What did you do on your layout today?

Thanks Mark,

  There is still 2 other ends of the "T" shaped room to finish trimming before the layout begins.  Tempting though, since I have enough lumber on hand to make a start if I....no no no...must stay focused! 

 

Bruce

Bruce,

I agree wholeheartedly!!  Finish the room prep, then let the fun begin!! 

Cleaned up my two extra KW transformers both inside and out. Work pretty good, will keep one as a spare and the other gets traded off for who knows what.

Thank you Pat. It is both a happy time and a sad time, as track laying is now 98% complete. The only track left is the Roseville industrial area, and the Bowser turntable which just consists of an access track and the whisker tracks. Not nearly as exciting as all those yards.

 

Going forward, the plan has to be to get all those Tortoises powered and temporary control panels in place. This will be phase one of having a working railroad. After all, that is the point of this exercise.

 

Four down/one to go. Got home a little early from work, so I decided to work on the modules again. Put the fascia boards on Module #4 and Module#2. Got tired, plus it was hot and humid so I called it an evening. Should have #1 done tomorrow evening.

 

These first two are the now-corrected Module #5. I had to replace the front fascia board as it was bent too sharply and cracked. I shaved the center brace for a more gentle curve. The reason Modules #1 and #5 are tapered is to be compliant with a proposed single-track O scale Free-Mo standard.

 

 

Here are four of the five modules lined up against the garage wall. The longest is six feet; the shortest is three. Module #1 (not shown) and #3 (far end) are five feet while Module #2 (near end) is the shortest at three feet. The overall size of the layout when assembled will be 12 feet by 13 feet in an L-shaped corner arrangement.

Have had company at home all week and haven't had the chance to get anything done on the layout.  Hoping to get a lot done next week though.

 

Art

I have two # 153 block signals and one # 163 searchlight signal hooked up as switch indicators--did that yesterday.  I still have two # 153 block signals to hook-up somewhere and two # 151 semaphores.  I also have a # 450 signal bridge to hook up, along with some Rail-King signal heads for the Cantilever signal bridges.  Have two more Towers and a couple of Diners-- a 132 station with operating freight station--a # 38 water tower, gatemen, whistle houses, gates, crossbucks and whatever else is still packed in the garage.  My wiring days are far from over !

 

So far, as previously mentioned, my post-war ZW, KW and LW are filling the bill for power requirements.  I have another ZW in reserve-- plus two CW-80's.

Good news-- my buddy Ray at "House of Trains" notified me this week that he has completed the total restoration of my 250-watt "Z" that I have owned for over 40+ years.  He absolutely HATES working on Z-type transformers compared to the others because of the sloping panel.  But he gave it a shot and says "It Works Great" !!

 

Ray has hundreds of Lionel and Flyer transformers in storage-- a lot of them need to go to the scrapper.  A lot of them have usuable parts.  The total weight of all of these is astronomical.  The other night, my wife Suzie made the comment that my new layout was starting to look like Ray's because of models all over the place.  We laughed.

 

Next time we visit "House of Trains", I want to take pictures.  The place resembles the old Lionel factory in Irvington, NJ.  If I share some of these photos with you guys, you'll think:  "Oh My God !!"  The place is mind-boggling!!

 

I don't have a stake in Ray's business ventures, BUT, if you guys have need of someone who knows how to repair Trains the first time around--without hesitating--or look for a tiny elusive PART you can't find-- contact Ray Dumke and tell him OGR Forum member Ken Shattock (KRK) sent you !!  He maintains an inventory of approx

$ 150 K worth of parts...  Tis true!

For you Tubular track fans--  he has THAT too !!  Ray was also good buddies with the two brothers that owned Madison Hardware in New York.  Something he told me about that place:   there was underground basement storage and off-prem warehouses that held zillions of blue, white and orange boxes of goodies.  When the stuff was discovered later on, everyone went NUTS !!  He says that the brothers knew where every single item could be found !   Truly amazing !!  Anyway---

enough talk--  I should have enough track arriving on Monday to complete my lighted display tracks around the living room and dining room.

Want to go downstairs now and clean up the junk on the layout tables.  Give "Ray" a call for your needs at "House of Trains" in Hoodsport, WA.  You will NOT be disappointed !!  Maybe Rich Melvin will do a magazine story on him someday!  Never know, huh ??  

"House of Trains"

 

 

You guys and gals have a great weekend!!   Cheers.

 

KRK

Yesterday I ran some of my trains on the club layout (Southwest Michigan Modular Train Club). I wish I had room at my house for this.

http://trainsaway.wix.com/swmimodulartrainclub

 

 

Nice pics Denny.  Do you guys run at public events Or is that a static layout?

Well today I mixed up some acrylic paint to dab on the top of some of my flex walls. The tops of them in spots were not quite colored enough. While doing that I ran trains and went back to cleaning up the floor area. Just does not seem to have the same excitement to me as working on the layout. Cleaning is going very slow.........Paul

Nothing overly cool, but I measured the space along the back wall for a structure flat (I've had the wood and door/window castings for a long time) and draw out the plan for the walls, windows and doors and such.

Construction will likely start this weekend. I was gonna take my WW2 Jeep to a car show but decided I'd rather get something done on the layout instead...

Got tired of seeing extra trains on a table so started to build some shelving for it to display.

The shelves look nice, I like the white shelving with the blue background.

Don

What did you do on your layout today?

 

Nothing, it's been finished for years.

Joe was here yesterday. He started off by finishing up some some old wiring over in aisle 3 north, then it was back to aisle 2 south to finish University.

 

Joe takes a minute to admire his handy work. Very impressive really.

 

He helped me lift the other half of the Roseville deck into place. This is the last major piece of benchwork and track laying to be done.

 

Today I switched gears a little, and put together one of two turnout relay panels. The CMR/I system will throw the relays, and the relays will throw the Tortoises. I chose this location because it is fairly central to a large number of turnouts.

 

I could get down in there to work on this thing, but having it swing out into the aisle is much better.

 

I'm going to have to rehang this, because it is about 1/4" low.  I need to allow for a 1/2" finish floor and some commercial low pile carpet.

 

 

As soon as I get the CMR/I fired up, and the JMRI to control it, I won't need any control panels anymore.

Elliot... all those controller? just how many wires are needed?

 

every time I see the latest progress I am amazed at all you have accomplished since seeing it in person in 2013.

 

I always enjoy reading the updates on your layout.

Thanks Ray. What you are looking at there are just relay sockets. The relays themselves are in a big tub under the layout. I'm using the relays as a DPDT switch for polarity reversal of the power to the Tortoises.

 

The wiring goes as follows:

• 2 small wires forming an X between the contacts for polarity reversal on each socket base
• 2 wires daisy chained along the row of sockets for 12V DC supply to the Tortioses
• 2 wires going out to each Tortoise in the field
• 1 wire daisy chained along the row of sockets for relay power
• 1 wire from CMR/I to activate the relay

 

Got the home team dugout finished and up on the layout.  Also took some shots from the blimp looking down.

The baseball field is pretty cool.

pretty well done the field and the whole scene actually.

 

Andre.

 

Had the best of intentions to do cleaning up. Got up there looked at the floor looked at the trains and the trains won out so I ran trains today. Maybe  tomorrow I will look toward the floor.............Paul

Bryan, the ball diamond looks great. Especially from the blimp. Nice job on the dugouts. The shelves are a nice addition too....................Paul

Bryan, your ball park looks terrific.  Any particular age group (little league, pony, etc.) represented?

 

Elliot, once again you leave me speechless with the sheer scope, quality, and planning reflected in your excellent and timely photographs--hope you never stop posting your daily and monthly progress reports.

Added more power!

As long-time devotees of the gi-raffe know, any speed above a fast crawl results in the hapless gi-raffe smacking its face into the telltale.  One can, of course obtain a spare 3424-80 base plate to relocate yon telltale just at the end of the cam ramp, or the same effect may be obtained with a piece of scrap stripwood:

 

Mitch

It's high school the two teams represented on the scoreboard are Cuyahoga Falls (the team I played for in high school) and Willoughby South (the team I coached).  The field is a combination of a few unique fields I remember playing at over the years. 

Thanks for the compliments on the field it has been fun putting this together the last couple of weeks.  Still have to add the side fences and build a backstop and bleachers.  Progress will be slowing down since school and coaching start back up on Monday.  12 hour days don't leave much time for layout work although I do have major incentive to keep working on it as I volunteered for a layout open house tour on November 7. 

Thank you Carl. I'm glad you're enjoying my layout construction coverage. The forum is really a great way to bring it to a lot of people who live all over the country and beyond.

 

You may or may not know, but I am no stranger to large model railroad projects like this. So many of the materials and techniques that I'm using are carried over from my Mall of America experience. The real beauty is that I don't have the pressures of running a business, and I can work at my own pace.

 

While the physical construction has been exciting to watch, perhaps the more exciting stuff has yet to come in the form of the control systems. It may not be the latest cutting edge stuff, but I plan to go where I have never seen anyone else in the 3 rail world go. So stay tuned.

 

---

 

 

Even though I didn't go downstairs today, I did not totally ignore the railroad. After having lunch with a non-train buddy, we went to Menards for what should be some of the last heavy construction materials, in the form of 2x4's and fiberboard. Also needed more flat black paint, drywall screws, small drill bits, impact screw tips, and of course Elmer's glue. Love that 11% rebate!

 

My shoulder is acting up again and needs rest. It is light work to attack the wiring for that panel.

 

Hi Everybody--

Last night I finally hooked up my Lionel # 132 Station, # 442 Diner and # 356 Baggage Station..  The amount of wiring at my "control center" is getting astronomical!  I can imagine the thousands of feet of wire that OGR Forum member "Elliot" will end up with.

 

I had NO POWER to the single-track "passing siding".  Couldn't figure out what was wrong.  My wife Suzie helped me trace a single white wire.  There was a yellow wire that was soldered to the center rail of the passing siding.  It was attached, via a wire nut, to a white wire, which disappeared under the bench work.  What a gal !!  She laid down on the floor under the layout and found this white wire and started tugging on it.

I found it in a corner of my "control center" and traced it very carefully to a screw terminal on a Jones terminal strip.  Guess what ?  There was no wire on the opposite screw terminal where a power lead should have terminated !  Ran in a lead from that terminal to the KW and voila---  power now gets to the passing siding!

It's amazing what a little Ohms Law can do for you, isn't it ?

 

To recap my power supplies...... 

1.  One of the large handles on my ZW, operates the outer mainline loop.

2.  The other large handle on my ZW operates the inner mainline loop.

3.  The left-hand small throttle is set for 15-16 volts to operate 022/072 switches

     via the fixed-voltage plugs as well as the lights on the Hell Gate Bridge.

4.  The right-hand small throttle operates the Trolley Yard mainline and Reverse Loop.

5.  The 14-volt output of my LW transformer supplies power for various lights and 

     accessories.

6.  The 18-volt output of my LW transformer supplies power for the SIX primary

     display tracks.

7.  The variable output of my LW transformer supplies power for the tracks within the 

     Trolley Yard.

8.  The left-hand throttle of my KW transformer supplies power for the "passing 

     siding" mentioned previously !

9.  The right-hand throttle of my KW transformer is spare and currently unassigned !

10.  Current power availability is around 600-watts.

 

Reference photos:  (taken a long time ago)---

1.  Double track mainline over Hell Gate Bridge with "Passing Siding" seen to the left.

2.  Double track mainline showing Junction where "Passing Siding" takes off, at far 

     end of layout.

3.  Trolley Yard.

 

I received my initial order of 750 wood ties from Kappler's.  I'm still searching for

"roofing granules" for ballast.

 

All you nice folks have a great day !   Cheers.

 

KRK 

Clean up and added some scenery hopefully I will take a break but I doubt it

Made my first building scene out of building flats mounted on foamcore for a small corner of my layout.

Here's a couple of photos:

Oh, how I long to be doing stuff that's train related.  Until that time I hope you'll forgive my postings of layout room preparation pics.

 

Back in the beginning of the attic conversion, the first line of attack was to rearrange and expand on the existing basement stairwell.  This weekend was spent transforming that roughed in construction into something more elevating.  The stairs themselves will be left as is until all other construction ends.

 

The right wall long ago became a catch all, so I kept it as such, just a little more refined than bare 2 X 4's.  On the left is what once was an exterior wall of the 2 log structures that make up my house

Tongue and groove cedar ties in with the rest of the house decor.

And now the requisite train content.  That shelf I roughed in earlier got trimmed out and a few trinkets get displayed.

While we're at it, the chimney got covered, the electrical panel hidden and a cabinet built to house the stereo. 

 

 

Bruce

Bit the bullet and trimmed the upper level It hung out too far for me to do reasonable scenery.  Lousy job because it was very messy and the edge did not come out very smooth.  Now to build some vertical walls.

 

Al

 

 

  Mitch, A while back, when the camera went dark here, you asked for photos of the dowel rod, skewer, and cotter pin tattle tales I scrounged up.

  The wood pole grain is a few saws dragged sideways vs cutting normally. Then dark oil stains, then black, grey/green north side washes.

  The side drag technique works for sheet side foam carving of sheer cliffs, & shale/ rock walls, without a bunch of gluing layers. Vary the tooth sizes used, heavy cut wood, to hacksaw .

 

Taking the turnout, you see tell tale #1

 

 

Up and over the top of the box car to see #2 just below the temporary bridge (foam, wet/dry sandpaper and BBQ skewers. So light, a good sneeze will dislodge it.

 

 More scrounging. The vents on the AF talking station bashed into a factory, are from little basket flower pots I got from the dumpster of a hydroponics supply shop on the corner. They cut the baskets up for something, and throw away hundreds of these things?

Pine cone tree.

 

  The tattles move around left to right from vibration on this pole.

The skewers are bamboo. They didn't take the stain well. I gooped it on, and it slowly migrated to the regular wood each time. One day I'll paint the bamboo dark again, or use oil crayon rubbed around good. 

 

Oh..OK....there's my house keys. 

#3 from the opposite direction

 

 

 

This no flash photo of the #3 side, is really closer to being how it appears. I just hate messing with digital screens for settings. I want my manual controls back

Pole #2 is almost in good focus and you can see the horizontals, are darker than the flash showed. This camera loves to show greens too.

Those pole holders are on their last legs. The poles are screwed on. Some tabs even missing.

 A zinc based rust inhibitor is the black, the brown is the stuff that "never sleeps".

 

Another late photo. The MTH crossbucks wont stay here. Its just easier to mess with here. 

 

  More unusual scrounges: The shelf bracket for an elevation beam(2 bolted together, grips the two Lionel groves). The butane tanks, are butane tanks....

  A fat plastic couch leg for a base, and a large lanolin "hand cleaner" container wrapped in white paper make up the big tank.

 

 

 Do you like the rusty track? I could photograph a bunch of that too

 

I love my junk.

 

I knew I was interested in this room for a good reason.

 Very nice, if you don't mind my saying so

 

Had a busy weekend, decided to get off my butt and finish off a little nook on my layout.

I took some notes on "Leaving Tracks" prior posts regarding his waterfall build and decided to combine his technique using hotglue and and a technique I used previously involving silicon....gotta say I like Alan's hot glue technique!  Combined with the silicon, it gave a nice result.  I also used broken ceiling tiles to create the mountain walls......the wet look of the lake was also a silicon smear and hit rapidedly with a plastic spoon to get the wave-like chop!

 Hope you enjoy.

-Pete

 

 

 

The bridge in from of the waterfall looks odd to me. Looks like roadbed suspended in the air?

What can I say, my o scale engineers said it could be done and I took them at their word!

 

Seriously, though, its a work in progress, Not sure if I wanted to clutter the waterfall scene with a wooden beam style bridge....guess I took a little poetic license.

 

-Pete

Yes, the bridge is a bit of a magic carpet ride. Equally interesting is the church to the left. Only the most devout could attend. Not certain what the groom's intensions are, perhaps he going fling the bride over the edge into the river below.

 

 

I enjoy your layout, Pete. Thanks for the updates. BTW, go Irish.

Your waterfall looks nice.  Don't pay any attention to the critics.  All you have to do is like what you made.  I don't know where they get off criticizing someone elses work.