I know I am 15 minutes early for Weekend Photo Fun, but since I am out of town I'm going to get this started now.
This is the week we got rid of the Pineapple Under the Sea at the VMT. It had been on display since February.
It's now time for Harry Potter!
Let's see your pictures.
Scott Smith
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It looks like the Batmobile is a little too long and gets hung up on the grade crossing. The Ghostbusters Ecto-1 Caddy behind him just wants to give it a shove. Instead, an embarrassed Batman reluctantly asks Superman to give it a push. Meanwhile, Lamont Sanford scratches his head in disbelief at what he’s witnessing... wait till he gets home to Pop and tells him THIS story, he’s gonna have a heart attack! Elizabeth, he’s coming to join ya!
The gold mine looks great, neat idea.
Bill T.
Matt, nice story.
Jeff and Jd nice imaginative work.
Have a great weekend!
I started to drive in 1972 at the age of 16 at the depth of the "Penn Central Daze" and then in the early years of Conrail. I was used to seeing all kinds of crazy combinations of F-7's, GP-9s, GP-9B's, GP-30's, and GP-35's running up and down the tracks on the stretch of railroad along PA Route 65 heading toward Conway Yard from downtown Pittsburgh. So when Lionel announced their set of CR F-7's painted in a CR transition scheme, I could not resist. My honest memory was just of the black units. Blue F-7's were few and far between, and I never personally saw an ex-EL transition unit or an ABBA set of CR F-7's. But I did see lots of CR GP's painted in all kinds of goofy schemes and often missing some of their graphics.
So I ordered the basic AA set with a black and a blue F-7 A unit and the add on black B unit, but passed on the repainted EL unit. But what hit me was the screwed up CR GP-35 from 2012 where Lionel's supplier in China forgot to put the word "Conrail" and the can opener logo on the long hood. Now there was the right engine to finish up the consist
I actually had the original 3 Conrail GP-35's but had returned the original shells to Lionel for replacement with "correct" shells with the logo, not to mention an incorrect black nose. My son was always annoyed that I did not keep one of the shells with the missing graphics. Anyhow I seemed to recall that our local fantastic hobby store, Hobby Express, had one with the original shell sitting on their shelf unsold for many years. A quick trip up there confirmed my suspicion, and I gladly pulled out the credit card, and now it was mine!
So, home it came, and along with a black PC GP-30 already placed in the consist by my son, and minus the blue F-7 that I had no memories of, I suddenly was the proud owner of a bizarre line up of locomotives that looked exactly like those I saw rolling up and down the tracks along Route 65 in my youth! It would not be until after 1980 when Stanley Crane became Conrail CEO that things finally began to change. The colors of the predecessor railroads slowly began to disappear, replaced by immaculate blue engines on perfectly maintained track. The Penn Central Daze were gone, but what remains, especially with this new consist that I have created, are those great days of my youth when I bore witness to some of the most fascinating railfanning I ever did in my life.
Here are a few photos of the consist that I built using these great Lionel products many miles to the east of Pittsburgh on my beloved Middle Division. Enjoy!
Love the goldmine idea very unique and creative.
"Find anything interesting to do this weekend?"
Fun photos for this weekend.
A 2017 Christmas Layout memory 
Another one of the 6 models that I made of my family members' houses. This one is my brother's house.
- walt
one of 6 that made up Waltburg
Happy Friday & HAPPY FALL!
What happens when you are stuck inside all weekend b/c of a hurricane ? You do some layout work!
My son suggested that I expand the inside loop & lucky for us, I had some spare wood to do just that! The new loop brings it across Cowan Creek & around the entire board. Had to reconfigure a bunch of stuff to fit it, but I'm pretty happy w/ the result. I can now run longer trains on the inside loop & it doesn't look as cluttered.
My son is happy b/c 'now the 2 trains can race!' We also got nearly all the wiring done w/ the exception of 2 accessories that had to be relocated.
A pair of light helpers run westbound through Welch, WV to prepare for another push toward Bluefield
NS Dash-9 9228 leads 294 through Lebanon, PA on former Reading rails.
N&W 611 passes one of the omnipresent crepe myrtle trees as she stretches her wheels at the NCTM on a Saturday morning.
NS ET44AC 3618 heads through Keystone, WV as it leads a westbound coal train back to the mines. 
PRR E7A 5901 (the only surviving E7 unit) sits restored back to her former glory at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
CSX ES44AC-H 794 leads Q611 through Waxhaw, NC on the Monroe Sub.
Thanks fellas for the positive thoughts on the goldmine. Came up with the idea a few years back when my wife and I visited an old gold mine in Colorado. Trumptrain you’ve got some excellent scenes going on there. Love all that detail.
Before and after photos using K-Line fisherman:
PRRMiddleDivision posted:
Still my favorite layout on this forum and I check every Friday hoping to see more pictures of your amazing layout. Love your railfanning story on the Penn Central. Awesome consist, awesome pictures, awesome layout!
Jason
Another weekend of everyone's great images!
There are always nice photographs pictured on this thread--thanks, everyone. I added some color to my backdrop--hope you like it.
Just finished a scene from one of my favorite shows M.A.S.H
Chris Lonero posted:Just finished a scene from one of my favorite shows M.A.S.H
Chris - where did you get these from or did you make them yourself? Either way the scene looks great! I still watch reruns of even though I own the box set.
-Greg
briansilvermustang posted:
Wow good shot of N&W action at Kenova,WV
Been on and below that bridge by train to many times to count 😲
Greg Houser posted:Chris Lonero posted:Just finished a scene from one of my favorite shows M.A.S.H
Chris - where did you get these from or did you make them yourself? Either way the scene looks great! I still watch reruns of even though I own the box set.
-Greg
Thanks Greg. It is actually a kit from Revel years back when the show was popular. I supplied the Jeep and everything else I built and painted.
Jason,
Thanks for your nice comments about my layout!
Chris Lonero posted:Just finished a scene from one of my favorite shows M.A.S.H
Looks great! I love it.
Nick
MR action on the new TMB..
From the years preceding my previous post...
PENN CENTRAL DAZE!
PS I really gotta weather these babies heavily to capture the essence of the Penn Central...and like the PC, these two units are probably the worst running engines that I own!
Happy weekend everyone! Hope everyone has had a good week, here are some of my layout in progress pics.
Chris Lonero posted:Just finished a scene from one of my favorite shows M.A.S.H
Love it!
"If you want a drink, sir, - compliments Henry Blake - brandy, scotch, vodka. And for your convenience, all in the same bottle." - Radar O'Reilly
briansilvermustang posted:
Brian,
You always find some great nostalgic pics. The last one, whoa! Thanks for posting.
Dave
One of my favorite livery's...plain, simple & elegant.....
....also from the RR Museum of PA....
Peter
Less than one month away! Getting excited for the EDTCA York meet.
Mike McCutcheon posted:Less than one month away! Getting excited for the EDTCA York meet.
You bet!
Peter
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