What did you do on your layout today?

Demolished the three track staging yard in preparation for building the benchwork for the new return loop and roundhouse area.  I hate, no despise, building benchwork.  Wood is for fireplaces but i have the materials and a plan, now have to find some motovation.

@mike g. posted:

P.S. Dallas, if I had my way I would rather stay out from under the layout! LOL

I guess  RC is the only way Mike .......if you can absorb the cost and new think.

@p51 posted:

Thanks very much, Dallas, that made my day!

But the bottom line is that for all of us, something is easy for you, that is hard whatever you do, never assume that which is easy for you, must therefore be equally easy for all others.

Yup

@necrails posted:

Demolished the three track staging yard in preparation for building the benchwork for the new return loop and roundhouse area.  I hate, no despise, building benchwork.  Wood is for fireplaces but i have the materials and a plan, now have to find some motovation.

I hope you can find that motivation sir.......I can usually find it with INSPIRATION when I get too much THINKING out of the way and replace it with INSPIRATION achieved with a couple of Molson XXXs.

I know that's bad BUT.....

Working on the Korber Sand House and Tower......

Peter

It will be interesting to see the finished product Peter. I’m sure it will be assembled with surgical precision. In my planning I had forgotten about needing a sand house.

I was finally able to secure an MTH Barn and Farmhouse off ebay and got them wired up and did some basic scenery. For now my right side of the layout is done for now and I can move on to the center(it only took a year). Don't worry the horses will be moved away from the cows soon its very crowded.

@Ian Y. posted:

I was finally able to secure an MTH Barn and Farmhouse off ebay and got them wired up and did some basic scenery. For now my right side of the layout is done for now and I can move on to the center(it only took a year). Don't worry the horses will be moved away from the cows soon its very crowded.

Hi Ian, I really like your farm/ranch with the MTH barn and farmhouse. You have a lot of real estate and awesome corral! Oh those pesky Martians stealing cows!! I have the same problem, might even be the same, "We take your Steak", Martians that invade my layout! Next I'm thinking the Martians will be back with a new slogan, "We Take Your Beacon"!

The barn on my layout is a Menard's, I bought them both at the same time. I intend to redo the grass on both the barn and the martians one of these days! I added the ranch scene a couple of years ago.

@WesternPacific2217 posted:

Hi Ian, I really like your farm/ranch with the MTH barn and farmhouse. You have a lot of real estate and awesome corral! Oh those pesky Martians stealing cows!! I have the same problem, might even be the same, "We take your Steak", Martians that invade my layout! Next I'm thinking the Martians will be back with a new slogan, "We Take Your Beacon"!

The barn on my layout is a Menard's, I bought them both at the same time. I intend to redo the grass on both the barn and the martians one of these days! I added the ranch scene a couple of years ago.

Scott, Great minds think alike! I love your farm scene and its given me some ideas. I wish I could've bought the Menard's barn when I could but I don't think they make it anymore. Those Martians need to find some other critters to kidnap.

Ian

Looking good everyone! Was able to get away from school and get some work done. Progress continued on the mountain at tunnel three. I continued placing news paper buns and forming the terrain. Also, I began work on some long overdue wiring on some of my buildings. As of writing this, I have so far wired my repurposed diffuser to produce smoke in my station’s chimney.

Evening guys, sure looks likes some fun projects!

@Putnam Division Peter, looks like you have a good start!

@Ian Y. Ian Nice job on the barn and farmhouse! Don't worry about the cows the Martians will take good care of them! LOL

@Trainmaster04 The mountain is looking good, But wow Outstanding job on the smoke! How did you do that?

As for me I have just been checking all my engines on the layout to make sure they are all running good. While I was at it I realized that summer is coming and people are going to be taking vacations, so I thought I better was and polish the Amtrak train and get it ready for service!

Didn't turn out to bad.

I hope you all had a great day and found time to have fun with your layouts and trains!

@mike g. posted:

Evening guys, sure looks likes some fun projects!

@Putnam Division Peter, looks like you have a good start!

@Ian Y. Ian Nice job on the barn and farmhouse! Don't worry about the cows the Martians will take good care of them! LOL

@Trainmaster04 The mountain is looking good, But wow Outstanding job on the smoke! How did you do that?

As for me I have just been checking all my engines on the layout to make sure they are all running good. While I was at it I realized that summer is coming and people are going to be taking vacations, so I thought I better was and polish the Amtrak train and get it ready for service!

Didn't turn out to bad.

I hope you all had a great day and found time to have fun with your layouts and trains!

Thanks for the kind words Mike! I used plastic straws to direct the smoke upward and simply cut a hole underneath the chimney.

@WesternPacific2217 posted:

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.

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.

Update on the K-Line 15" Cal Zephyr Observation car interior project:

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted because it took that long to get the passengers I ordered! If you read the paragraph just above, you know I wasn't real happy with the LED lighting in the back of the Observation car, so I took it apart again! I added another LED section to the back of the car, and while I was at it I decided to put LED's in the dome as well. @Pingman suggested it as well and it sounds like he plans to do the same to his domed passenger cars, so I went for it. It wasn't very difficult, here's a few photos of the upgrades and the final result.

I painted the seats a dark blue after watching some YouTube Videos about the California Zephyr from the 1950's. I added some carpet too.

The figures are Lionel 21" passenger figures. We won't mention the guy in the shorts is loosing his hair. LoL

Here's the main LED strip installed.

Here's the LED strip being installed in the dome. I used a very small amount of hot glue to attach the strip.

LED strip installed in the dome and the dome reinstalled in the car body.

The final product. You can see how much better the lighting is in the back of the Observation car.

Lighted dome.

Side view.

Whew, putting this car back together is a bit of a challenge and I'm hoping I don't have to do it again!!!

But now I have to do the matching 3 coaches, I'm hoping they are a little easier to put back together. At least I know how to install the LED's now. Actually, that's the easy part.

Great job on the project and its documentation, @WesternPacific2217.

As it happens, my domes are getting LED strips installed in their ceilings, but it's slow going hiding the wires and keeping the adhesive off the "glass."

Also, having seen your installation, the underside of the dome interior will get some LEDs to avoid a dark spot in the middle of the main level; I hadn't decided that until seeing your photos.

The difference in the lengths of the LIONEL and K-Line domes is quite noticeable, as are the interiors with only four rows of seats for LIONEL compared to K-LINE's six:

Also, these domes have a blue tinted film installed which is prototypical of NP NCL Vista-Domes.  The film was installed by Christine Braden who painted these domes and others for planned projects -- she's a talent.

Not shown in the last photo are the mini connectors that will connect the dome strip to the strips attached to  each end of the aluminum shell.

PS: If anyone needs LIONEL domes, P/N 2532-16, TRAINZ has them in abundance as a repro part.

I continued my wiring job last night and was able to keep progress rolling. I was able to wire a total of four buildings and one car. The first three are located on the mountain and they are the coaling station, Menards passenger station, and a woodland scenics cabin. The last building I wired is my 2017 Lionel radio tower and the car is a Menards REA truck in front of my warehouse.

@Pingman posted:

Great job on the project and its documentation, @WesternPacific2217.

As it happens, my domes are getting LED strips installed in their ceilings, but it's slow going hiding the wires and keeping the adhesive off the "glass."

Also, having seen your installation, the underside of the dome interior will get some LEDs to avoid a dark spot in the middle of the main level; I hadn't decided that until seeing your photos.

The difference in the lengths of the LIONEL and K-Line domes is quite noticeable, as are the interiors with only four rows of seats for LIONEL compared to K-LINE's six:

Also, these domes have a blue tinted film installed which is prototypical of NP NCL Vista-Domes.  The film was installed by Christine Braden who painted these domes and others for planned projects -- she's a talent.

Not shown in the last photo are the mini connectors that will connect the dome strip to the strips attached to  each end of the aluminum shell.

PS: If anyone needs LIONEL domes, P/N 2532-16, TRAINZ has them in abundance as a repro part.

Hi Carl, that will look awesome, nice installation! The blue tint should look cool. I can't remember, are your passenger cars 15, 18, or 21 inch? Do your cars have a stairway up to the dome section, and do they have the lowered section under the dome?

Unfortunately my 15" car do not have a stairway to the dome. Hopefully nobody will notice. The actual California Zephyr dome cars were a little over 2 feet lower under the dome than the front and the back of the car to accommodate head room. The bathrooms were under the dome section in the coach cars, and the buffet was in the lowered section in the observation car. I may yet figure out a way to install a stairway up to the dome with the flat floor in my 15" cars.

Here's the design for the California Zephyr cars to show the lowered section under the dome. I believe this is a common design for a lot of railroads, not just the Cal Zephyr.

Please keep us up to date on your passenger car upgrades. :-)

I added minor enhancements to the otherwise "plain" MTH Country Church:

* Removed the broken-off plastic cross atop the steeple and replaced it with a jewelry crucifix
* Cut acetate "stained glass" panels and glued them to the inside of all windows
* Installed two bulb sockets with large globe lamps to maximize the appearance of the "stained glass"
* Installed a sound chip circuit from ITT with church bell and wedding music (for a wedding in progress at the Pergola)
* Added figures at the Pergola for the wedding party and audience; plus a Cadillac get-away car
* Provided an enclosed speaker for the new audio sound effects
* Added an "announcements" signboard to the backside of the speaker and turned it to the front for viewing by visitors
* Used a #90 momentary contact button to activate the sound effects.

My next project ... add a sound chip to a Lionel Band Stand accessory to play a music excerpt performed by a brass ensemble (appropriate for the brass players at the Band Stand).  I knowingly bought the Band Stand with a inoperative tape cassette player and dead amplifier. I will install the sound chip and connect its output to the onboard re-purposed speaker. Not a big deal, but a nice detail.

Mike M.   LCCA 12394

Hi all! It's been a while since I posted anything, but I have been keeping tabs on all the great work and new ideas! You are all such an inspiration for this hobby! Since I had great success with restoring my father's circa 1948 Prairie steamer on my little 3x5 layout, I have decided to set my sights on a larger layout. 8x11 in my garage. Being in North Texas it is heated/cooled. I have lots of ideas and am excited about this project. We'll see has things progress. I have built the bench work and bought some track. Got a great deal on some used Gargrave straight track and bought Atlas Century Curves new, 54 and 45 inch. Enough to create two loops. I know there will be a tunnel and a "mesa" with a town maybe? And industrial etc below. Well see. Here is where I am at so far.

@Mike H Mottler

Sounds like neat add ons to the church.
illumination of the new stained glass window.

I am interested in your statement about the sound chips from ITT.  I’m interested in adding sounds originating from the local high school I’m constructing.

Please if you will share with me where you obtain the hardware to originate the sounds

thank you 😊

Seth Thomas

@CR Cole posted:

Hi all! It's been a while since I posted anything, but I have been keeping tabs on all the great work and new ideas! You are all such an inspiration for this hobby! Since I had great success with restoring my father's circa 1948 Prairie steamer on my little 3x5 layout, I have decided to set my sights on a larger layout. 8x11 in my garage. Being in North Texas it is heated/cooled. I have lots of ideas and am excited about this project. We'll see has things progress. I have built the bench work and bought some track. Got a great deal on some used Gargrave straight track and bought Atlas Century Curves new, 54 and 45 inch. Enough to create two loops. I know there will be a tunnel and a "mesa" with a town maybe? And industrial etc below. Well see. Here is where I am at so far.

Nice looking benchwork.  Since i about to start this task your pictures have prodded me to get started.

@WesternPacific2217, thanks for the drawings of the CZ cars and their construction.  One feature that I think only Atlas' scale models captured was the roof aft of the dome was higher than the roof forward of the dome on the prototype. 

My cars are 15" and the dome interiors do have a staircase.  But with the relatively narrow windows of the LIONEL cars, the interior details are more difficult to see than in K-Line's with its much larger windows.

Awaiting attention is a fantasy Texas Special train to be painted using LIONEL's shiny Santa Fe cars, some of which used silhouettes.  In particular, there's a vista domed observation car which will get an interior from a standard obs car; hence no stairway.

Congrats on a terrific and highly effective project -- this is one where your efforts were highly rewarded, Scott.

Got a couple more vehicles wired at my gas station yesterday and started on adding window shades and lights to two other buildings.

Good evening fellows on the longest running thread on the OGR Forum, page 1123, Wow, I think. As I have said before, if one reads this thread from the beginning, it’s a great education in model railroading. @Mike g., your layouts looking great, the beautiful double decker passenger train, the station and city area, the Greyhound bus station, it’s all awesome.@ Trainmaster4, that’s a cool Wally’s, the lighted trucks look so neat, @CR Cole, that’s great construction on your train table, looks super sturdy, @Western Pacific, Paul, those are beautiful passenger cars, a Wow. I’ve been away from the building phase on my layout, but I’ve been getting ready for the train tours happening in July, Wow. Happy Railroading Everyone

@leapinlarry posted:

Good evening fellows on the longest running thread on the OGR Forum, page 1123, Wow, I think.

And it's one of the best threads on ANY model train forum, I think.

@Trainmaster04 posted:

I continued my wiring job last night and was able to keep progress rolling. I was able to wire a total of four buildings and one car. The first three are located on the mountain and they are the coaling station, Menards passenger station, and a woodland scenics cabin. The last building I wired is my 2017 Lionel radio tower and the car is a Menards REA truck in front of my warehouse.

I really like the single light cabin.

@leapinlarry posted:

Good evening fellows on the longest running thread on the OGR Forum, page 1123, Wow, I think. As I have said before, if one reads this thread from the beginning, it’s a great education in model railroading.

Larry- with guys like yourself sharing beautiful layouts, how could this not be the best place to talk O gauge (and all) trains.

@p51 posted:

And it's one of the best threads on ANY model train forum, I think.

Very true Lee. And the fact that the mods tolerate when we go down non-train rabbit holes occasionally shows how much this thread means to the forum. I'm not sure I would enjoy my trains as much without the forum.

shout out to @OGR CEO-PUBLISHER ! Thanks Alan!

Bob

@RSJB18 Bob, thank you for the kind winds, and folks like yourself sharing your ideas, your workmanship on adding features to your engines and your scenic detailing, Yes, it’s a wonderful place to visit and simply forget our daily problems and have fun. @Trumptrain, Patrick also adds lots of story telling giving us minute by minute details of what his crews are up to, even bicycle riders watching trains on his colorful layout, @P51 always showing us his unique photography, even being an engineer on his neat steam locomotive, his layout is awesome, @sidehack needs to come back and show pictures of his awesome layout and he is great at 3D printing, there are simply so many creative folks sharing great ideas on the forum. Farmerjohn has a large neatly designed layout, a really well thought out plan that is so much fun to visit. Trains appear, disappear and run for hours, the sounds are incredible. So, here are a few pictures of Farmerjohns layout. Happy Railroading Everyone

I just finished the K-Line 15" Cal Zephyr coach dome car interior and LED upgrade. This will be the last update on the Cal Zephyr interior upgrades since the other two coaches are all the same as this one. 2 more coaches to go!!! Oh yeah, the baggage car need's LED upgrade too, but that will be easy.

I never did mention how much time I spent doing the interior of the domed observation car. I admit I started with the most difficult car for the first one of the 4 cars. So total time spent on the observation car was a little over 12 hours. That does not include paint and adhesive dry times! It does account for a little experimentation, which was very helpful on speeding up the coach car interior.

With the experience I gained from the observation car, the coach went much faster and was much easier to put back together. The LED upgrade was the easy part, and that took me less than an hour. The painting, carpet installation, interior paneling construction and installation took all the time, about 6 hours in all. Here's some photos. I'm hoping it will take less time for the other two cars no that I have a process. Also, the other two coaches will get burgundy/red seats instead of the dark blue in this one.

Ready to go back together.

Here's the coach and observation cars together with the Chief and Daylight in the background.

Couple more photos. I noticed that the wiring came undone in the coach and shows in the photo, so I have to take the end of the car off and fix that. Not a big deal.

Like in the observation car, if I had not done the paneling all that would be seen is plastic windows, glue, and aluminum.

Once the other cars are done I'll post a video of the completed cars in motion.

Happy railroading!

Lately I have been working on the Carolina Craftsman Kits model of the Western Maryland Thomas, West Virginia station.  The exterior is nearly complete, and I am now adding Tichy Train Group snowbirds (snow Guards) as I see in the photographs of the prototype.  First is the station as it stands, and the last photograph is the first row of snowbirds.  I still want to purchase items for the interior for this station and my finished Altoona Model Works Branch Line station.

Wonderful workmanship @Mark Boyce; thanks for the project updates.

@WesternPacific2217, you're on a roll now -- terrific improvements and definitely worth the effort.

The large windows make those enhancements worth the effort.  Alas, the LIONEL windows are so short, it hardly seems justified given the extremely limited field of view.

Looking forward to seeing your video, Scott.

@Pingman posted:

Wonderful workmanship @Mark Boyce; thanks for the project updates.

@WesternPacific2217, you're on a roll now -- terrific improvements and definitely worth the effort.

The large windows make those enhancements worth the effort.  Alas, the LIONEL windows are so short, it hardly seems justified given the extremely limited field of view.

Looking forward to seeing your video, Scott.

Thank you, Carl!

In addition to running the new BigBoy restoration version with the grandkids. Also made a little bit of progress on modeling a burr oak tree.

This video shows how the branches and leaves go together. I'll go back in later and record a voice over.   A new youtube channel for me.

I originally did this video without gloves. As most images add pounds to the person, this one made it look like I had kielbasas for fingers. Absolutely the quickest part of building this tree.

adding leaves to branches for a burr oak tree

Jeff  thanks for the video. Two great ideas courtesy of you and Mark…  a bridge and trees.

Finally, some of the major parts of the engine service yard are coming together. The last tracks/turnouts were laid in the diesel yard, Ross turnouts were wired, tracks powered, relays installed, indicator lights connected, and DCS programming done. Everything checks out positively.

Tracks will service the diesel shops and provide for greatly increased capacity by using a Millhouse transfer table.

Ballasting began today and was as much fun as ever; surely there is something else to do.

In the steam part of the yard, the Lubritorium has been completed and installed with a service pit and crew to staff the facility. It began handling engines within hours of installation.

Concrete crews are expected this week to install all-weather pads that will form the bases for sand, water, oil, ash removal, etc in both diesel and steam areas. In addition, sand and coal delivery facilities will be completed and brought fully on line within the week.

Two control towers are in the process of being completed. Randolph Tower is responsible for traffic on the Diamond and the Roanoke passenger station. A separate tower will be responsible for engine service traffic.

@Bill Webb  Wow, Bill you and Paula have certainly been busy!  Looking great.  Keep up the good work and the posts. 

Congratulations Bill, that looks realistically impressive.

Bill, passing along ideas is what this forum is for.  The engine service area is really shaping up nicely!

Nice job, Jeff!

The Razorback Traction Co. has taken delivery of an ex-Frisco inspection car courtesy of my good chum EOC, Esq.  Here, we see Road Superintendent Fortescue J. Giraffe putting it through its paces...  ;-)

Mitch

Mitch, Can't help but smile when I see that old Mad Mag quote.

Excellent work Bill. You and Paula have done quite a bit of work.

Andy

Finally got back to work on my small town scene. Takes a lot of time to get them placed right.