What did you do on your layout today?

3 days worth of shelf work, they will become the table legs. They came out of a train shop during a remodel and have been sitting in a basement unused for 30 years. So I shortened the base, cleaning up dry rotted bottom edge, added missing wood bracing on top, cleaned, sanded, and gave them their first coat of paint in 40+? years. Looking good so far, 2-3 more days Ill be laying track!

I am waiting for some more track to come in from JD'S trains/Am hobbies. Some how I can't find 3 or 4 pices of O-72 track  I probably find them after I receive them in the mail. So I ordered them yesterday. So now that I am waiting I need to figure out what I need to extend the back of my yard that extends in the back right corner of my garage. I cleaned that area up last night and finally got my truck parked in the garage in almost 4 years.

Scot, I know how you feel.  I needed one piece of O84 and had to go to a high priced hobby store to buy it.  After I completed the loop I found another box that had about 12 O84 curves in it.

I bought another locomotive last night from a seller on that most infamous of auction sites--Lionel Heisler, new in box.  

I'm becoming a bit of a sucker for geared motive power.

A good day at the G&O...received our new 10' shade...installed the block power switches for the G Line yard...corrected a small dip in the track...continued progress on securing the ballast on the outside loop where it can come in contact with visitors...secured three of the yard sidings and the turnouts at each end of the yard...

We have a new track cleaning car and engine to pull it...

Things are looking good...

I didn't have any set agenda for Patrick today, but there was no lack of activity. For the first part of the afternoon, I turned him loose on the puttying and sanding of the backdrops.



It might be a little while before we get around to painting these sections, but they are ready.



This shot is a little fuzzy, but Patrick cleared out the aisle under the the first peninsula, then cut scrap carpet and pad. This will help when the time comes to power this section of the layout and build the new hidden yard on the left.



While he was working on that stuff, I was moving boxes that were stored on the upper right. Then we removed the temporary decking.



All of that lead to me extending the lower deck lighting around to middle peninsula. This will allow us to finish the decking and backdrops on this section.

We also found time to prep the first section of track on the upper level. I hope to get it secured, along with a switch, in the next few days. From there, 30+ feet of double track mainline, straight down the backdrop.

I am still working on my planning stages. I have the space now and am making some decisions moving forward. I will know more on Friday after I have a chance to visit the Hobby Shop to look over some of the O, On30, HO scale engines.

paint.....more paint....no sleep.....green paint....one more coat to go....tomorrow.

Unpacked our new two-stall engine house from Crescent Locomotive Works.

A very good build done with talent.

It's going to work out very well as the "Hog Pen" for the jacks ... e.g., the Little Joe and GN W-1 will be right at home in it.

Used a Ross 11 degree wye as the lead turnout ... worked out great!

Thanks for a super job David!

A value product for sure.

Thanks Chris. Actually, the conduit is for house current to run the layout lights. It will also provide a source of earth ground for TMCC. Romex would have worked, but then there's a risk of accidentally piercing or cutting it. It's kind of fun working with conduit. It's like sectional track in a way.

The low voltage layout wiring will be bundled using tie wraps, and hung from the bench work cross members. It should be pretty neat and tidy, but far more flexible than pipe.

As for scenery, I told Patrick the other day, that it will probably be 2015 before we get going on that. All of the track needs to be down and working well first. When we do get going on it, it will be rather minimalistic in nature because of all the track I'm cramming in. Ballast, weeds and trees, a few 3D structures, and a lot of flats pretty much sums up the scenery.

I am at work now.......All I can do from here is long for it and dream about it!

Mike Maurice

Ballasting track, and loving how it looks.

For it, not on it, today floated in the two creosote tank cars (from an unlikely source

deep in Colorado narrow gauge country) I needed to supply my previously posted creosote plant, an MTH Kopper's, and a Gulf States tank car.  Don't think Lionel or

anybody else made creosote tank cars.  Still needed for this one structure complex,

and not found locally, is a section of MTH Scaletrax....

Hello everyone. Today I received the package from JD's trains / AM Hobbies.So now I have all the track that I need so I can do all the tweeking starting in the garage. And I need to extend it in the rear of the garage so I need to do some more building of the bench work.

Mountain building, tree planting. 

Installed fascia and skirting along part of the layout.  Sure changes the look of things.  Gives it a more finished look even though I am a long way from being done.  (Also ran some trains)

Touched up paint, trimmed wood edges at mounts, and attached legs. 1-3 more runners under the plywood, and I'm done. I needed 4-12 more long screws or Id be done now. Instead of going to the store for more today, I opted to build a water tower out of scrap wood from a relatives dollhouse building hobby. The upright "barrel planks" were already glued to thin book leather, so the "planks" formed the tank easily. The tower itself just needs a little glue on each joint, and some on the "peg" to keep them from wiggling out. I used finishing nails as pegs, pushed firmly into pre-drilled holes, placement is designed to lock the joints of the basic cube in place. There are only two joints glued, but frame is holding 5lbs clamp weight now as some glue is drying on the decking

No work getting done on the layout for me this week as I am up north on vacation all week. 

I do plan to do some photography this week and will head to Clare to shoot the Great Lakes Central by the old Clare Union Station.  

Added some tele poles, did some scenery and ran a yard switcher.

Back from vacation and had a few days before school started so got a few items off the checklist.  3 subway platforms painted and put in.  Also an elevated section which will go above 1 of the cities.

We had a little mix up today. I thought Patrick and I had picked Tuesday for him to come over. He thought it was supposed to be Wednesday. Oops.

Since I had the day blocked out, and no Patrick, I started laying track on the upper level. I had the goal in mind, of getting enough track down to move all the engines that were parked on the lower level, across the aisle. I managed to secure 15' of double track. While I was at it, I dusted all of the engines.

The area is now clear, so when Patrick comes over next Tuesday we can get most of the decking done.

Purchased a part of my new Bearing Works in HO off the Bay. I will post photos when they go down into the industrial area. It is not complete and wont be for some time.

I finished the last building in my uptown area, and with that, all the buildings in my town - downtown, uptown, and the auto park area, is complete. 

All of my latest layout progress can be seen in my most recent layout update video. Enjoy!

Jason

Jason

From one North East Ohioan to another nice update.  Especially like the wooden trestle bridge.

Today my son and I applied DryLock to the walls of the layout room. Not real exciting....but the first step. Goal to be running some trains by Spring!

Took 3 days off for Detroit's Woodward cruise, always a blast. Layouts basic painting was done, so yesterday I added a set of folding legs to the top. Just in case I need the room, I can remove the scenery, and elevated line. Then this will actually fold flat and lean against a wall, and the base shelves will hold it vertical. I laid the Super O, O, and 0-27 down into their temporary positions. Stopped there, got my American Flyer 18-B transformer out, and ran my K-line GG1 and fleet of modernism cars on the Super O, and on the O my 2037 pulling some C&O passenger cars. The two outer loops are working well. Tomorrow eve Ill take care of fitting the inner and elevated loops, foam this weekend....Now where's that camera!...  

No work today, but my hockey season ticket partners came over to draft for the upcoming Wild season. Some of them were here last January, before Patrick really got started. And some of them had never been here before.

Just wait til next year.

Big Boy, your layout looks amazing, I'd love to see it sometime. Im right down the road in Mahtomedi

Thanks Matt. I had no idea you live that close.  Drop me an email, and we can set up a time. Wanna help?

Began a long process of creating a rail yard using FasTrack.  A 9-minute video explains the process I'm using.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh4k2P8AYzM

   Bob Anderson

Chris, there are rules to be observed when using thin wall metal conduit, AKA EMT  (Electrical Metal Tubing). One thing you have to do is de-burr the ends after cutting it, especially on the inside. This helps to prevent nicking the wire's insulation. You will need a bender to do corners. The conduit itself is fairly cheap at $1.89 for a 10' stick. When you add in the boxes and fittings, it's still not super expensive.

I learned to work with EMT 30 years ago, in of all places, an HO train club in Denver.

Got in just what I did not need, another feed mill kit to bash into a grain elevator.

This may be the last different one out there. (nope, there is one more elevator)  Just a couple of known O scale structure kits left on my wish list now...... luckily, none have been or should be wildly expensive, just hard to find.  When it comes to expensive, those, I scratch build.

Guess what I found......my camera, Woodward is being cruised well before the "official" event, each night of the event traffic is diverted away from Woodward at about 10pm, but its hours before the majority actually pack up and go home. We "gave up" at 2:30am on Fri., about 3am sat.  Some years the "fun police" are more stringent than others. Ive done 4 all nighters over the years.  Politics, more than the actual actions of most people fuel these clearing policies, the main stretch runs into the "snooty" part of town so it depends on which "high rollers" were "offended" by the exhaust of some "common folk" the year before. 9mile to 15mile is were you want to be, enter from East or West via side roads, last year it took my novice pal about 3 hours to travel about 5 miles on Woodward during peak hours. Im always call this intersection HQ, park my ride on Woodward for viewing and ride a small bike.

Now, the layout progress (and special thanks to Christopher2035 for unknowingly making me realize all I needed was green paint for a more useful setup)

Its far from complete. In fact what is here, is here by chance. Its the stuff that never got picked up from "floor testing" of the track, or from my living room "fiddling" sessions, but I feel good about things so far. After 40+ years of running floor layouts, only helping on the layouts of a few others during my life, (and doing one so-so shelf layout), this has been a "life goal" now close to completion.

Thanks to everyone here, for just being here, the motivation you've provided me is undeniable.   

Thanks to some help on the electrical forum I was able to solve my led problem and have been able to move forward with subway station lighting.  Next up walls and real supports.

I ran trains for the 1st time in a week.  I was up north enjoying the beautiful Michigan weather we were having and got home late last night.  After work today my son asked me to run some trains and we did.  1st started with my Legacy Ten Wheeler pulling a few passenger cars then to a short local of my Atals O 0-6-0 pulling 2 covered hoppers to the mill.  

I also received my Ross 3 way switch in the mail and will start on my small yard to service the car ferry as soon as my order of gargraves to O27 pins come in so I can connect the switch to my Fastrack.