What did you do on your layout today?

A club member gave me about three pounds of white aquarium gravel. I used it for ballast in my train yard. I'm not done yet. I have to go to Petsmart to get some more. Tomorrow I'm going to clean it all up.

Hi guys! Been a while since I posted over here, was trying to maintain a low profile by only doing my monthly updates on the layout. Been keeping busy though.

The track is going down at Roseville. The plan is just a big reverse loop with half a dozen industrial spurs.

I'm about 2/3 of the way around the loop.

The straight leg of the near switch goes to close the loop. The other switch goes to a couple tracks in an oil loading facility.

The other thing I've been working on is fascia. Now that Matt is back with me and working on the manual switch throws, I have to stay ahead of him with the fascia. This little chunk will just have one switch.

I put in 16' to get over to a couple more switches and wrap the end of the first peninsula.

It really makes it look finished.

I'm still a few feet short of where Matt needs to work, but there's enough ready to keep him busy on his next visit.

Looking good Elliot!  I'm glad Matt is helping you along!

Elliot your doing a wonderful job with your layout! Its amazing on how large it is, I would get lost in there.

This morning after breakfast I put a second coat of paint on the frame for the control panel. Have to run some errands but when I get home I'll take it to the attic and see if the frame fits. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one............Paul

paul 2 posted:

This morning after breakfast I put a second coat of paint on the frame for the control panel. Have to run some errands but when I get home I'll take it to the attic and see if the frame fits. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one............Paul

I'll keep my fingers crossed too, Paul!  You have a good plan!

I made a clothes line for the farm house, after seeing some 1930s photos of farms and realizing it needed one. I had a woman milking cow figure that'll work great once I make a clothes basket for her. Tonight, I'll print out a 30s quilt design onto paper in scale, fold it in half and hang it up there.

It has been a productive couple of weeks since the weather outside has been either too hot or too wet.  Finished ballasting my trolly line and added a passenger loading platform, built an extension to my country station platform, added and painted some more landscape rock features and constructed 10 more dwarf signals to indicate switch position.  Soon I will need to begin adding some greenery.  

Unfortunately, I have neglected cleanup and organization - I dislike this part of the hobby!

Dave

Lee, I think the detail you put into your layout is above and beyond what I might ever get around to. But when the time comes I will be going back over your layout for inspiration!

DARLANDER, you have a great looking layout going there, the rocks look great and I like the addition to the station. Your dwarf signals are wonderful! Do you buy the heads or just the faceplates?

mike g. posted:

Lee, I think the detail you put into your layout is above and beyond what I might ever get around to. But when the time comes I will be going back over your layout for inspiration!

DARLANDER, you have a great looking layout going there, the rocks look great and I like the addition to the station. Your dwarf signals are wonderful! Do you buy the heads or just the faceplates?

Thanks Mike for your kind words.  I bought the faceplates on eBay.  They are cheap and came with the LEDs.  Check out my post: 6/30/16, page 221 for more info on how I constructed the dwarf signals.  I did another post on 4/23/16,  page 206 that gives additional detail.   check out: JTD23 10 Sets Target Faces with LEDs for railway signals O scale on the internet.  

Dave

darlander posted:

It has been a productive couple of weeks ... added and painted some more landscape rock features and ...

Dave

That's some really good looking rock-face, right there, Dave. Congratulations on your success with it. You make me eager for more.

FrankM.

mike g. posted:

Lee, I think the detail you put into your layout is above and beyond what I might ever get around to. But when the time comes I will be going back over your layout for inspiration!

Thanks, Mike. I really appreciate your support and kind words!

BTW, did you notice the 'family member in service' blue star flag in the window of the farm house? Check out that first photo again. Also, I'm going to be lightly weathering that (scratchbuilt) farm house soon as it just looks too clean to me...

I didn't notice it before, but very nice touch!

After getting back home and cutting the grass finally I got the control panel to the attic. Set it in place and Impressed myself because I was pretty well spot on with my measurements. Mark, I had to sit down after this one LOL. Anyways now that that is done I have to get to the Depot to get a long hinge for the back and some anchor plates to screw the panel down to the table. It looks longer then the table but I made the table top wider then the frame it is on. Also I tapered it. 4 1/2 inches back 3 1/2 inches in the front. A few pics.....Paul

Paul,

Fits like a glove!!

Almost does fit like a glove Mark. So with that project in limbo till I get the necessary hardware to secure it I went back down to the basement to clean up my mess from making that up. While down there I decided to try some track work, nothing definite. I took the Menards power plant and ran some track into it. I had my AC & Y hoppers down there. Wanted to sort of see how two bay hoppers would look. I have coal loads for them somewhere. This is not where the power plant will end up. I want to be able to camouflage one end with maybe warehouse flats or a building associated with power plant so I can push loaded hoppers in and down the table a ways to pull them out. Pic of the area...................Paul

p51 posted:

I made a clothes line for the farm house, after seeing some 1930s photos of farms and realizing it needed one. I had a woman milking cow figure that'll work great once I make a clothes basket for her. Tonight, I'll print out a 30s quilt design onto paper in scale, fold it in half and hang it up there.

 

Hey Lee, Google "Ellen Culhane crazy quilt" . The wife of Con Culhane has a quilt preserved in a museum. She bought that 1st locomotive of his, sort of a win win, no?  After his death she sort of vanished. Speculation is she headed west to Colorado or somewhere mid west, or north west.

I came across plans for and early playground at a school too. All wood, tetter- totter, merri- go round, and swing set.  Just a thought, I know your shooting for local accuracy as well as era. It would likely be old even then, but even I got a few splinters in my butt before ,lol.

 I missed the bit on weathering Lee, wouldn't pink be a fifties color? I.e. new paint? The roof and chimney do look a little too new. A contrast of new and old is very proto I'd think.

Edit: 30s-50s color.

Adriatic posted:

 I missed the bit on weathering Lee, wouldn't pink be a fifties color? I.e. new paint? The roof and chimney do look a little too new. A contrast of new and old is very proto I'd think.

The color of houses in that part of the country was (and in some places, still is) uniformly white. That said, a peach-ish color was also used to some small degree (as was alight yellow), I remember seeing badly faded houses in that area in that color that hadn't been painted in many years, when I was a kid going up there.

The Ensor farm house (yes, that's a real name, and a common one up there at the time, my Uncle married an Ensor gal right after WW2) is right next to a gas station that is already white and frankly, I wanted some other color than white and the Pullman Green/red of the ET&WNC company structures.

I haven't gotten to weathering but mostly it'll be on the roof as the Ensor farm is handled by women in 1943, and they keep a clean, prideful home. They aren't about the let the places they can reach look shabby if they can help it!

As for swings and such, nobody up there could afford such "store bought" frills during the depression. I'm going to put some trees around there eventually, and a board suspended by ropes is the limit to kid's toys you'll see. Not a chance are you going to see a tire swing, as gas/tire rationing is in effect and nobody's going to use a tire for something like that for now!

If you haven't already picked up on it, this layout is an extension of my driving interest in history. My goal is to have everything being historically accurate, or at least plausible, for 1943...

p51 posted:

I made a clothes line for the farm house, after seeing some 1930s photos of farms and realizing it needed one. I had a woman milking cow figure that'll work great once I make a clothes basket for her. Tonight, I'll print out a 30s quilt design onto paper in scale, fold it in half and hang it up there.

That's a real nice touch. Are you going to put some clothes on it?

suzukovich posted:

That's a real nice touch. Are you going to put some clothes on it?

Some socks, maybe, but a quilt for sure. I've already found some good 30s designs online I can print out to make one.

I'm going to make a basket for the old woman figure to show her getting ready to hang the rest.

BTW, I have some mailboxes done and they're going in soon...

suzukovich posted:

This week I realigned the streetlights and extended my sons track on the layout and in the proccess  I was able to increase the deep snow effect. This morning I weathered the track with snow so it will blend in with everything else. Then ran a couple of cars  to give it the driving in snow look on the street. The more my son runs his cars, the ruts will blend in over time. 

Before

Thanks for the likes.   The more I looked at it. I didn't like how it turned out.. So I spent the last two days painting the slot and adjoining sides an off white to blend it in better.  I think it looks better now. Have one section left, then apply a new coat of snow, and think that should do it. 

After.

Nothing on the layout but spent the last two days watching and photographing the visiting warbirds. Today there were 4. Took almost 500 photos, on my feet 7 hours both days. Loved it , pooped and enough for awhile but  I found out there is a LOT of interest among the war bird fan club for model trains, lots of Lionel fans. It was heart warming.

Over the past couple weeks I've made progress in turning the semi-finished basement room (about 40% of the basement) from dingy ex-kids play area (from previous owners) to a relaxing grown-ups area. The old carpet came up easily and the astro-turf wasn't much harder, though the adhesive from the turf is a bear.  After chemicals failed miserably, I elected to go with the heat gun & scraper.  It works pretty well, though it will be slow going.  Got the walls primed & painted, and will do the same w/the floor once some residual rusty carpet nails are Dremmelled, cracks filled & sanded, & the adhesive's up. 

I also think I'm getting close to a final version of my layout plans.  Atlas track with Ross (and a few Atlas) switches.  Minimum curve O-72 on the mains & sidings, with some O-52 switches in the industrial areas.  It's designed to be expanded in stages, first becoming an around-the-room mainline, then tunneling through the interior wall and into the other half of the basement.  There will be a 40" TV on the wall at the bottom above the small yard (hopefully a coal mine).  The door to the room is in the lower right corner of the picture. However, I'll likely need to put an addition onto the house before the wife will give up her half of the space.  Right now I'm hoping I can sell the invading industrial sidings to her as shelving that my trains just happen to run on top of....  The colored blocks in the open space represent pieces of her furniture. 

All layout building will have to wait, though, as first the upstairs guest room must be turned into nursery.  My wife and I are expecting our first (a little girl) in January. 

suzukovich posted:

suzukovich posted:

This week I realigned the streetlights and extended my sons track on the layout and in the proccess  I was able to increase the deep snow effect. This morning I weathered the track with snow so it will blend in with everything else. Then ran a couple of cars  to give it the driving in snow look on the street. The more my son runs his cars, the ruts will blend in over time. 

Before

Thanks for the likes.   The more I looked at it. I didn't like how it turned out.. So I spent the last two days painting the slot and adjoining sides an off white to blend it in better.  I think it looks better now. Have one section left, then apply a new coat of snow, and think that should do it. 

After.

 

I think it looks great, reminds me of when I would be out at night plowing snow for 12 hours, then 12 hours off and back at it again. Very realistic!

Fridge56Vet posted:

Over the past couple weeks I've made progress in turning the semi-finished basement room (about 40% of the basement) from dingy ex-kids play area (from previous owners) to a relaxing grown-ups area. The old carpet came up easily and the astro-turf wasn't much harder, though the adhesive from the turf is a bear.  After chemicals failed miserably, I elected to go with the heat gun & scraper.  It works pretty well, though it will be slow going.  Got the walls primed & painted, and will do the same w/the floor once some residual rusty carpet nails are Dremmelled, cracks filled & sanded, & the adhesive's up. 

I also think I'm getting close to a final version of my layout plans.  Atlas track with Ross (and a few Atlas) switches.  Minimum curve O-72 on the mains & sidings, with some O-52 switches in the industrial areas.  It's designed to be expanded in stages, first becoming an around-the-room mainline, then tunneling through the interior wall and into the other half of the basement.  There will be a 40" TV on the wall at the bottom above the small yard (hopefully a coal mine).  The door to the room is in the lower right corner of the picture. However, I'll likely need to put an addition onto the house before the wife will give up her half of the space.  Right now I'm hoping I can sell the invading industrial sidings to her as shelving that my trains just happen to run on top of....  The colored blocks in the open space represent pieces of her furniture. 

All layout building will have to wait, though, as first the upstairs guest room must be turned into nursery.  My wife and I are expecting our first (a little girl) in January. 

Great start with the basement, Looks like a wonderful layout for the room size. Congrats on the baby coming! Take every second in that you can, cause they grow up so darn fast! Next thing you know your a grandpa! LOL

mike g. posted:

suzukovich posted:

suzukovich posted:

This week I realigned the streetlights and extended my sons track on the layout and in the proccess  I was able to increase the deep snow effect. This morning I weathered the track with snow so it will blend in with everything else. Then ran a couple of cars  to give it the driving in snow look on the street. The more my son runs his cars, the ruts will blend in over time. 

Before

Thanks for the likes.   The more I looked at it. I didn't like how it turned out.. So I spent the last two days painting the slot and adjoining sides an off white to blend it in better.  I think it looks better now. Have one section left, then apply a new coat of snow, and think that should do it. 

After.

 

I think it looks great, reminds me of when I would be out at night plowing snow for 12 hours, then 12 hours off and back at it again. Very realistic!

It reminds me of learning how to drift, rather than removing them.

I started on a remote S turn in the winter. By summer I didn't need ice.

No e-brake, just V8 HP, and a set of brass ones. Cold brass

It does look great.

I put 1930s Appalachian quilts on the clothesline at the Ensor farm, printed in scale onto paper. They even weighed down the lines like they would in real life.

p51 posted:

I put 1930s Appalachian quilts on the clothesline at the Ensor farm, printed in scale onto paper. They even weighed down the lines like they would in real life.

I really like the detail and the historic perspective of your layout.   Great work!

Dave

darlander posted:

p51 posted:

I really like the detail and the historic perspective of your layout.   Great work!

Thanks, Dave. I don't think a day goes by where I don't go into the layout room and take a good look at everything, wondering what I could add to make it more representation of the Blue Ridge region during WW2...

The layout is as much a representation of my interest in history as it is my interest in trains. Maybe more so.

I don't see a star flag in the window ??    Saw a nice P51 yesterday too.

jim pastorius posted:

I don't see a star flag in the window ??

Look again. It's in the window to the right of the front door, in the lower right pane.

Thanks, I missed it. People today don't realize how important that little flag in the window was. When we went anywhere you always looked at the widows for a flag. Multiple stars and a gold star always brought forth comments.

I started out today getting the hardware I needed to fasten down the control panel and run a full width hinge across the back. I was all set to start and found I forgot to get the L shape fasteners to hold it down to the table top. So I made a second run to the Depot. Everything got pushed back today so tomorrow I will start in early on it...........Paul

Love the detail! Oh and I see the Star flag!

Ran trains a bit.  Here are a few photos.

2 years to the day since the first train all the way around the layout...

p51 posted:

2 years to the day since the first train all the way around the layout...

P51 - Congratulations!!  I hope champagne was served!! LOL

A few pics.

Nice layout. I am looking forward to the write up. hope they don't take too long.