Had a couple visitors, they wanted to see trains. I aim to please, so I fired up all the tracks. 
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Looks great John. That 44 tonner had no problem pulling the hill.
Bob
Great video. Thanks for posting
That's quite a show, I love those lighted Strasburg coaches! Great looking train.
Looks great! I'm sure a good time was had by all!
-Greg
Is thar Gargraves? And flexable or sectional?
Very nice John. Room and layout came out nicely.
That 44 tonner pulled WAY more cars than the real one (on the hill from Fonda, NY to Johnstown, NY on the F J & G) ever did!
@RSJB18 posted:Looks great John. That 44 tonner had no problem pulling the hill.
Time will tell how it does when I remove all it's traction tires.
@Tuscan Jim posted:That's quite a show, I love those lighted Strasburg coaches! Great looking train.
Those are some of my favorite passenger cars, they are really well done.
@Greg Houser posted:Looks great! I'm sure a good time was had by all!
I had to keep them busy, but it was pretty noisy with all the sound working. There was even a sound boxcar banking away, but you can hardly hear it with all the engine sounds. 
@Dennis Rempel posted:Is thar Gargraves? And flexable or sectional?
A majority of the track is Gargraves flex. The O72 curves where appropriate I used Ross sectional since I had a whole box of it.
@DMASSO posted:Very nice John. Room and layout came put nicely.
Coming along, I like the fact that I can actually run a few trains now. 
Great video.....that 44 tonner is a beast!!!!!
Peter
@modeltrainsparts posted:That 44 tonner pulled WAY more cars than the real one (on the hill from Fonda, NY to Johnstown, NY on the F J & G) ever did!
Well, when I remove the traction tire wheelsets and put the plain wheels in, it might adopt more of the pulling power of the real 44-ton engine.
@Putnam Division posted:Great video.....that 44 tonner is a beast!!!!!
I was pretty surprised when it pulled those cars right up the grade without missing a beat, I half expected to have to remove a few.
LibertyLiner!
Mitch
Looks good, John!
Thanks Alan, I think that's the busiest the RR has ever been. I was tempted to try to get three trains on the mainline, but I figured without paying close attention I'd probably have a crash. 
It's hard to keep a lot of balls in the air and also hobnob with the guests. 
@M. Mitchell Marmel posted:LibertyLiner!
Yep, although I never rode the real thing, I used to see it running in the 80's. I didn't realize at the time it had a nice lounge car, that might have changed my mind. 
It is always good seeing someone enjoy their layout, when I had visitors at the old house they were excited for about 30 minutes when I fired the layout up, then I was usually left alone until shut it down and went back to visiting.
Have you had any "Wish I had added this" moments John?
Looks really good John. Like your command / control center. What grade is your hill and what is the total heigth.
Tom
@Ron_S posted:It is always good seeing someone enjoy their layout, when I had visitors at the old house they were excited for about 30 minutes when I fired the layout up, then I was usually left alone until shut it down and went back to visiting.
Have you had any "Wish I had added this" moments John?
There's always a list of "wish I had added this" whatever you do. We built four new houses over my lifetime, and every time I thought of a list of things I should have done differently. Same with train layouts.
@TomSuperO posted:Looks really good John. Like your command / control center. What grade is your hill and what is the total heigth.
Thanks Tom. The grade on the hill is 2.4% and 2.5%, depending on if you're on the inner or outer tracks. The total length of the grade is around 25 feet. The mainline is one large folded dogbone 140 feet long.
I consolidated all the power/control in that one corner on a couple of panels.
The turntable did get it's own little junction panel.
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@gunrunnerjohn posted:Yep, although I never rode the real thing, I used to see it running in the 80's. I didn't realize at the time it had a nice lounge car, that might have changed my mind.
I was on the last run in the 80s. They had to physically sit on the breakers at Ardmore Junction to keep 'em from popping when the Liner came through...
Mitch
I'm a little late getting over here to finally watch the video, but very nice indeed John. I am surprised that the Wienermobile didn't get a chance to run around the rails. Ah, that is probably in another video. Now all you need(eventually) is some scenery to be put in. Yeah, that will be a little while down the road, maybe get Harry to pop over and work his magic(if he's not too busy).
I enjoyed watching the video - nice run with no problems. It seems like it was just last month when you started that layout, You have come a long way in a short time. Very nice job on the control panel and wiring - looks solid. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your creativity on the scenery.
Dave, I'm sure that scenery will be an ongoing project for some time. I have been spending most of my time catching up on stuff I was pushing off to play with the layout, so I have to get back to some of that.
@Bill Sherry posted:I enjoyed watching the video - nice run with no problems. It seems like it was just last month when you started that layout, You have come a long way in a short time. Very nice job on the control panel and wiring - looks solid. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your creativity on the scenery.
Thanks. I still have a couple of the switch machines that aren't 100% reliable, occasionally they just change their status without moving the points! I'm slowly weeding them out. It's actually been quite a while since I started, I see some people flash through and in a few months they have what looks like a completed layout! That's not happening here, this is the turtle version of layout construction.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Yep, although I never rode the real thing, I used to see it running in the 80's. I didn't realize at the time it had a nice lounge car, that might have changed my mind.
You can ride it again at the Rockhill trolley museum in Orbisana. PA!
http://rockhilltrolley.org/roster/
Its Nice to see the Strasburg coaches out for a sprint!
@prrhorseshoecurve posted:You can ride it again at the Rockhill trolley museum in Orbisana. PA!
I think the bartender is off-duty, kills the main purpose for the trip! 
@prrhorseshoecurve posted:Its Nice to see the Strasburg coaches out for a sprint!
Yep, can't wait for the #90 to show up, that will make it a proper Strasburg train.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I think the bartender is off-duty, kills the main purpose for the trip!
Yep, can't wait for the #90 to show up, that will make it a proper Strasburg train.
Yeah, it would be good to get a drink wherever they serve. Stinks if there's no bartender though. How's anyone supposed to highball?
Gunrunner,
Layout is coming along nicely. What are the four MTH black boxes at the top of pic N1? Can you please identify the double banana plugs you used on the input side of the TIU, I’d like to get some of them!
@Trainmstr posted:What are the four MTH black boxes at the top of pic N1?
Those are the MTH DCS Remote Commander. They've been repurposed to be watchdog generator boxes as described in this thread.
DCS-RC Perpetual Barking Watchdog Generator
@Trainmstr posted:Can you please identify the double banana plugs you used on the input side of the TIU, I’d like to get some of them!
They're standard .75" spacing dual banana plugs, they're available at a variety of sources.
Thanks for the info John.
Gunrunner John, ditto on the other comments, I’m impressed with your great track work, smooth running trains. You have come a long way and the layout is looking fantastic. Thanks for the video, it’s a really nice model railroad. Happy Railroading Everyone
Love the MTH City of Salina train!
That's one heck of a smooth running layout! Well Done!!
Thanks guys, it's certainly been more fun lately having a real layout to work on. Still working out some LCS kinks, but I'll get there.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Had a couple visitors, they wanted to see trains. I aim to please, so I fired up all the tracks.
Great layout. I really like the curves you made too. Not just a rectangle.
@Dale Guthman posted:Great layout. I really like the curves you made too. Not just a rectangle.
I have to credit @Tom Tee with the curves, he talked me out of the basic rectangle and is responsible for most of the expertise in the carpentry on the layout. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.
John you could charge admission and conduct a “how to” clinic.
Hi John,
Tom T surely knows his carpentry!!!!
What is the brown layer on top of the ply that we see in the video? Is cork? Something else?
Thanks for an enjoyable peek of your trains.
Ed
@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:John you could charge admission and conduct a “how to” clinic.
I'd have to get Tom to conduct a lot of it, his carpentry is what really made the benchwork.
@Ed Kelly posted:Tom T surely knows his carpentry!!!!
What is the brown layer on top of the ply that we see in the video? Is cork? Something else?
That's paint, the surface is 1/2" Baltic Birch multiply topped with 1/2" Homasote. After sealing all the seams in the Homasote with filler, I just painted it with a fairly cheap latex house paint. I just wanted to seal the Homasote and have a somewhat neutral color under the forthcoming landscaping. After painting, the finish layer of the fascia went on.
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Wow, I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve seen it run. I saw plenty of drawings you shared while I was starting my layout but man what a beautiful job you’ve done.
Thanks David, it's been an adventure, it's a never ending adventure it seems, now I'm looking at adding a subway track.
