What did you do on your layout today?

I installed the facade around my control shelf.

 

 

 

Next comes the first coat of paint on it, and then second coat on whole facade. Will finish it with a coat of clear varnish or something like that.

Added some trees , want to add a lot more but this is a good start .

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.

Inventoried current track with thoughts towards new layout...  just need a few odd and pieces and some switches.

 

Then start the benchwork...

 

 

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

Ballasted another corner, planted some weeds , planted some trees, and built a caboose restaurant.

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.

 

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!

Installed the screen door closures to hold up my lift bridge.

 

 

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.

 

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.  

Installed a screen door closure centered underneath my lift bridge. Hopefully this will not put so much strain on the hinges of the lift bridge.

 

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.