What did you do on your layout today?

Decided it was time to quit cutting bait and go fishing!

So unpacked the new airbrush and practiced with it by weathering rails and turnouts.

Turned out pretty well for a first-time attempt.

The Type H single-action airbrush worked great for the gang painting!

Now I can install the lead to the turntable!!

Pulled a passenger train into the just laid station tracks for the first time.  No where to go yet but is sure felt good.

Saturday the yard gets installed with a two boxes of track and ten  switches.  Next week the main line pushes West!

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to do some digging. I can't think of any place locally, but then I've never been in the market for bulk light bulbs before. It's times like this when I miss the old Yellow Pages. Google just isn't quite the same. You have to sift through a lot of unrelated garbage.

Update: It looks like the Cree 60W daylight bulb is fairly new and the only place that is stocking it (so far) is Home Depot. The $13 price is about half of what similar non-daylight bulbs were selling for just a couple years ago. As with just about every technology, prices should drop as more time goes by.

Installed a lighted sign for my truck stop/diner.  Since I've had it for about 15 years, it is time it had a place on the layout.  Doing a lot of little electrical things like that in the summer months.  Nothing major.

Having completed one structure and the laborious task of putting an operating coupler

on the front of a Lionel 0-8-0, I am mulling over what else to do to the 0-8-0..such

as add a pony truck, Elesco and other appliances, and modify the tender into a

Vanderbilt.  Rather than proceed with that I am researching fruit growing on the

western slope of the Colorado Rockies and the styles of fruit packing houses that

existed for this large industry I only recently became aware of.   Something to put other reefers than beer ones to work for.  Discovered there was a large Swift meat

packing plant in Denver that packed a lot of pork.  Illinois and Indiana raise a lot

of hogs...but Colorado?  I need to research that.

Today I ordered another kit to bash into a grain elevator, a structure I need another one

of like I need four flat tires.  I must be addicted to railside structures.  Still mulling over

the Lionel 0-8-0 kitbash, and other structures on the to-do list: fruit packer, mining

camp firehouse, another small sawmill (to supply the creosote plant)....just general armchairing...

Started ballasting track.

This morning I did drawings for a Colorado fruit packing house, tweaking pictures of one

on the Colorado Midland RR.  Also found photos of a Colorado cannery, so I can, after kitbashes or scratchbuilds, have a source and destination for assorted Atlas reefers.

You drive through that somewhat deseret terrain around Grand Junction and you'd never

imagine what a fruit and vegetable growing area that is, and has long been.

I was able to spend some time making two wooden supports and a notched out area for my last girder bridge. now I need to wire up the connectors for the wiring so I can stop wire nutting the connections whenever I set it in place it is in an aisle way.

then spent an hour chasing 2 wiring gremlins one the track rail spread apart where spade terminal slips into track so that was an easy fix. the other I still cannot explain why it stopped working as it involves a newer lionel lift bridge and trains had been running fine for past 8 years!!

but for some reason stopped today the lead tracks were dead with the bridge down found the nut where track power hooks up was loose figured okay am done ha ha ha.

still no power so retraced power for it and hooked up 2 power wires hanging in mid air and all was well again both screws were tight so they didn't just fall off so now I ask how was it working all this time with out those 2 wires attached??

short answer gremlins we all have them lurking about!!

after that I needed a soda and some good old steam engine smoke to clear my mind so had the shay running on upper loop to test the new girder bridges and track alignment also lower 2 loops had the S-3 and the sante fe 3751 and on lower level had the 765 berk running [I have nic named it rich] seems the older it gets the more crotchety it gets. pun intended as humor only oh webmaster.

so after a hour all was well house filled with smoke thank goodness for mega-steam smoke fluid and vanilla scent.

$oo

Making progress on my Fastrack layout.  I'm using ceiling tiles and foam rubber insulation for soundproofing.  This is my last weekend to work on the project before heading to the hospital on August 1 for another hip replacement surgery.  The layout will be good recovery therapy.

I was able to lengthen the straight section heading onto lift bridge Evo diesel is now happy had to move a brace for engine clearance and then anchored track and homasote now need to cut a length of plywood so 15" area of curved track is on solid ground once again.

$oo

Since my last post on this topic I've FINALLY made the push and started finishing the scenery on my layout, at least the ground cover.

I had to redo a few feet of existing surface and then the 2x14 foot extension I added a week or so ago.  I've gotten really use to True Scenes Modeling Fibre and had a 1/2 bag from my last purchase to do this extension and redo.  Only problem is I ran out with less than 10 sq ft to do so I have to buy one more bag.

I've found that once I lay the wet (and tinted with acrylic paint) fibre (or whatever Bill calls it now) I can then sprinkle ground foam on top of it and use a small roller to embed it into the fibre.  From there I go back and pat down the ground foam with a flat side of a flat paint brush dipped in diluted tacky glue.  Patting it down doesn't disturb the ground foam and seals the surface so nothing moves.

Once I get the rest of the fibre down I need to locate a backdrop that is 12" or so high.

i am rebuilding my layout.  had some electrical problems with it.  i have laid my track and am working on where i want to place some of the scenery so i know where to place the rest of the track.  

Finished painting and assembling the station that I started last week with my four year old son.  He was so excited to put the chimney on it.  Now I need to touch up some paint and add details before adding it to the layout.

Had a brew and took a video of the Great Lakes Car Ferry being unloaded.  Be sure to check out my thread on that!

I think I caught a uncurable case of lazyness this weekend. I played with the trains, no layout work.

I added a house.

Ran 3 trains.....B&LE, PRR, & Union RR.

I've been planning to increase the diameter of some curves on my layout for at least a year. I figured out I could also add a 3 track passenger car yard by utilizing space under the stairs.  I incorporated storage shelves to improve space utilization.

I'm working on my 77 Sunset Strip vignette - completely scratch built so it is taking forever . . . !

I installed the relays on my 2 7.5 switches to power the rails for my short steamers. Now my baby TMCC steamers and my Legacy 0-8-0 run through them at a crawl.

Ron 

Here is my latest video update highlighting my recent progress.

Trying to install my CS-2 Crossing Signal. but going on 7 weeks wating on my PIC to be replaced on my GCF-1 board from Custom Signals. 

Spent 20 min assembling a 56x96 table top frame and braces Ive been painting. The runners go in once Ive got all the plywood for the top.

Got my RK 20-800 poweed up and place some coal smoke fluid in it. 

Hello everyone. I noticed that I have nothing to show or complain about. It's been a long time since I've even posted anything. I've been busy with all the household things like installing a new overhead garage door and opener and tons of yard work.  Also remember that I have only one leg, and it takes me longer to do things. But I know that things get taken care of.  Now I just need to get back to the layout and let the trees that need to be cut down till the fall. So I think I'll be in the breezeway cleaning it up today and going to finish the first level of the layout. Then I need to run some #14 stranded wire through the garage and hopefully get some trains running.

Hello every one. Ok I cleaned up the mess from a 3 to 4 month layoff. Its not perfect but it is a start. It went ok but towards the end my leg started to hurt me. It is one of those things when you lose a leg, and I am going to build this even if it takes me time. One nice thing is that I have the time to build this layout when the weather  lets me

As my addiction to vintage Marx grows I need to replace my K-Line an Lionel switches with vintage metal Marx units. Today I began the hunt for some nice Marx turnouts.

I nearly electrocuted Patrick last Friday. He was putting in the chicken wire on the side by the bookshelves, and the layout lights were on. I had them plugged into a non-polarized extension cord. He touched the electric stapler to the chicken wire, and ZAPPPP. At first I thought it was just that polarity was flipped, but then I realized that the metal boxes weren't tied to the earth ground yet.

On Saturday I wired up a couple more lights and went to test them, popped the breaker. Took the two new boxes apart, and found that I had nicked the insulation on the black wire with the screw when I closed the box. That's when it hit me. I must have nicked a white wire the week before. Combine that with the flipped polarity, and Patrick touches the grounded stapler to the now hot wire, bingo!

So, today when Patrick came over, finding the source of the neutral bridge became the first order of business. We got very lucky, because once we determined that it was in the lower string of lights, we opened up the box in the middle of the string, and there it was. A little electrical tape and some careful reassembly, problem solved. Won't let that happen again.

Patrick sanded the putty on the backdrops, and I sprayed primer over the putty to seal it. Then we installed 16' of backdrop and decking for the Ford plant, while the primer dried.

The afternoon was winding down, and both batteries for the screw gun were dead, so we got out the blue paint and went to town.

Patrick will be back Friday. Pics after that.

 Remover trains from the svelves, made up new trains and put the others on the shelves.

More track work ....

Thanks for the offer Sorry I haven't responded sooner. I had some 10-24 cap screws and so same as set screws already threaded for in sprocket so I flattened 2 areas on metal shaft and am happy to say that won't be an issue again.

$oo

In addition to purchasing a new MTH Santa Fe set, I did this:

I finished 77 Sunset Strip and Dino's Lodge (the restaurant next door with the carport where Kookie worked)and put figures and all on it, as always.    I went to take pictures of it. My #%$!!*&$% super-techno Sony digital camera died . . . something serious - some sort of mechanical jam inside.  My intuition tells me not to get it repaired, so I'll get another tomorrow. Until then, no pictures.

I test ran a new FP45 (Williams).  Next, I will wire the motors in series with a single thermistor.

I visited my layout today!  I currently live in an apartment while I stash some mullah for my own basement.  In the mean time my parent’s graciously allow me to share some of their basement with my dad’s American flyer layout. While I was there I was able to run some trains (dropped off a hopper of sand at the glass works) and I also masked off a building for painting that I’ve been working on for a while.  Next time I go over there I’m going to have a paint fest as there is no practical place here to spray.  I’ve got a few kits stashed away that I need to prime prior to painting and assembling here.  Tinkering around with things is my way of staying involved in the hobby at the moment.   I was planning on doing some scenery on the layout this summer, but with work, family, and not having much time with the layout it hasn’t materialized. I think instead I’m going to build a small diorama here at the apartment to practice some scenery and also to help visualize how the things I’m building will look when installed.  Well that’s about it folks.  Great work on here!  I posted long ago when this thread was started and then hit a slump.  It’s amazing to see all the progress and the thousands of replies.  What a cool idea for a thread!

Ran some trains and purchased some o scale life boats for my car ferry