What did you do on your layout today?

Slowhands,

  Have you checked overhang clearances with engines? Yours seems very close too. Could just be the FT roadbed fooling me, and having the same issues making me parinoid for others. Butt check pilots, diesel/electric railings, and the cab roofs on steam. Big locos on the inner loop, and the longest wheel base stock you have on the FT .(worst inside overhang on the FT; worst outside overhang on the tube track.) Note different locos have the overhang at different heights too, the more stock you check, the better.

Anyhow, its nice to see a kid properly train spoiled like I was

If you do start a seperate thread on progresses, give me a heads up, eh?

Went to the back cracker for the last time and then to Walmart. Oh Joy,,, Then when I got home I set up the 252 crossing gate from RT and the 145 Giant Gateman on a corner of the layout and set it up to work off a push bottom switch for 3 year old grand-son Jordan. So this will make HIM, the Gateman. I think he will like it. It is to bad they made it so far out of scale, but he won't care.   and I don't anymore, it is about the fun not the perfection.

trumptrain posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

trainroomgary posted:

Congratulations Patrick, on an excellent article and photos.

I like how you use a lot of figures to tell your story, along with all the special details to the structures. 

Gary

I fave expressed what Gary said before.  You just come up with an endless number of action scenes! Great article Pat!!  I also listened to some of your jazz after Googling you!  Very good too!

Thanks so very much Mark!  I love to create action in a scene.  IMHO action energizes a scene bringing it ( the scene ) to life.   With music; the music either is alive or dead.  I think the same way with a scene .... it either lives or not.  Of course I've created  lots of scenes that did not live either :-) 

PS - thanks for checking out my music and glad you liked it!

Pat,

Having a musician daughter and an artist daughter, I can see your point on any art, model train layout building included, can be alive or dead.  Excellent observation we call all take as advice!

Adriatic posted:

All right Art! on your mark (not you Boyce, lol), get set, chug... man

Fun with names!!

Black acrylic base coat on bridge and portal and roughing in a retaining wall on the other leg of problem corner. Not sure what color I'll paint the masonite retaining wall. I actually like the black on the bridge, although I would tone it down just a bit with some chalks.

Built an escalator!!

On my city street level, I'm going to have an MTH police station, as my passenger station. The escalator will be from inside the station, down to the platform. I hadn't planned on detailing the interior of the station, so the top of the escalator won't be visible.

OMG, MO985, that escalator is beyond cool! It's a jewel. Wow.

Adriatic posted:

Slowhands,

  Have you checked overhang clearances with engines? Yours seems very close too. Could just be the FT roadbed fooling me, and having the same issues making me parinoid for others. Butt check pilots, diesel/electric railings, and the cab roofs on steam. Big locos on the inner loop, and the longest wheel base stock you have on the FT .(worst inside overhang on the FT; worst outside overhang on the tube track.) Note different locos have the overhang at different heights too, the more stock you check, the better.

Anyhow, its nice to see a kid properly train spoiled like I was

If you do start a seperate thread on progresses, give me a heads up, eh?

Adriatic, thanks for your thoughts. The clearances are going to be close, definitely a concern of mine. My 2055 steam engine and the 2338 diesel have the most overhang, and I believe our operating brakeman boxcar might be the longest wheel base in rolling stock. The Lion Chief John Deere loco has quite a bit of inner curve overhang, so it will be used to check clearances as well. We'll be checking clearances and making adjustments after the tracks are fastened temporarily to the Homasote that will be put over the pink foam board.

This afternoon I glued down the pink foam board with a compatible adhesive. After it set for a while, I fitted and glued down the largest piece of Homasote (48"x71") that I had. Forehead slap for not thinking about clamps since the board had a little bit of warping, so ended up weighting it down with boxes and boxes of stuff. The other two pieces to fill in the remainder of the board will either go on later tonight or possibly tomorrow night.

My grandson and his mom (my daughter) both have hinted at either some kind of tunnel or an upper level or both. I wonder who prompted who?

I just added what the old folks would have called, "a mess o' Critters" on the layout. And this isn't all of them.

White squirrels,  lol.  The Blue Ridge IS the only place Ive seen them white. Or black, or deep red. I cant really recall which,  but one color of them were huge compared to any Northern squirrel, or the other colors seen down there.

Finished some Christmas Shopping yesterday and added a few more cars to our collection.  With the addition of cars (A trip to Stockyard Express with the kids and some Christmas money in hand) this was also the first time we were able to run three trains on the layout.  The initial Christmas presents were the passenger station from Menard's and the matching NS 8065 (one of my son's presents) from Lionel for our NS 8056 we bought last year. 

Here is the video I shot to celebrate

https://youtu.be/ZeE7BPz1yjI

And a few pics of our new items. 

Now I realize we have room to add another locomotive.  Hoping to score a new Lionel SD-90, Indiana 9003!

Adriatic posted:

White squirrels,  lol.  The Blue Ridge IS the only place Ive seen them white. Or black, or deep red. I cant really recall which,  but one color of them were huge compared to any Northern squirrel, or the other colors seen down there.

These squirrels are grey, but the lighting makes it hard to tell in those cell shots.

p51 posted:

I just added what the old folks would have called, "a mess o' Critters" on the layout. And this isn't all of them.

Now you need have a small scene showing pest control, I mean squirrel/possum hunting as I real sure that was part of the areas food chain.

Mo985 posted:

Built an escalator!!

On my city street level, I'm going to have an MTH police station, as my passenger station. The escalator will be from inside the station, down to the platform. I hadn't planned on detailing the interior of the station, so the top of the escalator won't be visible.

That's cool. From what I can tell including Alan's layout (Leavingtracks/OGR ADMAN) nobody's done this in O Scale.

suzukovich posted:

Mo985 posted:

Built an escalator!!

On my city street level, I'm going to have an MTH police station, as my passenger station. The escalator will be from inside the station, down to the platform. I hadn't planned on detailing the interior of the station, so the top of the escalator won't be visible.

That's cool. From what I can tell including Alan's layout (Leavingtracks/OGR ADMAN) nobody's done this in O Scale.

Now that some out of the box thinking. I don't think I have ever seen them on a layout, great scratch build Mo!

I wish I had a need for them on my future layout, I sure would try to build them!

suzukovich posted:

Mo985 posted:

Built an escalator!!

On my city street level, I'm going to have an MTH police station, as my passenger station. The escalator will be from inside the station, down to the platform. I hadn't planned on detailing the interior of the station, so the top of the escalator won't be visible.

 

That's cool. From what I can tell including Alan's layout (Leavingtracks/OGR ADMAN) nobody's done this in O Scale.

That is really cool! I'm sure you'll be getting how to requests.

Don

this is what was on my workbench yesterday.

I had a K-line Hopper car with a broken door that I fixed with some really fine cardboard, painted it black, hot glued in place and then put some coal in in the hopper car.

Note
Just got four of them.

Chugman posted:

After over a year of inactivity, I am going to start working on my layout again.  

Welcome back Art. It's good to have you back buddy. 

suzukovich posted:

p51 posted:

I just added what the old folks would have called, "a mess o' Critters" on the layout. And this isn't all of them.

Now you need have a small scene showing pest control, I mean squirrel/possum hunting as I real sure that was part of the areas food chain.

Yep, they'd hunted deer and black bear completely during the depression. My Dad hunted and trapped all over those hills in the 40s and he confirmed you never even saw tracks from either until long after the war was over and people were no longer starving to death without hunting. He said it was well into the 50s before people even thought of hunting just for sport. Critters was all there was. Nobody hunted anything you couldn't eat. Yes, I have some critters out in the daytime you normally wouldn't see, but it's a detail so many layouts forget and I had to do it. I still need to find some good rabbits in that scale and some more squirrels, I think.

The old timers used to say, "The Depression hit here long before there was a 10-dollar word for it," and the area is pretty depressed to this day. All the industry is long gone, the railroad is gone (I'm gonna cry the next time I get back there and see a trail where the ET&WNC tracks used to be through Elizabethton). It's all just service-related jobs there now.

Mark Boyce posted:

trumptrain posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

trainroomgary posted:

Congratulations Patrick, on an excellent article and photos.

I like how you use a lot of figures to tell your story, along with all the special details to the structures. 

Gary

I fave expressed what Gary said before.  You just come up with an endless number of action scenes! Great article Pat!!  I also listened to some of your jazz after Googling you!  Very good too!

Thanks so very much Mark!  I love to create action in a scene.  IMHO action energizes a scene bringing it ( the scene ) to life.   With music; the music either is alive or dead.  I think the same way with a scene .... it either lives or not.  Of course I've created  lots of scenes that did not live either :-) 

PS - thanks for checking out my music and glad you liked it!

Pat,

Having a musician daughter and an artist daughter, I can see your point on any art, model train layout building included, can be alive or dead.  Excellent observation we call all take as advice!

Patrick,

Gret to read about your layout an see it imprint. I was able to tie in those past you had on this section with the layout at large. Also, checked youtube ad saw some of your posted videos, great horn work my friend. Was that a member of the group's wedding where you performing?

Again congratulation for such recognition of another fine layout.

jeff

The past couple of days I worked on laying track and switches. So at least this part is actually down. Not sure of what is the next phase. But I did get the track for the scrap yard in place. I will be taking it up because I am painting that whole area black. I also made the curve sharp coming in because I won't be running any big engines into there. I also thought that a lot of sidings have sharper curves. I did notice in the one pic I have a slight curve in the mainline but after thinking about it I am leaving it as is. After all nothing is perfectly straight all the time. Pics of work so far, well not really work more like fun.......................Paul

More benchwork on the Cabin Lake Sub ... seems like it's never ending ... and awkward.

Looking good Paul every stretch need a little wow in it. Keep up the good work!

Chugman -  Art I'm  so glad you are back and raring to go!!!  

Patrick,

Gret to read about your layout an see it imprint. I was able to tie in those past you had on this section with the layout at large. Also, checked youtube ad saw some of your posted videos, great horn work my friend. Was that a member of the group's wedding where you performing?

Again congratulation for such recognition of another fine layout.

jeff

Jeff - thanks so much for your compliment!  I'm thrilled to hear you like the OGR article and that you took the time to check out some of my music.  Yes, what you must have scene/heard on Youtube must have at the wedding for the tuba player in my quintet.  Thank for taking time to stop look and listen pun intended.

Tonight after searching for a can of black paint I knew I bought but couldn't figure out where it was I pulled up the scrap yard track and painted the whole area black. I'll start laying down cinders tomorrow in the whole area. Pic. Does anyone know who possibly makes fencing for scrap yards or is there an easy way to make some fencing. Thanks................Paul

fiberglass window screen should make good looking fence.

Last night I painted this retaining wall and hit with some flat black mist in spots. This morning I smudged it with some chalk but not too much. After I installed that, I made a companion section with a 2 lane auto tunnel. From the end of the installed section, it steps up 1.5 inches, then another 2 inches over the tunnel and then steps down. I used the same primer on the same masonite but it looks a little orange as it is freshly painted. I hope it looks better tomorrow after I mist it with flat black, chaulk and glue the trim work.

Next I will work on the curved part of problem corner. I think I will glue foam pieces on the base foam to form a rather steep rock face and cover it with left over hydrocal cloth. 

I moved the squirrels on my layout to more realistic positions (under a tree and another on a water tower adjacent to the top of another tree).

Yes, I know that raccoons are generally nocturnal, but I have seen them in that part of the country out of the daylight hours. At least he's well away from people, which would be quite correct, especially near a trashcan which would probably be too tempting for him if he was that hungry.

Also, the local NMRA region put photos of my layout On the gallery section of their site...

Painted the cliff. Yes I carved out the 1/2 inch I thought I would have to. Ran the RS-3 back and fourth till it didn't hit anything anymore. Tried a couple other locos just to be sure too. Hope to set it in place tomorrow after adding some greenery and trees. More photos to come.

RSJB18 posted:

Painted the cliff.

Really good carving and paint work there. I'm impressed!

First time doing anything like this. I've impressed myself too lol. I used a Dremmel multi-max with a 1" straight blade and carved away till I was satisfied. Painted with flat acrylics. I started with a light grey base and mixed whites and blacks till it was done. 

Thanks for the compliments.

RSJB18 posted:

First time doing anything like this. I've impressed myself too lol. I used a Dremmel multi-max with a 1" straight blade and carved away till I was satisfied. Painted with flat acrylics. I started with a light grey base and mixed whites and blacks till it was done. 

Thanks for the compliments.

nice color choice

Nothing on the layout but something on a layout project.

Got the last powered A-unit finished today from an idea of 8N's.

 Great idea and makes for a great set.

Works Great but sure lets the ZW know it is feeding something with it and six lit passenger cars behind it..  I had a 218 shell on a frame with a 2 position e-unit motor in it that I pulled the motor, pick up truck and e-unit out of and installed the new motor, A unit dummy front truck and wired pigtails to the motor so it all runs off the E-unit in the lead engine. So there is 8 axles with magnets pulling. So a post war 218 leads the way for the twin motor 8021 B unit and 8020 powered A unit. Works GREAT!!!

RSJB18 posted:

Painted the cliff. Yes I carved out the 1/2 inch I thought I would have to. Ran the RS-3 back and fourth till it didn't hit anything anymore. Tried a couple other locos just to be sure too. Hope to set it in place tomorrow after adding some greenery and trees. More photos to come.

Looks great, very real looking! Just do me a favor and don't fall off the top when planting trees. Again looks wonderful!

Mike- no worries, I will be in a harness��

Thanks 

dobermann posted:

RSJB18 posted:

First time doing anything like this. I've impressed myself too lol. I used a Dremmel multi-max with a 1" straight blade and carved away till I was satisfied. Painted with flat acrylics. I started with a light grey base and mixed whites and blacks till it was done. 

Thanks for the compliments.

nice color choice

I agree the carving and coloring look great!  Your 1:48 railroad construction crew really had to blast away at solid rock to make this part of the ROW!  My hat is off to them!  

I helped my daughter and son-in-law move almost everything left in her art studio on the rear of our house to their house last evening.  I decided to take some photos of the room after I placed some trains on some shelves she left behind.  Yes, the pink paint will be covered with blue.  I plan to start a topic soon for layout planning for this 11' 6" x 11' 4" room.  As the photos show, there is a door to the basement in one corner and a big sliding glass door on an adjacent wall.  The brick wall was the exterior of the house before my in-laws put on the addition, and the washer and dryer are on the other side of the brick wall.  The Ceiling Central RR is in the wood paneled room right outside the small door.

Mark, congrats on having some space for your dreams.

KRM posted:

Nothing on the layout but something on a layout project.

Got the last powered A-unit finished today from an idea of 8N's.

 Great idea and makes for a great set.

Works Great but sure lets the ZW know it is feeding something with it and six lit passenger cars behind it..  I had a 218 shell on a frame with a 2 position e-unit motor in it that I pulled the motor, pick up truck and e-unit out of and installed the new motor, A unit dummy front truck and wired pigtails to the motor so it all runs off the E-unit in the lead engine. So there is 8 axles with magnets pulling. So a post war 218 leads the way for the twin motor 8021 B unit and 8020 powered A unit. Works GREAT!!!

Bet that dims the lights when you shove the lever forwards...

In local news, I finally finished a project that I've been futzing about with for months:

This proves that a Corgi diecast Birney can be powered using an Atlas handcar truck while keeping the interior and HB Lifeguard fenders, long as you don't mind it riding a tad high and the sideframes not quite lining up...

Mitch