What did you do on your layout today?

Kevin,

Seems like you have all your bases covered.  The hollow core door layout looks good.  I agree, I would wan to control from the long side, although I visited a friend over the weekend, and he has his controls on the short end of a much larger layout.  He uses DCS, so we could walk around the whole layout however.

Mike, I  went on line a searched for striped red paper and found what I needed.  Also found some green and white for a grocery store and tow tone lavender for a ladies' ready to wear.  There were others, too.

I'm both lazy and cheap, so it worked for me.

Tom

Well Mark, I don't think it was he glue. Have you ever tried sniffing CA (super glue)? Let's just say it's no fun.

Bummer about losing your potential free ride out here, but on the upside, now you can visit whenever you want.

Hello Guys. Hear are some photos taken sometime prior this year, & some current photos taken this week.  Now you know what I had to deal with the past 2 months but I can see the future also. Now I have the garage to deal with some time soon.  Enjoy 

Looks great Scot!!

Find attached a sketch I made of my current layout.  Only part not able to run on is the purple line, still working yards and engine service/TT areas.  All else is runnable and has 4 different elevations, yellow 360 loop being the highest.  Still tweeking super elevations and grades, running Big Boy pulling K Line 18 inch CZ ten car consist to check clearances/grades, etc.  Oooopsss... they are 21" car consist, only the baggage is 18" in length.

I realize my layout is what seems to be loop-de-loop.  But, with scenery and landscaping (when added), and backdrops in place, hope to break it up and provide visual as needed.  This is on 24 X 28 layout, walk around with center entry/duck under beneath the high bridge and "Y" on the blue line.  Also, will be adding an upper level with classification yard, industrial areas and two more lines.  Have a lot to do, long way to go.  But, being on here gives one a lot of ideas and inspiration.

Huge improvement, Scot. 

Art

Today I posted a new 3.5-minute video (#32) in my LCJ&I Lines series, on YouTube. It describes the building of the O-scale craftsman kit, "Contention City Depot" by Andersen Model Kits. It provides a small wooden, old-west railroad depot, modeling the depot at Contention City AZ (now a ghost town). The depot was moved to Old Tucson, a western theme park. The model depot fits onto one side of a red rock canyon I'm building on the layout.

http://youtu.be/rFf-E6u7NsI

I gave my layout a name.

It's the Brooklyn, Kingston, & South Florida Railroad (BKSF), which is derives from the three places that I’ve spent the majority of my life: Brooklyn, Kingston (Jamaica) and South Florida, and unintentionally comes close to a real railroad name acronym.

I've spent the last couple days working to install the "A" yard ladder. I was just about to put in the last switch, when my soldering station decided to give up the ghost. I was just two wires short too. I haven't used a soldering gun since I bought that thing, but I'm going to have to bust it out to finish.

Normally I use crimp on tab connectors to attach my feeders to the rail, but I've found that they don't have as much grip going into the flat bottom rail of switches, so I've been soldering them.

The 2 gray wires are something new. Because I have cut these switches down, and have the minimum spacing between, it will probably be necessary to route power on the closure rails. It was Chugman that clued me into this potential pitfall.

This little SPDT switch is the rest of the solution. The two gray wires connect to the end terminals, and track power goes to the one on the side. The switch will be mounted in such a way that the that the crank mechanism on the manual switch throws will depress and release the lever.

I took this picture to show just how close I cut the switches. There's about 1/8" of rail beyond the end of the points.

There are eight chopped 072 switches in the ladder, but only 7 are visible here. There are a couple of connecting tracks that need finishing, and then just the straight yard body tracks, and the "A" yard is done!

Last up Roseville. Patrick should be here Friday so we can finish the benchwork. Joe will be here Thursday to do more wiring. I'm looking to get a couple sections buttoned up on that front.

Had a scheduled train show on Saturday and an unscheduled one on Sunday...

The scheduled one was in Gravette, AR for "Gravette Day". 

My Polar Gi-raffe Express Berkshire is still in the shops pending parts from Lionel (will post a separate "Under The Hood" article later this week when the parts arrive), so my 2025 that I overhauled last year did the honors: 

Had one chap walk into the layout room at the Museum and quip, "This place smells like LIONEL!"  He also dug the Bugs Bunny reference "It's a gi-raffe, a gi-raffe!"...   

Added the Sunoco tanker seen above to my fleet, as well as some Model T's for the scenery end of things. 

A future project will be repairing this Marx Santa Fe diesel (belonging to the Museum) in need of a new collector assembly...

While riding home from Gravette, I got a call from one of my fellow directors of the J. Reilly McCarren Museum at the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad (https://www.facebook.com/amrrfriends). 

Seems that some Tyson bigwigs had donated a cool quarter-million to childrens' charities and scholarships, and the A&M had laid on a special passenger train in their honor.  Could I show up with a gi-raffe or two?  Well, as my new business cards say:

So, I was at the JRM Museum bright and early on Sunday: 

Sharp-eyed viewers will note the NYC F-Unit lashup that I repaired some weeks back.  The locos pulled fine and the horn was beeping merrily!

Even slightly abbreviated, the gi-raffes were a hit!   

As a side note, both the Gravette and JRM museums want to consult with me about putting permanent Lionel displays at their locations! 

I finished the weekend with repairs to my homebuilt Plasticville whistling station's platform, with the able assistance of Norma B. Kitteh, CFE (Certified Feline Engineer)...

Mitch

Created the home and visitors dugouts. Got the visitors dugout cutout and set up; still have to landscape around it though.

Brian

Very nice!

i wish I had the room for a baseball diamond

That is nice Bryan.

Larry

I did a thorough cleaning on my 671, replaced some of the frayed wires, and re-soldered some of the loose or broken connections for the wiring. I also replaced the brushes, and cleaned off the E-unit drum and armature.

I plan on doing the 671w tender tomorrow.

Well I wanted to put down the final coat of Rust-Oleum Epoxy shield Paint today. Then I went out to the Breezeway and discovered that I don't have the right color that I put down first. I put down Battleship Gray first. Then when I went out there today I discovered that I had Armor Gray which dose not go well with Battleship Gray. So I guess I will be painting again this Saturday. Tomorrow and Friday I have DR. appointments .    What do you guys think on the Colors ?

Hi Everybody--    Hooray !!!   Earlier this evening I applied power from all three of my transformers (ZW, KW, LW) and the three main pilot lamps lit up.  Then I increased one of the small size throttles on the left side of the ZW to give me a voltmeter reading of FIFTEEN (15) volts.  This powers up the switches using fixed-voltage plugs as well as the four lights on the Hell Gate Bridge as well as the 153/163 block signal switch indicators.  Operating the FIVE DPST toggle switches on the control panel turned on the lights in the Greyhound Bus Depot, the Sunoco gas storage tank Yard Light,

the Oil Derrick, the Rail-King interlocking tower, and the 464 Saw Mill.

Suzie loaded the planks and logs into the Sawmill and it worked perfectly.  I bought it NEW from the Great Train Expo in Puyallup, WA for $ 50.00 one year ago but never tried it until now.

SIX (6) DPST toggle switches on upper row of control power apply 18v power to the Display Tracks near the bus depot.  One for the SP AC-12, one for the CSX SD-70ACe, one for the Millenium Business Car, and the other three for lighting ELEVEN (11) Santa Fe passenger cars....

Three DPST toggle switches are vacant and available for other things.  The other small-siozed throttle on the ZW operates the main line that surrounds the Trolley Yard.

One of the throttle outputs of the KW operates the "passing siding" external to the Hellgate Bridge.  It hosts a 132 Station and Auxilliary freight station with operating fork lifts.

The variable output of the LW will provide power for the various storage tracks within the Trolley Yard.  The green lights visible on control panel are the controllers which are cabled to the 022/072 track switches.  The fixed 14 volt output from the LW supply one set of those DPST toggle switches while the fixed 18 volt output supplies the other set of toggle switches.   Lots of wiring indeed !!  I have been using cable ties to try and make some of this mess a little bit neater !  Again, I've been doing this whole project without a wiring diagram !  However, so far, so good!!

Except earlier this evening, the lights on all ELEVEN (11) Santa Fe passenger cars all went off at once.  Panic city !!!!!

Luckily, I found a loose splice joint for one of the COMMON leads heading to a post on my power distribution panel.  Tomorrow morning, I'll take it apart (4-wires under a wire nut) aqnd solder them together instead.  That should do the trick !!

Until then, guys, enjoy the newest photos !!

Cheers.

KRK

Congrats....its a great feeling when everything lights up as it should!

-Pete

I put in a couple more hours today, working on the "A" yard. I am so close to finishing it. I'll get it done before Joe gets here in the afternoon. Pics late Thursday.

Ken:  Bravissimo! 

Mitch

And the article is up! 

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...press-1225-berkshire

Mitch

Tuesday I picked up a derelict Lionel KW transformer at my favorite antique store for a very reasonable sum, brought it home, opened it up to replace the power cord, cleaned everything and it is like new !! I use a Z and a KW to run my 5 loops of track and some lights etc. This new KW is so smooth and nice so now I have two extra. Will keep one as a spare. Nice to get a bargain.

OK... finally was able to remove a lot of boxes/totes and a little cleanup.  Positioning switches to check fit before installation, assist routing of red line to purple and engine facilities.

did some more scenery

Our Gold Edition 1225 came back from service yesterday and we got it powered up and took it for a test drive. All is well again.

While it was off the layout, we switched the Black version 1225 to the Gold set and then used a baby Hudson (D56 livery) to pull the blue and maroon scale set. We had guests over the past few days so we had to improvise. I was amazed that the baby Hudson could pull eight Heavyweights, but it did.

I second Pete's comment!  Congratulations, Ken!

I got a major goal underway at the moment. Im finally getting wall paneling installed in my trainroom! 
Here are some photos of the work. 

The Minnesota Commercial "A" yard is done!

And so is all the track in aisle 4.

The wye coming off the small helix...

into an 063 curve. This is primarily for turning engines.

The ladder and its bypass track.

I've started to call this the "flying wye".

A shot looking down the entire length of the room.

Brian:  your baseball field looks really nice.  have you ever contacted Carl Chambers for some more itmes?  he's located in the greater Cleveland area and for a long while made bleacher seats, batting pens, concession stands and other itmes for a proper baseball park.  They were made from laser cut wood and really look accurate.  if you contact me, I can give you his numbers and whatever.

Paul Fischer

Absolutely beautiful Elliot.  Nicely done. You make track laying a work of art. Can't wait to see the next chapter. 

Fixed the cracked fascia board on the module from my earlier post by cutting down a center support for a softer curve. Forgot to take a photo before putting it away. Put fascia boards on Module #3. Hopefully I can get the fascias on the rest of the modules by Sunday so I can start on the scenery base. Since this is a branch section, the track will be mounted directly to the baseboard, ballasted and surrounded with dirt from the remnants of the Redlands Loop right-of-way.

Thanks Paul if you email me his info I would be interested to see what he offers.

The Minnesota Commercial "A" yard is done!

Amazing work.I really like the progress.

And I'm still stuck on the kitchen, living room remodel project.OH , and today such good news over 4K for a tank less outside gas water heater. SUCH fun

I can't wait until winter to play with trains.

Larry

Room completion is beginning to take place down on this end.  Anything below ceiling level won't need as much detailed finishing since it'll eventually be hidden by layout.  Soon I'll need to make a decision on a flooring.

One major milestone was the installation of additional lighting with 12V LED strips, like those used to replace incandescents in passenger cars.   These will normally be dimmed to maximum to simulate night.  I cranked them up to show for the photograph.

Bruce

Bruce,

Very nice room and lighting!!  Now it is time to build a railroad!!

This has been the week for guests to our layouts. Our next door neighbor's kids and grandkids are in this week and they all wanted to see the trains run. It is always fun to share the layouts, especially with kids.

Thanks Mark,

  There is still 2 other ends of the "T" shaped room to finish trimming before the layout begins.  Tempting though, since I have enough lumber on hand to make a start if I....no no no...must stay focused! 

Bruce

Bruce,

I agree wholeheartedly!!  Finish the room prep, then let the fun begin!! 

Cleaned up my two extra KW transformers both inside and out. Work pretty good, will keep one as a spare and the other gets traded off for who knows what.

Thank you Pat. It is both a happy time and a sad time, as track laying is now 98% complete. The only track left is the Roseville industrial area, and the Bowser turntable which just consists of an access track and the whisker tracks. Not nearly as exciting as all those yards.

Going forward, the plan has to be to get all those Tortoises powered and temporary control panels in place. This will be phase one of having a working railroad. After all, that is the point of this exercise.

Four down/one to go. Got home a little early from work, so I decided to work on the modules again. Put the fascia boards on Module #4 and Module#2. Got tired, plus it was hot and humid so I called it an evening. Should have #1 done tomorrow evening.

These first two are the now-corrected Module #5. I had to replace the front fascia board as it was bent too sharply and cracked. I shaved the center brace for a more gentle curve. The reason Modules #1 and #5 are tapered is to be compliant with a proposed single-track O scale Free-Mo standard.

Here are four of the five modules lined up against the garage wall. The longest is six feet; the shortest is three. Module #1 (not shown) and #3 (far end) are five feet while Module #2 (near end) is the shortest at three feet. The overall size of the layout when assembled will be 12 feet by 13 feet in an L-shaped corner arrangement.

Have had company at home all week and haven't had the chance to get anything done on the layout.  Hoping to get a lot done next week though.

Art

I have two # 153 block signals and one # 163 searchlight signal hooked up as switch indicators--did that yesterday.  I still have two # 153 block signals to hook-up somewhere and two # 151 semaphores.  I also have a # 450 signal bridge to hook up, along with some Rail-King signal heads for the Cantilever signal bridges.  Have two more Towers and a couple of Diners-- a 132 station with operating freight station--a # 38 water tower, gatemen, whistle houses, gates, crossbucks and whatever else is still packed in the garage.  My wiring days are far from over !

So far, as previously mentioned, my post-war ZW, KW and LW are filling the bill for power requirements.  I have another ZW in reserve-- plus two CW-80's.

Good news-- my buddy Ray at "House of Trains" notified me this week that he has completed the total restoration of my 250-watt "Z" that I have owned for over 40+ years.  He absolutely HATES working on Z-type transformers compared to the others because of the sloping panel.  But he gave it a shot and says "It Works Great" !!

Ray has hundreds of Lionel and Flyer transformers in storage-- a lot of them need to go to the scrapper.  A lot of them have usuable parts.  The total weight of all of these is astronomical.  The other night, my wife Suzie made the comment that my new layout was starting to look like Ray's because of models all over the place.  We laughed.

Next time we visit "House of Trains", I want to take pictures.  The place resembles the old Lionel factory in Irvington, NJ.  If I share some of these photos with you guys, you'll think:  "Oh My God !!"  The place is mind-boggling!!

I don't have a stake in Ray's business ventures, BUT, if you guys have need of someone who knows how to repair Trains the first time around--without hesitating--or look for a tiny elusive PART you can't find-- contact Ray Dumke and tell him OGR Forum member Ken Shattock (KRK) sent you !!  He maintains an inventory of approx

$ 150 K worth of parts...  Tis true!

For you Tubular track fans--  he has THAT too !!  Ray was also good buddies with the two brothers that owned Madison Hardware in New York.  Something he told me about that place:   there was underground basement storage and off-prem warehouses that held zillions of blue, white and orange boxes of goodies.  When the stuff was discovered later on, everyone went NUTS !!  He says that the brothers knew where every single item could be found !   Truly amazing !!  Anyway---

enough talk--  I should have enough track arriving on Monday to complete my lighted display tracks around the living room and dining room.

Want to go downstairs now and clean up the junk on the layout tables.  Give "Ray" a call for your needs at "House of Trains" in Hoodsport, WA.  You will NOT be disappointed !!  Maybe Rich Melvin will do a magazine story on him someday!  Never know, huh ??  

"House of Trains"

You guys and gals have a great weekend!!   Cheers.

KRK

Yesterday I ran some of my trains on the club layout (Southwest Michigan Modular Train Club). I wish I had room at my house for this.

http://trainsaway.wix.com/swmimodulartrainclub

Nice pics Denny.  Do you guys run at public events Or is that a static layout?

Well today I mixed up some acrylic paint to dab on the top of some of my flex walls. The tops of them in spots were not quite colored enough. While doing that I ran trains and went back to cleaning up the floor area. Just does not seem to have the same excitement to me as working on the layout. Cleaning is going very slow.........Paul

Nothing overly cool, but I measured the space along the back wall for a structure flat (I've had the wood and door/window castings for a long time) and draw out the plan for the walls, windows and doors and such.

Construction will likely start this weekend. I was gonna take my WW2 Jeep to a car show but decided I'd rather get something done on the layout instead...

Got tired of seeing extra trains on a table so started to build some shelving for it to display.

The shelves look nice, I like the white shelving with the blue background.

Don

What did you do on your layout today?

Nothing, it's been finished for years.

Joe was here yesterday. He started off by finishing up some some old wiring over in aisle 3 north, then it was back to aisle 2 south to finish University.

Joe takes a minute to admire his handy work. Very impressive really.

He helped me lift the other half of the Roseville deck into place. This is the last major piece of benchwork and track laying to be done.

Today I switched gears a little, and put together one of two turnout relay panels. The CMR/I system will throw the relays, and the relays will throw the Tortoises. I chose this location because it is fairly central to a large number of turnouts.

I could get down in there to work on this thing, but having it swing out into the aisle is much better.

I'm going to have to rehang this, because it is about 1/4" low.  I need to allow for a 1/2" finish floor and some commercial low pile carpet.

As soon as I get the CMR/I fired up, and the JMRI to control it, I won't need any control panels anymore.

Elliot... all those controller? just how many wires are needed?

every time I see the latest progress I am amazed at all you have accomplished since seeing it in person in 2013.

I always enjoy reading the updates on your layout.

Thanks Ray. What you are looking at there are just relay sockets. The relays themselves are in a big tub under the layout. I'm using the relays as a DPDT switch for polarity reversal of the power to the Tortoises.

The wiring goes as follows:

• 2 small wires forming an X between the contacts for polarity reversal on each socket base
• 2 wires daisy chained along the row of sockets for 12V DC supply to the Tortioses
• 2 wires going out to each Tortoise in the field
• 1 wire daisy chained along the row of sockets for relay power
• 1 wire from CMR/I to activate the relay

Got the home team dugout finished and up on the layout.  Also took some shots from the blimp looking down.

The baseball field is pretty cool.

pretty well done the field and the whole scene actually.

Andre.

Had the best of intentions to do cleaning up. Got up there looked at the floor looked at the trains and the trains won out so I ran trains today. Maybe  tomorrow I will look toward the floor.............Paul

Bryan, the ball diamond looks great. Especially from the blimp. Nice job on the dugouts. The shelves are a nice addition too....................Paul

Bryan, your ball park looks terrific.  Any particular age group (little league, pony, etc.) represented?

Elliot, once again you leave me speechless with the sheer scope, quality, and planning reflected in your excellent and timely photographs--hope you never stop posting your daily and monthly progress reports.

Added more power!

As long-time devotees of the gi-raffe know, any speed above a fast crawl results in the hapless gi-raffe smacking its face into the telltale.  One can, of course obtain a spare 3424-80 base plate to relocate yon telltale just at the end of the cam ramp, or the same effect may be obtained with a piece of scrap stripwood:

Mitch

It's high school the two teams represented on the scoreboard are Cuyahoga Falls (the team I played for in high school) and Willoughby South (the team I coached).  The field is a combination of a few unique fields I remember playing at over the years. 

Thanks for the compliments on the field it has been fun putting this together the last couple of weeks.  Still have to add the side fences and build a backstop and bleachers.  Progress will be slowing down since school and coaching start back up on Monday.  12 hour days don't leave much time for layout work although I do have major incentive to keep working on it as I volunteered for a layout open house tour on November 7. 

Thank you Carl. I'm glad you're enjoying my layout construction coverage. The forum is really a great way to bring it to a lot of people who live all over the country and beyond.

You may or may not know, but I am no stranger to large model railroad projects like this. So many of the materials and techniques that I'm using are carried over from my Mall of America experience. The real beauty is that I don't have the pressures of running a business, and I can work at my own pace.

While the physical construction has been exciting to watch, perhaps the more exciting stuff has yet to come in the form of the control systems. It may not be the latest cutting edge stuff, but I plan to go where I have never seen anyone else in the 3 rail world go. So stay tuned.

Even though I didn't go downstairs today, I did not totally ignore the railroad. After having lunch with a non-train buddy, we went to Menards for what should be some of the last heavy construction materials, in the form of 2x4's and fiberboard. Also needed more flat black paint, drywall screws, small drill bits, impact screw tips, and of course Elmer's glue. Love that 11% rebate!

My shoulder is acting up again and needs rest. It is light work to attack the wiring for that panel.

Hi Everybody--

Last night I finally hooked up my Lionel # 132 Station, # 442 Diner and # 356 Baggage Station..  The amount of wiring at my "control center" is getting astronomical!  I can imagine the thousands of feet of wire that OGR Forum member "Elliot" will end up with.

I had NO POWER to the single-track "passing siding".  Couldn't figure out what was wrong.  My wife Suzie helped me trace a single white wire.  There was a yellow wire that was soldered to the center rail of the passing siding.  It was attached, via a wire nut, to a white wire, which disappeared under the bench work.  What a gal !!  She laid down on the floor under the layout and found this white wire and started tugging on it.

I found it in a corner of my "control center" and traced it very carefully to a screw terminal on a Jones terminal strip.  Guess what ?  There was no wire on the opposite screw terminal where a power lead should have terminated !  Ran in a lead from that terminal to the KW and voila---  power now gets to the passing siding!

It's amazing what a little Ohms Law can do for you, isn't it ?

To recap my power supplies...... 

1.  One of the large handles on my ZW, operates the outer mainline loop.

2.  The other large handle on my ZW operates the inner mainline loop.

3.  The left-hand small throttle is set for 15-16 volts to operate 022/072 switches

     via the fixed-voltage plugs as well as the lights on the Hell Gate Bridge.

4.  The right-hand small throttle operates the Trolley Yard mainline and Reverse Loop.

5.  The 14-volt output of my LW transformer supplies power for various lights and 

     accessories.

6.  The 18-volt output of my LW transformer supplies power for the SIX primary

     display tracks.

7.  The variable output of my LW transformer supplies power for the tracks within the 

     Trolley Yard.

8.  The left-hand throttle of my KW transformer supplies power for the "passing 

     siding" mentioned previously !

9.  The right-hand throttle of my KW transformer is spare and currently unassigned !

10.  Current power availability is around 600-watts.

Reference photos:  (taken a long time ago)---

1.  Double track mainline over Hell Gate Bridge with "Passing Siding" seen to the left.

2.  Double track mainline showing Junction where "Passing Siding" takes off, at far 

     end of layout.

3.  Trolley Yard.

I received my initial order of 750 wood ties from Kappler's.  I'm still searching for

"roofing granules" for ballast.

All you nice folks have a great day !   Cheers.

KRK 

Oh, how I long to be doing stuff that's train related.  Until that time I hope you'll forgive my postings of layout room preparation pics.

Back in the beginning of the attic conversion, the first line of attack was to rearrange and expand on the existing basement stairwell.  This weekend was spent transforming that roughed in construction into something more elevating.  The stairs themselves will be left as is until all other construction ends.

The right wall long ago became a catch all, so I kept it as such, just a little more refined than bare 2 X 4's.  On the left is what once was an exterior wall of the 2 log structures that make up my house

Tongue and groove cedar ties in with the rest of the house decor.

And now the requisite train content.  That shelf I roughed in earlier got trimmed out and a few trinkets get displayed.

While we're at it, the chimney got covered, the electrical panel hidden and a cabinet built to house the stereo. 

Bruce

Bit the bullet and trimmed the upper level It hung out too far for me to do reasonable scenery.  Lousy job because it was very messy and the edge did not come out very smooth.  Now to build some vertical walls.

Al

  Mitch, A while back, when the camera went dark here, you asked for photos of the dowel rod, skewer, and cotter pin tattle tales I scrounged up.

  The wood pole grain is a few saws dragged sideways vs cutting normally. Then dark oil stains, then black, grey/green north side washes.

  The side drag technique works for sheet side foam carving of sheer cliffs, & shale/ rock walls, without a bunch of gluing layers. Vary the tooth sizes used, heavy cut wood, to hacksaw .

Taking the turnout, you see tell tale #1

Up and over the top of the box car to see #2 just below the temporary bridge (foam, wet/dry sandpaper and BBQ skewers. So light, a good sneeze will dislodge it.

 More scrounging. The vents on the AF talking station bashed into a factory, are from little basket flower pots I got from the dumpster of a hydroponics supply shop on the corner. They cut the baskets up for something, and throw away hundreds of these things?

Pine cone tree.

  The tattles move around left to right from vibration on this pole.

The skewers are bamboo. They didn't take the stain well. I gooped it on, and it slowly migrated to the regular wood each time. One day I'll paint the bamboo dark again, or use oil crayon rubbed around good. 

Oh..OK....there's my house keys. 

#3 from the opposite direction

This no flash photo of the #3 side, is really closer to being how it appears. I just hate messing with digital screens for settings. I want my manual controls back

Pole #2 is almost in good focus and you can see the horizontals, are darker than the flash showed. This camera loves to show greens too.

Those pole holders are on their last legs. The poles are screwed on. Some tabs even missing.

 A zinc based rust inhibitor is the black, the brown is the stuff that "never sleeps".

Another late photo. The MTH crossbucks wont stay here. Its just easier to mess with here. 

  More unusual scrounges: The shelf bracket for an elevation beam(2 bolted together, grips the two Lionel groves). The butane tanks, are butane tanks....

  A fat plastic couch leg for a base, and a large lanolin "hand cleaner" container wrapped in white paper make up the big tank.

 Do you like the rusty track? I could photograph a bunch of that too

I love my junk.

I knew I was interested in this room for a good reason.

 Very nice, if you don't mind my saying so

Had a busy weekend, decided to get off my butt and finish off a little nook on my layout.

I took some notes on "Leaving Tracks" prior posts regarding his waterfall build and decided to combine his technique using hotglue and and a technique I used previously involving silicon....gotta say I like Alan's hot glue technique!  Combined with the silicon, it gave a nice result.  I also used broken ceiling tiles to create the mountain walls......the wet look of the lake was also a silicon smear and hit rapidedly with a plastic spoon to get the wave-like chop!

 Hope you enjoy.

-Pete

The bridge in from of the waterfall looks odd to me. Looks like roadbed suspended in the air?

What can I say, my o scale engineers said it could be done and I took them at their word!

Seriously, though, its a work in progress, Not sure if I wanted to clutter the waterfall scene with a wooden beam style bridge....guess I took a little poetic license.

-Pete

Yes, the bridge is a bit of a magic carpet ride. Equally interesting is the church to the left. Only the most devout could attend. Not certain what the groom's intensions are, perhaps he going fling the bride over the edge into the river below.

I enjoy your layout, Pete. Thanks for the updates. BTW, go Irish.

Your waterfall looks nice.  Don't pay any attention to the critics.  All you have to do is like what you made.  I don't know where they get off criticizing someone elses work.

No problem, jmiller, i am not thinned skin.......all helpful comments and as I said its a work in progress in keeping with the topic of what I did on my layout today.

BTW Mill City, do I detect a fellow "Golden Domer" on this board.

-Pete ND '76

Went from....

to this...

Hello everyone. Well I  am almost done with all the painting out in the breezeway. This is the 1st time that I am useing  paint chips with the paint that I used. I hope it works.

Looks really good, Scot.  What a difference since you started.

Art

Nobody I know, that has done it, has regretted it after!  

Looking good, Scott......nice and neat.......keeps the dust down too.  Off to a good start!

-Pete

Some of the guys have been working on an atomic energy power plant installation recently and here it is. The first transmission tower (left) is 'real' while the others in the background were painted on the wall with 'real' lines stretched from one to the other. There is a siding with the K-Line Plymouth switcher and a couple of cars parked. Also a R/C helicopter stands at the ready to evacuate essential personal if necessary!

C Sam

Real nice. Did you paint the mural?

Dale H

Well did not do anything on my layout today. I along with a couple of other guys helped a friend get a layout out of a basement that he bought and helped him get it to his house. Took so long to take it apart and over to his house that all we had time to do was put it in his garage. We still have to get it into his basement but that is for another day.................Paul

---------Update-----

Father Carmine Responds to Critics

In a rare Interview, Father Carmine of St Lionel's Church responded to critics today, stating that comments made on the OGR regarding the Church's limited access have been rectified. See above Posts......Father Carmine stated he took up a special collection to address the lack of safety rails and to fix the insurmountable climb to reach his mountain top Church. He emphasized quick action had to be taken when State Code Enforcers ordered him to construct a staircase to the church with OSHA approved railings or face crippling fines and penalties.
In an amazing flurry of activity, during the course of last night, Father Carmine and a few dedicated parishioners, priests, Nuns, and a lone OGR Forum member, completed the monumental task in time for morning Mass. Father Carmine added there was even time to add temporary supporting pylons to the bridge spanning the Church Lake.

Father Carmine stated he hoped this satisfied those individuals who reported him for these code violations and he further refused to get permits for the construction, stating he answers "to a higher authority!"

Before/ After Pictures

-Pete

God bless  Father Carmine, a man of action and sensitivity to the needs of his congregation.  He also builds nice stairs.

Al

Yes, blessed be Father Carmine and his diligent congregation in their excellent means of providing access/egress to the Mountain Top Church.  And, the stairs also provide a reasonable route to the waters for baptizing.  A bit better then the quick method of diving off out of the church door!  

Father Carmine appreciates everyone well wishes and gives a Special Non-Derailment blessing to all all those who replied favorably to St Lionel's plight!

-Pete

Building the elevated high line and bridges.

Sorry, the place will be shut down-not handicapped accessible !!  I thought a sky hook held the track up !!

St. Lionel's is certainly better off than Our Lady Of Sudden Deceleration:

Mitch

Hi Dale.  No, not this particular one. Most of them I painted came from our old layout that were subsequently moved to the club when the layout came down. A ladyfriend of ours is a graphic artist and took over the remainder of the wall space and has done a great job blending mine into hers.

Hi Pete, I'm certain Father is pretty good at watching his step in and around his hillside parish. It's not the first time a church or religious community has been perched on a hillside or cliff, high above and far-removed from the action below.

FrankM.

Today a good day so far. I ran some trains but forced myself to work on the floor area at the same time. It paid off. Got half the area cleaned up. One more half and I have the whole floor area opened in front of the transformers.............Paul

I have the "Train Room Man Cave" - Making the wife a "Lady Cave"

This process is making chaos in the Train Room.

Gary - Cheers from The Detroit and Mackinac Raileay

  Click each photo to enlarge.....