What did you do on your layout today?

RSJB18 posted:

John d Sewell posted:

RSJB18,  I think I am correct as I say your blue Switcher C&O 624 looks to be the most excellent looking blue switch  I have seen.  All the ones I look over at shows have the "much ran" look and with a high price.  

Mine has a really good "much ran" look but had a decent price at a show several years ago at Lexington at the thoroughbred training center before it burned down.

I do not have as many switchers as you must have but the 624 is my favorite to operate.  Not my best looker but my best engine to operate.

Have a good week!

John- Thanks but it's not an original. The C&O is a Lionel Post War Celebration Series from the 90's. It has command control, magna-traction, pull-more motor, crew talk, electro-couplers, etc. It is very nice and clean and runs great.

This one is an original however. Also a great running engine. Including the e-unit buzzzzzzzz.....

 

Ok you have explained why I have noticed the switchers without the round antenna up front.

thanks 

geysergazer posted:

What'd I do today?

              

By eliminating one track switch and it's stub I cleaned up the space for the Lionel Gantry Crane (shipped today!) and it's associated scrap yard. It won't be anything like as nice as Johan's Cape's Scrap  but it'll do the job on the Plywood Empire Route.

I had an idea wrt a new spur (to replace the one just eliminated) for tank car-to-truck transfer.

              

By extending the siding a bit and moving the paint factory a bit I made room for another car on that siding so that is where the rail-to-truck transfer "industry" will be. The orange BNSF tank car will be able to offload to a tank truck spotted immediately behind it. One less track switch, something the prototype would be heartily in agreement with. Simpler is cheaper and more efficient. Now I need a tank truck and some juicy rusty scrap steel. Also a fence to keep the junkyard dog on the scrapyard premises at night

Lew

Lew. Thanks. I think your track plan looking better, without that switch, keep up the good work.

Johan

Johan,   thanks.   

OK Paul forget the glue on vegetation,  where did you learn to paint like that ???  That's amazing in terms of creating depth of field on a 2D surface,   

Maybe you should create some on line How To Paint Scenic Back Drop classes in your spare time!! 

Chris, thanks for the compliment. All I did was watch William Alexander on PBS and  episodes of Bob Ross on the computer. It just fascinated me how they could create depth on a flat surface with colors and regular paint brushes....Paul

I got 4 bags of Moondog rubber ties for $20 dollars at a local train show this weekend.  Wow best 20 dollars I've spent on the layout yet!

How about some Alco switching ! 

https://youtu.be/10G9ZU3yqPM

Ballasted the coaling tower siding. Placed this old-school water tower there to see if it grows on me.  Adding details as I go. I ordered some buildings and building fronts so I'll be busy for a while. 

 This coaling tower is of course a basic Plasticville model. When I decided to paint it, I looked at as many color photos of old coaling towers as I could find. I was surprised to see so many painted in light colors. So I opted for white but I tried to make it dingy and aged looking.

-RM

Your ballasting looks great, but, and i don't mean to be critical, the ground and ballast around coal towers and other engine servicing facilities should be very dark grey and grimy black. This is based on my experiences viewing (as close as possible w/o trespassing), the NYC yards at Selkirk, NY; the D&H yards in Oneonta, NY; the Susquehanna yards in Binghamton, NY; and the old F, J & G yards in Gloversville, NY. (while trespassing).

modeltrainsparts posted:

Your ballasting looks great, but, and i don't mean to be critical, the ground and ballast around coal towers and other engine servicing facilities should be very dark grey and grimy black. This is based on my experiences viewing (as close as possible w/o trespassing), the NYC yards at Selkirk, NY; the D&H yards in Oneonta, NY; the Susquehanna yards in Binghamton, NY; and the old F, J & G yards in Gloversville, NY. (while trespassing).

sigh   I have so much to learn.

Jim, don't worry you will get your sleep back on track one  day!

Ed, nice Job on the video and picture!

Paul what wonderful work the backdrop is looking amazing! Next thing you will have people asking you to paint them!

Bob, that sure is a nice little switcher you have there!

Chris, I will be contacting you! Thanks! By the way, you and your daughter do some wonderful work together!

Lew, looking good and with a nice plan in mind! Nice work!

Ralph, The coaling tower looks great, along with a nice white paint color!

Again another day with nothing done, first the cardio Dr. Appointment, the more work for the new gas pumps, and it doesn't look like things are going to change anytime soon! Had a bunch of trees come down from the snow at the store and guess who gets to clean them up before spring! LOL

Taking time to run the trains.  The Erie passenger cars are the only MTH I own.  They look good behind the Lionel Erie E7 units. 

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Brian, the C&O is really looking good this morning!

Ditto on the C&O, Brian!!

John, the Erie train looks great!

@modeltrainparts - I'll be "blackening" the area beneath and around the coaling tower with paint. I only have one color of ballast.  It was already on my list of to-dos and I'll probably do that last after I'm completely happy with all the other aspects of the scene. 

-RM

mike g. posted:

Again another day with nothing done, first the cardio Dr. Appointment, the more work for the new gas pumps, and it doesn't look like things are going to change anytime soon! Had a bunch of trees come down from the snow at the store and guess who gets to clean them up before spring! LOL

 

Sorry to hear all that.

I think a lot of people around out region will be clearing stuff out soon (if not already) from the big snow we'd had. The few trees that went down around here from the snow have been cleared out. One down the road just got sawed up into firewood or chainsaw art fodder last week.

My wife and I are lucky, that we have no big trees and didn't even lose a branch from the snow. Remember that BIG snow in 2012? Didn't lost a branch then, either (though there were dozens on the power lines, we were out for at least 4 days, went to a hotel in Chehalis the second night before it dawned on anyone else to do so and they got filled up as the power outages ended at the Lewis county line, that winter)...

Ralph M posted:

@modeltrainparts - I'll be "blackening" the area beneath and around the coaling tower with paint. I only have one color of ballast. 

-RM

Ralph, One trick i have used is to cover anything you don't want over spray on (track, etc.), and then use rattle can flat black in light coats to get the effect you want. Most of us in O only have one color ballast - so you're not alone!

Mattrain, It's taking shape nicely, and i'm impressed to see someone doing it the "old fashioned" way with cardboard lattice and paper towels plus white glue and water. Two suggestions: Instead of the the expensive hobby paints try Michael's, WallyMart, etc. for their craft paints - black, white, yellow, one or two browns, & green; put little dabs of each on a piece of scrap cardboard and create your own palette of colors (6 or 7 bottles for a little over $5!!). Also did you ever think of cutting off the too tall bases of the offending buildings instead of cutting out footprints? Then make appropriate thickness sidewalks, parking lots .... out of Masonite or illustration board?

Brian:

Lew

        like that one Lew,  nice !

Its the little things one adds that makes a layout more lifelike, especially when the room lights are turned down and building lights come on.

Just finished adding interior and one yellow bulb at entrance to my Ben Franklin store as it was in my town during the 50s. A stop for a cool drink, Coke or Pepsi. Then discuss the ballgame of that afternoon. That's the way it was. No curfews, nor worry were your kids were as darkness came during the 50s in my town.

geysergazer posted:

Brian:

                

Lew

Lew that is just like the two I have.. Well mine are all beat up and used up !!!!

Jim

Matt, Your mountain terrain is looking great!  Congratulations for getting started on the scenery!  I'm glad you were able to use Eric's Trains videos for inspiration.  I have not looked at his scenery videos yet.

Mike, I forgot to mention I'm sad there is so much downed tree cleanup for you.  Thank you Lee for reminding me.  We had two storms, where the wind took down a lot of trees.  Fortunately, we were not personally affected.  I just have a zillion sticks to pickup at my house and my parents'.  Others weren't so fortunate.

Ralph, your layout and trains just look great!  The scenes really work together.

Jackson, Great city street scene!  Even one block of a small town has so much detail in real life, and you have brought that together.

Lew and Brian, More DT&I!  Looks great!  Jim, we just call the beat up and used up look; weathering!

Josef, For me, it was the little railside village (population 350) that we would ride down to on our bicycles to trade in discarded pop bottles for a fresh bottle at the old general store that faced the tracks.  We never knew if we would be treated to the sound and sight of a B&O freight train while there.  Your scene invokes the same great feelings in me as the Ben Franklin invokes in you!  Great scene and interior!

carsntrains posted:

geysergazer posted:

Brian:

                

Lew

Lew that is just like the two I have.. Well mine are all beat up and used up !!!!

Jim

Jim, {I cheated}. Hiding under that PW shell is...

...this 2010 PW remake. Nice engine, it has an electronic E-unit and electronic bell&horn. It also has an interesting drivetrain, different than any other Lionel NW2. The front truck (under the hood) is a  GP/F3 power truck with separate vertical GP/F3 Pullmor motor. 

Lew

Lew, That photograph is great!!!  I wasn't born until 1956, so I missed out on seeing steam.  The trains I recall were all pulled by dark blue F-units.

I have a photograph of my maternal grandfather who was a fireman and an engineer in front of a B&O steamer.  The photograph was probably taken in Pittsburgh.  He worked for about 10 years between serving as a Marine in the Philippines and reenlisting in WWI.  He was disabled in the war.  It is framed and used to hang in my grandmother's entry room.  My aunt gave it to me years after grandma passed away.

BEFORE/AFTER:

Before:

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AFTER:

Very nice

samparfitt posted:

BEFORE/AFTER:

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AFTER:

Sam, it looks amazingly like a rail line in Penndel, Pennsylvania, in the 1960's.  It was mostly used by passenger trains from Philadelphia.

Sam,  great scene and photos.   Very nice signal bridge.  thanks for sharing.

Lew -  Great photo, you're lucky to have it.   I am a 58 model, so like Mark, I totally missed live steam running, but I am making up for it visiting scenic railroads that still run steam excursions.  

Ralph -  The craft paints will make great washes if you dilute them with 40 to 50% water and a few drops of alcohol as a wetting agent.   You will have more control over how dark you want to go if you dilute the paints, plus you can change tones.   I use alot of Burnt Umber washes along with blacks and charcoal grays, and of course Black India Ink and 91% alcohol too.    I have found too many black paints really have a lot of blue pigment in them which sometimes shows up under certain lighting.  

Dry brushed the hillside with some lighter brown paint to highlight the carved detail in the foam. Looks better. Next step is some diluted glue and ground cover, before it goes on the layout. 

Mattrain, Great work on the mountain area! Plus you sure have a nice looking layout!

LEE Thanks, I spent most of the day before my shift at the store cutting broken trees and limbs! Willows sure don't fair well in heavy snow! I will take a picture tomorrow of the piles I have to haul off on Thursday just so I can have some train room time this coming weekend!

JOSEF, Looking great!

Lew, that was before my time, but what a great picture!

LOU1985, looks good! One step at a time!

So this morning before work I took some time and worked on a new revised layout plan that Dave helped me get started on. I asked Chris A. for some feedback and here is what I came up with. I still have a few switchs to move around but things will be much smoother and give me more land for buildings and such! Then when I got home I had 2 new 072 switchs waiting for me from Train World. Still waiting on 20 072 curve sections though! Here is a picture of my new plan!

Nice stuff everyone.

Sam, that signal bridge looks great!

I have been working on several projects.

1) Last week I was trying to come up with a building to kitbash from Ameri-Towne pieces. This is going to be my Hooker Chemical plant. It is when you first come down the stairs to my layout. I wanted something tall enough to obscure the view so that you cannot see the entire length of the layout. I also built a hill next to it and along the backdrop. This is going to be populated with trees and brush and thickets. The building has the archways on the bottom which I plan to have some tanks beneath the building on the 3rd level. The side section of the building is going to extend down to the 2nd level and I am going to have piping,  catwalks, etc all over the side of the plant. these will wrap around the corner of the building and extend down to the 2nd level, connecting to some vertical storage tanks and also some tank car filling racks. On the bottom wall section I am also going to take advantage of some of that unused space and add a overhead door for the curved track to pull into( green track sprayer is sitting in this space in the photo) and have some interior piping and lighting showing in there.

This is the kind of piping I have in mind.

The other project was I had this concrete base I made for another building that I wasn't going to build (changed plans ) and wanted to recycle it. So I took a Korber building and cut up walls and pieced back together, removing the doors, since of where this is going to be sitting. I decided to do brown brick as I am getting tired of reds and oranges and wanted to change things up.  So here is a picture of the building painted sitting on top of the concrete base. I think I am going to hit it tomorrow the tone down the weathering chalks. It looks a bit too busy.

I also decided to use the same Krylon stone paint on the Iroquois Brewery warehouse and go over the previous concrete I did. I will use some chalks on this, but not as much as the Korber building base.

Here is the before pic of warehouse and after

Last item I worked on tonight is a slash burner to go next to the sawmill. This is going to be really cool. As I get further along I will post more photos.

Slash burner

I got the basic inner structure cut and glued together.

That's all for tonight, time to turn in!

Finally posting pictures from this past weekend with some tinkering done yesterday 

First up, the county fair has started. Sponsored by Almond Joy & Pepsi. Maker of county fair pieces is Ertl(my uncle got two of these playsets for me when I was about 6). While some came with the playset, there are various makes on the figures:

Next- U.N. Convoy makes its way to a boarder crossing on a peacekeeping mission. I want some type of military or police action going on, so this convoy is the first step. UN Jeep is by Vitesse And is 1:43 scale, Military Ambulance is by Solido and 1:43 scale, troop transport(Berliet GLR8) is a Corgi 1:50 scale, soldiers are with convoy by O-line Reproductions and are 1:48 scale

Finally, switched up the consist on my inner loop. Ives 3250, two Ives #63 gondolas(different years), AF 3000 Illini RPO, AF 1205 RPO, AF 1207 Observation car. 

Sam, The signal bridge looks super!

Lou, The coloring of the hillside looks wonderful.

Mike, I like the new plan.  I'm glad you and Dave worked out something that will work better for you at this point in the build and not later on.

Al, How do you keep up on so many great projects at once!  They all are coming along nicely!

Steve, All nice scenes.  That is great you can use the carnival items you got during childhood.

Morning everyone! I hope you all have a great day! This morning I did a little more work on my layout redo with a great suggestion from Chris A.

I moved the 2 switches for my siding to the far ends to meet in with the curves of the loop and the curve on the other end. Like Chris said it takes the s curve out of the system and will run a lot smoother! Here is the new updated plan. 

The Red is upper level, Yellow is main grade, and the dark blue are my spurs. Oh the green is the future outside run!

Looks good Mike! I like the changes. Brian, great pics! Steve, the county fair and UN scenes are nice! Al, great work as always! 

Andy

          thanks Andy !

                   your scenery,  track work,  and ballast are all looking GREAT !!

mike g. posted:

Morning everyone! I hope you all have a great day! This morning I did a little more work on my layout redo with a great suggestion from Chris A.

I moved the 2 switches for my siding to the far ends to meet in with the curves of the loop and the curve on the other end. Like Chris said it takes the s curve out of the system and will run a lot smoother! Here is the new updated plan. 

The Red is upper level, Yellow is main grade, and the dark blue are my spurs. Oh the green is the future outside run!

Looks good Mike!  Do you reckon you could put a turn out where the exit to the outside is and them hook it to a turnout on the other "red" upper line after rounding the corner?   

Jim

MATTRAIN, the neater you are doing scenery the less cleanup afterwards.

SAMPARFITT, awesome signal bridge.

RALPH M, keep going you are doing a great job.

MLINDBERG, very nice scenery work and the Moondog ties definately make the track look better.

Mike g, changes are for the good. Getting them done now while building the layout keeps down the frustration of redoing parts after the layout is done.

CSX Al, yours buuildings are really making a difference and bringing the scen together. Your Sawmill scene just keeps getting better with what you keep adding to it.

So today with no reporting for jury duty I worked on some coloring at the base of the backdrop. Not realy sure if I am happy with it but I can always apply different colors once the first have dried. Pics............Paul

Looks good Paul!   Can't wait to see you run trains over the gorge!!!! 

Jim