@luvindemtrains posted:Good Day Everyone,
I just completed a few details on a couple of buildings I am working on. Remember, it's all in the details. The last photo poses a bit of a problem...
Dave
Super real detail, Dave. Bravo!
Peter
I continue my plan to try and see if I can repurpose old built kits from previous layouts. This is a Walthers dairy kit from the 90s. Hmmmm, maybe here....
Here it is on the 1993-2003 layout.....a picture from September 2002.
I plan to use the Walthers water tank, too........just have to find the right spot in my enginge servicing area.....
Peter
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Morning guys I love all the projects you're doing! Some provide problem solving and some just sit back and relax!
@luvindemtrains Dave the details you put on your buildings and layout is just amazing! All I can think of is maybe some hinges on the window grate and a small move of the fire escape. I know it is not the greatest idea but, but only one I can think of. Good Luck!
@WesternPacific2217 Scott That sure is some Outstanding work and looks to be factory made! Very Nice!
@Putnam Division Peter great looking building, but I am sure you have a lot of them. It is a good thing you have such a big, wonderful layout to spread them around. I know you will find the proper place for each and every one of them! Good luck!
As for me I did get out and got a little start on the rest of the upper level. I am trying to use all the old plywood I saved from the previous layout, so it is taking a little time getting things to fit together.
Today I hope to get the 072-loop figured out with the big plywood I already have cut in that shape. I hope I can get it to fit without a lot of cutting.
I will check back in later; I also have the mechanic coming to fix my truck breaks. so, it will be in and out on the layout.
I hope you all have a great weekend and find time to have fun with your layouts and trains!
@Putnam Division posted:Super real detail, Dave. Bravo!
Peter
Thank you Peter! I'm looking forward to seeing how you utilize some of your stash (buildings) from past layouts. Overall, I'm really enjoying your new builds and building placement.
Dave
@mike g. posted:Morning guys I love all the projects you're doing! Some provide problem solving and some just sit back and relax!
@luvindemtrains Dave the details you put on your buildings and layout is just amazing! All I can think of is maybe some hinges on the window grate and a small move of the fire escape. I know it is not the greatest idea but, but only one I can think of. Good Luck!
Mike,
Thank you. That's an idea. I will try and figure something out.
Dave
Dave, I’m with Peter. Great details make great models. Well done.
Andy
Thank you Andy. I think of it as the stage for these wonderful trains (actors) we have.
Dave
@mike g. posted:As for me I did get out and got a little start on the rest of the upper level. I am trying to use all the old plywood I saved from the previous layout, so it is taking a little time getting things to fit together.
Today I hope to get the 072-loop figured out with the big plywood I already have cut in that shape. I hope I can get it to fit without a lot of cutting.
I will check back in later; I also have the mechanic coming to fix my truck breaks. so, it will be in and out on the layout.
I hope you all have a great weekend and find time to have fun with your layouts and trains!
Mike, yes, reusing plywood, and dimensional lumber for that matter, can be like working a puzzle not only to save cuts, but to make the most of what I have. I’m done some creative work on my rework. 😊
I’m glad you are getting the brakes fixed. I had to get all 4 done on the 2003 Hyundai a couple months ago when the brake pedal got stuck as I braked to turn the corner to go down a steep hill. By the time I realized what happened and found a place to pull over, they were done for. Crazy problems driving a 20-year old car. 😄
@luvindemtrains posted:The last photo poses a bit of a problem...
Oh, no problem -- just create a swing grate to cover the staircase opening until the occupants can get out of the window . . . and make sure the bars over the window can be opened from the inside! 😳
@Steve Tyler posted:Oh, no problem -- just create a swing grate to cover the staircase opening until the occupants can get out of the window . . . and make sure the bars over the window can be opened from the inside! 😳
Sounds like a plan Steve!
Dave
@SIRT posted:Moving on to the next section...
Uhh . . . before you move on, anything you might have forgotten or omitted? 🤪
[sorry/not sorry!]
I’m still having some issues with WiFi-DCS. The system works great with the handheld remote but it still takes several attempts to connect with my Apple iPhone 11 and iPad. Will have a PC tech visit in the coming months to look over my options and help upgrade the system if need be.
Most recent project has been constructing coal loads for my Lionel L.V. 2500 and 64361 coal hoppers. I have the platforms ready and painted and now I’m waiting for an order of #2 anthracite coal to arrive from Brennan’s Model RR. Made the platforms by splitting 1’ styrofoam, cut to shape and added some relief with papier-mâché. Painted them black and added a strip of 1/8” oak on the back side to keep them rigid.
Still putting off the process of weathering my fleet. Waiting for the spring thaw so I can work in the garage with the airbrush.
Also added a new sign that was a gift from a friend who recently experienced a round trip on the California Zephyr and a RR museum visit.
Always fun to follow all the great project posts. Thanks to all for sharing! This forum is a great resource.
Cheers, Dave
Always fun to share and run trains!
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Very nice layout Dave.
Dave, that's an outstanding layout. Thanks for posting the videos.
Dave,
Love the videos, and the details. Thanks for sharing.
Dave
I got my new DC lighting power supply set up. I had to move my Base 1L to make room so that was added to the new board as well. The HO transformer is set for about 10 vdc and the buck-converter at 3.5 vdc.
This one is for my Menards trucks, I will add others as time and motivation permits.
The trucks look much better too.
The tail lights on the REA truck will need some local intervention so that the crew doesn't go blind.
Bob
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Nice work everyone. Love the buildings Dave.
“This one is for my Menards trucks, I will add others as time and motivation permits.”
Bob,
How many vehicles can be connected to that one circuit; or do you have to add more Buck converters?
@pennsyfan posted:“This one is for my Menards trucks, I will add others as time and motivation permits.”
Bob,
How many vehicles can be connected to that one circuit; or do you have to add more Buck converters?
They are rated for 3VA output. It would take A LOT of LED's to hit 3 A. The only restriction is the voltage. The buildings and street lights I have on the layout are at 6vdc so I will need to add one for the higher voltage.
Bob
@RSJB18 posted:I got my new DC lighting power supply set up. I had to move my Base 1L to make room so that was added to the new board as well. The HO transformer is set for about 10 vdc and the buck-converter at 3.5 vdc.
This one is for my Menards trucks, I will add others as time and motivation permits.The trucks look much better too.
The tail lights on the REA truck will need some local intervention so that the crew doesn't go blind.
@RSJB18, looks great so far ! I am not buck converter savvy, why would you not just turn your DC HO transformer down to the vdc that you need ? Thks, Rich
Bob
@trestleking posted:
Cause.....voltage.........
In an ideal world...all of our "stuff" would run at a standard voltage. Many things are rated for higher or lower voltages so having a constant higher voltage source that can be "dialed in" to the needed output is best.
On the wall-wart thread, it was mentioned that Miller signs run fine at 4.5 vdc, but you will blow them up at 5 vdc.
In the AC world, the buildings at the College I work for range from 120/208, 277/ 480, to 13.2KV 3-phase from the utility.
Then we have a co-gen system that puts out 4160v that we step up to 13.2Kv......
Then residential services are typically 120/240 vac single phase......
If you really want to get in the weeds, one of our old buildings has an old 2 phase-5 wire system that will blow the average electrician's mind......
Then there's the solar PV systems that put out 50-75 vdc that is stepped up and converted to AC......
And they wonder why Edison and Tesla were adversaries.....
Oh- and the US uses AC at 60hz, Europe and much of the world uses AC at 50hz.......
we now return you to your regularly scheduled program......
Bob
WOW! For ALL the great pics from everyone, what inspirational posts, tremendous talent and vision from everyone on here! There are sooooo many ideas, I know I will run out of time before I get to even .00001% of them! Here is what I did today, and the past couple of days. Getting track put down on layout without elevations. Just on the plywood base for now to visually see in real life what the scarm drawing has on the computer. This I hope, will help me make the layout more interesting, functional and I'll draw lines for any cookie cutter needs. Which brings me to another little 3D project. I have made track spacers for 4.5" center line spacing and 3.5" center line spacing. Now I have designed a pencil holder that will be adjustable on the two spacers to mark the cut lines for cookie cutter tasks. Also there is a single track model that will also be printed.
I am short three switch tracks which I have ordered, two will arrive Tuesday and the other I will pick up at the York show from Ross Switches along with some long ties and track spikes.
Here are a couple of pics showing the progress to date.
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I was trying to fix a spot on a short road and the paint and plaster didn't get along. I ripped it out, it'll be better next time LOL.
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Scott, nice work on the name change, looks great.
Peter, I have the same building, yours will look good wherever you place it.
Outstanding layout Dave! Thanks for the videos, and the how-to on the coal loads.
Bob, nice neat work on the lighting power supply.
Steve, nice shots of your layout, lots to see, great job.
Aegis, track work looks good, you’re moving along nicely.
Andy
Got most of the road and parking down in my city area. Still need to stripe, but getting there
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Finished up this rendition of the New Haven RR freight house that was in Uxbridge MA. Built in the 1800s it survived until the 2000s relatively intact and occupied by a propane company. Sadly its since been torn down. The circa 1935 B&W photo was the inspiration (its from an old postcard i purchased yrs ago). I kitbashed an Atlas Fairview station by relocating some doors, getting rid of the operator station/ticket window, relocating the chimney and toning down the colors. The type of siding changed over the years so i went with wainscoting even tho its not depicted in the b&w pic. The loading dock will be the next project...perhaps i'll work on it while the upcoming "nor'easter" strikes.
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My yesterday ( Sunday ) project:
In preparation for doing some major modifications to the western portion of my layout, I have to clear space under my layout, as I've been using this space to store some of my empty train boxes.
Before beginning the project yesterday I went to the train room with a cup of coffee. As I ran some trains while sipping the coffee I did some internal reasoning. My thought process went like this:
I decided that getting rid of most of the freight car boxes is really the only option I have because other storage areas in my home are already full of train boxes .. lol! Yes the cars will loose some value when they are sold, however, the cost of renting a storage unit would cost much more over the years than the the loss of value on 50 - 60 freight cars without boxes. Besides, I bought my trains as an investment in my happiness not to as a financial investment like stocks and bonds. So if not keeping boxes will decrease the car's value by a few bucks so be it. It was worth the few bucks to have played with and enjoyed the use of that car for however long I've owned it. If I've owned a freight car for 20 years and it's finally sold without a box for ten bucks less than the car's value with a box .. the use of the car cost me 50 cents a year plus whatever I originally paid for the car. I can live with that .. even if it were much more than 50 cents a year lol!
Once I came to that conclusion, I crawled under the table and began the process of getting rid of freight car boxes and even some passenger car boxes as well. Of course I'm keeping all locomotive boxes. I wound up with a big pile of boxes that spilled out the door of my train room. In chucking out all those boxes, I created a great amount of space under that table for which to now work.
Another part of my train room project yesterday was to run engines that have not been run for a long time. I wanted to make sure their motors didn't seize up from non - use. I also lubed those engines.
The next part of yesterdays project was to haul out from under the table buildings/structures that I want to sell. I have several of those items. I will be posting them on the OGR Forum For Sale thread in the coming weeks .. got to take pics before doing so. After making decisions on rolling stock which I want to depart with and some locomotives too, I began testing those locomotives making sure they are functioning properly.
It was a long day in the train room yesterday, and a good productive day. I have so much stuff in my train room and making these decsions to release some of these items for sale and to actually throw out the selected rolling stock boxes feels really good to me!
Patrick-I know you must have thought about this but perhaps you could flatten the boxes rather than throw then out. I have done that with trains in my collection and it results is a much much smaller storage space.
Don
Today I drove to a scheduled TCA meet. But it turned out I was the only one there. Guess they must have cancelled it.
@Don McErlean posted:Patrick-I know you must have thought about this but perhaps you could flatten the boxes rather than throw then out. I have done that with trains in my collection and it results is a much much smaller storage space.
Don
Thanks Don! Actually I didn't think of flattening the boxes. What did you do with the foam/plastic inserts that cradle the rolling stock?
@Don McErlean posted:Patrick-I know you must have thought about this but perhaps you could flatten the boxes rather than throw then out. I have done that with trains in my collection and it results is a much much smaller storage space.
Don
Great idea @Don McErlean, about flattening the boxes, and they help greatly when you are selling those items. I keep all my boxes in a controlled environment… Have a great day everyone…
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@trumpettrain posted:Thanks Don! Actually I didn't think of flattening the boxes. What did you do with the foam/plastic inserts that cradle the rolling stock?
Personally, if i were to buy used trains from someone i would like the original box but could do with out the inserts as long as the item were sufficiently wrapped up in bubble or paper and slid back into the box. The manufacturer inserts (recent stuff anyways) are always so tight you have to pry the item out and i always feel like i will break some detail part off. Shipping it is another story and the insert material would be a must have in my opinion. So while it is a space hog, it all depends on what you think will happen to your trains in the future. I also doubt "original box" will mean anything to collectability with most modern production trains. We'll be lucky if they run after 10 yrs never mind 50+ like the pre and post war stuff given all the new computer stuff in them.
@trumpettrain- Patrick. Thanks for your interest in my solution. Candidly if the insert is foam or plastic I tend to discard it ( usually after an initial period of time) if the insert is the more traditional cardboard I carefully flatten that much like the outer box and store both pieces together. Like others have said I tend to keep locomotive boxes as they are usually heavier cardboard intact - besides there are far fewer of them ( in my layout anyway)! Good luck with whatever solution you come up with. Remember if it wasn’t for all those boxes you wouldn’t have those wonderful trains!!
Don
I'm with Patrick @trumpettrain. While I have all the boxes for what I bought with them, they are taking up an enormous amount of space in my attic. I would toss the freight car boxes, think harder about the passenger cars, and definitely keep the engine boxes.
The bigger question that no one has asked......SO WHAT ARE THE PLANNED RENOVATIONS TO YOUR BEAUTIFUL LAYOUT!!!!! 
Bob
Many of us are in the same boat. I recently took advantage of the mild weather here in the East and cleaned up my garage attic. I posted here https://ogrforum.com/...7#172048746193059757
I had the space and the shelves were used for the trains when we first moved in in 2014. The shelves were in the center of the two bay garage. I gradually emptied them by putting the collection on the wall and runners on shelves under the table. I also sold a bit.
If I run out of room on the shelves I think the first to go will be MTH freight boxes. I won’t buy more shelves. I would never spend money on a controlled environment for train boxes.
My .02.
I echo Bob! What’s in store!
@BobRoyals posted:Good Day,
What are you using for your blacktop?
Regards,
-Bob
Bob, i used 3M Safety Walk Tread. They are 6 inches wide, so 24 feet scale feet wide. They come in a roll of 30 feet. In this section i used 4 strips, or 96 feet wide. There is asphalt behind and to the side of the buildings. For a single road it works very well. It is peel and stick but it was nice to have my wife help as working with 20 foot long strips would have been a pain alone.
