What did you do on your layout today?

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

Tom Tee, congratulations on the extensive changeouts you completed. Perhaps you and some other folks can provide some guidance. On my layout I’m using O tubular. Prior to starting this project I purchased some gorgeous 18” passenger cars. After I set up a test loop I found that the cars did not get along with the O22 turnouts. The overhang looked horrible and they derailed after coming in contact with the lantern. I don’t understand the  switch numbers you mention; nor how much space they save/use. I have been looking at the Ross Switches website but so many indicate “image not available “. Any guidance this group can provide as to what will work with tubular will be greatly appreciated.

Jay- I'm no expert on Ross switches but at a minimum you would need to adapt the tubular to Ross. Also what radius curves are you running? You can contact Ross directly for advice too.

The numbered switches that Tom is using are a different animal from radius switches. His layout is 2-rail also.

Bob

IMO the 022 switches have their limitations.   The Ross switches are available with low profile motors which will clear overhanging equipment.

The diverging leg of a switch crosses at a device called a "Frog".  Called that simply because it looks like the frog we all dissected in Biology with its arms and legs stretched out and pined in place.

The angle at which the "arms" are spread apart is the degree of the RR frog.  The angle can be expressed in a ratio number.

Ratio numbers transcend scale.

If at any point of the diverging rails you can mark a point where the inside edge of the rail head is one inch apart then measure to the sharp end of the frog point in inches and that measurement is the frog number.

Example:  If your mark at the aforementioned 1" mark is 6 inches from the sharp point of the frog your switch is a #6.

You do not even need a measuring device.  It is units of measurement.  Be careful to make your separation measurement  mark  from the inside flange edge of the diverging rail heads.

An 022 switch has a full curve section as it's diverging leg.  Not commonly listed as a number switch.  However here is where the can be a hybrid nomenclature.   My early 89" / 120" radius curved switches use a number 10  Right of Way brand frog.   However, the Signature large radius switches use custom formed fully formed curved frogs.

Probably too much information but it can be  starting point...

As Bob mentioned I do run both two and three rail.  My three rail is all Ross switches.  An excellent product.  My two rail portion also uses several Signature Switch radius switches where a diverging track leaves a right of way in mid curve.  Not prototypical but hey prototypical RRs are not built on a sheet of plywood either.

It's all fun and games with our toys.  The more serious you take this hobby the less you will be smiling.

Jay, if other than the lantern interference, the 022 switches are serving you well  consider removing the lantern and seal the socket...or...flip the switch motor to the other side of the switch, an easy screw driver job...or...remove the switch motor completely and operate the offending switch from under the platform with a Tortoise style switch motor.

Definitely keep those 18" cars!  

@jrstengel posted:

@Seth Thomas

Thank you! I am learning a lot as I go. I have another one to make for the back side so I should be able to apply what I have learned so far and make some improvements. Tough learning a new skill at 68.

John, I hear you about learning new skills.  I'm 3 years younger than you and besides new skills, I have been working on some skills I once had, but have been dormant for almost 30 years.  You will get the hang of it, and so will I!

Bob, that burn barrel really looks great!  It reminds me of burning papers back home.  Pulling newspapers apart and wadding them up slightly gave a nice big blaze when a few were put in together.  Also, we had a burn pile over the hill from the house in an area dad mowed with his '53 Gravely.   It had all the branches that fell or were cut and lumber scraps from over the course of a year.  He would pick a still, summer morning to pour his dirty motor oil on the edge of the pile and throw in a match.  After a few seconds; Whoosh!

Ski, Ah!  I'm glad to see the nice bridges supporting the tracks that were in mid air!  Looking good!

Removing and packing away Christmas decorations before the deep freeze and snow came the night before last slowed my progress to a crawl.  I'm hoping to get something done today.

Thanks Tom , I had not considered that. I do recall an article, somewhere in my archives, that shows how to make it happen.

I know I've seen the O-Scale Camper set on their layouts, so I thought I'd share this.

In the video below the  camping scene next to the lake is the Woodland Scenics O - Scale Camper Figure set sku A2754 that I modified for illumination of the fire pit and lantern. For the fire pit I used Evan Designs Fire LED Kit Pico 7-19 volts and powered it with the Woodland Scenics Just Plug Light Hub. Since the output from Just Plug is 22-24 volts, I used the adjustable light dimmer on the light hub to adjust the voltage down to 16 volts. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the WS fire pit just large enough to insert the Evan Fire LED's snug enough to not to require adhesive. For the lantern I used a WS Just Plug Nano LED. I drilled a hole through the log and into the lamp just large enough for the LED to fit snugly. Drilling the hole was a little tricky, because you don't want to accidently go all the way through the lantern. Using tweezers I pushed the nano LED into the hole, it fit perfectly. There you have it, an illuminated camp sight. It was fun and satisfying project and turned out to my liking.

@WesternPacific2217 posted:

I know I've seen the O-Scale Camper set on their layouts, so I thought I'd share this.

In the video below the  camping scene next to the lake is the Woodland Scenics O - Scale Camper Figure set sku A2754 that I modified for illumination of the fire pit and lantern. For the fire pit I used Evan Designs Fire LED Kit Pico 7-19 volts and powered it with the Woodland Scenics Just Plug Light Hub. Since the output from Just Plug is 22-24 volts, I used the adjustable light dimmer on the light hub to adjust the voltage down to 16 volts. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the WS fire pit just large enough to insert the Evan Fire LED's snug enough to not to require adhesive. For the lantern I used a WS Just Plug Nano LED. I drilled a hole through the log and into the lamp just large enough for the LED to fit snugly. Drilling the hole was a little tricky, because you don't want to accidently go all the way through the lantern. Using tweezers I pushed the nano LED into the hole, it fit perfectly. There you have it, an illuminated camp sight. It was fun and satisfying project and turned out to my liking.

Looks good Scott. I'll post an update on mine later.....waiting for glue to dry.

Bob

Disassembly and painting an engine:

https://ogrforum.com/...9#158251952177858019

Wow, here we are on page 1082 on a thread close to our hearts, about layout Question, with answers and thoughts from some of the best folks in the business, a novel in the making. Tom Tee, thanks for sharing your ideas and talents on this and other threads of this OGR Forum, beautiful pictures and videos and verbiage by lots of folks. This is really a thread for new folks to learn the in snd outs of model railroading, Wow. Today, just a few pictures of my layout, which is a work in progress, and I’m getting ready to wire up my Hobo Water Tower, among lots of other accessories. Happy Railroading Everyone

Lighted up my new railway station and wired up the street lights, even if they are miss matched.  I am looking for another one of those taller Russian Moskabel lights to replace the shorter Lionel one.   

Finished the burn barrel, I added some "kindling" too,  and got it set on the base. The spot where the wires drop through the board is hard to reach so I added a 6' length of 4-wire.

THEN.......I was dropping it onto the layout and a loose wire appeared in my hand! One of the wires in the fire kit rectifier BROKE!

Sent and email to EvanDesigns.....waiting for a reply.

Going for the single-malt now.......

Bob

@RSJB18 posted:

Finished the burn barrel, I added some "kindling" too,  and got it set on the base. The spot where the wires drop through the board is hard to reach so I added a 6' length of 4-wire.

THEN.......I was dropping it onto the layout and a loose wire appeared in my hand! One of the wires in the fire kit rectifier BROKE!

Sent and email to EvanDesigns.....waiting for a reply.

Going for the single-malt now.......

Bob

After your single malt Bob...........you ought to take a few minutes and post this video on that " Imagineering thread. 

Realy nice look with that lighting.

@RSJB18 posted:

Finished the burn barrel, I added some "kindling" too,  and got it set on the base. The spot where the wires drop through the board is hard to reach so I added a 6' length of 4-wire.

THEN.......I was dropping it onto the layout and a loose wire appeared in my hand! One of the wires in the fire kit rectifier BROKE!

Sent and email to EvanDesigns.....waiting for a reply.

Going for the single-malt now.......

Bob

Bob, BUMMER! I did notice that the fire kits are pretty delicate with small gauge solid wires. Hopefully Evan Designs will take care of you. How was that single malt? Would that be beer or scotch?

The burn barrel looks awesome, and I really like the caboose the way it turned out!

@WesternPacific2217 posted:

Bob, BUMMER! I did notice that the fire kits are pretty delicate with small gauge solid wires. Hopefully Evan Designs will take care of you. How was that single malt? Would that be beer or scotch?

The burn barrel looks awesome, and I really like the caboose the way it turned out!

Scotch.....

Heard back from Evan. A new kit is going out Monday. Sucks that I have to take the barrel apart.

Thanks Scott.

Bob

Great job on the yard office Bob! The burn barrel looks fantastic, excellent effect. The lighting is really nice. Well done.

Fantastic projects guys all around. Inspirational to see so much high quality work.

Andy

I finally began publicly posting my YouTube videos on my YouTube channel that I had made previously.  During Christmas break 2020, yep 2020, I decided to try and run and film all the engines on my railroad.  I uploaded all the videos but just never made them public as I hadn’t got though my roster.

https://youtu.be/t7oI87fLC_I this is the link to video 10.  I have about 40 more to go that will make their way to YouTube over the next several days.

Enjoy

John

@Steamfan77 posted:

Great job on the yard office Bob! The burn barrel looks fantastic, excellent effect. The lighting is really nice. Well done.

Fantastic projects guys all around. Inspirational to see so much high quality work.

Andy

Thanks Andy- I was able to take the barrel apart today with minimal damage so it should go back together quickly when I get the new LED's.

@jbmccormick posted:

I finally began publicly posting my YouTube videos on my YouTube channel that I had made previously.  During Christmas break 2020, yep 2020, I decided to try and run and film all the engines on my railroad.  I uploaded all the videos but just never made them public as I hadn’t got though my roster.

https://youtu.be/t7oI87fLC_I this is the link to video 10.  I have about 40 more to go that will make their way to YouTube over the next several days.

Enjoy

John

I love the cork mountain John.

Pro tip- you can insert Youtube videos directly into the post by using the insert/edit media icon (looks like a piece of film), in the tool bar. Just copy the link from Youtube and paste it into source box.

Bob

That looks very impressive Bob. It’s a very unique enhancement and one that will be emulated.

Bob,

Thanks for the pro-tip.  Here is video 11... enjoy!!!

The first 9 are there as well.

John

Jbmccormick, wow, great video. You have a really nice layout, great track work and neat scenery. Thanks for posting. RSJB18, Bob, I like the burning barrel, very creative, also the neat caboose project. Happy Railroading Everyone

@RSJB18 posted:

Finished the burn barrel, I added some "kindling" too,  and got it set on the base. The spot where the wires drop through the board is hard to reach so I added a 6' length of 4-wire.

THEN.......I was dropping it onto the layout and a loose wire appeared in my hand! One of the wires in the fire kit rectifier BROKE!

Sent and email to EvanDesigns.....waiting for a reply.

Going for the single-malt now.......

Bob

Bob,

  Nice job on that barrel...Happy New Year, too.

Tom

@PRR8976 posted:

Bob,

  Nice job on that barrel...Happy New Year, too.

Tom

@leapinlarry posted:

Jbmccormick, wow, great video. You have a really nice layout, great track work and neat scenery. Thanks for posting. RSJB18, Bob, I like the burning barrel, very creative, also the neat caboose project. Happy Railroading Everyone

Thanks gents.

Happy New Year!

Bob

Finally finished my TIU melted banana terminal repairs.  The Chinese terminal  knockoffs from Amazon required some work. I needed to drill out the round connectors from the TIU board because the Chinese  knockoff posts were slightly larger. Also, the female holes of the banana nut connectors weren’t as snug as the original TIU posts, so I needed to pry the connectors a bit to make them snug,

Here is the original melted posts due to loose connections -  

Thankfully, the melted plastic wasn’t too difficult to pry off the TIU cover without breaking it. I made sure to carefully work small pieces at a time to remove the melted posts.

Here are the first two newly installed terminal posts. You can see how the new terminal posts are slightly larger than the original ones  (bottom) used by  MTH. Yes, that top one was installed incorrectly reversed (red to black, etc). Fortunately, I caught it after taking this photo and reversed it to properly connect red to red and black to black -

I reconnected it to my layout, tested all tracks, and am pleased to say that everything is working fine. Hopefully, everything remains tightly secured and I can avoid melted terminal posts in the future.  I’m tempted to solder the connections to the posts if I notice any melting in the future.  All in all, not too difficult of a repair.

Good evening OGR members, although this thread is meant for what we did on our layouts today, I’m just wondering if any of our members were affected by the bad storms, snow, tornado’s, floods, fires, or freezing weather. I haven’t seen Mike g. post any thoughts lately, thinking Washington state was hit hard by flooding and others, so, those in harms way are in my prayers. Our area of the country just had a big snow storm, something we hardly ever see. Happy Railroading Everyone

@leapinlarry posted:

Good evening OGR members, although this thread is meant for what we did on our layouts today, I’m just wondering if any of our members were affected by the bad storms, snow, tornado’s, floods, fires, or freezing weather. I haven’t seen Mike g. post any thoughts lately, thinking Washington state was hit hard by flooding and others, so, those in harms way are in my prayers. Our area of the country just had a big snow storm, something we hardly ever see. Happy Railroading Everyone

I sent Mike a message this morning with the same thoughts.  No reply yet, I hope he and his family are ok with the devestating floods in the Pacific North West. Nothing in the midwest but a little cold.

Thank you Dave, @Dave Ripp, hopefully he is simply busy, but, Mike g. adds a lot interest to this particular thread, like Mark Boyce and yourself, Lee Drennen hasn’t posted a lot lately, maybe P51 Lee knows what issues are going on. Thanks for chiming in, this is a great thread. Happy Railroading Everyone

I created another Penn Central "geep" - a GP9 to go along with the GP7 I did a while back. I went with the Red/White logo this time just for some variety. I had a GP9 body shell laying around so I did it up and swapped it for another locomotive. Both are MTH. The GP7 is Premier and the new GP9 is Railking.

2 layout visit pictures:

https://ogrforum.com/...3#158251952233051053

@Ralph M posted:

I created another Penn Central "geep" - a GP9 to go along with the GP7 I did a while back. I went with the Red/White logo this time just for some variety. I had a GP9 body shell laying around so I did it up and swapped it for another locomotive. Both are MTH. The GP7 is Premier and the new GP9 is Railking.

Awsome picture and a great era to model.

A few more videos posted...

OK I posted the first 15 videos from Christmas 2020.  I still have a bunch left once the Christmas videos are over.

Enjoy

john

@Dave Ripp. posted:

I sent Mike a message this morning with the same thoughts.  No reply yet, I hope he and his family are ok with the devestating floods in the Pacific North West. Nothing in the midwest but a little cold.

Mike sent me a photograph yesterday of his snow.  The deck is 3 feet off the ground, and the snow goes up to about 2/3 the way up the railing.  That sounds like 5 feet to me.  The most we ever had was 40 inches, but I was much younger then.  He didn’t mention floods, but I know our 40 inches in ‘96 melted fast and we had flooding. They keep getting hit with more and more snow, so Mike is whipped.  Unless something happened today, he is okay.

Mostly I made a mess...  Tend to pull boxes out from under and set them on top and look through stuff... Next thing I know, you can't see the surface of the layout... something about being a train hoarder I guess... But I did get lights going recently...

@Ralph M posted:

I created another Penn Central "geep" - a GP9 to go along with the GP7 I did a while back. I went with the Red/White logo this time just for some variety. I had a GP9 body shell laying around so I did it up and swapped it for another locomotive. Both are MTH. The GP7 is Premier and the new GP9 is Railking.

You do nice work Ralph.   The red and white logo looks good.

That Railking GP9 must be the  " Scale "  model.  It looks good with the Premier GP7.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Mike sent me a photograph yesterday of his snow.  The deck is 3 feet off the ground, and the snow goes up to about 2/3 the way up the railing.  That sounds like 5 feet to me.  The most we ever had was 40 inches, but I was much younger then.  He didn’t mention floods, but I know our 40 inches in ‘96 melted fast and we had flooding. They keep getting hit with more and more snow, so Mike is whipped.  Unless something happened today, he is okay.

Great to here Mark. Better snow than rain lot's of flooding in Washington state. Hopefully his property is high and slopes away from his house and building.

@Dennis Holler posted:

Mostly I made a mess...  Tend to pull boxes out from under and set them on top and look through stuff... Next thing I know, you can't see the surface of the layout... something about being a train hoarder I guess... But I did get lights going recently...

From what I can see of the layout Dennis  , everything looks good.

...........and you look like an organized train hoarder.

Ran trains for a bit yesterday. I noticed that my Menards F7 was jumping the track coming out of a turnout. The front wheel is riding up the rail and jumping. I need to shim the track just after the turnout to keep the wheel flanges inside the rail. There is a slight dip in the section of track and I think that's causing the wheel to ride up and out.

Some of my K-line MP-15's have done the same thing so I may have stumbled on the cause. Having the remote in hand made it easier to see what was happening instead of having to go back and forth to the transformer.

Was that happening with the Ross switches Bob?

Morning guys, first off, I want to thank you all for your thoughts about me. I am doing fine just whooped working with all this snow we have got and trying to help people why can't help themselves! It really sucks as there are people running around charging an arm and leg to help folks on fixed income. I do it for free as that is what my dad instilled in me! Here is what we have been dealing with and then on to some train stuff! LOL Mind you my deck railing is 6' tall and the snow pile is what was on the ground and the snow I had to take off the roof.

Now on to some train stuff, last time my grandkids were here I was informed there were no people of color on my layout. My grandkids are part Hispanic, so I spent a few nights right before bed painting some new people of color so they would fit in. My bad!

I also had an hour or so to add ground cover to the area I had to widen out for the overhang of my new steam engine. Here is what I have so far!

The Kids and grandkids came for Christmas after the new year, and we had a great time. They gave me one of the best out of the blue gift for my train layout! I have been looking for a Greyhound bus but everyone I found was way out of my price range and low and behold that's what I got from the grandkids!

I hope you are all well and having fun with your trains and layouts! Please be safe and it might be a couple days before I get back as I have a few more people to take care of. Now all we have to worry about for us is landslides as we live on top of a hill and if it slides it blocks the road!

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

Was that happening with the Ross switches Bob?

the switch in question is a Lionel 5122 tubular (not in the picture).

My Ross switches are located on the layout in my dreams.....