What did you do on your layout today?

I, a day or two ago, tested using tissue (Kleenex) as the "canvas" roof covering on this

D&RGW gas electric kit.  Bad idea!  At least, with water based carpenter's glue....so

tried typing paper.  This is having the right effect, and I am almost done...tedious!..

covering the entire roof and clerestory with it, first cut in long strips for the top of

the clerestory, per the prototype photo, and then in rectangular squares glued down

each side.  When I finish that, I will fabricate the bell platform and the cylindrical

fuel tanks that mount on each side of the clerestory.  I need to hunt a pullman green

color for the car.

In my misspent youth, I had some success with Kleenex roof covering.  The secret is to brush on a layer of paint, rather than glue, and lay the tissue over that...

 

(a Henry Elsner Birney epoxy kit. avec homemade power truck)...

 

-MMM-

 I haven't been getting all my alerts. Likely thanks to the fine work of something else wrong with W-10.(sense the sarcasm?)

 

Mark, Your efforts in the village, have allowed it to progress to small town status very quickly, and very nicely. I think maybe you should run for mayor now.

 

Mitch,

Please try not to give yourself a carpel tunnel injury from winding. Pace yourself.

There are also doctors that can help you, but you'll have to want to quit first .  

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

Priming backdrop!

 

Looks great Anthony!  I like the nice coved corner.  Looks very smooth!

Adriatic,

Thank you very much!  Mayor doesn't sound like a bad idea.  I think I could convince the 1:48 voters to vote for me.  LOL

 

Mitch,

Adriatic has a point!  LOL  I've had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands twice; 20 years apart.  It isn't that bad, keep up with those clockwork trains!!

Quite a selection, three of which I understand and the 4th awaits a month end explanation/demonstration. All look like really neat projects.

 

Still fishing season here and the marlin bite is on. Hope to have some pictures next week as the fish may have left in the northeaster the past two days. Before that, the employes have been offshore instead of working on the Mayberry Courthouse. That often happens on the Outer Banks this time of year so nobody is surprised at the delay.

 

 

Working on a new You Tube Video, trying to learn how to use Final Cut Pro. With a 30 day free sample. Not going well, may be going back to iMovie. The art work is done for the thumbnail. See sample below, and the video is the video, that I am using to learn Final Cut Pro Ten. It is more about the cost for final cut pro, iMovie is free.

 

This is the video, that I am using to learn Final Cut Pro, I have used this channel before and he is very good.

Thanks to a local entrepreneur we have a place to set-up the club layout.

Until recently we could only work on a half at a time and had to pack-up every-night.

 

 

Spent the last few hours boxing up whatever I could.  Bitter Sweet.  Sometime in the next 18 months we'll be moving (need to find a house first!).  Figured I may as well start packing up the stuff I can live without until then.

 

About a month ago it hit me like a Berkshire.  I'm going to move, so I shouldn't do anything more on my layout.    It kinda really sucks.  It's not fun running trains on my layout because I know that if I put some time into it, it would be so much better.  So I've been keeping out of the basement and doing the bare minimum with the club.  I think I've come out of my funk.

 

While I was boxing things up, I had a train running on the loop.  Even put a couple of RailSounds Tenders on the consist (one being pushed by the loco and one being pulled by the caboose) just to add some sound effects.  At least until it was their turn to be boxed up.

 

Aw, crap.  That would have been a good time to catalog everything, huh?  Oh well, I'll do that when I move, I guess.

 

I have started planning the layout in the new house.  No clue how big the room will be, but I have some general ideas as to what I'd like to do.  And as we've covered numerous times on the past 158 pages, thinking counts!

I ran trains for a few minutes this morning. Worked all day and ran trains when I got home tonight, around 8:30.  Fun!!!!

Finished up putting strips of paper on the clerestory roof of the Oneida D&RGW gas

electric..not an exciting job...and then have done some paint tests.  I have two brands

of "Hunter Green" big box rattle can paint, Krylon and Rustoleum  (I am not a fan of

Rustoleum) that look like "coach green" if toned down with flat clear or Dullcote.  I

have no clue what color this prototype was, in its B&W photo,  but think their standard gauge heavyweights prior to WWII were Pullman green.  Had no luck in one pass through Wallyworld looking for a darker green than Hunter.  Will hit more home big box stores, but often their selection ain't great.  People on here are creative, so anybody

had any luck finding a readily available dark green in some source?

John,

Yes it is hard to pack everything up.  I have done it before.  I take it you are packing some things now, because you don't know when the mad packing rush will start.  Are you going to leave the layout up to run something for a while?  I hope you find the right house For your new layout.

Mark,

Yes, trying to do SOMETHING ahead of time to make lighter work when we actually are ready to move.  Also, in its current state, my house is not ready for sale.  I've got too much stuff for this house and it looks cluttered.  Before I can put it on the market, I need to pack some stuff and either: 1. Hide it in the attic. 2. Rent a storage facility or 3. move it to my new house (in the event I buy before I sell).

 

Yes, the layout will stay up as long as I can get away with it. I left a consist on the rails.  A few other locos didn't get boxed up, so I have some options. Also, some of my RTR sets are easy to get to and unpack, so if I get a real hankering...

Today and tomorrow I will be readying my layout for my clubs monthly meeting at my house Wednesday night. Since cleaning up the floor I have only spent time rearranging trains under the table. I am hoping once I get through my meeting I can get back to work on the layout itself...................Paul

John,

Yes I remember uncluttering a small house to make it look presentable for sale.  Our one daughter was in college, had a lot of stuff, and still reminds us we packed the wrong things in the wrong boxes.  I have told her to get over it and move on. 

I hope you find the right house soon, and are able to sell yours quickly.

Today I painted, the roof of the Oneida D&RGW gas electric, and then the frames of

the clerestory windows, these last with the dark green paint tracked down.   The kit does provide green plastic for the "glass" for the clerestory windows.

I also scratchbuilt and began to paint the louvered and screened "boxes" which shroud

the two Continental engines that powered this gas electric, and that are slung under

the chassis.  Drilled holes for them and started to form the truss rods that will also go under the car.  There are NO metal parts in the kit, so I went through a Walthers gas

electric kit looking for useable parts.  I found a bell and other parts I can use, and

discovered that the box top of the Walthers kit was stamped, "Chester Holley" in Fla.

Remember him?

yup.."The Most" he had a great collection.

I aligned the Mountain Division track with the track on the Bollman bridge which carries the Mountain Division main over Lake Christopher.  The outside rail on the bridge was sitting a little higher than the connecting land rail.  Problem solved and the train rolls accross just fine now. I also ran trains for a quite a while today.  I made up a nice long mixed freight for the outside main pulled by a MTH B&O SW 9 and Williams B&O GP 9 dummy.... nice looking consist! 

Well i've been finally been workin some more on my layout. Ran off to Home Depot to pick up a few more sheets of 2" foamboard. Cut some grade risers for the upper level and some 3" foam board for track supports.
Still looking for a job and outta $ for now but things are starting to take shape
Al

Albert, have you checked the clearence of your longest piece of rolling stock and your biggest engins?  Some of the photos make it look like you have some tight clearence areas.

Did a bit of work to my New Haven EF-4; bolted the little speaker to the underside fuel tank in an effort to get a bit more resonance out of the somewhat anemic horn.  It IS a tad louder, now... 

 

Had the Zeppelin Train on display Friday evening and the gi-raffes on display Sunday evening at a comics/cartoon critter convention in Memphis to much d'awwing and "ain't that cute!"  The con's theme next year will be railroads, so shall have much more running then! 

 

Mitch

This morning I didn't plan to play with trains, however, it just happened  ... go figure

I had a ball running trains this morning!!!  

 

I fixed a Weaver trailer on flat car ... so now the car and trailer are back in service.  I also did a bit of organization in the train room ... but mostly just ran trains ... changing some cars in and out of the various freight trains ... and changing engines.  Loved every moment of it!!!  Got to love this hobby!!!!

At the moment, I'm making preparations for the upcoming holiday season...

 

Just HOW I'm gonna get this past the bluenoses at the Children's Christmas Train, I dunno... 

 

Mitch

Jon was supposed to come over today, but he had to cancel. Yesterday I was doing some prep work to do more fascia on the upper deck. I've also started cleaning so I can run trains for company tomorrow.

 

When we built this section of the benchwork, I just grabbed some cutoff pieces with a 48" radius, even though the track is more like 072. I took the saber saw and re-shaped it to follow the track.

 

While I was there with the drop cloth and the vacuum, I drilled some holes to get the feeder wires from the hump, through the plywood deck.

 

I removed all the old daisy chain wires from the relay socket strips, and cleared off the table so I can start building the second turnout relay panel. Sitting on the floor to do the first one wasn't that bad, but working at the table should be better.

 

Finally, I started the reconstruction of the CMR/I - relay power panel by removing a bunch of unnecessary components. In the process, I discovered that I have a couple of smashed capacitors on that small board that will have to be replaced. My problem is I can't read the values, nor have I had any luck finding the parts list. I thought it said .1Z MEXICO. Is that supposed to be .1u?

 

I'll keep looking. I want to fix it before I hang the panel.

 

Mitch - Got to love your spirit Bro!!  Its never too early to get ready for Christmas.  Very nice ornaments!!!  Is her name Mary Christmas?

Hee!  As good a name as any... 

 

Mitch

John D. 

 

Don't be in a big hurry to box your layout. Eighteen months ago I thought I had my house sold and dismantled my layout, then the buyer backed out at the last minute. I have a new buyer but they can't get their house sold. To make matters worse I had to undergo cancer treatments over the winter and really missed having my layout. With another winter coming on I am feeling the layout blues every time I go into the basement and see all those train boxes.

 

Today It was my turn to host the local train club I am in. We meet once a month at each others houses. Spent the day tidying up for the boys. For most it had been last year since they saw the layout and they all were quite amazed at all the work I had completed since then. And to top it off everything ran without a hitch and none of those little gremlins showed up. As fun as it was I am glad to get back to working on the layout......Paul

And a hearty Merry Christmas to you, sir.  

Got the split up/down ramps roughed in on my branch line.

57' up 5" and 57' down 5" for a 10" separation @>1%

JM
My layout is set up for O72 min radius and for motive power the largest loco I have now is a CPR 2-10-4 and a GN S2 Northern. I do intend to pickup a GN R2 2-8-8-2 in the near future. I know I will need to tweak things a little here and there as I have had to carve out some clearances on curves for my 70' passenger cars.
   My main concern so far are my grades with all the CPR brass steam I have. I'm sure I will need to add weight to all of them in order to pull atleast a 5 car passenger train up the hills. I realize there is no way a Big Boy or NP Z6 will negotiate the clearances as their boilers are just too long.
    The layout due to size constraints already has had to have compromises considered and implemented. But I think that's part of th fun lol.
   Hope get some test trains running to see what lenght of freights I can pull.
   The longest siding is good for atleast an ABA plus 4 maybe 5 70' passenger cars.
I will keep updates coming as I progress.
Al

Last night was track cleaning night at the club. It had been neglected and needed a good cleaning. We use two Centerline Track cleaning cars: one in front soaked in alcohol and the second dry to wipe up. Works good. 

 

 

Today, in floated brass loco bells (too late, my lack of patience had me scrounge a zamac cast one out of a Walthers kit), and Micro-Mark rivets.  I hope these rivets are an improvement over what I was getting punching sheet styrene with a finishing nail.

(the straight line you punched on the back, was not necessarily carried through to the

front!) Also did paint testing, trying to get a darker green, over spraying a green on flat black. on a wooden test sheet (this can be dangerous due to lack of different brand paint capability, but this seems to work).  And fabricated racks for bell and domed end fuel tanks (3) that go on the roof of this LaBelle kit for an Oneida D&RGW gas electric.  I have the enclosed, ventilated "boxes" that sling the motors under the car painted and ready to mount.  Nothing accomplished yesteday due to non-train

problems to work.

I accumulated  several Lionel 2400 series silver passenger cars lately, at bargain prices so cleaned them up, fixed the lights, etc. Had 3 dome cars, 3 observation cars and 3 coaches so I have reworked a few. One coach, a 2405, was in nice shape but bare-no lights or frosted strips in the windows so I gutted the ugliest of the observation cars and put the nice coach shell over observation guts. I now have a pretty nice passenger consist of 3 domes, 2 coaches and one observ. car. The extra coach was a remake I did some time ago and has a wooden roof I made plus an extra observ. car. Will have to test the consist with my GG1 and diesels.

I've been building my Tombstone Southwest Railroad for a while now and today I decided to open up a bit more real estate.  I have a fort, Fort Hauchuka on the edge of the layout and it was taking up a lot of space between a couple of mountains I built.  I built the fort from scratch and it is quite large (as a good fort should be, I guess). 

I have a narrow path behind my framework used for maintenance but the corner was just wasted space.  So today I build little table top and inserted it with brackets attached to the framework and behind it.  Pulled out Fort Hauchuka and moved it back against the wall.  After filling in with some small rock I had a much roomier area for my train to run through.  Before it passed behind the fort.  Here are some pictures to show start to finish.

The last picture shows my happy Lincoln round the bend.
Hope you enjoyed the journey. Thanks for viewing.  More details about the relocation is on my blog.


Tombstone Southwest Railroad

 

 

GOOD NEWS FROM PATSBURG!!!!   Tom, my repairman, came over this morning and fixed the MTH Western Maryland BL2.  I'm happy to report that the BL2 is up and running fantastic!!!  She's pulling a 12 car freight like a champ!

 

Tom's a super great repairman and a super great person as well!!!  He made a house call to correct a repair that was left off for him, by me, at a train shop. ( He repairs as a sub contractor for this particular shop)  Upon my picking up the repaired loco last Friday and bringing it home to my layout, I found the loco was not working right... even though he tested it before leaving his shop ... the loco was having a new set of problems.  I called Tom for advice ... and he offered to come to my place and fix the loco on my layout ... he wanted to see how the loco functioned on my layout..... now this AMAZING customer service!!!!  We in the central Maryland area are extremely lucky to have Tom!!!!  

 

I've had this BL2 locomotive sitting on a shelf now for a couple years, thinking that it had a blown board... and the replacement cost was something that I did not want to deal with until the $$ was right.   Much to my surprise it didn't have a blown board, just a short and  needed a new pair of pick up rollers.  Since this loco has been a shelf queen for 2 years, I now feel as if I have a new locomotive on the layout!!!!!

 

I sent Tom back home to his shop with a MTH GP 9 and my new DCS system, which I got at a local train show for a song and a dance.  He's going to upgrade the DCS system and check out why the GP9 is not running.

Patrick,

Im glad Tom got the BL2 working correctly!  

I added two Fastrack operating tracks and two lit bumpers on my two track yard.  I then tested an operating log dump car and a unloading boxcar.  I'll try my other operating cars later.  This is all a first for me.  We didn't have cool stuff like this in HO.

WTG, Mark!  The beauty of 3 rail is automation.

 

Bruce