Was working on the helix last night, and managed to get a nasty scrape on my leg when I climbed out. Took a while to get the bleeding to stop. New rule: crawl under from now on. As much as I hate it, it's safer. I've now given blood and broken bones to this layout. Never give up never surrender!
Heading back down in a little while. Lots to do before Tuesday when Patrick comes over.
Was working on the helix last night, and managed to get a nasty scrape on my leg when I climbed out. Took a while to get the bleeding to stop. New rule: crawl under from now on. As much as I hate it, it's safer. I've now given blood and broken bones to this layout. Never give up never surrender!
Heading back down in a little while. Lots to do before Tuesday when Patrick comes over.
I put a huge slice into the top of a knuckle on my index finger a few weeks ago with a big razor knife while cutting some foam. I should have gone for stitches but didn't. I will have a nasty scar there to show that I gave blood while working on the railroad. I agree though never Surrender!
Ordered a bunch of new track. Now to figure out the best (quietest) roadbed material to put underneath it.
I have cork under mine, however, I have Lionel 027 tube track. It works really well. I'm not sure of the best way to quiet Lionel FasTrack if that is what you bought.
Making rock molds. Boy do they dry fast here. Don
After My nine day train ride seeing a lot of wooden trestles I started on mine again.I hope to have all the uprights in today. the cross members tomorrow.
Ran trains, ordered diodes and thermistors for new Williams locos. Also pre-ordered the CN FT set. And a little wiring under the layout.
I just got done replacing a Legacy RS board in my ten wheeler that Lionel had shipped to me last week. Sounds great now! I do wish I would have though ahead and ordered the NYC sound version instead since I like the whistle in that one much better.
Sorting throught the accumulated mess, threw some old shipping boxes away, found a few stashed items and oiled & ran my new Lionel UP FEF-3 that I bought through the forum this week. What a great looking engine, had the Grey version a few years back, but much prefer this black one.
Dusted it .I worked on it 3 days this week. Looks real nice now. The wife helped also.
Spent five and a half hours plugging away on the helix this afternoon. I'm just not as fast as I used to be.
Here's what I did yesterday...
Today I added 6 more sections to the helix. It takes 16 sections to make a full circle.
Cut and fitted some plywood for my elevated loop, sanding and paint tomorrow
Building Two 40' harriman RPO's from Southern Car and Foundary
I might start putting down some of the 200 lb of ballest.
...keep the rails polished...
SJC
That looks like a lot more fun than WORK!
Larry, some fun involved, but mostly work (on the 2 foot gauge train in the last picture).
I finally finished my plaster Roundhouse.
I am building a control stand that rolls under my layout, so today I worked on a tether that runs power between the layout and control stand.
Had a little brat grab the throttle, go to full and watched my daughter's pink GG1 so sailing to the concrete floor!
Oh, and the MRC Throttlepack AC is shot, too! Plug it in and its already at half power!
- Mario
Finished painting and cleaning up the mess. Started to put down track (temporary) to see how it's all going to line up. Feels good to see some movement!Terry
I of course ran the trains for the kids. I also re-located my station so it is no longer on an incline This will allow me to use the spot where the station was to install a switch for the off layout staging yard.
I ran some trains of corse. I also printed off a 3-page spreadsheet of my wiring panel and updated it with what is unerneath the layout. A few differences and tweaks to make things clearer. The main thing is all is consistent and it works. Then applied the updates and printed a fresh one with a new empty block for my next wiring task. I am adding capacitord to eliminate buzzing on 027 switches running from fixed voltage ACC power.
Cheers.
I've been busy the past couple of days. I built another 4' x 6.5' table and painted it today.I also aplied the quiet brace and painted it also.So tomorrow I'll lay some more track and see what else needs to be done with the bench work.I am getting closer to being done with most of the bench work.Lets just pray that my leg keeps up with me.
Set up dual Superstreet loops and secured some dept 56 streetlamps.
Laid two sidings and put in two gargraves uncoupling tracks.
Finished insulating the knee walls in the train room. The track will run on a "step" on the top of the knee wall. FWIW, it's very comfortable in the attic and I'm not even running my little oil filled electric heater.
Next step will be a second coat of flat black on the inside of the base sections You can see a glimpse of the inside in the lower left corner of this picture. I'm still on the fence about going over the bench work with a coat of one-step polyurethane/stain. I'm itching to get the tops on, but have been holding off until I'm absolutely ready.
Gilly
This thread has prompted me to get off of my duff and actually get some work done.
I installed 5 caboose industries 208S manual throws on a switching area close to the tables edge. I also wired all but 3 of the switching area tracks as want to build the 2 industries first so can see by the footprint exactly where the track should be.
I installed an upper loop of track that originally was a branch line off of the mainline until I rerouted the passenger spur track so this works better as the shay can just crawl along as it pleases seeing only engine on that loop of track to watch over.
since being retired have found once I get the must do's out of the way can merrily work as long as I care to or my feet or back gives out ha ha.
will try to post photos of the areas later on.
$oo
Did more work on my plug-able tethers between my rolling control stand and the layout.
I finished Zona sawing "stone" foam retaining wall material in half down the middle, to
reduce its width from 3/8" to half that or less, to make the veneer to cover all windows and doors on two walls of the MTH "grainery". (only nicked my thumb once in this tedious job) Then Liquid Nail'd the veneer panels to the building and filled edges and cracks with Squadron putty. That was today..... Next is to over spray all with a darker gray than the light gray primer the "stone" material comes in, before using acrylics to color each stone (this usually goes faster than it sounds).
Also need to plan and add a leanto room, to change the appearance of this building,
before designing and building a flume and water wheel to attach to one..which? of the veneered walls. High wheel, low wheel, undershot, overshot, maybe even a turbine mill?....as yet undetermined.
Reading the new posts on this discussion has become a mandatory thing for me to do every day. Very interesting posts. I look forward to all of them.
I stopped into P&D and bought some kadees to convert some cars. I plan to do 3 cars total. 1, with kadees on both ends, and to cars with normal couplers on one and kadees on the other. This will be a test car to see how it works on the entire layout before I commit to converting everything.
Once again the track is as far as it can go. Next step is to install the switch linkages, then extend the deck. Once it gets above the the switch on the right side, double track will begin, and continue to the top.
I stopped into P&D and bought some kadees to convert some cars. I plan to do 3 cars total. 1, with kadees on both ends, and to cars with normal couplers on one and kadees on the other. This will be a test car to see how it works on the entire layout before I commit to converting everything.
Guess I bought the wrong screws. I will have to head back tomorrow and get something different.
Crawled around under the benchwork for 3 hours making templates for the final piece of foundation for the engine terminal.
And man am I dealing with sore muscles and joints from that exercise!!!
Getting older is a bit_ch!
Finished wooden trestle yesterday, now making mountains.
Put kadees on 2 more cars. I have decided to go all Kadees. I will start converting my locomotives this weekend. I will keep my passenger trains and my Legacy Ten Wheeler stock right now.
I will be heading back to P&D tomorrow to buy some more couplers. I will aslo have to find the best way to uncouple them as I do switching.
Finished installing TMCC (have had DCS for several years) so that I can run the TMCC crane/boom car. These worked fine with the Cab 1 so I decided to delve a little deeper into the world of TMCC. I hooked up my TAS Studios Smoke Fluid Loader which has been sitting NIB for way too long! I cringed when I saw the invoice date -- 2007! Fortunately, the loader works great and my locomotive service area now boasts smoke fluid loading capabilities. (not prototypical, but it sure is cool!) 
Broke one of the hinges that are use on my lift bridge. I guess two heavy duty screen door closures were too much for it. I replaced the broken hinge and also replace the other one just in case it was getting weak. I also removed the two door closures and will only use one to keep the lift bridge up.
Yesterday I spent my first day of crew training on this....
Today I'll be waddling around a local Greenberg show to see the sights and hopefully not find anything I must take home.
Tomorrow, and much of the week, I will be working on this....
Added a Bump & Go Trolley to help Santa make it across the valley from his house to his Toy Shop.
Then in the evening I went to my local Train Shop’s Rail Club; Roundhouse South (75 miles up the road). Picked up a Miller Engineering AC Converter so I can hook up signs to a transformer, also bought an Atlas O54 loop.
Probably should have gotten the track when I started building my display back in January. Now in order to incorporate it into the rail system I have to scrap everything and start over from scratch. The plan is to upgrade from a 4’ X 7’ display with five loops to 5’ X 8’ with 7 loops, a Trolley line and two water fountains atop twinMountainPeaks.
I looked at my results to date and closed the door behind me, making a note to myself to see the bright side of experimentation. I must be bipolar. Some days it looks terrific and other days it seems so crude as to defy its previous appearance as a shining example of my skill, which today looks developmentally challenged. Neolithic art? Hmmm. Oh well...there's always tomorrow.. BTW...How do you remove crazy glue from the fingers? 
Finished installing the "ramp" which leads to the engine terminal. Friday we're scheduled to fit all the Homaboard pieces in preperation for the glue-down party.
Then it's on to painting (what color for "dirt"?) and then (GASP!) laying the track and turnouts.
I didn't do much over the last few days except converted a few more cars to kadees. I am also looking at how I plan to do all my locomotives.
This weekend I plan to wire up the last 2 switches, and re-do my siding that I have my grain elevator on. Right now it sits at the end of the siding, and it would be pretty hard to load up all 3 cars that fit on the siding with it at the end. I have to remove the base to be able to move it forward a bit.
would like to see a thread on what work you done on your train today
Still modifying an MTH "grainery". After getting the "stone" veneer on two sides, to
blank out those door and windows, I oversprayed with dark gray, to get a different
stone color, and then went over that with an acrylic white wash, expecting it to pool
between the stones as mortar...instead it pooled on the stones, creating an unusual
speckled stone effect which I like. And so I promptly oversprayed all with flat clear
to seal. Next to put in the windows and doors after deciding on their color. Then to
design and built a leanto or other connected annex, and last, still to decide, whether
to make it a wheel or turbine mill. (a turbine mill with a covered stone race running
under the building would be much easier although my fabricated mill wheels have
gotten better with practice)
Last night I got the rope lights under the perimeter installed. One of the last items to take care of before putting the tops on.
I actually took an entire day off from going downstairs yesterday, but spent a lot of time thinking and planning. Laidoffsick's video has caused me to rethink how I want to power my turnouts. I may abandon my old screw drive machines and just go with Tortoises.
Patrick will be here in a few minutes, and sawdust will be flying. The plan is to build another third of a turn or more on the helix, and throw down 40' of roadbed. That will connect the existing part of the layout to the new helix.
Nuthin' on the layout today. My wife has confined the layout to a part of the basement with no heat. But, I did think about it.
I am, however, getting ready to convert an AB set of Weaver FA-2's from 3 rail to 2 rail. I got the new scale wheels w/gears in a few days ago from P&D Hobbies. All I have to get now is some lube in to lube the gears when I get them in place. I will take some pics and probably start a new thread for this in case anyone wants to see how it's done. Maybe do some kadee couplers on these engines too.
Rick
Ran trains. Opened my box from Mike Spanier containing an oval of Super-O track. (Thanks Mike!) As has been noted by others, this is really nicely designed track. Its a shame that Lionel shut it down due to sales and profit pressure. IMO they should have done a run of track every 5 years or so to support the early adopters and keep the product alive.
So I setup up some track on the kitchen table, I still haven't run an engine on it. It compares well to MTH Scaletrax (which I also have). Both have lower profile rails, flat top, with thin center ribbon. Scaletrax has the too wide tie spacing, while Super-O has the hump on the ties to support the center rail. Super-O has the inconvenient "bus-bar" topper connector for the center ribbons to join sections. Of course Scaletrax is available in a wide selection of diameters, is new and supported and etc.. Just noting the similarities and differences, not saying one is better than the other. -Ken
I made stairs for a yard building I recently installed by cutting wooden GarGraves ties in half. That, and a little touchup painting, is about it. It's getting tougher and tougher to find improvements to make on a mature layout.
Today, I completed my second loop of Super O Track on the Dexter Pacific RR!
All wide radius Super O Track.
Min Radius is O-83" in the tight areas, and generally O-92", O-101", and O-135" and O-144" on the main line.
The one thing that no one realizes, unless you build a very large layout with Super O, is that it is very very efficient. The center rail and the power blades are very low resistance, solid copper~! No track can match it in power delivery.
Bob, is anyone fabricating wider Super-O turnouts? O-72 and wider? That would help me use Super-O on my next layout. -Ken
Super-O has the inconvenient "bus-bar" topper connector for the center ribbons to join sections. . -Ken
Ken-
Be sure to use ORIGINAL power blades. The repro ones dont fit right and are too thick.
Original ones are very thin and have a radius bend at the rail head (not squared off like the repro ones).
Original ones are very costly though.
ONE MORE THING- The original power blade clips are designed as a spring and have tension that hugs the center rail. The Repro ones do not. The repro ones may not stay in place like the original ones.
I have fabricated custom wide rad super O switches. I am still using them in areas, but for my new Big Yard, probably will just model up tie humps and paint some Ross ones in this next layout to look like super O.
Well, my "layout" consists of an oval of FasTrack that came with the PE set I bought last Christmas... today I set up a PlasticVille station and test ran 3 locomotives I've received in the last couple days - a WBB 4-6-0, WBB GP-30, and a Lionel 4-4-2.
Cheers,
Ken
Thursday went very well. The helix did get its third of a turn, but we fell about 15' short on the roadbed project. No problem, Patrick is coming over twice next week.
Friday, while less exciting, also saw some good progress. I secured a couple sections of track on the new part of the helix. Then I finally finished the missing link between the small yard and the main. The yard was done six weeks ago, but for whatever reason I kept avoiding the connection.
Finally, I managed to repair the broken throwbars on 3 switches. These were just the tip of the iceberg, I've got another 15 or 20 to fix. Now I have the technique down.
Yesterday we completed the third solid day this week working on finalizing the "roadbed" for the engine servicing facility.
It's going to add a lot of real estate to the layout when completed.
Hopefully next week we'll have a couple of gluing parties to get it locked down.
Then it's on to painting and track laying and finishing the control panel relocation.
Ken, which Williams GP-30 did you get? Could you please post a couple of photos too?
Cobrabob
Yee Haa... I just finished wiring my second loop and I'm going to run some trains!!! Hope to post some pics...
Got 4 more of those throwbars replaced, laid out the switches for for the new yard, and got another half turn on the helix. I can't believe how fast the 1-5/8" drywall screws get used up. Bought 5 pounds a couple weeks ago and they're almost gone.
Borrowed a switch from a friend and installed while rearranging some other switches on my layout. One switch is on track power temporarily while the rest are on accessory power. Then I ran some trains and proved that everything worked OK.
Finished replacing broken telephone poles and stringing new EZ Line.
With temp in the mid 50s here today I had to do some outside
things. Did manage to re-wire one of my std gauge loops also I could run tinplate for the first time in a month. Tomorrow I hope to finish the other std loop and get started on replacing an O72 loop with some newly-acquired T-rail track. Looking forward to having the tinplate portion (8'x12') of my pike up and running soon.
Re-lettered an Atlas O ex-Lackawanna SW8 to Kansas City Terminal railway and tried out my new Legacy UP 9000 4-12-2. All went well except the trailing truck kept derailing when backing thru a the Ross 4-way switch. Got out the Dremel, shaved 1/64" off the tapered end of one of the points to snug it up against the stock rail and all is well!
This evening, I started adding color the mountain. I used Woodland Scenic's Raw Umber and Slate Gray as the alternating colors.
Attended two shows this weekend..nothing much found....but I have the MTH "grainery"
sheathed and finished as a stand alone building, roofed, etc. However, now come the
annex, water wheel, etc., add-ons...
Converted about 5 more Atlas/Weaver cars to Kadees. About half of my cars are not converted. I will not have to start working on the Lionel cars soon.
Started on my scenery this week, using all blue foam a lot of it was staked up and glued with help from a friend. Happy the weather was nice today so I could work in the garage. Took sections of scenery to the garage and carved to my hearts content. Just now put them back inside do do the finish shaping with hot wire tool. Couple more sections to do then if the weather stays warm I will paint them in the garage also. Open house date is getting close. O gauge mountains are big
I started the renovation of two areas on the layout today. The first area is where my refinery and passenger train storage yard is being converted into a large passenger train complex (forefront in the "before" photo below). The area behind the elevated tracks is also being renovated into a new storage yard with more pull through sidings and a completely new area to the layout with more scenery.
The second photo shows the "after" of deconstruction today.
\
Been modifying several Atlas O 2R heavyweight coaches and bagg/mail to bring them closer to the "CNJ look." Have to acquire detail parts via on-line since we live so far from civilization and a thing called a hobby shop ; ) I do rolling stock projects between layout work and shoveling snow lately up here in the mountains... depends upon how much time I can spend at one model rr session.
Had "non train" visitors over this afternoon and actually ran some trains. Tested two new cab-1's in the process. Also did some more work on the helix. Just about up to the double track section.
More cars converted to kadees. Here is a gondola hauling away the big lobster claws for scrap.
2nd Std gauge loop wired -- now I can run two Std Gauge trains at once!
Next comes T-rail O-gauge loop and MTH repro of Leland-Detroit Monorail!
Thanks to this thread I've got some momentum goin'!
Got 8 sections of track secured to the helix today. This paves the way for another half turn of construction tomorrow.
This is one of those switches with the repaired throwbar from the other day. Good as new.
Yesterday, (today, Tuesday, nothing yet), I designed and constructed the annex
to the MTH "grainery". Went with a sloping shed roofed two story structure with freight doors and stone platform. Glue is drying with paint color to be chosen, thinking about barn red. Also drilled roof of main structure for vent and stack. No decision yet on whether to go with a wheeled or turbine mill...turbine mills don't have the esthetic appearance of a wheeled mill, but would offer variety as existed in the real world.
At the end of Tuesday, I have covered the roof of the annex, using sections of "tar paper", as well as painted it, installed windows, and finished the stack, vent, and unloading dock on the main building, the MTH "grainery". Next the roof will go on the annex, it will be attached to the "grainery", its loading dock attached, and I will be forced to decide what to do about a water wheel.
Patrick was over today and we got that half turn on the helix as planned, and also did the flyover and 25' long incline.
Still covering the exposed lumber with foam sheets and carving mountains, maybe next time I will go S-scale.
Clem
As SailLoco once said "trains are a winter sport" so it's time to switch to boating for me. Beside the eye candy at the marina does wonders for cabin fever!
Took out the culverts out, PITA. I am now in the process of adding a 2 track yard, not very big but it will hold some cars and two engines.
Well, we just got back from Florida, so (this was actually yesterday) I went down to the layout and checked everything out. First I hitched up my GP20 to a couple of my homemade track cleaning cars and ran the consist around and around on my two mainlines. Then I fired up several of my other engines and ran them with two different remotes. I had freight trains running and passenger trains running. I am happy to report: all is well.
.....
Dennis
Annex has been attached to the kitbashed MTH "grainery", "stone" loading docks have
been attached to the "grainery" and the annex, roof is on the annex, and a cyclone
has been installed on the annex roof. Signs for "Froehlich's Fairest Maid Flour, for the
Bestest Biscuits" need to be made. "Grainery" and annex could now be a finished stand alone structure, but I want to somehow power it with water. Still am ambivalent about a low double row water wheel or a turbine. Decisions, decisions, decisions....
Three of us finished gluing down the Homaboard roadbed for the engine service facility. Next comes sanding down some rough joints and filling a couple of gaps, then painting.
A Man's Work Is Never Done!
Finished removal all of the old ballast today. What a dirty job and I am so glad this is done. Tomorrow we start the process of putting things back together again albeit in some new configurations.
For no reason at all I removed all the steam engines and switchers from my layout and placed them in my display cabinet. I filled the available yard area with diesel power. Also moved some different rolling stock on to the scene more era specific to the disels.
I enjoy for "no reason big swaps". I then enjoyed a two hour plus session and had a ball. It was like a new layout to me running them.
Been a few days since I've posted here, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on the layout. Thursday and Friday were spent laying the track on the most recent segment of the helix. Also got most of the feeder wires tied back and the ground plane for TMCC finished most of the way up.
The plan for today is to get the decking on all of those support risers, and laying track on main level.
Got some benchwork up today.
Worked on my tethered control stand. Ran trains - smoked out the wife. Now planning trestle bridge on my mountain branch.
I added another couple pieces of FasTrack to spread my two lines apart so I could fit two MTH Girder Bridges across the flyover loop. I'm using FasTrack and the spacing was too wide for a double track girder and too close for two single track bridges. I added a 1.75 piece at two locations and now have room for both bridges with a little room to spare where the track gets close to a wall.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
