What did you do on your layout today?

I finally hung the backdrop today. It's 8'x2' vinyl and came with 8 clips to hang it but I lost them, so I used 3M doubled sided tape. The attic wall is sloped but it looks ok...good enough for me and my 3 year old grandson anyway.

 

I found the panoramic picture on Wikipedia (free license to use) and had it printed on vinyl for $17.

Wow, it's been almost a week and a half since I last went downstairs. Had a cold and just didn't feel like moving. Only spent an hour, moving things around, and planning the addition of the suspended ceiling. It needs to get done before some of the track gets laid.

 

Prior to getting sick, I did get some track down and painted 32' of backdrop blue, but I guess I never took any pics. I'll get some tomorrow. Patrick comes over Thursday.

Started to work on the Caterpillar dealership area. Finalized the placement of the MTH CAT Rental Building, installed a grass area for it to sit on, and un-boxed the Caterpillar equipment that will go inside the building and on the sales lot. They use more tie downs on these models than anything I have seen before. They have been in boxes for the past twelve years and have never been opened. A CAT sales/rental lot will be a very good use of them.

At York and Timonium I picked up several O scale structure kits, including one each from OGR and Korber.  I was going to just use a cellar pit as the remains of my ghost town station, but bought the OGR Flag Stop, and am kitbashing it horribly.  I found that it comes with two identical sets of walls that allow you to double the size of the building.. so that is done, and chunks have been sawed out of the "stone" to created a crumbling building, and a missing freight door opening.   One peaked end (can't think of the word) has crumbled, and windows, doors,  and roof are gone, which is good, as the kit's roof would only cover the smaller building....splintered platform, detailing, and paint will finish...signs for "Arroyo Dorado" are done, but will be somewhat

askew... trains don't stop there anymore...

I spent my layout time working on the CAT dealership. It is coming along nicely.

 

Started over on my garage layout. Original looked a too mishmash. I'm probably over thinking a 4x11 space.

 

 

 

Ballasted most of the track on my extension. Of course, I ran out of ballast about a foot before I reached the end of the track and the original mainline picks back up, which is fully ballasted and untouched. I glued everything down, will let it dry overnight, pick up some more ballast tomorrow and hopefully finish it and do a few touch ups. 

 

I will be making a trip up to Catoctin Mountain Trains on Saturday (www.cmtrains.com) to pick up some buildings and other things I need to work on it and keep me busy for a few more weeks. 

Chris, I use some Woodland Scenic molds but most of mine are made by a guy up in Northern Calif. The one in the picture is about three feet by two feet. I have large areas to cover so I need these large molds. I have over 100 lbs. of plaster molds done is far and a lot more to go. Don

Another busy day with Patrick. We got a section of the upper deck reinforced, so now 2 of the 3 peninsulas are completed. We also hung 57' of backdrop, which tied together two previously finished sections for a total of 122' of continuous backdrop.

These first two shots are a little before and after.




This curved section was installed today. Of the 3 tracks that go through the backdrop, the one on the right will be completely hidden. The other two will disappear under a bridge.

 

On the right side of the picture, the backdrop doesn't go all the way down to track level, because the scenery will go up to meet it.



A little blue paint makes a big difference.








The post will have a cement plant disguising it.



It's kind of strange not being able to see across the room anymore.














Patrick will be back on Monday. Let's see if I can get all of this painted before then.

Most of my day was spent with client work, but I did some painting of new station platforms and started the striping process of them. I also installed a switch tower adjacent to the new train station complex.

 

 

 

It's not the layout, but it's going on the layout..... Still working on the roundhouse. I have many, many, many hours in this thing already... sanding, priming, more sanding, spray paint, hand paint, glue, epoxy, clamp... repeat process!

 

 Hand paint the walls before assembly.

 

3 different colors of red, tan, and gray for the back.

 

Clamping the wall caps on after priming and painting with the spray can.

 

 

 

The 7 stall kit with full extension took up the whole table

Not much yesterday....just got a spintered board floor into the collapsed ghost town station, a stone foundation around it, and roof support for remaining roof up...need to add a black sheet below floor to depict a cellar....this the little OGR flagstop station, doubled in size with the included extra walls.

Not a dang thing.  The last two days were 100% focus at work, but that is necessary once in a while in order to pay the bills for the layout!

Got a lot done. Finished striping about 50 ft. of station platforms and installed them. I finished the ballasting on the elevated tracks. The refinery components arrived so I know what I will be doing tomorrow on the layout.

I finally got around to opening up the old Reading Locomotive 8004 after burning out the smoke unit a couple months back. The smoke unit is a complet loss so now I get the opportunity to upgrade it. So that's what I'll be researching this weekend.

Too bad because burning out the smoke unit creates a marvelous visual effect it just doesn't last that long.

 

I got up, and heard the weatherman say "sunny and 70* today ..." for the first time in months ...

 

Looked at the layout in the dark cool basement ... then went to the garage and looked at the Harley ... and the sunshine ....

 

You can guess what happened the rest of the afternoon ....

Work on the layout has taken a sudden halt as the weather is finely looking nice.  I do plan to do some work on it tomorrow, and get a few more items up for sale on the buy/sell forum.   

Went to Menards and picked up my third 5 lb box of 1-5/8" drywall screws since the first of the year. I guess that's one way of measuring progress.

 

In my world, trains know no season. After having skin cancer, the sun is not my friend, and warm weather has always made me wilt. I'm not overly fond of snow either. The basement is always perfect.

 

Nothing quite like turning on the baseball game and working on the railroad on a sunny, warm, Saturday afternoon.

Same here Big Boy 4005 ... when it gets to 80*and rising outside, the layout room at a constant year-round 66-68* is my friend.

Tore it apart.

Ran a 20 car mixed freight.  Organized some shelving. That's about it for today.

 

Keep driving spikes and having fun on your railroad.

 

Cheers

Patrick W

Free State Junction Railway

"A conduit line for Maryland Class 1 and Short Line Railroads"

With all the whining and name calling in the threads lately, rather than read all that junk I figured I should go work on something and have some fun.

I had installed EER cruise in 2 older Lionel scale SF and BNSF dash 8 locos a few years ago. Although they look great together I don't run them much and they're back in their boxes. My thought was why not take out the boards and install into older smaller scale TMCC steamers that I do love to run, an SP consolidation and ATSF Atlantic. Both had EOB but they've giving problems lately, very herky jerky. I run the steamers a lot on my little 4x11 pike. My Lionelmasters are still a little big really and larger diesels like the Dash 8's. The geeps and the like look better.

Got the EER's in stalled and what a difference. Lost the 4 chuff but whatever. The rivet counter machine gun fans can have it. I just want smooth running small scale locos to run. I picked theae sweet little locos about 10 years ago in an old antique store for dirt cheap. With the help of a brain transplant they're  better than new.

For myself:

Got my TIU rev L back.

Bought the ZW L.

 

Over the next 2 weeks I will be redesigning my power distribution area.

 

For the group (River City 3 Railers). We're not sitting on our laurels!   We had a work day building new modules at Gilly N&W's.

 

Peter

Finished the refinery project so that the first fill-up could be accomplished.

 

Put a fire extinguisher on the basement wall! Just in case.

Dan

Four hours of more wiring and got part of the remaining layout working again, first time since November when we started the panel relocation project.

Today I hope to wrap up the track power panel part .... leaving hooking the switch control panel up until later ...

Cleaned track.  Ran trains.

 

This has been 18 interesting pages of reading.

 

This topic, of course, really has no end....it could be renamed "Dear Diary..."!

 

 

Lighted the Newport Bridge.

 

I'm a hoarder of sorts consequently I've accumulated about 30 yrs worth empty train boxes.  We I've had it with the clutter and borrowing on of Popeye's phrases "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more" I threw away well over 200 boxes this past weekend.  The only ones I saved were about 25 post war Lionel boxes.  My hoarding days are over.

Finally finished the wiring to restore track power to all the layout, with DCS and TMCC functional.

 

Next wiring project is hooking the turnout control panel back up.

 

The uncoupler circuits can wait for a while.

I wired in the ZW-L, moved the modern ZW w/180 watt bricks and Amp/Volt meters to accessory service and retired (for now) a trusty Z.

 

 

Just finished the size doubled OGR Flagstop Station.....this could comprise the whole

ghost town, with the decrepit general store, but the U.S. Land Office/Assay Office is

well along, and the saloon has been started.  The Land Office is a BTS Small Store kit

acquired at Timonium on the York trip, and will be in better shape than the others..

the station's roof has fallen in over the baggage room, as has part of its wall, and

most doors and window glass are missing.  While I've said trains don't stop there

anymore, there will be a crude, hand operated semaphore to flag trains for ranchers

and die-hard miners in the area.

Just finished unpacking from "Spring into Spring" a first time ever train show conducted this past weekend at Clove Lakes Health Care and Rehabilitation Center on Staten Island with the Richmond County Model Railroad Club in association with the Center's Volunteer Department who were conducting a craft fair.

 

It was a first showing! Members were very accomodating and welcomed everyone a lot of stuff came off of my home layout including 2 sets of trains several hobos, trees and even a church!

 

I miss the articles on my layout and plan to be up and running tonight!

 

Mike Maurice

I made a really cool backdrop building, an 11-room "quickie" motel  - by which I mean that while it is a seedy place that rents by the hour, the whole thing took only two hours to make. 

I've been making O27 track look more realistic by making my own ties. The ties have a primer coat on them in the photos below. Track and ties will be weathered with Roof Brown paint.