What did you do on your layout today?

With the glue dry I painted the cork this morning. Got to run some errands today but I hope to get the track down later today. Some pics.........Paul

That would be GREAT!! Thank you.

The last few days, I've quietly been working on the last complicated bit of track. I've been chopping 072 switches to create an 8 track ladder with 4" spacing for the A yard.

To do this, I remove all of the "excess" rail and ties on the straight leg of each switch. On the frog end I cut all the way back to where the guard rail starts, and throw away the nub next to the frog. On the point end, I remove everything up to the points, but leave the bit of curved stock rail to fill in to the next frog. It's kind of like a puzzle.

Back at the computer, I created one of the most interesting spreadsheets to date - a punch list. Across the top, I divided the layout up into logical sections, then listed all the different projects down the side. I filled in the body with percentages to indicate the level of completion. I was able to fill in most of the table from memory, but there was still a bunch of running back and forth to verify current conditions.

This is Joe. See Joe wire. Wire Joe wire!

As I was sitting there helping Joe, I turned and looked back down the aisle, and this is what I saw. Before Joe on the left, after Joe on the right.

I filled in that section of the punch list with 100%.

Elliot - We have chopped Atlas switches like that to achieve track spacing.  It works great, but we then had trouble with many of our engines not being able to run through them without stalling.  So, we had to power route the switches.  Installing additional pickup rollers would help too, but not as easy as it sounds.

Looking great!

Art

AMAZING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again----  WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would NOT even have a clue as to where to start, cutting 072 switches apart in order to make what YOU want them to be !!

Elliot--  Where did you learn all this!  You should sign up with the NMRA as a Technical Support guru or such !!  Maybe even their President Emeritus !!  (grin)

My wife Suzie wants to know just how BIG your basement space really is !!  It appears to be long and narrow !!  Maybe I forgot, BUT, is their a physical connection between your different levels ??  And those darn light bulbs--  I just can't get over the amount of HEAT in that layout space !!

By the way, who the heck needs YORK ???

Go to Elliot's house instead !!  Put some tables in your front and back yards for vendors.  Everyone else goes downstairs.  Have LUNCH catered !!   OGR and NMRA folks can run Clinics and slideshows !!  Have plenty of coffee and juice on-hand !!

Bottled water too.

Charge a modest fee for admission, to cover Lunch and whatever.

I, am downright serious folks.  Elliot needs to consider this and share his masterpiece with the overall railfan /hobbyist fraternity !

Take care and continue your superior expertise !!

Cheers.

Ken Shattock

Federal Way, WA.  (KRK)

Art, I remember you telling me about this, and I have kept it in mind since then. My problem is that these will be manual switches, so contacts are going to be very tricky. In the case of the A yard, I may try to modify the rollers on a few engines to cope with the problem.

Ken, tell her the the space is 38'x42' with an extra piece in one corner for a total of 1900 sq ft. The reason it always looks long and narrow in the photos is that the layout consists of 3 peninsulas of staggered lengths in the long dimension. Now that the backdrops are up, you can't see across the width anymore.

There is no real heat from those light bulbs, they're LED's. Less than 20 amps to light the whole room.

Where did I learn all this? Well I use to hand lay track back in my younger days in both HO and 2 rail O. So to do these chops, is actually fairly easy by comparison. Then there were a bunch of clubs along the way, as well as the whole enterTRAINment experience.

It is funny that you mention the NMRA, I have been a member for 40 years. I recently volunteered to be the layout tour coordinator for the local division. Part of the plan is to get the layout "discovered" by the locals.

Over the last couple years, I've had the pleasure of a few visits from forum members. The invitation is always open. If you are coming to the Twin Cities, drop me an email to set up a time.

Playing catch up on the posts. A lot of great work being done. Elliot's modifying the 072 turnouts with how he did it was great. His work and solutions has been a great inspiration on my planning. I just wish I had his space to work with. 

As for me, Kadee conversions continue but now at a point that I need to start doing engines and Waycars. I had to repair a brand new engine MTH GN GP30, Two issues and drawing a huge amount of Amps to run and engine was not receiving the watch dog signal and would take off like a jack rabbit with no control in conventional mode.  Fixes were simpler.  Removed the shell and discovered the wires leading from the trucks had were to tight and had pulled loose at the connectors at the board, Tach reader was rubbing against the fly wheel and the wires had com lose at the connector on the board. Another thing to note, was whoever also at the factory who connected the zip ties  was so tight the that the connectors  were pulled almost sideways bending some of the pins and wire had been pulled loose. All easy fix straightened the pins pushed the wire ends back into the connectors, increased the gap on the tach reader and rezip tied the wire leaving plenty of play. I also discovered when I pulled the motors from the trucks that they were bone dry!!!. Put it back on the track and was finally able to load it into DCS and conventional control was also restored. I still had a huge amp draw with the smoke unit on. On a wim and after calling G,  I swaped out smoke units and amp draw was back to normal. On closer examination I discovered that the motor was all but sized and the heater element its self may of had a short because it had that burnt wiring smell.. So much for QAQC at the factory. The next was simple I swapped out shell from the dummy unit with the shell and pilots from my other GN(BSB scheme) GP30. 

The lemon that now runs like a champ.

 Dummy now a power unit

The powered unit now is a dummy.

Quite a view, Elliot, which made me try to imagine something. You see, when I landscape a layout, inch-by-square-inch, I use these tools:

tweezers, of varying lengths; eye dropper; dentist's pick; chopstix; scissors; small paintbrushes; long-handled teaspoon.

I cannot even imagine how much time it will take you to landscape that huge layout. Being a master-planner, you have likely given that aspect of your creative adventure a lot of thought. Would you care to share how you see that aspect of your layout progressing, sir?

FrankM.

Frank, I've always loved the meticulous nature of your work and your attention to detail. Truly spectacular!

My layout is quite different in its focus. There will be scenery, but it is incidental to the trains themselves. There will be very few 3 dimensional structures because most of the layout is railroad property. Because the area I'm modelling exists in the real world, I can actually take pictures of what exists. It is primarily an urban landscape with commercial buildings lining the tracks. Probably very few people or vehicles will be used, I just didn't leave room for those things (on purpose).

The primary scenic element, after the trains themselves, is ballast. There will be some greenery, just not that much. The entire upper deck is just one long string of yards, six of them, back to back to back... with double track mains running through.

Today I got most of the track laid down going to the station. On the siding on the back side of the station I added an uncoupling track. Now as I am finishing off the other two sidings I am thinking of maybe adding an uncoupling track to those also. If I decide to do that I'll have to see if one of the local hobby shops may have some in stock. Two of the pics show sidings where I would p[lace the uncouplers. The back siding the uncoupler is by the small freight shed. By adding uncouplers to all the tracks I would then have the option of  using all the tracks at one point for unloading and loading cars................Paul

I finally got this transfer caboose into the paint shop. It sits atop a Centerline Products track cleaner.

here they are

Thank you for your great photos and kind help.

Cool, but photos not showing

Last night I worked on an incomplete Marx 999 motor and pony trucks assy, that came in, that was missing its collector.  I scrounged one off another motor, soldered it to its wire,  and got it running.  At first it would reverse but now it will not.  Still fooling with it, as I want to build a critter around it.  I need to build/kitbash a tender for the Lionel

loco I kitbashed into #60 for the GW.  I am hoping to find a usable one to kitbash, rather that scratch up a styrene one.  The original one that came with the Lionel loco

would have been a good base, but I have already kitbashed that one into a tender for

another loco...not exactly planning ahead!

By chance are you using Firefox? I can't see them either, but I can see a bunch of others. Someone posted a topic in tech support about this problem earlier today.

IE with Chrome as a back up. nothing.  Older post most of the Pics are showing.

Today not a lot of progress. I ran trains and while doing that I added a bit of ballast to the area I am working on. Under the bridge I had applied some plaster so I dabbed on some earth color. Got to get on the phone to locate some uncoupler tracks so I can finish off the station area. I did back some cars onto the siding behind where the station will be and I think the other two tracks will work as possible unloading sidings.......Paul 

I masked around more track that I had already installed and then spray painted it with Rustoleum Camo Earth Brown. 

I tried a thinner wire under my curves on the curved stone arch bridge in order to super elevate the curves.  This up under the edge of the ties gives a little more than a 1/16 inch lift.  I am looking for the minimum raise that will give the effect that I want.  I have a switch quite close to where the outside track starts to curve so I have to be careful.

Art

Here we go again...

Good Morning, Everybody. Been hard to find time to work on the new layout lately !

However, I ran the controller wires to all the 022/072 switches from central control.

But haven't hooked them up as yet. Some switches will have 153 block signals tied to the screw terminals for indicators.

OGR Forum member "Stewart Montei" has offered to assist with a track plan design for my proposed 2nd Level. Thank you, Stewart!

I just finished the construction of my new Accessory Control Panel. See attached Photo # 1. There are fourteen DPST toggle switches--- Four SPDT push-button switches---

and Three DIALCO panel lights: Green, Red and Yellow...

The GREEN panel lamp will indicate when the ZW is actually putting out power... the RED panel lamp will indicate when the KW is actually putting out power... and the YELLOW panel lamp will indicate when the LW is actually putting out power !!

The toggle switches will initially be used to provide on/off power to the Sawmill;

the Greyhound Bus Depot, the Diner... Also power to Display Track 1 (three ATSF 70-foot passenger cars); Display Track 2 (four ATSF 60-foot passenger cars); Display Track 3 (four additional ATSF 60-foot passenger cars); Display Track 4 (Millenium Business Car); Display Track 5 (CSX SD-70ACe and Reading F-M Trainmaster units);

Display Track 6 (SP Cab Forward 4-8-8-2 # 4294) ...

The power to the passenger display tracks will provide lighting in the cars. The power to Display Tracks 5 and 6 will activate power units to sit there and idle (and act impressive looking) ... (Grin!)

On the new Accessory Control Panel, the four pushbuttons will be "Presets" ...

Momentarily depressing any one of the four pushbuttons will activate banks of relays for automatic routing of trains or trolleys without having to manually line up switches.

(My version of GRS "NX" nomenclature) ...

Photo 2. Total space available for Level 1 on new layout !

Photo 3. Rough track plan currently established on Level 1. Nothing fancy--just something for an old guy like me to play with !!

Stay tuned ! More to come !!

KRK

Received a pair of MTH Premier heavyweight 6 wheel trucks today and replaced a broken truck on a PRR combine for my local 4 car passenger train pulled by an Atlantic.  I do not use lights on my passenger cars and so I removed the roller and assembly. Easy install for the truck and ran the train. 

Today I walked past it twice,  Then I went outside and trimmed the schrubs for 3.5 hours.  Came back inside, showered and drank a beer.

I may walk past it again later this evening.

Yesterday I had a visitor from Australia stop in to look at my trains.  He is nine years old and is visiting his father who is working on a defense project in the area.  His dad is working with one of my cousins on the project and he sent him over to look at the trains.  His dad bought him a small N-Scale set while he was here, si I gave hime a bunch of KATO Track.

I built the Atlas single track Pratt truss bridge.  I wasted an hour because of the instructions.  First step is to remove the screws from the ends of the vertical truss' and save the screws to use later.  Well when later came it was a confusion. The screws I removed were not to be removed.  The screws to be removed were never there in the first place.  They were hidden in a plastic envelope.  All was not lost however because during the hour it took to figure this out I was able to expand my vocabulary a good bit.

Some areas of the layout will be difficult to get to in the coming months and almost impossible to get to for the lights above areas that are starting to get finished.  With that in mind replaced all the lights in the train room to LED's. Was able to go from 65w floods to 100w equivalent LED's and change lighting from soft white to daylight.  It really makes a difference and shouldn't have to change them for 22 years.

I bought a used "real"camera for the manual functions today.

Time to see if I can still shoot with a "real" camera.(vs point & shoot)

Or if I ever could. I did my own developing and feel that it gave my quality a boost.

Digital doesn't have that option.

So blame todays forum photo loading issues on me.

That's my luck, buy a camera on a day its troublesome to use 

I got a little free time and finished painting 2 corners and one full wall run, now I'm waiting on it to fully dry so I can attach it to the shelf and that will have half the room done. Not a lot but some progress.

My locos from Serge arrived today! 

This GM&O GP-20 is seen escorting some postwar tin varnish around the layout:

If anyone's interested in the shell and chassis, let me know; the running gear is slated to be transplanted into a New Haven EF-4 Rectifier. 

The slightly battered Berkshire found its way into the shop for a bit of valve gear adjustment:

As can be seen, the cowcatcher simply isn't anymore: 

However, I do have plenty of donors for repairs.

Here's a couple happy snaps of the Giraffe Express' new steam power actually pulling a gi-raffe car:

And, of course, the markings have been changed slightly.

Mitch

This morning was spent going to two hobby shops and getting one uncoupling track. This afternoon I finished off the tracks to the station. Then I placed the station in place and everything came out good. I added some freight cars and two RDC"s to see how it will look. So far I am happy with the outcome. I may tweak the middle siding uncoupling track to allow two cars to sit there. Just not sure on the track in front of the station if I will add a uncoupling track there. On the track leading off the mainline I started to ballast and added a second coat of earth color. Pics...........Paul

Picture of the mine so far, and some other things I've posted about here but had no camera. As you can see, I seldom finish something till I'm pretty sure it stays.

 This camera doesn't have the manual focus. Only manual shuttering adjustments.

 I read a review with a mistake . I haven't figured out the macro settings yet. 

yea... this ones done and the elevated launch pads beginnings.

Nothing glued. Needs 4 timbers, wood texturing & a few weak color washes. I still want a trestle to raise the track, non-roadbed track, and a turnout!  

The rocks groups are embedded in glue. Dead layout recoveries. Lots of Greenery yet to be stuffed. And maybe some wetness??? 

I hear the old flagman helped make the bricks for that mine.

I

 I didn't like the tunnel face for this side

There is a good chance I'll just board up "Mine Table #83a", or turn it into a doorway.

 Fantasy road name for the mine is yet to be decided.   

I want to remake the bracket on this one, or at lest find a better option than a hex head, but I like the "free" top hat spot lights

 See the wires to the switch towers light? Above..............^^^^

This might be a pump, treatment & filter house for spring water coming from above the mine and ...... so on, and so on. My plans change.  

I need a non-G scale ladder huh? 

(everything works, weather vane & mill fan, level gauge, insection hatch, slide spout).

I care more for easy detailing than scale. I did build it fit either really) 

Progmess. (NO HARM WAS DONE TO ANY TIN PLATE IN CREATING THE SWITCH TOWER OR DINER!)

(The Milkmans here)

Yep its lit. That glass will be the roof on a small veggi greenhouse kept by the proprietor.(a halogen floor lamps bulb cover.)

I'm going to "steam the windows" but in masking goo, write on a couple panes near the window seats. Like kids finger doodling as they wait. Maybe a couple in love has added their own arrow and heart shaped target?    

I did not feel inspiration for much housework today so I spent about an hour trying to improve my results making evergreen trees.  I used some jute and it worked OK but not great yet.  I have to color the jute on the 4 trees I made.  I might try dying them. 

The Polar Gi-Raffe Express Berkshire is now cowcatchered! 

The former Southern pilot and GX prepped for combining.  Note that the little plugs on the Berkshire aft of the former cowcatcher have been pulled.

Test fit with rubber bands.

Pilot attached with brass screws.

A piece of stripwood holds the brass screws firm.

Remember, SCROUNGE! 

Mitch

Done, out of the paint shop and ready for decals and matte coat to be put on by its new owner.

Well, I did some scenery work.

Oh wait.  That was 1:1 and had nothing to do with the layout!

George

Did some cleaning in the basement and finished the basic installation of the Cruise Light on my diesel (Conventional works, but don't have TMCC to test that out).  Low and behold, a new building popped up!

Wait...what's going on at the platform?  Invasion from space!

The minions are battling it out.  Hopefully it doesn't impact ice cream sales!

Waiting to show the layout to visitors.  I'll post comments and pics later.

Art

 Maybe..

Maybe not...

I only had about 15 minutes after I got up this morning before we left for kids house, I am spending some time with my new grand daughter and hope to get another wall finished on shelf layout later tonight, might even mark where the ceiling brackets will got for bridge crossing.

I spent a couple hours yesterday weathering freight cars, two cabooses, and a Docksider steamer. Also weathered a 1953 Chevy garbage truck. Big fun!!

Today I spent severe hours doing scenery work on the Patsburg commuter rail station, posting signs on an adjacent building, and doing some ballast work.  Took some pics of the weathered rolling stock, and garbage truck.  Will put them up on the OGR Forum in the next day or so.

Of course I also ran some trains too  A Baltimore and Annapolis end cab switcher pulling a mixed freight, and a Western Maryland H7 consolidated pulling a 3 car passenger consist of MTH Premier Western Maryland cars - baggage, RPO, and coach.  

Not much accomplished lately, but today I got the sides cut out of styrene for the

tender for #60 (which loco kitbash has been done for a month).  I am looking for a

chassis for it before I do much more on it.  Other projects awaiting parts are a steam

coach and a feed mill kitbash.  I also hope to do a much longer version of a gas electric on an Industrial Rail streetcar chassis (lengthened), similar to the short one

I posted on here.  Will probably use Walthers gas electric kit parts for it, too, although

I also have parts from an American Standard Car Co. kit.  (just had a thought...I have

a LaBelle kit for a Rio Grande gas electric, one the Grande did in house with kits railroads used to be able to get from two Wisconsin suppliers...THAT is what I should use the IR chassis for!)  (I don't think the Grande had much better luck with that car

than they did with the Prospector...I hope I do)