What did you do on your layout today?

Lee, and with all the great details on cars today, I am getting like a little kid breaking off grab irons, steps, etc besides dropping them

Mike. Well done on the lighting now that’s looking good

Paul. Great progress again your getting there

marc. Like those tunnels you’ve done a lot of labor of love 

Patrick. Always fun to take pics and run the train looks like you had fun and that what’s it’s all about my friend 

Elliot. Every time I watch you work my knees hurt looks great

Gandy. Those soft highly detail pics are always awesome 

Thanks guys for all your likes and complements. I’m shooting to get my other 4x8 section up next weekend 

Well yesterday I finished installing the LEDs in the Lionel/K-Line 21” Passenger car.  I apologize, Carl, that I didn’t take more pictures but I had it pretty much put back together before I remembered.

The second photo shows the difference in size between the boards.  Gunrunner John’s on the left.  I had to bend the heat sink that sticks up to get it to fit into the large compartment shown in third picture.  I used double sided foam tape to hold it in place.  The undercarriage also houses the lighting on/off switch. The LEDs are just as bright as the incandescent bulbs were.

Larry 

Took down the mountain this weekend going to replace the tracks upgrade a few areas and replace the mountain and airfield and a better facility for the Saturn V

Before I took down the mountain visited a friends layout to see the completed war of the worlds spaceship just put in to his layout 

Paul - Yeah, Patrick makes all the difference. No only does he get stuff done, but he even gets me to do stuff too.

Mark - Thanks, I'm really happy with that purchase. It should look great when it's done. Patrick does the skirting better than I do, except it hurts his back sitting on the floor. Fortunately, there isn't much left to do, and he'll have a couple weeks to rest up, before we get back to it.

Lee - I'm with you, so do mine. I only got down on the floor once this week, but that was bad enough. It's not just Patrick's back, mine too. I can barely stand straight up long enough to make breakfast, before I have to lean against the counter. I might break down and see Dr. Dan, the chiropractor. Hope he can fix this. I need some good popping. 

trumptrain posted:

Took a few photos last night.  Ran trains and had FUN!! 

I love your mountains! The colors are really beautiful. I hope to do something like that on my layout some day. 

I disassembled my only N scale track, scrubbed the tracks thoroughly with rubbing alcohol, and put it away. I plan to begin my new lay-out around May 1. I also expect to be a few days late getting started.

Hi everyone, this is going to be a long one cause I have been gone from here for  2 days! So here we go!

GandyDancer, Great pictures! I really like the dog and the truck in the ally, but most of all I the the kids playing on the sidewalk are great detail! Nice job!

John R. Thank you! Sounds like you had a good time with the convertions . I really hope you get your GP9 back soon!

NS1975,  Nice find and looks good on your layout!

Mark C. The quarry looks amazing! Thank you for showing how you did the walls there. I hope you will let us know how you did the inside of your tunnels! They look just as amazing at the quarry!

Patrick, great pictures. Sure sounds like you had a blast running trains! 

Elliot, Love the lift bridge you got, I am sure you will find a way to make it work! I have to say you and Patrick sure have been getting a lot done! I hope you will post some pictures of the BN train your putting together! I would really love to see it!

Paul 2, The sidings look great! One would like to know whats next for you?

Mark, thank you! I am glad you found the nails before you sprayed the rock fleck paint! I hope you will post pictures of it when you get there!

Larry, The lighting in the UP car looks perfect!

Brian, more great photo's! I sure hope you don't run out!

FL9TURBO2, now that some work you have going on there! I cant wait to see the improvements when you get done!

It sure looks like everyone had a great weekend! Great job everyone!

Had a break last week from work, picked up quite a few items(rolling stock and accessories) and practiced my soldering skills. And finally feel like I have enough people and cars to populate my layout.

Today:

Meeting of CIA Black Ops(awesomely painted plasticville man with shades, 2 K-line SWAT figures, 2 MTH army figures, Solido Army Car for the military, Wellys Chevy Tahoe for the CIA)

New addition to the prewar tinplate consist that I run on my inner loop- AF 1123. Fits really well with the engine and other cars. Eventually, to my dismay, I'll probably take out the Ives gravel cars and make this a passenger only consist( Ives 3250,AF 1123, Ives 551 CHAIR car, 2 Ives 63 gravel cars, Bing 253 NYC passenger, PRR 529 obs. :

Got this grass like mat at Hobby lobby and modified my farm so that there's an easement that can be drven over and the bar/dude ranch is accessible to the public.:

Then I picked up this at Hennings:

My first AF layout. The 303 Atlantic works great. 

Finished the powered PC GP30 and now I have an A-A set.

Brief  runby:

Everyone is doing great work....except me

Been on vacation for the past week and didn't even get to look at the layout. Lot's of stuff kept coming up and had to be dealt with. At least I'm going back to work tomorrow to relax.

On the bright side my new D&H Sharks are sitting there waiting for me along with two new BEEPS.
More toys YAY

Hopefully some train time soon.

Bob

StevefromPA, looks like you had fun! Also nice addition to your layout! Looks very nice!

Ralph, they both look great! Nice train run by I even seen a couple loads of custom pipe in the line up! Nice work!

Well everyone I didn't get much done this weekend as it was our family's Easter Weekend! But today after my Dr. Appt. I was able to get my walls done for my ramp up to the American Power and Light plant.

There wont be much action here for the next 7 weeks as I have to do Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. The oral surgery requires that I have it. So between that and work the only time I will have to work on the layout is the weekend if I am not working! 

Any hoo here are some pictures of my walls! Enjoy! LOL                                          I know its not the greatest, but for my first time I am happy for right now. I plan to cover the seams with some vegetation crawling up or down the brick wall. Please all feel free to comment good or bad, it's how we learn. Also any suggestions!

Thanks everyone, I hope you all have a great week!

fl9turbo2 posted:

Before I took down the mountain visited a friends layout to see the completed war of the worlds spaceship just put in to his layout 

Now these are the war machines I liked.Only problem is where to park.Hey he wants coke cola you can not get on mars only earth.Although they are talking to coke cola company to set up some kind of trade. 

Bershirelover726  Cody -  Thanks so much for your kind words!  It's alway gratifying to know when our work inspires others.  Glad my mountain inspires you to create one on your layout!

Mike g, you are doing nice work. I like the walls. You wondered what I am doing next. Well tomorrow I hope to wire up that section and I have to start thinking about completing the backdrop with the building flats, hopefully that is.....Paul 2

I found some foam core poster board material being thrown out at work. Being part vulture, I scooped it up with intentions of using it some how on the layout. I decided to make an old factory building made of brick. 

There is an old factory in St. Louis called the International Shoe Company that has really great brick work. I couldn’t find an image of the building as a whole, so I used google street view to capture some images of certain features. I then photoshopped the building facades together and printed them off. 

With a small layout, the factory will also serve as a pass through tunnel.  Goal was to cover this front corner on the upper level.

I cut and pasted the images onto the foam core board. Then I glued and taped the foam core images onto a cardboard box for support.

I added roof pieces then added a small top floor area to give it a little more character.

I took it down to the layout for a test fit. I will be adding some pink foam tunnels/base of the building.

Overall I was very happy with the result so far. $0 project that took a couple hours to build.

JD2035RR posted:

Well done JD!   Never thought of using goggle earth street views as a source for building images.   Thanks for sharing - great tip! 

Cheers, Dave

darlander posted:

JD2035RR posted:

Well done JD!   Never thought of using goggle earth street views as a source for building images.   Thanks for sharing - great tip! 

Cheers, Dave

 

Thank you, Dave!  It took a little work in photoshop to get the images to appear perfectly vertical. The images that you get from google earth street views look narrower at the top as they are looking up.  I found it easier to cut out certain features, then rebuild the images together.  My building isn't a great representation of the actual building, but I stole many of the architectural elements from it.  I also fixed many of their windows for them I need to figure out how I'm going to replicate the chimney.

Mike, that parking lot is a brilliant recovery of wasted space.

My thanks to my longtime friend, Pat Whitehead, aka Trumptrain to you forum members, for coming over to my house this past Sunday and helping clear a 5' x 12' platform section of my layout so that I can redesign the city scene and ad more sidings an run-around tracks for switching operations. In that I am now a bit disabled, I could not have done it without Pat's help.

Attics are inherently challenging places for layouts, as you all know. Here is a flyover of my unfinished attic project and how I have used the only free space I had in my house.

You have made highly effective use of the space you have. 

Lew

CoastsideKevin posted:

Attics are inherently challenging places for layouts, as you all know. Here is a flyover of my unfinished attic project and how I have used the only free space I had in my house.

 

Looks like you’ve adapted well! How much vertical space do you have? Are you seated or standing when you operate?

JD2035RR posted:

CoastsideKevin posted:

Attics are inherently challenging places for layouts, as you all know. Here is a flyover of my unfinished attic project and how I have used the only free space I had in my house.

 

Looks like you’ve adapted well! How much vertical space do you have? Are you seated or standing when you operate?

Maximum headroom is 5' and it slopes down to 1' at the far side. I am nearly 6', so no standing up (although my kids get to!). I sit on a pillow on the floor. Not comfortable. I have been considering getting some kind of bleacher chair with a back that would provide some support. It's not ideal.

COASTSIDEKEVIN, nice video of your attic layout. I have an attic layout too. I am able to stand up in mine and  can walk the length. The stairs come up  at the back of the attic. Still had limitations building the layout but ended up with four mainlines. The layout is 27' by 12'...........Paul 2

paul 2 posted:

COASTSIDEKEVIN, nice video of your attic layout. I have an attic layout too. I am able to stand up in mine and  can walk the length. The stairs come up  at the back of the attic. Still had limitations building the layout but ended up with four mainlines. The layout is 27' by 12'...........Paul 2

Wow, four main lines is great! Can you share a picture of your layout?

Mine is 40’x10’ and I was only able to fit in two main lines. But I’m running conventional so two at once is about all I can handle. 

i tried uploading this last night but I don’t think it went through. I added some people to the layout and put a mixed freight out. 

I took the coal drag off because the link couplers weren’t working correctly haha

Put away all my pirates and their ships. Cleaned and put away another train. Too busy to do much else, but I intend to dismantle more tonight.

Added a Z-Stuff double signal bridge with semaphores from Steve at Ross Custom Switches to my layout - great service as usual.

KEVIN, here are a few pics of the attic layout I took a little while back It is two upper mainlines and two lower mainlines with a sweeping S curve connecting the the two levels...........Paul 2

paul 2 posted:

KEVIN, here are a few pics of the attic layout I took a little while back It is two upper mainlines and two lower mainlines with a sweeping S curve connecting the the two levels...........Paul 2

Wow, very impressive!

Last year I bought this Bachman Spectrum HO  2-8-0 Consolidated steam locomotive. It is a magnificent train--that had sat in its box for 15 years, which I learned when I got home. But after a mechanic got out the hardened grease it runs well.

It's been in its box for four months, so I gave it some exercise today while disassembling my lay-out.

If you can't see the video, switch to the Google Chrome browser and it will run.

Lessee, what'd I do today? Pulled the Scrapyard:

The crew here on the Plywood Empire Route are really thrilled with the capabilities of the "new" SW1500 (well, it is 35yrs newer than the old NW2). More power, higher tractive effort and for switching it CREEPS (even on conventional). Plus you can't beat the sound of that EMD 645 V12    With the PWC NW2 the only "engine" sound was the growl of the Lionel open-frame motor.

And set out an empty:

Then it'll be across the bridge over Oil Creek and on into town to switch the industrial area.

Lew

Paul 2, Thank You! Very cool I cant wait to see it with the flats up and in place! I am wondering if you plan on taking a little video of that area or even a bigger one of your basement layout? Great Attic layout photo's!

JD, Nice building! My kind of work and the price is perfect! LOL

Vincent, Thank you! I hope it looks better once the rails are painted and ballast is done! I tried to watch your video but all I got was black screen with engine sounds!

Kevin, nice use of your free space! Better to have it on the floor then not have it at  all!

Richie, Nice work! I agree Steve is top notch!

Lew, That sure looks like a nice little switcher and what a wonderful story to go with it! Thanks for sharing!

So after laying in a tube for almost 3 hours, then work I was able to get one TSM mounted. No wiring or anything else, but its one less to do! LOL

I hope everyone had a great day and may there Wednesday be even better!

Nice, Brian!

Lew

Vincent Massi posted:

Put away all my pirates and their ships. Cleaned and put away another train. Too busy to do much else, but I intend to dismantle more tonight.

Are you going to put up a O or O27 next?

I'm afraid not, Lee. The center of V.I.P. (Vincent's Industrial Park) will be a Lego dead rail train. On Friday, we will be going to Guadalajara where I HOPE to buy another train set.

The dead rails will be in the hard-to-clean areas, with HO and N scale closer to the edges of the table. V.I.P. will feature a locomotive manufacturing and repair facility, a Coca-Cola bottle cap recycling center, a vacation resort for retired super heroes, and other projects as construction proceeds.

Lew