Ran some switching around the layout:
Transportation Corps 'trench' 2-6-2T number 5069 starts the duty day at 'B' Company, 796th Railway Operating Battalion HQ...
I'm having custom decals made for NP "mail-dormitory" cars and needed to provide two small paint samples for the decal maker to match the dark green letters NP used for: United States Mail/Railway Post Office in the Loewy livery. And prepared an email to him including the car numbers needed for the four additional cars I'll be decaling shortly. My reference for this info is The Vista-Dome North Coast Limited, by William R. Kuebler, Jr., Oso Publishing Company, New York 2004, an extraordinary resource for all things North Coast Limited.
Hi Everyone,
I just installed some high tension towers on the layout along with the Woodland Scenics substation. For more photos and video click on the Layout Progress link below.
Dave
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@luvindemtrains posted:
Amazing progress, Dave! The first shot immediately made me think, "That's looks great, but a real one would have a fe.... Oh, he made a fence. Darned nice one, too!"
I assume that gap between the pole next to the gate and the chain link was intentional? Great looking everything!
Thanks Lee! Yeah, that wouldn't be a good situation without one. Yes them darn vandals. What do they expect to find in there or is the plan to meet their maker.
Dave
Wow...You guys amaze me with your talent and attention to detail. Thank you all for sharing your projects and giving this old man some new ideas.
@Papa Dave posted:Wow...You guys amaze me with your talent and attention to detail.
Yep, @luvindemtrains Dave really has a very good grip on what looks right. I can't say every layout has that; far from it.
I tell people all the time to stop and look at things on your layout and think, "Would this be right in real life?" and if not, then change it.
@WesternPacific2217 posted:Update: Finished the interior paneling and installed them in the extruded aluminum car body. you can see the plastic window, glue and all without the paneling. Ugly! Just getting started in the photo below.
I used the already existing channels in the car body for the interior panels, just need a couple of dabs of glue. Notice how low in the car body the incandescent lights hang in the photo, more about that at the bottom of this post. The channels towards the bottom are for the chassis, it slides in from front to back.
Fitting the paneling printed on Canon Photo paper.
The photo below shows panel after the windows have been cut out. Time consuming process of cutting out the windows, about an hour each side! This photo also shows how low the incandescent lights are!
Paneling installed.
The plan was to reassemble the car today, but the incandescent lights are a problem and need to be remedied with LED strips before I can install the chassis with interior floor and figures. Both Stucky Wedgewood, the conductor, and the bartender will be decapitated if I install the chassis with the factory incandescent lights. I have the LED strips, but I'm out of DC regulators, so I'm placing an order for gunrunnerjohns regulators. I'll also need a couple of resistors and a 3 mm LED for the main taillight. I thought is was odd that they used LED's for the taillights on each side and an incandescent for the center taillight!!! Probably a week delay for shipping etc. as I'm on the west coast! :-( Hopefully my next update will be a completed project!
Update on the K-Line 15" Observation car interior project:
I received @gunrunnerjohn DC LED regulators 2 days early, big thanks to John!!
With the paneling done and the LED installation complete, here's some photos.
All 3 taillights were incandescent too, so I replaced those with what I had lying around, and all I had was Evans Designs 7-16 volt AC/DC, they work perfectly with the DC regulator. Evans just cost more than a 10 cent LED and 3 cent 470 ohm resistor! Used double sided foam tape to mount the DC regulator.
Small dabs of hot glue to mount the LED strips and hold down the taillight wiring. Stringy stuff!!
Here it is put back together in a daylight photo.
Some night photos.
Tail end LED's.
I'm pretty happy with it, but if you noticed in the night photos the plastic glass is scratched up. I'm not sure if that is the way the car came or if I scratched the plastic glass while working on the interior. Also, I need to extend the LED strip about another inch in the rear. I made the strip the same length as the incandescent lights, but LED's have a more directional light than the incandescent, so the rear of the car isn't has well lit as it was with incandescents. Live and learn, I'm taking the car apart again and replacing the clear plastic glass with polycarbonate film (also known as Lexan) .5 mm thick. I new I should have replaced the glass while I was in there, I just didn't listen to myself! Argh!
Fortunately I did some work on the steal chassis while it was apart, so it's much easier to remove and install now.
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Nice work, master craftsman Scott! It’s a beautiful car.
Excellent project, photos, and descriptions, @WesternPacific2217, Thank You!
When I saw the photo of the LED strip stop short of the plastic roof end, I wondered if it might leave the rear of the car a bit dark. Thanks for clearing that up for me in your text.
Did you consider putting LED's in the ceiling of the dome to light the vista-dome seating area? I ask because I'm doing a similar project using LIONEL offset vista domes, and will install LEDs in the dome ceilings, but am concerned it may leave the interior below the dome a bit dark.
And a final question, what LEDs did you use for the marker lights? My experience with LEDs is limited to strip lights, so the particulars are important.
Thanks, again.
Just to prove I'm not utterly inactive, some photos of my test-fitting some arcade buttons which will be operating various accessories on the A&M museum layout. The layout is on a former stage scenery flat, made of 2x4s...
A 1 1/4" hole with a 2" x 1/2" deep inset on the inside seems to work best for button installation. The switch then snaps in place.
Fortescue says, "HALLLLP!!!"
Mitch
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@WesternPacific2217- the car looks great Scott. I was wondering about the dome too. Maybe a couple of loose LED's would be enough. If you are going to change the windows anyway.....
@Mike0289- Love the Menards buildings. Too bad I can't fit any on my layout. Yours look great.
@luvindemtrains- the substation and towers are well done. The HO scale up the hill gives good depth to the scene. The broken gate is a nice touch of realism too. I think we all strive for perfection on our layouts when less than perfect looks better and more realistic sometimes.
The mystery of my F3 markers has finally been solved. As mentioned, I've been following GRJ's wiring to the letter. John must be part detective too because he figured it out on a hunch as we discussed the issues. Turns out I have a one-off R2LC board that has POSITIVE lighting outputs, not the normal negative. What are the odds??????
Anyway, with common cathode LED's, they work, so yesterday I started redoing the marker lights and wiring. Hopefully I can get them installed and finished up this week. At least it's good to know I wasn't going crazy all this time! 
Happy Mother's Day to all the CEO's and mom's.
Bob
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@M. Mitchell Marmel posted:Fortescue says, "HALLLLP!!!"
Mitch
@RSJB18, @gunrunnerjohn's tireless assistance on this and many other issues is PRICELESS!
You're providing a great service to me and, perhaps others, with this project because I'm planning to do basically the same thing. So, all of your photos, descriptions, and p/n's are greatly appreciated.
But it's GRJ who lays the foundations and solves the problems along the way.
@Pingman posted:@RSJB18, @gunrunnerjohn's tireless assistance on this and many other issues is PRICELESS!
You're providing a great service to me and, perhaps others, with this project because I'm planning to do basically the same thing. So, all of your photos, descriptions, and p/n's are greatly appreciated.
But it's GRJ who lays the foundations and solves the problems along the way.
Well said Carl. I probably would have given up by now without his assistance.
Thanks
Track cleaning
I just took delivery of a Lionel track cleaning car. Now I am waiting to get some track cleaning fluid. Thanks for the demo.
@WesternPacific2217 posted:I received @gunrunnerjohn DC LED regulators 2 days early, big thanks to John!!
With the paneling done and the LED installation complete, here's some photos
Some night photos.
Looks great Scott ( GREAT SCOTT ..... hmmm).
........now just take two very small red and black wires and run up to the upper skylight section with maybe a small strip ( maybe three LEDs and the resistor ) of LEDs.
@RSJB18 posted:The mystery of my F3 markers has finally been solved. As mentioned, I've been following GRJ's wiring to the letter. John must be part detective too because he figured it out on a hunch as we discussed the issues. Turns out I have a one-off R2LC board that has POSITIVE lighting outputs, not the normal negative. What are the odds??????
That is not a one-off R2LC board. It is an R2LC07, which was the standard radio board used before the R2LC08 came out. They are not common today because they generally don't support cruise control operation. All of the R2LC07's that I've seen have positive lighting outputs vs. the negative outputs of the R2LC08 and R4LC08 boards.
It CAN be frustrating!
@Brooklyn Corey posted:Track cleaning
Rather dramatic music for track cleaning, but I liked it. It was good to finally see the track cleaning wiper down for the second cleaning of the outer main line. 😉
@Yellowstone Special posted:Rather dramatic music for track cleaning, but I liked it. It was good to finally see the track cleaning wiper down for the second cleaning of the outer main line. 😉
lol I picked the music because it sounds dramatic! I’m glad you picked up on that. I went around the whole layout with the second wiper down. 😃😃
@Brooklyn Corey posted:lol I picked the music because it sounds dramatic! I’m glad you picked up on that. I went around the whole layout with the second wiper down. 😃😃
Awesome! You made watching your track cleaning enjoyable. 👍
The cap piece around the turntable is now in place and painted. I added some lines in the top to represent expansion joints and separate pieces of concrete. Next I’ll start some ground cover in the area.
Andy
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@Dallas Joseph posted:Looks great Scott ( GREAT SCOTT ..... hmmm).
Made these four mini strips for the ceilings of four LIONEL vista domes for my NP NCL yesterday.
A test using a donor dome and car made lighting the dome interior worthwhile. Hiding the wires is tedious but doable.
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@Steamfan77 posted:The cap piece around the turntable is now in place and painted. I added some lines in the top to represent expansion joints and separate pieces of concrete. Next I’ll start some ground cover in the area.
Andy
A very nice turntable. But there doesn’t seem to be enough real estate around it to install the “spoke” tracks to converge into the “wheel.” Or is it just me? 🤔
@Pingman posted:Excellent project, photos, and descriptions, @WesternPacific2217, Thank You!
When I saw the photo of the LED strip stop short of the plastic roof end, I wondered if it might leave the rear of the car a bit dark. Thanks for clearing that up for me in your text.
Did you consider putting LED's in the ceiling of the dome to light the vista-dome seating area? I ask because I'm doing a similar project using LIONEL offset vista domes, and will install LEDs in the dome ceilings, but am concerned it may leave the interior below the dome a bit dark.
And a final question, what LEDs did you use for the marker lights? My experience with LEDs is limited to strip lights, so the particulars are important.
Thanks, again.
Hello Carl, yes I did consider putting LED's in the dome and I may yet do that. Although a lot of dome cars only had lighting down low, like seat level otherwise it would interfere with the view. So, I haven't figured out what I want to do with illuminating the dome just yet. In my semi scale Lionel Santa Fe Chief dome cars in the photo below they get enough illumination from the LED's in the main passenger area, but the aluminum cars do not.
As I stated in my last post I'm taking the car apart to extend the LED's in the observation car, while I have it apart I'll fiddle with the dome. I need more passengers!!!
For the taillight and marker lights I used what I had lying around, and all I had was Evans Designs 7-16 volt AC/DC LED, they work perfectly with the GRJ DC regulator. If I did it again I would just use 3mm LED's and 470 ohm resistor!
I hope this is helpful.
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@Bob posted:That is not a one-off R2LC board. It is an R2LC07, which was the standard radio board used before the R2LC08 came out. They are not common today because they generally don't support cruise control operation. All of the R2LC07's that I've seen have positive lighting outputs vs. the negative outputs of the R2LC08 and R4LC08 boards.
It CAN be frustrating!
You don't even know how much.......
The way John explained it, the board seemed like it was made for one engine. Good to know it's just an older version. Last time I buy old boards off the forum.
Thanks for the additional info.....still on the way up on the learning curve. 
Bob
Hi Vern, in Oyster Bay it’s a single track to/from the turntable. There are separate storage tracks in the yard for engines such as the ash pit track and the hole track.
Andy
@Steamfan77 posted:Hi Vern, in Oyster Bay it’s a single track to/from the turntable. There are separate storage tracks in the yard for engines such as the ash pit track and the hole track.
Andy
I see. Thanks for the clarification, Andy. 👍
@WesternPacific2217, thanks for the reply.
Just received some 3mm LEDs, so thanks for the recommendation as well.
Morning guys, it's been a little while but I am still here! I finely finished a huge project for the summer and the wife came up to me and wanted to know if I would show the lady down the street my train layout to her great grandson. I said of course as it would give me a reason to get back into the train room! But more on that in a little bit.
@luvindemtrains Dave the transmission towers and lines to your substation look Outstanding!
@p51 Lee I always love your B&W Photos!
@RSJB18 Bob if it's for the layout spend as much as the CEO will let you! LOL I sure am glad you were able to get your lighting figured out! GunrunnerJohn is truly a wealth of information!
@WesternPacific2217Scott Amazing work on the lighting! I know I have some to do down the road!
@Mike0289 Mike great looking layout and building placement I too have alot of Menards buildings! I just wish I had more space! LOL
@Brooklyn Corey Nice video and I like the music! When I clean track I usually listen to some Rock!
@Steamfan77 Andy the TT looks great! Your making progress which is a great thing in this hobby!
@Pingman Carl thanks for the photo! I have 6 Amtrak cars to do someday and have a whole roll of those lights thanks to forum member John H.
Now back to the show for the neighbor's Great grandson. I haven't been in the train room for a week but everything worked great last time I was in there! They come over I lower the bridge, power everything up. I start 2 engines my SD80 and my UP4-8-4, both sounded great started to get them to roll and the gremlins came out! Both engines stopped at the first switch they came to. I never did get them running for him, but I turned on all the building lights and gave him some old train toys I had that I knew I would never use. He left thinking it was a train Christmas! LOL
I went out yesterday and where both engines stopped there was no power to the frogs to the switches. I was able to get that fixed. But then found a short on the lower loop, if the engine is going fast enough it runs right past it, but if I have it around 4 step speed it stops and throws the short light on the Z4000. I am going to try and figure that out today and I also have to figure out how come none of my direction lights or ditch lights wont work on my MTH PremierSD80MAC engine. I turn them on with the remote and nothing happens!
Sorry for being so long, but thats what happens when I am not here for a week!
I hope you all find time to have fun with your layout and trains! P.S. BOB Keep spending! LOL
@mike g. posted:Morning guys, it's been a little while but I am still here! I finely finished a huge project for the summer and the wife came up to me and wanted to know if I would show the lady down the street my train layout to her great grandson. I said of course as it would give me a reason to get back into the train room! But more on that in a little bit.
@RSJB18 Bob if it's for the layout spend as much as the CEO will let you! LOL I sure am glad you were able to get your lighting figured out! GunrunnerJohn is truly a wealth of information!
I hope you all find time to have fun with your layout and trains! P.S. BOB Keep spending! LOL
So many trains, so little time Mike.
Sorry your layout is giving you issues. It's always something right?
Thanks
@mike g. posted:Now back to the show for the neighbor's Great grandson. I haven't been in the train room for a week but everything worked great last time I was in there! They come over I lower the bridge, power everything up. I start 2 engines my SD80 and my UP4-8-4, both sounded great started to get them to roll and the gremlins came out! Both engines stopped at the first switch they came to. I never did get them running for him, but I turned on all the building lights and gave him some old train toys I had that I knew I would never use. He left thinking it was a train Christmas! LOL
I went out yesterday and where both engines stopped there was no power to the frogs to the switches. I was able to get that fixed. But then found a short on the lower loop, if the engine is going fast enough it runs right past it, but if I have it around 4 step speed it stops and throws the short light on the Z4000. I am going to try and figure that out today and I also have to figure out how come none of my direction lights or ditch lights wont work on my MTH PremierSD80MAC engine. I turn them on with the remote and nothing happens!
Sorry for being so long, but thats what happens when I am not here for a week!
I hope you all find time to have fun with your layout and trains! P.S. BOB Keep spending! LOL
Mike, appreciate the fact that you're keeping those train gremlins tied up and away from my layout for the moment. I'm sure when you've figured things out, they'll move right back along to one of our layouts. Fortunately, they haven't visited me in over a month, so i guess I'm due.
I started adding Kadee couplers to my cars. I can hardly believe how easy they are to install. The Lionel modern box cars average 15 minutes and align perfectly with the coupler height gauge. MTH and Atlas about 25 minutes with some cutting. I’ll add touch up paint this weekend. No more drilled, glued, and zip tied claws.
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Hi guys, I hope your all having a great day!
@Strap Hanger Well I got most of them kicked out today, I still have one more to take care of right now!
@WinstonB Great job on the Kadee's I still have a lot of cars to do and some engines. That will be a good winter project maybe! LOL
Well guys I got my ditch lights and directional lights working today. I did something I should have done many years ago and built a programming/test track. Put the engine on it did a factory reset and everything works great!
For tomorrow I and going to spend time trying to figure out why I have a short in on section when the engine goes threw it slowly!
I hope you all had a great day and fun with your layouts and trains!
just caught up.....great stuff, everyone!
Peter
