What did you do on your layout today?

I added an Ambulance to my military section of the layout.

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

Looking good Bob. How often have you been cleaning your track?

I had not done it in a while Jay. With all the projects going on it was not worth the time to clean the track when I wasn't running  anyway. Prior to that I used to clean it regularly with 90% IPA. As previously stated, I grabbed the wrong bottle (70%) and it left a rusty film on the rails. You can see the brown residue on the wheels of the cleaning car. I also realized that I didn't run the trains after cleaning (got a different assignment from the CEO), and didn't get to dry the rails.

I also picked up some purple scotchbrite pads, as recommended by GunrunnerJohn, which I will use on the next pass.

Bob

This past Saturday, I had a young, able-bodied helper come over to help me on the layout. We got a bout 1/2 of the road bed laid and some of the track screwed in place around my city scene.

Bob, that is a nice run the Menards F3 made on your layout!

Mikey, the military scene looks great!

Randy, that's great you got help on Saturday!

I lowered my lift up bridges the other evening for the first time in a while. I built for a slightly too tight fit. The wood swelled just enough that the lower bridge wood support just hit the table top and the motor kept going without the bridge hitting the limit switch until I threw the switch. I'll have to shave some off and recheck alignment. That evening, I just raised the bridges, turned on power to my Ceiling Central RR in the adjacent room, and ran a mixed freight flawlessly for a while. I have finally hit the sweet spot where if something doesn't work, and I don't feel like doing something with it right then, I can run another train. Yay!!

@Mark Boyce, may I suggest that you consider a moderately priced dehumidifier for your train area.
They certainly are not an economical mechanism but I’ve found they are necessary sometimes.
And this time one may have saved an expansion issue in your case …

take care!

@Seth Thomas posted:

@Mark Boyce, may I suggest that you consider a moderately priced dehumidifier for your train area.
They certainly are not an economical mechanism but I’ve found they are necessary sometimes.
And this time one may have saved an expansion issue in your case …

take care!

Seth, You are right on the dehumidifier.  We have one in the finished section of the small basement.  I thought it was enough, but this is the first that I have had the layout to a point where humidity would be a factor.  Our older daughter never complained when the train room was her art studio, but we have had a lot of rain this summer.  I am thinking a second one is in order.

Well Mark you are way ahead of me.

I just dislike taking things apart which once worked well. Are there not two bridges?

And we’re also experiencing lots of extra rain this year.  2021 is our year of extremes thus far.

@Seth Thomas posted:

Well Mark you are way ahead of me.

I just dislike taking things apart which once worked well. Are there not two bridges?

And we’re also experiencing lots of extra rain this year.  2021 is our year of extremes thus far.

Yes there are two.  I built the wooden frame underneath the lower bridge to attach the linear actuator to and support the stress.  The upper bridge doesn’t have any wooden support since an arm from underneath the lower bridge catches the upper bridge to lift it.  

Great engineering Mark.  

I followed you and Mike last winter during the construction  but here in July I wasn’t certain if both had wood in their design.

I hope the correction on the length doesn’t cause you any major issues with the three rails.

Mark your area of the state has had more than its share of moisture. Not knowing how your train room is heated and air conditioned, you might consider a mini-split for the area. One unit would provide heat and ac. When you put the unit on dry it eliminates the humidity.

Bob, I 'm also thinking about getting one of those track cleaners, thanks for posting updates, looks like they work really good. Jorge

@Seth Thomas posted:

Great engineering Mark.  

I followed you and Mike last winter during the construction  but here in July I wasn’t certain if both had wood in their design.

I hope the correction on the length doesn’t cause you any major issues with the three rails.

Mike built two.  On one he used thick plexiglass he had on hand.  That would be the ticket.  The other he used premium plywood.  I only had access to 7-ply poplar, and 1x2 poplar.

Im not sure about the rails.  As soon as I saw what was happening, I stopped the bridges and reversed them to the up position.  It was about 2am, and I couldn’t sleep because of my sciatic nerve hurting too much.  I didn’t feel like fooling with it then, nor today.  I was really dragging.  😄

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

Mark your area of the state has had more than its share of moisture. Not knowing how your train room is heated and air conditioned, you might consider a mini-split for the area. One unit would provide heat and ac. When you put the unit on dry it eliminates the humidity.

Jay, you hit the nail on the head!!  The 11x11 train room is an addition on the rear of the house my in-laws had built mainly to support the sunroom above.  It had baseboard heat I disconnected and no air conditioning.  I took the window out between that room and the laundry and there is a door also.  The temperature feels okay, but it must be too damp.  Those mini-split units are nice, but I never priced them.  I don’t know if I will be able to justify it, since we don’t plan to live here too many more years.

I'm certainly sorry about your continuing pain Mark. I was wondering how the physical therapy has been going for you.

If there’s so much pain hopefully your dr. Supplies some relief.
I use the home remedy of a pillow between my legs.

And I agree about a media for your bridge which doesn’t expand nor contracts. Plexiglass could be your answer which means re engineering.

and I’m not joking about this, over the years I’ve found many times what supplies I needed in local dumpsters.  I have salvaged signage from stores doing promotions which was made from thick plastic or plexiglass

Take care, hopefully the pain isn’t as bad this night.

Mark hope you recover quickly from your current pain. It is awful when our physical conditions interfere with our hobbies. 

Just spent a small fortune replacing a water heater and two furnaces and remodeling the master bath - all for the next owners - whenever that may be. Probably another year out -  so we may get to enjoy the new stuff for a little while. So I understand your dilemma regarding the train space. Sounds to me you will have to do something for the sale, might as well do it now so you can at least enjoy your layout in comfort.  Best ...

Thank you, Seth and Jeff!  Yes the pillow is a must.  Our older daughter could have minored in 'dumpster diving' when she was in college.  It would be a fairly simple job to substitute something like plexiglass under the bridge.  I saw someone else made a similar installation with linear actuators on parallel bridges at different levels.  He did a great job using separate linear actuators for each bridge instead of using Mike's idea of only using one,

Jeff, you do have a great thought about making improvements now and enjoy them now instead off adding it right before selling,  I just paid off the furnace and air conditioner we had installed in April a year ago.  Maybe an improvement instead of just maintenance is in order. 

Mark, get a free estimate for the mini-split; especially since you don’t have a precise time line for moving. The cost outlay could be recouped in the sale of the house. Plus, you’ll want something warm for your bones when you’re enjoying an operating session during the western PA winters.

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

Mark, get a free estimate for the mini-split; especially since you don’t have a precise time line for moving. The cost outlay could be recouped in the sale of the house. Plus, you’ll want something warm for your bones when you’re enjoying an operating session during the western PA winters.

👍🏻 One other thing about that addition, it has three exterior walls with a sliding glass door on the east side of the train room.  I wouldn’t have put it in, but my in-laws wanted to reuse it from the original 1960s house when heating and cooling was inexpensive.

Back to the WDYDOYLT -

Ran a new (decades old) K-Line Interurban on the Twin Pines Railroad and did some urban remodeling of the town of Twin Pines.  Posted more photos on TPRR. 

That looks really sweet Jeff. What is the road name on these beauties?

Jay - the road name is Pacific Electric.  Looks to have been built in 1999  K-2708. 

Link to the K-Line photos and Description

Fixed a switch that was shorting so this track is back and operational. SF U Boat prepares to head on out.

Started noodling around with the load for my track cleaning car. I purchased some woodside boxcar material from Evergreen for the deck. I want to make the load removable so I can change the pads easily. Now that the basic concept is in my head I can order some additional shapes and details. The juices are flowing.

I'm going for this.....

I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Well, things may have slowed down a bit, my situation is honey do projects, the yard, and other must do’s this time of year activities… however next week I get to visit a new friends layout, in Nashville. RSJB18, Bob, that a very interesting project you’ve taken on, the Long Island flat car is neat, this would make a great track cleaning car, cool idea.,  Happy Railroading Everyone

Morning everyone, just got back from our trip and have only had time to get into the train room long enough to drop off my hail from Menards. After seeing what I left I know I need to get in there and clean it before I move forward! LOL.

I hope you all have a great week and find time to have fun with your layout and trains!

Mike, welcome back!  I’m sure everyone agrees with me that we missed you.  We are waiting to see what you got from Menards on the Buy Anything New topic!!

While recovering from some fairly major abdominal surgery, I received my latest order from Ross Custom Switches, and am now laying my second, inner loop. There are 6 power drops, and 8 switches involved, all with non-derailing being installed, so a lot of wiring and extensions to be made and placed. There is also and a lot of Ross Bed to be addressed for fit up, and stone painting.

Track Pics




Wiring Pics
Non-Derailing

Power Drop

Switch Actuator Wiring at Panel (Extensions)

I installed a line of paper model facades along 1 side of the layout where space was tight. They are perfect for my Halloween theme. I downloaded them from Haunted Dimensions by Ray Keim. They were fun and pretty easy to construct. I then added some pre-wired LED lighting that I ordered from Amazon.

RWL, I am glad you have recovered enough from your abdominal surgery to get back to the layout.  That is very neat looking wiring on the switches and a switch control panel in progress.  I'm recovering from lumbar fusion surgery and was away from the layout a couple months myself. 

Dad's Train Room, those paper facades look great as does your lighting!  That will certainly be an eye catcher for Halloween!

As mentioned I just got back to the layout a week or so ago.  I had noticed some expansion on the lower of my two lift up bridges.  I shaved just a smidgeon of wood off the bridge.  The rails already extended past the wood, so now everything seats well again.  I did take the advice to get a second dehumidifier for the basement yesterday.  I need to get it out of the box and set it up.  It was an easy sell for my wife as she didn't want any of my engines to oxidize.  Though I didn't meet her until I was 27, I have been very blessed for 37 years married to her!!

As RWL received his switches while recovering from surgery, I just received 2 AIUs for my switches, uncouplers, and whatever in the future.  All I have done so far is daisy chain them to the TIU and see that the TIU recognizes them via the remote.  I still need to pull some wire before I hook any up, so I have some incentive to do my exercises and get my back and hamstring muscles stronger to handle leaning under the layout.  I'm so glad I made the layout high enough and the wiring close to the edge so that I can sit on a stool and lean under instead of other more painful alternatives. 

Been running my Menards F7. Switching out the other power and rolling stock to ATSF theme for a while.

I sprayed the shiny trucks with Rustoleum Matte. They look much better now. The side frames are screwed to the trucks and are actually rather heavy, comparable to Lionel or MTH frames. They even used lock-tite on the screws for some reason.

Before

After

@RSJB18 posted:

Been running my Menards F7.

I sprayed the shiny trucks with Rustoleum Matte. They look much better now. The side frames are screwed to the trucks and are actually rather heavy, comparable to Lionel or MTH frames. They even used lock-tite on the screws for some reason.

Bob these look much better. I hadn’t noticed until now how detailed the trucks actually are on some of the unboxing and review videos.

@Rich Wiemann posted:

Bob these look much better. I hadn’t noticed until now how detailed the trucks actually are on some of the unboxing and review videos.

I've been impressed with the level of detail at the price point as well. I'm looking forward to their future offerings.

Bob

That really enhanced the look Bob. I never would have thought to do that.

Haven't made much progress on the Razorback Traction Co., but I am getting my required dose of Lionel at the Arkansas and Missouri railroad museum...

Mitch

Mitch sure has smooth running trains!

I have spent the last couple of weeks doing wiring. There are three main power feeds for: track, switches, and  signals/lighting and uncoupling/unloading (UCS) tracks. A fourth main wire serves as a ground. The track is fed about every three feet or so and each siding has its own power supply. The 15 switches use the independent voltage plug to supply a constant voltage. The 6 semaphores use insulated track sections to indicate occupied tracks and the block signals are connected to the switches to show turnout position. Separate power is used for the operating barrel loader, coal loader and log loader. There will be two ZW transformers.

I have five insulated rail sections for operation of the road crossing devices like flashing cross bucks, crossing gates. banjo signal, and gateman house.

A couple more days will be needed to finish most of the wiring.

Thanks, Romillet49...l previously mentioned in a post it was for #90, if ever produced, and #90, decapod on the Strasburg,  IS going to be produced, in current and original roadname. As for the Menard's bash, the addition was a thin plastic kit  made in Denmark, and l think the Menard's deserves an extension from a better matched and maybe stronger single stall kit.  Weaver made one..still mulling that over. 

@Dad's Train Room posted:

I installed a line of paper model facades along 1 side of the layout where space was tight. They are perfect for my Halloween theme. I downloaded them from Haunted Dimensions by Ray Keim. They were fun and pretty easy to construct. I then added some pre-wired LED lighting that I ordered from Amazon.

Again WOW! Thanks

Cutting plywood for the bed of the upper loop.

@jrstengel posted:

Cutting plywood for the bed of the upper loop.

Your layout looks great!.  You are doing a nice job cutting the curves of the plywood.  I just have a hand held saber saw, and I have trouble controlling it, so my cuts really need covered by scenery.