My Triple Level Layout - Anthracite Hi-Railers Visit - 1/5/24

@Richizzle07 posted:

UPDATE #16

Only a few minor updates to report on the layout. I secured all the remaining track on the first level in the area of the closet extension. I once again used zip ties to help prevent with the sound being transferred into the plywood.

As you can see in the first photo above, I also drilled and installed the feeder wires for the track power. Added a few more since I’m going to have isolated track sections throughout the yard extension. At the end of the yard I simply installed spade connectors in the tracks and draped the feeder wires over the back edge in the closet.

More updates to come down the line! Happy Railroading Everyone!

Rich- nice progress. The tie-wraps are a good idea. Looks like you are keeping your credit card busy too.

One word of caution regarding the spade connector on the center rail. Just make sure it's not going to touch the tie or you will have a dead short in no time.

Bob

@RSJB18 Thanks Bob for pointing that out! I didn’t even take this into consideration until now. Those four tracks are the only ones with the connectors that close. I’ll crimp the tracks tighter on those 4 track sections. Appreciate you pointing this out! Thanks again!

Rich,

I just went through the whole thread. Sorry to hear about Dream, I’ve been there too. You work fast! Lots of activity and progress in a short time. I like the adjustments you’ve made along the way. We always need a backup plan…Keep up the good work.

Andy

@Steamfan77 Thanks Andy for the compliments and kind words. I really wouldn’t have gotten as far or probably even started at all if it wasn’t for this forum. Watching others build their layouts keeps me motivated in my build. I’m only hoping my landscape details are like yours. I don’t see getting into the in-depth scenery anytime soon though. Plus with my amount of adjustments, it might be best until I’m certain especially with the prices on some of the items.

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

I was planning on doing the Nicholson/Tunkhannock Viaduct coming off the third layer and going onto the extension in the closet, but it would really have  things crammed underneath. I opted out of that idea and grabbed some MTH single track arch and girder bridges in the rush color. Now to figure out what type of piers/supports I can use for the 18 inch height I need.

Rich, I understand your choice.  The Nicholson Viaduct or any other such viaduct, would be a tremendous focal point on a layout.  However, as you realized, they dictate what you can do underneath.  On our always too small layouts, the decision needs to be made whether it is worth it.  The MTH bridges are an excellent choice!

Thanks @Mark Boyce. I’m really liking these MTH bridges. I can also just go to the local club, Back Mountain Railroad Club, and check out their viaduct. They sure did some nice details under theirs. Here’s a few photos.

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Just picked up the Lionel Pennsylvania Flyer set 6-31936 off a local Facebook group. It wasn’t on my list but at only $50 (worth mentioning IMO) that’s perfect considering I wanted to pick up a CW-80 transformer anyways. Lady selling it didn’t know anything about them. Everything is there except 1 canister and one deck piece of the caboose. It’s all working too! Doesn’t look like too much run time on it. Another happy purchase!

Rich, the Back Mountain Club did a great job with theirs; the backdrop really helps also

I know that this is late to the show, however, in keeping with the title of this thread I thought to share how benchwork can be constructed for a triple decker module with out front support members.  Simply cut all the fingers from the same sheet of plywood.

You can layout the cutting so the fingers interlace so as to minimize waste:

You can always cut lightening holes for hand carry portable modules:

Lightening holes should be in the center of any beam no larger than 1/3 the width of the beam to maintain strength.

Tom Tee

What is the thickness of that plywood?

Thanks

23/32" Baltic Birch.  15/32" Multi ply would also work fine.

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

I recently picked up two more 022 switches. The lantern covers are missing the lenses, other then that they work great. I cleaned them up a little with some scotchbrite pads.

Last week I also received a couple of Menards rolling stock. I got a Conrail boxcar, Conrail tanker, Conrail hopper, and the silver M&Ms boxcar.

The gentleman I ordered the Conrail from also included a Menards Morton Salt pickup for free since it was missing the plug. No complaints here!

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE

Over the past week or so I have added a few different items from a tanker to pillars, even candy!

First up is a CSX tanker from Menards.

Next up is another addition to my never ending candy collection. Here is my new set of 4 Hershey’s Reese’s Pieces Hauling Cars. Great set of Ores! The Reese’s Pieces candy loads are awesome!

Following that candy excitement are some MTH stone pillars.

Final 3 items I picked up over this past weekend came from the Hamburg Dutch Train Meet. My first time attending and it was a nice sized show. I grabbed 2 Lehigh Valley hoppers and an Erie Lackawanna ore car. I’m thinking the ore car is custom because I’m not finding any information on it.

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE

I recently received 10 Menards cars from an extremely nice gentleman I met through a Facebook train group.

First up are a few of the M&Ms cars. These have been on my list for sometime now. Great additions to my never ending candy collection!

Next up is a Tide boxcar, a few CSX, PRR, Reading, and a Reading & Northern.

That’s all for now. Many more in the process of being delivered so stay tuned!

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Over this past weekend I attended a Trains, Die Cast Toys, & Railroad Memorabilia Show held at the Taylor Fire Department in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. This was my first time ever at the show and it was much larger than I was expecting. I picked up 7 boxcars and saw several other very interesting items but I was thinking about York coming up and decided to hold off.

My first six boxcars are MTH Christmas and Holiday cars from numerous years. Guess I’ll need to finish this collection now too! 😂

The last boxcar I picked up from the show is a Lionel Norfolk Southern boxcar.

It was a great show that I’ll be sure to attend in the future! Here’s the entire haul!

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE! (Delayed post)

I just realized this Menards CSX tanker didn’t make it into a post from back in mid August so here it is now.

Heck of a fleet you have assembled in a short time! Opening all that stuff up is the best!

@BillYo414 posted:

Heck of a fleet you have assembled in a short time! Opening all that stuff up is the best!

Thanks! It’s like Christmas morning all over again! Plus I have a few more shipments already in route so it’ll be like Christmas at least twice this week! 😂

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

My next shipment of Menards cars have arrived. There’s 8 total Menards and 1 Lionel PRR boxcar.

I grabbed a second M&Ms brown hopper and my first M&Ms yellow hopper along with the Life Savers tanker.

Following the candy rush, is a Tide tanker, my second CSX hopper, Norfolk Southern flat with Pepsi Bottle truck, US Navy gondola, and a PRR gondola.

And here’s the Lionel PRR boxcar along with a photo of this entire package.

More packages are still on the way! Stay Tuned!

I agree with Bill, you are building a fleet quickly!!

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Another shipment of Menards have arrived!! This package contained 7 cars and 1 buildings.

First up is a PRR boxcar and a PRR(Norfolk Southern) hopper followed by an Erie Lackawanna hopper, US Army gondola, a Morton Salt boxcar, a J.P. Shepherd and Sons boxcar, and a Menards boxcar.

The one building I received is Dave’s Garage.

A photo of this shipment.

I’m sure excited with this continuous haul! There’s still more packages in route so continue to stay tuned!

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

The next order of Menards items arrived over the weekend. This shipment had 10 cars total, 8 tankers and 2 flats.

First up are the tankers. There’s a weathered Valvoline, Pepsi, Burlington Northern, Texaco, Norfolk Southern, Sunoco, UTLX, and an US Air Force tanker.

Following that massive influx of tankers are these two PRR flats.

Here’s the photo of this shipment of 10.

And there’s still more to come!!!

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Last week I had another shipment of cars arrive. This order consisted of 9 Menards cars and a Lionel Old Glory series of 3 boxcars.

First up are the nine Menards cars. Here they are: a Erie Lackawanna boxcar, Lehigh Valley boxcar, Lehigh Valley covered hopper, Union Pacific modern tanker, UTLX modern tanker, Quaker State Oil tanker, US Army tanker in camouflage, US Army modern tanker, and an US Army flat with Army Truck and HIMARS.

And here’s the Lionel Old Glory Series set of three boxcars that was included in this order.

An overall photo of this shipment.

There’s still more to come from this seller but we are taking a pause for York so more to follow afterwards!

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Over the weekend I went to The Great Northeast Model Train Show hosted by Bernie’s Model Railroad in Dunmore, PA. Great show and it’s the closest show to my house so that’s a big bonus. I grabbed 7 cars total. Would have been more but I’m holding out for York.

Here’s the cars I picked up. A Lionel Wonder Bread Bicentennial hopper, Lionel Planters Peanuts covered hopper, a Lionel PBR reefer (which was my grandfather’s favorite beer), along with 4 more MTH Christmas boxcars.

This was my second time attending this show and it’s always great! Here’s an overall photo of my haul.

The purchasing manager has been quite busy!  I like the Christmas cars.

@Mark Boyce posted:

The purchasing manager has been quite busy!  I like the Christmas cars.

Thanks Mark! I’ve come to realize that MTH made a Christmas boxcar and a Holiday boxcar(plus a New Years boxcar). All the more I’ll need to hunt down! I was born December 17th so I love Christmas. Very nice cars IMO.

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

I received two separate orders of Menards cars I won on eBay so these are separate from the Menards collection I’ve been receiving over the past few weeks.

Six Menards cars total. There’s a CSX flat with Pepsi truck, Norfolk Southern boxcar, Reading hopper, Susquehanna boxcar, PRR Merchandise Service boxcar, and a Penn Central boxcar. (The last 3 have some fading to the plastic clamshells.)

Here’s an overall photo of the two orders. This SHOULD be the last purchases prior to York but then again there’s a Renningers Flash Train Meet on Saturday.

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Today I went to the Renningers Flash Train Meet in Kutztown, PA. This is one of my favorite shows because it’s outside and there’s also a farmer’s market that’s separate. There were a few things that caught my eye (both Halloween tables) but I’m thinking of York next week so I was actually able to contain myself LoL.

I only purchased one boxcar and of course it is a Menards military nose art boxcar.

Now for a week of scanning the “For Sale” section with free York Delivery. Already picking up 15 cars as of now LoL! So more to come next week!

Wow Rich, might want to build some display shelves too.

Andy

@Steamfan77 posted:

Wow Rich, might want to build some display shelves too.

Andy

Yeah Andy I was thinking that. I really like the idea @Former Member gave me back in the middle of page 2 of this thread by building display shelves below the layout that can move out. I also have some wall space closer to the ceiling available.

FALL YORK 2022 PURCHASES!

This was my second York I attended and I once again had a blast! My mom also once again tagged along for our traincation bonding so it’s now becoming a pleasant routine thing. She’s learning a bunch about trains and is actually pointing stuff out that I’m missing while in “my zone” walking the isles LoL. The staff at the registration desk were once again wonderful and we are both new TCA members. The halls seemed much more packed with buyers compared to the Spring. Especially on Friday, the parking lot seemed a lot more packed and stayed pretty full throughout the day. I once again only went Thursday and Friday due to running out of money. One of these Yorks I’ll make it to Saturday!  LoL!

Day one (Thursday) started with me waking up to find out I won on an eBay auction in which I was bidding on an item I’ve only come across once before. EBay doesn’t sleep during York week! LoL! (More details on that item once it arrives.) Then a two hour drive down to York after I emptied out the ATM. Once we got there, I began with meeting up with two fellow OGR members that I made purchases off of. Thanks again Nathan and Jim! Then as I mentioned above, we went and joined the TCA and purchased our tickets. I was able to navigate all the halls except half of the orange hall on day one. My purchases consisted of 13 Menards rolling stock, 1 Lionel boxcar, 6 Menards Dodge Power Wagons, 3 Lionelville Main Street buildings, and a refurbished ZW transformer with 2 year warranty along with a refurbished KW transformer with 2 year warranty. We also had lunch at the food cart by the white/red halls. Here’s photos of my Day one purchases.
Here’s all of Day 1!

Day two (Friday) started with us finishing out the rest of the orange hall. After that, I met with another OGR member that I was getting 3 FREE big boxes of empty Lionel and Menards boxes including a few empty Menards clamshells (plastic cartons). We also had a few rolling stock to exchange and he gave me a FREE hopper cover too. Thanks again John! Following that, we went back through all the halls and started negotiating on a few items I liked. I picked up the third and final Lionel reefer for the Hamm’s collection in memory of my late brother. I also grabbed 3 more Menards rolling stock, the MTH Old Line Flag Co. building, 3 MTH political rolling stock (one being my first purple box), and 4 boxcars from the Spirit of ‘76 collection. (If you can’t see the train car, then the box is empty. I also blocked out the political cars so let’s please leave it at that.) Here’s photos of my Day 2 purchase’s.Here’s all of day 2!

And here’s my entire Fall York Haul!

I had an amazing second York experience! Everyone was friendly again and very helpful. I’m already starting to see familiar faces. My list had items crossed off but items also were added for future hunts. LoL. Another note was how magnificent the layouts were! There were more on display than in the Spring which was great! I’m hoping they continue to expand! I already could hardly wait until the spring meet next year!

Thank you to everyone in the EDTCA, volunteers, vendors, sellers, members, etc. that made all of this possible once again!!

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Well I gave myself one day off from buying on Saturday but back at it again Sunday! I met up with the gentleman (and his wife) that I’ve been purchasing all the Menards from. Really wonderful people! We met at the Tamaqua Train Station for brunch and to exchange these buildings in person so shipping didn’t bankrupt me. LoL! He also included 2 piggly wiggly pickup trucks and a military flat with Leopard tank. Thanks again Dean!

Now you’re probably wondering where these buildings are going to fit?! Well there’s another addition in the works! It’s only being planned out for now but once I start this expansion area, I’ll have photos with more updates.

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Wow! Three updates in one day! A few days ago there was a thread about “DHL vans at Lowes”.  Well coincidentally about a week before that I was at Big Lots and they had a selection of die cast 1/48 scale vehicles in the Christmas section. A UPS van actually caught my attention and while I was there yesterday buying a certain Christmas garlin for my ATV in the Christmas parade, I tossed it into the basket. A very minor purchase compared to my past weekend! LoL!

Now I might have to go up Lowes to grab that DHL van too. LoL! Thanks @Engineer-Joe! It contagious!

I've only been with the Forum since May of 2019 Rich, but IMHO you win the Most Humongous Fast Haul Award.

( it also seems you are on fast forward with your layout construct.  )

Thanks for sharing your wildly enthusiastic approach to model railroading.

@Dallas Joseph posted:

I've only been with the Forum since May of 2019 Rich, but IMHO you win the Most Humongous Fast Haul Award.

( it also seems you are on fast forward with your layout construct.  )

Thanks for sharing your wildly enthusiastic approach to model railroading.

Thanks Joe! I suppose you can say I hit the tracks running. LoL! All that matters is I’m having a blast with the rebuild and all the purchases. I’m definitely glad I found my way back into the hobby this past January. This forum has also opened this hobby up to levels I wasn’t even aware of.

Rich, we are glad you found your way back to the hobby and the Forum!  You are building quite a fleet and some structures as well.  I had the opportunity to buy more than I ever had or will again, during a few years near the end of my working days when I was given a retirement severance package, then was hired back as a contractor.  Do what you can when you can!  😄

@Mark Boyce posted:

Rich, we are glad you found your way back to the hobby and the Forum!  You are building quite a fleet and some structures as well.  I had the opportunity to buy more than I ever had or will again, during a few years near the end of my working days when I was given a retirement severance package, then was hired back as a contractor.  Do what you can when you can!  😄

Thanks Mark! I still have a bunch more to be shipped from the estate I’m buying the Menards from. Need a brief break after York and from the large building haul last Sunday. With the weather getting colder, I’m hoping to start accomplishing more in the train room. A few areas of the blueprints have had adjustments over my summer buying months. It’s like a living layout, it’s always growing. LoL!

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

The item I won while sleeping and resting up for the first day of York had arrived last week. It’s the MTH Pennsylvania Ticket Office. I’ve only come across this building one other time and missed out on it then. I’m really excited I got this crossed off my list.

My next new purchase was from the Trains,Die Cast Toys, & Railroad Memorabilia Show at the Taylor Fire Department in Taylor, PA. This was my second time attending this show and I really enjoy it. There’s seems to be always great deals at this show and people are very negotiable. It’s right up the road from me too so that’s a major bonus. I came across this Lionel Dale Earnhardt Sr. Boxcar and I knew I needed it despite never even knowing about it. The Intimidator was my family’s favorite driver back in the day. I honestly believe NASCAR hasn’t been the same ever since. RIP #3

NEW PURCHASE UPDATE!

Well I completed this collection of vehicles this past week. LoL! Thanks @Engineer-Joe for initiating this hunt!