Weekend Photo Fun 9-13-24-??

Here is something a little different. These are overall views of my layout taken from the stool that I often sit at at Port Royal. The first one is looking to the left towards Longfellow and the second one is looking towards Duncannon and the Pennsylvania Glass Sand plant at the right. Notice in the first image the restored Pennsylvania railroad pipe railing protecting the stair pit that allows access to the room by stepping down 32 inches below the layout

For this weekend, I ran two Long Island Rail Road passenger trains. The locomotives are LIRR #18 - a Lionel Legacy model (2131420, $649.99) of a Camelback 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler steamer – and LIRR #462 – a special run MTH Railking model (30-20894-1, $399.95) of an Alco RS-1 diesel by forum sponsor Trainworld.

#18 was built by Baldwin in 1903 and retired by 1931. #462 arrived on the LIRR in 1949 and was scrapped in 1977. So, in reality, these locomotives never operated together on the LIRR, but this is Weekend Photo Fun, so anything is possible.

On my layout, #18 is pulling two elegant MTH wood-sided passenger cars and #462 is pulling three heavyweight steel passenger cars – also by MTH.

On the LIRR, #18 hauled high-speed Limiteds from Jamaica to the Hamptons on Eastern Long Island that were run by the most senior engineers. In 1924, the LIRR honored engineer James Eichhorn by painting his name on the cab of locomotive #18, as seen on Lionel’s model. By contrast, LIRR #462 worked as a switcher at Sunnyside Yard in Queens, NY, where my father used to take me to watch trains when I was a youngster.

The video shows the trains running through the double-tracked truss bridge on my 12’-by-8’ layout.

MELGAR

Running with the Trackers this weekend at a fund-raiser to benefit the Noyes Children’s Library in Kensington, MD……lots of varied trains were running all weekend, reflected the varied interests of the group.

I’ll bet you can guess who brought the Giraffe Train…..

Huge crowds…….and, lots of smiles!

Have a great and safe weekend, everyone!

Peter

Just spectacular, Neal!

PD

Great to see the kids are still into it!

PD

Some videos from the show, depicting trains from all over the US…….

Have a great and safe weekend, everyone!
Peter

A 2023 Christmas Layout memory

Recently I started with the final section not yet shown - it's a "plateau" with models of families' houses that I modeled.  Closeups started with me son's house last week.  Here's some evening images of it

- walt

Here's one of my favorite pictures of it - obviously not on the layout though

Thank you Scott for getting us going  for this fine weekend!  Here's my photo fun!   Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Lots going on!   ... The chain gang is still working alongside Patsburg Ave at 3;30 pm .. hence the police cars.   The city trash crew has just parked their truck for the weekend since having been at it starting at  5 a.m. this morning ... they are now popping open some "cold ones.".   Towerman Smitty Spraguens takes a break out behind the tower, a NYC Pacemaker trailer is being picked up by a tractor , and an unloading crew is about  to finish up unloading the Western Maryland boxcar that sits on the team track.  All this goes on simultaneously this afternoon.  

Early this morning a Western Maryland Consolidation is serviced before going out on the road.

Yesterday afternoon hosted a TOFC loading operation.

Meanwhile over on the caboose track we see Pennsy cabin cars set out.  

Running trains with the Trackers last weekend in Kensington, Md…

I finished my ballast on the one side of my layout and had some time to do a Halloween village with the space I use to change scenery from time to time.

@PRR Joe posted:

I finished my ballast on the one side of my layout and had some time to do a Halloween village with the space I use to change scenery from time to time.

Well done!

Peter

I agree Peter - his Halloween scene is really nice.  And I like the 2 cars he showed which I'm guessing he made.

- walt

Thanks.  This is my MTH Halloween train and all the cars were made by MTH.  There are still some out there on the bay. I have several Lionel Halloween trains I use on the Kids Layout for our Fort Pitt Division train shows.  I will have that set up with a Halloween theme at the show on September 28th at the Washington County Fair grounds.

I stopped by Trains 'N Things in Ewing, NJ.

Here is my Weaver Torpedo pulling mostly GGD cars.

Trains meet at the junction.

@Hudson J1e posted:

I stopped by Trains 'N Things in Ewing, NJ.

THATS my shop! or, at least it was until I moved. I recognized the layout immediately. Tony and his daughter are awesome people, and I have purchased so much from them. I especially loved their sidewalk sales. I was last there in June when visiting family and ALMOST purchased a MTH Premier PRR steam loco, she was a beauty. I really miss having a quality train shop so close to home.

Mikki

@Mikki posted:

THATS my shop! or, at least it was until I moved. I recognized the layout immediately. Tony and his daughter are awesome people, and I have purchased so much from them. I especially loved their sidewalk sales. I was last there in June when visiting family and ALMOST purchased a MTH Premier PRR steam loco, she was a beauty. I really miss having a quality train shop so close to home.

Mikki

@Mikki I agree Tony and his wife are great people. Tony is the guy who got me hooked on scale models back in 1999. He has a great store and his prices are always reasonable.

I would love to see the track plan for that layout at Trains N Things.

@Randy_B posted:

I would love to see the track plan for that layout at Trains N Things.

I don't know for sure, but I doubt that they even have one, or should I say STILL have it. The son, Anthony, built it from what I heard, and it was somehow moved from the old shop in the same shopping center to the new one. I took many photos of it, thinking that I could recreate it but when I realized that I wasn't going in that direction I deleted them, just recently, sorry.

I guess that it wouldn't hurt to call them. Even if Tony is not there, his daughter, Krissy, is very knowledgeable but it is important to catch them when they are not busy. They usually do York, so they will be busy packing for that soon, I would imagine.

Mikki

@Randy_B posted:

I would love to see the track plan for that layout at Trains N Things.

It does seem to pack a lot of action in a small space if you just like to watch the trains run. It's definitely a great display layout for a store. They just let the trains run which shows the customer what the customer could possibly build and they don't have to stand watch over the trains.

I think it is great for a nice display type layout. I like how all of the tracks are hidden from view part of the time. Elevation changes and bridges add visual interest too. I wonder what the dimensions are? It's probably larger than it looks in the photo.

It is basically a folded dog bone with an outside double track.  The outside track looks like at least O-72 so it should be able to handle any loco.

@CAPPilot posted:

It is basically a folded dog bone with an outside double track.  The outside track looks like at least O-72 so it should be able to handle any loco.

I agree. The layout on page 67 of OGR Run 338 (Oct/Nov) is somewhat similar to it but the big difference is the layout in OGR is one long loop and the layout at Trains 'N Things is 3 separate loops.

@Randy_B posted:

I think it is great for a nice display type layout. I like how all of the tracks are hidden from view part of the time. Elevation changes and bridges add visual interest too. I wonder what the dimensions are? It's probably larger than it looks in the photo.

It really isn't very large, I'm guestimating  7x11.

Mikki

@Randy_B I was able t retrieve the photos of the layout. They aren't the best but shows it from a few angles. Let me know if you would like to see them.

Mikki

@Mikki posted:

@Randy_B I was able t retrieve the photos of the layout. They aren't the best but shows it from a few angles. Let me know if you would like to see them.

Mikki

That would be great! I want to try to make a track plan based on that one and then modify it to suit needs from that point.

@Randy_B hopefully I can post the photos from my phone.

All pics are from the store layout at Trains+Things in Ewing Twp, NJ

Thanks so much for posting the photos! I don't really like the wide tunnel entry so I would probably keep the two outer loops excavated.