What did you do on your layout today?

Thanks for the comments  Mark. A lot of great  people on this forum. Great layouts and people willing to share their  ideas.  I love it. My layout is more than just playing with trains its therapy for me. I get lost in it which takes me back to my childhood when  at 9 years old watching trains on the Lionel D 265 layout in a department  store.  At 69 years old I'm still 9 with my trains.

With the placement and painting of roadbed, my layout-to-be is now starting to look like something more than odd and industrial "furniture".  These pix show how I'm superelevating (banking) the dual-track mainline curves (O-104/112).  A piece of N gauge cork roadbed is laid at the outer boundary of the full roadbed.  Then lightweight spackling was applied to fill the gap and provide a tapered but flat surface for the main roadbed (foam).  Next, the foam roadbed was glued in place atop this base and painted with Rust-Oleum Rock-Solid Decorative Concrete Coating (slate), which looks like ballast (though fleck sizing is more HO than O).  Even though ballast will be applied after all the wiring checks good, using the Rust-Oleum renders the roadbed material less visible, which is more urgent at switches where I used Rossbed, some of which is pink, and makes any future gouges, etc. less visible.  Curve entry/exit is eased in both curvature and superelevation.  So far, so good.  Next up will be the switches connecting the mainline with the yard, arrival/departure tracks, and reversing loop.

Morning everyone and Happy Saturday!

Richie C., your loading dock looks great! I hope you don't mind me barrowing the idea as I have a loading dock from a building I am kit bashing now and wont need it for that! Thank you for the information on what paint you use, I will have to give it a try next time.

Mark, thank you Sir! I didnt show much, but if you look down that post you will see a little more done!

John, Nice touch to an already amazing layout! I am glad that it make you feel like a kid again! Sometimes mine makes me feel like a broke down old man!LOL

KarlDL, Great idea on the superelevation of the curves! Sure looks like it should work well!

Well guys  as for me I was able to get another coat of paint on the flats I am doing. I used another coat of enamel on the doors, and found that latex paint works well for the windows! LOL Here is a photo of where I am as of yesterday before the CEO's list.

I hope everyone has a great Saturday and finds time for there layouts and trains! But most of all be like Farmer John and become a kid again and have FUN!

FarmerJohn, your work is realistically amazing. I think it needs to be featured in an OGR issue. Plus, we would all benefit from you doing a tutorial.

I built some chain link fencing for placement around the slab/coil yard. Used K&S 0.055 music wire, some jewelry fittings and black lace netting (toule?) I bought at Hobby Lobby. The netting is much finer than using screen stock and is already woven on a diagonal bias. The music wire scales out to a 2-1/2" pipe. I made the poles 10 scale feet high and soldered  them approximately 10-12 feet apart. The fence now needs a coat of aluminium paint and then placed in the scenery.

Bill you have a lot of patience and steady hands; between the fencing and wiring the poles. Very impressive

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

Bill you have a lot of patience and steady hands; between the fencing and wiring the poles. Very impressive

Thanks. I used a LOT of CA to glue the net to the posts.  Had it all over my hands.  Luckily it all cleans up with acetone.

I finally got to run my new VisionLine ATSF Reefers. Wow. They are amazing. Lionel makes the best freight cars in terms of innovation and cool features.

I actually just completed my fourth structure during this lost year, a bash of Tom Yorke's "Tony's Garage" into my ghost town's "Hilltop Garage".  Somebody has just done a Sunday drive out 48 miles of mountain road to their childhood hometown in their new Tudor, and exclaims, "It's closed!  And we're down to fumes! Let's check around back".

KarlDL, The roadbed really looks nice and smooth.  Trains should really be able to run nicely on those smooth, wide curves.

Mike, The additional painting looks good!  Are you going to tone down the red and green or leave them looking freshly painted.  You could even have a model painter painting them.

Bill, That fence looks great!  It would take a lot of patience for me to make one like that!

Colorado Highrailer, that garage does look like it has been closed for a while!  Very good!

@Mark Boyce posted:

Bill, That fence looks great!  It would take a lot of patience for me to make one like that!

Thanks Mark.

It was not as tedious as it looks.  I found some jewelry pieces at Hobby lobby that look like fence post caps.  All I had to do was cut the piano wire to size then solder the caps on top and bottom.  Run stringers through the tops and bottoms and solder them in place.  Attach the lace netting with CA along all the wires. I'll post a picture when it is installed as I just finished painting the fence today.

@third rail posted:

Thanks Mark.

It was not as tedious as it looks.  I found some jewelry pieces at Hobby lobby that look like fence post caps.  All I had to do was cut the piano wire to size then solder the caps on top and bottom.  Run stringers through the tops and bottoms and solder them in place.  Attach the lace netting with CA along all the wires. I'll post a picture when it is installed as I just finished painting the fence today.

Thank you for the explanation!!

After a great deal of frustration, I think I am finally getting the hang of applying static grass. And making it look decent. The piece on the front left was the best I had been able to get - I was ready to give up. The green strip in the background is 4mm grass. Found out I had to apply and shake off 3 or 4 times to get the density I was looking for. The front right is an attempt to make grass tufts which I could put between the tracks. I am really looking for something 4 to 6 scale feet tall. These are about 2 feet using 12 mm static grass. I will try layering, but I think using natural rope hemp will get me the height I want easier than static grass.

This is an example of using furnace filter fiber glued to natural twigs and dusted with Scenic Express leaf. The base is foam covered with cotton batting painted brown, covered with ground foam. This piece is going in my tank farm grounds. I sprinkled leaves on the ground for a little more detail. I used spray adhesive to fix the leaves - this creates a bit of a problem in that when you try to open up the tree structure, I ended up compressing stuff together. A light touch with tweezers is the best way to separate the fibers. The left side of the left tree looks ok in person, but the photo shows it could use a little tweezing.

I also found out after completely rebuilding a switch section, I had a gap in ground connectivity. I could not figure out why some engines would blow their horn in that area. Going slow enough, smaller engines would stall.

I had intentionally wired my layout with the inner rail electrically isolated, (for future block signals)  with only the outer rail to ground/common and had made sure I had wired power to all the center rails particularly in my Ross switches. I was very surprised to see a continuity gap at that section of the switch. Time to pull up the track once again and solder some jumpers on the common side. Thought I was done there.   

NOTE:  Twin Pines Rail Road took official delivery of two Illinois Central Gulf engines - a GP38 and GP40 - waiting assignment. See the TPRR thread.

Hi Everyone,

I really like to see nice trees on a layout. Like structures, track work, etc. this is one aspect of a layout that truly speaks to the level of detail a modeler is going for. I continue to experiment with various techniques to create what will be foreground and mid-ground trees. This is my first experiment with making wire trees from scratch. So far I have twisted up the wire for the armatures and will look at them for a while before I move to the next step. This is to try to imagine the end results and make any adjustments. This is 26 gauge wire from your favorite craft store. I started with two armatures because the first one will be the true experiment and the second one will be for immediate corrections of mistakes from the first. I will show progress as each phase is completed. This will be a deciduous tree of some sort. I'm not necessarily going for a specific species but more for trees that are convincing.

Dave

Started modifying the MTH Scaletrax switches for my small yard. I got these on the Cabin Fever
Auctions (#3.)

I had to cut them down to fit the 25 1/2" of available space. Since I cut the connectors off I had to solder the rails together. Went OK overall but I had trouble with the short piece on the inside of the first to the second switch. Just as the solder started to flow, the plastic tie melted and the piece dropped. I was able to get it set in place and I just have to do some grinding and polishing to get everything lined up.
I also made an adapter from the ST to tubular for the lead end. I will make the one for the other end after I do a test fit of the assembly.

The goal is to add a third siding. I can only fit two sidings with the 5122's.

This was the offending section

Supposed to rain tomorrow so I hope to get this set in place. I need to make a trip to Nassau Hobby this week to pick up the track for the sidings.

Bob

Quite an ‘operation’ Bob!

One of my "start of the pandemic" project ET&WNC wood (laser) hoppers often wanted to pick a turnout. I thought it was the turnout points then today it dawned on me that maybe a wheelset was out of gauge as the trucks were new to both the car and my layout.

I swapped them out and zoom, they rolled through. I also ran the new 3D print of the same type of hopper through that turnout as well just to be sure.

For a while I thought it was the turnout but clearly I should have checked the gauge of those axles first. As I haven't had any op sessions since these cars got onto the layout, I just hadn't pieced it together.

Lee, I'm glad you found the problem with the cars.  They do look great!

@Mark Boyce posted:

Lee, I'm glad you found the problem with the cars.  They do look great!

Thanks, Mark.

With all these hoppers, I'm going to change my operating scheme for the layout.
I'm going to make the second train a coal train of the hoppers to swap put among an equal number of cars on the layout.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Quite an ‘operation’ Bob!

The Doctor is IN!

@ScoutingDad posted:

The front right is an attempt to make grass tufts which I could put between the tracks. I am really looking for something 4 to 6 scale feet tall.

Scoutingdad:

If you want some weeds 4-6 feet tall, consider using chip brushes. You can get a box from Harbor Freight Tools for cheap. I use them wherever I want some tall grasses.  Lay down some white glue, wait a while for it to thicken up, then cut the bristles to the length desired and stick it in the glue.

The bristles will stand up naturally and some along the edges will fall over. The next picture is from a past layout where I  wanted to create weeds between the tracks.

@third rail posted:

Scoutingdad:

If you want some weeds 4-6 feet tall, consider using chip brushes. You can get a box from Harbor Freight Tools for cheap. I use them wherever I want some tall grasses.  Lay down some white glue, wait a while for it to thicken up, then cut the bristles to the length desired and stick it in the glue.

The bristles will stand up naturally and some along the edges will fall over. The next picture is from a past layout where I  wanted to create weeds between the tracks.

@ScoutingDad-  Another method I just learned and tried was to use WS loose grass, glue clumps between some strips of cardboard, and cut to size and glue in place. The chip brushes are a good cheap source for material too.

Good Sunday morning everyone I hope your all having a great weekend! There has bee a lot going on and a lot f folks to list so here we go! Bill, Nice job on the scratch built fence! Also thank you for posting your idea for the long grass for ScoutingDad. You and Bob are on the same page and it helps us all out!

Colorado Hirailer, Outstanding job on the Garage I sure hope the folks found someone there to get them some gas as it would be a shame to have to leave that sweet looking Tudor. But then again I guess they could sleep in it till someone came looking for them!

Mark, Thank you, I haven't gotten that far yet. I want to get the paint on first before I think about making it look old! LOL

Scouting Dad, The grass and trees look good to me! Maybe someday I will give the static grass a try~!

Dave, Great start. This is going to be a nice build to fallow and maybe guys like me can even learn something! Sure looks like a lot of work!

Bob, I love the fact that your willing to butcher switches to get your layout just the way you want it! It sure looks like everything should work just fine! Nice work!

Lee, I am glad you found the problem and am happy it wasn't the switch!

So guys I got out to the train room yesterday and was able to get a little more paint on my flats and I thought I was getting close to finishing the painting. But the Richie C. pointed out what he painted and I thought I would give it a try so now I have more painting to do. But today is Trains and Nascar so I hope to get the painting done and work on the ceiling for both floors so I can work on the lighting!

Here is an update photo. Have a great weekend! You will  notice the new gray color on the top and above a couple windows. I think everything looks fine and the gray is all that's left for the painting!

Not really layout related, but avatar related: 

A cartoonist chum of mine drew this portrait of me and Norma Bates Kitteh for my birthday last week:

A bit of color later, and an avatar is born!

Mitch

@M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Not really layout related, but avatar related:

A cartoonist chum of mine drew this portrait of me and Norma Bates Kitteh for my birthday last week:

A bit of color later, and an avatar is born!

Mitch

Thats Great Mitch!  Its about Norma Kitteh Bates got on the Avatar! She is on the forum as much as you are!

@M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Not really layout related, but avatar related:

A cartoonist chum of mine drew this portrait of me and Norma Bates Kitteh for my birthday last week:

A bit of color later, and an avatar is born!

Mitch

PURRRFECT!

Happy Birthday too!

@mike g. posted:

Thats Great Mitch!  Its about Norma Kitteh Bates got on the Avatar! She is on the forum as much as you are!

(grin) Now I have to get one with Fortescue... ;-)

Mitch

Third Rail and Bob, thanks for the ideas on creating taller grass clumps. I want to put clumps in an area which would be drier so the light colored brush bristles would work. I can see where the WS field grass would also work. I haven't run across this as yet. I'll have to keep a better lookout next time I go to a trainshow - probably in the fall.

I cleaned up the solder joints on the switches and ran a couple of engines back and fourth to check things out. Unfortunately many of my locos hit dead spots as the rollers cross the turnouts. I also found that the wheels were grounding out against the outside edge of the inner turnout rail when backing out of the switch. I can fix this easy enough with some polyurethane painted on the rail. Not sure what to do on the center rails yet.
I want to get it right before I install. No sense in putting down switches that don't let the trains run through smoothly.

The gap across the turning rail is about 2", this one doesn't seem to be the issue.

The problem is going over two switches at the same time. Since I had to shorten them I've lost some of the center rail that would have bridged these gaps. The gap is about 6-8" overall and rollers are hitting both at the same time. Going in and out of the curve seems to be OK but I need more track to run completely through them.

Rail faces are done even though it doesn't look like it.

Mike, the additional painting looks good!  I didn't mean to put the cart before the horse on your building.  My projects certainly make one wonder, "what is taking him so long." 

Jeff, good ideas from Bob and Bill, Woodland Scenics material looks great too.

Mitch, your friend did a great job!  Happy birthday!

Bob, I think I would go crazy on this problem!  Keep plugging away.  I know you will get it!!

I did not do much.  I ran wire for the limit switches on the lift up bridges and soldered the connections.  No comes connecting the DPDT switch for raising and lowering the bridge.  I also found once the limit switch opens up the circuit, I need a way to make a power connection to operate the bridges the opposite direction.  A single pole switch to jumper around the open limit switch??  I think that would work, but can't think of a way to do it all with one switch.  My head hurts.  Bentley says it is a better idea to take a nap on a rainy Sunday afternoon.  I think he is right.    ZZZZ

Lousy weather today ... Jig saw time.  Cut-in a water feature, maybe for a future gantry crane and small barge.  Had to compromise to avoid the benchwork's leg attachment underneath, thus the spillway idea.  Still need to create some bridge supports.

@Mark Boyce posted:

I did not do much.  I ran wire for the limit switches on the lift up bridges and soldered the connections.  No comes connecting the DPDT switch for raising and lowering the bridge.  I also found once the limit switch opens up the circuit, I need a way to make a power connection to operate the bridges the opposite direction.  A single pole switch to jumper around the open limit switch??  I think that would work, but can't think of a way to do it all with one switch.  My head hurts.  Bentley says it is a better idea to take a nap on a rainy Sunday afternoon.  I think he is right.    ZZZZ

Thanks Mark. Yea, going to take some time but I will see what I can do.

On to your problem- a three way toggle switch may do the trick. Wire power to the common terminal and up and down on the two traveler terminals.

Enjoy your nap!

I burned c. 300 train boxes in backyard bonfire. Now I can walk more easily in the basement. Kept all the engine boxes, though. Rick

@RParmentier posted:

I burned c. 300 train boxes in backyard bonfire. Now I can walk more easily in the basement. Kept all the engine boxes, though. Rick

no picture????

Bob, that is turning into quite the problem solving experiments. I’m interested in how it works out. You are obviously very patient.

Mick60:  Who made the "Tide" tank cars? 

Don

Menards.  Only have the 3 shown, but intend to get more.  Need sunglasses when they roll by , but that's why I like them.

@RSJB18 posted:

I cleaned up the solder joints on the switches and ran a couple of engines back and fourth to check things out. Unfortunately many of my locos hit dead spots as the rollers cross the turnouts. I also found that the wheels were grounding out against the outside edge of the inner turnout rail when backing out of the switch.

Bob - I feel your pain.  I was about to solder a jumper from an outer (switch) rail to an inner common rail when I realized it needed to be electrically neutral. If I had done what I planned the pick up rollers would have shorted as it rolled through the switch. Ended up just connecting the inner and outer rails and isolate the (inner) rail later - if I ever get around to wiring signals.

In certain ways 2 rail is much simpler than 3 rail. My nightmare with 2 rail HO was on the reversing loops where I need a DPDT switch to change polarity once inside the reversing loop. Never could figure out how to do that automatically. Of course I was 13 and it was the 60s - that may have had something to do with it.

@M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Looks great, Mitch!

I really should draw my own avatar, but I never think to do one...

@third rail posted:

Thanks Mark.

It was not as tedious as it looks.  I found some jewelry pieces at Hobby lobby that look like fence post caps.  All I had to do was cut the piano wire to size then solder the caps on top and bottom.  Run stringers through the tops and bottoms and solder them in place.  Attach the lace netting with CA along all the wires. I'll post a picture when it is installed as I just finished painting the fence today.

Ok so today I finally finished my chain link fence and installed it.  I added some weeds in front to disguise the holes for the posts.  Did my chip brush method but this time I layed down  a line of clear caulk for the adhesive.  You can see that the caulk has not fully dried but will become colorless as it does. I  used 8-2 inch chip brushes for the entire area , took about 20 minutes to complete.

Also I assembled and painted 5 winches that I purchased from Crow River Products.  These are going on my ore boat.  For $5 you get the drum 2 pinion gears and 2 larger gears and an axle.  I made the electric motors from 5/8" wood dowels.  Instructions include a diagram for winch framework,  I made mine from 1/8×1/4" styrene strips.

I added some waxed thread for a cable.