What did you do on your layout today?

I have set out 3 of 5 cases of Beer/Alcohol/Tobacco cars on the layout. Currently there are 64 cars. One RailKing ES44AC has pulled the consist to this point. However, it's now showing wheel slip in the corners. Time for more power! My plan is to team-up with another club member to put together a PS3 MU consist. Hopefully, this will be ready for video by Friday.

On the club modular layout, last year it took me 9 hours to unpack, video, repack this consist. That was about 80+ cars. I haven't stopped buying cars. This year I decided to make the first run on home rails. Currently both ends of the train are in the room. Best estimate, I'm going to top out at ~ 90+ cars. Hopefully I'm not running nose to tail.

Video for Weekend Photo Fun tomorrow. This one is going to have to run through YouTube.

Gilly@N&W posted:

I have set out 3 of 5 cases of Beer/Alcohol/Tobacco cars on the layout. Currently there are 64 cars. One RailKing ES44AC has pulled the consist to this point. However, it's now showing wheel slip in the corners. Time for more power! My plan is to team-up with another club member to put together a PS3 MU consist. Hopefully, this will be ready for video by Friday.

On the club modular layout, last year it took me 9 hours to unpack, video, repack this consist. That was about 80+ cars. I haven't stopped buying cars. This year I decided to make the first run on home rails. Currently both ends of the train are in the room. Best estimate, I'm going to top out at ~ 90+ cars. Hopefully I'm not running nose to tail.

99 reefers of beer on the track

99 reefers of beer

If one of those reefers should happen to fall

Be sure the NTSB is going to call

I hope we will see a video of decadent train   

I saw the new Lionel catalog and started painting more Preiser 65602 People for the Union Pacific Add-on Excursion and Challenger passenger trains.  Four more cars will need people.  The Santa Fe passenger cars look nice and I have a Santa Fe War Bonnet E8 to pull them.  Boy, I thought I was done.

Started another project for the sawmill area last night. A McKenzie Iron & Steel - Willamette lumber carrier. What a beautiful set of pewter castings! Almost no flash on the parts. ( a lot of little ones) As you can see in the photos. The directions ( 4 pages) could of been clearer in their steps.  I have two of these kits to build. I thought I get it all assembled last night but it looks like it's a two night build .

Here is a photo of all of the parts cleaned of flash and wash with soapy water and rinsed to remove any oils or mold release and two wheels blackened.

This photo is after I finished blackening all of the parts

and this is where I finished up at 12:30AM

Un & reinstalled the sliding barn doors on my Menards barn. The original doors were smaller than the doors on top so I replaced them. The replacements never hung right after the glue on the track dried. It was in the back of the layout so It didn't bother me but it's going up front so it had to be fixed. If no ones read my profile I fix main line problems for Comcast for the last 30 + years and am on call 24 / 7 for the next two frigged weeks starting today so I don't know if I'll be getting anything done. Keep up the good work I'll need something to read in-between outages LOL.

Pete, when people see great work they want a piece of the action! Feel honored! 

Paul, your moving right along, go get'em! Don't let Jim pass you our you will never hear the end of it! LOL

Tom, that is going to be one amazing train to see! Cant wait for the video!

Al, that is going to look great on the layout, but way to many small parts for my big fat fingers and bad eyes! LOL

Dave, the barn doors look wonderful! Try to stay warm and safe out there!

This morning I am going to go out and work on my crane for motion. I need to hook up a couple of switches and thanks to John H, Joe, Stan, and butich I now know how! lol

mike g. posted:

 

Tom, that is going to be one amazing train to see! Cant wait for the video!

Mike, Thanks. Actually that is the video. I made it large to the size of the post. It's a YouTube video. So click anywhere on that and the video starts automatically.

paul 2 posted:

Got up in the attic to find more stuff to take and sell at TCA Parma show Saturday. There is more but the old knees can't handle the wood floor so tomorrow morning heading for Menards to pick up those interlocking rubber mats. But today I still managed to work some more of the wall. I had to hunt for my chiesel which took a bit of time so I could spit the wood around the cable wire but I got an added plus. I found my second small bag of Gar Graves screws. Maybe after dinner I can get back down there to rip out the last of the wood and get the old shelf unit out and cut up. Trying to stay ahead of Jim and his demolition project LOL. Then I will be ready to start the table. Only one pic...........Paul

ahahahah You are ahead!!!  Had to wait for my grumpy son to clean out his closet so I can tear it down!   He aint too happy with me!!  So I may be back to demo tonight! 

Then about the time I was going to bed my sister called and said my dad was sick. This morning when I got to work they called and said he was taken to the hospital with a high fever and vomiting.  Hoping for the best!  

On a happy note.    I watched the Ryan and Dave show and did catch the number of the Southern Berkshire LC+2.0 that they are making but isnt in the catalog!   Its this here gem!   Quite a few things I am going to order in the new catalog! 

Jim

Mike, I'm glad your granddaughter is home and getting well!

Al, There are a lot of tiny parts in that one.  I'm sure it will look great when done.

John, So you will have a ll the passengers waiting on the platform when the new trains come rolling in!

Dave, the barn doors look good.  You did a nice job!

Jim, I'll pray your sister gets well!  That looks to be a nice model when it comes out!

What did I do on the layout today?  Track maintenance, if that's what you want to call it.  One of our cats took it upon him/herself to vomit all over a section of 072 track.  Luckily, I didn't have to run a train over it to discover it.  That section is drying out now, after being thoroughly scrubbed.  I'll have to polish the rail tops after it dries.  Ever seen what cat puke does to the plating on FasTrack rails?

None of the suspects have yet confessed.

If my cat ever even got up on the layout, she would have just used up life #9.

This morning I ran to Menards and picked up the foam interlocking tiles and some thin strips of balsa wood for the roadway on the bridge. I bought, two one for the attic and one for the basement. Got home and had to chop the buildup at the end of the driveway. That was like a rock. But this afternoon I got all the boards dpwn leaving only the shelf to get out. Maybe I'll have time after dinner to clear off the shelves and cut it up for the garbage. Hey Jim, am I still ahead of you LOL. Pics....Paul

I completed setting up "The train of SIN" today. First time on home rails, we topped out at 94 cars and a caboose. Two MTH PS3's spanked it pretty well. Pulling a consistent 3 amps around the layout.

Today, one tripped breaker, 2 cases of cars (five total), 3 attempts to shoot the video, 4 string-lines, and 5 hours later I finally uploaded it to YouTube.

I plan to post this as a video link tomorrow on Weekend Photo Fun. There will be more detail then regarding the consist. If you want to take a sneak peek now, here's the link.

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

Nice train, Gilly. Enjoyed the video.

Great video Tom, but I feel obligated to point out that Nathan’s IS NOT a sin 

That consist could single-handedly resurrect the dishonorable profession of train robber  

Tom's train needs one of these:

Mitch

                                    B, double E, double R, U N...

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Tom's train needs one of these:

Mitch

If I had it, I'd run it! My problem is, I'm running out of track. 

I put real coal onto on my CNJ car 

Mark Boyce posted:

Mike, I'm glad your granddaughter is home and getting well!

Al, There are a lot of tiny parts in that one.  I'm sure it will look great when done.

John, So you will have a ll the passengers waiting on the platform when the new trains come rolling in!

Dave, the barn doors look good.  You did a nice job!

Jim, I'll pray your sister gets well!  That looks to be a nice model when it comes out!

Mark thanks but my sister called me about my Dad being sick!   Im sure she needs help dealing with it all though!  

Jim 

paul 2 posted:

This morning I ran to Menards and picked up the foam interlocking tiles and some thin strips of balsa wood for the roadway on the bridge. I bought, two one for the attic and one for the basement. Got home and had to chop the buildup at the end of the driveway. That was like a rock. But this afternoon I got all the boards dpwn leaving only the shelf to get out. Maybe I'll have time after dinner to clear off the shelves and cut it up for the garbage. Hey Jim, am I still ahead of you LOL. Pics....Paul

Yep you are ahead.. : )  Im giving you a head start! LOL   Stress level here is high so I'm taking a day or two off of working on the demo.  Son is mad about it and my dad is ill.  I will hit it hard this weekend.  I'm cheating because I do stuff like this on a regular basis. : )   I've also been a bit tied up studying the new Lionel catalog!  Glad I can stick to my DC layout power!  

Jim 

Jim, you cant make everyone happy when building a layout, but they will thank you in the long run for helping them clean out some of the stuff they don't use much of! LOL Prayers for your dad!

Mark, thanks! She is doing much better right now!

Balshis, cat would have become an outside cat! LOL

Paul, you got a lot done sofar! Don't worry about Jim, He is a good guy and will probably drag his feet just to make you look good! LOL Nice buy on the mats, let us know how they work out for you!

Gilly, that's a sneak peek? WOW the main show must really be something! Sounds like you need more track, do I hear addition? LOL

JackD, Nice job on the coal loads!

So today I got out there at 5 this morning and got started  took me a little while, but for all 3 switches wired and mounted.  Still have to put arrows on the plexi glass. All 3 functions work great, r/l, up/down, and boom in and out! Thanks to the guys over in the electrical part of this great forum! I put it low for the grandkids!

Got a surprise this evening at the Sugar Creek MRR Club!  Gerry, one of the other members,  gifted me with this nifty little prewar American Flyer loco!  

A bit of soldering on the headlight wire and some oiling,  and the new loco (dubbed "Ambrose"  as I'm on a Thomas and Friends kick and "Alfie" and "Alfred"  were taken)  purrs right along.  

To be done:   Unsolder the body (the original tabs had long broken off), Loctite the ungeared wheels as they slip and freshen up the motor and wiring a bit... 

Mitch 

I had a relaxing night painting Preiser 65602 People for the new Add-on Union Pacific Excursion and Challenger two-car sets that are listed in the new Lionel catalog.  I like the Santa Fe passengers too.  We'll see.  They would go great with my Legacy E7AA Warbonnet engines or Atlas O F7ABBA.

I have 14 boxes of 24 Seated People to paint.  This will give me 336 more passengers.  I have 150 seated figures from China on the way to me as well, plus a bag of 48 more.  The five hundred and thirty-six people will keep me busy for many evenings. On a good night, I get about a dozen people completed.  Some colors of paint require two coats for full coverage with no show-through.  The figures pictured are roughed-in, not finished.  They will need hair, shoes and touch-up before they are good enough to go into the passenger cars.

Single digit temperatures next week will give me a good reason to stay inside and paint.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

                              " CAT " call...

John, that sure is a lot of people! They are looking wonderful. Just wondering if you  have ever thought about priming them before paint for one coat application?

Brian, Very cool pictures! I have never looked close enough to see the cat! But then again we don't have them out here on the west coast as far as I know of!

Today I hope to get back out and finish my control panel so I can find something else to move onto. Its hard to move forward without track. They say its on back order! LOL

mike g. posted:

John, that sure is a lot of people! They are looking wonderful. Just wondering if you  have ever thought about priming them before paint for one coat application?

Brian, Very cool pictures! I have never looked close enough to see the cat! But then again we don't have them out here on the west coast as far as I know of!

Today I hope to get back out and finish my control panel so I can find something else to move onto. Its hard to move forward without track. They say its on back order! LOL

UGGGGG back order on anything sucks!  

Mike I see you made your own control panel on your crane. Looks really good! I may need some tips on that because  I may need to do the same!  I went out and fooled with it a bit and it seems to be all there.  And I was wrong its much smaller than your crane!  It has a cab on it like a bulldozer or track hoe would have.   And it looks "about" right in size!   I may sit it in there somewhere even if it doesn't work.  I think ive had it for about 45 years lol

Jim

paul 2 posted:

Started off looking at the new Lionel catalog and jotting down what I am going to order. Now I have to spend some time in the attic getting out stuff I don't want and get it ready to take to the TCA train show in Parma on Saturday. I get that out of the way and I can get back to finishing taking out the wall. Did place an order for another Menards double track bridge. I was on the Scenic Express site looking for bridge abutments to go with the bridges. Here is where I'll toss out a question to you guys................Are bridge abutments suppose to be as wide as the bridge is or can the abutment be wider. The Menards bridge is 8 7/8" wide and the double track abutment from Scenic Express is 10 1/2" wide. Any help appreciated. Now to the attic...........Paul

All abutments I have seen are a few feet wider than the bridge, some were built for future double/triple tracks.

Mike G and Mike, thanks for that info. I just ordered the bridge abutments and bridge shoes from Scenic Express this morning. I will have to do some modifications to make the bridge shoes work with the Menards Double track bridges because the abutments were made for an Atlas bridge.............Paul

What a busy group!  Excellent projects everyone!

Paul, I really like those mats.  I have seen something similar at Lowes or HD.  I am thinking of buying some for the old little train room concrete floor, especially once I get really going on the layout build in the carpeted family room, I'm going to make the little room into a shop.  I already have an 11-foot wall with the layout benchwork, that will become a workbench.

Gilly, That is a handsome train.  I really like the maroon N&W engine.  So much nicer to look at than all black.

Mitch, I see a young Scotsman wants to get to Loch Lomond not for a Robert Burns reading, but for some Scottish beverage!  

Jack, Great coal loads!

Jim, I am sorry i misread!  I'll be praying for your dad and you and your family.  It is so sad to see parents in decline.  As to the Lionel catalog.  I'm safe.  There wasn't anything I wanted.  Where were the Western Maryland offerings?  

Mike, The control panel looks simple and functional.  I'm glad you help wiring!  What a plus by being on this Forum!  That is a bummer about the trck back order.  What brand are you using?  I have forgotten.

John, You an inspiration for painting these passengers.  I agree, we are having cold weather, stay in and paint!

Brian, Great Chessie photographs.  I missed seeing the Chessie Steam Special when it came through Mars, Pennsylvania (my old stomping grounds)  I heard it, but didn't get to see it.  Those were the days before internet, and we never knew what was going on in the train world!

I positioned the two sections of Mianne benchwork where they will go after I move a shelving unit and cut 11" off one leg of Mianne so it can sit on the hearth.  The fireplace in this 51-year old house is very boring and has never been used.  I'll save the shelving move for when I have a son-in-law here to do the heavy work!!!

paul 2 posted:

Mike G and Mike, thanks for that info. I just ordered the bridge abutments and bridge shoes from Scenic Express this morning. I will have to do some modifications to make the bridge shoes work with the Menards Double track bridges because the abutments were made for an Atlas bridge.............Paul

How do you like the menards double track bridges??  I either need a couple of them or another Lionel single track bridge. 

Jim

carsntrains posted:

mike g. posted:

John, that sure is a lot of people! They are looking wonderful. Just wondering if you  have ever thought about priming them before paint for one coat application?

Brian, Very cool pictures! I have never looked close enough to see the cat! But then again we don't have them out here on the west coast as far as I know of!

Today I hope to get back out and finish my control panel so I can find something else to move onto. Its hard to move forward without track. They say its on back order! LOL

UGGGGG back order on anything sucks!  

Mike I see you made your own control panel on your crane. Looks really good! I may need some tips on that because  I may need to do the same!  I went out and fooled with it a bit and it seems to be all there.  And I was wrong its much smaller than your crane!  It has a cab on it like a bulldozer or track hoe would have.   And it looks "about" right in size!   I may sit it in there somewhere even if it doesn't work.  I think ive had it for about 45 years lol

Jim

Any help I can give, just let me know Jim!

I am working on the arrows right now, then heading out to the train room!

                     bridge is looking GREAT John 

Jim, I am quite happy with the way they look and the reasonable price. They are made out of wood for the girders mounted to a steel base. I just ordered another double track bridge. The table I am working on now was to have one double track bridge and one single track bridge but I changed the plan to two double track bridges. The single track bridge will go to the attic to be used up there. I luck out because now I have a Menards store less then 2 miles from me and I have all the train stuff shipped there for free........Paul

Jim, I have the single track Menards through truss bridge and think it is great!  I can't elaborate on Paul's excellent description.

John, Your bridge looks fantastic!!!

Mark Boyce posted:

Jim, I have the single track Menards through truss bridge and think it is great!  I can't elaborate on Paul's excellent description.

John, Your bridge looks fantastic!!!

I have both the single and the double, I think they look great... 

John, The bridge and river section really looks great!

Paul, sounds like a nice plan! But you better be careful with Menards so close you could run into the same problem Cabint Bob AKA DAD! RUNNING OUT OF ROOM AGASIN! LOL

Hey Mark thanks. The track system I am using is MTH ScaleTrax! Hope it will be in soon!

mike g. posted:

John, The bridge and river section really looks great!

Paul, sounds like a nice plan! But you better be careful with Menards so close you could run into the same problem Cabint Bob AKA DAD! RUNNING OUT OF ROOM AGASIN! LOL

LOL  Paul 2 may become Cabinet Bob Son!!!  Dad needs a bigger room for sure!!!

mike g. posted:

John, The bridge and river section really looks great!

Paul, sounds like a nice plan! But you better be careful with Menards so close you could run into the same problem Cabint Bob AKA DAD! RUNNING OUT OF ROOM AGASIN! LOL

Hey Mark thanks. The track system I am using is MTH ScaleTrax! Hope it will be in soon!

I have a love/hate relationship with Menards.. On one hand, I wish they had stores in my area, on the other hand, I'm glad they don't.............lol