Weekend Photo Fun 12-30-22-??

   Re-worked layout -

C&O Chessie System GP38-2 #3899 is an MTH Premier model (20-2186-1) that was shown in the 1998 Volume 3 catalog and delivered in December 1998 with PS1 and MSRP $299.00. Mine has been on the shelf directly in front of my workbench for 24 years and had never been run until December 11, 2022, when I installed a BCR and ran it.

Videos show the locomotive running on my 10'-by-5' layout at 33 scale miles-per-hour and towing Western Maryland caboose #6132151 by K-Line.

Happy New Year.

MELGAR

First (test) bits of ground cover on my layout.

Scrapyard:

Grassy lawn by the crossing gates:

Grassy area and dirt path behind some buildings (the path doesn't show too well in pictures):

One of my Christmas presents came....TW TrainWorx three stall Engine House.....

It's BIG!!!

The internal arches and side walls.....

On the top are pieces that make up the foundation.....

The long panels on the left go between the rails indoors....

The footprint is a little larger than 22x25 and those "steel" arches are 11" tall.

I've been pouring over the instructions, thinking through the painting schedule and the assembly sequence.

I'm hoping to have it done by early February....my daughter is coming down to Richmond for a baby shower.....and , I'll need to have it off her bed!

The foundation will be key because that will aid me in Transfer Table placement.

Be safe, my friends.....Happy New Year!

Peter

The layout is not wired, but it was used last evening to help put away the Christmas trains/cars for another year......

The wise men finally got to the Manger.....they started out by the caboose and as December advanced, they got closer to the front......

A unique caboose that I bought at a Greenberg show in Richmond about 5 or 6 years ago. An MPC "General" passenger car with a Lionel SP caboose cupola.....and Christmas colors and decorations. I changed out the plastic wheels. The seller had no idea of its origin. I think it was a good deal for $5.....

A Public Service Announcement........the most important thing you can do for a LionChief engine when you put it away.......is to take out the batteries from the remote.....

Have a great and safe New Year's weekend, folks!

Peter

Ran with the SGMA at Winterthur last night…

Thanks Scott for getting us rolling for this fine weekend!  Here are my photos of the fun kind for this weekend.  They are a porporri of scenes taken over the years from around the layout.  Happy New Year to everyone!!  

MOW workers.  tru

Docksider  trundles over the bridge.

Meet Rex Curry the switch tender.   A GG1 and caboose pass by.

Ahh ... the Ma & Pa and Wilfred the hobo.

MOW workers.

Looking up the line.

A very busy station

A couple pictures of our front room.

@jim sutter posted:

A couple pictures of our front room.

I remember your store well, Jim.  It was a joy to visit and make some purchases there.    Dennis

I was looking for a picture of a specific car when I ran across this grainy video of a work train I ran on the NCT modular layout during Beltsville Day back in May of 2016.  This train was packed away in a separate box which I cannot find.  I hope it is in the storage locker.

Here’s - couple pictures of our old layout back in VA:

Pigs and geese don't wander off the farm because they are trained.

I finally got both of my transfer diesels set up, time to lug some freight:

@Norm Charbonneau posted:

I finally got both of my transfer diesels set up, time to lug some freight:

Pictures Awesome / Looking forward to the video!

                    Outstanding scene Norm!!!!!!!! 

@Norm Charbonneau posted:

I finally got both of my transfer diesels set up, time to lug some freight:

@Norm Charbonneau, how long did it take you to set-up/stage, photograph, and edit the shots you've posted?  They're wonderful, but they aren't snapshots from a smartphone are they?

AWESOME photos and videos gentlemen, I loved them, I'm getting some great ideas for developing my scenery on the above the doors layout in my work room.  Steve your new layout is coming along really well, looks good from what you've posted so far, I'm looking forward to seeing the rest as you complete it.  Peter, you are a lucky man, I love their roundhouse.  Roger is the Founding Member and the gentleman that started the Lone Star High Railers club that I belong to, he produces some fantastic stuff as you are finding out.  Looking forward to seeing photos of the build and the completed structure.  I have quite a few O scale kits that I want to build but my problem is that I only have 15" between the top of the layout and the ceiling so I'm going to have to be very selective in my structures and also only in 4 corners of the room, no room on the straight of ways.  Norm your photos are terrific along with those 2 Transfer Units you have, they are beautiful, wish I had one of them.  Keep up the good work.

Have safe and Happy New Year to one and all, see you guys next year.

@Pingman posted:

@Norm Charbonneau, how long did it take you to set-up/stage, photograph, and edit the shots you've posted?  They're wonderful, but they aren't snapshots from a smartphone are they?

Thanks! These are indeed iPhone 13 photos, I haven’t used my old Canon SX 30 in a long time. I should break it out sometime though as it is a fine camera for what I need it for, it’s just that the iPhone is so fast. I do very little to the photos, maybe some minor cropping or “de-warmifying” as all digital cameras seem to want to turn any indoor photography orange even if you have 5000K lighting like I have. My setups consist of nothing more than posing my subject around the layout and shooting away. These shots were handhelds as I was too lazy to get the tripod out of my shop.

Thanks for the explanation, @Norm Charbonneau.

I'm coming late to the realization that the cameras on some smartphones are so good they are worth the price difference from the more utilitarian ones I've purchased in the past.  Time for an upgrade.

Thanks, again.  I never tire of the realism you've created in your layout and trains.

@Pingman posted:

Thanks for the explanation, @Norm Charbonneau.

I'm coming late to the realization that the cameras on some smartphones are so good they are worth the price difference from the more utilitarian ones I've purchased in the past.  Time for an upgrade.

Thanks, again.  I never tire of the realism you've created in your layout and trains.

Carl......I no longer own a "good digital camera". My iPhone 13 does everything I need to do. In fact, when Tom and I were getting ready to shot the pictures for our article in Run 320, I took test shots with my iPhone. Then, we shot the photos with Tom's digital SLR. We submitted them to Allan.....and, he told us to re-shoot the article shots with my iPhone.

Peter

@J. Motts posted:

AWESOME photos and videos gentlemen. Steve your new layout is coming along really well, looks good from what you've posted so far, I'm looking forward to seeing the rest as you complete.

That'sthe 20 year old layout downsized for the garage. I haven't started the new Industrial one yet.

Needed something to hide the battery boxes for the putz lighting...made this little Christmas tree lot out of a few bits from the wife's Christmas craft box and some matt board:

There's going to be glitter on everything in this house for months, lol.

PD

We were still running Christmas trains on the Wednesday following Christmas.  Here are some photos.  NH Joe

This is a MTH battery powered train.  The battery is in the trailing SP SD9.  The train is controlled by DCC using the Airwire system.  

The train is a 12 Days of Christmas train by K-Line from the early 1990s.  You will note that there are only 10 cars not counting the caboose.  Two cars were bad ordered.  One had a broken coupler and the other had a broken truck.  

This is a close up of the MTH ES44AC Imperial Diesel Engine.  It is controlled with an Airwire board and the engine's PS3 DCC system.

This is the Lionel SP SD9 that contains the battery.  I purchased this engine as a dummy engine.  

This is the train at Coupler Curve.

The train is exiting the Golden Gate Bridge.

I'll be working on my oldest and newest trains this weekend.  You always have great photos on Weekend Photo Fun!

I would like to say thank you to everyone that enjoy seeing pictures of our store. Hard to believe its been twelve years since Peggy and I retired. Happy new years to all of you.

@Putnam Division posted:

Carl......I no longer own a "good digital camera". My iPhone 13 does everything I need to do. In fact, when Tom and I were getting ready to shot the pictures for our article in Run 320, I took test shots with my iPhone. Then, we shot the photos with Tom's digital SLR. We submitted them to Allan.....and, he told us to re-shoot the article shots with my iPhone.

Peter

All photos that I've posted on the Forum and in articles in OGR Magazine have been taken with an IPhone 6s...

MELGAR

Finished laying down some roadway lines and my sidewalks are coming along too!

Here are my two "new to me" UP freight cars that arrived here in CA today after travelling cross country from a Forum member in NY:

Wow, there’s a lot of interesting pictures on this thread, Happy New Year Everyone.

@A.J. posted:

Finished laying down some roadway lines and my sidewalks are coming along too!

A.J.,

Everything looks so organized and well planned out. This is going to be a nice scene on your layout. What do you use for the roads?

Dave

Hey Everyone,

I finally began to experiment with water. I started way down in the gorge just in case I royally messed it up. I'm not done with this scene but it's coming along.

Dave

Lionel SP SD-9 ??? - custom made ???

This week I do not have my usual post and I’m about a day late posting due to having an extremely hectic week between the holidays. This past Thursday night I had my annual Christmas party for all of my train buddies. Due to the pandemic, I have not had it the past few years, but decided to resume this year. Here are some photos of the guys checking out the layout when we first got together and then there are some of the spread I set up up in the kitchen. Starting at around 7 o’clock that evening  my friend, Mitchell Dakelman, who is the archivist for the National Railroad Historical Society showed historic train films. It was nice to resume the party after the past few years, and I think we all had a great evening. Sorry, no pictures of the layout this week. Wait till next week!

@luvindemtrains posted:

A.J.,

Everything looks so organized and well planned out. This is going to be a nice scene on your layout. What do you use for the roads?

Dave

MDF board that is gorilla glued together at the joints.  In the joints I filled in wood filler and sanded it down as best I could.  So far some of the roads have been together for a year and I haven't had any cracking and I'm up on the table a lot.  The lines I got from Red Lion train depot and they're pretty easy to put down and look great IMO.  

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

This week I do not have my usual post and I’m about a day late posting due to having an extremely hectic week between the holidays. This past Thursday night I had my annual Christmas party for all of my train buddies. Due to the pandemic, I have not had it the past few years, but decided to resume this year. Here are some photos of the guys checking out the layout when we first got together and then there are some of the spread I set up up in the kitchen. Starting at around 7 o’clock that evening  my friend, Mitchell Dakelman, who is the archivist for the National Railroad Historical Society showed historic train films. It was nice to resume the party after the past few years, and I think we all had a great evening. Sorry, no pictures of the layout this week. Wait till next week!

That looks like a fun time!