Griff, that's really a great shot. You need to frame it. Don
Griff Murphey posted:This is my 9 year old grandson setting up his layout. I did not get a good shot of the finished product hopefully he hasn’t taken it down yet!
A few shots of this year’s layout. This is the 8th Christmas I’ve put up a layout, all of them different
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Happy New Year from Jasper's Rock!
Some may recall the back story, I wasn’t able to setup my regular Christmas layout because of recovering from knee replacement surgery. Instead, I made this little diorama on my new layout that I started earlier this year. I only got the last item on it Christmas Eve. I haven’t had time to dig out the Polar Express, so this Western Maryland equipment is standing in.
And yes, I am going to PT as directed and am doing some exercises as I type on the phone. :-)
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Nicely done!
Well, here we are on the 10th Day of Christmas, and I *finally* have a few pics to share of what I did at the office this year. I keep forgetting to bring in my camera, and so I resorted to having one of our staff take some pics on his cell phone for me. They are not great pics, but they will have to do.
The first two are in my personal office, one under the ceiling lights, and one with subdued lighting. They are of the 027 circle I put under a small tree (blue and silver/white school colors!) on top of my filing cabinets:
You've seen the cars before on the Christmas Railcars thread (the boxcar's lights are on but hard to see), and, yes, the puzzle is up all year 'round. Carpet under the board and zip-tie fasteners are reasonably effective attempts to reduce the sound, but the metal filing cabinets act as resonators 
Note the two sets of Nutcracker train set ornaments on the tree.
Next, two pics from different angles of the 4' x 8' I put up in the auditorium for our staff/faculty Christmas party:
The train on the outer 042 loop is a Lionel MPC Berk custom painted/lettered for the MoPac with three kit-built passenger cars (Williams) lettered for MoPac & T&P. On the inner figure eight (the crossing for which came from my first Lionel set in '72) is a Shell tankcar train in memory of my grandfather who bought me my first trains and who worked for Shell for many years. It is pulled by an AA set of blue bonnet Santa Fe Alcos, one of which I added a front coupler to. The short train on the siding is a #41 Army turbine pulling a flatcar with an old Monogram halftrack and trailer on it, a searchlight car, and a baby Madison car with a cupola grafted onto it to mimic a pair of mixed train creations of the Frisco. A small sign stretches between the cars reading "Remember our serving Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen: They stand between your Merry Christmas and those who would deny it to you." The lighted house came from Cracker Barrel many years ago. The church has an old-fashioned music box that plays "Silent Night." There is a painted stream under the bridges, and I salvaged the big tree out of a dumpster. In a previous house, this layout was in our living room, but we don't have enough room in the current house.
Two days of Christmas left after today. I am sad, but I plan to run trains before our term starts Monday and I get very busy.
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Always happy to hear someone is doing T&P!
Palallin, I only got mine posted two days ago. That’s why we have 12 days!! Both office and home look great!!
The end. Its easier to take it down than to put it up.
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Mark Boyce posted:Palallin, I only got mine posted two days ago. That’s why we have 12 days!! Both office and home look great!!
As far as I'm concerned, I'd be thrilled if this thread kept going all year long. Love seeing everybody's holiday layouts and the sharing of ideas. I'm already planning for next Christmas and I haven't even taken down this year's layouts yet…
redrockbill
Mark Boyce posted:Palallin, I only got mine posted two days ago. That’s why we have 12 days!! Both office and home look great!!
That's very heart-warming coming from you, Mark; thank you!
And thanks to all who have liked my posts!
Griff Murphey posted:Always happy to hear someone is doing T&P!
My Texas Eagle is one of my favorites--even if it is unprototypical. I run the Lionel T&P Mohawk in Eagle colors with the Kline set produced to match it. ( a shout out to Dewey Trogdon who sold the set to me at a VERY good price!).
scale rail posted:Griff, that's really a great shot. You need to frame it. Don
Griff Murphey posted:This is my 9 year old grandson setting up his layout. I did not get a good shot of the finished product hopefully he hasn’t taken it down yet!
You're wrong my friend. The best part of this shot is dead center! Takes me back. Neil
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ALL!
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palallin posted:Well, here we are on the 10th Day of Christmas, and I *finally* have a few pics to share of what I did at the office this year. I keep forgetting to bring in my camera, and so I resorted to having one of our staff take some pics on his cell phone for me. They are not great pics, but they will have to do.
The first two are in my personal office, one under the ceiling lights, and one with subdued lighting. They are of the 027 circle I put under a small tree (blue and silver/white school colors!) on top of my filing cabinets:
You've seen the cars before on the Christmas Railcars thread (the boxcar's lights are on but hard to see), and, yes, the puzzle is up all year 'round. Carpet under the board and zip-tie fasteners are reasonably effective attempts to reduce the sound, but the metal filing cabinets act as resonators
Next, two pics from different angles of the 4' x 8' I put up in the auditorium for our staff/faculty Christmas party:
The train on the outer 042 loop is a Lionel MPC Berk custom painted/lettered for the MoPac with three kit-built passenger cars (Williams) lettered for MoPac & T&P. On the inner figure eight (the crossing for which came from my first Lionel set in '72) is a Shell tankcar train in memory of my grandfather who bought me my first trains and who worked for Shell for many years. It is pulled by an AA set of blue bonnet Santa Fe Alcos, one of which I added a front coupler to. The short train on the siding is a #41 Army turbine pulling a flatcar with an old Monogram halftrack and trailer on it, a searchlight car, and a baby Madison car with a cupola grafted onto it to mimic a pair of mixed train creations of the Frisco. A small sign stretches between the cars reading "Remember our serving Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen: They stand between your Merry Christmas and those who would deny it to you." The lighted house came from Cracker Barrel many years ago. The church has an old-fashioned music box that plays "Silent Night." There is a painted stream under the bridges, and I salvaged the big tree out of a dumpster. In a previous house, this layout was in our living room, but we don't have enough room in the current house.
Two days of Christmas left after today. I am sad, but I plan to run trains before our term starts Monday and I get very busy.
I really like how you think -- the symbolism behind the trains, etc. Thanks for taking the time to delineate things for us. You've done a fine job representing our beloved 3-rail O trains to non-trainiacs. Is that a 31-in. circle atop the filing cabinets?
Daniel Raible posted:jhz563 posted:Daniel Raible posted:I tried something very different this year for around the tree, and ditched the big plywood trainboard.
Instead, I built hardwood sectional roadbed bases from figured maple, and attached Flexxbed foam to that. Very happy with the results! The layout runs much quieter, and I like that the modularity of the track is retained for expansion.
Looks very nice. This follows a couple different methods for noise reduction-eliminate the part this reverberating and when in doubt throw more mass at the source!
Thanks, and agreed! The foam and wood combination are working really well. If the layout was on a hardwood floor I would add some felt feet to each piece to protect the finish, and that might also help with the soun
Daniel Raible posted:jhz563 posted:Daniel Raible posted:I tried something very different this year for around the tree, and ditched the big plywood trainboard.
Instead, I built hardwood sectional roadbed bases from figured maple, and attached Flexxbed foam to that. Very happy with the results! The layout runs much quieter, and I like that the modularity of the track is retained for expansion.
Looks very nice. This follows a couple different methods for noise reduction-eliminate the part this reverberating and when in doubt throw more mass at the source!
Thanks, and agreed! The foam and wood combination are working really well. If the layout was on a hardwood floor I would add some felt feet to each piece to protect the finish, and that might also help with the sound damping.
Daniel Raible posted:jhz563 posted:Daniel Raible posted:I tried something very different this year for around the tree, and ditched the big plywood trainboard.
Instead, I built hardwood sectional roadbed bases from figured maple, and attached Flexxbed foam to that. Very happy with the results! The layout runs much quieter, and I like that the modularity of the track is retained for expansion.
Looks very nice. This follows a couple different methods for noise reduction-eliminate the part this reverberating and when in doubt throw more mass at the source!
Thanks, and agreed! The foam and wood combination are working really well. If the layout was on a hardwood floor I would add some felt feet to each piece to protect the finish, and that might also help with the sound damping.
Daniel Raible posted:MikeH posted:Daniel Raible posted:I tried something very different this year for around the tree, and ditched the big plywood trainboard.
Instead, I built hardwood sectional roadbed bases from figured maple, and attached Flexxbed foam to that. Very happy with the results! The layout runs much quieter, and I like that the modularity of the track is retained for expansion.
Daniel, that is a great idea and well executed. I really like your custom lock-on section. Well done.
Thank you! It was a decent amount of work, but now that there is a complete loop it would be easy to make a few more sections, like for turnouts.
I might do something similar to raise the transformer up a bit, and give a platform for control switches.
jhz563 posted:Daniel Raible posted:I tried something very different this year for around the tree, and ditched the big plywood trainboard.
Instead, I built hardwood sectional roadbed bases from figured maple, and attached Flexxbed foam to that. Very happy with the results! The layout runs much quieter, and I like that the modularity of the track is retained for expansion.
Looks very nice. This follows a couple different methods for noise reduction-eliminate the part this reverberating and when in doubt throw more mass at the source!
Very nice woodworking and quite unique! 2 Q's: 1) that is sectional Gargraves isn't it? and 2) while not familiar with flexxbed foam, is the track screwed thru it, into the wood?
Griff Murphey posted:This is my 9 year old grandson setting up his layout. I did not get a good shot of the finished product hopefully he hasn’t taken it down yet!
If you cropped the top off just above the couch, it could be a GREAT Lionel catalog cover photo !! Classic, the best kind - largely unplanned, just capturing the basic love of trains and family.
BurlingtonBill posted:Griff Murphey posted:This is my 9 year old grandson setting up his layout. I did not get a good shot of the finished product hopefully he hasn’t taken it down yet!
If you cropped the top off just above the couch, it could be a GREAT Lionel catalog cover photo !! Classic, the best kind - largely unplanned, just capturing the basic love of trains and family.
Griff,
Attached is the same photo only modified as per BurlingtonBill's suggestion.
It is a great photo.
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Thank you, Bill. To answer your questions, yes the Gargraves track is sectional. I used the O-42 curves and the 37" and 6.2" straight sections as patterns.
I used a few wood screws to hold the track down to the wood, after predrilling some holes. For the best acoustic isolation you would want to just glue the track to the foam, but the penalty is not much. On the curved pieces I found the screws very helpful for keeping everything aligned.
Daniel Raible posted:Thank you, Bill. To answer your questions, yes the Gargraves track is sectional. I used the O-42 curves and the 37" and 6.2" straight sections as patterns.
I used a few wood screws to hold the track down to the wood, after predrilling some holes. For the best acoustic isolation you would want to just glue the track to the foam, but the penalty is not much. On the curved pieces I found the screws very helpful for keeping everything aligned.
Sounds like you may have compared the sound level with the track simply laying on the foam vs. post-screwing sections down. Very thorough. Guess I should have suspected you'd tried that already - anyone with the attention to detail that you must have, with the quality of the woodwork, I'd expect nothing less.
BurlingtonBill posted:Griff Murphey posted:This is my 9 year old grandson setting up his layout. I did not get a good shot of the finished product hopefully he hasn’t taken it down yet!
If you cropped the top off just above the couch, it could be a GREAT Lionel catalog cover photo !! Classic, the best kind - largely unplanned, just capturing the basic love of trains and family.
Griff - PERFECT !! Someone should send that (in) to either OGR :-) or CTT - they might use it for the Dec 2020 issue. Nice job !!
Griff - PERFECT !! Someone should send that (in) to either OGR :-) or CTT - they might use it for the Dec 2020 issue. Nice job !!
BurlingtonBill posted:I really like how you think -- the symbolism behind the trains, etc. Thanks for taking the time to delineate things for us. You've done a fine job representing our beloved 3-rail O trains to non-trainiacs. Is that a 31-in. circle atop the filing cabinets?
Thank you, Bill. The circle is 027, which limits my train selections but is the only practical option in the office.
I'm thinking about doing something like this for my own office's small lobby for next year. O27 would probably have to be used here, as well. Thanks for the inspiration !
Here are a few more shots and a video of my simple O-60 around-the-tree loop. I rotated motive power over the Holidays just to mix things up a bit. My Lionel Erie Mikado was in charge this day...
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UKE KAT posted:
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!!! 🎄🚂🎅🏻
I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would see a "Shaky Santa" on this thread! A classic from the early 90's! 
(while I assume maybe they were sold elsewhere as well, I was working at Radio Shack during Christmas breaks in the early to mid 90's and this was one of the coolest things I remember from all the Christmas toys we got in.)
-Dave
On this evening of the Twelfthnight, the 12th Day of Christmas, here is one last post from me. This is a pic of the Marx Walgreens Army set that was under my tree on the 1st Day of Christmas. Here it is on the layout, paused at the Bethlehem Whistle Stop to partake of some peace on Earth, goodwill to Men during its patrols along the ROW. Even though the Christmas season is drawing to a close for this year, let us remember every day those soldiers, sailors, Marines, Airmen, and Coast Guardsmen who are away from their homes doing their part to secure temporal peace while we await the 2nd Advent of Christ and Eternal Peace, God and sinner reconciled.
May the rest of your year be filled with blessings, and don't forget to start thinking about what to do for Christmas trains in 2020!
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Excellent scene Palallin! Amen! I have a couple of Nativities I use on Christmas layouts. Honoring our armed forces is fitting as they have secured the right for each of us to to hold to our own faith or no religious faith if one so chooses.
I re-illuminated my 13-foot exterior tree this evening for Orthodox Christmas eve. Will leave it lit tomorrow for Orthodox Christmas. The day of Christ manifestation to the gentile world with the appearance of the magi.
From what I had heard my great grandfather was a Russian Orthodox Priest.
Ron
Here's my unfinished Christmas prewar layout that I started this year. I won't get a lot more done to it until next year. It needs a lot of snow treatment yet, more lights, decorations, and the table will be trimmed out to look like a Lionel catalogue layout from the 1920's or 1930's. I am making a winter scenic plot. You can see the beginnings of this on the left. It will have hedges, steps, snow on the trees and buildings(?) All original Lionel pre-war with a few exceptions. I am trying to see what sort of cozy nostalgic city scene I can come up with without resorting to ceramic village buildings.
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