WEEKEND PHOTO FUN 12-4-15-??

Have been working for 2 weeks to set up a model train Christmas village at our railway museum for the Polar Express event. We run 4 weekends this year. Train ride on the Polar Express then guests come into the North Pole for lots of activities.

Built to 4 levels this year, 13 trains running have half with the LionChief controllers on the fence for the kids to run trains. Added new plastic covers to keep the remotes from getting broken, blocks the sounds buttons as you can never tell which train is making noise and the kids get all 7 with the bells going drives you nuts. Instead for sound have small engines of same character attached to the boards by each controller the kids can push the button and listen closely to hear each engine talking with a number of sounds.

Have several animated accessories along the fence as well. When people come around the corner they all say WOW then you start hearing; look there are the Minions, Frozen Characters, Thomas and friends or the Characters from the Cars movie as I have Radiator springs town set up. I have the overhead flying gizmo with Santa and reindeer and the characters from the Planes movie flying around over head.  Lots of fun love having the trains running good fun and all enjoy it, worth the long set up time, and long drives to the museum.

As always, thanks Scott for starting weekend Photo Fun.

Love the tinsel river!

Nice pictures everyone!

here is my contribution, an old B&W

Scott......great job......you and Josh do fantastic work!

Tonight is opening night for our modular group 7 weekend run.....we're all very excited.

Nobody says "Opening Night" like Cole Porter.....

Here are some set-up pics.....

I've been working on scenery and it's not finished yet but here's where I'm at now...

Here's a pic from a while ago that I really liked.....

Paul

Serows1 posted:

I've been working on scenery and it's not finished yet but here's where I'm at now...

 

Here's a pic from a while ago that I really liked.....

Paul

Looks great Paul!

After over 2 weeks on business travel I got home just before Thanksgiving last week, so I had a lot of stuff to catch up on.
Got a lot of ideas while I was gone & was also able to get in some railfanning.

The last few days I was finally having the new floor installed in the train room along w/ track lighting. Should be done by the weekend.

Lorenzo & Lucia were happy to run trains again after I got home -

New arrivals for the motive power fleet -
My stand in for NS 3170 -

3 new heritage units - PC, NYC & CNJ-

New SD70ACe & used SD70M-2 I picked up -

Friend of mine in PA was selling this SD40E, so I was happy to give it a new home

The big project I did over Thanksgiving weekend ( besides putting of the Christmas tree & lights on the house) was to move things around. I got rid of the old sofa that was in the train room. It was too low for the kids to see the trains from anyway. I Picked up a nice pair of used bar stools from a neighbor . Next was to add a new freight yard were the sofa was. It is slightly shorter than the old one, but I still think it's cool. Where the original freight yard was, I turned that into a 2 track intermodal yard along with a track to hold the power & a through track which now passes behind the fridge & goes to the new freight yard. This gives me a lot of operational flexibility - I can run main line trains, all while drilling the freight yard & intermodal yards. It also gives a variety of trains a place to terminate & originate - which adds to the operations. Since my friend (& fellow forum member) Mike helped push me to make the changes after a couple of beers & some train running the night before I left for PA, I thought I would name the new intermodal yard after him I also put a ceiling tile rock wall in place behind the yard.

New freight yard where the sofa was -

New intermodal yard - 

Yard Sign - 

Here's some of the photos I've been able to edit so far ( still a TON more to go!) -

Amtrak 's westbound Pennsylvanian passes the well in Newport, PA as it heads towards Pittsburgh - 10/11/15 -

These are all from 10/16/15 -

former UP SD90MAC getting rebuilt into an SD70ACu at Altoona

Sign at Juniata Shops-

Rebuilt ex Highhood GP38-2 & the RPE4C slug which is converted into a CNG tender-

Westbound 21M ducks under the Pennsy signals at PITL MP 227 w/ Dash-9 9400 on the point-

NS C42 heads back to Altoona w/ RP-E4C slug 754 leading the way at Fostoria, PA-

A pair of ex Conrail motors lead eastbound W6A past HUNT tower on the Pittsburgh Line. NS SD60I 6729 is ex CR 5596-

NS GP40-2 3011 (ex CR 3294) & an RP-E4C slug lead C42 towards Lewistown as they pass HUNT tower at PITL MP 202-

Amtrak P42 leads the eastbound Pennsylvanian past HUNT tower at MP 202 on the NS PITL-

A matched pair of ex Conrail SD60Is lead westbound 27N through MP 225 of the Pittsburgh Line at Tipton, PA. NS 6729 (ex CR 5596) is on the point-

NS Dash-9 9229 leads westbound 21J past PITL MP 225 in Tipton, PA-

NS ES44DC 7530 leads 22W under the PRR signals in Tipton, PA-

NS SD70ACe 1082 leading 21M through Tipton, PA-

We decided to give the Fastrack a rest this year.   My first Lionel set with the original track from the early 70's.   And we expanded beyond the tree this year.

A B&O work train at St. Paul headed by an ex C&O RS-1

Working on a new video that is "All about the trains".    The video will talk about the models I buy and what I do to improve the realism and how they operate.  There will be lots of eye candy and operating train scenes.   I'm using several cameras including a 4K camera and ones equipped with the best motion stabilization to create sharp, well focused and stable video which helps it look as real as possible.   Its a lot of fun, I'm just having trouble finding enough time to work on it with three kids in high school.  I hoping to finish this winter.

Rich

www.toytrainsontracks.com

setting up the scene

A look at the upgraded mountain.

I'll talk about these MTH proto 3-2 scale wheel engines and how I make them look more realistic than they already are.

Show how I fix pilots

New 4K camera helps keeps the whole train in focus and allows for smooth motion cropping resulting in some of the best HD model trains scenes I've produced yet.  You'll need and HD TV and blu-ray player for best results.

I compare real engines to the models

As I mentioned last weekend, I'm out of 'not yet used' pictures of 2014 Christmas layout so I think I'll highlight the main areas for now.

This is the right side: what I might call the 'town area'.

 - walt

Alright its Friday... Great Pics everyone!

I made some BIG trees this week.

Creating 2015 Christmas layout memories

These 2 images look almost identical to the 'day 1' images that I posted last week  but a FULL week of work went into this!  I laid down 95% of all of the wiring.   I hide wires pretty well: I lay down 1/2" blueboard first, leaving gaps between the pieces.  Before I cover the blueboard with Homasote I run all of the wires, or most anyways, to their end targets (takes a lot of pre-planning) using the gaps between the blue boards.  This way they get hidden and more importantly, don't get tramped on if I  didn't use the blue board first.

- walt

OLDIE BUT GOODIE!

Christopher2035 posted:

Looks great Paul!

I agree with Christopher, fabulous layout and great photos Paul.

#1065 .......

Here's a Korber 921 i just completed, an oldie but a real beauty!!!

The Altoona Model Works brick smoke stack finally goes in. No, it's not brick any more

Great Pic's everyone!!

Here are some photos of recently completed (Yea I know it never done) town area on the TMB club layout.

Doug,

  Your turntable scene is my favorite and the best I've seen.  Its weathered beautifully and just the right amount of landscaping and accessories.  Not overdone.  The backdrop takes it to another level.  Well done!

Rich

Laidoffsick posted:

The Altoona Model Works brick smoke stack finally goes in. No, it's not brick any more

 

Is that the decals we made for you on the smoke stack?

Dave, LBR

Yes Dave, those are the decals you made for me

Added a white Clicquot to my Clicquot consist.

Doug,

I like the stack. I am in the process of getting my roundhouse from them. Can't wait.

I just published video #35 in my LCJ&I Lines series on YouTube.  Involves GP-7 yard work to shuttle a gondola of automobile frames. The last 45 seconds shows some brief "how I made the video" scenes.

Nice video Bob!  I have said this before - Your Fastrack looks great!

Rich Battista posted:

Working on a new video that is "All about the trains".    The video will talk about the models I buy and what I do to improve the realism and how they operate.  There will be lots of eye candy and operating train scenes.   I'm using several cameras including a 4K camera and ones equipped with the best motion stabilization to create sharp, well focused and stable video which helps it look as real as possible.   Its a lot of fun, I'm just having trouble finding enough time to work on it with three kids in high school.  I hoping to finish this winter.

Rich

www.toytrainsontracks.com

setting up the scene

A look at the upgraded mountain.

I'll talk about these MTH proto 3-2 scale wheel engines and how I make them look more realistic than they already are.

Show how I fix pilots

New 4K camera helps keeps the whole train in focus and allows for smooth motion cropping resulting in some of the best HD model trains scenes I've produced yet.  You'll need and HD TV and blu-ray player for best results.

I compare real engines to the models

Looking forward to it, Rich.....

Peter

GEF posted:

Only the third-rail, the corner where the walls meet and the edge of the layout give it away. You are one talented man, man. Wow. I keep staring at the landscape to try to remember and to learn. You have totally  grasped and expressed cold, dry, barren winter scenery.

FrankM.

This is the new Sonoma-Marin Area Rapid Transit maintenance facility about an hour north of San Francisco. This commuter train will run north through Wine Country beginning 2016--for the time being, this is the end of the line.

Out of the entire scale stable, my favorite train heads east into the newer section of the layout...

Gettin' close. 

Great photos, keep them coming!

The first two photos are of my yard display, made from old Atlas two rail track, ballasted with Black Beauty added to represent coal spilled. I played around with the settings on the camera to try to get a realistic look. The third photo is from Northumberland PA taken during one of my trips to Weaver models; I used it as a comparison. These are older photos.

Don

Great pictures from a dedicated bunch of modelers

#1066 .....

Thanks to Scott for diligently starting and posting this topic, and for all who contribute their photos.  And a Merry Christmas to all.

At York I found a K-Line Santa Fe Diner and a Pullman (blue & silver boxes). I sent them to CJB Custom Painting & Designs for repainting to match my 2348 M&StL GP9. Now I have a full set of K-Line streamliners.

These were older cars lit by vertical bulbs, not by overhead StreamLighting. Christine J. Braden noticed that the window silhouettes were showing their age. She works as a graphic designer, and she made new ones. They look great!  We are sending photos and details of her work to Editor Allan Miller for OGR. In the meantime, have a look at the photos: