What did you do on your layout today?

trumptrain posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

Pat, I like the new photograph angles!  I’ll look forward to seeing the pole wiring progress 

Thanks so much Mark!  My goal tomorrow is to string 3 poles

Three sounds like a reasonable plan for the day

Bill, Looking good!!  Mitch is the man!

Odenville Bill posted:

I've been working on the railroad.    place musical note here

   I popped up like toast at 5AM.  I was in the train building at 5:10.  I replaced more O27 with O gauge.  I used all my straight pieces.  I have to shorten one piece yet.  I hate to cut track.  Is there such a thing as 3 rail flex track?   I took a nap from 10 to 11AM, then back to work .  Maybe I'll get to run a train tomorrow.  Heidi, my first Maine Coon, says meow (they really don't meow.  Maine Coons vocalize). 

I had a maine coon tabby, 17 years we had Max, he was a good fetcher, coons loved to play fetch the mouse. I thought I had a real smart cat, turned out most all maine coons will chase a mouse toy and bring it back to you.

I took down the halloween layout    on the temporary 8x8 layout, today was the last of it and I put it away 

Tomorrow, I start the Christmas Layout on the 8x8.        

Can you tell I like the  Christmas layout better...because it is Christmas!

season of love,  pease, good will, tinsel, presents, and TRAINS!

I like Christmas much better too, John!

John Pignatelli JR. posted:

 

Tomorrow, I start the Christmas Layout on the 8x8.        

 

 

Now you're cooking with gas!

trumptrain posted:

I have a couple photos ( photos 5&6 ) of my recent York purchase from Richard Kreig of the Railroad Crossing ... The " Little Tavern " was a small chain of burger places around Washington DC.... open 24/7.    The burgers were cheap and tasted quite fine  Folks would buy them by the bag full.  There was one located on Route 1 in Laurel, Md. ( Building is still there ) and one on Rt. 1 in College Park, Md. serving the University of Maryland community. ( others were scattered throughout the DC area )  When I was in school at UofM our nick name for the Little Tavern was " the Club LT"  I ate lots of LT burgers and drank lots of their coffee over the years for sure!   

The Little Tavern Hamburgers where also around Baltimore. The front room with the counters and stools had shiny white walls. I have heard some of the patrons say that they were dining in the porcelain room at the Club LT.

Five years to the day when the first train was run to each end of the layout, onto the powered turntables.
This is the very last of my "five years to the day" series showing the progress of my layout.
So much has changed, you can't even see the same coach is tacked onto the locomotive (which was changed from 12 to 9 after the original shot was taken)...

The funny thing is, you can't get the exact original shot anymore, as there are trees in the way of where the camera was in the original shot!

Odenville Bill posted:

Hey y'all, as per request, here are pictures of my track upgrades and a short video of my latest acquisitions.  Thanks Mitch.

The Geeps are settling nicely into their new home!   

Mitch 

Lee, You accomplished so much in 5 years.  I am so glad I was along for the ride!!

Ran trains for a bit yesterday after helping the CEO try and organize our basement. Didn't make much progress on that front except to admit that she keeps way too much stuff. And of course the "well its all your train stuff" comment was spoken several times.

"Ever notice how your stuff is stuff and other people's stuff is C***" (George Carlin)

I've been running my new LIRR RS-3 (MTH PS2) and it occasionally stalls on a couple of my 5121, 5122, (027) switches. I also have a pair of 042's and it runs fine over them.  It seems to happen when the front truck gets over the frog and turnout, on both the straight and turnout legs. I first thought it was a loose wire but I bench tested the loco and it runs with test leads on the pick up roller of either truck and any of the 8 wheels. Part of me thinks its just not happy running on track designed way before these locos were built but since its erratic I am still digging. I may open the shell today and verify that the wiring is solid.

Any thoughts?

And of course I still had fun!

I am trying not to get too carried away with the "little" details.   I am creating a "steam dome" on top of the boiler, and handrails along the side of the boiler.  I also want to put on some "sun shades" on top of side windows.

Less then a week to go.  I should be able to test out the smoke unit tomorrow, as the smoke fluid comes today from Amazon.  

Mark, sometimes its just takes so much to comment on everyone's great work and I am tired, that's why I had out a lot of likes sometimes! Brian sure did send me some nice cars!

Brian, Great Photo's! I didn't know Santa Fe had so many different colors!

Jeffpo, That Southern Passenger train sure is balls to the walls! Must be running late! LOL

Johan, Thank you Sir, I would have posted a longer video I just don't know how to upload a longer video here!

Paul 2, Things are looking good! You sure have an understanding wife!

Bryan, I am glad you had a good turnout for your NMRA Tour! Also thank you for the picture and video! It sure makes me want to have one!

Patrick, Wonderful photo's of your layout. Great job thinking out of the box by adding floating debris in your lake! Most people make them smooth and crystal clear! LOL I really like the Helicopter shots of your town!

Bill, You have quite the layout going! Looks like it would be a blast to run, just set it and relax!

John, Have fun building your Christmas layout! I sure hope you will post pictures for the rest of us!

Lee, WOW, Very Impressive! You sure are a Master Modeler in my eyes! Everything looks so real! Nice work!

Bob, I hope you can get the basement done soon, so it will free your time up for more trains! My CEO always tells me do you know how much money you have wasted on trains! I tell her yep and I need more money! LOL I sure hope you get your problem with your engines figured out!

Jim, the engine is coming along nicely! I hope you will be able to shoot a short video of it in the parade!

Well there wont be any train room time today as I can see. Yesterday the Furnace went out and we are luck to have a friend that is in the heating business coming today to install a new one! Man what a drag, first the roof, now the heat, whats next! I know what not next today, TRAINS!!!!!!!!!!!

But that ok, I really hope the rest of you are having a great weekend and your teams do well today! Remember to save time for trains! LOL

Wow Mike!  Sorry about the furnace!  I’m glad you you have a friend you can trust!  
Yes there are do many good things going on here it is hard to keep up!

Jim, the float is going to be a prize winner!!

Thanks guys

Don't worry I will get some video.

The engineer and fireman are all ready to go!

I can't take credit for the penguins, they were from a previous years float.  I do need to put a throttle in the engineers hand, and a shovel in the fireman's. 

EGGCELLENT!  

Well Paul and I are test fitting our modules with our new "MOD Squad" module group.  To help out the group we each decided to buy in and get our own module so there wouldn't be an odd number.  Now I have to watch him to make sure he doesn't sabotage mine because he knows mine will be better. Lol

Okay this is a Paul classic we just tried our first test run and Paul wasn't paying attention so when they turned on the smoke unit Paul yells out stop stop the module is on fire....when it was the engine smoking.  We are now in executive session determining if Paul stays in. Lol

RSJB18 posted:

Ran trains for a bit yesterday after helping the CEO try and organize our basement. Didn't make much progress on that front except to admit that she keeps way too much stuff. And of course the "well its all your train stuff" comment was spoken several times.

"Ever notice how your stuff is stuff and other people's stuff is C***" (George Carlin)

I've been running my new LIRR RS-3 (MTH PS2) and it occasionally stalls on a couple of my 5121, 5122, (027) switches. I also have a pair of 042's and it runs fine over them.  It seems to happen when the front truck gets over the frog and turnout, on both the straight and turnout legs. I first thought it was a loose wire but I bench tested the loco and it runs with test leads on the pick up roller of either truck and any of the 8 wheels. Part of me thinks its just not happy running on track designed way before these locos were built but since its erratic I am still digging. I may open the shell today and verify that the wiring is solid.

Any thoughts?

And of course I still had fun!

I love that engine. 

So for the stalling part, I have a Railking NYC GP-7 of the same vitage. The layout uses Ross turnouts and Gargrave track a;; on wood ties. I had a particular turnout that the engine behaved in a manner similar to your experience with the 5121-22 turnouts. The stalling would occur when the locomotive ran by itself. If it was pulling a train with the first car having a metal coupler mounted on a Metal truck m there was no stalling. This led me to look at loosing ground as the engine went through the turnout which what seemed to be happening. I solved my problem by tying the common rails together around the turnout and have sincea done that with all track sections.

I can also recall a Conventional Classics FM doing that on a curved section of Gargraves and found undulations in my cyrve caused the truck wheels to come away from the rail that had the ground connection. Tying the rails together soplved that problem.

The MTH 4 wheel truck diesels have traction tires on an axle in each truck which limits the ground points. Not sure if the 5100 series have non derailing feature which insulates one of the common rails in the turnout so the ground tie might not work. Try running with a car in tow that has all metal couplers and trucks . 

Hope this helps.i

LIRR Steamer posted:

RSJB18 posted:

Ran trains for a bit yesterday after helping the CEO try and organize our basement. Didn't make much progress on that front except to admit that she keeps way too much stuff. And of course the "well its all your train stuff" comment was spoken several times.

"Ever notice how your stuff is stuff and other people's stuff is C***" (George Carlin)

I've been running my new LIRR RS-3 (MTH PS2) and it occasionally stalls on a couple of my 5121, 5122, (027) switches. I also have a pair of 042's and it runs fine over them.  It seems to happen when the front truck gets over the frog and turnout, on both the straight and turnout legs. I first thought it was a loose wire but I bench tested the loco and it runs with test leads on the pick up roller of either truck and any of the 8 wheels. Part of me thinks its just not happy running on track designed way before these locos were built but since its erratic I am still digging. I may open the shell today and verify that the wiring is solid.

Any thoughts?

And of course I still had fun!

I love that engine. 

So for the stalling part, I have a Railking NYC GP-7 of the same vitage. The layout uses Ross turnouts and Gargrave track a;; on wood ties. I had a particular turnout that the engine behaved in a manner similar to your experience with the 5121-22 turnouts. The stalling would occur when the locomotive ran by itself. If it was pulling a train with the first car having a metal coupler mounted on a Metal truck m there was no stalling. This led me to look at loosing ground as the engine went through the turnout which what seemed to be happening. I solved my problem by tying the common rails together around the turnout and have sincea done that with all track sections.

I can also recall a Conventional Classics FM doing that on a curved section of Gargraves and found undulations in my cyrve caused the truck wheels to come away from the rail that had the ground connection. Tying the rails together soplved that problem.

The MTH 4 wheel truck diesels have traction tires on an axle in each truck which limits the ground points. Not sure if the 5100 series have non derailing feature which insulates one of the common rails in the turnout so the ground tie might not work. Try running with a car in tow that has all metal couplers and trucks . 

Hope this helps.i

I suspected that the traction tires on the same axle may be the cause. I was going to remove one to see if the problem persists. 

The 5100's are non-dr so I can't jump the rails. 

Thanks for the advice. 

Bob

before you remove the tire, try running with a car in tow that has all metal couplers and trucks and see if that helps things on the 5100s. 

Bryan in Ohio posted:

Well Paul and I are test fitting our modules with our new "MOD Squad" module group.  To help out the group we each decided to buy in and get our own module so there wouldn't be an odd number.  Now I have to watch him to make sure he doesn't sabotage mine because he knows mine will be better. Lol

Sounds like all is going well.  Are the modules setup in the Painesville building in the photographs above?

Mark,

We set up in wildwood cultural center in mentor.  One of the guys has full time access to it. 

Bryan, That’s great time have access to a place like that to setup and get the modules organized 

Jdevleerjr posted:

I am trying not to get too carried away with the "little" details.   I am creating a "steam dome" on top of the boiler, and handrails along the side of the boiler.  I also want to put on some "sun shades" on top of side windows.

Less then a week to go.  I should be able to test out the smoke unit tomorrow, as the smoke fluid comes today from Amazon.  

How fun and exciting for you and the scouts!   Will this fit over a garden tractor?    Great project!!!!

Cheers, Dave

PS:  Jim, I think you're a page or two past being carried away and that's wonderful!

Well I have I have not heard from the executive board yet as to my standing with the Mod Squad. And of course Bryan had to be there to see me do a classic thing. Well I say better to be safe then sorry. The track being used on the modules is fast track and I guess because I have heard that shorting can cause melting of the base and we were having trouble with the track in one spot I did yell out because where I was sitting the track actually looked like it was smoking. So on a high note for myself I was able to convince Bryan to get his own module. The unfortunate part was we may be butted together. But this may be a blessing in disguise. On the way home I contenplated what I was going to do as to a scene. I decided to make an active volvano and have the lava flow onto Bryans module. ......Paul 2

Paul, Safety first, I say!  You should receive a commendation from the group!  Lava flow onto Bryan’s module!  LOL 

paul 2 posted:

Well I have I have not heard from the executive board yet as to my standing with the Mod Squad. And of course Bryan had to be there to see me do a classic thing. Well I say better to be safe then sorry. The track being used on the modules is fast track and I guess because I have heard that shorting can cause melting of the base and we were having trouble with the track in one spot I did yell out because where I was sitting the track actually looked like it was smoking. So on a high note for myself I was able to convince Bryan to get his own module. The unfortunate part was we may be butted together. But this may be a blessing in disguise. On the way home I contenplated what I was going to do as to a scene. I decided to make an active volvano and have the lava flow onto Bryans module. ......Paul 2

WELL DONE PAUL!   I'm on your side!

Cheers, Dave

I've been giving my postwar locomotives some exercise this week, taking them down from their shelves, renewing the lube where necessary and turning them loose on the layout.  All of them run great.

Then I got the urge to take my 783 off the ready track where it has spent the summer months.  This is an exceptionally smooth-running engine, and it crept away and accelerated to top speed as soon as I put it on the main line.  Tomorrow I'll have to get my Atlas scale NYC passenger cars out and put them behind the 783.

Well guys like I stated earlier, sometimes I just hand out a lot of likes. Today was one of those days. They say things come in 3's and It stands true, just hope there isn't a 4th! LOL The furnace came out with a hitch, but once we got it out I found out not only do I have to replace the furnace, but I also have to replace the floor under it. Its amazing it didn't fall threw onto the ground! I guess that's what you get for living in a 1987 manufacture home.

So I spent all day cutting out the bad Press board, can someone tell me why they use press board! Any how I got all that done, but cat get replacement lumber cause as most of you know I cant drive till next month. I hope when my neighbor gets home he has a scrap piece of 3/4" Plywood I can get from him. If not it will have to wait till Thursday when my brother comes to visit!

I hope you all had a great day and lots of fun!

Wow, Mike. I can't "like" that!   So it sounds like the furnace exhaust stack has been allowing rain water to leak in and rust the furnace to death and rot the floor beneath? But I'm glad you caught it and it is all repairable/replaceable. 

Wow, Mike!  I agree that is unlikable.

Supported a train show by showing up..usual lately experience of finding nothing of interest.  I find so few structure kits among the orange boxes, l am tempted to go back to setting up, but with as many O scale structure kits as l can find to stock.  There was a couple that hit Timonium and the O scale conventions doing that.  They didn't do York.  Finding a continuous variety of stock looks like a challenge...it is to find interesting kits to build.

Let's see....what'd I do today?

I have three Fastrack track switches in a row and there has been a small hesitation or jerkiness when my SW1500s go through those switches at switching speeds so I pulled up those switches and soldered the underside busses to their respective rail-tabs per GRJ's recommendation (to insure electrical continuity).

....and the hesitation went away.

So on the Waxhaw Division, made some progress on the other side of the upper level. There is a spur that comes off the main and feeds two tracks. One track fronts a depot for the occasional passenger train, a feed store and a Stone building. Not sure what will be in there.The second track runs down past all of this and ends at a Mebards furniture factory.

I was envisioning a road coming from behind the Stone building turning into the foreground between the feed store and the Stone building, crossing over the siding. Thinking either a coal yard or junk yard would fit nicely between the two sidings to the left of the road. The road would continue to the right and the area in front of the feed store could use the outer siding as a Team track . I think the rood would cross over the tracks just past the depot. 

The  track is formed in place on roadbed and attached to the table. I even took the feed store and the stone building out of the packaging. So it seems its moving towards permanence. 

Going to look on line at some Background to place behind this town. Need to run  some jumpers for the track power and the building lights. There are two menards buildings at the end of the layout . These require a 4.5 volt walwart which I did buy. It has three feeds so it will serve the two buildings there.

enjoy the photos.

LIRR Steamer,  That is an outstanding greenhouse you built around the cabinet shop.

Mike G,  I bought this house (axles removed-not mobile) in 1998.  Big selling points for me were plywood floors, copper wiring and PVC lines.

Today I ran my N-T-M GP's back and forth.  The main line is still open in two places.  After a dinner of steak, baked potato, brussel sprouts, and cherry pie, I brought a dummy GP and my favorite caboose to the big house.  I want lights in the GP and the bulb in the caboose went out.  I will install two 10MM LED's in the engine.  There is a hole dying for a switch and lots of room for batteries.  Another doctor visit at 9:00AM tomorrow.

Bill

I am very happy to see"What did you do on your layout today"  I worked on my layout finishing up top layer of pink board. Nothing big, Except the last time I worked on it was Oct 2012.( Found my notes) Life sometimes gets in the way. Well no more pesky work to hinder my progress as Im newly retired and putting in 5-6 hour days on my train. Glad to be back.  Has much changed in our hobby? Best wishes 

Steve T

Bill, Your Sunday meal sounds excellent!  The non powered Geep will look great with light.  I’m praying for your doctor appointment!

Steve, Welcome!  Believe me I know how life can get in the way of things we would like to do.  Congratulations on your retirement and happy train layout time.  I’m recently retired too, but still have obligations to some elderly relatives and am recovering from knee replacement.  Hopefully in the new year I’ll be able to put more time in on my layout too.

Welcome to the thread Steve.   I understand about this life thing, as I am the one who started the thread, and spent several years away from the thread and the layout.  

Feel free to post photos of your progress. 

geysergazer posted:

Wow, Mike. I can't "like" that!   So it sounds like the furnace exhaust stack has been allowing rain water to leak in and rust the furnace to death and rot the floor beneath? But I'm glad you caught it and it is all repairable/replaceable. 

Hi Lew, come to find out the drain pipe from the washer has a screw on p-trap that was only tightened had tight or worked loose over the some odd 30 years. It was dripping when I took out the sheet rock and found it. Now its as tight as it can get and tested with no leaks.