I thought the young man entering the building, on my new display shelf, needed some light. Found an extra LED that needed to shine so I made the addition. The lamp shade is made from a piece of plastic tubing.
If interested, you can checkout the process by viewing a previous post: https://ogrforum.com/...#113207422978600465/ 11/20/19, 12:41pm.
Cheers, Dave
Some more wiring and installation of plywood subroad base. Keep chipping away.
I just finished watching the PBS program on Roger’s layout. You have constructed a magnificent operating display and must be proud to have shared your accomplishment's with other modellers ! It’s sad to have to disassemble something you put all your heart and effort into only to have to remove it with no visions of reconstructing another. My current layout is the 4th, with several years spanning between each new project I undertook. But I push the thoughts of the enviable final closure behind me to avoid the same reality you , Roger , are experiencing.
Keep at least one favourite piece for mantle display as a trophy of your visions and dreams.
@myles posted:I just finished watching the PBS program on Roger’s layout. You have constructed a magnificent operating display and must be proud to have shared your accomplishment's with other modellers ! It’s sad to have to disassemble something you put all your heart and effort into only to have to remove it with no visions of reconstructing another. My current layout is the 4th, with several years spanning between each new project I undertook. But I push the thoughts of the enviable final closure behind me to avoid the same reality you , Roger , are experiencing.
Keep at least one favourite piece for mantle display as a trophy of your visions and dreams.
Yes, I am keeping more "trophies" of the layout than I need. But some of the items I just cannot get rid of. Thank you so much for your kind words.
Added a curvy trolley line to the carpet layout that is a test bed for a future prewar-postwar build. The video is the first time I've ever run 4 trains simultaneously. It's craziness but I like it.
Wife and I are expecting a little boy in only a few weeks. Hope he grows up to like trains as much as I have. Been transforming a room that held an HO layout back into a room. Instead of boxing it away for years, put up a shelf layout under the o-gauge. Just got the incline and track finished. As for my o-gauge shelf layout, added 2 Ross switches so trains can loop in his room, and then a 3rd switch, along with Thomas and his own side track.
On top of this, just got an AIU for MTH dcs system to work properly and wired up all my switches. Next will be turning foam incline into hills / mountains.
Im glad there are track laying programs out there. Makes track modifications easier, and can see what will look best.
@Tugboat15 posted:Wife and I are expecting a little boy in only a few weeks. Hope he grows up to like trains as much as I have. Been transforming a room that held an HO layout back into a room. Instead of boxing it away for years, put up a shelf layout under the o-gauge. Just got the incline and track finished. As for my o-gauge shelf layout, added 2 Ross switches so trains can loop in his room, and then a 3rd switch, along with Thomas and his own side track.
On top of this, just got an AIU for MTH dcs system to work properly and wired up all my switches. Next will be turning foam incline into hills / mountains.
Im glad there are track laying programs out there. Makes track modifications easier, and can see what will look best.
Both levels look great! I like the lighting. I hope your son grows up to love trains too.
I did without a layout for many years while our daughters were growing up. I had to be creative, but wasn’t as creative as you. Our first grandchild, a boy, will be here soon, too. After having all daughters, all in their 30s now, I’m hoping grandson will enjoy trains too. I’m going to work on that! 😊
Finally making some progress on the industrial complex.
After an exhaustive search for ideas, found what appears to be a "chemical industry" and decided that I have enough kits and parts to kitbash something similar.
So far, I have dissected a bunch of Engine house walls so that I could replace the round top palladian windows with some Grandt Line/Tichy Train Group square 40 light windows and gotten the wall assemblies re-assembled so that a meaningful mock up could be photographed for review.
Total area is about 32 inches long, around 12 inches wide and roughly 12 inches plus what ever roof top details get added once the basic footprint is completed.
It should be the perfect place to spot a collection of Hooker Chemical and other 11,000 gallon tank cars I have picked up over the years.
Here's 2 Links to the image I found on line, once I found this and checked out a few different photos, I decided this was definitely worth using as a pattern..
Chris, you are certainly on your way to building a chemical factory similar to the one in the links!! Looks great!
@chris a posted:Finally making some progress on the industrial complex.
After an exhaustive search for ideas, found what appears to be a "chemical industry" and decided that I have enough kits and parts to kitbash something similar.
So far, I have dissected a bunch of Engine house walls so that I could replace the round top palladian windows with some Grandt Line/Tichy Train Group square 40 light windows and gotten the wall assemblies re-assembled so that a meaningful mock up could be photographed for review.
Total area is about 32 inches long, around 12 inches wide and roughly 12 inches plus what ever roof top details get added once the basic footprint is completed.
It should be the perfect place to spot a collection of Hooker Chemical and other 11,000 gallon tank cars I have picked up over the years.
Here's 2 Links to the image I found on line, once I found this and checked out a few different photos, I decided this was definitely worth using as a pattern..
Chris.....you certainly have a lot of great ideas......you have a knack for looking beyond the basic kit and thinking/envisioning what it could be.........
Thank you for sharing them!!!
Peter
@Tugboat15 posted:Wife and I are expecting a little boy in only a few weeks. Hope he grows up to like trains as much as I have. Been transforming a room that held an HO layout back into a room. Instead of boxing it away for years, put up a shelf layout under the o-gauge. Just got the incline and track finished. As for my o-gauge shelf layout, added 2 Ross switches so trains can loop in his room, and then a 3rd switch, along with Thomas and his own side track.
On top of this, just got an AIU for MTH dcs system to work properly and wired up all my switches. Next will be turning foam incline into hills / mountains.
Im glad there are track laying programs out there. Makes track modifications easier, and can see what will look best.
Your wife let you cut holes in the walls! Mine told me absolutely not 😂.
Congratulations on your soon to arrive baby boy! I'm sure he will love the trains in the room.
A friend brought over his gorgeous Lionel postwar Trainmaster to strech it's legs on my layout......sadly I couldn't convince him to leave it at my house.....
Thanks for all the positive feedback, kind words and likes.
Made decent progress today. I am pretty well through assembly of the 2 story section on the right hand side, still have to add the 4th partial wall on the left hand side, but that was the more challenging side to assemble. Also came up with some ideas for a tall narrow tank/reactor structure.
Here's some progress photos. I didn't insert all the photos, so check the attachments below.
Sizing and cutting, scribing, painting and placing sidewalks this week……
…..a little at a time…..
Peter
Placed last scene of my welder and Torch guy (lower left) Now other than a border to hide the white foam, this 1st layout of mine is done! I now can say I love this hobby and all of you have inspired me with ides, so its officially time to plan a proper layout in a room, NOT on the floor under a Piano...somehow I did squeeze 180' of wires under this beast. :-)
@@Tugboat15
Enjoyed your e-ingenuity of cutting splitting layering.
After 5 hours of driving to an from the grandson’s soccer championship competition, six hours on the sidelines running the General was a good way to wind down last night…
Everyone’s recent layout activity was truly inspiring this morning… I can get back to my layout after Carol’s Aunt Frances visit from Arvada has come and gone.
@Seth Thomas posted:@@Tugboat15
Enjoyed your e-ingenuity of cutting splitting layering.
After 5 hours of driving to an from the grandson’s soccer championship competition, six hours on the sidelines running the General was a good way to wind down last night…
Everyone’s recent layout activity was truly inspiring this morning… I can get back to my layout after Carol’s Aunt Frances visit from Arvada has come and gone.
John, the General is great, but I love the detailing of that station even better!! 
It's time to ice up........
I’m glad they’re icing those badboys up.
Finally coming together... All the walls on the track side elevation are now squared up and glued together. Ended up working from both ends towards the center, and have decided to stretch the whole chemical industry another 4 - 5 inches. So as of this evening, the left end wing and the right side wing aren't physically attached. But at least I have quantified total width and length of the foot print (36 x 11)
Chris, the chemical facility is looking impressive already!
Nice to see others still active on projects even with the great weather returning. Since it rained outside again this morning, I decided I had time to clear off a 14ft by 8ft section of unfinished layout area that I was never really happy with and “upgrade “ it scenery wise. The new look will have more rock cuts , trees and just a station, section house, water tank and a couple tool and track speeder sheds. A secondary paved 2 way road and highway over pass crossing over the tracks , further around the curve and hidden from direct view by the rock cuts and trees, will help isolate everything into two separate scenes. Now that I have the track all configured out, I can attack the scenery from back to front edge. Here’s a couple “ before and after “ ( so far) photos. 
Myles,
I can relate to a having a bunch of stuff "stored" on the layout but perhaps for different reasons than yourself. However, I know a lot of effort goes into just removing it. For that, congratulations. Looks like you have a good start. Please keep us posted on your progress.
Dave
Myles, it is good to have the space cleared for the new scenery. I know from your previous work it will look great and have just enough but not too much of anything.
That looks great and I like the fence.
Chris those buildings look like some of the chemical factories I delivered to in Newark NJ. They were just a little more run down.
@poconotrain posted:Chris those buildings look like some of the chemical factories I delivered to in Newark NJ. They were just a little more run down.
Interesting you should point that out. I grew up about 45 minutes from Newark, in Oradell, NJ. Ironically a high school friend of mine's family owned a chemical business in Jersey City that they ended up moving to Greenville, SC in the 70's. I may reach out to him and ask if he has any old photos, or a copy of the business logo from back then.
I do plan weathering this building, and adding a bunch of external piping with valves, exhaust fans, and a few more tanks.
Have quite a ways to go, but pretty pleased with where it's heading.
Progress continues... I am amazed at how a small change can make such a big difference... I wasn't too thrilled with the angle of the shed roof on the lower level, and decided to cut it and reduce the slope. Really glad I took the time to do that, it exposed more of the brick on the second level above, gave me a place to run some external piping and the proportions are just much better.....
Also finished the new tall section in the center between the two ends and did a bunch of work filling and sanding the tall narrow column (reactor/distiller maybe) and got it in primer today as well as some other tanks and parts that needed to be primed.
Chris,
This project is coming along nicely and your regular updates are appreciated. It's great to see modelers creating one of kind buildings for their layout.
Dave
Dave, Many thanks. There are some benefits to working slow on these, once I get over the frustration with how long it's taking.
I have definitely found that stopping to take photos and review them helps me decide what's working and what needs improvement. Fortunately, I haven't had to go back and do any major "do overs", so that's a benefit.
I'd like this one to be my best KitBash yet, and I still have a long way to go, but at least I found a "pattern" to follow that I am fond of. Here are the links in case someone wants to check them out and not have to go back and find them in my first posting.
@chris a posted:Progress continues... I am amazed at how a small change can make such a big difference... I wasn't too thrilled with the angle of the shed roof on the lower level, and decided to cut it and reduce the slope. Really glad I took the time to do that, it exposed more of the brick on the second level above, gave me a place to run some external piping and the proportions are just much better.....
Also finished the new tall section in the center between the two ends and did a bunch of work filling and sanding the tall narrow column (reactor/distiller maybe) and got it in primer today as well as some other tanks and parts that needed to be primed.
Chris- the project is really looking good. Goes to show what a bunch of wall panels and some imagination can become. Definitely has the feel of a company that started small and expanded as the business grew.
Are you going to add interiors?
Bob
Good morning Bob, thanks for kind words.
I think I'll leave the roofs removable so that at some point in the future I can think about an interior, especially on the larger 2 story right hand side with the large factory Grandt Line/Tichy windows.
I have quite a bit of external piping work to do, and am waiting on a bunch of valves and elbows to be delivered. I have a bunch of piping stock that I have accumulated so fabricating and installing piping and valves will be something new.
A good many of these kit bashes are the result of me buying a bunch, like 35 - 40 Ameritowne Wall sections off of eBay maybe 5 years ago as well as 3 IHC Engine house kits, and picking up about 4 of the Lionel Factory kits. Couldn't resist the fire sale prices I paid for them, and figured at some point, I'd come up with the "imagination" to kit bash them into something unique.
My son started calling me "Bargain Man"... Not sure that's a compliment
The other thing I also discovered some time ago, was that I could purchase a bunch of HO scale tanks at local train shows for short money and use then to detail roof tops etc.....
Here's a few photos of the other "kit bashes" that have been made out of these large "bargain man" purchases over the years.....
To all - some of these scenes are STUNNING! Pure inspiration...Have a blessed day.
Chris, The industry you are working on now is looking great! Your previous industries are really wonderfully done!
I have some exposed 2x6 lumber on my display cases and wanted to put a covering on it so I thought a group of coverings in the form of Lionel boxes would look interesting. I need to make more of them at which time I will post some photos of all of them installed. This is my sample box front. I 3D printed it and I slightly raised the blue and white sections in the middle of the box and inset the orange letters. It makes it have a little more of a 3D affect. This one is about 6x9 inches. I am going to place 5 or 6 of these in a row to cover the exposed wood. I am also going to apply various numbers to each box such as 6457, 2426X, 6464-500, 2400 etc. These number will also be raised numbers and will be in black.
idea-thinker
@chris a posted:Good morning Bob, thanks for kind words.
I think I'll leave the roofs removable so that at some point in the future I can think about an interior, especially on the larger 2 story right hand side with the large factory Grandt Line/Tichy windows.
I have quite a bit of external piping work to do, and am waiting on a bunch of valves and elbows to be delivered. I have a bunch of piping stock that I have accumulated so fabricating and installing piping and valves will be something new.
A good many of these kit bashes are the result of me buying a bunch, like 35 - 40 Ameritowne Wall sections off of eBay maybe 5 years ago as well as 3 IHC Engine house kits, and picking up about 4 of the Lionel Factory kits. Couldn't resist the fire sale prices I paid for them, and figured at some point, I'd come up with the "imagination" to kit bash them into something unique.
My son started calling me "Bargain Man"... Not sure that's a compliment
The other thing I also discovered some time ago, was that I could purchase a bunch of HO scale tanks at local train shows for short money and use then to detail roof tops etc.....
Here's a few photos of the other "kit bashes" that have been made out of these large "bargain man" purchases over the years.....
That looks very authentic Bargainman, I mean Chris.
Jay
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