What did you do on your layout today?

No problem, jmiller, i am not thinned skin.......all helpful comments and as I said its a work in progress in keeping with the topic of what I did on my layout today.

BTW Mill City, do I detect a fellow "Golden Domer" on this board.

-Pete ND '76

Went from....

to this...

Hello everyone. Well I  am almost done with all the painting out in the breezeway. This is the 1st time that I am useing  paint chips with the paint that I used. I hope it works.

Looks really good, Scot.  What a difference since you started.

Art

Nobody I know, that has done it, has regretted it after!  

Looking good, Scott......nice and neat.......keeps the dust down too.  Off to a good start!

-Pete

Some of the guys have been working on an atomic energy power plant installation recently and here it is. The first transmission tower (left) is 'real' while the others in the background were painted on the wall with 'real' lines stretched from one to the other. There is a siding with the K-Line Plymouth switcher and a couple of cars parked. Also a R/C helicopter stands at the ready to evacuate essential personal if necessary!

C Sam

Real nice. Did you paint the mural?

Dale H

Well did not do anything on my layout today. I along with a couple of other guys helped a friend get a layout out of a basement that he bought and helped him get it to his house. Took so long to take it apart and over to his house that all we had time to do was put it in his garage. We still have to get it into his basement but that is for another day.................Paul

---------Update-----

Father Carmine Responds to Critics

In a rare Interview, Father Carmine of St Lionel's Church responded to critics today, stating that comments made on the OGR regarding the Church's limited access have been rectified. See above Posts......Father Carmine stated he took up a special collection to address the lack of safety rails and to fix the insurmountable climb to reach his mountain top Church. He emphasized quick action had to be taken when State Code Enforcers ordered him to construct a staircase to the church with OSHA approved railings or face crippling fines and penalties.
In an amazing flurry of activity, during the course of last night, Father Carmine and a few dedicated parishioners, priests, Nuns, and a lone OGR Forum member, completed the monumental task in time for morning Mass. Father Carmine added there was even time to add temporary supporting pylons to the bridge spanning the Church Lake.

Father Carmine stated he hoped this satisfied those individuals who reported him for these code violations and he further refused to get permits for the construction, stating he answers "to a higher authority!"

Before/ After Pictures

-Pete

God bless  Father Carmine, a man of action and sensitivity to the needs of his congregation.  He also builds nice stairs.

Al

Yes, blessed be Father Carmine and his diligent congregation in their excellent means of providing access/egress to the Mountain Top Church.  And, the stairs also provide a reasonable route to the waters for baptizing.  A bit better then the quick method of diving off out of the church door!  

Father Carmine appreciates everyone well wishes and gives a Special Non-Derailment blessing to all all those who replied favorably to St Lionel's plight!

-Pete

Building the elevated high line and bridges.

Sorry, the place will be shut down-not handicapped accessible !!  I thought a sky hook held the track up !!

St. Lionel's is certainly better off than Our Lady Of Sudden Deceleration:

Mitch

Hi Dale.  No, not this particular one. Most of them I painted came from our old layout that were subsequently moved to the club when the layout came down. A ladyfriend of ours is a graphic artist and took over the remainder of the wall space and has done a great job blending mine into hers.

Hi Pete, I'm certain Father is pretty good at watching his step in and around his hillside parish. It's not the first time a church or religious community has been perched on a hillside or cliff, high above and far-removed from the action below.

FrankM.

Today a good day so far. I ran some trains but forced myself to work on the floor area at the same time. It paid off. Got half the area cleaned up. One more half and I have the whole floor area opened in front of the transformers.............Paul

I have the "Train Room Man Cave" - Making the wife a "Lady Cave"

This process is making chaos in the Train Room.

Gary - Cheers from The Detroit and Mackinac Raileay

  Click each photo to enlarge.....

The kitchen is the "lady cave"  !!!

My wife would say, thems fighting words.

Pete, "Answer me, these questions three".

 Could you still do a stone abutment/under-arch, with tall, thin, and cliff hugging "legs", and leave middle "as is "?( I.e., leave a wide, thin topped acme)

 Is Father O'Blivion catering the reception? 

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen canyon swallow?

 I know its a repeat suggestion, but I really like the scene. "As is" too, but I think it might add to the water scene, more than "block it".... A half arch, just on the right side maybe? 

Adriatic.....you made me laugh......but also think......I Temporarily put two round pylons under the " flying carpet" just to see how much of the waterfall scene it blocked.....wasn't and still not a fan of the way it looked........but hmmmm, your idea has some very real possibilities and I do like to scratch build!  I ran the idea by Father Carmine and my O Scale engineers and they looked at each other dumbfounded and said, "why didnt we think of that."  Great idea!  Gonna see what I can come up with this weekend.  

Father Carmine just gave you a lifetime "Non-Derailment Blessing" and invited you over for bar-b-que.......his speciality just happens to be southern fried canyon swallow!

 Good job, "big guy."

-Pete

I'm getting very close to being able to run some trains!!

Power is wired to all switches and the remote controllers are installed on small shelves located around the layout.  These shelves will also hold switches for power to sidings, switches for building lighting, controllers for animated accessories and switch controllers for the future upper level G gauge layout.

Here's the power for the O gauge layout.  I have everything on a rollabout shelving unit so I can move it out of the way to get under that section of the layout.  For the train power, I have a ZW-L (like Chris, I just purchased this from Nassau Hobby) and a ZW-C with 4 180 Powerhouses.  I will be powering the buildings, accessories, and switches with a post war ZW.  I will be running DCS and Legacy (and using LCS...you can see the WiFi module to the right of the ZW-L).

Before running my trains tonight I tried an experiment. I have noticed that the center rail gets a lot dirtier than the two side rails so- I cleaned the center rail real good !! Seemed to work, the trains appeared to run smoother, I have few traction problems. So if that works I have cut my track cleaning by 2/3s or I can do it more often.

started putting the shingles on the building here's what it looked like  Notice the word looked . well have I ever said I am clumsy yea well putting it away so granddaughter didn't get ti (should have left it alone she never messed with it before) last pic shows it in the process of fixing it now. adds some character to it.

???? That is the exact opposite of my experience on every layout I've ever used..

But a dirty center rail is a bigger performance killer. It normally has less contact area.

 So check the rollers too.

 The "inside edges of tube sections of the outer rails, below the "equator" can push the flange away from a rail weakening contact too.

 Why some things draw the gook, and others don't has always intriguing to me.

Is it the dust? The static?

 Is it weak magnetic fields inherent in some wheels from production methods??

 Is it corn oil vs olive oil on the kitchen stove?

Smoke fluid??

Is this just natures way of compensating for the extra bacon, making us "work it off" by cleaning track??    

 Strange.

What power supply and track do you use?

Ouch!

  I would have guessed the only way to re-use that would've be with some striped stockings, and "ruby slippers".

  You must be a very powerful Wizard

THe dirty center rail puzzles me, too. I have been using some smoke fluid lately but the #1 loop on the outside with 072 curves has only had my M-1000 on it since new. My track is new Lionel tubular with a Z and a KW transformers as power with a common ground. I have been using Red N Tacky grease on the gears and it seems to work well. Will have to keep a closer watch on it. I have no complaints on how the trains run. I can really get some slow speeds out of both stem and diesel engines. I change engines more than consists. Will look at the rollers closer, too.

At Saint Alfonso's Pancake Breakfast?

Mitch

Where I stole the mar-juh-reen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDn0Dg3qMTo

You caught me......one of my favorite movies and my Father Carmine inspiration!  In addition, my Dad's  name was a Carmine who was very saintly since he put up with me during my "early years!"

BTW working on a more permanent decorative structure today to support the bridge and not block the waterfall......

-Pete

the Rocky's were one of the first movies my wife and I watched when we first met. we both were fans before we met, and one a rainy day, or a really cold snowy day, we'll have a marathon.

Pete, I'm so pleased to see that Father Carmine has taken the necessary steps to ensure the safety of his parishioners. I will be attending this Sundays second mass followed by the pancake breakfast.

Frank Zappa, Apostrophe. Great album, haven't heard that reference in quite a while. I used the song Yellow Snow in an essay for English Comp in college.

Don

Cleaned ALL 5 loops of track today and realigned and tacked down several not-so-good spots. ran trains on all loops. right now pretty pleased the way the layout is running.  Hope it keeps up.

Chaz wears the inspectors hat well!!! He's quite the BOSS!!! Reminds me of the time I had two devious cats Heckle and Jeckle.  Both were doing an inspection of my layout when they heard me enter the room.  Upon hearing me enter they snuck into the mountain tunnel portals an hid.   I fired up two steam locomotives, ran them into the tunnels at one end and out flew the cats, like lighting,  from the other end destroying my entire main street ... as I figured would happen ... but worth the experience of seeing these those two felines fly!  After their grand exit,  I had to perform a thorough inspection inside the tunnel to make sure the cats left no residue behind.... if you know what I mean!

LMAO!  Yeah, Norma Bates Kitteh is quite the railfan as well...

From 2011:

And, of course, kittehs and toy trains have a long history together...

Mitch

I've quietly been working on that turnout relay panel for the last few days. It's going to be a long slow process. And if that isn't enough, I have to make a second one. The guys are always giving me crap about not throwing things away, not the least of which is small bits of wire.

As I continue to recycle as much as I can, I have been clipping off crimp on spade connectors in order to reuse the long pieces of wire. I've been collecting those small ends in one of my infamous ice cream buckets. I finally found a use for them! Those little red and black jumpers were made from the scraps.

The red and black jumpers are hooked up in a crisscross configuration to create a polarity reversal for the Tortoises.

Then the red and blue daisy chains will provide 12VDC to the system. The swing contacts will go out to the Tortoises. In phase one the relay will be activated with a simple toggle switch. In phase two, output bits from CMR/I will control the relays.

Joe was here today. You can just see him down at the far end of this section, as he finishes up the last bit of wiring that he can do laying on his back.

While he was doing that, I was finishing another spread sheet. This one is the final mainline turnout plan. Every turnout is named and numbered. The numbers will coincide with the relays on the two panels. There will be 102 relays controlling 124 Tortoises. There are 22 crossovers, but each of them only requires a single relay to throw.