What did you do on your layout today?

Correction.  The new Menards building is resin, not ceramic.   Menards Seed & Feed.  $99.95.  11.5 x 14 high x 14.5.  It is in stock now.  The two prior resin items, the Menards Store and the Menards Garden Center are beautiful pieces, and now sold out.  I have both on my layout.  They have lots of lights and action, and work flawlessly. Does anyone out there have them?

Me and my son just got done taking apart my MPC era Illinois Central GP7/9, reseating the trucks, lubing it up, and putting it back on the track. It now runs better then it ever has for me.  He is now down in the train room putting it though its paces.   

I love the Highway!!!

This morning I collected the last of the lichen and sprayed it with glycerin. Decided to add some grass ground foam to areas missing it before I put the lichen back down................Paul

Wow, Bob, didn't realize you were a member here.

I've viewed your videos many times, love all of them.  Great stuff and I've really enjoyed watching your layout progress.  Hope to someday have one as nice as your layout!

Briefly ran some trains.  Thats all I had time for unfortunately.

Ran some trains today. Finish spraying the last of the lichen with glycerin and placed it around the layout. Tomorrow Mr. Brown will be bringing me a nice package......Paul

USPS was good to me today.  Received the set of Crest rollers I'd ordered; had the 6/32 nuts (per JohnS' tip) on hand to attach on the bottoms of the roller bases for a far more stable install on LIONEL and Gargraves track; and, tried out some track for a test track based on JohnS' design.

Also, I received from the good folks at Tomar Industries the LED-equipped drumhead for my Great Northern Empire Builder repaint project.

Exchanged emails with Dave/LBR reviewing and giving final approval to the proofs Dave supplied for some NP North Coast Limited passenger car decals I've been trying to find for months.

And received from an Ebay seller the male part of some extremely small single wire connectors; the female parts are being supplied by a different Ebay vendor.  I'll use them for installing LED's in PW-style LIONEL 15" aluminum cars.

Finished tuning up the Marx transformer and removing the Marx uncouplers from the factory layout (they interfere with trolley operation). 

Currently figuring out how to PERMANENTLY attach Thunderbirds 1-4 to their respective flatcars... 

Mitch

Jon came over today. He finished hanging the last of the track lighting, which completes that project.

We only installed a couple of fixtures because I wanted to wait until Patrick is done painting the backdrop.

While Jon was doing that, I added plywood strips to the lower section of the helix to create a smooth surface to which the backdrop could be fastened.

Then we cut and hung the first piece. All of this is preparation for the last section of track on the lower level. Eventually, there will be a bridge over the Mississippi carrying the track around the curve.

We also got this piece hung, completing Hiawatha

At first I thought I might have miscalculated, because the vertical clearance looked too short. But at 5 1/2 inches, it should be just fine, as the only cars that will ever go to Hiawatha are grain hoppers and the occasional scrap gondolas and lumber loads.

Not a problem, I don't own any.

HERESY!!!!  

Mitch

Those giraffes better keep their heads down riding behind that GG-1, lest they become crispy critters.

Actually, I do own exactly one electric. An MPC Milwaukee Road Little Joe, but I can't run it on my layout because it's conventional, and the layout is 100% TMCC.

Watch your stack train also.  Double stacks wont clear.

WOW!!! what a post 100+ pages

woohoo.

bought a new piece of Atlas 40"

ridged straight track.

working on building a new board and am

experimenting with new connector tracks

between moduels.

I sat and ate my oatmeal and watched the Lionel 2065 that I bought yesterday, pull a nice freight around my layout. I already have a nice 2065 but this one is in nice condition and was priced right  you know the story, no need explaining.

I changed out the steam engines on my layout, replacing them with diesels.  The grandkids are coming over to stay tonight.  They prefer diesels over steamers.  Well, at least they like the trains.

I decided to toy around with the idea of magnectic MU and air hoses while using realistic looking glad hands. Lionel had some pretty sad looking ones on the back of their F7's. 

More photos to follow with my progress.

Stack trains will never go to this part of the layout. This is an industrial branch with 6 grain elevators / mills, a lumber yard and a junkyard. Stack trains are confined to the mainline where there is plenty of clearance.

I hadn't thought of it before, but wonder if that's also why Gramps modified his giraffe cars to stay down till over an un-coupler. He owned 18 GG-1's and did have catenary for a short while

Finished assembling the parts for my wood, tell tale signal pole. Cotter pins, a 6'' dowel, and a shish-kabob skewer for the counter levered arm & brace. Using heavily serrated scissors scraping deeply, and haphazardly at angles,  to produce that deep weathered pole grain. Ill stain, dip the pin tips in urethane paint ,and call it done.

 It looks great to me. And was so easy I'm thinking my electrics need at least one catenary line a la Great Northern style poles..

I have been a way from my work in process layout for several days while I rebuilt a couple of ZW's and a few KW's.  A couple weeks ago I posted pictures of a prototype girder bridge I planned to build in several different lengths for my layout.  I finally came up with my final design.  I painted it gray and dry brushed a rust color paint to make it appear like a slightly rusted metal.  there will be eight of these on the layout of various lengths.  The unpainted pictures were my original design.

I sanded off the bumper markings (and tire pressure markings over the rear wheelwell, which the Army didn't start doing until well after WW2) for three 1:43 scale WW2 Jeeps that will eventually be on the layout. I'll be repainting those bumpers for my own custom-made unit markings (for a fictional RR operating unit) tonight.

I also placed large sheets of paper over the two back corners of the layout and traced the roadbed for the tracks. The reason is so I will be cutting sheets of plywood in those shapes, doing all the corner scenery (and backdrops where they will be rounded into the corners) away from the layout for easy of construction, then when finished, dropping the completed corners into their proper places. This should make the scenery in the corners go much faster as they'd be very hard to reach otherwise. I plan on cutting the plywood this weekend.

Finishing placing my refreshed lichen around. Mr. Brown came early and dropped off my packages. Took two of the Hy cubes up to see them rum along with the GT auto rack. Awesome to say the least. Love the direction Lionel is going with scale length freight cars. After dinner I'll get the rest of the Hy cubes on the track..................................Paul

Heh.  Don't worry, my G's run on third rail.    I do know that extended pantographs DO do a nice job of sweeping up the telltale and depositing it down the line. 

Wonder if that Little Joe could be converted to TMCC? 

Pic, please!  And that's actually an interesting theory about your Grandpa's giraffes...

Mitch

Of course, your Little Joe can be converted to TMCC, and i'm sure it would be as easy or easier than the GG1's i do all the time for customers.

jackson

I started to wire up the yard track and the ten turnouts I installed.  I was able to get two of the Fastrack turnouts wired for Auxiliary power and the control switches hooked back up.

My International Rescue consist is complete!  Thunderbirds are "O"! 

Mitch

Set-up my tripod and began photographing ~50 die cast cars and trucks that I'm selling; taking notes on any flaws; doing some simple Ebay "completed transactions" searches to get a ballpark value for them; and, considered some different packaging approaches since single diecast vehicles' shipping costs can be a problem.

Continued on my quest to achieve satisfactory results on 3 PW F3 A unit shells and a B unit shell bodywork before beginning paint.  I'm getting real close.

In other words, not as much as I wished I had done.

   I have completed the paint job on my Ameritowne  Homestead Furniture kit.  This is one huge structure!  No build issues here.  Next comes the clear plastic window material.

   I have a Plasticville School that I am thinking of converting into a restaurant.  I have some left over windows and parts from other kits.  I can use those.

It would be a very simple conversion Mitch, because this engine was modified with small can motor trucks. I'm not going to do it though. It wouldn't make it up the helixes with any kind of a train, and it doesn't fit with my railroad's motif.

If I was going to spend the money on a board to convert an old engine, it would probably be a 20 year old BN  F-7  by Williams (not WBB).

I was working on the helix wrap when Jon called this afternoon. Among other things, he wanted to thank me because he had a good time yesterday. I get him to work on my layout, and he wants to thank me. I tried to tell him he had it backwards, and that it was I who should be thanking him.

Here's what I did today...

Thanks Jon!!!

Pre-layout preparation is coming right along.  A recent resurgence in enthusiasm finds me tackling the large area of a "T" shaped floor plan.  Transforming an attic can be frustrating when a lot of time is wasted moving junk that already occupies the space.  Here's what I started with 2 weeks ago.

Some sore muscles later the sub-floor is half down giving me some much needed storage space in the background.  I'm strapping the rafters with 2 X 2's, increasing their depth to accept more insulation.

As of tonight, things don't look any neater but are definitely progressing.  Note how I crammed that previously open space in the background full of crap.  It's the ultimate test of my engineering ( fingers crossed ).  I'm ready to have my buddy come by and rough in the wiring, then I can experiment with the positioning of the LED lighting and retire that old floor lamp.

The only area needing sub-flooring is the left side but i ran out of lumber.  Instead, I assembled my future work station/control central and positioned it.  the proposed track plan will have rails running along the back of the desk, about 8-10" above desk top.  Got the rotary dial phone hooked up to save some steps.  That's it so far!

Bruce

I built some new shelves for the end of the layout where I store my Prewar stuff. Best of all, the only cost involved was my time. I salvaged wood from skids we get stainless steel coils in on.

strangely, at the same time I was building the shelves, the village of Plasticville suffered an earthquake.The Post Office was devastated, one of the mail trucks ended up inside. Even the local coal/auto salvage yard was hit. The building inspector stopped by to look at the remains of the Post Office, and was overheard saying that if some kind of bonding agent had been used in the construction, the building would have survived.

Ran some of my pre-war and specially late pre-war locos behind some  passenger cars of like age.  Just a fun-run. Excercise the fleet.

  It's a very rainy day outside, and somewhat cool here in Baltimore.  So, I completed my Ameritowne 443 Homestead Furniture kit.  It looks good!  Now, I've started converting my Plasticville school into a restaurant/banquet hall.  One set of the rear windows was blanked out with some styrene stone building sheet as have both ends of the structure. A porch has been added to the front. 

  I also have a K-line hen house that was poorly built.  It was a glue bomb with poor fitting sides and roof.   But I dismantled it, put it back together, and gave it a coat of Polyscale BN green with light gray trim.   I'm thinking of converting it into a tavern.  Debating what to call it; the Hen House or the Rat Trap?