What did you do on your layout today?

@Alex M posted:

Thought I’d share this

That's cute Alex.

And 2-rail scale too!

@RSJB18 posted:

I started dissecting my SF F3's last night for a ERR AC Commander upgrade. I plan to add LED lights for headlights, markers, and classification. I'm going to attempt a tether between the A units for coil-couplers and directional lighting also.

Bob

Will you be squishing all the electronics into the powered A unit or the dummy ? Just curious what your plan is - I've been doing the same on my AA (both powered) ALCOs, 213 and 229, only I installed Lionel's LCRU2 into one, and a RailSounds 2.5 board and speaker into the other. Have you figured out where to mount the tether on the frame?

George

@RSJB18 posted:

I started dissecting my SF F3's last night for a ERR AC Commander upgrade. I plan to add LED lights for headlights, markers, and classification. I'm going to attempt a tether between the A units for coil-couplers and directional lighting also.

Bob

Hi Bob, very cool, I'm looking forward to see it run. I hope all goes as expected. Really enjoy seeing the updates on your upgrades. It sure will be nice for your F3 to be TMCC!!

Are you planning on a ERR sound board now, or sometime in the future once you get it running reliably? Maybe there isn't room for the speaker?

Carl

Carl,  @Pingman,  No particular place,  I have pretty much spent the vast majority of my life living on the east coast, grew up in Bergen County, NJ outside of NYC then lived in Annapolis, MD,  Scarborough ME, and now south of Boston, MA.   So I guess I'd say I am definitely modelling the North East for the most part.   Not many coal mines in that area, but that's the great thing about model RR, is you can take "creative liberties" when, and where, you want to.   

Time period is not a specific year but pretty much kind of a 5 year window  1948 to 1953.   Met a great member of this forum 4 to 5 years ago, went to visit his layout, and decided, there were significant advantages (for me anyway) to pick a time period, and late Steam era to early Diesel transition seemed optimal.   Caused me to go and sell off a bunch of items I had just been buying over the decades without considering the impact on the whole layout, scenery and operating scheme. 

I haven't attended "operating" sessions, read a lot about them, and I have made sure to build this layout so that I could have the option of doing some operating in the future.   Seems like the "logical" next step once I get a little closer to completion.   

Ok enough rambling on ! 

@GeoPeg @WesternPacific2217-

At the moment I hope to put everything in the lead A unit. I am doing railsounds (diesel F3) as well. I want the option to run the powered A unit alone so hopefully power and sound will fit. The shell has the open vents behind the cab so if I mount the RS board and speaker to the roof of the shell, then the power board can go where the e-unit was between the motors.
I started to look at how everything would fit last night. The way I figure, if it all fit under a BEEP shell, then this is like working inside the Astrodome.
The plan is to mount the PC-mounted male plug on the rear of the lead unit under the frame.

@RSJB18 posted:

I will. I have a separate thread I started for the BEEP I did last year.

https://ogrforum.com/...c/err-upgrade-newbie

That's GREAT!!!

Painting a LIONEL F-3 ABA set for a 9-car NP North Coast Limited train and want to do the ERR upgrade, so thanks for the photos you've already posted, and the promise of more to come.

@Pingman posted:

That's GREAT!!!

Painting a LIONEL F-3 ABA set for a 9-car NP North Coast Limited train and want to do the ERR upgrade, so thanks for the photos you've already posted, and the promise of more to come.

My pleasure Carl. I'm sure others are way more capable than me but I'm enjoying the challenge.

I've been following your re-paint odyssey on your NCL train with interest.

Bob

I missed looking at this thread, and there are so many great projects here!  I will just say they all look great!

I did a little more on my Thomas, West Virginia station kit.  I added the lintels over the doors and windows.  From this angle it looks like there is a gap between the windows and lintels, however, when looking straight on, you don't see what is actually the bottoms of the lintels I didn't paint.  I'm not going to try to paint what you won't see when the building is on the layout.  The window sills are strips that go the whole way from corner to corner of the building with gaps for the doors.  I'm going to put them on after I have the walls glued together so I can match them up at the corners.

I finally got the barn installed. The window grilles still need to be replaced and the interior finished.

Bob, I'll be curious to see what kind of speaker baffle you are planning, if any. I have used a simple little Dixie cup in the past (can you spell, "Cheap"?) and found the increase in volume and improvement in tone to be quite amazing.

Also, your choice of placing the PC-mounted male plug on the rear of the lead unit under the frame is quite logical. I will be interested to see if there's is clearance from the coupler - it may fit off to one side on my ALCO sheet metal frame, but I have to buy the part first to see if it will fit.

Thanks again for posting your upgrade!! Keep it comin'!

George

Bar GP7, that is very well done; very authentic. What is the approximate distance from the barn to the backdrop?

While I've been waiting for some supplies to arrive, I decided to upgrade some of my backgrounds. The section below uses a resin cast piece (Kober?) that I picked up in pieces at a flee market, a couple of Ameritown store fronts, and a bunch of Ameritown grab bag parts. The section is ~1 1/2" deep and is lit with LED strips with a variable resistor so I can control the amperage and brightness.

Chris

LVHR

This shows the initial layout of the parts

The LED strips are cut and in position and await wiring.

The finished section, waiting to be installed.

With the help of my parents, work continued. I was able to finish the coal mine section of the mountain (minus the “buns”), started the final section for the rest of the mountain, and cut the first of two hatches.

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

Bar GP7, that is very well done; very authentic. What is the approximate distance from the barn to the backdrop?

Jay Francis,

Thank you. The distance is about 20cm.

Johan

Earlier this week, I wasn’t happy with my “weathered” concrete floor.

Charcoal gray base coat, weathered with gray, camouflage gray and antique white....

I decided to add more weathering to “lighten” it up.....

More gray and antique white.......I’m much happier with the look....

It’s thundering and there is lightning outside this AM in Central Virginia as I type, with a huge storm entering the MiddleAtlantic and Northeast.......please be safe today, folks.......

Peter

@GeoPeg posted:

Bob, I'll be curious to see what kind of speaker baffle you are planning, if any. I have used a simple little Dixie cup in the past (can you spell, "Cheap"?) and found the increase in volume and improvement in tone to be quite amazing.

Also, your choice of placing the PC-mounted male plug on the rear of the lead unit under the frame is quite logical. I will be interested to see if there's is clearance from the coupler - it may fit off to one side on my ALCO sheet metal frame, but I have to buy the part first to see if it will fit.

Thanks again for posting your upgrade!! Keep it comin'!

George

George- The speaker came in a plastic baffle, I'll post some pix later. I have to look closer at the tether plug location too. The tail end of the frame tapers up a little so I may have just enough room to clear the coupler and trucks.

Bob

In mid state Pennsylvania, this morning, I hope they activated the switch heaters or lit the smudge pots. It’s a heavy snow that’s blowing sideways and our trees are dancing. Put the wire train crew on standby.

Nice work all around guys!

I made a video overview of my layout. I Hope this provides more insight to folks following along. Thanks for watching.

Andy

@Steamfan77 posted:

Nice work all around guys!

I made a video overview of my layout. I Hope this provides more insight to folks following along. Thanks for watching.

Andy

Well done!

Peter

As promised here is the build on the LED's I added to Lionels' Ferris Wheel.  The Ferris Wheel had just about zip as far as lighting which is sad for an amusement park ride. Besides, I really like doing stuff like this. The first picture is of the finished product.

Here is the start: U channel from Plastruct and drilled out holes to insert LED's            Painted up

   Inserted all the LED's

Added a resistor per circuit and soldered all the LED's.  I believe there were 3 circuits per section with 6 LED's per circuit on two and one circuit had 7.   I was using a 24 Volt supply so I could get a fair number of LED's per circuit. I think I ended up with  380 LED's on 20 spokes. I then put them in place and twisted wire to hold them and glued them right on top of the existing fake lights.    Another shot of the new channels in place being glued. A couple of leaf contacts I had laying around mounted on the frame of the carousel on the inside.  These would be to transfer power from the base to the rotating wheel. Another shot

Wires run down the channel to the feed in the base.  I did the same thing on the other half. One side for plus and the other negative. Two contacts per side gave me no flicker as the wheel rotated. I then added people to the small gondolas.  I had to cut them almost in half to get them in there.  Well that's it - hope you enjoyed it.  JP

Thank you Peter!

Andy

Andy,

I've been waiting for this. You provided a lot of great information and we get to see your wonderful layout. I really appreciate how you have done the research and thought out what you wanted. I definitely can take a cue from you on that. It would not be as easy for me to describe my layout, lol.

Looks like you have your work cut out for you but the projects will undoubtedly make the layout even better. Thanks for sharing. You have a lot to be proud of my friend.

Dave

Hi Everyone,

Here are a couple of shots of some scenery work I recently completed on the layout. Check out my layout update page and YouTube for more photos and videos of the work. Just click on the links below the photos.

Thanks,

Dave

@Steamfan77 posted:

Nice work all around guys!

I made a video overview of my layout. I Hope this provides more insight to folks following along. Thanks for watching.

Andy

Looks great Andy! Love to see trains running next time.

Question- is this strictly a point to point layout to match the OB Branch, or can you sit back and let a train run a loop on the hidden tracks.

Bob

Dave, that looks real. Excellent job!

I have been trying to play catch up when it comes to putting down more ballast around my renovations.

Thanks for the kind words Dave, it means a lot.

Dave, your scenery gives your layout such depth and visual interest. I often go back again and again and still discover new details. Outstanding work and gives me something to strive for.

Bob, the layout is point-to-loop at best. I need to pay attention for sure. But I enjoy that aspect, and of course the switching opportunities too. I will post a video of some running trains next time.

Andy

WOW guys I have to say you all have been doing outstanding work! 
@luvindemtrains Dave great work on your corner section!

@RSJB18, Bob that is quite the undertaking, sometimes I wish I knew more about engine electronics but then again that could make me dangerous! LOL

@Steamfan77, Great video and love the size of your layout. Looks very well thought out!

@Bill Sherry Jp, that is just amazing! I get tired when I do maybe 10 LED's LOL My hat is off to you!

@NS1975 the ballast looks great!

@Mark Boyce Mark I hope you didnt think I forgot you! Your walls, windows, and doors look great! I cant wait to see it all glued together!

Well guys I haven't done much. I have been working on getting the Lionel 682 running and it runs great now, but the tender whistle needs some work. Maybe tomorrow I can take a video and someone can tell me whats going on with it.

I also have a lionel track cleaning car to figure out why its not running, all in good time!

I hope you all had a great weekend and fun with your layouts and trains!

What did I do? I refer you here.....

Bob

Trainmaster04 -Thats a great start on the scenery. Hope you continue to post some progress pics.

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

Dave, that looks real. Excellent job!

Thank you kindly Jay!

Dave

Thank you Mike!

Bob, holy cow, you’re not fooling around! Wow.

Andy

Great work going on everywhere.   @Steamfan77:  Andy,  very nice job on the layout overview, very cool that you're able to model actual towns, scenes and industries right there on L.I.   @luvindemtrains,  Dave love the scenery, the rock work and trees are exceptional.

I got my Menard's illuminated vehicles on Friday, cut all the plugs off mounted two of them in the tunnel next to the LCL warehouse.  I am supplying power with a DC/DC buck converter set at 3 volts/DC.   Also managed to finish scratch building the roof drain down spouts, weathered them to look mimic the turquoise green color of oxidized exposed copper,  and installed 3 of them on the front wall. 

Going to clean up and just run some trains tonight. 

@chris a posted:

Great work going on everywhere.   @Steamfan77:  Andy,  very nice job on the layout overview, very cool that you're able to model actual towns, scenes and industries right there on L.I.   @luvindemtrains,  Dave love the scenery, the rock work and trees are exceptional.

I got my Menard's illuminated vehicles on Friday, cut all the plugs off mounted two of them in the tunnel next to the LCL warehouse.  I am supplying power with a DC/DC buck converter set at 3 volts/DC.   Also managed to finish scratch building the roof drain down spouts, weathered them to look mimic the turquoise green color of oxidized exposed copper,  and installed 3 of them on the front wall.

Going to clean up and just run some trains tonight.

 

Beautiful work, the interiors are the perfect touch.

Thank you Chris. I will go back over your latest project. Modeling at its best, I thoroughly enjoy your work.

Andy

As usual, excellent job with the detailing. That’s a very innovative approach with the plug-ins.

@Steamfan77 posted:

Nice work all around guys!

I made a video overview of my layout. I Hope this provides more insight to folks following along. Thanks for watching.

Nice work Andy.   Really enjoyed the backround info with your video.

Train show pictures in Cincinnati, Ohio.

https://ogrforum.com/...4#159519380322133664

Dave,

That looks fantastic.  You've got some talent there.  Keep up the great work.  JP

Chris-The entire scene is turning out great. The cars really are a nice touch in the tunnel.

JP-I really appreciate it.