What did you do on your layout today?

Began making 'furrowed acreage' for Pugh's Farm on my layout. Broke down a nice cardboard box with thick sized. Washed one side carefully so I could remove the paper leaving the furrowed or rippled paper that is between both paper sides. Now I'm going to paint it, and sprinkle ground foam on it.

Railroad management decided that there was not enough revenue producing businesses being served.  So they are opening up land inside one of reverse loops on the upper level Milwaukee Road branch line.  Here are a couple pictures of the progress.

Love the progress Art. The Management Department certainly made a wise decision.

This industrial park has been on the drawing boards for some time.  An investigation turned up the that the problem was that a certain member of senior management was procrastinating.  That problem appears to be corrected at least for now and construction has been proceeding at a brisk pace.  Continental Baking is working to get their plans approved for the construction of their new Wonder Bread bakery and the railroad is laying a siding to serve it.  Utilities should start going in soon.

Art

Made and planted 6 trees

Nice looking Tree hojack.  What type of plant is your base material?

I think it's a kind of Hydrangea, although the flower cluster is more of a spike than the usual hydrangea pom-pom.  It has the same kind of petals and clustered flowers.  Here's the bush, you can still see some of the petals hanging on:

I did a fun thing today!  I vacuumed and cleaned and picked up for hours...then shot a video. 

I got my remotes back from the hospital, ran my "lash-ups" and smoked out the train room before dinner. A good day for sure.

Great idea Don!  I would not have thought to use cardboard box sides that way.  I will give it a try.  Thanks for the tip 

Just peaked in the train room today to check out the placement of the log cabin and barn. That's all I had time to do but at least its something.

relocated the barn and log cabin on the mountain division.  Added a RR Switch House to the mainline.  Put down some shrubbery too.  Another small step of progress. Yes!

Today I went to the local Lowe's and picked up a 4' X 8' X 2"  and two 4'X8'X1/2" foam boards and three rolls of 14gauge stranded wire to start the process and well as a 50lb bag of plaster of Paris and a pack of blue shop towels rolls.

I finally finished wiring all my track yesterday! Now I move onto switch wiring, but not until after I run some trains first!!!

Tim C.

Main Street got paved this weekend!

All the way to the "other" side of the tracks....

All last week trying to improve on the fastrack appearance????

OPEN HOUSE AT LARRY'S  WHEN YOU ARE DONE

ALL SMOKEY MTN CLUB MEMBERS GET IN FREE !!

THANKS

Test-ran a "new" locomotive!  At our small local train meet yesterday, I found a sweet little Lionel 384 from around 1930, nice age wear and patina, very clean original condition, and the gentleman selling it had done a careful and qualified job servicing.  Put her on the track and she purrs right around.  Not an uncommon engine, and one which frankly I had kind of overlooked, but a really nice example and I'm pleased!  

Larry, gosh yes, that's much better!

I went from one round tube yesterday to a wider two tube version.  This follows the prototype model.  Next is to find a tube to drain out of the bin about 3/4ths the way up which tube flexes at the bottom and into the box car door.  There is a building which houses the top of the  elevator leg on the top of the structure. 

I agree, Nice looking tree.

I believe that your source is a 'Tardiva,' also known as 'Pink Diamond,' or 'Chantilly Lace.'  My wife has one; I never thought about using it, until now.

I was disappointed that my MTH/RK double track signal bridge wouldn't span the two tracks; because the only place it would look good is on a curve. I even have the two extra heads. I had investigated how I could remove the two empty ports and the board from one side and mount those two heads above the entrance to Penn Station. Having recovered from that I dug out the Z-Stuff position lights and mounted them at the station entrance. still a work in progress. sorry for the blur; it's a new camera.

Got to spend some quality time in the train room and we changed out the scale PE in favor of the new El Capitan train set. had a minor problem with a short in one of the cars, but got it fixed and the El Capitan made it's inaugural run. It sure is a beautiful passenger train.\

A hatch installed in the main table and it's ready for track!!!!

On THE GLACIER LINE today...

03-02-2014    Connie painted more snow detail into the Rock Hill and Camp Disappointment area.  I extended the ballast and ground cover another about four feet from Camp Disappointment to the edge of where the Town of Cataract, Montana will be located.  It continued to snow on the mountains tonight.

had a scratch built bridge fall apart tried fixing it for about the 10th time tried with small staples well so much for that bridge so have to rebuild it. so made up a temp board to make the span. reassembled my 4th loop and got it running. and ran some trains for the grand daughter and my daughters.

hojack, wow did you hit a old nerve. Must have been over thirty five years ago. Thought I had a great marriage. Had my second large layout and a great house. When she came home one night and said she wanted a divorce my world died. It went on for about four months. I remember going down to my train room and trying to add to it, but I knew it was over and the house and layout would end. I staid single for over ten years. Thought I would never meet the girl of my dreams. Then I did and her dad was a SP railroad man. What more could you want. It will get better my friend. It's just part of life. Don

Yesterday I went to the train store ( MB Klein ) to purchase a mountain background photo and a few odds and ends of scenery material.  I yemporarily placed the back drop on my layout to get a feel.  Looks really good!  Its amazing how much a backdrop improves the quality of a layout.   Unfortunately I did not get anything done on the layout today. 

Tomorrow I may begin the roads on the Mountain Division.  I'm going to try using roofing shingles as they seem to give a good representation of a tar and chip country road.  I will also run trains on the mountain division as well.  

Ill get some photos up if the work proves to be successful.

Took some pictures for an update. Been a few months since I posted on our layout thread. Progress in the scenery department is slow, but it's getting there. My goal is to have the right side of the layout at the "finished" stage by the end of the year. That's the engine service facilities, and there is a lot involved for steam and diesel areas.

You can see the thread HERE

Wired switches 9&10.

Peter

I managed to finish fitting the plywood decking in my reverse loop for my industrial area.  Next step will be to paint all the bare wood an earth color.  Then I need to cut a switch into the mainline and then start laying the sidings.  I will post a picture later today.

Another small project was adding a track that runs along my section of the Mississippi River.  I built a section of roadbed board that is 3 1/2" high and runs parallel to the river.  I have a highway that I'm calling River Road on one side and the slightly elevated railroad track on the other side.  Have to spray paint the track and then lay it next.  I am using used Gargraves track for this.

Art

Your layout is beautiful! I enjoyed the magazine coverage that OGR gave you.

Purchased "snow."

Purchased "snow."

We got plenty of that here in the NorthEast this season.  I can send you all you want.  Although it might be a little slushy by the time it arrives.

With all the snow you have had in your area. Why buy when its free!!!!

Or was it a typo and you meant Snow Machine

Here are a couple shots of the plywood being done.  It surprised me how much cutting and fitting was involved because it was inside a circle.  I left a 24" by 48" access panel in the center.

Art:

Love to see your progress photos. Your are really making good progress.

The hatch is done, the backdrop is up and my first piece of track is down, lol.  The roundhouse is in it's approximate position.  Won't be long now, and I'll be running trains again, yippee!!!

built a engine house at least a start of one.

Doing some track planning and a fit test.  Will add another siding and develop the storage yard behind the door next.

Can't wait to get the track operational again.

Mike