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I finally hung the backdrop today. It's 8'x2' vinyl and came with 8 clips to hang it but I lost them, so I used 3M doubled sided tape. The attic wall is sloped but it looks ok...good enough for me and my 3 year old grandson anyway.

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I found the panoramic picture on Wikipedia (free license to use) and had it printed on vinyl for $17.

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Wow, it's been almost a week and a half since I last went downstairs. Had a cold and just didn't feel like moving. Only spent an hour, moving things around, and planning the addition of the suspended ceiling. It needs to get done before some of the track gets laid.

 

Prior to getting sick, I did get some track down and painted 32' of backdrop blue, but I guess I never took any pics. I'll get some tomorrow. Patrick comes over Thursday.

Started to work on the Caterpillar dealership area. Finalized the placement of the MTH CAT Rental Building, installed a grass area for it to sit on, and un-boxed the Caterpillar equipment that will go inside the building and on the sales lot. They use more tie downs on these models than anything I have seen before. They have been in boxes for the past twelve years and have never been opened. A CAT sales/rental lot will be a very good use of them.

At York and Timonium I picked up several O scale structure kits, including one each from OGR and Korber.  I was going to just use a cellar pit as the remains of my ghost town station, but bought the OGR Flag Stop, and am kitbashing it horribly.  I found that it comes with two identical sets of walls that allow you to double the size of the building.. so that is done, and chunks have been sawed out of the "stone" to created a crumbling building, and a missing freight door opening.   One peaked end (can't think of the word) has crumbled, and windows, doors,  and roof are gone, which is good, as the kit's roof would only cover the smaller building....splintered platform, detailing, and paint will finish...signs for "Arroyo Dorado" are done, but will be somewhat

askew... trains don't stop there anymore...

Ballasted most of the track on my extension. Of course, I ran out of ballast about a foot before I reached the end of the track and the original mainline picks back up, which is fully ballasted and untouched. I glued everything down, will let it dry overnight, pick up some more ballast tomorrow and hopefully finish it and do a few touch ups. 

 

I will be making a trip up to Catoctin Mountain Trains on Saturday (www.cmtrains.com) to pick up some buildings and other things I need to work on it and keep me busy for a few more weeks. 

Another busy day with Patrick. We got a section of the upper deck reinforced, so now 2 of the 3 peninsulas are completed. We also hung 57' of backdrop, which tied together two previously finished sections for a total of 122' of continuous backdrop.

These first two shots are a little before and after.


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This curved section was installed today. Of the 3 tracks that go through the backdrop, the one on the right will be completely hidden. The other two will disappear under a bridge.

 

On the right side of the picture, the backdrop doesn't go all the way down to track level, because the scenery will go up to meet it.

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A little blue paint makes a big difference.


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The post will have a cement plant disguising it.

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It's kind of strange not being able to see across the room anymore.


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Patrick will be back on Monday. Let's see if I can get all of this painted before then.

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Clem,  that's alot of people!  Any kids there?  I always hope so because that keeps this all going!  we have one in my area tours and I hope to participate some day.......  when I have my final layout finished.  my office buddys told me I should have done this already, but my setup was seasonal!  Originally Posted by clem k:

Ran trains all day

 Well I made it finished putting the people and cars down 30 minutes before showtime. First day of Blissfield Railroad Days 144 visitors at my house, don't now how many at the other layouts in town. The shuttle tram worked pretty good getting people out to my place. Had an electrical glitch for the first two hours of operation, turned out to be the K- line TV camera car. Took it off and everything started working good again. Left it on a powered siding and no problem. Tomorrow another day 10:00 to 4:00. Met a lot of great people and a lot of happy kids.

Thanks for stopping by Locodan great to meet you and Donna

 

clem 

 

I love the streets that look like brick patterns.  do you have the source for these, or did you mold yourself.  they look great.  I wanted to model some old 12% grade streets that my grandmother lived at in Pittsburgh, I saw some sheets of plastic that would work well and could curve well to the hills, but just wondered what yours were made of.
thanks
Chris Originally Posted by trumptrain:

Here are some photos of the Westend of Patsburg and of the Free State Junction Railway under construction

Elevated trolly line under construction

Patsburg Westend

Patsburg Westend & Park

 

hey that is great.  I cant wait to start building bridges for my new layout this fall. what supplies did you use for the planking? nice straight strips!  I thought of ripping thin sheet on a table saw, but unless you have a very fine finish blade, it would get all chopped up.  Originally Posted by $oo Line:

I have it sealed with a red primer for now until I decide on color for the girder portion torn between black and a dark gray. here are pictures with it in place I need to make 2 new supports with a cutout so bridge will be in same spot then I can cut the tracks so it can be removed.

 

$oo

 

 

 

New Deck Girder Bridges 001

 

 

 

 

used the flash on camera this shot.

 

New Deck Girder Bridges 002

 

 

It's not the layout, but it's going on the layout..... Still working on the roundhouse. I have many, many, many hours in this thing already... sanding, priming, more sanding, spray paint, hand paint, glue, epoxy, clamp... repeat process!

 

 Hand paint the walls before assembly.

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3 different colors of red, tan, and gray for the back.

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Clamping the wall caps on after priming and painting with the spray can.

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The 7 stall kit with full extension took up the whole table

The Project

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Originally Posted by Chris D:
Actually Chris the brick pattern used for my streets are Dept 56.  They are ever so slightly textured and do look good for modeling older city streets.  This product comes in a 6 inch by about 3 foot rolls which is a perfect width for an old city street.  Dept 56 also sells cobble stone in the same size roll.  Thanks for noticing and checking out my photos of Patsburg Westend.  Happy Railroading and keep driving the spikes.
Cheers
Patrick W
I love the streets that look like brick patterns.  do you have the source for these, or did you mold yourself.  they look great.  I wanted to model some old 12% grade streets that my grandmother lived at in Pittsburgh, I saw some sheets of plastic that would work well and could curve well to the hills, but just wondered what yours were made of.
thanks
Chris Originally Posted by trumptrain:

Here are some photos of the Westend of Patsburg and of the Free State Junction Railway under construction

Elevated trolly line under construction

Patsburg Westend

Patsburg Westend & Park

 

I finally got around to opening up the old Reading Locomotive 8004 after burning out the smoke unit a couple months back. The smoke unit is a complet loss so now I get the opportunity to upgrade it. So that's what I'll be researching this weekend.

Too bad because burning out the smoke unit creates a marvelous visual effect it just doesn't last that long.

 

Went to Menards and picked up my third 5 lb box of 1-5/8" drywall screws since the first of the year. I guess that's one way of measuring progress.

 

In my world, trains know no season. After having skin cancer, the sun is not my friend, and warm weather has always made me wilt. I'm not overly fond of snow either. The basement is always perfect.

 

Nothing quite like turning on the baseball game and working on the railroad on a sunny, warm, Saturday afternoon.

With all the whining and name calling in the threads lately, rather than read all that junk I figured I should go work on something and have some fun.

I had installed EER cruise in 2 older Lionel scale SF and BNSF dash 8 locos a few years ago. Although they look great together I don't run them much and they're back in their boxes. My thought was why not take out the boards and install into older smaller scale TMCC steamers that I do love to run, an SP consolidation and ATSF Atlantic. Both had EOB but they've giving problems lately, very herky jerky. I run the steamers a lot on my little 4x11 pike. My Lionelmasters are still a little big really and larger diesels like the Dash 8's. The geeps and the like look better.

Got the EER's in stalled and what a difference. Lost the 4 chuff but whatever. The rivet counter machine gun fans can have it. I just want smooth running small scale locos to run. I picked theae sweet little locos about 10 years ago in an old antique store for dirt cheap. With the help of a brain transplant they're  better than new.

I'm a hoarder of sorts consequently I've accumulated about 30 yrs worth empty train boxes.  We I've had it with the clutter and borrowing on of Popeye's phrases "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more" I threw away well over 200 boxes this past weekend.  The only ones I saved were about 25 post war Lionel boxes.  My hoarding days are over.

Just finished the size doubled OGR Flagstop Station.....this could comprise the whole

ghost town, with the decrepit general store, but the U.S. Land Office/Assay Office is

well along, and the saloon has been started.  The Land Office is a BTS Small Store kit

acquired at Timonium on the York trip, and will be in better shape than the others..

the station's roof has fallen in over the baggage room, as has part of its wall, and

most doors and window glass are missing.  While I've said trains don't stop there

anymore, there will be a crude, hand operated semaphore to flag trains for ranchers

and die-hard miners in the area.

Just finished unpacking from "Spring into Spring" a first time ever train show conducted this past weekend at Clove Lakes Health Care and Rehabilitation Center on Staten Island with the Richmond County Model Railroad Club in association with the Center's Volunteer Department who were conducting a craft fair.

 

It was a first showing! Members were very accomodating and welcomed everyone a lot of stuff came off of my home layout including 2 sets of trains several hobos, trees and even a church!

 

I miss the articles on my layout and plan to be up and running tonight!

 

Mike Maurice

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