What did you do on your layout today?

Well built and crafted layouts in stores is what sells trains in any scale. My kids saw your layout I would be hard pressed to say no. You did a great job, sure the economy is slowly getting better but the bottom line, it was the layout that sold the trains and a sales staff that knew the right answers.

Doug

Mitch,

i agree with Art.  Looks like you had a good event!

Quite good!   How the little dickenses managed to tear a giraffe car coupler knuckle out by the roots while knocking a wheelset out of another one eludes me, as my head was turned at the time... 

Mitch

I continued working on a six foot backdrop and a set of building fronts to go on it.  It went so fast originally, but now its all tiny detail work and slow.

Added a Miller Engineering 7 eleven sign to the local 7 Eleven

Mitch, I love your layout. And all those kids around it.  That is really Christmas.

Made some funny Tesla coil looking posts for the cartoon space layout. Added an old culvert loader to the table. And dusted 1/4 ceiling layout. Put an axle & 2 wheels on a "junk" lionel SP caboose.

Then just looked at it, and the table layout for a bit, thinking over options.

After a few weeks hiatus I finally got back to the layout. From before Thanksgiving I have not been able to run trains because I decided to change to position of my control panel. In doing that I decided to paint the sides black. Also I started running new wire to replace the temporary wire. Along with that I ran to the Depot to get 14 gauge spade connectors instead of cutting corners using the 18 gauge connectors on the 14 gauge wire. So shortly I will be heading up to the layout to drill new holes in the cross braces to hold wire for the power leads and wires for switches and uncoupling tracks. I have to get back to running a train or two while working...............Paul

Great work. I love representations of real businesses (especially well done ones like yours), as so many modelers won't even attempt them.

I bought a car routing, card system from Micro Mark, which will be used for operating sessions.

This is the perfect opportunity to take inventory and clear out all of the non scale pieces from the railroad. I had an old list on my computer, but I never updated it with all my new acquisitions. So, I'm going train by train, checking each car off the old list, and creating a cards for them. I'm going to wait until the major construction is done to unpack the rest. That day is coming soon.

I've actually gotten my wife in on the action. Her hand writing is far more legible than mine. 

In the process of doing this, I have been moving all the trains, having them each take a lap, pushing the track cleaning car. I must say, things are running much smoother now.

After some procrastination, and indecision (this thing will have a huge footprint which

may disallow its use on the layout), I began the first cutting of walls and windows for

a Steam Era Structures Feed Mill day before yesterday. All windows have to be cut from unshaped walls, and I will not use the kit's template method, so going will be

slow with lots of careful measuring.  I will raise the central elevator higher, also.  The

model is reduced at least 1/3 or 1/2 from the pictured prototype, so I decided not to

enlarge it back to that, which would make it quite a bit larger.  I do not need another

elevator....I have enough now to operate a prairie shortline that did nothing but serve

various elevators.  There are two O scale elevator kits I don't own, that I eventually

hope to pick up on the secondary market...I have a thing about elevators.

Thank you, both, for such nice approval! I much enjoyed reading what you've said here, very much!

FrankM

Thanks, Doug. I'll pass your viewpoint on to Lionel and FAO. You made me feel pretty darn good reading what you said here. Thanks again, most sincerely.

FrankM.

You inadvertently did me a great kindness, Spence, in posting that. I had no idea about any Notch6 Podcast radio station. So, my wife and I had a little adventure together, right away upon my reading your reply here and got amazed and really tickled listening to the interview, thanks to your good-offices. Thank you. 

Bill Wander's mention of my Layout Refinements efforts with the Lionel FAO layout was, clearly, deliberate, amounting to something of an imprimatur, IMHO. It was very gratifying to hear. He is a very dynamic, no-nonsense new leader in Lionel who is benefiting the company significantly, IMO. And he is an excellent personality with whom to work.

FrankM

P.S. So, as it turned out, it was I who didn't know something. Thank you again for the heads-up.

Thank you, Mark, for your positive input and approval.

FrankM

Frank:

Thank you for your kind words. The work you did on the store layout is second to none. The stream in the one photo is superb If get some time, can you post a tutorial on how you got such great results?

Happy Holidays.

Frank; Glad I could help.

I have not listened to this podcast yet, but will keep these tidbits of knowledge in mind while listening. 

Busy day fixed the whistle on my standard gauge engine and then found the track had shorts in it. Fixed those 

next finally got my Legacy Base and my DCS hooked together and working. 

Finished testing, repairing, and servicing two pairs of 022 switches and their controllers in preparation to sending them as a gift.  Also, installed a Model Power small incandescent light in the GM&O F3 B unit to go with the two I had previously installed 10+ years ago--apparently these small lights and fixtures are sold in pairs--and two had been installed long ago, and a second pair was found after going through yet another container of train stuff.

Almost forgot, installed a small, clear screw base bulb in the 126 pre-war station that I've had for 20+ years, but never lit.  Friday I was searching for the right bulb, including a thread here, but found 5 of them in yet another container of train stuff.  Slowly, very slowly, I'm making some order out of chaos. 

Last couple of days I have been unenthusiastically cutting out walls, windows, and

doors in plain sheets of clapboard basswood for this Steam Era Structures Feed Mill.

Did smarten up and number all the parts on the back, since I am not using the kit's

templates.  Otherwise it would be real fun trying to identify for assembly.  This is not

happening fast.

I put the fascia pieces alongside the benchwork, and marked where I wanted terrain contours from the inside edge with a marker. I'll be cutting the profiles out with a saber saw once there's a break in the rain.

I also bought some 1/48 scale masten matting, a prefab steel plate they used in WW2. I intend on using it to represent an Army area to cover a muddy patch. I love that we can use 1/48 scale stuff, as lots of detail parts are made in that scale for model airplane folks...

Chugging through Radville. 

Well as much as I hate to say it over the past few days not much. I was drilling new holes in the cross braces to run new wire and at one  point I must of hit a screw in the wood and the drill spun around nailing my finger against the table....."OUCH".. I thought I broke it but I only bruised it. So a couple of days go by and I am finally able to bend the finger so back to work but once again nothing goes well. I was vacuuming up all the saw dust from the drilling and my shop-vac dies....bummer. So I ask the wife if I could use her dirt Devil and she said yes......maybe because it is close to Christmas and she does not want to get knocked off the good list for presents LOL. So after we go out for lunch the rest of the day will be layout time...................Paul

Second time I'm typing this, posting erased it again.

Cleaned, and placed enough to run on this one again.

Should keep me busy till January.

AF talking station gets wired in tonight(the factory w/stacks). Along with the 2-#90s, 2-UC tracks, and 2 more #90s control buttons used for the Super O sidings turnout. Anyone have an extra green #90 button they will part with?

Got the wiring under the control panel done and I am now wiring up the mainlines. Hopefully by the end of the day I will have all four mainlines wired..........Paul

After a week of inventorying and car card creation, I'm back on track laying detail. The goal is to have the entire mainline done by the end of the week / year.

A day of success for me. I got my upper mainlines wired back up. Now I am going to rewire the last two mainlines so hopefully by tomorrow I'll be back to running trains while working on the layout.......................Paul

not really on the the layout, but i built these shelves, figured I'd have more room for boxes, spare track. Didn't happen, but they turned out pretty good from wood reused from old coil skids.

Not very Dave.  Just got the boss lady into Sears Remack building and added to my Collection.  The building is the Botique for the ladies.  Prices were half price and got my building for $2O.OO . Came home, had lunch and took nap.  Hope all of you have a Happy 2015.  Al

Been about three pages since I posted an update, but I was able to get back to working on my High line again.  From the pictures I am referencing, I estimate the deck girders to be about 6 feet tall so I chose to make my scale deck about 1-1/2" tall.  It's just made up of two layers of Oak stringers, 1/4" X 1/2" on the bottom and then 1/8" X 1" on top.  I'll cover that with some black painted cardboard with rib and rivet detail so I can at least run some trains on the top level.  Then, probably more slowly, I'll work on perfecting some sort of Latticed Girder design to replace those grey concrete piers.

It's kind of funny, as spindly as that thing looks, I think I could walk on it at 250 lbs.  It is solid as a rock..... I like Oak

Good day. I got all four mainlines rewired, up and running. All I got left is to hook the legacy back up..........Paul

I got the last two mainlines done and legacy hooked back up so I am back in business of trains running. I think tomorrow I go back to finishing some scenery.

Finally, I can post something to this thread.  Spent a couple of days building leg sets, and attached a couple of L-girders.

Ran the spectacular new Daylight Cab Forward for the first time. This is one engine that has lived up to all of the advance hype.

Well I was about tp take some photos,

and just missed capturing this, so I investigated the accident scene

No open couplers on any postwar ....

Even the Evans Auto loader was ok.

Uh oh....the hot box car...

I guess just because its turned off, doesn't mean its finished annoying me.

Then the camera fell and broke. Got the images, but its toast now.

Just spent a few minutes reattaching a couple targets to a Marx switch using J-B Weld and Erector Set angle brackets: 

This and a matching sister are destined for my Marx demo layout because the later switches, lovely as they are, just don't play well with single truck trolleys: 

The eventual idea will be to use the Marx set as a switchable oval/bump and go trolley layout (keeping the factory switches, of course, so it can be brought back to factory specs). 

How does one do that, you ask?  Simple! 

All you need to do is snap a bumper into place next to where the red trolley is!  The car hits the bumper, circles the track, through the switch and down to where the green car is, hits the bumper and back it goes!  If you put another bumper behind the other switch, you can use two bump and go cars running at the same time, each using one half of the oval.   Remove both bumpers, and single end cars such as the Baltimore Peter Witt can circle the oval...

Look for this layout to be on display at the February Sugar Creek MRR show in Springdale AR...

http://www.trainshow-nwa.org/

Mitch

And here's a proof of concept video:

Mitch