Idea-thinker, Wow, an amazing idea, nice work, keep the pictures coming as this is a really neat idea. RSJB18 Bob, great work, and clearances can become new challenges, all in the line of duty, very nice work, I hope everyone is having a fun day. I now have competition going on between McDonalds and The Starlight Diner, it’s fierce, and downright ruthless, both places are cutting prices..... Happy Railroading 
I made one BAR box car more, paint & use Highball Graphics decals.
Through the Windows - In the Doors
I stopped to take a few pictures of the last two cars I detailed. Here are some pictures.
Broadway Limited Dining Car - The car has Preiser 65602 Seated People that I painted.
Santa Fe Baggage Car - The car has pieces from five different packs by Woodland Scenics.
Have a good evening.
Sincerely, John Rowlen
RSJB18 posted:idea-thinker posted:
Do you have crossing signals at the door so no one steps on a train going by?
Nice job laying the track in the floor too.
Yeah, you have to do that, an actual O scale grade crossing. You gotta!
I also love the recessed track.
I installed some lighting near the platforms I added to the expansion section of my layout. Here are a couple of freights on the main lines going past it - sorry for the long video.
Larry, are the police at the Starlight because of a ruckus or to eat supper? Excellent lighting and I really like your logo in the last photograph!
Johan, another excellent BAR car!
John, More great looking interiors!
Kevin, The lights are great!
As for me, "We're so sorry Uncle Albert, but we haven't done a bloody thing all day!"
I finally got this on the bench. I’ve been wanting to get these pig flats weathered for awhile so here’s another in the books
Outstanding, John Rowlen. The dining car folks are terrific; and, you knocked it out of the park with the baggage car--simply terrific!!!
THANK YOU for taking the time to photograph and post your craftsmanship for us to enjoy.
Carl, I appreciate the kind words.
The excellent work that others on the Forum are doing encourages me to keep moving forward.
Here are a few pictures of the Santa Fe Dining Car scratch build under construction. I like my refrigerator with the staple handles. The Grill Hood took forever for the Krazy Glue to start to dry. There are no O-gauge cooks made by Preiser, so I have reworked and painted other figures. I had to grind a quarter inch off the cook. He is now shorter. He is a "Short order cook".
The opposite counter under the three kitchen windows will have two sinks in it. I hope to use staples to create facets and handles.
Until tomorrow, John Rowlen
Update: It's tomorrow. I finished the opposite counter and a small refrigerator for salads and desserts at the entrance to the kitchen. I need new paint for the stainless steel counters and sinks . . . so this is where I pause until I can finish the kitchen.
Sincerely, John Rowlen
John R- another shot out of the park 
Lee- that engine looks like its as old as the period you're modeling, not a brand new model. Great work!
Lee D- good to see you posting again. Nice collection of new cars from Christmas too.
Kevin- great night scene.
Larry- I'll take a bacon cheeseburger special from a diner any day. Hard to beat McD's fries though. Now I'm hungry.......
I've been home sick all week which explains the recent work on the layout. I'm finally feeling better. I hope to do some more today and run some trains. Need to clean the track too.
Bob
we put up a couple more shelves...
Thanks Bob it feels good to be posting also. I worked on these before I called it a night.
Lee, nice job on the resurection of those cars. They look good.
Lee ( P51 ), great detailing on the engine.
Johangood job on the BAR.....another winner.
Mark, I m in the same boat s you. I haven't done anything on the layout since I cleaned it up.
Bob, corner came out great. Nice work
Brian, all i ca say if amazing. some many engines and no repeats.
Today I ran to Menardsand picked up two four foot pieces of PVC pipe to make more silos. While walking through the store I went through the hobby section and came across these. I thought they could make good chimneys. Also my uncoupling tracks came. Well at least three. One was backordered but I have enough to start layoing out track. Pics.......Paul 2
Mark Boyce posted:Larry, are the police at the Starlight because of a ruckus or to eat supper? Excellent lighting and I really like your logo in the last photograph!
Johan, another excellent BAR car!
John, More great looking interiors!
Kevin, The lights are great!
As for me, "We're so sorry Uncle Albert, but we haven't done a bloody thing all day!"
Mark. Thank you. 🤝
Johan
paul 2 posted:Lee, nice job on the resurection of those cars. They look good.
Lee ( P51 ), great detailing on the engine.
Johangood job on the BAR.....another winner.
Mark, I m in the same boat s you. I haven't done anything on the layout since I cleaned it up.
Bob, corner came out great. Nice work
Brian, all i ca say if amazing. some many engines and no repeats.
Today I ran to Menardsand picked up two four foot pieces of PVC pipe to make more silos. While walking through the store I went through the hobby section and came across these. I thought they could make good chimneys. Also my uncoupling tracks came. Well at least three. One was backordered but I have enough to start layoing out track. Pics.......Paul 2
Paul. Thank you. 🤝
Johan
John Rowlen posted:Carl, I appreciate the kind words.
The excellent work that others on the Forum are doing encourages me to keep moving forward.
Here are a few pictures of the Santa Fe Dining Car scratch build under construction. I like my refrigerator with the staple handles. The Grill Hood took forever for the Krazy Glue to start to dry. There are no O-gauge cooks made by Preiser, so I have reworked and painted other figures. I had to grind a quarter inch off the cook. He is now shorter. He is a "Short order cook".
The opposite counter under the three kitchen windows will have two sinks in it. I hope to use staples to create facets and handles.
Until tomorrow, John Rowlen
The detail work you are doing on the car interiors is really great. I would love to be able to do that on my cars but eyes no good enough these days. Great job. It really enhances the model.
Went up to the layout room this morning. Light is good as its nice and sunny. So I thought I would try some plaster work in the area of my water feature. I tried a couple of approaches.
This section shows the elevation between the lowest level two track main and the main return at a slightly higher level . rather than use the Styrofoam as a support, I thought I would try stuffing the area with some newspaper . The cloth went on ok and formed a nice terrain effect on the slope caused by the crumpled newspaper . It is setting up quite rigid and I guess if you don't drop a hammer on it should be fine when fully dried.
I had some Styrofoam here for supports and to simulate an abutment for the two track bridge across the water. Stuffed the end with some newspaper and rather than glue the Styrofoam thought I would use the cloth to hold every thing together . Its drying quite nicely Getting a nice bed effect where the structure meets the water. Hoping to park a Lionel Tugboat over here .
The center span support sits on an abutment that is on a man made island foundation in the stream . I will likely cover the abutment mid span with a stone like covering.
Heres the center soan support looking the other way The Styrofoam vertical sections sort of has a rough concrete look.
I have a lionel lighthouse from some years back I think it will work nicely into this side of the water feature.
I have to say this scenerary stuff is really neat and creatuve. Almost as much fun as running a train.
LIRR Steamer, it looks like a good start on some scenery! The lighthouse looks great!
Thank you all for the likes and comments appreciate it
Ran trains this afternoon for a while, had fun. Cleaned some wheels and pickups along the way. I was running my H10-44 for a while and I think the speaker needs to be replaced. Lot's of static as it goes around. It's a early Railking with Protosound. Really nice engine. Still trying to figure out to get the electro-couplers to fire. The new track configuration has freed up space to actually run without shifting equipment first.
Bob it’s always fun to relax and run trains
I decal-ed the caboose for our circus train. The photos are below.
The caboose will be at the back of the Bungling Brothers circus train behind these cars that were completed much earlier.
Not yet photographed is another flat car carrying more circus wagons. The last cars to be completed are as follows: the show horse transport stock car, a flat car carrying tent poles and a flat car carrying the tent canvas. Stay tuned for updates.
Bob, Running trains is good!
Randy, the caboose for the Bunging Bros. train looks great!
Randy Harrison posted:I decal-ed the caboose for our circus train. The photos are below.
The caboose will be at the back of the Bungling Brothers circus train behind these cars that were completed much earlier.
Not yet photographed is another flat car carrying more circus wagons. The last cars to be completed are as follows: the show horse transport stock car, a flat car carrying tent poles and a flat car carrying the tent canvas. Stay tuned for updates.
Randy
I love circus trains maybe someday I’ll get mine going great work
Lee:
Thanks for the reply and kind words. The project has been fun. I am now looking forward to seeing your circus train when it is finished.
Mark Boyce posted:Bob, Running trains is good!
Randy, the caboose for the Bunging Bros. train looks great!
Mark:
Thank you very much. I still have to install the marker lanterns and put conductor on the back platform. The conductor is a circus clown.
Here are a few pictures of the second day's progress on the Lionel 21" Santa Fe Dining Car Kitchen. I need to get some paint to finish the kitchen . . . so it will be a few days before I complete the car.
Sincerely, John Rowlen
John, the kitchen car is looking great!
John, what material are you using for the counters, etc. And what do you use to create the shiny (stainless steel?) effect?
Randy Harrison posted:Lee:
Thanks for the reply and kind words. The project has been fun. I am now looking forward to seeing your circus train when it is finished.
Randy I think I’ve got all my wagons I need I plan on building a couple scratch built one Don Mills help me get some ideas put together he sell lots of circus parts.
Yes Randy that kitchen car is best I’ve never seen one
Carl, The kitchen counter is Plastruct white .040 or .060 styrene that I purchased on Ebay. The grey Plastruct .020 sheets are used on the doors of the refrigerators. I may leave those unpainted, though I did get a few marks on the grey. I ordered some flat aluminum and stainless steel paint to see which looks best on the counter tops The grill area will be darkened and plastic tubing will become pots on the stove side of the grill area.
I will use tubing to make a few fire extinguishers too. They will hang to the left of the grill. I had planned to use the grey Plastruct for a dishwasher front, and ovens on the lower back counter. Lots of ideas, but what will actually be seen may eliminate some of that.
Have a good day.
Sincerely, John Rowlen
Thank you, John, for those details. Like others, looking forward to more photos of your progress.
WOW, here I am gone for a couple days and everyone is doing such great work! I would love to list everyone's work, but that could take a while! LOL But there are a few things that should be pointed out.
Lee D, wonderful to see you back working on the trains!
Larry, Nice idea with McD's and starlight dinner next to eachother!
John, What wonderful job you are doing on your cars! They all look great and will make anyone want to ride your trains!
Bob, Nice fix on your clearance problems!
Randy, Your train will bring out the kid in all of us! Great work!
Jon1443, Congrats! The real fun now begins!
Brian, wonderful phots, and I still don't thing you have enough shelf's!
Well I didn't do anything yesterday and may not do anything today as its beck to working on the house! But might get time on Sunday!
I hope you all have a great weekend!
Thanks Mike it feels god to be back now that the Holidays are over
The Santa Fe Dining Car Kitchen scratch build is waiting for paint to arrive.
Meanwhile, the Lionel 1927050 Union Pacific "Excursion" 2nd Add-on 2-Pack arrived from Charles Ro yesterday. I started the lower level of the Dome Coach, painting seats and desks. The lower level takes more time to paint than the Dome Seats.
I saved the Upper Dome for last because it takes less time to paint, and will be the first part to reassemble after installing Preiser 65602 Seated People.
Not much to show, but I wanted to punch the OGR 'Time Clock" and show that I was working today. No slacking today. Maybe tomorrow. Definitely during the Super Bowl.
Update: Finished painting Dome seats. Now I start selecting Preiser Seated People for the Dome. Will need to do a lot of grrr-grinding on their backsides.
Sincerely, John Rowlen
My work this week involved a Lionel 224 from 1946. I acquired it from another collector who described its appearance as "good" but stated he did not know if it ran as he had only used if for display. When the box arrived I found that (in my opinion) he had under rated the appearance as I found it to be excellent or better but I did not have any chance to try and operate it. Now that my layout is up and running, i started to see if I could get it running...turns out that the e-unit might be marginal but after checking wires and making sure all was connected, if I moved the directional switch to forward only...she runs like a top! I pulled the 1946 train of 2440 green pullmans and a 2441 green observation, Set 2100. I am enclosing pictures and I have some neat video's but I have not been successful in transferring the video to this site from my smart phone (maybe its not too smart).
Best regards guys, Don
Cleaned the track this afternoon.
Open question: I have 5121, 5122 switches, powered on track power. Obviously that means the solenoids buzz when a car is sitting on the anti-derail rails. I was playing with one of the worst offenders this afternoon and its a simple fix- just stop the plunger from from vibrating when energized. However- the simple fix renders the switch useless. What I'm looking for is a way to briefly cut the power to the solenoid to limit the length of time it can buzz. I know that these can be re-wired from aux power but that doesn't eliminate the buzzing.
Thoughts?
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