What did you do on your layout today?

@Mark Boyce posted:

That’s a really nice job on the flatcar and helicopter load, John!

Thank you, Mark!

John

Weathering the roof of the icing station.......I figured that since icing services dealt with ingestible products, they were kept relatively clean. So, I did not want to overdue it. I figure the icing platform itself was kept pretty clean.

The 3 dry brush colors...

Indoors, under artificial light.....

Outside, under natural light. I'm happy.

Afternoon guys and gals, I hope your all having a great day!

@Putnam Division Peter your weathering looks outstanding!

@John's Trains John I love the military helicopter! I did a couple for my military train, The chinook on my flat car was an old RC helo. Here are a couple photos of my helicopters.

Hope you like them!

As for me I have been working on getting my AIU to work nicely with my relays! LOL They seem to still be fighting each other! LOL

I hope everyone has a great time the rest of the day and finds time to have fun with their layouts and trains!

Nothing so exciting as you Semper Fi! guys have--but the colors are similar. Here is my first attempt at salvaging a no. 2627 Madison car. I did a lot of prep with plain water and nylon bristle brush but did no sanding, scraping , or stripping. The primer was Testor's 1237T Gloss Gray Primer, which is rather a battleship gray than an aircraft gray. I see a lot of discussion about what color Pullman Green is--and I don't really care. Maybe I spent too much time at those USMC displays at the Academy, but the color I wanted was a particular version of olive drab that would look green under my layout lighting. I chose Tamiya TS-5 Olive Drab. In the hobby store, the cap on the spray, packaged in cellophane, looks downright black. Once the cellophane is off you see the green tint, and if you ae lucky enough to be able to paint outside on a sunny day you can see that the final green is reminiscent of those HO Athearn heavyweights when they first came out (How long ago was THAT?).

I was surprised not to see reproduction decal sets offered on eBay, so for now I'm planning to use gold Pullman Lettering (yes, the heat stamping still shows, but at least the car name and number will be the same).

Good evening everyone.

I was able to wire two projects today. The first project involving wiring a rectifier to my 2 rail Flying Scotsman. Found a simple 3 pack from Amazon and now I can run the engine with a DC motor with an AC transformer.

While I still had the wiring tools out I also took the time to wire the yard office.

Thanks for reading!

I was at a friend's house yesterday and got some ideas for upgrading my layout.  I have an around-the-room layout that uses Mianne benchwork.  I did some measuring and figured I can add a 4' x 18' extension that will come out into the middle of the room.  I created a plan and sent it to Mianne today to get a quote.

The layout is already partially torn up because I wasn't happy with the track plan...seemed like a good time to expand it.

@Trainmaster04 posted:

Good evening everyone.

I was able to wire two projects today. The first project involving wiring a rectifier to my 2 rail Flying Scotsman. Found a simple 3 pack from Amazon and now I can run the engine with a DC motor with an AC transformer.

While I still had the wiring tools out I also took the time to wire the yard office.

Thanks for reading!

Wow The Flying Scotsman certainly lived up to its name. 😵‍💫

@pennsyfan posted:

Wow The Flying Scotsman certainly lived up to its name. 😵‍💫

Yeah, it sure will go! I think the power was set to 14 volts. Definitely geared for speed.

@mike g. posted:

@John's Trains John I love the military helicopter! I did a couple for my military train, The chinook on my flat car was an old RC helo. Here are a couple photos of my helicopters.

I love those helicopter cars, Mike

John

To day, I ordered a bunch of switches from Steve.  I know, I'm on hold for a while.

Tommy 

A project that I just finished.  Created a new coal bunker for a Lionel 0-8-0 tender, creating a tender for Berkshires and Hudsons that isn't a NYC Hudson tender and has nicer proportions than the stock tenders.

Greetings all......been crazy busy for the past few weeks. Our daughter received her MBA yesterday from Adelphi University so between parties and hosting family and friends it's been nuts. She's on her way to Florida with her BF as I type so time to relax a bit.

I haven't had much train time (an understatement) but I hope to change that soon.

Lot's of great projects and updates being shared.

Bob

@RSJB18 posted:

Greetings all......been crazy busy for the past few weeks. Our daughter received her MBA yesterday from Adelphi University so between parties and hosting family and friends it's been nuts. She's on her way to Florida with her BF as I type so time to relax a bit.

I haven't had much train time (an understatement) but I hope to change that soon.

Lot's of great projects and updates being shared.

Bob

Glad to hear you did not fall off the face of the earth!
Congrats to your daughter.

@RSJB18 posted:

Greetings all......been crazy busy for the past few weeks. Our daughter received her MBA yesterday from Adelphi University so between parties and hosting family and friends it's been nuts. She's on her way to Florida with her BF as I type so time to relax a bit.

I haven't had much train time (an understatement) but I hope to change that soon.

Lot's of great projects and updates being shared.

Bob

Congratulations to your daughter and her parents. 

Great of you to take the time to share your experience with all of us on the forum.   Don't worry about not being in touch here for awhile.   This great event for your family only comes around once.

Savor every moment Bob. 

@RSJB18 posted:

Greetings all......been crazy busy for the past few weeks. Our daughter received her MBA yesterday from Adelphi University so between parties and hosting family and friends it's been nuts. She's on her way to Florida with her BF as I type so time to relax a bit.

I haven't had much train time (an understatement) but I hope to change that soon.

Lot's of great projects and updates being shared.

Bob

Congratulations to you, your wife, and your daughter; that’s quite the accomplishment. She could get a job as a RR executive.

Jay

@RSJB18 posted:

Greetings all......been crazy busy for the past few weeks. Our daughter received her MBA yesterday from Adelphi University so between parties and hosting family and friends it's been nuts. She's on her way to Florida with her BF as I type so time to relax a bit.

I haven't had much train time (an understatement) but I hope to change that soon.

Lot's of great projects and updates being shared.

Bob

We will look forward to the train projects!

Congratulations!

Due to minor health issues and my helper being out of town, I have done nothing to my layout for a while. However, my son, Chris, got inspired and took his first and second shots at weathering freight cars. The results are below.

These are photos of a Reading boxcar by Weaver:

The following are photos of an MTH, Premier, Central Vermont, wood-sided box car:

Chris has weathered other things such as Cos-Play amour that he made for a friend as well as some 1:48 scale trucks that he made on his 3-D printer for the layout. The photos above were a first attempt at freight rolling stock. I am thrilled with the results! Bravo, Chris!

Randy, your son did a great job!  I hope you are feeling well enough to get at the layout soon.

@RSJB18 posted:

Greetings all......been crazy busy for the past few weeks. Our daughter received her MBA yesterday from Adelphi University so between parties and hosting family and friends it's been nuts. She's on her way to Florida with her BF as I type so time to relax a bit.

I haven't had much train time (an understatement) but I hope to change that soon.

Lot's of great projects and updates being shared.

Bob

Congrats to your daughter.

Peter

Randy, I hope you are well on the way to feeling better. At first glance, given the outdoor background, I thought it was real. Since you are president of the GNR I would suggest that you delegate the weathering duties.

Jay

I need to post a more detailed update to my layout update post, but most of it is infrastructure upgraded. I wanted to post some of the more visible improvements here.

Completed the park train.  It’s N scale with O scale riders.  Not happy with the engineer flat car, but easy to redo when I figure out something better.

I also added fiber optic crossings for the eventual pedestrian path to the park.  It’s an HO scale crossing over the O scale and N scale track.  There are 4 IR sensors that trigger the 4 crossing signals if a train passes on either track from either direction.  It’s the crossings that Trainz recently started to offer.  I am still formulating my opinion on these and have things I like and don’t like.

It’s my first experience with IR sensors, so I do not know if they all are this temperamental.  I had to mount them much higher than the instructions for them to work with my Fastrack.  Got creative to adapt with a piece of painted foam.

I made a stone base for a standard MTH tower.  I will be adding water and marsh grasses around the base.

Finally at the point of adding grass to the park.  I adapted a Mr. Spiff Lionel animated accessory into a dog park.  Added a pet pig and will install hedges and fencing to hide the gap on the foam cutout.

Hope to make progress on the sidewalks and grass over the upcoming 3 day weekend.

Jstraw124, there are some very unique concepts. The n scale train ride is very cool. Looking forward to further updates.

@Trainmaster04 @Tranquil Hollow RR @Dallas Joseph @Putnam Division @Mark Boyce
Thank you all. She got her Bachelors in 2020 so all of her celebrations were cancelled by Covid. This time was twice as nice and we had great weather for all of the festivities.
@Randy Harrison- nice weathering work by your son. Hope you are felling better and continue to a full recovery.
@jstraw124- I like the n-scale park train. Very neat. I haven't looked at the new signals on Trainz yet but they look nice.

So I think my first step will be to clean my track and sort out the rolling stock on the layout. I have a bunch of projects in the que, but I may tackle the planned construction of my collection of MTH S2's first. I bought the two engines on one of the last Cabin Fever MTH warehouse sales. The original plan was to make one powered and one dummy engine. I recently picked up a pair of motors from someone here on the forum so I can now make 2 powered units.
Electronics are an issue since PS-3 kits are hard to find, so I may just pull all the harnesses and install ERR Cruise with railsounds. I've also considered Dallee reversing boards and just make them conventional.
The powered chassis was a SOO, but it didn't have a shell, so I found a Lehigh and New England that would fit with the other NE roads I run. The red dot almost matches the frame (close enough for government work). The prototype frame and rails were black but I like the red and white so they will stay.

The L&NE owned several S2's, including # 612. And to add to the fun, Beth from Public Delivery Track just released a MTH RS3 custom run in L&NE which I had to pre-order of course

The NYC is a dummy but now that I have a set of motors.......

So there you have it......at least for now.

Bob

@jstraw124

Amazing work. The amusement train is great. We had one on the club Christmas layout. It was a bear to keep it on the track. Sometimes no matter how many times you tell people to keep the speed down it doesn’t sink in.
Anyway I experienced similar problems with IR controls on the club layout. I was coached that the room lighting could be a problem. Couldn’t do much about that; our layout gets set up in the clubhouse gathering room with chandeliers etc. I resorted to the intrack IRs at the club. They are a little smaller than a pencil eraser. They work very well. Looking at your N gauge train; there is not much surface for the IR to bounce off. You could do a test; temporarily attach a piece of white paper facing the  IR on the side of a few cars. See if that increases the reliability. The other advice that I was given; was to attach a shade on the top of the IR to reduce interaction with room lighting.

Bob,

Thank you for the IR tips.  I have added more lighting over the layout.  It’s dimmable, so I’ll try different light settings and shade options to see the impact.

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback on the park train The idea resulted from a request from my wife to include her favorite N scale train.  To make it easier to run, the transformer is under the layout and connected to a smart plug. I turn it on and off by my phone or iPad at a preset speed.

This  is a little kit I picked up at York.

A Weaver Hiawatha Morning Passenger 5 car Set showed up at my door so I just had to get it on the layout yard.  While I was at it I pulled out a Weaver Atlantic Hiawatha to do a test run. It has been out of the box but never on my rails.  The engine has PS1. Unbelievably, with a new battery it just started right up and operated properly. What I assume are the original traction tires slipped quite a bit and even more with the two passenger cars - unlubed Weaver trucks just do not roll very well.  So a bit of work to do on the trucks and replacing the lighting. Eventually they will get detailed interiors and probably an upgrade to PS3 for the Atlantic.  Also have to remove the thumbtacks on the couplers as they like to spark through the switches.

@ScoutingDad posted:

A Weaver Hiawatha Morning Passenger 5 car Set showed up at my door so I just had to get it on the layout yard.  While I was at it I pulled out a Weaver Atlantic Hiawatha to do a test run. It has been out of the box but never on my rails.  The engine has PS1. Unbelievably, with a new battery it just started right up and operated properly. What I assume are the original traction tires slipped quite a bit and even more with the two passenger cars - unlubed Weaver trucks just do not roll very well.  So a bit of work to do on the trucks and replacing the lighting. Eventually they will get detailed interiors and probably an upgrade to PS3 for the Atlantic.  Also have to remove the thumbtacks on the couplers as they like to spark through the switches.

Sweet, two beautiful engines.

As an add to the above, I was trying to get the Weaver Atlantic 4-4-2 from Cabin Fever recently. I gave up when total with Fees and shipping would be over a grand.  BUT Trainz has the same version - well they don't anymore. I was going to wait for the 10% off on the 29th, but pulled the trigger - I would not have been happy if I missed this one for 10% off.

I think I am pretty set with engines and rolling stock - but who knows. I am looking for an Illinois Central City of Panama set - also dropped out of bidding under similar terms as above. That would have been an expensive auction.

A former member scalerail got me interested in the Milwaukee Road - can I have too many MR engines? and rolling stock?   

Jeff, The Hiawatha train looks great!

Working on my layout, had to extend the layout with 2x4's and 2" high foam, move some track due to clearance issues by one locomotive I found in a box I had forgotten about. Glued down the foam to plywood on top of the 2x4's in the gaps in the foam with silicon sealer and spackling compound over it, now in process of priming and then painting the foamboard and sides where I added to the layout, plus working on wiring under the layout. I converted an old PC Power Supply over to use as 3.3, 5, and 12 Volt DC power supply to use for accessories and lighting on the layout and mounted it under the layout, running wires to dual row terminal strips for each voltage. Always something to do!😁

I was never happy with my layout....problems with track in certain spots, DCS issues in a couple of places, and some ornery switches.  I am in the process of completely ripping up the layout.  I have also ordered an extension from Mianne for my around the room layout to bring a section into the middle of the room which will serve as a yard.  And, I am working on the design and wiring for a new layout configuration.

All track is Fastrack.  Today was switch repair day.  I had one switch for which the remote controller would not display green even though the switch was operating fine mechanically.  I had another switch that wouldn't display red on the remote controller.  Both were fixed by adjusting the position of one of the microswitches.  I hope I got the screws tight enough so they don't shift out of place.

I had another switch that would not power up at all.  After removing the bottom and pushing on some wires, I discovered a loose solder joint at the AUX IN power connection.  A touch up with a soldering iron, and the switch is working fine.

I hate working with all of those tiny screws on the bottom of Fastrack switches.

I started work on my yard today, more track and backdrop on order so still have to wait before I can make my final cuts and screw everything down

Holy cow!  With a recent remodel of the house... and shifting boxes and boxes of train stuff from one location to another and today pitching some empty un-needed boxes I found some trains I purchased and forgot about.  First was a Lionel PRR E-8 A (powered) A set from 4-2018, and a PRR GP-7 from 10-2021.  I remember I got good deals on them but lost track of them in the midst of a 2 year home remodel.  Now that the boxes are off the train table, I can keep working to finish my double mainline loop.  It's a great weekend!

@ChefTed posted:

Holy cow!  With a recent remodel of the house... and shifting boxes and boxes of train stuff from one location to another and today pitching some empty un-needed boxes I found some trains I purchased and forgot about.  First was a Lionel PRR E-8 A (powered) A set from 4-2018, and a PRR GP-7 from 10-2021.  I remember I got good deals on them but lost track of them in the midst of a 2 year home remodel.  Now that the boxes are off the train table, I can keep working to finish my double mainline loop.  It's a great weekend!

Merry Christmas ChefTed🎄🚂

Morning guys and gals, I haven't commented in a while as I have been trying to work out a problem with my AIU and Relays with the help of @Mark Boyce & @Bill Webb, I tried everything they said and could never get it right, I ask Bill and he offered to wire up a Relay board for me. I sent him my board and can't wait to get his and try it out!

I would like to comment on everyone's work but there is way to much that I have missed, and it would push this out another page! LOL

But I do want to say to @RSJB18 Bob congratulation to your daughter for her MBA! Also good luck on the 2 S2 builds!

@jstraw124 wonderful idea with the N scale train for a kids ride at the park! At the rate your going every kids is going to want to got there!

Well guys I have to get to work around here, so I hope you all find time to have fun with your layouts and trains!

@mike g. posted:

Morning guys and gals, I haven't commented in a while as I have been trying to work out a problem with my AIU and Relays with the help of @Mark Boyce & @Bill Webb, I tried everything they said and could never get it right, I ask Bill and he offered to wire up a Relay board for me. I sent him my board and can't wait to get his and try it out!

I would like to comment on everyone's work but there is way to much that I have missed, and it would push this out another page! LOL

But I do want to say to @RSJB18 Bob congratulation to your daughter for her MBA! Also good luck on the 2 S2 builds!

@jstraw124 wonderful idea with the N scale train for a kids ride at the park! At the rate your going every kids is going to want to got there!

Well guys I have to get to work around here, so I hope you all find time to have fun with your layouts and trains!

Thanks Mike. I need to sort out what I have, and decide what I'm going to do with them.

Bob

@Trainchief posted:

This  is a little kit I picked up at York.

Trainchief,

I just finished this kit as well. K&P must have added new and revised parts. Your carriage linkages look to be one piece to insert in the top. I had to cut pieces from a longer piece of basswood including several diagonal cuts. Your guard rails on the girder platform and around the operator's shanty look to be ready made. The kit I have, provided some pins with heads on them. You have to cut the heads off and cut the pins to length. After that I soldered a piece of music wire ,provided in the kit, to the pins for the guard railings. Not to mention I looked on the internet for photos of this model and couldn't really find any. Your photos would've helped me tremendously. Yours definitely is more precise than what I came up with. I'm happy with what I have done with mines, but if I would've known they modernized the kit I would have opted for that one. Great job!

Dave

Well, I finally got my campfire smoke generator working on the layout:

https://youtu.be/gbMRmRF5tP8

It was a long slough, even after abandoning some form of locomotive-type thermal smoke generator in favor of a mist-producing ultrasonic transducer that is 'fueled' with plain water. The only downsides I've discovered so far is that the mist produced, being a bit cool from evaporation, tends to sink as soon as the transducer-induced momentum slacks off, and the mist condensing in the tube tends to periodically  'drown' the transducer and interrupt smoke production, but I've had the smoke from plenty of RL campfires act roughly the same ways, so I'll call it a win! More details on the build later, after my laptop gets back from the Geek Squad!

Hello all! It seems these days that what I did on my layout or with my trains happens a few days before I am able to share it here with you all. My wife and I went to a train yard sale at the local club and ran some of her trains on a friend of ours mobile train layout. I took lots of video and I hope you enjoy the end result. Her train has all the aquarium cars.

https://youtu.be/wAbstEUjBPo