mike g. posted:That's great looking Mark! Now all you need is a tunnel and a big Helix and you can join the 2 together!
This is all I have for now. But its coming this summer. Atleast that is what momma says right now!
Yes, it could be done, Mike! One step at a time! LOL
Your collection looks nice. I'm glad you are going to get started soon. Get that in writing from Mama! LOL
Mark,
It's nice to know there are other 3-rail modelers nearby.
I was a forum member years ago when I lived in Baltimore, MD but I dropped out because I was focused on postwar collecting for a while. Now that I'm actively building a layout again, I was eager to jump back in. Glad to be back!
Joel,
I'm glad you are here. I had HO and N Scale trains since I was about 12, until 5 years ago when I moved to O gauge. I was looking for larger trains and bought a couple On30 engines and cars but sold them once I found 3-rail!
p51 posted:
Just placed a pack of these randomly on the layout. They're made for HO but seem big for that scale and look great in O. Little details extend to scenery, too: https://www.walthers.com/grass...g-42-yellow-each-1-4
Great scenery detail!
Dave
p51 posted:Thanks, Dave and everyone else who commented on that!
I downloaded a photo app, and was playing with some photos...
Great pictures Lee, looks like ones right out of a history book!
Mark Boyce posted:RSJB18 posted:Mark Boyce posted:Yesterday while taking breaks from winter leaf cleanup and getting the mower running, I laid out my GarGraves track on the floor in an approximation of how the plan flows. It is not exact, because I just laid pieces overlapping where there will be track cuts, and I did not bend any of the flex to shape. I used some 054 and 072 I had on hand to simulate the bent track. I also only have 4 of the 9 switches, so only one is in place. I also left the staging sidings out. Here are a couple of photos of how the track will fill the space. Not too bad. I think I can live with this as long as I make the layout high enough to get my increasingly arthritic body under and into the access hatches.
Sorry the room is so small I couldn't get a complete view. It was too windy or I would have opened the sliding glass door. I didn't want dried leaves and maple blossoms blowing in. I think you get the idea. You can see my plan on my topic that is listed in my signature line.
Looking good Mark. Bench work can't be far off.
Bob
Thank you, Bob! Yes, if it was still winter! LOL Maybe I will at least get everything together so I can build in the winter, if not before. I'm thinking of getting a miter saw. I don't know if I want to do all my cutting with my hand circular saw.
Mark- Invest in a good compound miter saw. You will not be disappointed. Other than long rip cuts, it will handle anything else you have to do.
As for me- I am actually hiring a landscaper to do my Spring clean up this year for the first time. The CEO's project is dragging on a bit and I can't spare a weekend to clean up the yard. Posting some pix soon.
Bob
mike g. posted:That's great looking Mark! Now all you need is a tunnel and a big Helix and you can join the 2 together!
Before you know it Mike you'll be posting bench work and layout pix.
Bob
RSJB18 posted:mike g. posted:That's great looking Mark! Now all you need is a tunnel and a big Helix and you can join the 2 together!
Before you know it Mike you'll be posting bench work and layout pix.
Bob
Bob, I don't know, doesn't seam like I can get a dry day! then in to weeks going to south Dakota to visit wifes parents.
Made significant progress on the CEO's project this weekend. I forgot how much fun insulating walls was
Also tested out my crossing signal controller. Not sure what is causing the double flash but I think I need to add a diode to the circuit.
RSJB18 posted:Made significant progress on the CEO's project this weekend. I forgot how much fun insulating walls was
Also tested out my crossing signal controller. Not sure what is causing the double flash but I think I need to add a diode to the circuit.
Look at that your on a roll, both the wall and the light controller looks wonderful! I am sure you will get the double flash figured out, right after mudding the wall!
mike g. posted:RSJB18 posted:Made significant progress on the CEO's project this weekend. I forgot how much fun insulating walls was
Also tested out my crossing signal controller. Not sure what is causing the double flash but I think I need to add a diode to the circuit.
Look at that your on a roll, both the wall and the light controller looks wonderful! I am sure you will get the double flash figured out, right after mudding the wall!
Thanks Mike- I'm doing a rail and batten wainscott on the walls. I placed the vertical joints in the sheetrock where a batten will be so I don't have to tape the joints other than a skim coat to seal the joint . The screw holes are a different story but they are easy.
Another good day of working on the railroad. I got all the plastering done. I was worried I would not have enough but I have a bit left over. Pictures show two tone plaster but that is because I had to go back and cover spots I missed. So now I'll let the plaster dry through the night and tomorrow mix up some colors to do the cliffs. Going to cover the streams with tape so when the coloring runs down the cliffs it won't color the stream beds. I want to color them different. I may not get to coloring tomorrow as I have a get together with trains guys for lunch and after that one of them invited us all over to see his layout. Pics for today.............Paul
p51 posted:Thanks, Dave and everyone else who commented on that!
I downloaded a photo app, and was playing with some photos...
I like this one the best. What is the app that you are using and can it be down loaded to a laptop?.
paul 2 posted:Another good day of working on the railroad. I got all the plastering done. I was worried I would not have enough but I have a bit left over. Pictures show two tone plaster but that is because I had to go back and cover spots I missed. So now I'll let the plaster dry through the night and tomorrow mix up some colors to do the cliffs. Going to cover the streams with tape so when the coloring runs down the cliffs it won't color the stream beds. I want to color them different. I may not get to coloring tomorrow as I have a get together with trains guys for lunch and after that one of them invited us all over to see his layout. Pics for today.............Paul
Paul
That really looks good. I know it was a lot of work but once you do the scenery and blend everything in, it will look great.
It does look like a sepia colorization. You can download a photo app for laptops.
Miglet
Looks good Paul, I hope you had a good lunch and fun at the layout! You deserve a break for all that work you have been doing! But remember you have a lot of rolling stock counting on you to get the layout ready for them. I bet if you asked Bob he would be right over!
Mark Boyce posted:Yesterday while taking breaks from winter leaf cleanup and getting the mower running, I laid out my GarGraves track on the floor in an approximation of how the plan flows. It is not exact, because I just laid pieces overlapping where there will be track cuts, and I did not bend any of the flex to shape. I used some 054 and 072 I had on hand to simulate the bent track. I also only have 4 of the 9 switches, so only one is in place. I also left the staging sidings out. Here are a couple of photos of how the track will fill the space. Not too bad. I think I can live with this as long as I make the layout high enough to get my increasingly arthritic body under and into the access hatches.
Mark posted this in your thread
Nice work so far. I was looking at the track plan and looks good as laid out. I was thinking that you could actually connect everything to see how things would run. Then decide if you would have to modify. Easier said then done, but then you wouldn't have to modify the bench work. As for the suggestion of around the room option. This would be perfect timing to mock that one up then you could decide which way you want to go. The one thing you will have to do with that option is to build a either a lift away at the door or something similar to what paul2 is doing that flips up . Another advantage will be storage. You could build shelves into it and then the room might not look so cluttered. with shelving on the walls.. I think it was mike who asked about the celling central. Something to think about, but from the looks of it you could possibly do the same thing in that room and then run a spur connecting both rooms. Another option with the around the wall plan. Might need to knock a hole in the wall, but you could run a spur into the other room and along the wall have a hidden yard with four or five sidings with trains ready to go. Then you could decide what you want to run before you enter the room to operate. The work on the room itself is looking good. The lighter blue actually make it look bigger. Question the window leads to the out side or into the garage?
Now that I have read you answer to Mike concerning the ceiling central. This also would be the prime time to game plan connecting both rooms since nothing has been built yet. This would give you time to plan on how you would incorporate it into your current plans. But instead of a helix just connect the two rooms. If you look at Elliot's helixes it would take up a lot of space and besides going up to the upper level( Ceiling Central) but then you have to figure on another one to bring it back down.
M. Mitchell Marmel posted:It's been Repair and Restore Week at the Razorback Traction Company:
This distressed ZW was delivered with broken U posts and a rotted power cable. A donated power cable from a small Bachmann DC transformer and four 4-40 screws with nuts put it into fine working order!
The MTH Chicago PCC on the left was delivered with the dread LocoSound module. Now, equipped with a Radio Shack rectifier bridge and DPDT slide reversing switch, it trundles along gracefully.
The MTH bump-and-go on the right arrived sans left-hand step. Fortunately, I had the remains of an identical shell which donated a step. As a happy coincidence, when the donor step was snapped off the shell, the break lines were a near perfect match and no fitting was needed!
Fortescue J. Gi-raffe didn't actually have anything to do with the repairs; he's just a camera hog. ;-)
What is an annoying diesel engine sound inside a streetcar is a delightful addition to a mute Lionel F3.
The F3 was in the shop having its windshield glued back in place when I glanced over at the discarded Locosound module and speaker and had a Clever Idea...
And thus, my tagline is proved out once again!
Mitch
Nice work. I finding it hard to believe that MTH put a diesel board into the PCC. I would have done the same thing with the F3. On a different subject. Earlier you had posted a proposed round the wall layout. Looking at it I think it would be a good idea. It defiantly give you more room to work with and access the layout from pretty much one location. It could also give the Giraffes more grazing area and keep Fortescue J. Gi-raffe occupied and out of mischief.
mike g. posted:p51 posted:Thanks, Dave and everyone else who commented on that!
I downloaded a photo app, and was playing with some photos...
Great pictures Lee, looks like ones right out of a history book!
suzukovich posted:p51 posted:
I like this one the best. What is the app that you are using and can it be down loaded to a laptop?.
Thanks, guys!
As for the app, it's called Snapseed. Under it, go to b/w setting under filters, then look across the bottom where it says, "film". That'll give a digital photo that grain. I then played with the color settings to sepia a couple of them, but I think I went too far. I'm thinking of printing a couple of them into photo paper and tacking them onto my office wall...
suzukovich posted:Nice work.
Thankee!
I finding it hard to believe that MTH put a diesel board into the PCC. I would have done the same thing with the F3.
It's labeled "PCC Locosound" on the top and "Diesel Locomotive" underneath. Works good for the F3! 
On a different subject. Earlier you had posted a proposed round the wall layout. Looking at it I think it would be a good idea. It defiantly give you more room to work with and access the layout from pretty much one location. It could also give the Giraffes more grazing area and keep Fortescue J. Gi-raffe occupied and out of mischief.
Yup! Been doing a bit more noodling; there's a local lumberyard which stocks Homasote, so I'm thinking Homasote on 3/8" plywood for the benchwork, and tubular rail avec added ties for the track. Might even string trolley wire...
Mitch
Just cleaned up the area where I am building the layout. Now I can walk.
p51 posted:Thanks, Dave and everyone else who commented on that!
I downloaded a photo app, and was playing with some photos...
The sepia and black/white prints are amazing. How did you effect the engine smoke?
Dave
Worked on a customers control panel and cabinet yesterday
darlander posted:p51 posted:
How did you effect the engine smoke?
Dave,
I made a roll out of cardboard, covered it in cotton balls, then spray painted it black.
These exposures are either 30 seconds or more for depth of field. So when I do, I hold the structure, moving it over the stack, and sometimes I'll remove it halfway if I want to make it look like a 'clean' stack instead.
The old tricks sometimes work the best!
p51 posted:mike g. posted:p51 posted:Thanks, Dave and everyone else who commented on that!
I downloaded a photo app, and was playing with some photos...
Great pictures Lee, looks like ones right out of a history book!
suzukovich posted:p51 posted:
I like this one the best. What is the app that you are using and can it be down loaded to a laptop?.
Thanks, guys!
As for the app, it's called Snapseed. Under it, go to b/w setting under filters, then look across the bottom where it says, "film". That'll give a digital photo that grain. I then played with the color settings to sepia a couple of them, but I think I went too far. I'm thinking of printing a couple of them into photo paper and tacking them onto my office wall...
Just as good if not better then what you can buy off the net at some of the so called Art stores! Go For IT!
Started roughing out a large corner diorama/scene for the empty corner shown in the photos below.. It's 60 inches across and 26 inches deep... The siding running in the foreground is Ross 088 curve....
Really want to experiment and hopefully perfect gradual elevation changes to roadways, blending them into the vertical backdrops, and burying the MTH Mill into the hillside.... Too tired now to take more photos, but I got 90% of the foam cut and glued together today. Obviously the foam pieces shown in the photo were really rough cuts to I could approximate the heights and depths I wanted before I got into serious fine cutting and shaping..
Painted the individual stones on the MTH mill and made the roof copper patina while I was sitting at my table at a slow train show last year.... 
Was in the train room putting the CSL trolley away, when Norma Bates Kitteh came in and gave me an "I can haz trains nao?" look.
So I ran the trains for her.
I spoil that cat, I do.
Mitch
And you should spoil her.
chris a posted:Started roughing out a large corner diorama/scene for the empty corner shown in the photos below.. It's 60 inches across and 26 inches deep... The siding running in the foreground is Ross 088 curve....
Really want to experiment and hopefully perfect gradual elevation changes to roadways, blending them into the vertical backdrops, and burying the MTH Mill into the hillside.... Too tired now to take more photos, but I got 90% of the foam cut and glued together today. Obviously the foam pieces shown in the photo were really rough cuts to I could approximate the heights and depths I wanted before I got into serious fine cutting and shaping..
Painted the individual stones on the MTH mill and made the roof copper patina while I was sitting at my table at a slow train show last year....
Chris,
I think your scene is going to come together very nicely from what you have shown so far. I like the looks of the mill and the elevation changes.
suzukovich posted:Mark Boyce posted:Yesterday while taking breaks from winter leaf cleanup and getting the mower running, I laid out my GarGraves track on the floor in an approximation of how the plan flows. It is not exact, because I just laid pieces overlapping where there will be track cuts, and I did not bend any of the flex to shape. I used some 054 and 072 I had on hand to simulate the bent track. I also only have 4 of the 9 switches, so only one is in place. I also left the staging sidings out. Here are a couple of photos of how the track will fill the space. Not too bad. I think I can live with this as long as I make the layout high enough to get my increasingly arthritic body under and into the access hatches.
Mark posted this in your thread
Nice work so far. I was looking at the track plan and looks good as laid out. I was thinking that you could actually connect everything to see how things would run. Then decide if you would have to modify. Easier said then done, but then you wouldn't have to modify the bench work. As for the suggestion of around the room option. This would be perfect timing to mock that one up then you could decide which way you want to go. The one thing you will have to do with that option is to build a either a lift away at the door or something similar to what paul2 is doing that flips up . Another advantage will be storage. You could build shelves into it and then the room might not look so cluttered. with shelving on the walls.. I think it was mike who asked about the celling central. Something to think about, but from the looks of it you could possibly do the same thing in that room and then run a spur connecting both rooms. Another option with the around the wall plan. Might need to knock a hole in the wall, but you could run a spur into the other room and along the wall have a hidden yard with four or five sidings with trains ready to go. Then you could decide what you want to run before you enter the room to operate. The work on the room itself is looking good. The lighter blue actually make it look bigger. Question the window leads to the out side or into the garage?
Now that I have read you answer to Mike concerning the ceiling central. This also would be the prime time to game plan connecting both rooms since nothing has been built yet. This would give you time to plan on how you would incorporate it into your current plans. But instead of a helix just connect the two rooms. If you look at Elliot's helixes it would take up a lot of space and besides going up to the upper level( Ceiling Central) but then you have to figure on another one to bring it back down.
The little window leads outside.
The big one on the brick wall goes to the laundry. The washer and dryer are right on the other side of it. 
Concentric helices would be the way to do it to save space. No, I do not even want tot think about designing and constructing that. LOL I like the shelf from the other room idea better, but I would have to run a shelf on a grade around part of the blue room to get it down to level. Oh, who knows. It is a very plausible idea. It is just coming up with a way to do it and make it look scenically appealing. Thank you!!
Mark, thanks I'll post some more photos as progress continues.. Managed to get most of the larger foam sections glued and clamped together today, so after overnight drying I should be able to place some of the rock castings and figure out the road and parking lot construction. Haven't made any plaster or hydrocal roads yet, but that's what's going in this scene.
Matt Makens posted:
Worked on a customers control panel and cabinet yesterday
The panel is looking good! I like your planning for wire management inside!
Your supervisor is sunning himself while you work I see!
Mark Boyce posted:suzukovich posted:Mark Boyce posted:Yesterday while taking breaks from winter leaf cleanup and getting the mower running, I laid out my GarGraves track on the floor in an approximation of how the plan flows. It is not exact, because I just laid pieces overlapping where there will be track cuts, and I did not bend any of the flex to shape. I used some 054 and 072 I had on hand to simulate the bent track. I also only have 4 of the 9 switches, so only one is in place. I also left the staging sidings out. Here are a couple of photos of how the track will fill the space. Not too bad. I think I can live with this as long as I make the layout high enough to get my increasingly arthritic body under and into the access hatches.
Mark posted this in your thread
Nice work so far. I was looking at the track plan and looks good as laid out. I was thinking that you could actually connect everything to see how things would run. Then decide if you would have to modify. Easier said then done, but then you wouldn't have to modify the bench work. As for the suggestion of around the room option. This would be perfect timing to mock that one up then you could decide which way you want to go. The one thing you will have to do with that option is to build a either a lift away at the door or something similar to what paul2 is doing that flips up . Another advantage will be storage. You could build shelves into it and then the room might not look so cluttered. with shelving on the walls.. I think it was mike who asked about the celling central. Something to think about, but from the looks of it you could possibly do the same thing in that room and then run a spur connecting both rooms. Another option with the around the wall plan. Might need to knock a hole in the wall, but you could run a spur into the other room and along the wall have a hidden yard with four or five sidings with trains ready to go. Then you could decide what you want to run before you enter the room to operate. The work on the room itself is looking good. The lighter blue actually make it look bigger. Question the window leads to the out side or into the garage?
Now that I have read you answer to Mike concerning the ceiling central. This also would be the prime time to game plan connecting both rooms since nothing has been built yet. This would give you time to plan on how you would incorporate it into your current plans. But instead of a helix just connect the two rooms. If you look at Elliot's helixes it would take up a lot of space and besides going up to the upper level( Ceiling Central) but then you have to figure on another one to bring it back down.
The little window leads outside.
The big one on the brick wall goes to the laundry. The washer and dryer are right on the other side of it.
Concentric helices would be the way to do it to save space. No, I do not even want tot think about designing and constructing that. LOL I like the shelf from the other room idea better, but I would have to run a shelf on a grade around part of the blue room to get it down to level. Oh, who knows. It is a very plausible idea. It is just coming up with a way to do it and make it look scenically appealing. Thank you!!
What about running through that window?
Supervisor really is super, that was right after I cought her down the street in the neighbors yard. She was lokced back in the yard and I got back to work. Ive spent some time planning the wiring in the cabinet since its small and I have a lot to do in there. All those LEDs on the panel I havent quite made yet need to be lit. This layout will be bullet proof for my friend and his visitors.
Doug,
The window. My wife even brought it up. I would then have to go through the door between the laundry and the Ceiling Central room. I can't move anything in the laundry room; it is too small. It's what you get for running O gauge trains in a small house with a chopped up floor plan. LOL
Mark In your thread I came up with a different thought after I had posted here. This must suck having conversations that cross two threads at the same time.
M. Mitchell Marmel posted:Was in the train room putting the CSL trolley away, when Norma Bates Kitteh came in and gave me an "I can haz trains nao?" look.
So I ran the trains for her.
I spoil that cat, I do.
Mitch
Kinda reminds me of Garfield. Makes ya wonder who is really running things. 
suzukovich posted:Mark In your thread I came up with a different thought after I had posted here. This must suck having conversations that cross two threads at the same time.
You are right. I almost never cross post. Now I remember why! LOL. Thank you for all your interest!
suzukovich posted:Kinda reminds me of Garfield. Makes ya wonder who is really running things.
Oh, I think we both know the answer to that one...
Mitch
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