What did you do on your layout today?

Today I enjoyed the freedom that others sacrificed for. 

Just ran trains with my 7 yr. old Grandson, for hours....he figured out how to turn on the "Walking Honor Guard" boxcar...I couldn't top that...period!  

I'm taking a water break so let's get an update.  After Saturday's lazy-boy cruise, I worked until midnight.  I ran the Texas special #1055 in a 4x7'3" oval and called it a night.  Sunday was long but productive.  I brought out light and an extension cord for the photos.  The kerosene lamp is not enough for effective pin alignment.  I ran my yard goat, minus tender, around this temporary elevation.  Much better structural support for the elevated section is todays task.

Lee, the new shelves look great!  That is wonderful you got a perfect fit!

Vincent, Amen to that!  

Bill, You have been very productive!!  Having an engine run so soon is an accomplishment.

I got an unexpected day off from the new part-time job.  I decided to take a little time and spray the rock flecked paint on the roadbed I have down so I can lay the track.  The room isn't very conducive to venting the overspray from the Rustoleum can, so I decided I would take the second level off and take it out into the yard.

I decided that next time I will cut the Homasote and lay the cork down then take that outside to spray and see how that works.  This 4x4 is a bit heavy for my still recuperating lower back.  While I had the upper level off, I decided to paint the exposed Homasote with some of the light gray I used under the stone flecked paint.  I'll let it all dry while we take my mother-in-law out for lunch.  Both daughters are with their in-laws, so we aren't doing much today.  After it's back together I think I will post in my Signature topic since it has been a while.

Many thanks for all those who have sacrificed for our freedom!!

Ran trains for a short bit yesterday and of course enjoyed every minute!  Snapped a few photos too! 

Rainy day here, perfect time to get finished on lift out project on C&NW’s Central Division layout. It took awhile to make it work, even with super elevated curves, it worked great.

CGW, The curves look great as does the lift up section!  I see where you can get proper alignment when in the down position.  Is there slack in the wires from the main table or do the bolt heads make contact?

I put the table top back on, fastened down the track with screws only, no glue, and put in appropriate drops.  I then tested the track running the BL2.  All is swell!  

Continued to make some progress on the high desert scenery. 

Greg, I have never seen a desert for real, but I think yours looks great!!

Mark Boyce posted:

Greg, I have never seen a desert for real, but I think yours looks great!!

Thanks Mark. 

Mark and everyone else, you probably haven't made the connection, but CGWforever is my helper Patrick. He's been working on his layout for a while now, and I kept bugging him to share what he's been doing, over here on this topic.

He does do good work!

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

Mark and everyone else, you probably haven't made the connection, but CGWforever is my helper Patrick. He's been working on his layout for a while now, and I kept bugging him to share what he's been doing, over here on this topic.

He does do good work!

And I bet he's been "borrowing" your ideas and methods along the way Elliot

Patrick- very nice work. Keep us posted on your progress.

Bob

Mark Boyce posted:

CGW, The curves look great as does the lift up section!  I see where you can get proper alignment when in the down position.  Is there slack in the wires from the main table or do the bolt heads make contact?

I put the table top back on, fastened down the track with screws only, no glue, and put in appropriate drops.  I then tested the track running the BL2.  All is swell!  

Looks good Mark. Nice choice of engines too!

Bob

Maybe a few Bob, but he has a lot of his own ideas. I would never choose Fastrack, but he makes it look good.

Didn't have much time over the long weekend to do much other than get the new shelves under the staging yard, but I did run one train and took some twilight shots:

At the end of the day in the Stoney Creek valley area, on a lazy summer's evening in 1943:

Thank you Elliot, Bob, and Brian!  I thought I remembered you saying that was Patrick, but couldn’t find it to confirm.  I think I will remember now.  Looks great, Patrick!

Lee, The scenes are wonderful!!  Such realism and takes me back to my rural childhood, though a couple decades after ‘41!

Mark Boyce posted:

Lee, The scenes are wonderful!!  Such realism and takes me back to my rural childhood, though a couple decades after ‘41!

Mark, thanks very much. I grew up in the sticks, too. The area I model, I spent more than a portion of my summers there, but I grew up in North Florida. Nobody would want to (or I think could) model the terrain there around Tallahassee. Scrub pines, beach sand and palmettoes? I wouldn't even know how to begin modeling that.

p51 posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

Lee, The scenes are wonderful!!  Such realism and takes me back to my rural childhood, though a couple decades after ‘41!

Mark, thanks very much. I grew up in the sticks, too. The area I model, I spent more than a portion of my summers there, but I grew up in North Florida. Nobody would want to (or I think could) model the terrain there.

Florida has no terrain 😂😂😂

RSJB18 posted:

p51 posted:

I grew up in North Florida. Nobody would want to (or I think could) model the terrain there.

Florida has no terrain 😂😂😂

I once frequented a form of diorama builders and there was a guy who asked people to challenge him to model terrain types. He usually met the challenge, too.

Until I started posting.

I showed photos of around Olustee and "Tate's Hell" and he finally said he had me stumped, as he couldn't figure out how to model that.

p51 posted:

RSJB18 posted:

p51 posted:

I grew up in North Florida. Nobody would want to (or I think could) model the terrain there.

Florida has no terrain 😂😂😂

I once frequented a form of diorama builders and there was a guy who asked people to challenge him to model terrain types. He usually met the challenge, too.

Until I started posting.

I showed photos of around Olustee and "Tate's Hell" and he finally said he had me stumped, as he couldn't figure out how to model that.

I'm not Florida bashing but the average elevation above seal level in the state is 6'.......

I started a balsa wood covered bridge on my grandson's track today.  It's going better than expected.  One helpful hint to those who aren't aware of this yet, don't buy testors model glue.  It's for plastic only.  Says so right on the package.  I can read.....I just don't.  So Gorilla glue it is.  Sticks quick, dries fast, better hurry.

Yardmaster96 posted:

I started a balsa wood covered bridge on my grandson's track today.  It's going better than expected.  One helpful hint to those who aren't aware of this yet, don't buy testors model glue.  It's for plastic only.  Says so right on the package.  I can read.....I just don't.  So Gorilla glue it is.  Sticks quick, dries fast, better hurry.

Hot glue is a good option for balsa wood assembly. Just be prepared to deal with the strings.....

Mark Boyce posted:

Thank you Elliot, Bob, and Brian!  I thought I remembered you saying that was Patrick, but couldn’t find it to confirm.  I think I will remember now.  Looks great, Patrick!

Lee, The scenes are wonderful!!  Such realism and takes me back to my rural childhood, though a couple decades after ‘41!

References to this fact are very few and far between. Patrick is a man of few words here on the forum. If you go to my topic, about halfway down page one, you'll find a post from him that simply says "email sent". and the rest is history. Nearly six and a half years worth.

The layout has been moved...again. Hopefully, it will be able to stay in this room for a good long while. It was originally on the dining room table for about a year, then moved to this room about a year and a half ago, at which time we thought it would be staying. However, after about 3 months, my son and now daughter in law had to move back in, so it was moved to my wife's sewing room. Now, after several months of gradually packing and moving boxes, rearranging shelves and contents, moving desks and computers, it is now back in what can be loosely called my office / train room. My newest son-in-law helped with moving the dining room table and the layout board, which are both quite heavy: made him break a sweat lol.

Now comes some rethinking and more planning of what to do and how to do it for the layout. Yes, the Christmas Train Tree is right next to it, which is slowly undergoing changes to make it ready for Christmas season.

Mark Boyce posted:

CGWforever posted:

Continue working on Proses Diesel house from Turkey.I do like the looks of the Proses engine house!  You are doing a great job on initial painting and assembly!  I see he is coming out with one with a gabled roof.  Excellent pre-order price I might add.  That Proses Powered Railer that Harry Henning demonstrated on the FaceBook page is the cat's meow!  Ijust got one Friday.

Thanks Mark. It almost ready to assemble. 

Mark Boyce posted:

CGW, The curves look great as does the lift up section!  I see where you can get proper alignment when in the down position.  Is there slack in the wires from the main table or do the bolt heads make contact?

Mark,

They do. After make the adjustments, it worked great. 

Patrick 

RSJB18 posted:

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

Mark and everyone else, you probably haven't made the connection, but CGWforever is my helper Patrick. He's been working on his layout for a while now, and I kept bugging him to share what he's been doing, over here on this topic.

He does do good work!

And I bet he's been "borrowing" your ideas and methods along the way Elliot

Patrick- very nice work. Keep us posted on your progress.

Bob

Bob,

Yes, “borrowing” few things from him to use on my layout. Thanks.

Patrick 

We put down some ballast in the yard. 

Johan, that was a great article on you and your club in the other mag. I enjoyed it and the pictures.

Greg, nice desert scene.

Mark, good pics, Glad you had opportunities to get to work on your layout.

Elliot, good to hear you are able to work on your layout and get around better now.

Patrick (CGW), liftout and curves.......nice job.

Lee, one word..... realistic.

Brian, simply amazing. No repeats yet.

After I got my boxcutter knives I never did get to work on anything. But today with yard work out of the way I have a window of oportunity to work on something while I do the laundry LOL. Maybe later I'll have some pics of the buildings against to back drop...................Paul

Not so fast Paul, I haven't been able to work on the layout since I did this, almost two weeks ago. 

I may have had a major setback last night. As I was hobbling through the kitchen, I heard a loud POP and felt a sharp pain. This is not a new experience, so I'm a bit concerned that a tendon has popped free from a bone. I'm going in tomorrow to see what it it is. Right now all I know is it hurts, to the point where I've started using my late father-in-law's cane.  

OUCH! Elliot, please have it looked at asap. Hopefully it's something that time, a knee brace, and staying off it will allow it to heal.

paul 2 posted:

Johan, that was a great article on you and your club in the other mag. I enjoyed it and the pictures.

Greg, nice desert scene.

Mark, good pics, Glad you had opportunities to get to work on your layout.

Elliot, good to hear you are able to work on your layout and get around better now.

Patrick (CGW), liftout and curves.......nice job.

Lee, one word..... realistic.

Brian, simply amazing. No repeats yet.

After I got my boxcutter knives I never did get to work on anything. But today with yard work out of the way I have a window of oportunity to work on something while I do the laundry LOL. Maybe later I'll have some pics of the buildings against to back drop...................Paul

Paul. Thank you very much. I am glad you like it.

Johan

Thanks Jackson, as I said earlier, I'm going in tomorrow. I'm doing my best to stay off it as much as possible, mainly because it hurts to put my weight on it. I was planning to have Patrick come over on Saturday to work on the layout, but that may get scratched. We'll see.

In addition to clearing our tracks of rolling stock for to make room for upcoming scenery work, I started to apply decals to a box car for our ever growing Bungling Brothers circus train. The face on the boxcar is "Corky the Clown", formerly of Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. Our thanks to Corky for giving us permission to use his face on our box car.

Her are some photos of the other cars on our circus train that our box car and other future circus cars will join.

paul 2 posted:

Lee, one word..... realistic.

Thanks much, Paul. You put a much-needed smile on my face today!

BAR GP7 #63 posted:

 Wow, I never tire of seeing your work. Great job as always!

Elliot, I was not caught up and jumped the gun but I hope tomorrow when you go to the doctor it is nothing serious and time will heal it. 

This afternoon and after dinner I managed to cut out a number of building flats from the black foam. Tomorrow is suppose to be a all day rain and the wife asked me what I would be doing and of course I told her what else it is a train day LOL. While in the basement I added three coke loads to my South Buffalo hoppers. I have three more cars that are in the attic that I have to look for so I can put the remainder of the loads in them. Pics..............Paul 2

Paul, thank you very much!  I hope to get a little more done this week, but who knows?

Elliot, that certainly doesn't sound good!!!

Brian, great Chassis Western Maryland!

Randy, Bungling Brothers is great!

Superchief, the yard looks great with ballast!

Randy Harrison posted:

In addition to clearing our tracks of rolling stock for to make room for upcoming scenery work, I started to apply decals to a box car for our ever growing Bungling Brothers circus train. The face on the boxcar is "Corky the Clown", formerly of Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. Our thanks to Corky for giving us permission to use his face on our box car.

Her are some photos of the other cars on our circus train that our box car and other future circus cars will join.

Randy - Corky never looked better!!  Your boxcar looks great too!!