Mark
Looks like a conundrum. 
Mark I think the town area from the choices provided would work best. Could you take the painting to a local copy shop like Office Max, Office Depot or Kinkos and get a color copy made and cut and mount next to the right side to extend the water area or woods on the left?
Mark, perhaps find another place in the room you can hang it - for the memories. And just go ahead and do you backgrounds so they match the layout. I have (as do others) several photos and other images, posters, ads hanging from my walls, but not where they would interfere with the optics of the layout. just my 2 cents since you asked. Looks like you are making great progress. Jeff
Mark, I an with Jeff, Hank it on another wall so you can see it while your in your train room so you always have something to smile about!
Mike
Thank you everyone!!!!
Dave, I agree, it is a perfect fit.
Jeff and Mike, I understand what you mean. This is the only wall space that doesn't have layout; between the two doors. I took down a picture and quickly put Aunt Twila's up. I'm given pictures, and don't have a place to hang them, so they are stacked in a closet. Maybe I should rotate them like rotating rolling stock.
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Rich, you do have a good idea about the copy shop. We have an Office Depot that has a copy area.
@Rich Wiemann posted:Mark I think the town area from the choices provided would work best. Could you take the painting to a local copy shop like Office Max, Office Depot or Kinkos and get a color copy made and cut and mount next to the right side to extend the water area or woods on the left?
Mark,
That's pretty cool that you are incorporating a meaningful family painting into your layout. If you get frustrated, you can always take a photo and size it to scale and store the original. If you did that you might even be able to use the photo in more than one place.
Mike
Thank you, Mike (Iron Horse). That is a good idea too!
Mark, don't try to force it if it don't fit. If you try to force it in, it will stand out and take away from the rest of the layout. It's great if you can make it fit naturally but don't try to force it.
That is a beautiful painting Mark. I think you found the right spot for it too. It was way out of scale for the layout. Resizing a copy might work if you decide to use it on the layout though. Everything else looks good.
Don't know about you, but broom stick handles were stick ball bats where I come from 
. My dad went looking for a spare one day and was wondering why the handle was wrapped with tape. 
Bob
Thank you, Pat and Bob!! I am thinking you are both right. If it was someone else's layout, I would say it looks good on the layout. However, I agree the scale bothers me as much as it not blending in well with the rest of the backdrop.
Bob, no stickball here. I have always felt sorry for kids I saw in movies playing stickball in the street. Where I come from, there was no one else to play ball with except my brother. We had one regular bat and ball. We played catch or hit fly balls to each other. As we got older and stronger, we moved from the front yard, to the bottom of our steep hill, to the neighbor's pasture. Yes, the pasture had land mines to dodge!
Growing up in the Bronx, I played stickball all the time. We played in the street using cars and the sewers as basis and we played in parking lots on the weekends using a square drawn on a wall as a strike zone. Now, living on Long Island, I don't see much stick ball played.
Yes Pat, you described just what I remember seeing in the movies. Since this is my topic thread I approve this message; Pat and Bob.
How about hockey? I remember The Penguins had Joey Mullen on their first Stanley Cup teams, who grew up in the "Hells Kitchen" area of New York playing hockey with a discarded stick and roll of electrical tape for a puck. He ended up on two Stanley Cup championships with the Penguins and one with Calgary and is a Hall of Famer.
Stickball on a wall at school- the box was for balls and strikes. Us suburban kids from Lawn Guyland.... didn't use manholes
Street hockey was played with a roll of friction tape for a puck. We played roller hockey for years on the streets. We used to be proud of a perfectly worn roll that slid easily on the pavement. new rolls always took a while to break in.
Mark I think behind the engine would be perfect just raise as high as you can. Then every time you look at that corner you see a beautiful picture and you paint the are under the painting to match the backdrop and blend into the painting. Also the yard under the table is working out great along with the engine house. Really looking good keep up the great progress.
Looking good, Mark.
I would vote for getting a scale-downed copy made and then mounting the copy in an area where it can blend in more with your scenery and backdrops and keep the original in the closet for safekeeping.
I have the same problem of more pictures and posters than wall space to hang them.
@Oman posted:Mark
Looks like a conundrum.
Yes Keith; looks like a conundrum!!
Thank you, Rick and Richie!!
So, as I suspected, more good options were added to the conundrum! Like all layout conundrums, I'll have to sit on the ideas for a while. All have merit, and all have possible problems. I have the cork roadbed down and sanded it down to a taper before getting to where the wye switch will be. I have had problems getting a good taper where I had to go down to the bare wood to get more room under the overpass. So this time, I slopped on some spackling with the wide trowel. It already is smoother, but we will see what it is like after it dries.
@Mark Boyce posted:I have the cork roadbed down and sanded it down to a taper
That's an advantage with cork, that I didn't consider when I went with a foam roadbed. 
I have a poor transition. I'll have to remove the foam roadbed, sand down my plywood sub-roadbed and re-install. I imagine cork is easier to sand than plywood. 
Mark,
Good decision with the painting. One of the things you can do with the area is create a horseshoe-shaped hill that fills in the joint between the backdrop and the wall behind the engine house. Fill the corner with a hill and then plant some trees to blend it in with the backdrop.
Lookin' good!
George
@Oman posted:That's an advantage with cork, that I didn't consider when I went with a foam roadbed.
I have never tried foam, but I can see where it would be difficult to taper. You are so right; cork is certainly easier to sand than plywood! The thing is, it is easy to take off too much and get dips and when it gets thin then the edges crumble off haphazardly. 
It doesn't have to be perfect because I paint it gray first before putting track down, just to make it look a bit like ballast. Later, I'll ballast and won't know there are such imperfections.
@G3750 posted:Mark,
Good decision with the painting. One of the things you can do with the area is create a horseshoe-shaped hill that fills in the joint between the backdrop and the wall behind the engine house. Fill the corner with a hill and then plant some trees to blend it in with the backdrop.
Lookin' good!
George
Thank you, George! You are right whatever I do for a backdrop, I can blend in with foreground scenery. That is why I didn't completely fasten to the backdrops I bought from you to the supports. I will do that from underneath, then stand on my two step platform to attach to the top. That way, I can raise or lower the backdrop sections some to better fit the scenery. I'm glad I drove to your old house and bought them from you!! 
I'm glad, too. It's nice to see them go to a good home and have a second life.
George
Over the last two very rainy days, I worked on the track for the enginehouse and wye. Everything fits, and running a car over everything by hand didn't turn up any glaring problems. I don't have any wires connected to try it out. The wye switch machine caused a bit of a problem because when I laid out the track temporarily, it was where the front corner foundation of the enginehouse should be. I was able to shift it to the left enough to clear and, I still the track all fit. The wye turns so sharply, you can't flip the switch machine around, and since this is on the outside of the main operating area I don't want to use manual throws. It would be awkward to have to lift up the bridges each time I want to operate the switch.
Today was cleaning up some leaves in the cold and then I took a nap. That is all the track I have planned to install, but I do want to run down to McCormick's Hardware on Monday and get a Ross switch to replace the GarGraves I had mechanical trouble with. I hope to get some wiring done soon.
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Mark, things are really looking good! I cant wait to see it up and running! I wish I would have taken a nap today. LOL But no I pushed on in the train room. Going to post in what did you do on your layout today!
I hope your having wonderful weekend!
That looks great Mark. Ideas like that give me something to strive towards.
Jay
Looks great Mark! Love those Western Maryland colors next to your engine shed. With 3 kids, 5 and under, a nap is only something I can dream about, although I did sneak a quick 10 min one in today only because my mom came to visit and she kept the kids occupied 😁
Thank you Mike, Jay, and Michael. Jay, I'm glad to provide someone with some inspiration. I think that though I have built layouts before, my skills aren't what I would like. I have to know that no matter what I do, someone will be pleased.
Michael, I remember being 40 with 2 kids under 5, and there were no naps either; including the toddlers. Those two girls never would nap. Well they grew up and that was just shy of 25 years ago. I don't sleep the best any more, and with the cold wind that takes a lot out of me, I was whipped.
Great progress Mark, would an under table switch machine help at all?
Why not replace the DZ1000 switch machine with a new, much shorter DZ2500? It will give you more room for the Enginehouse. Or, as suggested above, install an under the table Tortoise?
Donald
Mark really making great progress looks good. A little thing I learned about raking leaves if you don’t have any fencing let them become someone else problem the wind will insure that
Thank you, John, Donald, and Rick.
An under the table switch machine would be a good choice except it would stick down into the yard area, and even if it cleared the tops of the cars, I would be bumping it. Someone with better skill than me could maybe put it under the yard and rig a linkage up top, I suppose. I have one Tortoise I bought years ago, but never used, because I ended up using manual throws. I know it would hit boxcars and even open hoppers.
Donald, I did not realize the DZ2500 is much shorter. This is the first I have used Z-stuff and just bought a bunch of DZ1000s. I'll have to look at the DZ2500. Thank you.
Rick, We did that back home, although since they just blew over the hill to the weeds by the crick they became no one's problem. Here, there is a chain link fence at the lower rear of the property that my wife's grandma had put in when she lived here. To the east of us, the guy has let a bank grow up in weeds, so they leaves swirl around at the edge of our yard and the dog tracks them in. I was just watching them swirl while I was washing lunch dishes. We actually only have 3 trees now, but we get leaves from across the road and the neighbor to the west. If I don't do anything, they blow down to the garage door and swirl around coming in anytime you open the door. The same thing happens at the patio that is at the back door. Everything works against me! No wonder my mother-in-law wanted us to buy this place from her so badly! At least this year I am not working, so I can blow and grind up leaves on weekdays instead of working at night with the floodlights on as in previous years.
Looking good!
Peter
Engine house area looks great Mark! It started spitting snow here a bit today which means its almost train room time again lol. Keep up the great work!
Mark, I like the clever use of the wye incorporated into the engine house. BTW, your issue with manual switch operation reminded me of a diy non-electrical turnout throw I recall seeing on youtube for HO or O. It involved a push/pull lever system operated from the edge of the layout for a remote switch. One of my atlas electric switch machines quit a long time ago and I am going to look into a diy project to make a manual remote.
@Mark Boyce posted:Thank you, John, Donald, and Rick.
Rick, We did that back home, although since they just blew over the hill to the weeds by the crick they became no one's problem. Here, there is a chain link fence at the lower rear of the property that my wife's grandma had put in when she lived here. To the east of us, the guy has let a bank grow up in weeds, so they leaves swirl around at the edge of our yard and the dog tracks them in. I was just watching them swirl while I was washing lunch dishes. We actually only have 3 trees now, but we get leaves from across the road and the neighbor to the west. If I don't do anything, they blow down to the garage door and swirl around coming in anytime you open the door. The same thing happens at the patio that is at the back door. Everything works against me!
Mark my biggest tree is about 6 feet and no pines trees but a yard full of leaves and pine needles blowing in from the next door neighbor who has a small forest in their yard.
Mark,
My kids and their friends have been raking the leaves in our yard, putting them in their wagon and creating a big pile to jump in. Eventually I will blow them under the row of cypress tress that surrounds the yard...or just let the wind take care of them!
A while ago I saw someone post on here a neat setup they had for mounting DZ2500 switches under the table. I have the link bookmarked somewhere. If I find it I will send it to you. I saved it because I am considering mounting my DZ1000 switch machines under the table for a more realistic look. I know it is a lot more work but I am up for the challenge...at least at this point.
Michael
Thank you Peter, Lance, Pennsynut, Michael.
Yes Lance, it was sleeting here a bit ago. A Forum friend in Northeast Ohio sent me a photograph showing it is snowing there right now. It is forecast for here overnight.
I looked up the DZ2500, and see it says it is 2/3 the size of the DZ1000. That is just the ticket Donald, since the enginehouse is pushed almost up to the backdrop right now! I just checked and Jeff McCormick has the DZ2500 in stock. I added it to my list for the trip tomorrow since the weather will be too bad to clean up leaves.
Michael, I have seen where folks have said they mounted theirs underneath, but don't have a good reference on that.
Here are where my neighbors' leaves end up, trying to bury my 17-year old Hyundai. This was clean this morning. We have had them come in to the top of the steps before. Of course the snow does the same thing. 
The problem with them at the back fence is they bury my wife's lilies of the valley and other flowers, so I have to get them out of there before early spring. I almost didn't make it this March.
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This is just a quick update to report I did get down to McCormick's Hardware in Zelienople this afternoon and purchased 2 Ross switches, one 042 LH to replace the GarGraves I put on the lower siding and one #4 RH to replace the used GarGraves at the back end of the upper passing siding that I wasn't quite happy with. It is too high and close to the wall to fiddle with. Also, I bought a DZ2500 for the wye switch. I laid each down over the existing trackage, and both will only require some easy cutting and fitting to get everything aligned.
With that, all the track will be installed. Yesterday, I did make 4 wiring connections with the Waco snap connectors that someone suggested on another Forum topic. It is hard to initially open the lever, but really snap down tight on the 14 gauge wire. So far, I am happy with them.
Mark, remember to read the wiring template for the switch motors, they are wired differently from each other. Jeff
