What did you do on your layout today?

mike g. posted:

Vincent, at least they gave you some instruction books, there are times I got things with nothing! LOL

Mark, I know likes are good, but I really like to comment on people and the great work they are doing! You know give them an atta boy! But last night I was just too beat!

Well Im up early again getting ready to head to the store, I hope to get out of there early today so I can get in the train room and get the trim out on my Engine Building so I can call that done. Then I want to place some buildings on the layout to see how things are shaping up!

Everyone have a great Easter!

Mike, I know just what you mean.  Likes a good, comments are much better!  

Wow!  I just noticed the page count on this thread.  Is that a record?

Chris S.

FireOne posted:

Wow!  I just noticed the page count on this thread.  Is that a record?

Chris S.

By quite a bit! This is what happens when a lot of people get involved for over six years.

Lee, That is a nice carload!  I didn’t get anything like candy at Church today.  Happy Easter!

Johan, that’s a great motor car and scene!

Mark Boyce posted:

Lee, That is a nice carload!  I didn’t get anything like candy at Church today.  Happy Easter!

Johan, that’s a great motor car and scene!

Mark. Thank you. Next time when i post pics a same location, the ballast is gone. 

Johan

My work room without a layout. I never wanted to deal with a duck under, so I run the trains on the floor. Two stupid loops of O72 and one loop of K-Line 0-81 ShadowRail that is IMPOSSIBLE to find now.

The long story: Previous owner thought she was allergic to natural gas (yeah I know), so house was all electric. When the installers came, they insisted on running a new gas pipe (its to left of the duct). I wanted the job done right, so the ceiling drywall had to come down. The track had to get pulled up and pushed to the side. That gray table was to the right side. The gray table went thru a flood and was infested with mold and mildew. Pulling down the drywall filled the room with dust. Then, behind the gray table, orange mold. A complete mess. So I cleaned the walls with trisodium phosphate, patched holes in the concrete. Wife would not let me paint the walls or the floor, because it was cold at the time. So I am working on putting it back, and, gosh I am tired of having metal shavings fall on the track when I use the vise (unpainted wooden bench). I am tired of crappy lighting when taking pictures on the gray table. Tired of trying to fit the track between the legs of either table. But, the track fits pretty good under the Edsel shelves. Hmmm. Solution! Put one of the tables in the middle under the lights, and metal shelves around the edges. Voila! 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

Since this picture, the gray table is in pieces behind the garage. The trains in boxes in the corner will have to move before next winter, that gets pretty cold there.

Michael, Yes it is a lot of work getting a room ready.  I’ve had issues too!!

Worked under my layout pulling out boxes of Atlas O Containers that I listed on Ebay tonight.  Listed some Atlas O H21a Hoppers too.  I am thinning out my collection, starting with the small stuff first.  

Mom and I had a wonderful Easter.  She is happy to see the work I am doing to make the house easier for her to navigate.  I am changing the two step stairs to three smaller steps, and figuring how to do in indoor ramp if she needs it in the future.

Hope you had a Happy Easter.  It is nice to hear the birds chirping in the morning.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

I just added a LED light to the overhead in the layout room. One big overhead and 4 directional cans.

Big improvement over the standard one light that was in there from when the house was built.

Had a great Easter. Normally a quiet affair with just my wife's parents and the kids. We invited friends over this year who are going through a rough patch (her mom is in the hospital). We all had a great day and a great meal.

Then I won the auction for these

Lee- The new lights look great.

Michael- good luck with the new room reno and new layout.

Johan- great shot as always.

Lee D- Nice haul from a good friend.

John R- Sounds like a good day.

Gandy- Another beautiful scene.

Off to jury duty today....bye

Bob

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Weekend! It turned out that there were not to many post yesterday so it should be easy for me to get up to speed!

LEE D. I would have to say that is one load I have never seen! I bet it got a lot of attention once it got on the layout!

Mark, you are correct about comments. A lot can be learned from what others have to say!

Johan, Great looking scene! Great job on the brick wall!

Michael T, Looks like a lot of work, but I bet its going to be very nice when done! Have you thought about insulation so you can use it year round?

John R. Sure is nice to hear how your taking care of your mom the way you do! I am glad you had a wonderful Easter!

LEE, Nice work on the lighting! Your right it really makes a big difference. I still have to get some track lighting one day, but the good thing is it is prewired for it!

Bob, glad you had a nice Easter and wow what a wonderful haul! They look Great!

RSJB18 posted:

Had a great Easter. Normally a quiet affair with just my wife's parents and the kids. We invited friends over this year who are going through a rough patch (her mom is in the hospital). We all had a great day and a great meal.

Then I won the auction for these

Lee- The new lights look great.

Michael- good luck with the new room reno and new layout.

Johan- great shot as always.

Lee D- Nice haul from a good friend.

John R- Sounds like a good day.

Gandy- Another beautiful scene.

Off to jury duty today....bye

 

Bob

 

RSJB, am I correct in believing that those beauties are shark noses?

Ok everyone, I really need some help from you all! While I am waiting on more track, I have been playing with building placement and its really hurting my brain. So I took some pictures along with a track plan to attach here to see if any of you dare to chime in! All comments are great! On the layout on the lower section of the picture there is 11 1/2" from the front of the table to the track, then 3 " between the 2 tracks, then 9" between the 2 & 3rd track. I hope this helps. I don't have the footprint of the buildings right now but can get them.                                          Any and all help would be great! I am open to ideas!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am shocked to announce that I have finished building a Lego locomotive.

And it works!

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice Brian! Happy Monday!

RSJB18 posted:

Had a great Easter. Normally a quiet affair with just my wife's parents and the kids. We invited friends over this year who are going through a rough patch (her mom is in the hospital). We all had a great day and a great meal.

Then I won the auction for these

 

          nice find Bob !!

          still looking for an A-A set to go with this one ...

Thanks Guys.

Vincent they are Baldwin Sharks. The D&H ran them and it is one of the RR's that I run. Congrats on finishing the Lego engine. 

Brian- keep hunting. They will turn up one day. I was going to slow down my purchases but I couldn't pass these up. The will look good pulling my set of coaches. The blue looks a little off but I can live with it. 

Mike- I'm on my phone so it's hard to see the photos well. I'll take a look again later. 

Bob

So beautiful *cries*

I bought this Lionel C&O GP30 back in 2017. Unfortunately (as far as I can tell) Lionel never made a matching dummy unit. Then, I noticed that Williams had come out with essentially the same model. My "brilliant plan" was to buy the Williams C&O GP30 (as cheap as I could find it) then strip out all the electronics, re-sell the innards and have myself a dummy unit. Everything went according to plan. I sold the motors, e-unit and sound system on eBay and after the dust settled my final cost for this dummy unit was about $80. I consider that a decent price for a dummy unit. 

Then, I placed the Williams unit on the track next to the Lionel. I immediately noticed something was off. The font, font size and spacing (or lack thereof) of the lettering  was wrong on the Williams looks like Lionel got it right. So, now I have a dummy unit that I went to some trouble to come up with that doesn't match the powered unit it is supposed to team up with.  The C&O emblem under the cab window is different too.  Besides the bogus lettering, the yellow that Williams uses has a bit of orange to it - more so than MTH, Atlas, Lionel, etc. The slightly off yellow was/is something I can generally live with but putting the different font/lettering next to each other drove my OCD wild!  

I thought about re-doing the "Chesapeake and Ohio" with new decals and while I was thinking about that, I got the urge to convert some of my B&O locos from the old style paint scheme to the newer "Blue Dip" that features the railroads name abbreviated in big script letters as "B & O". It suddenly dawned on me that I could do the same to the Williams C&O GP30. So I did.  

The lettering is replaced with "C & O"  and the engine number moves to the space under the cab window.  I kept the nose and tail as they were. Granted, they really don't match now but the mismatch is because of different era paint schemes not because of a factory error. I am not sure if the yellow nose is part of this scheme but I don’t care because I like the way it looks and this is after all, a custom paint job any way you look at it.

-RM

mike g. posted:

Ok everyone, I really need some help from you all! While I am waiting on more track, I have been playing with building placement and its really hurting my brain. So I took some pictures along with a track plan to attach here to see if any of you dare to chime in! All comments are great! On the layout on the lower section of the picture there is 11 1/2" from the front of the table to the track, then 3 " between the 2 tracks, then 9" between the 2 & 3rd track. I hope this helps. I don't have the footprint of the buildings right now but can get them.                                          Any and all help would be great! I am open to ideas!

Well, maybe move the pickle barrels away from the salt or visa versa so you can deliver a bit further than just across the track. The nuclear and standard power plants could be grouped together; same with the RR services.

Zoning? The stores can go anywhere, but near homes would be better; homes scarcer nearer the more industrialized zones. 

FireOne posted:

Wow!  I just noticed the page count on this thread.  Is that a record?

Chris S.

Lots of less than imperative posts totaling hundreds of pages have been trimmed from this thread on occasion as well.

 I'd guess this thread rivals the best almost any forum has managed.

 JD pulled the Johnson bar open and a few held tight until the superglue applied had set up; loose from Mitch yanking on it all the time 😒, , yet firmly stuck in it's notch, a very fun ride. 😉  

RSJB18 posted:

Had a great Easter. Normally a quiet affair with just my wife's parents and the kids. We invited friends over this year who are going through a rough patch (her mom is in the hospital). We all had a great day and a great meal.

Then I won the auction for these

Lee- The new lights look great.

Michael- good luck with the new room reno and new layout.

Johan- great shot as always.

Lee D- Nice haul from a good friend.

John R- Sounds like a good day.

Gandy- Another beautiful scene.

Off to jury duty today....bye

 

Bob

 

Bob: Thanks. Nice, now you got the sharks. It´s a easy job paint blue area an D&H blue.

Johan

mike g. posted:

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Weekend! It turned out that there were not to many post yesterday so it should be easy for me to get up to speed!

LEE D. I would have to say that is one load I have never seen! I bet it got a lot of attention once it got on the layout!

Mark, you are correct about comments. A lot can be learned from what others have to say!

Johan, Great looking scene! Great job on the brick wall!

Michael T, Looks like a lot of work, but I bet its going to be very nice when done! Have you thought about insulation so you can use it year round?

John R. Sure is nice to hear how your taking care of your mom the way you do! I am glad you had a wonderful Easter!

LEE, Nice work on the lighting! Your right it really makes a big difference. I still have to get some track lighting one day, but the good thing is it is prewired for it!

Bob, glad you had a nice Easter and wow what a wonderful haul! They look Great!

Mike: Thank you Sir. 

Johan

mike g. posted:

Ok everyone, I really need some help from you all! While I am waiting on more track, I have been playing with building placement and its really hurting my brain. So I took some pictures along with a track plan to attach here to see if any of you dare to chime in! All comments are great! On the layout on the lower section of the picture there is 11 1/2" from the front of the table to the track, then 3 " between the 2 tracks, then 9" between the 2 & 3rd track. I hope this helps. I don't have the footprint of the buildings right now but can get them.                                          Any and all help would be great! I am open to ideas!

Mike.

Passenger station and crossing-over together+ some store. Is that red high building a granary, if yes put that some another place than brewery. Standard power plant & nuclear maybe together a near industrial area. Example: The brewery need a grain, sugar,cans, bottles, pallets, maybe even a coal couple loads a week…… It´s a more interested if need a carry some loads around the layout than everything is a same area. Just a some ideas. 

Johan

Finally got my Lionel CC Gantry Crane and Workhouse hooked up and operational - like it a lot !

mike g. posted:

Ok everyone, I really need some help from you all! While I am waiting on more track, I have been playing with building placement and its really hurting my brain. So I took some pictures along with a track plan to attach here to see if any of you dare to chime in! All comments are great! On the layout on the lower section of the picture there is 11 1/2" from the front of the table to the track, then 3 " between the 2 tracks, then 9" between the 2 & 3rd track. I hope this helps. I don't have the footprint of the buildings right now but can get them.                                          Any and all help would be great! I am open to ideas!

Hey Mike,

First off, I really like how you painted the Lionel Grain Elevator...I  may have to steal those colors from you. I will be in the same boat as you in a couple of weeks. Though I started  with a plan, I later started picking up buildings and other structures just because I liked them. I know where the majority of them are going but not sure where some of them will go to make logistical sense. The track plan was created for me and building/industry placement was not discussed in length as it should have been. That would be one thing I regret for this build. I'm sure Menards really likes you!

My only advise would be to plan out your road system, if  you haven't already done so. This has been a good guide for me when all else fails. Especially for those structures that I didn't plan for. Though this task will take some thought, it will be one of the most fun aspects of building the layout. Especially when you feel like it all makes sense and each building has a special place on your layout.

Dave

mike g. posted:

Ok everyone, I really need some help from you all! While I am waiting on more track, I have been playing with building placement and its really hurting my brain. So I took some pictures along with a track plan to attach here to see if any of you dare to chime in!

                                         Any and all help would be great! I am open to ideas!

Mike,

As other have stated, make sure you have adequate roads and ways for a scale car to move around. I tell people all the time, most visitor won't know a GEVO from a 4-4-0, but they'll know if the road doesn't make any sense.

Also, put distances between structures. For example, that depot wouldn't be so close to a house (the station master wouldn't have such a fine house and nobody would tolerate the noise otherwise).

In other words, do O scale urban planning. See that pedestrian overpass? Have a reason for it to be there, put a parking lot on one side and something on the other that people have to get to.

It's also fine to have vision breaks where maybe a row of trees partially hides a structure or two.

And once the structures are in their places, plan for at least 2-3 times more figures and trees than you currently think you'll need. They both vanish fast onto a layout, especially one that big!

Thanks everyone! I am working on it right now and will have pictures posted later today!

Thanks to all of you for your nice complements. The layouts are looking good mike you sure are going to town on yours

Lee  nice lighting

Bob  very nice shark noses 

Ralph  your getting close to my soft spot with that C&O engine

I finally got those Circut breakers unloaded and on the way to the power plant. Thanks Mark for identifying these way back when I started building them 

lee drennen posted:

Lee D, neat truck. I'm not familiar with transformers much, I had no idea they made them that big!

Hello Guys and Gals,

I made and planted trees. This is a new area on the layout I am working on. For more updates and progress pics check out my layout progress here.

Dave

Johan, beautiful scene.

Lee, nice lighting. 

Bob, nice find, they look great. 

Lee, great trucks and scenes, as always.

Dave, are you kidding me? You have a singular talent for scenery my friend. Wow!

Andy

Richie C. Great looking crane ! Congrats on getting it up and running!

Lee D. I have to agree with Lee, Great looking truck and load! Nice detail!

Dave, what a great looking layout! I might get somewhere near there in a couple of years if I am lucky! LOL

Hi Guys, Thanks to Butch, Johan, Dave and Lee I did some changes in the train room. Some of it was harder then I thought and consisted of more construction lol! So I enlarged the platform where the nuclear plant is so I could move the power and light plant there. Then I moved the Menards power plant to the other corner. I also moved the salt plant down further towards the Tank farm. The roads are going to be the hard part, some of the places I don't even know where to try. From the power plant I made a ramp and temp bridge. The road will go across the bridge then under the upper rail line!Here are some pictures so far. 

Thanks again guys!

Been awhile since I’ve posted here, but here goes nothing. First pics are of my recent install of Kadees on my Atlas Conrail C630 and caboose. Next 4 pics are of today’s additions to th roster. Two DRGW 64’ mill gons, one NYC bowser covered hopper kit, and one Athearn BlueBox Clinchfield SD45. Loco was used and repainted by someone before me, and will be stripped. Chassis is already in the process of being DCC converted. Probably will become a Conrail.

A couple of hours of work, and I completed the crane car. The Lego locomotive pulls it easily, and the crane car itself works very well.

Lee. These are actually  Circuit breakers  And yes you are right there a little to big. There 1/25 scale they were taller but I cut them down. Thanks for the complement 

Andy. thanks for the complement I love those Mack’s trucks. Guess because dad drove them and my first truck I ever drove was a Mack 

Mike. Thanks for the complement. Did you say “Power Plant” I’ve got 2 circuit breakers for it. Is the snow gone?? 

Dave. That second pic is just Beautiful you did a great job!

Mike, I like the changes. The roads can be tricky, but they don’t necessarily need to have a start and end point. Maybe just the appearance of some streets would be enough in different scenes. And if it’s good enough for you, then it’s good enough. 

Andy

RSJB18 posted:

Had a great Easter. Normally a quiet affair with just my wife's parents and the kids. We invited friends over this year who are going through a rough patch (her mom is in the hospital). We all had a great day and a great meal.

Then I won the auction for these

Off to jury duty today....bye

 Bob

Nice set, Bob... now you just need to get back on the search for suitably sized passenger cars to run with them   

P.S. enjoy Jury Duty!!!