What did you do on your layout today?

Mark B,

My indoor time is summer here, during the winter I am out ATV, Harley riding and visiting kids, camping and enjoying cool weather.

I plan to have the upper shelf done by end of summer and most of the roadbed, track laid on benchwork, after that, while running conventionally on the shelf, I will listen to trains running as fiddle with wiring, grrrr, more wiring, grrrr, and MORE wiring double grrr, but it is coming along. Thank goodness for Cat 5 cable and cableways on home runs.

Good morning. Here in the Motor City at breakfast it was 67˚ F.

Light winds and sunny.

Had a glass of milk and did some Model Railroad picture reading.

Gary - Click photo to enlarge. Cheers from The Detroit & Mackinac Railway

Back in 2007 I had a small (about 10' x 10') layout with 2 interconnected loops.

 

I bought Mianne bench work in 2012 and assembled it.  It sat untouched for a couple of years.  Earlier this year, I had one loop of track temporarily laid out just so I could get my fix to run a train.

 

That loop is ripped up, and I am finally making progress on installing a 3 interconnected loop around-the-room layout.  It's just Fastrack on bare plywood (for now).  Fortunately, it is a large room with carpeting and a 10' ceiling.  If I run the trains at a reasonable speed, it's not too loud.

 

Here's some pictures of my construction mess as of this morning:

 

 

No work today but I placed a nice order with scenic express to replenish my supplies. Maybe after dinner I'll head up and just run some trains for a while. Tomorrow is suppose to be a the kind of day to stay inside so I got yard work done today........Paul

Spent a lot of time running electrical drops from the rails and putting in the bus wires. I am really glad there is carpet on the floor and the table is high enough for me to be comfortable under the layout 

 

Al

 

Thanks Len, it was a fun afternoon. I'm not sure about Pluto, but maybe Minneapolis.

 

And on that happy note back to work.

 

My new guy, Joe, was here Wednesday, and polished off another 25' of wiring on a different section of the upper deck. We set up some boards to cover the track, I gave him a wedge pillow, handed him tools and materials and he was happy as a clam. He was actually enjoying himself. Having taken the first turn at this activity some months ago, it's not an uncomfortable way to do this task.

 

Thursday morning I finished sanding the fascia and threw a quick coat of paint on it.

 

If you look closely, you can see where the paint is still wet. You listening Jon? Ready for round 4.

 

I'm almost done carving the roadbed on this curve. When that's done, I can paint the rails, then it's time to break out the ballast. All this is preparation for the last major piece of benchwork.

 

Still no sign of Patrick, our plans keep falling through. Busy boy. Matt has a new job, so we are back to Sundays where we started nearly 2 years ago. He'll be here this week for another batch of switches.

And yon F unit has been delivered to its delighted owner this evening at the Arkansas-Boston Mountain Chapter, NRHS meeting! 

 

Mitch

Elliot,

 

Did I read ballast?  A good sign of your progress!

Congratulations on recruiting Joe.  Good work Joe!

 

Yup Mark, but just the curve between the two "fins" of fascia. This is all in preparation for the deck at Roseville. I need to get it done before I can put the "lid" on. This will be a good test.

 

I don't know if you caught it in an earlier post, but Joe isn't a forum member or even a train guy (YET). I meant to get him to sign up, but when he climbed out, we ran straight upstairs for dinner and I forgot. I will pass your kudos along to him.

Yes I see, get it done before it is too hard to reach.  Good planning!

 

Thanks for passing the word along to Joe.  I noticed the word (YET).  You will get him hooked soon!

  I dug out some old HO stuff I had purchased and built some years ago.and am now in the process of rejuvinating it.  I have some Walthers Cornerstone scrap yard equipment to assemble.   National Scrap Co. is finally on the way to completion.

Worked on idea number two for the industrial area. This time I thought less was better. Still trying to incorporate the MTH station. This idea is just the grain elevator with two sidings and two sidings for the station Maybe with the space left I can put in some out type buildings. This is still not set in stone. Pics of idea #2...............Paul

Using photo shop and some foam board was able to design and then add some interesting signage to my baseball field wall.

Bryan, the baseball field is really starting to come together. Good job. Sorry I could not make your Friday night. I had family come in to visit................Paul

This is what i did on my "future layout today" - - I submitted the winning bid on eBay - for the: 2011, 3-dome Santa Flyer hot coco tank Car 6-36173 - this means i have “ALL” of Lionel’s Christmas tank cars except:

 

Lionel’s 2011/13, 3-Dome Santa Flyer Candy Cane – from Santa Flyer Train Set, 6-30164

 

Rdeal

Hi Everybody--  This evening I made an electrical cable to assist in connecting 022 switches to Lionel # 153 block signals for switch indication in addition to the actual switch controllers.  I call them my 022_153 Patch .....  There are three colors each along with the black wire.  The "ring connectors" go under the thumb nuts on the signals and switch motors..THREE black wires then are connected to cabling that runs over to central control where the Switch Controllers are mounted in a row.

When a particular switch controller is moved from Red to Green, the switch changes position and the Block Signal reflects the change.

 

Another circuit, using relays, I am starting to design are "Presets" ..

Instead of manually lining up a route to travel the layout and eventually send a train to our planned upper level,  you would depress a Preset button which would active a number of relays to operate switches and line up a route.  You might say it is my version of the GRS "NX" concept on the prototype operations.

 

Check out my photo.   Cheers.

 

KRK

Keep atter, Vince.  All that beautiful bench work deserves to be hidden.  As one who has recently been re-inspired to " Git 'er done ", I'm finally past some major hurtles that sometimes looked insurmountable.  A few productive days worth of progress does wonders for the confidence.  And there's something to be said about taking time to think through your next move.  I'm a bear for forcing an issue and making a bigger mess of it than was necessary.  Above all, have fun!

 

Bruce

 

The concrete has been poured. I came up with my final plan. I even went with less. Took the Grain Elevator out of the equation completely. I kept the station. Two sidings to that then before those a small siding for a small freight house with a one car siding. I finally decided that I have a lot of building kits that I have not put together. This table top is 3X5 and the other table is 2X5. The 2X5 was going to be the town. But I have decided to use the table where the station is for more room for the town. I am so sure on this tomorrow I am going to lay down cork. Here are a few pics. I just have pieces of odd size track laid down for perspective..............Paul

Did a bit of organizing and cleaning up of the trainroom today in preparation for some layout work tomorrow morning. Then glued some chain gang and cop figures into place.

 

 Tomorrow I'll wire some switches for direct power and perhaps hook up lights to my newly placed commuter station.  My friend Randy is coming down and will bring the new 

Woodland Scenics lighting kit so I can check it out and see what its all about.  Hopefully the lighting kit will be all I need to get my firehouse interior all lit up.  I'm excited!!!

Pat: I am looking forward to seeing your layout progress in person. I think you will like the new Woodland Scenics, "Just Plug" lighting system http://www.harrisontrains.com/justplug.htm.

Took delivery of yet another giraffe car, as well as a bag of miscellaneous bits including an MPC mechanical crossing: 

 

Didn't feel like getting up and putting a locomotive on the tracks, so my MTH NJTransit PCC did the honors for the gi-raffe's inaugural test run... 

 

Mitch

I concentrated on tying up a few loose ends around the attic today.  I'm so happy to see the last of the insulation and vapor barrier.  It has made a substantial difference in keeping room temperature down.  Even better was how cool the main floor stays because the house is now fully and properly insulated.  We hit a humid, sunny 90F today and the main floor was never above 75F...that's without the help of A/C.  If this heatwave persists then that will really be the true test.

 

A few remaining outlets needed installing ...got all but 2 buttoned up, now that hip wall paneling is 80% done.

 

Picked up the last few panels of Masonite for the hip walls and began plastering the screw holes in that which has already been installed.  I might try to finish installing the last of them tonight or just stay downstairs where it's nice and comfy.

 

Bruce

 

 

Finished up with customer repairs today

After my son Jim and I reviewed sections on my layout, we decided on a revamp to my intermodal yard.  My original vision of my layout had to include an intermodal yard, but I wasn't satisfied with the amount of space that I had left available for it.  I had a Lionel Intermodal crane and two tracks and had containers stacked around the perimeter.  I also had a Plasticville Interstate Toll booth as my entry point and was going to put chain-link fencing around it for security.

 

Yesterday we took up this yard and started over.  It had two pass-through tracks before, but the new yard will have 4 tracks, three pass-through and one stub.  Old track spacing was 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 for Intermodal, but new yard will have 4" spacing which will allow the two extra tracks.

 

I am redesigning this yard to facilitate future operating sessions.  It will be a small holding-classification yard.  My Proviso Yard is my main yard and this will be an interim destination between my upper Milwaukee Road branchline which will have most of businesses that need to be switched.  Switchers will bring cars to this yard and set them off to be picked up by BNSF/UP freights and will end up back at Proviso.  They will also pickup strings of cars destined back to industries on the upper branchline.

 

Haven't decided on a name for this new yard yet.  Will post progress pictures later after church.

 

Art

Matt,

   I did pick up a pair of new FasTrack 036 wireless Command Control switches, from one of our OGR members, to use with my Legacy Cab2 remote control.  Waited a while for these 036 FT CC switches, for some reason I had trouble getting my hands on them, then all of a sudden one of our members has them for sale instead of one of the Lionel stores.  At any rate I am glad I finally got them for my upper level Pittsburgh Street Car line.

PCRR/Dave

 

Heres what i have been working on.

Added a KW transformer to the layout that I picked up at the relocated 'I Love Toy Trains' store in Michigan City, IN.

Is coming out beautiful!!

I insist, is better make a progress post separately.

Andre.

Im not the master modeler like some on here this is my first wooden building so i am bound to make mistakes

Began working on the third module of my switching layout but got the work cut short by a thunderstorm. It has an odd shape to support an industry and half of the corner. The bracing and track support for modules 1 and 2 has been completed.

 

The first module is relatively simple, with a tapered end to center the track on a 32" wide module end to comply with a proposed O scale Free-Mo standard. The wider portion is to support structures and scenery and interface with Module 2.

 

 

Module 2 is the smallest of the five modules at 3'x3' and is where the spur feeding the packing house on Module 3 and the turnout for the passing siding are placed.

 

Module 3's irregular shape is to support the continuation of the curves onto module 4. The packing house will go to the right of the two-track spur. This one is going to be the most complicated construct.

 

Module 4 is the largest of the five modules at 6'x3'. It completes the curve and passing siding and provides the lead to the Ice House on the lower left and a team track on the upper right.

 

 

Module 5 is where the fuel dealer (upper left) and Ice House (lower left) will be placed. As with Module 1, the end is tapered to match the proposed O scale Free-Mo standard.

Well I finally got my TMCC hooked up and everything works! 
I'm working on my next blog video which will feature it along with some other things as well. 

Not on the layout, but here is what I did today.  My friend who is a machinist at the GE engine plant in Grove City Pennsylvania took my wife and I and his wife to the Employee family tour today.  Here are a few photos in the area that we were allowed to take photos.  It was an interesting tour seeing the Tier 4 engines in various parts and pieces.  Grove City is south of Erie where the whole engines are assembled.

 

Matt came over this afternoon. Since I had company this week, I had put away all of his tools and materials, so we got off to a bit of a slow start as we had to re-gather everything. In spite of that, he managed to complete 9 more manual throws and got two more, partly done.

 

While he was doing that, I was over in the next aisle doing what Jon has dubbed "my homework" to prep for his next visit. I installed those 2x4 blocks on the curves in the hope we can knock out 80' of fascia next time.

 

For whatever reason, when Patrick and I built this section, the plywood was laid down crooked, and hung over the edge of the 1x4 at an angle which tapered from 1/2" to zero over the length of each sheet. I took the planer to it and smoothed the whole thing out.

 

If you look closely, you can see a pencil mark on the benchwork and the number 64 written below it. That is 64' or 8 sections of fascia from where the current end is. The goal is for the fascia to stay well ahead of Matt's switch throws.

 

While I was at it, I rounded off this little corner.

 

I was feeling ambitious, so I took the utility knife to the fiberboard and continued carving the roadbed profile around this curve.

 

Once it is all carved, the track can be painted, then it is ready for ballast.

 

In order to try and be more organized, keep track of progress, allocate manpower, set priorities and a timetable, I created this spreadsheet. Some projects extend well into 2016. There will be a lot more lines added. Of course none of this is set in stone, and it is still a hobby, but I do like to set goals. It all boils down to this: have the layout fully functional ASAP.

 

I had a minor disaster the other day. This is the second time in two years, and I'm getting tired of it. The dishwasher leaked again. It didn't do any damage to the layout, but it ruined a few more ceiling tiles.

 

Busy week coming up. Patrick on Tuesday (fingers crossed) and Joe on Wednesday and I'll talk to Jon about Thursday. Matt will be back in two weeks.

Elliot; you guys are operating like a well oiled machine.

I'm picking up a GP20 and a distressed Berkshire from a certain movie offa Forum member Serge G...

 

Gee, I WONDER what that Berk is gonna wind up as? 

 

And, of course, a train needs a conductor:

 

 

Mitch

Mitch,

I love it!  Your giraffe train inspired me to pick up a giraffe car when a fellow Forum member had a nice one up for sale.  My kids ( all grown) love the giraffe car and the PE. 

Thanks Spence, it really helps that everyone has his own set project, and that they have all become experts at them. That leaves me free to help and direct when needed. In that regard it seems like old times, dating back to enterTRAINment more than 20 years ago. I still put in the most time of anyone, I have to. But this wouldn't be possible without them.

Elliott - I doubt that you ever tire of sincere compliments and you have been received a lot of very well deserved ones.  You and your crew of outstanding helpers are crafting a fabulous layout.  I have watched your progress ever since you first began posting here and it has been an incredible journey.  I look forward to every update.  I also hope to visit and see it in person, sooner rather than later.

 

Great job!

 

Art 

Interesting, I never would have thought of putting chicken wire under the plywood. I assume that's for easier securing of the wiring and any grounding as well?

Such a clever idea, wish I'd thought of it during my layout build...

Added yet another working signal that shows track occupancy and mimics real life block control. I do like using relays.  Finished painting and installing 24 linear feet of valence.  16 feet more to go.  Installed retaining wall in one scenic challenged area.  Still continue to be mystified by loss of power in two locations.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.