What did you do on your layout today?

Bob, is anyone fabricating wider Super-O turnouts?  O-72 and wider?  That would help me use Super-O on my next layout.    -Ken

Ken-

Be sure to use ORIGINAL power blades.  The repro ones dont fit right and are too thick.

Original ones are very thin and have a radius bend at the rail head (not squared off like the repro ones).

Original ones are very costly though.

ONE MORE THING- The original power blade clips are designed as a spring and have tension that hugs the center rail.  The Repro ones do not.  The repro ones may not stay in place like the original ones.

I have fabricated custom wide rad super O switches.  I am still using them in areas, but for my new Big Yard, probably will just model up tie humps and paint some Ross ones in this next layout to look like super O.

Well, my "layout" consists of an oval of FasTrack that came with the PE set I bought last Christmas... today I set up a PlasticVille station and test ran 3 locomotives I've received in the last couple days - a WBB 4-6-0, WBB GP-30, and a Lionel 4-4-2.

Cheers,

Ken

Thursday went very well. The helix did get its third of a turn, but we fell about 15' short on the roadbed project. No problem, Patrick is coming over twice next week.







Friday, while less exciting, also saw some good progress. I secured a couple sections of track on the new part of the helix. Then I finally finished the missing link between the small yard and the main. The yard was done six weeks ago, but for whatever reason I kept avoiding the connection.

Finally, I managed to repair the broken throwbars on 3 switches. These were just the tip of the iceberg, I've got another 15 or 20 to fix. Now I have the technique down.

Yesterday we completed the third solid day this week working on finalizing the "roadbed" for the engine servicing facility.

It's going to add a lot of real estate to the layout when completed.

Hopefully next week we'll have a couple of gluing parties to get it locked down.

Then it's on to painting and track laying and finishing the control panel relocation.

Ken, which Williams GP-30 did you get? Could you please post a couple of photos too?

Cobrabob

Yee Haa...  I just finished wiring my second loop and I'm going to run some trains!!!  Hope to post some pics...

Got 4 more of those throwbars replaced, laid out the switches for for the new yard, and got another half turn on the helix. I can't believe how fast the 1-5/8" drywall screws get used up. Bought 5 pounds a couple weeks ago and they're almost gone.

Borrowed a switch from a friend and installed while rearranging some other switches on my layout. One switch is on track power temporarily while the rest are on accessory power. Then I ran some trains and proved that everything worked OK.

Finished replacing broken telephone poles and stringing new EZ Line. 

With temp in the mid 50s here today I had to do some outside

things. Did manage to re-wire one of my std gauge loops also I could run tinplate for the first time in a month. Tomorrow I hope to finish the other std loop and get started on replacing an O72 loop with some newly-acquired T-rail track. Looking forward to having the tinplate portion (8'x12') of my pike up and running soon. 

Re-lettered an Atlas O ex-Lackawanna SW8 to Kansas City Terminal railway and tried out my new Legacy UP 9000 4-12-2.  All went well except the trailing truck kept derailing when backing thru a the Ross 4-way switch.  Got out the Dremel, shaved 1/64" off the tapered end of one of the points to snug it up against the stock rail and all is well!

This evening, I started adding color the mountain.  I used Woodland Scenic's Raw Umber and Slate Gray as the alternating colors.

Attended two shows this weekend..nothing much found....but I have the MTH "grainery"

sheathed and finished as a stand alone building, roofed, etc.  However, now come the

annex, water wheel, etc., add-ons...

Worked on part of the outside facade of my layout.

Converted about 5 more Atlas/Weaver cars to Kadees.  About half of my cars are not converted.  I will not have to start working on the Lionel cars soon.  

Started on my scenery this week, using all blue foam a lot of it was staked up and glued with help from a friend. Happy the weather was nice today so I could work in the garage. Took sections of scenery to the garage and carved to my hearts content. Just now put them back inside do do the finish shaping with hot wire tool. Couple more sections to do then if the weather stays warm I will paint them in the garage also. Open house date is getting close. O gauge mountains are big

I started the renovation of two areas on the layout today. The first area is where my refinery and passenger train storage yard is being converted into a large passenger train complex (forefront in the "before" photo below). The area behind the elevated tracks is also being renovated into a new storage yard with more pull through sidings and a completely new area to the layout with more scenery.

The second photo shows the "after" of deconstruction today.

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Added 1930s people and Jack Pearce's LED lighting system to my Premiere Pullmans. Put someone to work moving boxes around the Mail Car too.

Been modifying several Atlas O 2R heavyweight coaches and bagg/mail to bring them closer to the "CNJ look." Have to acquire detail parts via on-line since we live so far from civilization and a thing called a hobby shop ; ) I do rolling stock projects between layout work and shoveling snow lately up here in the mountains... depends upon how much time I can spend at one model rr session.

Had "non train" visitors over this afternoon and actually ran some trains. Tested two new cab-1's in the process. Also did some more work on the helix. Just about up to the double track section.

More cars converted to kadees.  Here is a gondola hauling away the big lobster claws for scrap.  

2nd Std gauge loop wired -- now I can run two Std Gauge trains at once!  

Next comes T-rail O-gauge loop and MTH repro of Leland-Detroit Monorail!

Thanks to this thread I've got some momentum goin'!

Got 8 sections of track secured to the helix today. This paves the way for another half turn of construction tomorrow.

This is one of those switches with the repaired throwbar from the other day. Good as new.

Yesterday, (today, Tuesday, nothing yet), I designed and constructed the annex

to the MTH "grainery".  Went with a sloping shed roofed two story structure with freight doors and stone platform. Glue is drying with paint color to be chosen, thinking about barn red.   Also drilled roof of main structure for vent and stack.  No decision yet on whether to go with a wheeled or turbine mill...turbine mills don't have the esthetic appearance of a wheeled mill, but would offer variety as existed in the real world.

At the end of Tuesday, I have covered the roof of  the annex, using sections of "tar paper", as well as painted it, installed windows, and finished the stack, vent,  and unloading dock on the main building, the MTH "grainery".  Next the roof will go on the annex, it will be attached to the "grainery", its loading dock attached, and I will be forced to decide what to do about a water wheel.

Patrick was over today and we got that half turn on the helix as planned, and also did the flyover and 25' long incline.

Still covering the exposed lumber with foam sheets and carving mountains, maybe next time I will go S-scale.

Clem

As SailLoco once said "trains are a winter sport" so it's time to switch to boating for me.  Beside the eye candy at the marina does wonders for cabin fever!

Took out the culverts out, PITA. I am now in the process of adding a 2 track yard, not very big but it will hold some cars and two engines. 

Well, we just got back from Florida, so (this was actually yesterday) I went down to the layout and checked everything out.  First I hitched up my GP20 to a couple of my homemade track cleaning cars and ran the consist around and around on my two mainlines.  Then I fired up several of my other engines and ran them with two different remotes.  I had freight trains running and passenger trains running. I am happy to report:  all is well.

.....

Dennis

Annex has been attached to the kitbashed MTH "grainery", "stone" loading docks have

been attached to the "grainery" and the annex, roof is on the annex, and a cyclone

has been installed on the annex roof.  Signs for "Froehlich's Fairest Maid Flour, for the

Bestest Biscuits" need to be made.  "Grainery" and annex could now be a finished stand alone structure, but I want to somehow power it with water.  Still am ambivalent about a low double row water wheel or a turbine. Decisions, decisions, decisions....

Three of us finished gluing down the Homaboard roadbed for the engine service facility.  Next comes sanding down some rough joints and filling a couple of gaps, then painting.

A Man's Work Is Never Done!

Finished removal all of the old ballast today. What a dirty job and I am so glad this is done. Tomorrow we start the process of putting things back together again albeit in some new configurations.

While I didn't do this today, I worked on a number of scenes preparing for a Niagara Frontier TTOS Open House my wife & I hosted last month.

For no reason at all I removed all the steam engines and switchers from my layout and placed them in my display cabinet. I filled the available yard area with diesel power. Also moved some different rolling stock on to the scene more era specific to the disels. 

I enjoy for "no reason big swaps". I then enjoyed a two hour plus session and had a ball. It was like a new layout to me running them. 

Been a few days since I've posted here, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working on the layout. Thursday and Friday were spent laying the track on the most recent segment of the helix. Also got most of the feeder wires tied back and the ground plane for TMCC finished most of the way up.






The plan for today is to get the decking on all of those support risers, and laying track on main level.

Got some benchwork up today. 

Worked on my tethered control stand.  Ran trains - smoked out the wife.  Now planning trestle bridge on my mountain branch.

I added another couple pieces of FasTrack to spread my two lines apart so I could fit two MTH Girder Bridges across the flyover loop.  I'm using FasTrack and the spacing was too wide for a double track girder and too close for two single track bridges.  I added a 1.75 piece at two locations and now have room for both bridges with a little room to spare where the track gets close to a wall.