What did you do on your layout today? (2 Rail O Scale/Proto48 version)

Looking good John. Are the elevators going to be big or small ones?

Thanks Anthony.

The grain silos at this location are medium sized. I have a lot of work to do on them yet but I have been able to cast the roofs and foundations. I cast those in both Hydrocal and resin to see which I prefer and decided to use the Hydrocal ones for the base and resin for the tops. I'm currently working on making molds for the rest of the parts, although they have taken back seat to installing bench and track work. My layout is based loosely off the ATSF mainline in Western Kansas/Eastern Colorado in the summer of 1995, but my grain mill is based loosely off the Ardent Mills facility in Chester Illinois, which so far I only have a cardboard mock up of.

John

Excellent!

Been busy myself...

Great thread to start up. The turnouts look great. 

All I have to contribute are two blobs on a stick! I’ve tried every method and I cannot make trees. These are poly fiber on armatures from the back forty. I’m actually looking into getting some custom made.

Gentlemen, this will be a great thread to review, O Scale is really nice. Santiago, your Sante Fe diesel runs so smooth. Happy Railroading 

Great work everyone, and a good idea for a thread! 

Recently I've been operating my layout with a remote Engineers while I take the Conductor/brakeman role.  This afternoon I worked for about 90 minutes with an Engineer about 20 miles away in Southern Ontario.

Earlier in the week the remote Engineer was in Melbourne, Australia. Here's a quick video with the Aussie Engineer. He's about 10,000 miles away.

We're still learning about the video and audio settings in Zoom to improve the quality but the DCC side of it has worked very well. It's not perfect by any means, but still a lot more fun that not operating at all because I can't invite crews over at the moment.

Pete

Santiago,

I missed the video. I just went back and watched it. Not just a smooth runner but gorgeous locomotive too. That warbonnet scheme is hard to top.

My eyes aren't what they used to be. To me, these trees look great. Maybe I'm missing something?

I think that custom building can be like cooking. When I started cooking stuff, I lost some of the enjoyment of just eating it. My senses were dulled from cooking it.

If you are making it, you sense more of any flaws. I have to feel that's what you're seeing and saying here?

I'm having trouble conveying what I'm thinking here. I don't think some store bought products are this good.

BTW, thanks for starting this great thread!!

Neato 

Shot on my freemo module ... kit built Tennessee Pass station with the Scenic Limited 

models are 

Key L-105 3700

Joe Fischer MoP full baggage 

Artista figurines 

Builders in Scale kit that was available in the 1980’s 

Excellent Erik!

Erik, wow that is outstanding!

John

Another from the week before, the tower is a scratch build to the drawings of the CB&Q coaling tower at Denver and tank the same. Here L77 rolls north out of Burnham for assignment at a North Yard along the Q service tracks near 20th. 

Impressive guys, ALL totally impressive!

Simon

Nice work gents.

@jgtrh62 posted:

Thanks Anthony.

The grain silos at this location are medium sized. I have a lot of work to do on them yet but I have been able to cast the roofs and foundations. I cast those in both Hydrocal and resin to see which I prefer and decided to use the Hydrocal ones for the base and resin for the tops. 

John

John,     They look about 100 times better than the standard solution of hacking off chunks of 4" PVC pipe!!!

Simon

I put this on the latest weekend photo fun as well:

Thanks Simon, I wanted to model concrete slip form type for my grain silos. I am working on the molds for the silos so the cardboard tubes are just place holders for the time being. 

@John Sethian That scene is fantastic, hard to tell it’s not real.

John

I have almost completed (just a couple of wires to go)  neatening up my DCC electronics. I built a wooden cabinet to house them. Whenever I can I try to use stuff around the house to save money on the layout build. The former owner of the house left some shelving that was in the way of the future layout so I took them down and made a box out of it. The top white switch turns on the DCC system.

Before:

After:

I was able to finish a little more scenery. I have one side of the layout about done except for figures and vehicles.  I painted one cotton field and planted another one.  I m researching a IH cotton picker now but I think it will be a scratch build to get one.

WOW!!! Nice work, Malcolm!

Not a thing.  Waiting on turnouts.

@Brother_Love posted:

I was able to finish a little more scenery. I have one side of the layout about done except for figures and vehicles.  I painted one cotton field and planted another one.  I m researching a IH cotton picker now but I think it will be a scratch build to get one.

Fabulous work of blending the road into the backdrop making it appear to go on forever.  NH Joe

Thank you Tom & NH Joe!

I've been running my Rocket!

Santiago - Superb setting and equipment. Pretty sure I spotted Jack Delano from the Farm Security Admn/Office of War Information, with camera in hand on the station platform!

Looks great John! Remember, half the fun is getting there.

Simon

Built my first structure and weathered it... banta kit...

I converted a MTH SD45 to 2 rail. I forgot that I was going to order pilots from Thor on the forum. I put in my shims like I used to do before they were available. I've had this engine laying around waiting for conversion. I installed scale wheels years ago. Then it just sat here. There's a couple others still on the shelf waiting for conversion.

@SANTIAGOP23 posted:

Built my first structure and weathered it... banta kit...

 

Looks great, Santiago. What weathering methods did you use?

@jgtrh62 posted:

Happy Memorial Day Weekend all!

I haven't made as much progress as I'd like to have in recent weeks but finally was able to get all 4 turnouts powered this weekend. I still have lots of tweaking, scenery etc., to do though.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday!

John

John,

Nice work brother. Track work is important and I know you want to make sure those trains are running well. I will patiently await more scenery work.

Dave

@Joe Congemi posted:

Looks great, Santiago. What weathering methods did you use?

Thanks! Nothing fancy, Weathering powders and sponge Technique for speckling 

Thanks Santiago.

That's great hobby input guys!!   Keep it up!   I worked on weathering these hopper cars for my Mexicali Grande show layout and then added some ''dim-able ''lighting to the car shops on the home layout. Finishing some background mountain scenery as well.  Weathering takes the longest!   Lots of 'layering' of colors. 

John, a great idea and with a plan too!  There is room for all O gauge at OGR, "Everywhere West"...and Everywhere Else as well.  Tinplate, three rail scale, two rail scale, or Proto48, it's all in the family!  Sharing each other's ideas is what makes model railroading THE Greatest Hobby in the World!  

Item: O Gauge Railroading is the Standard O Gauge Model Railroad Magazine of the World!  There are other fine magazines and websites devoted to the world of O, but OGR leads the way!

Your Attention Please: If any of you haven't taken out a Digital Subscription and/or become a Supporting Member won't you consider doing so today?  I'm not on the OGR staff but I can honestly say that having done both is by far the best investment* I've made in 2020!  When you join the OGR Family you do much more than just insure that OGR will be here for your enjoyment now, but it will also guarentee that it'll be around for your children as well as their children's children to enjoy, for generations to come!

What to do?  Step right up, purchase a ticket, and climb on board for the train trip of your life.  Take it from one who already did.  You'll never regret it!

Thank you,

Joseph Toth Jr.

Godspeed

Please Pray for World Peace.  We owe it, not only to our children, but their children's children as well!

* You can loose your caboose on Wall Street.  At OGR, you take it with you!

In response to ''brother_ love'' and his tree issue...,I don't regard myself as a scenery pro but I do have a couple techniques I use for building a tree. Whether it's leaf or fir type i'll get some pictures together in steps that I do to ''make a tree''.     Common easy to find materials, some are natural stalks used for trunks.  My leaf trees can be dry plant materials from Michaels / hobby lobby, local florist or even out in nature. The fir trees are just ''bottle brush'' twisted wire holding rope material spray painted then spray glued with scenic foam colors sprinkled over the ''branches''.   Modeling live or dead types, i'll get a small ''clinic'' together.  Give me a couple days.   Sorry, no trains on the line up when I took these.     

Started on mountain today I do a toy train layout not scale