What did you do on your layout today?

Kevin,

Seems like you have all your bases covered.  The hollow core door layout looks good.  I agree, I would wan to control from the long side, although I visited a friend over the weekend, and he has his controls on the short end of a much larger layout.  He uses DCS, so we could walk around the whole layout however.

Mike, I  went on line a searched for striped red paper and found what I needed.  Also found some green and white for a grocery store and tow tone lavender for a ladies' ready to wear.  There were others, too.

I'm both lazy and cheap, so it worked for me.

Tom

Well Mark, I don't think it was he glue. Have you ever tried sniffing CA (super glue)? Let's just say it's no fun.

Bummer about losing your potential free ride out here, but on the upside, now you can visit whenever you want.

Hello Guys. Hear are some photos taken sometime prior this year, & some current photos taken this week.  Now you know what I had to deal with the past 2 months but I can see the future also. Now I have the garage to deal with some time soon.  Enjoy 

Looks great Scot!!

Find attached a sketch I made of my current layout.  Only part not able to run on is the purple line, still working yards and engine service/TT areas.  All else is runnable and has 4 different elevations, yellow 360 loop being the highest.  Still tweeking super elevations and grades, running Big Boy pulling K Line 18 inch CZ ten car consist to check clearances/grades, etc.  Oooopsss... they are 21" car consist, only the baggage is 18" in length.

I realize my layout is what seems to be loop-de-loop.  But, with scenery and landscaping (when added), and backdrops in place, hope to break it up and provide visual as needed.  This is on 24 X 28 layout, walk around with center entry/duck under beneath the high bridge and "Y" on the blue line.  Also, will be adding an upper level with classification yard, industrial areas and two more lines.  Have a lot to do, long way to go.  But, being on here gives one a lot of ideas and inspiration.

Huge improvement, Scot. 

Art

Today I posted a new 3.5-minute video (#32) in my LCJ&I Lines series, on YouTube. It describes the building of the O-scale craftsman kit, "Contention City Depot" by Andersen Model Kits. It provides a small wooden, old-west railroad depot, modeling the depot at Contention City AZ (now a ghost town). The depot was moved to Old Tucson, a western theme park. The model depot fits onto one side of a red rock canyon I'm building on the layout.

http://youtu.be/rFf-E6u7NsI

I gave my layout a name.

It's the Brooklyn, Kingston, & South Florida Railroad (BKSF), which is derives from the three places that I’ve spent the majority of my life: Brooklyn, Kingston (Jamaica) and South Florida, and unintentionally comes close to a real railroad name acronym.

I've spent the last couple days working to install the "A" yard ladder. I was just about to put in the last switch, when my soldering station decided to give up the ghost. I was just two wires short too. I haven't used a soldering gun since I bought that thing, but I'm going to have to bust it out to finish.

Normally I use crimp on tab connectors to attach my feeders to the rail, but I've found that they don't have as much grip going into the flat bottom rail of switches, so I've been soldering them.

The 2 gray wires are something new. Because I have cut these switches down, and have the minimum spacing between, it will probably be necessary to route power on the closure rails. It was Chugman that clued me into this potential pitfall.

This little SPDT switch is the rest of the solution. The two gray wires connect to the end terminals, and track power goes to the one on the side. The switch will be mounted in such a way that the that the crank mechanism on the manual switch throws will depress and release the lever.

I took this picture to show just how close I cut the switches. There's about 1/8" of rail beyond the end of the points.

There are eight chopped 072 switches in the ladder, but only 7 are visible here. There are a couple of connecting tracks that need finishing, and then just the straight yard body tracks, and the "A" yard is done!

Last up Roseville. Patrick should be here Friday so we can finish the benchwork. Joe will be here Thursday to do more wiring. I'm looking to get a couple sections buttoned up on that front.

Had a scheduled train show on Saturday and an unscheduled one on Sunday...

The scheduled one was in Gravette, AR for "Gravette Day". 

My Polar Gi-raffe Express Berkshire is still in the shops pending parts from Lionel (will post a separate "Under The Hood" article later this week when the parts arrive), so my 2025 that I overhauled last year did the honors: 

Had one chap walk into the layout room at the Museum and quip, "This place smells like LIONEL!"  He also dug the Bugs Bunny reference "It's a gi-raffe, a gi-raffe!"...   

Added the Sunoco tanker seen above to my fleet, as well as some Model T's for the scenery end of things. 

A future project will be repairing this Marx Santa Fe diesel (belonging to the Museum) in need of a new collector assembly...

While riding home from Gravette, I got a call from one of my fellow directors of the J. Reilly McCarren Museum at the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad (https://www.facebook.com/amrrfriends). 

Seems that some Tyson bigwigs had donated a cool quarter-million to childrens' charities and scholarships, and the A&M had laid on a special passenger train in their honor.  Could I show up with a gi-raffe or two?  Well, as my new business cards say:

So, I was at the JRM Museum bright and early on Sunday: 

Sharp-eyed viewers will note the NYC F-Unit lashup that I repaired some weeks back.  The locos pulled fine and the horn was beeping merrily!

Even slightly abbreviated, the gi-raffes were a hit!   

As a side note, both the Gravette and JRM museums want to consult with me about putting permanent Lionel displays at their locations! 

I finished the weekend with repairs to my homebuilt Plasticville whistling station's platform, with the able assistance of Norma B. Kitteh, CFE (Certified Feline Engineer)...

Mitch

Created the home and visitors dugouts. Got the visitors dugout cutout and set up; still have to landscape around it though.

Brian

Very nice!

i wish I had the room for a baseball diamond

That is nice Bryan.

Larry

I did a thorough cleaning on my 671, replaced some of the frayed wires, and re-soldered some of the loose or broken connections for the wiring. I also replaced the brushes, and cleaned off the E-unit drum and armature.

I plan on doing the 671w tender tomorrow.

Well I wanted to put down the final coat of Rust-Oleum Epoxy shield Paint today. Then I went out to the Breezeway and discovered that I don't have the right color that I put down first. I put down Battleship Gray first. Then when I went out there today I discovered that I had Armor Gray which dose not go well with Battleship Gray. So I guess I will be painting again this Saturday. Tomorrow and Friday I have DR. appointments .    What do you guys think on the Colors ?

Hi Everybody--    Hooray !!!   Earlier this evening I applied power from all three of my transformers (ZW, KW, LW) and the three main pilot lamps lit up.  Then I increased one of the small size throttles on the left side of the ZW to give me a voltmeter reading of FIFTEEN (15) volts.  This powers up the switches using fixed-voltage plugs as well as the four lights on the Hell Gate Bridge as well as the 153/163 block signal switch indicators.  Operating the FIVE DPST toggle switches on the control panel turned on the lights in the Greyhound Bus Depot, the Sunoco gas storage tank Yard Light,

the Oil Derrick, the Rail-King interlocking tower, and the 464 Saw Mill.

Suzie loaded the planks and logs into the Sawmill and it worked perfectly.  I bought it NEW from the Great Train Expo in Puyallup, WA for $ 50.00 one year ago but never tried it until now.

SIX (6) DPST toggle switches on upper row of control power apply 18v power to the Display Tracks near the bus depot.  One for the SP AC-12, one for the CSX SD-70ACe, one for the Millenium Business Car, and the other three for lighting ELEVEN (11) Santa Fe passenger cars....

Three DPST toggle switches are vacant and available for other things.  The other small-siozed throttle on the ZW operates the main line that surrounds the Trolley Yard.

One of the throttle outputs of the KW operates the "passing siding" external to the Hellgate Bridge.  It hosts a 132 Station and Auxilliary freight station with operating fork lifts.

The variable output of the LW will provide power for the various storage tracks within the Trolley Yard.  The green lights visible on control panel are the controllers which are cabled to the 022/072 track switches.  The fixed 14 volt output from the LW supply one set of those DPST toggle switches while the fixed 18 volt output supplies the other set of toggle switches.   Lots of wiring indeed !!  I have been using cable ties to try and make some of this mess a little bit neater !  Again, I've been doing this whole project without a wiring diagram !  However, so far, so good!!

Except earlier this evening, the lights on all ELEVEN (11) Santa Fe passenger cars all went off at once.  Panic city !!!!!

Luckily, I found a loose splice joint for one of the COMMON leads heading to a post on my power distribution panel.  Tomorrow morning, I'll take it apart (4-wires under a wire nut) aqnd solder them together instead.  That should do the trick !!

Until then, guys, enjoy the newest photos !!

Cheers.

KRK

Congrats....its a great feeling when everything lights up as it should!

-Pete

I put in a couple more hours today, working on the "A" yard. I am so close to finishing it. I'll get it done before Joe gets here in the afternoon. Pics late Thursday.

Ken:  Bravissimo! 

Mitch

And the article is up! 

https://ogrforum.com/t...press-1225-berkshire

Mitch

Tuesday I picked up a derelict Lionel KW transformer at my favorite antique store for a very reasonable sum, brought it home, opened it up to replace the power cord, cleaned everything and it is like new !! I use a Z and a KW to run my 5 loops of track and some lights etc. This new KW is so smooth and nice so now I have two extra. Will keep one as a spare. Nice to get a bargain.

OK... finally was able to remove a lot of boxes/totes and a little cleanup.  Positioning switches to check fit before installation, assist routing of red line to purple and engine facilities.

did some more scenery

Our Gold Edition 1225 came back from service yesterday and we got it powered up and took it for a test drive. All is well again.

While it was off the layout, we switched the Black version 1225 to the Gold set and then used a baby Hudson (D56 livery) to pull the blue and maroon scale set. We had guests over the past few days so we had to improvise. I was amazed that the baby Hudson could pull eight Heavyweights, but it did.

I second Pete's comment!  Congratulations, Ken!

I got a major goal underway at the moment. Im finally getting wall paneling installed in my trainroom! 
Here are some photos of the work. 

The Minnesota Commercial "A" yard is done!

And so is all the track in aisle 4.

The wye coming off the small helix...

into an 063 curve. This is primarily for turning engines.

The ladder and its bypass track.

I've started to call this the "flying wye".

A shot looking down the entire length of the room.

Brian:  your baseball field looks really nice.  have you ever contacted Carl Chambers for some more itmes?  he's located in the greater Cleveland area and for a long while made bleacher seats, batting pens, concession stands and other itmes for a proper baseball park.  They were made from laser cut wood and really look accurate.  if you contact me, I can give you his numbers and whatever.

Paul Fischer

Absolutely beautiful Elliot.  Nicely done. You make track laying a work of art. Can't wait to see the next chapter. 

Fixed the cracked fascia board on the module from my earlier post by cutting down a center support for a softer curve. Forgot to take a photo before putting it away. Put fascia boards on Module #3. Hopefully I can get the fascias on the rest of the modules by Sunday so I can start on the scenery base. Since this is a branch section, the track will be mounted directly to the baseboard, ballasted and surrounded with dirt from the remnants of the Redlands Loop right-of-way.

Thanks Paul if you email me his info I would be interested to see what he offers.

The Minnesota Commercial "A" yard is done!

Amazing work.I really like the progress.

And I'm still stuck on the kitchen, living room remodel project.OH , and today such good news over 4K for a tank less outside gas water heater. SUCH fun

I can't wait until winter to play with trains.

Larry

Room completion is beginning to take place down on this end.  Anything below ceiling level won't need as much detailed finishing since it'll eventually be hidden by layout.  Soon I'll need to make a decision on a flooring.

One major milestone was the installation of additional lighting with 12V LED strips, like those used to replace incandescents in passenger cars.   These will normally be dimmed to maximum to simulate night.  I cranked them up to show for the photograph.

Bruce

Bruce,

Very nice room and lighting!!  Now it is time to build a railroad!!

This has been the week for guests to our layouts. Our next door neighbor's kids and grandkids are in this week and they all wanted to see the trains run. It is always fun to share the layouts, especially with kids.