What did you do on your layout today?

First section of mountain complete.

                  Marci got this one last night...   sun roof comes in handy...

GLENN L. TAYLOR posted:

First section of mountain complete.

                  looks GREAT Glenn         very nice !!

Glenn your mountain looks great!  Nice city scene too!

Marci did a nice job, Brian!

          thanks Mark,  I will let her know,  more of her pics will be in,

                     "Mid week photos" tomorrow... 

GLENN L. TAYLOR posted:

First section of mountain complete.

Glenn, that's a bright, cheery set-up.

Brian, great pics.

Glenn, your layout looks darn good.

No layout work. I tried to get the HO buildings I got from Lou N blownup to O scale. Went to Staples. The girl behind the counter said they could do it. But then she saw the copyright on a few and told me she couldn't do it. But right on one side were the words can be reproduced for home use. Read that to her but she still said no. So I went to the other side of town to the UPS store. I got further with them but they could not do the size I wanted. So Tomorrow I have to head out to Hudson to their other store which can do larger prints. Tonight is Tuesday Night Crew get together so no work this afternoon. Keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow I will be alble to get the buidings done..............Paul

Can we just take a second to applaud weaver for their detail? 

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

 

 

                  Marci got this one last night...   sun roof comes in handy...

 

 

Brian, you and Marci captured the colors. Wow.

Lew

Been out of town since last Thursday.  It was nice to get back home last night and run trains for a short bit before turning in.  First thing this morning I ran trains again.  Got to love dem trains!!

Wow, there has been a lot of great work going on out there. I have to say I always find it inspiring to see everyone’s bits of progress!

I played around with accessory and siding track placement. I finally settled on the last photo. The photos actually helped me compare and decide which arrangement I liked best.  

The placement looks good JD!

Rusty

Welcome home Patrick, I really like those B&O F3's!

I ran my Williams 6-8-6, breaking it in some for a while this evening, on my Carpet Central. 

Rusty

Evening everyone! wonderful work going on again today!~

Glen, Looks good! I take it your going to bring it down to table level? Also I notice you have a lot of Menards buildings! You trying to catch up to Cabinet Bob?

Brian, You and Marci put up some great looking pictures! I cant wait to see what she comes up with next!

Paul, I hope you can get the buildings printed tomorrow! I know what your going threw, I have been to the printer the last 3 work day to get my cover for my control panel. He says it will be ready tomorrow, we will see! LOL

Patrick, welcome back! It's kind of soothing running trains before bed and a great way to start the day!

JD, nice choice! I bet you also had some fun along the way to your final pick!

So today before work I went out and relocated my Z4000, TIU do to the fact that where they were is where the new reverse loop is going and the would have ended up under it. So I moved them to the left side of my control panel hooked everything back up and of course I had to run my train around a few times to make sure I hooked everything back up correctly ! LOL I will try and get some pictures tomorrow before work!

Decided to just run for a wile and took out for a run on the layout my Lionel Veranda 

Interesting what Lionel did with sound for the Veranda Turbine. In my recollection I did not hear the diesel exhaust at all over the sound of the turbine. Even at rest the turbine was still loud and drowned out the auxiliary diesel exhaust. Huh. It occurs to me there aren't a whole lot of people who heard the Big Blows, their stomping grounds being in sparsely populated country. Summer 1960 we spent two days in Green River, Wy just watching trains. Big Blows were very stately as they rolled out of town with IIRC no real change in turbine noise from standing to full throttle. They just eased away with no fuss.

Lew

My recent trackplan tweak necessitated moving the Refinery siding. The way it was:

Tank farm behind the siding. How it is now:

Some tanks now in front of the siding with only one hehind.

I see that I have room for a second Linex tank and the scene would be better balanced so it's off to the Bay of e.

Lew

Cleaning up wiring under the layout, I tend to be rather sloppy with initial installation.  So to take my mind off houekeeping, ran some trains and took these pics.

Very nice photographs everyone!

Brian, more great photographs!

Pat, Nice B&O F unit!

JD, Your arrangement looks good!

Mike, Good to get the preparation for the reverse loop done.  I'll look forward to seeing the photographs you post.

FL9Turbo2, the UP Veranda looks great!

Lew, You have a better track arrangement now.  And it left room for another tank!  That's a bonus!

Steve, the photographs look great!

Time will tell if I get time to do anything on the layout today!

Read some old 1952 train mags.

While at the last train show, a 'free' table had old magazines so I took a few.

The good ol' days: one could actually see the cover shot.  Personally, I think it would be more popular to leave off all the 'graffiti' and just show the picture; or else, leave off the picture and just show the 'graffiti'!  I always thought the 'table of contents' was for that: must of missed something while in English class!

Somebody put a five-week-old kitten in our front yard, so I fretted about how I'm going to keep her off my layout.Of course we're keeping her!

Aha! A (properly silver) Lionel (properly) F3 power truck showed up on the Bay of e for buy-it-now of $25 so I grabbed it.  I had been making do with a "converted" GP7 silver truck frame to which I had installed an MTH coupler which resulted in almost a [scale] extra foot between the engine and first car. A few minutes work and my Rio Grande 5524 now has the correct coupler mount providing the correct spacing to the first car.

I'm a happy camper.

Lew

Very nice job, Lew!

geysergazer posted:

Aha! A (properly silver) Lionel (properly) F3 power truck showed up on the Bay of e for buy-it-now of $25 so I grabbed it.  I had been making do with a "converted" GP7 silver truck frame to which I had installed an MTH coupler which resulted in almost a [scale] extra foot between the engine and first car. A few minutes work and my Rio Grande 5524 now has the correct coupler mount providing the correct spacing to the first car.

                     

         

I'm a happy camper.

Lew

Paint the rear ladder silver and you've got a perfect match .

samparfitt posted:

Read some old 1952 train mags.

While at the last train show, a 'free' table had old magazines so I took a few.

The good ol' days: one could actually see the cover shot.  Personally, I think it would be more popular to leave off all the 'graffiti' and just show the picture; or else, leave off the picture and just show the 'graffiti'!  I always thought the 'table of contents' was for that: must of missed something while in English class!

Lol, But aced commercial art.

Very effective; far from useless; the mini-headlines are aimed at attracting the novice; and for those ready for "change", they provoke your curiosity while reminding you casually that you are ready . 

 Context wins over grammar and spelling 99% of of time as well; though there is a balance to work "thru" for the journalistic aspect here, vs a plain old ad where "anything goes".  Once you're turning pages "rules" are usually much tighter. And as it should be;  it's mostly about saving space for the cover art...

I bet hi-rail was coined vs high-rail to shorten the concepts spelling for type saving reasons in magazines. "Hi" "Bye"     

Vincent Massi posted:

Somebody put a five-week-old kitten in our front yard, so I fretted about how I'm going to keep her off my layout.Of course we're keeping her!

You're not.

It just became her layout; likely she will allow you to play too though

Vincent Massi posted:

Somebody put a five-week-old kitten in our front yard, so I fretted about how I'm going to keep her off my layout.Of course we're keeping her!

I've got 2 cats and a solution: Layout is in the basement. Cats aren't allowed in the basement. Problem solved. 

Lou1985 posted:

Vincent Massi posted:

Somebody put a five-week-old kitten in our front yard, so I fretted about how I'm going to keep her off my layout.Of course we're keeping her!

I've got 2 cats and a solution: Layout is in the basement. Cats aren't allowed in the basement. Problem solved. 

sigh  We don't have a basement. But the first time that cat gets onto my train table, I'm starting everything up.

PS. Snowflake takes turns sleeping on our laps while we are on our computers. We're both I love with her.

Vincent Massi posted:

Lou1985 posted:

Vincent Massi posted:

Somebody put a five-week-old kitten in our front yard, so I fretted about how I'm going to keep her off my layout.Of course we're keeping her!

I've got 2 cats and a solution: Layout is in the basement. Cats aren't allowed in the basement. Problem solved. 

sigh  We don't have a basement. But the first time that cat gets onto my train table, I'm starting everything up.

PS. Snowflake takes turns sleeping on our laps while we are on our computers. We're both I love with her.

Ah that's unfortunate. I don't allow my cats near the layout for fear that they will knock an expensive MTH Premier steam locomotive to the floor. If you've ever had cats you know how much they love to/don't care if they knock things off a table to make room to nap. 

Lou1985 posted:

geysergazer posted:

Aha! A (properly silver) Lionel (properly) F3 power truck showed up on the Bay of e for buy-it-now of $25 so I grabbed it.  I had been making do with a "converted" GP7 silver truck frame to which I had installed an MTH coupler which resulted in almost a [scale] extra foot between the engine and first car. A few minutes work and my Rio Grande 5524 now has the correct coupler mount providing the correct spacing to the first car.

                     

         

I'm a happy camper.

Lew

Paint the rear ladder silver and you've got a perfect match .

SShhh! You weren't supposed to notice. Makes me wonder what model that truck came from. IIRC there was a D&RGW livery with silver trucks and black fuel tank. I wonder if the ladders were black?

Lew

Lou1985 posted:

Vincent Massi posted:

Lou1985 posted:

Vincent Massi posted:

Somebody put a five-week-old kitten in our front yard, so I fretted about how I'm going to keep her off my layout.Of course we're keeping her!

I've got 2 cats and a solution: Layout is in the basement. Cats aren't allowed in the basement. Problem solved. 

sigh  We don't have a basement. But the first time that cat gets onto my train table, I'm starting everything up.

PS. Snowflake takes turns sleeping on our laps while we are on our computers. We're both I love with her.

Ah that's unfortunate. I don't allow my cats near the layout for fear that they will knock an expensive MTH Premier steam locomotive to the floor. If you've ever had cats you know how much they love to/don't care if they knock things off a table to make room to nap. 

She's a lucky little kitten Vincent.

We have two cats but neither bothers with my layout.

This one was a stray from a litter of 4.

Guys the work and pics look great this week. Sorry no work on the layout or anything my arthritis in my hips and legs are giving me severe pain today I just want to relax. 

Vincent. What a cute cat someone dump off a cat on our county road one very cold December morning about 7yrs ago we kept him he’s a inside cat has never been outside unless I take him I promised him he would never feel the cold again. The layout is in the garage but he never bothers the work bench. 

Lee, that Kitteh obviously found a good home.

Lew

Mine and my wife’s moms are allergic to cats so we don’t have any but the dog sure does take an interest to things. Unless the train or an accessory is running. Postwar gets loud

In layout news I finally got part of the new control box preassembled. I decided to use heavier wood than the last one, partly because the ZW is heavier, partly because it’s what I had out in the garage. 

Well, I TRY to keep them off the layout, but sometimes they sneak in for a quick photobomb. Old layout with Tiger the cat. Loco up front an an MTH ho PS3 SP GP38-2.

Eggcellent Kitteh!

Lew

Nothing new to report. Most of the day was spent on traveling to various places to see if I could get the HO flats blown up. No one so far could but I was told at the last UPS Store that I could get it done in the Aurora UPS store. So I told the wife we are doing a road trip tomorrow but I would take her somewhere there for lunch. Train wise I finally ran my Lionel TH&B engines. They run and sound good.............Paul

Making slow but steady progress on my attic layout. Six months ago when I started this project, someone on the forum suggested I get knee pads, which I finally did. What a difference!

Here is how the new sidings are shaping up. Each of the six holds 18-20 cars, which combined with the 5 other sidings on the layout will accommodate my rolling stock and most of my favorite engines. Fortunately, I am not having trouble backing the trains through the 022 switches like I thought I might.

So, that is as far as my room (and knees) will allow for expansion. Now I get to focus on covering all the unsightly insulation and getting my old PW accessories back up and running. Been a really fun project so far. Thanks for everyone’s advice and encouragement!

Kevin

Hi guys, sorry I've been away for the last month, but I didn't do any work on the layout until the last week, and I worked just one day, when Patrick came over. He came over again on Tuesday.

The project we are working on is preparing to hang skirting on the layout. In order to do this, we are putting up plywood strips so that landscape fabric can be stapled to it.

This process is fairly easy for the straight sections, as we just screw on 1-1/2" strips of 3/4" plywood to the legs of the layout, we just have to go around the electrical outlets.

It gets a little trickier to do the curved sections at the ends of the aisles. I've chosen to use  1/4" plywood with three laminations to try and follow the curves of the fascia.

Here's a straight section under Red Wing.

Between the two outlets, is a nifty "S" curve.

Across the aisle is the end of peninsula one. Here we are installing a support block that will be used to anchor the the first 1/4" strip.

Here I am cutting off the overly long track riser, so we can turn it into a support for the rail. This was just a happy accident and wasn't planned that way.

The clamps are on while we wait for the glue to dry on the left.

Patrick puts the clamps on the the next layer of the curve at the end of aisle one.

I'm going to run to Menards in the morning to pick up the landscape fabric. I'm anxious to see how the layout looks with skirts.