OCSMR-Ocean County Society of Model Railroaders Club Latest update 11/23/2024

Ran a rocket train using the cars from Lionel's Orbiter set for the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11.

Jim and Ted, the development crew, have been busy adding hi and low rises on the west wall.

Bill has made additional investment/development of  buildings on the north wall.

Bud, Welcome back!  The train looks great!  The buildings look very good 

Bill still needs to plant some bushes and trees to go along with his urban re-development plan. Figures the added shrubbery will increase his investment property by 50%!!

Next up will be John Brandt to enhance the barren areas with his artistry!

Work has been halted temporarily for the past week due to a Disney vacation in Orlando. Sitting at the station is their Mickey Mouse Express train that stopped running indefinitely while they build a new roller coaster next to Space Mountain. The tracks need to be re-routed there, hence the train is parked at the station on display. 

Ted, I'm sorry the MME isn't running, but nice photographs!!  I have never been south of Atlanta.  How is the weather in Orlando?  I would think you are melting!  

Hello Guys,

Now that I am back from my leave of absence, work can begin again on the remaining sections of the O Gauge Layout's mural.

For starters, there was an area on the South end of the layout where a tunnel portal was going to go.  This tunnel would have a road coming to the town above the lower level right where the cemetery is going.

However, this tunnel, if installed, would offset the perspective of the distance between that and the trees and mountain in the background seen in the mural.

In other words,.................IT WOULDN'T LOOK RIGHT!!!

So,......I came up with a resolve for this.  I painted a road going into the woodlands on the mural having it curve to the left, and then paint trees to show the path.  I made sure to match the road's color to the roadbed placed by Budd.  The results were good, and the president and vice president plus others agreed.

Excellent use of a "vanishing point" perspective !   

Very nice John!

I had the opportunity to visit this impressive layout as part of the NMRA open house tour yesterday.  What a beautiful layout.  Great job guy's.  

Chris - Thanks for the compliment.  Was there but guess I missed talking to you.

I was there in the early am working on the rear part of the building cleaning out and realigning the drainage downspouts so water will stay away from the building and not come into the basement.

Next up, we will be back wiring up all the lighting and buildings. Have done some but summer kicked in. Now that summer is almost behind us, we will resume wiring operations under the careful eye of the nutty professor Mr. Bud. Lol!

Moonman posted:

Excellent use of a "vanishing point" perspective !   

Thanks, Moonman!

Mark Boyce posted:

Very nice John!

Thanks, Mark!

OCSMR is having a Halloween Open House this weekend, 26 and 27 October from 1 to 4 pm on both days.

Here're a few pix form today.

Johnbrandt did the decorating.

John's Roswell.

Some of the players.

S-gauge.

Some guests from Saturday.

Anthony really got into running John's train   His enthusiasm is an understatement.  Anthony's mother is a coworker of Ted at radio station WORK.

And, some HO.

A tale of two retired light Colonel's.  Joe on the left and Doug on the right.  Doug is our S-gauge superintendent; however, he seems to be buying more and more O-gauge.

If you're in the area, stop by and say Hi.  We'll be there on Sunday from 1 to 4 pm.

Nice presentation - the dementor car on the Potter train can scare anyone - looks like it was a fun day!

Looks like a great presentation and a lot of folks attended!  A good time was had by all!

I trust no monsters were injured in the making of this presentation! 

Hey Bud,

My part time WORK is called Staples in Brick, at least I do work there instead of being just employed for 30 or more years on the same project! Lol! Excellent pictures from Bud with a lot more coming from Sunday's turnout.

It was a good weekend to showcase the club and the toy train hobby to the public.

Sunday was a rainy dreary day.  Did have a fairly good turnout tho.

Prospective Junior Member Tor (his dad applied for club membership at the show).  He's not just enthusiastic about trains but is extremely energetic about them too.  He came to the show prepared to run his Wizard of Oz train.  He and his dad placed his train on track 1 and away he went running his train for most of the day.

This is how TMCC works.

Junior Member Sean (light blue club shirt) setting up his train.  Looks like he put as many of club cars as he could find behind his engine.  Not too sure about the "bearded" guy.

Sean using MTH's Wifi to control his train.

A pensive Sean.

Steve Wexler (on the left), President of the Lakewood Heritage Commission, talking to our club's past President Dennis.  Steve was instrumental in getting the club into our current location (he's also and O-gauge guy and past club member).  The building houses the Lakewood Historical Society's collection of artifacts.

Another junior train enthusiast.

Runnin' Ted's train.

Some guests from Sunday.

That bearded guy.  Who is he?  Where is he from?  Who let him in?  What does he want?  Appears to be interested in "trains".

Apparently he's looking for a "hand out", maybe to buy more American Flyer trains.

Don't encourage him.

And, Godzilla defeats King Kong.

Looks like a great day, Bud!!  I'm excited about the youngsters enjoying trains and the mums and dads who are interested and encouraging it.  As for the bearded fellow...well you had better keep an eye on him if he shows up again!  

Nice pictures from Bud. Had a neighbor with her daughter and grandson there. Gave him the 30 second cab-1 tutorial and away he went running my WL&E Mallet for part of the day. He really enjoyed running a big steamer.

As for the bearded guy and retired army colonel, he is our in-house American Flyer expert and slowly, we are converting him to O gauge, 1 engine at a time!

Next open house is December 28-29.

This is what the hobby is all about. Bringing young kids into the trains.

Hey Guys,

Here is another update on the mural.

Back in February, I had painted a number of areas of moulding on the walls where the club could use their imagination to cover or make them into buildings that would blend in with the rest of the towns and city.  The club was able to find a few building reliefs to cover some of those areas, and it worked rather well.

However, due to the committee's decision, it was decided that they wanted the rest of those areas to be "touched up" to match the sky and land in the mural.  It was a test of my creativity and better judgement, but I came to a resolve with some compromises. 

There are five areas I need to finish, which then the mural will be completed.  In the next few posts I make, you will see those changes.  For now, I will discuss two of them.

Below you will see two photos of the mouldings where I made a base paint of a building.  As you see, there are electrical outlets at the top with plugs and cords that lead to the AC for the room...

For the outlet on the left, I decided to blend that area in with the sky, including the plug for the AC.  The only things I did not paint are the reset buttons on the plug and the MTH signal box...

For the other outlet, I was inspired by my vice president, Dennis Hodge.  After I worked on that area of the mural, Dennis made a army base right under the outlet.  So, I said to myself, "Self,....why not make that into a military headquarters type building?"

So, that I have started.  The first stage of its transformation is camouflage paint on the lower part of the building...

The next stage will be shown next time.

Until then!!!

Looks great, John!

Mark Boyce posted:

Looks great, John!

Thanks, Mark!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Playing with my highly overpriced set, something made by Lionel in the '50s controlling it with a Legacy remote. Total cost of this USA-made set - $25. $24 for the cars and a whopping $1 for the engine/tender.

In reality, a set made up for my grandson.

Ted, looks great for your grandson, and the price was right!!!

Pix from our Christmas Open House.

Looks like a good time 

Hey Guys,

Here's an update on the mural (and possibly the last one).

With the exception of a fabricated piece being done at home, the mural is complete!

There were four areas left to be "touched up", and all were conquered in one afternoon. 

The first was an area originally set up for a large office building or a Times Square look-a-like that our past president wanted.  The idea was being juggled as to what to do with this area, which BTW is also the spot where water flooded in from outside when heavy rains came (an issue resolved in the last year).  But in the end, I did what our current president asked me to do: cover the area to match the rest of the sky. 

The second area was under and on the sides of a building flat placed on the wall.  Unfortunately, the building is in a spot blocked off by five sets of track, three Christmas trains, two large bridges, and a little ice cream parlorrrrrr..........you have to excuse me for I have a Christmas song playing in my head as I'm typing.

Anyway, after dodging these obstacles,  the edges around this building were painted.

The third area was a moulding in between EIGHT building flats.  THIS spot I did what I envisioned: paint this area brown and add pieces to it so the result would be a building to match the other flats.

Last but not least, I had enough time to fabricate a top to the military headquarters, as I mention earlier, using plastic sheets and a little hot glue.  A photo will be shown later when it is complete.

Anyway, thanks for watching.  See ya around!

Hi John!  Thank you for the update.  You have done a fantastic job!  I can only see the last two photographs.  Anyone else have the same problem?

Same here, Mark.

Mark Boyce posted:

Hi John!  Thank you for the update.  You have done a fantastic job!  I can only see the last two photographs.  Anyone else have the same problem?

Wow.  I can't explain how this happened.  I'll fix this within the next few days.

John T.

Wow - I had the pleasure of being a member of this club many years ago. The new layout is truly a thing of beauty. I will make it a point to come visit one day.

Thanks for all the pictures and updates.

Paul

OK, Guys.  The photos of the recent work on the mural is fixed.

Just scroll up to see the original post from a few days ago.

Later.

Ah, superb, John!  You did an excellent job blending in those columns so they won’t be noticed!  The whole project is excellent!!

John, wonderful craftsmanship on those excellent modifications.

Suggestion:  Perhaps you can ask the Moderator to edit the thread's title to include the date of an update; this alerts folks like me who find it easier to click a serial thread when we know there is new info or photos.  I suggest the moderator only because you are not the thread's starter and only that person can, as far as I know, edit a thread's title.

Again, thanks for the photographic update and explanation.

The 5 skyscrapers are wired up for lighting and each contains LED lighting strips. Some of the windows are blocked out to show that not every window or room is lit up.

Suggestion:  Perhaps you can ask the Moderator to edit the thread's title to include the date of an update; this alerts folks like me who find it easier to click a serial thread when we know there is new info or photos.  I suggest the moderator only because you are not the thread's starter and only that person can, as far as I know, edit a thread's title.

I can do that and sounds like an excellent idea. Just have to remind myself to add the alert when something new is added here.

Ted

Thanks, Ted.

Awesome job John.