What did you do on your layout today?

Deuce posted:

carsntrains posted:

mike g. posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

I'm with you Paul, Mike seems to be quite an early riser.  I want to see that addition go up as well!

So do I Mark! If I had the lumber already I probably would have had the walls up by now!

Whats the hold up Mike?   Its been a week! LOL     Ah just work at the pace you choose.   It will be summer soon!   : )

Jim

82 here today. All this talk about snow is funny.

Sure....rub it in why don't ya

4"-8" of snow expected here tomorrow night, 60 degrees by next Wednesday. At least it will all melt away.

samparfitt posted:

3rd rail D&RGW L-131 video.

Engine's working fine now with the 'plate' support mod.

Not sure why the smoke works only in 'conv' mode and not in 'TMCC'!  On the MTH throttle, hit 'smoke', say 'on' but nada.

Works on the other engines.

Wonder why the TMCC on 3rd rail does not have the wireless draw bar versus the ugly wires?

Oiled all the major friction points.

These articulated really need plus 90, or more, diameter curves to look good: that's a lot of overhang on those curves!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be

Sam, that sure is a nice looking engine pulling those beautiful cars! I thank you for sharing the video! 

Wow!  15 passenger cars.  Nice train!  Are those cars 18" or 21"?  Plastic or alum.  Couldn't recognize the make.

Paul Fischer

So nice to drive around with the top down and look up and see snow on the mountains

Tired of the handrails falling off my Atlas switcher so put them back with a dab of glue.

Thanks, Mike.

=====

Paul,

They are very old MTH cars which, I believe, are the 18" plastic 'premier line' ones.  Only the front RPO car is aluminum which I think is K-line.

I'm getting ready to order (from a new dealer) another A pack of reindeer cars.  Got notification for the refund from previous dealer.  I'm hoping to have better luck this time!  Reckon I should ask them to check them before they ship them?  Didn't help last time!!!  

Jim 

   I made a makeshift bobber ore car out of a dead wallwart shell, and used the rectifying board to convert 1033 5vac to dc for a $20 Discovery Kids battery operated tower crane. I gave the car a bucket handle vs a spreader, but I think a long spread beam is next.

I've been practicing aerially switching and no hands re-railing to new positions. 

The real challenge is re-railing the trucks with rollers with no beam trolley movement as it is on a cab mounted clutch kinda like a Lionel Burro crane.

Believe it or not, this is my shot at neat, organized wiring. The center is common, one side is for the upper level powered by the RW, the other side is the lower level powered by the LW. The other terminals to be wired are for switches and accessories.

I also received some 5121/5122 controllers that I'm modifying to control our 497 coaling station. 

Painted black to fit in with the control panel area. 

baby steps...

samparfitt posted:

3rd rail D&RGW L-131 video.

Engine's working fine now with the 'plate' support mod.

Not sure why the smoke works only in 'conv' mode and not in 'TMCC'!  On the MTH throttle, hit 'smoke', say 'on' but nada.

Works on the other engines.

Wonder why the TMCC on 3rd rail does not have the wireless draw bar versus the ugly wires?

Oiled all the major friction points.

These articulated really need plus 90, or more, diameter curves to look good: that's a lot of overhang on those curves!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be

It looks like it’s running great!  That’s a nice passenger train too!!

Today I cut the pieces to fit and screwed them down to the stringers.  Then I laid the track out again, and marked the tabletop for where the Homasote will go.  It was certainly easy to roll the unit away from the wall 15 inches or so to get in there!  Worked great.

That may be the shiniest train table top I have seen!  That keeps eyes focused there so as not to see the ugly base.  

On this end, I am going to cut out the board to have the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River flowing underneath this bridge.  It is similar to the real one in Parsons, West Virginia that is now used for a bike/hike trail.  Oh, that is one of my two MTH Premier H9 Consolidations sitting on the track for fun.

Lookin good there Mark!   Glad to see you making some progress..   Good looking engine also!  

Jim 

briansilvermustang posted:

I love vids of passenger trains passing. We should start a specific thread just for that!

carsntrains posted:

Lookin good there Mark!   Glad to see you making some progress..   Good looking engine also!  

Jim 

Thank you very much, Jim!!

Mark Boyce posted:

Ed, That corner of the layout turned out great!  There is a lot of interest to see there!

Brian, I agree with Dave, your inventory is amazing!!  Now that we saw DM&IR with the B&LE ore car, how about some more of B&LE, since I live a mile from the mainline, and can hear the trains from my house.  

Thanks Mark. That’s what I  was hoping would be the result. 

Wired up my uncouplers, and realized I should probably set them back away from the switches. 

Then wired them up to my control panel.

And nothing ...

Dang it.

Used a different uncoupler, one wired directly to its own controller, and that worked. Got to figure out what I managed to do wrong. Bummed though. 

I'm a dummy.  Figured it out. Was using an MTH lighted lockon and had it wired up backwards. Wired it up correctly and it worked just fine. 

I do have a question though ... how durable are those 1122 switches? Do I run the chance of burning the motors on them out by running my engine over them a lot when doing the Inglenook siding puzzle? I'd imagine it won't be an issue, but don't want to find out the hard way that it was.

Oh and that small Vulcan LC engine? It's about as delicate as a hammer. Thing either flies in the forward direction, or flies in the reverse. Is there a way to slow this thing down? I suppose throttling down the transformer might help a bit? Having a speed other than "breakneck" would be useful.

Morning Paul, Mark, and everyone else. Just thought I would let you know this is an early morning wake up! 0230 and the dog is up the cat is up and from there point of view the best part is Dad is up too!

Mike, there is a bright side to this LOL. Once the shell of the addition is up and you have taken care of the dog and cat you can stay up and work on the layout. A win win situation................Paul

paul 2 posted:

Mike, there is a bright side to this LOL. Once the shell of the addition is up and you have taken care of the dog and cat you can stay up and work on the layout. A win win situation................Paul

I guess I could, but it would have to be something that doesn't make a lot of noise! LOL

Mark Boyce posted:

Today I cut the pieces to fit and screwed them down to the stringers.  Then I laid the track out again, and marked the tabletop for where the Homasote will go.  It was certainly easy to roll the unit away from the wall 15 inches or so to get in there!  Worked great.

That may be the shiniest train table top I have seen!  That keeps eyes focused there so as not to see the ugly base.  

On this end, I am going to cut out the board to have the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River flowing underneath this bridge.  It is similar to the real one in Parsons, West Virginia that is now used for a bike/hike trail.  Oh, that is one of my two MTH Premier H9 Consolidations sitting on the track for fun.

Looking good Mark. Don't know about you but I would have hooked up a transformer and run that bad boy around the bend.

Bob

mike g. posted:

paul 2 posted:

Mike, there is a bright side to this LOL. Once the shell of the addition is up and you have taken care of the dog and cat you can stay up and work on the layout. A win win situation................Paul

I guess I could, but it would have to be something that doesn't make a lot of noise! LOL

Rubber hammers Mike !

One of our cats likes to go out around 2 AM. I got more sleep when my kids were babies.

Bob

Mark Boyce posted:

Today I cut the pieces to fit and screwed them down to the stringers.  Then I laid the track out again, and marked the tabletop for where the Homasote will go.  It was certainly easy to roll the unit away from the wall 15 inches or so to get in there!  Worked great.

That may be the shiniest train table top I have seen!  That keeps eyes focused there so as not to see the ugly base.  

On this end, I am going to cut out the board to have the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River flowing underneath this bridge.  It is similar to the real one in Parsons, West Virginia that is now used for a bike/hike trail.  Oh, that is one of my two MTH Premier H9 Consolidations sitting on the track for fun.

Nice looking work there Mark! Sure looks like it going to work well! Keep up the great work!

RSJB18 posted:

mike g. posted:

paul 2 posted:

Mike, there is a bright side to this LOL. Once the shell of the addition is up and you have taken care of the dog and cat you can stay up and work on the layout. A win win situation................Paul

I guess I could, but it would have to be something that doesn't make a lot of noise! LOL

Rubber hammers Mike !

One of our cats likes to go out around 2 AM. I got more sleep when my kids were babies.

Bob

Isnt that the truth about getting more sleep when the kids were young! LOL

Mark, good job. It is starting to take shape. Stay the course. Get the trains up and running. ............Paul

mike g. posted:

Morning Paul, Mark, and everyone else. Just thought I would let you know this is an early morning wake up! 0230 and the dog is up the cat is up and from there point of view the best part is Dad is up too!

          but they sure don't like when you try to wake them up.       

                  IZZY was a little slow this morning  getting ready to go to work...

                           so we had to run a couple trains before we left...

Sure Brian, any excuse to run trains! I like the way you think!

Deuce posted:

Wired up my uncouplers, and realized I should probably set them back away from the switches. 

Then wired them up to my control panel.

And nothing ...

Dang it.

Used a different uncoupler, one wired directly to its own controller, and that worked. Got to figure out what I managed to do wrong. Bummed though. 

deuce I'm glad you got that figured out!!!  Looks good!   Interested in seeing how you get this project to work. I have never used an uncoupling track and have no idea how well they work.  After seeing folks melt them I've been wary of hooking up the one I bought!

Jim

mike g. posted:

Sure Brian, any excuse to run trains! I like the way you think!

                      well, I had to bribe her somehow to get her up and moving...

                           come on IZZY, time to wake up... GOTTA GO...

                                      are you awake yet, wake up sleepy...

                        think a little ice cream also helped get her going too...

             a little morning fun' that will get her going...

                                           of coarse, she'll be back to sleep once we get to work...

carsntrains posted:

Deuce posted:

Wired up my uncouplers, and realized I should probably set them back away from the switches. 

Then wired them up to my control panel.

And nothing ...

Dang it.

Used a different uncoupler, one wired directly to its own controller, and that worked. Got to figure out what I managed to do wrong. Bummed though. 

deuce I'm glad you got that figured out!!!  Looks good!   Interested in seeing how you get this project to work. I have never used an uncoupling track and have no idea how well they work.  After seeing folks melt them I've been wary of hooking up the one I bought!

Jim

Jim- I have several of these on my layout and they work well. They are powered from the ACC terminals through a momentary button switch. They pop the couplers open every time.

I've seen past threads where guys cut these in on Ross and other brands of track too.

Bob

Hey Brian, Your Amtrak train sure travels along way! Check out my picture I just took!

Deuce posted:

I'm a dummy.  Figured it out. Was using an MTH lighted lockon and had it wired up backwards. Wired it up correctly and it worked just fine. 

I do have a question though ... how durable are those 1122 switches? Do I run the chance of burning the motors on them out by running my engine over them a lot when doing the Inglenook siding puzzle? I'd imagine it won't be an issue, but don't want to find out the hard way that it was.

Oh and that small Vulcan LC engine? It's about as delicate as a hammer. Thing either flies in the forward direction, or flies in the reverse. Is there a way to slow this thing down? I suppose throttling down the transformer might help a bit? Having a speed other than "breakneck" would be useful.

Glad it was an easy fix. 

Im curious how the LC operates on lower fixed voltage?

            Mike, wish I was on it, could of hung out with you and had a beer  !!  

briansilvermustang posted:

            Mike, wish I was on it, could of hung out with you and had a beer  !!  

Never too early for the silver bullet. 5:00 somewhere

briansilvermustang posted:

mike g. posted:

Sure Brian, any excuse to run trains! I like the way you think!

                      well, I had to bribe her somehow to get her up and moving...

Brian, is that a Premier Amtrak car? Or a Metroliner MU? It's very cool whatever it is. I can only run the 031 Railking cars but envy these.

          Lionel 18" 4 car set on the left,   Atlas 21" cars on the right...

briansilvermustang posted:

          Lionel 18" 4 car set on the left,   Atlas 21" cars on the right...

So cool. I'm guessing 042 minimum? I have some 18 Williams Circus passenger cars that will run -36 if you take off a removable piece--any chance those Lionel cars are the same?

JD2035RR posted:

Deuce posted:

I'm a dummy.  Figured it out. Was using an MTH lighted lockon and had it wired up backwards. Wired it up correctly and it worked just fine. 

I do have a question though ... how durable are those 1122 switches? Do I run the chance of burning the motors on them out by running my engine over them a lot when doing the Inglenook siding puzzle? I'd imagine it won't be an issue, but don't want to find out the hard way that it was.

Oh and that small Vulcan LC engine? It's about as delicate as a hammer. Thing either flies in the forward direction, or flies in the reverse. Is there a way to slow this thing down? I suppose throttling down the transformer might help a bit? Having a speed other than "breakneck" would be useful.

Glad it was an easy fix. 

Im curious how the LC operates on lower fixed voltage?

Don’t know the LC small Vulcan, but the LC Plus Pacific Steamer using the remote slows the engine down as much as you want at 18 volts! That’s because you control the speed with the remote, not the transformer throttle. This system also means you can still get good smoke production while engine ever so slowly runs. I’m infatuated with it. It is also a very easy system to use. IMHO, a 4 year old with a little practice can master it.

A little later I will post a video demonstrating how slow it can run at 18 volts.

Thank you Bob, Paul, and Mike on the comments on the layout update.

Bob, I just bought this H9 from a Forum member, recieved it yesterday.  It is a PS2 3-volt board, and he said he hasn't run it since he got it 10 years ago.  I am taking the advice of Marty and other DCS experts and waiting until my BCR comes in the mail and not risk starting the locomotive on a dead battery.  I already have a PS3 H9 of a different road number.  Those two are going to be my primary steam engines on the layout.  I also have F7, F3, a GP9, an 0-6-0, and an Atlantic for passenger service.