What did you do on your layout today?

I painted the windows and frames of one wall of the Natty Boh factory I am building.

Quick rewind to Sunday. Matt came over, and I gave him the royal tour. We talked for 5 hours. He is totally on board with the project. I'm going to have him help me with wiring, while Patrick and I will continue with the major construction. All three of us agree, that for now, it's best that they come over on different days. That way, I can give each of them my full attention when they come over.

After last week's confusion with Patrick, we got it straight today. We cut the plywood for the end section of the upper deck. While he was securing that, I finished the last couple sections of conduit.

 

When Patrick comes over Thursday, we'll put on the black sound deadening material, and trim the edge into its final curved shape.


I just stuck a couple of scraps of wood under this section to get an idea of how the incline will look.


The track next to the door needs to gain 3 1/2" to connect up to the bookshelf section on the left. Should be plenty of distance to do it smoothly.


After Patrick left, I went back downstairs and finished preping the light sockets so we can fire them up on Thursday.

 

In the end, we got 3 1/2 sheets of plywood secured today. It was a very good day. it won't be long before the heavy construction will all be done in this half of the room.

Elliot, I'm stoked to start working. Your layout is awesome and I cant wait to get to work

Thanks Matt. I'm anxious to get back from this trip so we can crank things into high gear.

Patrick got in his final visit before the trip today. We picked right up where we left off Tuesday. Ten more lights got installed. I used my meter to test the wiring, and everything was OK before Patrick made the final connection to tie to the existing lights.


It took a little convincing before Patrick was ready to climb onto the upper deck. But once up there, he looked almost comfortable spreading glue. I told him it wouldn't have any trouble holding him. It might even hold me, but since I don't have wings, we will never find out.


I told my wife that I was having a terrible time making a mark that I could see, on this black material. She found this white paint Sharpie. Good stuff!!!


I could now draw a line that I could see. That made it easy to cut a nice sweeping curve. Once the track is down, 1/4" Masonite fascia will be added.


Everything had gone smoothly up to that point, and we still had about 90 minutes of work time left, so we embarked the next section. Patrick rolled out the chicken wire, picked up the electric stapler, and ZAPPPPP!!!

Yes, it happened again! This time I knew exactly what and where. As I said earlier, we had tested the new string of lights, and everything was fine. But the test didn't include the box where the existing string connected to the new string. Sure enough, Patrick opened up the box, and the screw that holds the socket to the box had come up along side a black wire and nicked the insulation.

 

But the trouble didn't end there. As he was putting it back together, one of the screws snapped off. After ten minutes of failed attempts to remove the broken piece, I had the idea to bend the tab where the screw was stuck. After that, Patrick was able to get it out with a pair of vise grips.


With the electrical problem resolved, Patrick goes back to the stapler. It's jammed!
We ended up taking that apart and fixing it. And when that was done, it was time for dinner.

 

Maybe I do need a vacation.

I started to build up the sub roadbed to where the new yard will be to service the car ferry.  I will glue all the foam in place and plaster cloth it this weekend.  I hope to have the rest of the track in early next week to put the yard in place.  

I added the Lionel Rte 66 Dino Cafe and the Seven Tube Bubbling Oil Field.  The Grandkids think they're grand.

 

 

Painted some rock formations.

I checked track clearance with the 4013 Big Boy.  Found out it hit one of the bridge supports.  Simple fix was to remove the center support and test out the weight distribution on the bridge.  I saw this on other operating layouts.

Finished the roundhouse floor.

 

Got the ballast down on the front, left side of the layout.

Got most of subway station 1 done.  Just a few little things then onto the next one.

Got the layout ready for visitors in 2 weeks.

 

Peter

Cut the foam and glued it in place where the yard will be.  I will do the paster cloth here in a few hours after the glue sets up.  I bent all the flex track last night and am waiting for my online order of the Gargraves to O27 pins come in so I can put the switch in its place.  

 

Photos to come a b it later this week. 

Laidoffsick:

 

Beautiful looking layout, I sure would like to see more photos.

 

Bryan:

 

One of the nicest subway stations I have seen. Love the detail.

I started to work on the installation of six station platforms to be installed on the upper level of the train station complex. The platforms were fabricated by fellow Forum member Alex Malliae and are each 2 ft. long. This will be a considerable improvement in this part of the layout.

I have seen those station platforms in person and I can tell you that they are great looking!

Haha... Bryan, Long time no see! Hope you are well. Are you still over in Macedonia? I haven't seen you around for a long time. I wondered what you were up to. Good to see you still rockin the subway. That last pic is hilarious.

Passenger Train Collector, thanks for the compliment. I need to add a few finishing structure touches this weekend and of course I will populate the platform a little more after picking up more people at York this fall.

 

Jonny,  glad to see you are still here.  Had some life changes and had to move so I am up on Lake Erie now in Willoughby Hills.  Had to take down old layout and didn't have any train related activities for about 7 years.  Wife gave me one of the rooms in our basement for all railroading activity this summer and I am having a blast building again.  When I get some upper level done with 81 and 72 curves you'll have to stop over and we can run some of your big steamers if you still have them.

General placement of some accessories.

 

 

Ran some trains. 10 PRR Fleet of Moderism K-Line cars behind first the 681 turbine, then behind the red GG1. The new smoke unit on the turbine gave a nice steady stream back over the train after warm-up.

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On track 2, ran PRR Legacy RS-11 and C&O Baby Hudson #605 simultaneously. Found out I could not control both from Legacy remote, had to use a cab-1 for the Hudson.  Every time I tried to enter #30 on the Legacy unit for the Hudson, it defaulted to #10, my Legacy UP GP7 number. Things were smooth with the Cab-2 controlling the Legacy unit and cab-1 the TMCC unit.

 

 

Today I fixed Idris the dragon so hewould fit better in Ivor"s funnel, And I worked a bit on Ivor's shed

I hadn't ever considered being able to run both systems at once, good to know.

 The FOM cars quickly became my favorites behind my matching GG1. Im jealous of the turbine. Your taste is enviable Bill. 

Cut all the flex track for my small yard and hope to get it fully functional by the end of the week.  

With the start of the game delayed by weather, I went down and ran some more PRR. 

 

Wired up and tested my small yard to service my Great Lakes Car Ferry.  It holds a few more cars then can fit on the ferry.   

 

Will put down some plaster cloth tonight.

 

 

 

It's hot outside, so I went down to the cool basement and weathered track while listening to Notch6 Podcast.  It is amazing how quickly time flies when listening to radio.  Gonna be hot tomorrow, too, so I'll work on the layout again.

John

 

Mid America 3 Railers

 

Got up early to work on the final stages of the rebuild on a 2046 from 1950. Good way to start any day. Also sorted out the repair of a Lionel log dumper from the same year. It seems the knuckle coupler came "un-riveted" and since the rivet is part of the coupler, this repair promises to be interesting.

 

Great weather here on Long Island with promises of the same for the immediate future.

I re-wired a few of the Lionel yard lights, set up some signal bridges, de-gunked and lubed my 2046 (and tender) from 1951 and sat beside the layout (on my floor) and watched it go! ^_^ doesn't kick out my CW80 anymore! yay!

Looks great Jim!

My wife Vicky was very sick for over three weeks but she's better now. Kind of scary for awhile. I'm getting back to the layout though I'm way behind my schedule of finishing the first section. Don

Thanks Elliot!

 

You helped me out a lot in the design.  

 

Jim

Finally started setting up for the coal tower, layout out the tracks to get the right measurements ... and figuring out how to shore up the chute side a little ... the siding it serves is a little reach ...

 

Glad your wife is better Don!

Sadly I have started deconstructing my layout due to my landlord refusing to reseal my basement witch floods.

Sadly I have started deconstructing my layout due to my landlord refusing to reseal my basement witch floods.

Good for you!

I am glad to hear she is better.  Hopefully you get time to work on the layout and enjoy that beautiful Hawaii weather with her!

Pulled out the Brennans Roundhouse kit, realized what an immense task it is, thought about not building it and then went out and bought tools and painting stuff. Looked at the boxes again, thought about not building, decided its gonna look awesome but take tons and tons of time, thought about not building it, still thinking about not building it. But im gonna build it

Thanks guys I'll tell her of your kind words. Somehow Vicky got pneumonia and it started getting away with her. She's much, much better now. We are going on our first walk this morning. Don

Continued work on our kitchen shelf layout.  Scratch built a footbridge at the edge of the town of Merillat, connecting the boardwalk to the park at the edge of town.  All of the scenery's built as modules so that nothing is permanent atop the kitchen cabinets.

 

This is my first O gauge layout, and first time building scenery.  The scenery is more fin than running trains, and that's saying a lot given the Pennsy Premier K4 circling the track right now (it's awesome!).