@Apples55 posted:No… found a pic of mine - more hopper sized, but I’m still thinking about updating the load to look more like ballast.
P.S. I’m also looking forward to receiving my LIRR bobber!!!
Me too. Especially since I'm going to the club to pick it up. 😄
@RSJB18 posted:Me too. Especially since I'm going to the club to pick it up. 😄
Even from my brother’s here in Westchester, it would be a long hike to pick it up in person, so I’ll have to rely on the good old USPS. Hope they are running trains when you go - they have an amazing layout. I am envious!!!
@Steamfan77 posted:Big announcement, the Theodore Roosevelt park will be expanded. I decided to square up this area in the park. I added the plywood and Homasote. I will add the foam board last, and then ground cover. It will allow me to show a volleyball court and horseshoes or bocce ball court.
Andy
Bully!
Peter
After another week on the road, I'm back home and caught up.....great stuff on the last 4 pages!
Wired up for the 1st time and its inaugural run.....
Have a great day, everyone!
Peter
Happy birthday Trainmaster.
Transfer table looks great Peter.
Andy
Happy Birthday Trainmaster04. Great way to spend it with family and trains.
We did the same Sunday. I got to 75 and Paula invited a few people for lunch including the grandchildren. And, after lunch, we had to run trains. The grandchildren handled everything and did it well.
Rich came over yesterday afternoon. I ballasted the remaining right side turnouts while he completed the retaining walls on that side. Then we constructed and installed a tunnel at the right rear. Sometimes plans come together and this was one of those kinda days. When we ran the trains thru the tunnels, everything was perfect.
Today we intend to complete the right side except for Paula’s scenery details.
Paula and Rich… right side almost complete
Rich tests the right rear corner track
@RSJB18 posted:Not sure Paul since I bought it second hand. The 2 RMT cars I ordered through TW are also LIRR. Walter says they should arrive soon. These will make a nice 5 car train along with the NLOE bobber caboose that should arrive soon too.....
"slip, slidin, away........."
@Bill Swatos- don't forget the Tacky glue.......
Bob
Bob, is this Aleene's Original Tacky Glue? I've used their "Stop Fraying" product before, so I'm familiar with the name.
"Momma, don't take my Kodachrome aw-a-a-ay..."
@Bill Webb posted:Happy Birthday Trainmaster04. Great way to spend it with family and trains.
We did the same Sunday. I got to 75 and Paula invited a few people for lunch including the grandchildren. And, after lunch, we had to run trains. The grandchildren handled everything and did it well.
Rich came over yesterday afternoon. I ballasted the remaining right side turnouts while he completed the retaining walls on that side. Then we constructed and installed a tunnel at the right rear. Sometimes plans come together and this was one of those kinda days. When we ran the trains thru the tunnels, everything was perfect.
Today we intend to complete the right side except for Paula’s scenery details.
Paula and Rich… right side almost complete
Rich tests the right rear corner track
Right rear corner ready for wall
T5
What a sensational way to spend a landmark birthday! Congratulations and happy birthday, here’s hoping you have many more mile markers and green aspects ahead.
Jay
@Trainmaster04 Happy Birthday!
@Bill Webb- Same to you Bill. Keep up the good work.
@Putnam Division- the transfer table looks great Peter. I'm sure you are glad to get the install behind you.
@Bill Swatos- Yes- Aileens. It's thicker than white glue and holds the gravel on the plastic form better. I suppose ModPodge would work as well.
Nothing to report from me except that I received the DC buck-converters for my lighting. It's time to re-organize all of the lighting circuits and wiring on the layout. Every time I go to add something, I have to spend 15 minutes figuring out which circuit/ switch I'm connecting to.
Bob
Morning guys and gals I hope your all doing well! I know it has been a couple days from my last check in and I can tell you that I just wish the SNOW would just go AWAY!
@RSJB18 Bob the new gravel loads look great! Also have fun with the new Buck converters! They sure make life alot easier!
@Steamfan77 Andy wonderful looking back drop and I really like your install plan! It is going to look great on your layout! P.S. How come it looks like your a cabinet maker? That sure is one slick table saw set up!
@trestleking Rich Looking good! I really like how your layout takes up t 2 room sections! Way to claim the property! LOL
@SIRT Great job on the oil scene, Your skills are amazing and the whole thing is looking OUTSTANDING!
@Trainmaster04 Later Happy Birthday! You did a wonderful job on the new trees and church! The moss really dresses it up and gives it a finished look!
@Putnam Division Peter WOW that transfer table looks amazing and runs smooth as silk! Nice work!
@Bill Webb Bill Happy 75 Birthday! I am glad you had a good day starting with friends and family running trains and fun. Then what a perfect way to end the day by taking time to run trains with Paula and Rich! You all 3 make such a great team and your work always looks outstanding!
As for me nothing new, just still dealing with snow, shovel here and there clean the roof off and then shove some more! LOL like I said at the start I just wish it would go away!
I hope you all get missed by the snow and find time to have fun with your layout and trains!
@Bill Webb posted:Happy Birthday Trainmaster04. Great way to spend it with family and trains.
We did the same Sunday. I got to 75 and Paula invited a few people for lunch including the grandchildren. And, after lunch, we had to run trains. The grandchildren handled everything and did it well.
Rich came over yesterday afternoon. I ballasted the remaining right side turnouts while he completed the retaining walls on that side. Then we constructed and installed a tunnel at the right rear. Sometimes plans come together and this was one of those kinda days. When we ran the trains thru the tunnels, everything was perfect.
Today we intend to complete the right side except for Paula’s scenery details.
Paula and Rich… right side almost complete
Rich tests the right rear corner track
Right rear corner ready for wall
Bill:
Happy 75th birthday and many more. I am not far behind you in years.
Installed 8 more pole lights(39 total) and 2 garden hoses.
Gene
@Bill Webb posted:Happy Birthday Trainmaster04. Great way to spend it with family and trains.
We did the same Sunday. I got to 75 and Paula invited a few people for lunch including the grandchildren. And, after lunch, we had to run trains. The grandchildren handled everything and did it well.
Rich came over yesterday afternoon. I ballasted the remaining right side turnouts while he completed the retaining walls on that side. Then we constructed and installed a tunnel at the right rear. Sometimes plans come together and this was one of those kinda days. When we ran the trains thru the tunnels, everything was perfect.
Today we intend to complete the right side except for Paula’s scenery details.
Paula and Rich… right side almost complete
Rich tests the right rear corner track
Right rear corner ready for wall
Happy Belated Birthday Trainmaster04!
Happy Belated Birthday Bill. You snapped a shot of your co-stars but where's the birthday boy? Sounds like you had a great day.
Dave
@Bill Grafmiller posted:I have been working on putting in a yard and a industrial spur. Took out old city scenery for a new yard and did a redo on the industrial yard. These photos are where I am at this moment, also I might add went from 3 rail to 2 rail. The yard will have ground throws instead of electrical switches. The industrial will still have electric switches but I may change that in the future to ground throws. All my engines are RailPro with battery power. I am completely deadrail . Here are a few photos.
Nice Bill 
What size is this great layout ..? ..and do you have a couple videos of the battery power engines running ? 
Thank you everyone for the Birthday wishes!
I ended up having one more train related surprise from a friend. About a month ago, I sent my friend a link to a for sale post by @rattler21 for a modified SF observation and 50’ box car. Little did I know he got them for my birthday. He knows how much I like Santa Fe and unique steam era cars. I was able to add them to two other MOW cars I have had for years. Now I have a MOW train for the layout.
@Trainmaster04 posted:Hello everyone! Great looking stuff!
Today is my birthday and I decided to end the day with my family and trains. My parents got me some trees and I immediately used them on my church hill.
I began work on the hill by finishing the grass work. Next, I started planting trees. I found these trees on Amazon and I think I am going to get more.
Once I got a few trees placed I put the church back in its spot and filled in a few more spots. I rapped things up by adding some “moss” on the church and around the tunnel portal. I am going to get some more woodland scenics trees and blend them with the trees I have placed.
Thanks for reading!
Happy late birthday, and awesome work! How did you get the scenery/groundcover to stick on the slope of the mountain?
Made some major progress on the upper level today. Picked up some board, painted it, and put about 30% of the total upper level on. (Anything not painted is not set down completely). I will not be finishing all of the upper level until I complete the main line wiring, and can confirm it all runs well. The rest of the upper level will hold a town, and a branch line with some industries. Low priority at the moment 
@Sams Trains posted:Happy late birthday, and awesome work! How did you get the scenery/groundcover to stick on the slope of the mountain?
One word, hairspray. I have found using cheap hairspray is an effective way to make ground cover to stick.
@Trainmaster04 posted:One word, hairspray. I have found using cheap hairspray is an effective way to make ground cover to stick.
That's really creative, I like it!
I took some lionel gondolas and repainted them black, added new Nickle Plate decals from K4, took the plastic coal load and hit it with Rustoleum's stone effects paint, then weathered all of them with gray powder.
Before
And after.
Did 6 cars like that.
Sorry this car I left as Wabash, I don't have pictures of the nkp cars.
@Trainmaster04 posted:One word, hairspray. I have found using cheap hairspray is an effective way to make ground cover to stick.
Yep -- I've taken to using cheap hairspray as a final coat on any landscaping that involves potentially loose bits and pieces. It helped that I had several leftover cans from fueling my potato cannon! 
@third rail posted:I took some lionel gondolas and repainted them black, added new Nickle Plate decals from K4, took the plastic coal load and hit it with Rustoleum's stone effects paint, then weathered all of them with gray powder.
Before
And after.
Did 6 cars like that.
Looks great Bill.
More subway maintenance/repairs for me. today. The R-12 engines and cars are notorious for falling windows. Additionally, the engine cars, unlike many other models, have unsightly wires viewable in the cab windows. Additionally, like almost every subway engine operated on curves smaller than 054, the protocoupler wires come off and need resoldering. So, today, I figured I’d take a break from fishing and rectify all this. Here is the window with the wires before I painted a piece of plastic and glued it in place to hide them -
and here it is after the painted insert -
I also created a little box insert to hide the hideous wires that are viewable from the front cab window. Here it is after insertion in my white R12 engine -
it looks so much better now without those fake looking wires showing through the windows.
And naturally, when doing all this, I noticed that both engines had separated protocoupler wires which needed repair. I cut longer strips of wire and wrapped them in protective shrink tubing to hopefully protect them from further damage. Here is the before and after -
A little dab of red and tacky on all screws before insertion to avoid sticking on future removals and we were back in business. I tested and ran Both R12 sets after everything and all is running perfectly. All in all a fun and rewarding day in the subway maintenance facility.
@Sams Trains posted:Made some major progress on the upper level today. Picked up some board, painted it, and put about 30% of the total upper level on. (Anything not painted is not set down completely). I will not be finishing all of the upper level until I complete the main line wiring, and can confirm it all runs well. The rest of the upper level will hold a town, and a branch line with some industries. Low priority at the moment
Very impressive Sam. What’s your plan for wiring and permanently supporting the upper level?
Jay
@SIRT posted:Finished the road / crossing and changed the building banner....
It is uncanny how your work is so good that it looks like we are looking at a photograph of the real thing. Your lighting is spot on as well!
Thank you Sir, I learned a few new things since the last layout of 20+ years ago, still in operation.
I follow “the best”
Don Smith https://youtu.be/nxEoS08_7N4
Rich Battista's "Black Diamond Railway"
Neal Schorr Middle Division PRR
Norm Charbonneau
@SIRT posted:Finished the road / crossing and changed the building banner....
Bravo! That's one of the best "under-tended" landscaping scenes I ever recall seeing!
It's not unusual to see striking landscaping results on a lot of layouts, but for perhaps obvious reasons it's usually to be found around some important focus feature, and IMHO the end result often turns out a bit too crowded and busy -- I'm certainly guilty of that myself! OTOH here's a no-particular-account dirt-road crossing at the end of an industrial scene, with no signature buildings and little if any evidence of close human tending, and yet the whole scene, from the photo background to the weathered outbuilding to the seldom-if-ever trimmed roadside, absolutely rings true.
When I first built my slightly-expanded (8' X 8') current layout a few years back, I threw down some relatively cheap Bachman paper-backed grass mat to just cover the top layer of extruded foam, with a promise to eventually overlay or replace it all in the future. I've all too slowly been doing that ever since, and when my all-too-many undeveloped corners eventually 'grow up', I hope they all look nearly as good as yours!
@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:Very impressive Sam. What’s your plan for wiring and permanently supporting the upper level?
Jay
Thank you! I plan on doing star wiring with 3 Lionel 180w powerhouses. What is up there and painted is permanent, those supports should suffice. I will be making similar ones for the rest of the upper level later
Well I thought that I would put some passengers in my ATLAS PRSL cars; since my repainted AS-616 is due to return any day. First problem was that I’m going to have to amputate the legs off the RMT sitting people in order to fit them in the seats. Next I went to the bar fridge to get the CA and it wasn’t there. Straightened up the work bench No luck there. Looked all over the layout. Ended up ordering new. It will be here Sunday.
Took some pictures and called it a day.
😩
@third rail posted:Sorry this car I left as Wabash, I don't have pictures of the nkp cars.
Here's an nkp car I did.
Steve, I agree with you with regards to Sirt’s scene. It just doesn’t get any better than that. Remarkable.
No work on the layout yesterday. A friend of a friend was generous enough to give me 2 tubs of Lionel trains and accessories from his childhood. Last night I worked on a Lionel 2350 engine (nose decals ordered), a port hole caboose and Lionel Lines radio car. I spent a few hours last night cleaning them up and greasing/oiling them. Another milk car, shell removed so you can see the mechanism in action. Next up is a Lionel horse corral and car.
@Strap Hanger posted:More subway maintenance/repairs for me. today. The R-12 engines and cars are notorious for falling windows. Additionally, the engine cars, unlike many other models, have unsightly wires viewable in the cab windows. Additionally, like almost every subway engine operated on curves smaller than 054, the protocoupler wires come off and need resoldering. So, today, I figured I’d take a break from fishing and rectify all this. Here is the window with the wires before I painted a piece of plastic and glued it in place to hide them -
and here it is after the painted insert -I also created a little box insert to hide the hideous wires that are viewable from the front cab window. Here it is after insertion in my white R12 engine -it looks so much better now without those fake looking wires showing through the windows.
And naturally, when doing all this, I noticed that both engines had separated protocoupler wires which needed repair. I cut longer strips of wire and wrapped them in protective shrink tubing to hopefully protect them from further damage. Here is the before and after -
A little dab of red and tacky on all screws before insertion to avoid sticking on future removals and we were back in business. I tested and ran Both R12 sets after everything and all is running perfectly. All in all a fun and rewarding day in the subway maintenance facility.
Good to see the nice work getting done on your bench Strap.
" a fun and rewarding day " glad that's how your day was and that's what keeps this hobby so interesting .
@SIRT posted:Finished the road / crossing and changed the building banner....
I'm waiting to see Road Runner go flying through the road and Willie E. Coyote crash into it. Great job, I thought the building was real the first time I looked.
@SIRT posted:Thank you Sir, I learned a few new things since the last layout of 20+ years ago, still in operation.
I follow “the best”
Don Smith https://youtu.be/nxEoS08_7N4
Rich Battista's "Black Diamond Railway"
Neal Schorr Middle Division PRR
Norm Charbonneau
Steve.....I would certainly put your name on that list, too!
Peter
@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:I'm waiting to see Road Runner go flying through the road and Willie E. Coyote crash into it. Great job, I thought the building was real the first time I looked.
Thank you Dave...
It was a wood kit I found on the bay but I modified it completely. Just needed the basic bones then I took it from there. Building buildings are not really my expertise but I have a knack to make them look better.
The office and small building supply is what I made it into. Its, not secured in place yet until I receive Dons coal trestle truck and scale in April. Then the module will be completed and I can move on to the main layout. 
@Steve Tyler posted:Bravo! That's one of the best "under-tended" landscaping scenes I ever recall seeing!
It's not unusual to see striking landscaping results on a lot of layouts, but for perhaps obvious reasons it's usually to be found around some important focus feature, and IMHO the end result often turns out a bit too crowded and busy -- I'm certainly guilty of that myself! OTOH here's a no-particular-account dirt-road crossing at the end of an industrial scene, with no signature buildings and little if any evidence of close human tending, and yet the whole scene, from the photo background to the weathered outbuilding to the seldom-if-ever trimmed roadside, absolutely rings true.
When I first built my slightly-expanded (8' X 8') current layout a few years back, I threw down some relatively cheap Bachman paper-backed grass mat to just cover the top layer of extruded foam, with a promise to eventually overlay or replace it all in the future. I've all too slowly been doing that ever since, and when my all-too-many undeveloped corners eventually 'grow up', I hope they all look nearly as good as yours!
Thanks Steve
With O being so large, I frown upon clutter. OK on a toy type layout but not so much for the serious modeler.
If you just focus on completing one area at a time, you will find it easier to finish your dream. Before you know it, it’s done!
Morning guys what great work by all, as for me nothing new as it is still snowing and snowed another 4 inches again last night. So I have been spending all my time dealing with snow removel, then low and behold my steering went out on my tractor.
@Genemed Gene that is just outstanding looking! Thanks for posting where you got the light post from! I added it to my favorites list!
@Sams Trains Sam that sure is a lot of wood, I can see you will be busy for a while, I hope you will keep posting!
@third rail Great work on the gondolas! They look well used!
@Strap Hanger Sure is great that you are able to fix your own engines, also your method of hiding the wires is a perfect solution!
@SIRT It's hard to say anything that hasn't been said already, but you sure can't get any closer to being real looking! Just AMAZING!
@DrSteveDC Steve what a great friend! You sure know how to take older accessories and make them run so smoothly as if they were new out of the box!
Well guys as I said I haven't done anything on the layout but that doesn't mean I haven't been keeping up with what is going on. Some of you may remember me saying that I was at a standstill till I saved up some money for more track to finish the lower loop and the upper loop along with the lower staging yard under the layout.
Well a FORUM member seen my post and reached out to me to donate to the layout build. I have to say he is one of the most generous man I know! He gave me all the track I will need to finish the layout! He originally bought it to build a layout that never happened and with MTH Not making track rignt now he thought it was time to part with it, and I was the lucky one to receive his generosity! I have met great people before but I would have to say he is above all of them. Here is what I received from the FORUM ANGEL!
A gift that I don't know how I would ever thank him, but he has taught me the meaning of Paying it forward! From this point forward in my life when I can I will do my best to Pay it forward to someone else in need! Thank you again for your generosity!
I hope your all doing well and finding time to enjoy your layout and fun with your trains!
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