@luvindemtrains posted:Mike,
You're taking the right steps to a great train room. It really seems to be coming together nicely. I'm enjoying your progress.
Dave
Thank Dave, the CEO gave me the go ahead to get all the building materials to get it to the point where I can start laying track!
@mike g. posted:Thank Dave, the CEO gave me the go ahead to get all the building materials to get it to the point where I can start laying track!
Looking good Mike, I’ve enjoyed following your progress. Great news on your benchwork materials.
Gene
@mike g. posted:Thank Dave, the CEO gave me the go ahead to get all the building materials to get it to the point where I can start laying track!
The train room looks great Mike. Can't wait to see the benchwork start going up. Exciting times!
Bob
Today, I created a way for my telephone lines to get across the river!
Way to go Mike! Given that you moved, and now starting from the ground up, you have accomplished a lot in a short period of time. Allow some time for your arms and shoulders to rest. What color(s) are you going to paint the wall?
Jay
@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:Way to go Mike! Given that you moved, and now starting from the ground up, you have accomplished a lot in a short period of time. Allow some time for your arms and shoulders to rest. What color(s) are you going to paint the wall?
Jay
Thanks Jay, I plan on doing 2 colors. Everything above the bench work will be Sky blue and everything u Der the layout will be bright white to reflect the light from my rope light.
Unless you have another idea.
Mike G, I have noticed some chatter regarding 1/2 -3/4 plywood decking. Do you plan to flat deck the entire platform or are you considering benchwork with roadbed on risers? In my opinion, you should consider roadbed risers as it saves on material cost and gives you greater landscape flexibility. You only need plywood under the rails and platforms for towns and buildings. I only wish that I had space like you have! You have a great room and I look forward to following your build.
Cheers, Dave
Well, it took me about 30 minutes longer than I thought it would (total time about an hour) but I replaced a cord on an old Lionel KW transformer. Why oh why did they bury it where they did? Not only take the case off, which should have been the only thing that had to come off..but, bend the tabs holding the top plate and the transformer in (Iit had 4 ears that had to be bent over also! They did not want it going anywhere.) then pull all the guts out of/off of the base to get to the two cord wires feeding the coil.
I put back a grounded cord. I really only use it for accessories and lighting, and I could not use it this Christmas, but I could not see tossing it due to a bad cord. Anything that still works good after all of these years, should be saved. And, the rollers were in good shape.
Another oldie but goodie rescued. Greg
@darlander posted:Mike G, I have noticed some chatter regarding 1/2 -3/4 plywood decking. Do you plan to flat deck the entire platform or are you considering benchwork with roadbed on risers? In my opinion, you should consider roadbed risers as it saves on material cost and gives you greater landscape flexibility. You only need plywood under the rails and platforms for towns and buildings. I only wish that I had space like you have! You have a great room and I look forward to following your build.
Cheers, Dave
Hi Dave, thanks and I plan on using both 1/2" & 3/4" plywood, the yard and Turn Tabel will be mostly 1 sheet of 3/4" plywood to support the Millhouse river TT. The rest I would like to do cookie cutter style, I just have to learn more about it and I have the perfect book by Lynn Wescott I think it is.
RIRocket
i used much the same method to get my telephone lines across the canyon
Can't seem to win. It seems the MTH transformer I used to check phasing was itself out of phase....with a factory grounded plug! So, now I get to go back in and reverse the leads on the Lionel KW I did yesterday.
Since it will probably be used for accessories/lights, it really does not matter, but why have it out of normal phase? Looks like I have plenty of practice, should go easier this time. I bet a tab breaks off!
Greg
@mike g. posted:Hi guys I know it not the layout. But it's a big step in the right direction. Thus we I have been able to get the last of the sheetrock up and just put on what I hope is the last coat of mud.
I hope to get the primer on Monday or Tuesday. Then paint!
I hope your all having a great weekend!
This was reallly worth your wait Mike. 
I like the dark ceiling. I can see a dark grayish blue coming down from that with a progressively lighter blue and making that layout really pop.
Your progress from the room to the layout build will be a great learning experience for us who don't have a chance to put something like this together.
Thanks for sharing sir. 
Today I am shopping at Menard’s for the first time. There are a couple of small buildings that I want, but I have no idea about the power supply. Any suggestions?
@Papa Dave posted:Today I am shopping at Menard’s for the first time. There are a couple of small buildings that I want, but I have no idea about the power supply. Any suggestions?
Menards sells a plug-n-play 4.5v system for their buildings and accessories.
Must I get a power supply for each building, or can get one that will supply several buildings? Thanks!
Oops…Never mind. I just discovered the answer to that question.
@Papa Dave posted:Today I am shopping at Menard’s for the first time. There are a couple of small buildings that I want, but I have no idea about the power supply. Any suggestions?
Dave the sell the power supplies, but I use old cell pho e chargers threw a buck converter. That way I can control the out put power.
@mike g. Hi Mike - Do you have a track diagran you can share? Appologies if it was already sent.
I realized that I was a bit off-topic and started a new thread.
I spent a few hours over the last few days and today cleaning the Ross sectional track and switches from my last layout (2006-2019) in preparation for installation with additional new Ross components on my new layout. For the most part any built-up crud was gone after a few passes with a Lionel or Woodland Scenics track cleaning "eraser" followed by a few swipes of a green or yellow Scotch-brite pad. Every so often, a little "elbow grease" as my Mom would have put it, was needed on a stubborn speck of crud.
Almost all of the power clips added by Ross at the factory, such as the one appearing on the lower track in the photo, were in good shape, some still with the red and black wires from the last layout's wiring scheme. On a few other sections, like the one in the upper part of the photo, where I added power clips to illuminate yard track occupancy lights on my control panel were still in place and in good shape for re-use.
One of this week's tasks is to "dry fit" all the track this week to see if my track planning was accurate. Hopefully I won't need to make any "emergency purchases" of some additional piece I forgot to buy a few months ago.
I noticed while cleaning the track pieces on my last layout's mainline and passing siding tracks where my track cleaning gondolas rolled often had less or almost no crud on them than the lesser used stub or yard tracks. Those gondolas which I purchase for five bucks apiece more than earned their keep on the last layout. (I know, I know, I need to hide the sponge a bit better with a black sharpie or some spray paint.)
We also sort of kit-bashed another couple of items to make working on the layout a bit easier adding a paper towel holder from Ace Hardware to the red metal tool cart I purchased in 2006 from Harbor Freight. Previously, the paper towel roll was just thrown on the middle shelf and usually "just out of reach" when you needed to wipe off some mess right away. The "Charge of Quarters" used our Dremel tool to drill the holes and then attached the mounting nuts and bolts while I held everything in place. Tomorrow's task is filling the various baskets on the tool cart with tools, scenery supplies, etc. so they're handing for either layout or workbench use.
I hope everyone got something done and ran trains. As for me, I never did get to run them. Time was spent working on 3 transformers (cord activity) 3 MTH O31 switches needed repair, and half dozen pieces of Realtrax needed wire soldered from a contact on one end to the mutual contact on the other end.
Seems some years they made the track (all of my stuff predates 2013) the welder that spotted the track to the contact was asleep at the "switch" while welding, and the rail and contact loose continuity over time because the weld fails. One center rail fell out when I picked it up.....both end welds failed. Nothing a wire won't fix on the other pieces, that one will be cut up for scenery rails.. And, I am still dealing with older, brittle track. Even testing my repairs, I found plastic, ear pieces popping off.
Maybe I will get engines fired up and the rails will get worn out from using them the rest of this week.
Everyone stay safe, light snow here. Greg
Hello WDYDOYLT fans! First time contributor here. I've enjoyed the many posts, but frankly did not have much to contribute wrt a layout of my own - until now! I retired last Jul which finally gave me time for the hobby. I've been plenty busy outside of trains so progress has been slower than expected, but today was the first run of my railroad - which I dubbed the Ontario Southern Railway (another story in itself). The railroad is a modest shelf layout of just 32 sq ft - all the railroad I had real-estate for, but plenty big enuff for me. The focus is an engine terminal facility with a RH/TT as the centerpiece. Pics below. There were a few glitches when I first applied power, but I eventiually got them all ironed out. Happy to have trains running! 
Today we cleaned off the area where we removed the ceiling tiles to get the pluming finished for the new shower in our master bedroom, and it’s cool. I’ll show the mess, then the cleanup. There’s a lot of activity on this thread lately. Happy Railroading Everyone 
@Mike g, Mike, your train room is coming along great, your track plan really nice, thanks for all of your updates. @Terry Luft, great picture, beautiful setting. Stay warm, stay healthy everyone.
@Scott R - like you, I just got part of my layout finally operational - so I Hosted a celebratory open house today. Invited LCCA members within a 20-minute drive, and 3 showed up! One neighbor, and a bunch of ppl from church and some relatives. One LCCA guy brought a new Lionel doodlebug to run. It was a terrific celebration and lots of model train miles were travelled today. 3 children 9 & under ran trains, sawed logs, blew whistles, and had a great time.
@Scott R Small but mighty. Please share more pix as you go. You could join The 48 Club too! Not too often you see a big steam on a 32 sqft layout. 
@Hannibal-St Joseph RR- Glad to hear the open house went well.
Congrats to you both!
@leapinlarry- Good to know that the shower project went well. AND that the layout made it through unscathed.
Bob
@RIRocket posted:
Today, I created a way for my telephone lines to get across the river!
Looks good. I guess that’s not a lift out?
@Hannibal-St Joseph RR posted:@Scott R - like you, I just got part of my layout finally operational - so I Hosted a celebratory open house today. Invited LCCA members within a 20-minute drive, and 3 showed up! One neighbor, and a bunch of ppl from church and some relatives. One LCCA guy brought a new Lionel doodlebug to run. It was a terrific celebration and lots of model train miles were travelled today. 3 children 9 & under ran trains, sawed logs, blew whistles, and had a great time.
Dan,
A first run is always exciting - yours sounds like a wonderful celebration. Congrats!
Scott
@pennsyfan posted:Looks good. I guess that’s not a lift out?
No, there are two bridges there, and I still have to crawl underneath to get to stuff. Hopefully it won’t be a big issue for some time.
@RSJB18 posted:@Scott R Small but mighty. Please share more pix as you go. You could join The 48 Club too! Not too often you see a big steam on a 32 sqft layout.
@Hannibal-St Joseph RR- Glad to hear the open house went well.
Congrats to you both!@leapinlarry- Good to know that the shower project went well. AND that the layout made it through unscathed.
Bob
Thanks Bob. I specifically designed my linear "small but mighty" railroad to accommodate big, scale-sized steam. The switches are Ross #4s and the tightest curves are O54 except for a couple of TT garden tracks which are O42. Locos can access one RH stall track via a straight through track across the TT and one garden track via O72 curves. The setup works for the Niagara which is too long to be turned on the Atlas TT. The wheelbase of the Hudson with the PT tender fits on the TT bridge so I can turn that loco, but I have to be mindful to only approach the TT via the straight through or the runaround track with O72 curves since the PT tender doesn't like curves tighter than O64. The rest of my medium steam can access the entire railroad.
Scott
A friend of mine's father passed away few years ago. He had a very large HO layout and she didn't know what to do with it. Sold a few pieces for her but she still had boxes full. She asked me to take them. I've been slowly trying to use pieces from his collection while I find room to store the rest of it for now.
The buildings he made are really well done, so I've been trying to use some of them as background. Just about all the structures in this picture are from his collection.
He had some pieces that just wouldn't fit my layout and rather than sit collecting dust I tried modifying one to see if I could repurpose it.
This is a warehouse that had a footprint too large for me to use as background. Shown with an O gauge boxcar for comparison.
I utilized the taller section (right side of above picture) as a base. Added some other plastic and wood scraps for a building entrance, then some interior lighting. It will be used as a service building for now, perhaps a trolley barn down the road.
Steve nice way to reuse what you can't and make it into something you can!
A better photo of the bridges and telephone lines.
I am kind of fed up with flashing………but, it has to be removed and is slow going……cutting and sanding in Midlothian (Richmond), Virginia……
Peter
@Putnam Division posted:I am kind of fed up with flashing………but, it has to be removed and is slow going……cutting and sanding in Midlothian (Richmond), Virginia……
Peter
In the words of President Bill Clinton, "I feel your pain!"
I had one kit made out of acrylic that had flash on it that tough to trim and sand down. I finally got in the rhythm of trim and sand a bit, then have a couple of swigs of coffee, then repeat the cycle with an occasional curse thrown in for good measure!
just a few layout odds and ends on a freezing, snowy evening in Northeast Ohio.....
Good morning everyone!
Just finished making a video on the Legacy F-19s that came in last month. There are a few shots of the running session that have the carriage shop in the background as previously posted on this thread.
I replaced a small Littletown Cape Cod house with a larger Littletown Southern Colonial.
I detailed it by painting trim, the molded in windows, doors, chimneys and roof. I also added window "glass" from some plastic sheeting. PM me if you want to see my past custom built Plasticville projects.
Original:
Masked for painting:
On the layout back and front:
I haven't posted in this thread in a very, very long time. Went back a few pages, glad to see everyone is still contributing and doing wonderful work.
I am back working on my Industrial District that I was "roughing in and mocking up" many months ago. Long story short, I decided to pull out the benchwork table tops in this area, and my son came up and helped me install 5' x 5' Baltic birch plywood up in the ceiling, then I added LED recessed lighting as the area is roughly 14' x 16', not really conducive to track lighting. while it was out, my daughter insisted on repainting the clouds on the back drop !!
So here's some progress photos. Fortunately, I had gotten pretty far into kit-bashing the Chemical Company, so it's well under way, and many of the Ameri-towne building facades are painted and weathered. Still finalizing the overall layout so that I have some "switching capability down here at the West End"....
The large open area is going to be Water/Harbor area made from a sheet of 1/8" Acrylic Polycarbonate that has the shower door water ripple pattern on it. Plan is for it to either hinge down, or slide under the city for "Access". Will be adding sidewalk and street in front of the row of Ameritowne buildings. Additional photos attached at the bottom of this posting.
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