What did you do on your layout today?

It did! Checking the box marked "insert large sized". It will add it large right away, positioned after the text. Cut, and paste to move it once there, if you have to.

Or wait, then later insert, and individually select a any size (lrg/med/sm).

I ate more cookies, and a pop tart with my coffee. while contemplated between a crane, work caboose, or pusher platform bash out of an extra MARX crane cab/bridge house I have kicking about. Still cant decide.

Hey Mark,

  I resemble this character so much in looks, and "manic bouts of absurd sarcasm" that "Richard" was my nickname when managing a restaurant full of teen employees.

I thought they meant the "bigger boat" guy...

 Nope!.....Ok, still cool! .

What does this have to do with trains?

Finished a small project by placing Arttista passenger figures in my new convertibles. Small problem, need some more. Well there is the Big E in a couple of weeks.

Adriatic,

So you let the cat out of the bag and now we know what you look like; a young Richard Dreyfus!  lol

Those photos take us back a ways.  Thanks for the input on a sub-topic that went, shall we say 'off track'!

PTC:  Take a look at 3rd Rail's seated passenger figures.  I use them in my automobiles, too.  But, if you have more vintage vehicles, 3rd Rail's seated people are the best I've seen.  Most of the men are wearing suits, many with hats; the women are wearing skirts and dress suits, also mostly weating stylish hats.

They're not too expensive, either, about $20 bucks for a card that must contain close to 40 figures, all painted in various colors.

Paul Fischer

Today I put in the trees I made up last night. What a difference foam makes to the look of the tree. Later today I'll make up some more trees. Probably going to be a short day on the layout. The wife said she felt bad being a train widow for the past few days. So feeling bad about that I said I'll take you out for dinner. Puts me in a bad spot because that means I have to change out of my working on the layout clothes and put on something nice to go out in public. Oh the things we do for wife and train layout .Later today I'll post a pic of the trees and fir trees I just put in............Paul

Good day today. Planted trees in between the evergreens. Just got done making up a bunch more. If they are dry later tonight I'll plant them. Here are a couple of pics on the other side on the bridge. I still have to place trees on the other side of the bridge...............Paul

Well Larry's fantasy Rail Road been some what goofing for the holidays . But, I'm back playing. This is two smll projects with trying to make some plastic-ville models fit my military theme airport. I added some  LEDS and a few people so far. I will still  dress it up with more props once it's in it's place on the airport.

Fun continues.

Larry

Just received and lubed, oiled, and ran my Lionel Vision Line BigBoy 4014!!!!  WOW what an engine!!!!

Tear down day for our North Pole layout. We then had to organize the room where the new layout is going getting furniture and the like out of the way. We are going from 4 x 12 ft. to 7 x 24 ft., a sizeable increase. I have worked out  a dog bone design that will take you from exiting a mountain with a panoramic view of the North Pole that is at the other end of the layout.

I have not done a complete new layout for several years, but it should be a lot of fun. Elizabeth is already looking at the detailed design elements. She is as excited about this as I am.

Put in an automated turnout throw in the staging yard exit track at the club. When members pull their trains out onto the primary main, they sometimes forget to throw the turnout back, causing some rather interesting derailments. Using infrared sensors and an MRD2-Turnout control from Azatrax (http://www.azatrax.com), a train exiting the staging yard hits the sensor and the points throw. The next train coming in on the through track throws the points back to normal. The Tortoise motor's actuator wire has enough give that the points will spring if the approaching through train is moving too fast.

Azatrax makes some slick little devices. Though the typical application is for two-rail polarity reversing, etc., there are products for grade crossing protection and block signal control, plus regular and latching relays. Got turned on to Azatrax by Ed Reutling. He was using their products on his layout.

Matt  What is the advantage of using the infrared over simply using an isolated rail section much the way Lionel has always done with the switches?  Seems like less work and much less expense.

Al

I started putting away the Xmas cars today, one per day, I should be done by February.

I hate taking down Christmas.

It can be done totally isolated from track power, and each isolated rail takes away from the available connections(wheels). Though reliable, combined with traction tires, iffy situations could occur. While I prefer the pw methods myself, I understand fully why someone might chose this method.. Opto triggered, isolated switching circuits have long term reliability, small packages, and a relatively low cost. 

As I type, I'm taking a break from boxing up and putting away the trains I ran this Christmas, as well as the LIONEL and Harley Davidson ornaments, etc.  Better get some part of the layout built to run trains.

Tonight I rediscovered a great reason to drink. Heavily. Had to restring and tune my #345 Culvert Unloader. Took only 2 hours and 3 tries to get the string length trimmed about 1/2" too short. 4th time was the charm with a new string. Next up is the #342 that just wipes pipes off the platform and doing so does a great job of jamming up.

Heh.  Most creative use of a culvert loader/unloader I've ever seen was on the scale trolley layout that Henry Elsner used to have in West Phila.  He adapted a 6342 culvert car with scale trucks and couplers, and would use a small bow-collector equipped steeplecab loco to move the car from one end of his small (but complex) three level layout under live overhead to the other, loading a load of culverts and then trundling them back to the other end for unloading... 

Mitch

Did some more work on background buildings using AmeriTown pieces.  Not the best lighting in this picture but I think you can get the general idea.

(Was it a good idea to place a bakery next door to the Police Department?)

Built myself a Starbucks on my layout complete with lit sign (using Miller Engineering EL Kit and clear stickers).

I'm going to do a good bit more detail work on the inside, but for now the lighted sign is up!

I hate getting bored with something with the growing fleet of passenger cars and freight cars and of course a few more engines my small layout became a little smaller than I liked. two loops no reversing on the lower one loop on the middle level no reversing and a single loop on top in conventional. just wasn't cutting it for me.  the longer trains seemed to be always chasing there tail. so here's where my layout is at the moment. moral of this story never let me get bored with something

there were features I liked and some not so much. it will come back better than ever this time. just need to nail down a new track plan to fit some of the things I want in it this time like a bigger yard  maybe do a around the walls style layout so working on scenery and such will be easier. we will see

Jhainer

HA, I know what you mean, I'm a year and a half rebuilding my 4th. If I could just keep from seeing all the great ideas that get posted I might stop starting all over again. But, then probably not.

Larry

Still having fun

sorry I like long trains and when a train is hitting 2 corners on a 10x12 layout sometimes 3 corners it's time to rethink the layout when the front engine is coming out of one tunnel and the last car is still in the tunnel at the other end of the layout and you can see both ends at the same time. time to rethink

Mayor Magoo, I shined some light on the issue.

McSorley's looks GREAT!!!! I spent entirely to much time in my younger years at the real one. Where did you get the Mcsorely's sign?

It's a small thing, but I ordered some brass whistle castings as the plastic whistles break off the top of my On30 ten-wheelers pretty easily.

Can't get around to the layout much right now, as I'm in the middle of some (non-RR-related) drawings I'm being paid to create for a book project. I lost a 4-day weekend last week which could have bene spent working on the layout but this project has to come first, darn it. Thankfully, I'll be free to work the layout when I'm not at the office after I'm done with these drawings...

     Well I got A package in the mail yesterday and when I opened it up well this is great!!!!!!! The OGR member shipped me the 14 packages of street lights and 18 SPDT switches. 12of the light poles had the globes broke off or busted and the switches were listed as DPDT and they are SPDT. Now it is back to looking for the right switches and finding more  light poles. It is not worth the trouble to buy things off the for sale forum to try and save A few dollars another $88.00 wasted for nothing! Choo  Choo Kenny

I pretty much cussed at mine.

Started the plans to LED conversion for 6 Southern pacific Daylight passenger cars, plus interior detail and passengers.  includes 2 dome cars.  Then my set of blue comet cars will also get the LED treatment and passengers. 

Mayor Magoo,

FYI -MS Photo Gallery- one "auto-adjust", then a fine tune of "shadows". My own need it often. I never had issues with old film cameras, new ones make me even nuttier trying to figure out each of them. I find todays simplicity confusing sometimes.

Finished the de-construction of the Christmas layout. Got the room ready for the start of the next one. With the old layout down, we can begin construction of the new one. Early start, sure, but what better to do with cold, long winter days. Don't want to work with it during the nice weather, and since this is no small project, I would rather have it done earlier than later.

Unboxed the GMToT and got it ready to go to the main layout. Sure a great looking passenger train.

Has the person offered to at least take back the switches which are incorrectly listed?

 Shipping delicates should always be done in a different package. Even if its one box inside another. The weight of the switches moving around, almost obviously did the damage. Sounds rather neglectful .  

At the risk of hijacking this long standing post, I just wanted to add my 2 cents to the above.  If a deal between two reputable OGR members such as this falls through in such a disasterous way as to the wrong advertised switches and poor packaging, i believe the seller should offer a full refund upon the buyer returning the sale.  Maybe a naive notion but Buying and Selling on this forum should be a step above the usual norm.

-Pete

PS just in keeping with this posted topic, i added a Lionel Maiden Rescue accessory to my layout today.....very cool!

Working on converting a MTH Bank into a Central Terminal building.  Glazed the large aide and small rear windows with Frosty Contact Paper ala Alex Malliae although mine didn't come out as nice as his.  Cut out the brace for the lower lights to add a floor and replaced all 4 lights with LED bulbs and mounted facing upwards towards aluminum tape on ceiling to reflect downward.  Need to add doors to the side for main entrance.

     I put up rope lighting on the under side of the layout and I put the support legs 1 foot back so that no one will be bumping or kicking the legs while viewing the layout. The clips that hold up the rope lighting are very brittle. The aid that helps my mother hollered for me to come down to the basement. I go down and all the rope lighting is laying on the floor. She told me that she was carrying A basket of mothers clothes and wanted to look at the layout to see if I did anything new. When she walked into the train room the cloths basket hit the rope lighting under the platform and broke A bunch of the holders and it took off breaking the rest of them. I had to run to the hardware store and get holders and screws. It took me about 2 hours to unscrew the broken holders and screw up the new ones. After finishing up that little project my dad comes down and starts looking around. I have the walls up for the tunnel and the embossed brick paper on them. My dad does not like the look of it and he wants me to tear it all out and put in walls made of ceiling tile. Looks like my luck is just the same as last year! BAD! Choo Choo Kenny

Not on it, but under it. Locked the mutts in the kitchen, and then scrubbed, and oiled the old wood floor.

  In my condition one 12x20 room only took 16hrs(not steady) 

 Worth it. Shiny, squeaky, slick but has more grip than wax. Darker, and brighter depending on the area. Soo much richer. Made me want a floor layout again so I could look at the pretty trains, on the pretty floor.

It's been a good couple days on the railroad, and I'm well on my way to meeting my goal of finishing all the track in the first aisle by the end of the day Sunday.

Yesterday I finished all the filler pieces in the arrival yard.

Today I soldered all the leads to the bottom of a Ross 4 way. I now understand the value of Ross ready.

Tomorrow, I have to finish the last 2 tracks on the left, and the track on the hump itself.

Today I spent my time planting more trees. Also made up more trees. Spaced between that I worked on a problem with a TIU. Trying to figure out if I wired something wrong. The other TIU works great for the other two mainlines for DCS. As soon as the last batch of trees dries back to planting and running a couple of trains while working.........Paul