room under the direct supervision of the Bride. I can now rent the room out for open heart surgery!

I have been working on this for 3 weeks off and on this is for a lift out for a logging line that will allow me to walk into my layout no more duck under for this old boy.

 

my first attempt at making anything like this may not be dimensionally accurate but looks pretty good to me for my first attempt.

 

$oo

 

 

 

I'm laying my first track in a section of the layout and installing overhead wire in the same area for the mainline and a short line. 

I also want to thank jdevleerjr for a great idea of a thread. I enjoy it very much. Don

I changed the minimum curve on my outer loop from O-31 to O-42. I added some trees to one of the corners and added a realtrax operating track section to my outer loop. 

Absolutely nothing, and not by choice! I had my knee surgery three days ago and I have not been downstairs to my trainroom yet.   My knee is feeling somewhat better, so I may try to venture down tonight to atleast watch some trains run!!

Cobrabob.