What did you do on your layout today?

p51 posted:

I started last night on scenery forms with those pink foam sheets. I got one of those hot wire cutters from Woodland Scenic and the thing is great (knives don’t work well on foam at all, I found). But after messing around with it, I realized I needed to change my concept of terrain forms substantially. I was going to put entire sheets into place and sculpt through them but it just didn’t work that way. I had put contours into the fascia to show lightly undulating terrain. I eventually just cut foam sheets for a few inches from the edges and eased them down into the flat areas of plywood. I’ll also make numerous, small bumps and pile-shaped forms to randomly place here and there so it doesn’t obviously look totally flat. Along the back corners, the scenery will rise up right at the edge next to the walls and I think it’ll work okay. It’s hard, of course, to imagine it all as it just looks like wood and pink foam right now. I bet it’ll look decent with ground foam and static grass in place. All I know is once I get the forms done and in place, I’ll paint over everything with a color similar to the soil, then start with the ‘grass’, ‘rocks’ and trees. But once the shapes are in place, I’d think the rest should go pretty quickly. My goal is to have scenery looking halfway decent by the time spring officially arrives on March 20.

you got a lot of nerve posting on the ogr!

  when all you do is bash the ogr forum on other forum!!!

mike g. posted:

Have you called and talked to the owner at Azatrax? When I was having problems with my reversing loop in my 2 rail he helped me out talked me threw some problems, and even sent me a new board.

the bad boards were not from Azatrax . but it looks like the azatrax boards will do what I want them to do. they are a lot more expensive than the ones I was buying but if they work then it's worth it the other ones average 2 boards bad per 5 boards for $56  where as the 3 for $99 of the Azatrax boards I bought 6 boards

     I went on a mission Friday to find more fork crimp connectors for the wiring on the train layout. I had previously bought an assortment of connectors in a tray from Harbor Freight and I have used them up and needed a lot more. I was not going to spend $10.00 a tray and get 5 trays to get what I needed.  I went to the local hardware store and the ones they had were to wide I need ones for a #4 screw. Off to Gateway Fasteners when I get there they are no longer at that location. Next door is Fasten All so I go inside and they don't have any but they tell me where Gateway Fasteners moved to. Off to Plum industrial park no luck Gateway Fasteners has moved again and no one knows where they moved to. Off to Lowes in Monroeville but they don't have any. Off to Keller Hardware in Turtle Creek where I used to live and they don't have any. Off to True Value up on the hill and they don't have any. I figure that I have gone this far I'll go to Sun Ray Electric Supply when I get there they tell me they have some but I can't buy them because they special order them in for the mill in Braddock. Just for the fun of it the guy looks up the price and he tells me they are $64.00 for 100 I said that they were a little to rich for my blood. He asked if I had been to Barno Electronics in Little Boston and I told him I had never heard of the place. He calls them up and they have them.  YES!!!!!!! He tells me how to get there so now it is 4:15 and they close at 4:45 I make it there in no time. When I go in he puts a round loop connecter on the counter and said is this what you are looking for? No sir it is not but on the wall is a display of connectors and I tell him that this one here is the one I need. He sais let me go take a look he comes out with a box blows the dust off it and opens up a box that has to be from the 50s. Is that what you are looking for?  YES IT IS WOO HOO!!!!! He sais the only problem is the 2 boxes he has are already opened. We each take a box and start counting and end up with179 Great I will take them. He rings me up and sais that will be$21.00 I hand him my bank card and he sais sorry only cash or check. I don't have any money on me so I ask where is the nearest ATM he sais the bank is down the road. Now the time is 4:40 he is closing in 5 min. I ask if he is open on Saturday and he sais no I asked him if he would stay open until I could get back and he said yes. Off to the bank now it is snowing pretty good and I am in a wheelchair and when I get to the bank the ATM is outside. I go over get in line and I had 3 guys just walk in front of me. A woman walks up to me and asks if I am in line I told her no I just like to come to banks in snow storms to watch people use an ATM. Finely got my money went back got the connectors gave the man an extra few dollars for staying open late. AS long as they are in business I will be going back to get whatever I need from them. Hope everyone does not mind a little step into my life and what I go through to get stuff for the train layout. Saturday Monster Trucks in Pittsburgh and Sunday back to soldering crimp connectors to the wires. Thank you and take care. Choo Choo Kenny

I got my paint yesterday so there was no more procrastinating.  So this morning I got the area behind the backdrop painted. Home Depot did a good job of matching considering all I had was this very small piece of the sky color. I may add a few clouds later on seeing it is such a big area of blue. Couple of pics...........Paul

Looking good !

All I have done for several days is check Hobby Lobby again to see if there are any artificial fruit I can make a caboose out of for the pickle train.  Nope.  They have a bid selection of fruit and veggies but tomatoes are not big enough, and if they were, would have too much overhang.  I will have to find some oddball caboose photo  to scratch-build, and paint it red, since all my cabooses normally are yellow.

I started adding grass to my traditional layout, we will see how it ends

Mainline track laying culminated in this circular gradient change.  The inner circle is again a minimum of 072, with barely enough room to squeeze in the other 2 lines.  Turnouts were added for a spur up top ( under the General's tender ) and a small siding below.  These can be added later, after I give my wallet a bit of a breather. 

Now I can run trains relatively unattended as I work on other aspects of the layout.  Already I have spotted a couple of minor issues with roadbed that need attention. 

Time to reflect on on what has been accomplished as the one year mark draws near.

Bruce

built some shelves for Uncle Jim's trains. was doing good until the cordless drill died. need to pick up some track and some stain. also some shelves for the train mags( O Gauge RR on top of course!)

I have a lot of projects going I have been jumping around to much I think. Buildings half done, my station is still unfinished, bridge scenery unfinished, signals not working right, transfer table in and working but the tracks off of it are not. so today I decided to start working on some of the stuff not finished. so I wired up the transfer table lines and mounted the track and then of course tested it all out. works good. also got another shipment in today the controllers for the signals. also won a bid for another Santa Fe aluminum hopper that makes my 4th also picked up a switch tower for Pana Il. to go along with the theme of my layout It's Union pacific and like I have said most things on my layout have something to do with my life Pana Il. when I was a kid I use to play baseball well I was the catcher for the all star team and we played our games in pana Il. right across from the pool.

Your Layout is looking great Let me know how the new boards work out and where you got them from. I can't wait to start my new one I hope this summer. It's been awhile with trains running. You can only do so much fixing changing wheels, displaying them, one really needs some run time! LOL

Cleaning off the track - just with an old (clean) cloth and 'elbow grease'; then running Ivor around his line. 

I stumbled upon some  toy train videos on the internet  which I bookmarked and then watched most of them. Some were from CTT and others of clubs etc. All O gauge. I really haven't seen many other O gauge layouts  and a few video clips here on the forum.  It was interesting to see the wide variety  of layouts out there.  A lot of diesel  which I don't like as well as steam. The only comment I will make is the poor quality of a lot of the sound. I know part of that is the recording camera but the constant hum or grind of the diesels I find annoying.  I have experienced this at train shows watching the layouts. Watching the smoke was fun especially one steamer that was putting out billowing clouds. Another thing that was important was speed. The first one was agonizingly slow-all the trains !! , and, of course some were way too fast. I did notice that when the speed was "right on" it made the video more fun to watch. I have been thinking of buying some and wanted to see what is out there.

Its been a busy few weeks. Took delivery of my Atlas track and switches. This past weekend got the switches wired to the AIU and got the track secured. Next is the ballast. 

Looks like guys could use some really nice Signals on your Layout.

Please go to  Integrated Signals systems .com  

Good Luck, John

In the process of painting up some Alco FAs and FB and got back to my CNR passenger scheme B unit test bed re-painted from Rio Grande. It may work out okay (3rd time lucky?!) and then to start on the A units.

spent some more time on the transfer table area.

Another thing I did have an accident yesterday. while working on the layout running the track cleaning car I heard a big thud yep the sd90 fell to the floor what happened was the track cleaning car going over a switch switched the switch with the cleaning rollers so front trucks were going one way second trucks the other and after going so far it pulled the engine off of the layout to the floor. it was the switch going to the bridge so there was no room to hold the engine just let it fall. it's the switch to the right . this was before the wood was added under the track.
 attached are some photo's of the town I grew up in. Ameri-towne building work great for this

Once again, Very nice layout, sorry to hear about your mishap! Side question, what kind of track are you using?

mike g. posted:

Once again, Very nice layout, sorry to hear about your mishap! Side question, what kind of track are you using?

Fastrack the engine after falling 50+ inches made a loud thud but 2 handrails came off but went back on no problem I got very lucky

Thanks for the information! And yes very lucky for a fall from that height!

Mud dried while I was in Arkansas.  Sprayed then once dry, i laid down play sand, fine turf, and blended turf. Started on touching up the rocks.

After a 2-year hiatus due to health issues, I finally got back to the Ceiling Central RR this weekend, and finished the missing shelves.  I also laid cork and two tracks about 2/3 the way around the layout.  Well, I shouldn't say finished shelves.  I still want to do something in the corners and make some cosmetic improvements.

Nothing makes better looking dirt except real dirt (sand).

a few more details. rusty rail on the rails granddaughter got to run Thomas tonight she did nothing but play with him on the table and made a few laps with him . if you look the track has some dents in it many years ago something fell over on the track and bent the rails the reason I used it was I had to cut the track for the turn table so it wasn't a big deal to cut this piece of track. works fine just a little bumpy.

No matter what, its always a great time when you can spend it with the grandkids!

agreed

Just going through books of shortline cabooses, such as those in the back of "Mixed Train Daily", looking for an oddball to kitbash or scratch build. I gave up on finding an artificial vegetable that would work as a caboose body, except for a red pepper that I have already used as a water tank.

Just ran trains for the evening. Work session will start again tomorrow..........Paul

Back at the bank of transformers, I tied some cut off switches between the main power and the various control options.  Now I can toggle between Legacy, TPC, DCS or plain old conventional.  After hooking up DCS for the first time I spent tonight with my only MTH engine that has CC.  It's a P5a with PS2. Along with getting acquainted with all the DCS bells and whistles, I also tested how the 2 CC systems played together.  So far it appears everything is compatible but there really is a lot more I need to learn about both systems. 

Bruce

Mark, glad to read that you are well enough to resume construction of Ceiling Central RR; and, thanks for the photos.

Looking good Mark.  Keep us posted.

The trials and tribulations of saying what you are going to do and doing it. This morning I thought I would do the end walls in the attic. When I first did them I only painted the area on each end of the backdrops leaving white walls above them. Should of known when I tried to open the can of paint that after many years it may be rusted. Got the lid open but no good paint left. That ended that so with the paint I just bought I started working around the walls of the alcove. With luck Home depot can still make me a quart. Formula is still on the lid. So a short morning and a trip to the Depot is in order..............Paul

I tried to make some headway on the scenery forms over the past few days. I have most of the sections in the center of the room done, where most of the scenery forms need to be. The back corners will take a great deal of work, so I'm doing these slightly smaller ones first. I'll use caulk to secure them to the plywood and fascia, then paint all the ground in a color matching the dirt from the real location.

Pat Kn posted:

Looking good Mark.  Keep us posted.

Pingman posted:

Mark, glad to read that you are well enough to resume construction of Ceiling Central RR; and, thanks for the photos.

 

 Thank you Pat and Carl!  I will keep you posted!

p51 posted:

I tried to make some headway on the scenery forms over the past few days. ...

Hold-on there, Mr. P51; don't think you're getting by with just a few words. There is that excellent turntable bridge surface itself, complete with aged, 100-year-old-looking wooden planks, dirtier nearest and between the tracks, no less, and the visible, grimy seams and joints...Perfect. Who would want to change a thing? NObody. Real, real nice, Lee. (Plus, I just went to your website and saw its close-up there; it's even more authentic seen in-close.)

FrankM.

The Ceiling Central looks great, Mark. I'm glad you're feeling better and up to the task of completing it.

Country Joe posted:

The Ceiling Central looks great, Mark. I'm glad you're feeling better and up to the task of completing it.

Thank you Joe!  I could not continue due to a reoccurrence of carpal tunnel syndrome.  I had to go though a year of braces and treatments, before getting my second surgery on each hand in 20 years last winter.  I still have some issues but doesn't everyone who is 60.  LOL

Mark Boyce posted:

Country Joe posted:

The Ceiling Central looks great, Mark. I'm glad you're feeling better and up to the task of completing it.

Thank you Joe!  I could not continue due to a reoccurrence of carpal tunnel syndrome.  I had to go though a year of braces and treatments, before getting my second surgery on each hand in 20 years last winter.  I still have some issues but doesn't everyone who is 60.  LOL

I hear ya, Mark.   It seems the only thing golden about our golden years is the medical cost.  Actually, layout construction has helped me deal with the pain of fibromyalgia.  There are days when I over do it though.  It's sure great that we can also operate trains at ground level when our nose bleed layouts are inaccessible.

Moonson posted:

p51 posted:

I tried to make some headway on the scenery forms over the past few days. ...

Hold-on there, Mr. P51; don't think you're getting by with just a few words. There is that excellent turntable bridge surface itself, complete with aged, 100-year-old-looking wooden planks, dirtier nearest and between the tracks, no less, and the visible, grimy seams and joints...Perfect. Who would want to change a thing? NObody. Real, real nice, Lee. (Plus, I just went to your website and saw its close-up there; it's even more authentic seen in-close.)

FrankM.

Frank,

Thanks for the kind words. That's a Peco turntable, covered in coffee stirrers. I weathered them with inks, then put nail heads with a pen.

I then liberally used rust paints and powdered chalks, and a lot of floquil weathered black... I have been around a lot of RR yards over the years, so it was easy to know where to put the heaviest weathering.

-Lee