What did you do on your layout today?

mike g. posted:

Nice detail Lee! It all adds up to making your layout look more and more real!

Gandy, beautiful scratch build!

Bob, the bridge turned out looking great along with the ballast!

Lirr, quite the layout! The addition looks really nice!

Looking good there Tom! Keep up the great work!

JDEVLEERJR, take all the time with the kids you can get! I hope it last along time, my kids were not into trains, my grandson was but has moved on to tablets and video games!

OLDMIKE, Nice addition!

MODELTRAINS, good call on the fence! I am surprise they didn't call for a walk over bridge! LOL

To sum it up, GREAT work is being done by all!

thank you!

Been working for the last 5 days or so on back drop buildings alongside the classification yard.  I had previously scratch-built the Atlantic Ice and Cold Storage building to hide the corner where the West bound aArrival Departure track circles around the back of the yard.   

Just got the Korber building: Joe's Pickle's Warehouse assembled and weathered, to the point that I could move it in place.  I am also doing a kit-bash of the building spanning the Caboose track siding, and I ended up scratch building the 6 foot I beam support under the building last weekend.  

Any suggestions are most welcome !   Please chime in.   

The last photo is of the engine service facility:   Finished round 2 of starting to ballast the tracks in the engine service facility... Wasn't too pleased the first attempt.  Now I am using the same low loft batting method I used on some mountains and rolling hills and covering it with dark brown latex paint followed by an assortment of dirt, cinders, and dark gray ballast.

Chris, The buildings look great!!

Chris, I don't know what the firs attempt looked like but I think you have a winner here! I love how the track goes under the building Great aspect!

I think I am winning. Spent some time working on this french

Joustra clockwork streamliner. I got it a couple of months ago 

and of course took the power car apart. God, I can be

stupid at times. This thing must have about 40 tin tabs

holding it together. I started putting it back together, 

then Oh wait, this piece has to go before that piece......

after about three attempts I finally got it right, I think.

Checked on the net, saw some references that this

train was called the Michilene. Photo and video follow. I think it must 

have liked being on camera. This was the only time it stopped in front

of me. All the other test runs it stopped in the far corner.

John

Matt,

   Great job on the Steel Bridge work, I love it.  The layout is really coming along!

PCRR/Dave

mattrain posted:

Lots of progress this week

• Scratch built steel bridge supports to position the Atlas truss bridge at the correct height for the BridgeBoss Supports that I've been working with @Bridgeboss Jim on
• Built a shelf and swapped out the Lionel ZW-C I had for the MRC Dual Power O27 (the ZW-C had a DC offset going to the track causing PS1 locos to blow their horns constantly, also the MRC is lower profile)
• Mounted and installed DCS AIU
• Changed the PS3 sound set on my upgraded MTH ATSF 4-8-4 Northern to use the 4-8-4 Greenbrier soundset - I LOVE the whistle of the Greenbrier

Next up, I'm pulling all trains/track/bridges off the table to paint the homasote with brown latex paint, then laying ballast.

Matt, any communication problems with the TIU/AIU underneath the table? I'd always been told that line of sight was best. 

Mark & Mike,  thanks for the positive feedback....  Bought the Korber building from another forum member not too long ago... As he had already painted it once without mortar lines, I ended up having to weather it several times, with different methods to get it where I wanted it.   What I ended up realizing is that I should be doing this on all my buildings.   Initially weather them once,  paint some bricks different colors, do the brick mortar work, seal it all up with flat clear coat, then go back and start doing variations, patch some mortar, with different color mortar,  india ink washes, dry brushing to get it looking less "perfect" as brick industrial buildings rarely weather uniformly....

Installed wiring at "Appreciation" engine , maintainence yard Thursday 

Quickie Photoshop of my proposed Jack Benny Texaco tank car...  

Mitch 

              started cleaning my new (used) train hauler....

                                             traded one of my small block Chevy's for it....

                              needs a little work and a good cleaning...

        going to use it for new wood storage for the new layout project...

                                   time to get started again soon...

beardog posted:

I think I am winning. Spent some time working on this french

Joustra clockwork streamliner. I got it a couple of months ago 

and of course took the power car apart. God, I can be

stupid at times. This thing must have about 40 tin tabs

holding it together. I started putting it back together, 

then Oh wait, this piece has to go before that piece......

after about three attempts I finally got it right, I think.

Checked on the net, saw some references that this

train was called the Michilene. Photo and video follow. I think it must 

have liked being on camera. This was the only time it stopped in front

of me. All the other test runs it stopped in the far corner.

John

 

 

Ah yes, I'm well familiar with having to get all the parts back in place in the right order from my earlier days in electronics.  I'm not familiar with clockwork engines, you said earlier about it should have run faster at a particular voltage, please explain does the voltage wind up the "clock" and you press the lever to release the stored mechanical energy, or what?

Regardless, that was a great run!!

briansilvermustang posted:

              started cleaning my new (used) train hauler....

                                             traded one of my small block Chevy's for it....

                              needs a little work and a good cleaning...

        going to use it for new wood storage for the new layout project...

                                   time to get started again soon...

 

I was wondering about the layout project.  Now I see, buying a trailer to store all the wood for the project!  You go all out!!! 

Hey, where is the snow??

Wait....Trailer traded for small-block Chevy?????? HUH????

sad thing is the trailer is bigger than my whole layout and its only for storage...

Looks like a good trade to me brian! When you get done with the new layout, you can build one in the trailer! Lol

Rearranging the Deck Chairs(about 60 tubs packed with trains), unpacking (20 large) boxes and stacking to see what I have.  Putting the postwar pieces in the display cabinet(as many as will fit).  All of this to make room in the basement to start construction of the benchwork. 

Finally got my living quarters cleaned out and (a dumpster full of trash and more), walls washed and painted, the old kitchen ripped out and a new one installed then  cleaned all the junk out of the LR, washed the walls & carpet so it looked fit for humn occupation. This AM I dragged out my standard gauge track and laid out two loops on the carpet just to see how it will look. Will have two loops og O gauge too. Excited already !!  Been a long  time.  Have to wait for the snow to melt and have a nice day to buy lumber. The cutting has to be done outside. My friends who live in the other half are having medical problems so I have to be a care giver and driver so that will interfere to a degree but will be dealt with. Final dimension (I think) will be 14 ft long and 8 ft. wide.

Congrats Jim. Sounds like quite an ordeal. Can't wait to see trains running.

Bob

Hi Mark, I think I confused people by posting videos of two different, but similar sets. The red and white

JEP set I posted a couple of days ago was three rail electric. It just was not running very fast for the

amount of voltage I was applying. It is improving with running. The green Joustra set I posted yesterday or

the day before is pure mechanical clockwork. No electric involved. I am attaching pics of a simple

clockwork motor. You just take the key, put it on the square shaft on one side of motor, wind the spring til it is tight.

The two levers towards the rear of the motor are a brake and reverse. You set the brake while winding to prevent

the spring from unwinding, then release it when the loco is on the track. The europeans made much

more complex clockwork mechanisms than this one, Hornby and Bing come to mind. Here in the

US Marx and Hafner were big clockwork manufacturers and Lionel and AF to some extent during the

depression years. You have to kind of switch gears and remember that before and during the 

depression most of America, especially the rural areas did not have electricity. The same applies

to europe, so almost all manufacters made clock work trains. It is interesting to look into some

of the ways they tried to power electric trains in the early days. 

John

Ha ha ha ... almost done with my fuel columns, and searching eBay today a set of the MTH ones showed up for a good price. I bought them, but honestly, I think I'll be using my own fuel columns for the current layout. There may be a place to use the MTH ones at a later date (after the expansion). It'll be interesting to put them side by side for people to see.

I may try to put the white metal oil column together tonight. Rather than have to break out the primer spray can multiple times, it'd be nice if I could get them all done in one go. I should probably build a base for it as well. The 1500 gallon oil tank looks puny compared to the oil column. I wonder how much oil tenders use to take onboard. Perhaps I need to build an oil tank out of PVC pipe and cap, then look for a sticker. What companies used to supply oil for use for steam engines? I know my son would get a kick out of a Sinclair tank.

I tried to find pictures of Lionels early batteries. No luck. Here is a picture of a similar one. Just give junior a glass

jar, a couple of electrodes, and a gallon of sulphuric acid and he is running trains. I would imagine quite

a mess when the jar got accidently knocked over.  Other ones used nitro-muratic acid, carbolic acid, etc.

I have also read about trains that ran on staight 110v at the track. A derailment must have been quite

spectacular.  

Lead-acid

 

Up to this point, all existing batteries would be permanently drained when all their chemical reactions were spent. In 1859, Gaston Planté invented the lead–acid battery, the first-ever battery that could be recharged by passing a reverse current through it. A lead acid cell consists of a lead anode and a lead dioxide cathode immersed in sulfuric acid. Both electrodes react with the acid to produce lead sulfate, but the reaction at the lead anode releases electrons whilst the reaction at the lead dioxide consumes them, thus producing a current. These chemical reactions can be reversed by passing a reverse current through the battery, thereby recharging it.

Planté's first model consisted of two lead sheets separated by rubber strips and rolled into a spiral.^[8] His batteries were first used to power the lights in train carriages while stopped at a station^{[citation needed]}. In 1881, Camille Alphonse Faure invented an improved version that consisted of a lead grid lattice into which a lead oxide paste was pressed, forming a plate. Multiple plates could be stacked for greater performance. This design was easier to mass-produce.

Compared to other batteries, Planté's was rather heavy and bulky for the amount of energy it could hold. However, it could produce remarkably large currents in surges. It also had very low internal resistance, meaning that a single battery could be used to power multiple circuits.^[6]

The lead-acid battery is still used today in automobiles and other applications where weight is not a big factor. The basic principle has not changed since 1859. In the early 1930s, a gel electrolyte (instead of a liquid) produced by adding silica to a charged cell was used in the LT battery of portable vacuum-tube radios. In the 1970s, "sealed" versions became common (commonly known as a "gel cell" or "SLA"), allowing the battery to be used in different positions without failure or leakage.

Today cells are classified as "primary" if they produce a current only until their chemical reactants are exhausted, and "secondary" if the chemical reactions can be reversed by recharging the cell. The lead-acid cell was the first "secondary" cell.

John,  Ah ha!!  Now I remember the red and white!!  I didn't go back a page to check on the color or manufacturer.  Yes, now it all makes sense, and the clockwork spring that is wound is just what I was thinking of!!  

That is some interesting information on batteries.  I recall learning about the types in use when I was studying electronics in college in the mid '70s.  Most of my 42 years employment has been with power and telecom companies.  Both use lead acid battery racks to produce 48 volts DC and larger power substations produce 125 volts DC for controls.  The banks of large batteries are quite a site to the uninitiated, and the acid levels still need to be checked.

Used to check the batteries everyday back at ATT in Norway, Il. We were one of 5 hardened

coldwar sites surrounding Chicago.  So we had an entire floor full of banks of batteries and a diesel

generator the size of a locomotive.

So you know what I'm talking about.  Back in the '80s at Possum Point Power Station across Quantico Creek from Quantico Marine Base (Dumfries, Virginia) they had 6 Fairbanks-Morse combustion turbines.  These were solely for making station power to start bringing the coal fired furnaces up in case of a blackout.  We had to test the protective relaying once a year.  The Combustion turbines had a striking resemblance to an F-M Train Master.  I wonder why!!  

Water tower build project coming along nicely. Waiting on a spout, pulley and standpipe to complete the work.....

Put down the plywood today.

Televue, That is really looking good!  

Thanks Mark

Nothing. I mowed the lawn today for the first time this Spring (the neighbors were looking daggers at me - hey, if those sprouting blue weeds, er, flowers, were in a field somewhere they'd be all "O-o-o - so pretty!" and stuff). I have a manly lawn mower - I push it, walking. No powered wheels and such.

It almost killed me. I'll be 70 next month - if I survive this.

Mitch,

   I want one of those Jack Bennie Tankers in Tin Plate!  Very cool Tanker idea!

PCRR/Save

HK, that water tower looks great.  Who’s your source for the spout, etc.?

Televue, looking better and better! Keep up the good work!

D500, mow your heart out! Maybe you can make some extra cash for trains mowing there lawn also! LOL

@Former Member sent my sons some people. Put a handful on the layout where he typically stands and directs freight.

He also recruited me to the Flamingo Side.

It sounds ominous. 

Thanks again beardog. My oldest will be thrilled when he sees that he has people and animals to direct as well!

gandydancer1950 posted:

Water tower build project coming along nicely. Waiting on a spout, pulley and standpipe to complete the work.....

The water tower looks great, Howard!!

After doing some engine maintenance, I cut the Homasote to size for the roll-out turn-back loop.  This town will be relatively flat, so since I have plenty, I just covered the whole thing with Homasote.

I also cut part of the tabletop out for the Cheat River crossings.  I left the table uncut where the two bridges will go for now.  I'll cut it completely for the truss bridge in the rear.  I may leave the wood intact for the girder bridge in the front.

Moving right along Mark! Looking good, what's next?

mike g. posted:

Moving right along Mark! Looking good, what's next?

Mike, Thank you!  I am going to put the track back down temporarily and mark the center-lines, then remove it and lay down O gauge cut and beveled cork for the raised roadbed look.  The two yard tracks in town will be tapered down to rest right on the Homasote.  Then I can start laying track in that area.  By that time, I'll be cleaning up leaves, mowing my yard and my dad's large yard, so work on the layout will be slower, but I'll have enough started I can work on it an hour or so when I get the chance.

Pine Creek Railroad posted:

Mitch,

   I want one of those Jack Bennie Tankers in Tin Plate!  Very cool Tanker idea!

 

Thankee!  I refer you to the original thread for copies of the posters so you can roll your own!   

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...r-jack-benny-project  

Mitch 

TedW posted:

HK, that water tower looks great.  Who’s your source for the spout, etc.?

Thanks! Grandt Line on ebay.