What did you do on your layout today?

Looking real good, Max. 

Thanks, Pat.

Has anyone bought the Menards cars 1/48 dealer pack? Model Number: 2792658. I want to get these but I bought some Menards cars used off ebay and the seller said they were 1/48 but on the underside of one of the cars it said 1/43.

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but after seeing those Menards car carriers that Paul2 posted made me want to ask.

MaxSouthOz posted:

Deck furniture - fore deck, anchors and traditional bumper  . . .

 

After deck . . .

Fixed with epoxy glue.

Looking good Max! The next thing you know you will be out on the pond chasing the birds away!

Max, this is like looking at the real thing from a Seagull's eyes. You nailed it .............Paul

OSCALERUBE, if you go to the Menards car carrier topic I am pretty sure Mark said the cars were 1/48....Paul

train watching....

Thanks, guys. 

Colorado Hi Railer-  Post all you can on your gas electrics !  Love them.  Only G scale I kept was one I  made out of a caboose and the front end of a Model A truck.  Made an O gauge but  scrapped the body when I moved but saved the frame and motor.

This photo is from last weekend. I finally got the bench work done. It is modular and will be easy to move or enlarge in the future. 

I will be laying 2 rail flex track. The curves  will be tight but I will only be operating small equipment. 

briansilvermustang posted:

train watching....

Nice video- were all those diesels under power?

3 Williams powered, 9 MTH non power...

Latest addition to the layout, now all I need is to add lights, led, and , well, build a layout around it

Today was not on the layout, but out in the carport. I've been giving some thought as to how to bring more action to the modules I use in National Capital Tracker club shows. I thought about including some back-and-forth action, so I purchased a Z-Stuff DZ-1240 AC/DC  Auto Reverse Stop and Controller. To test it, I set up the 4 modules on the carport. Only place I had enough room to put them all in line. besides, it was a nice day. I didn't bother to fasten them. After one call to Z-Stuff, who helped me realize I needed to have power both to the controller as well as to the track through the controller, it worked well. See video.  Now I can include some action cars, like the giraffe car and automatic brakeman car, and have lots going on.

Another day of just cleaning up and getting ready for the Tuesday night crew. This afternoon USPS dropped off a package. So let me start off by saying quests start when an item is no longer made or it is hard to find. Since Weaver closed one of my Weaver quests has been wood chip hoppers. And over a period of time I have been able to get most that were made. One I will probably never be able to find was a custom wood chip hopper for Brentwood antiques. An MEC one. At York I talked to a dealer who said he had the early wood chip hoppers in kits form. I told him to email when he got back home as to what he had. When he did I said I would take all five and I was able to get trucks and couplers  for them too. The kits have to be put together and they came minus the trucks and couplers. Pics of the hoppers............Paul

They look good, Paul.

Were they expensive?

Max, I think when they were first released the price may have been 19.95. I got them for $25 each but finding Weaver trucks and couplers , when all added in was in the $32/$33 dollar range each..........Paul

Sounds like good value, Paul.

Ran trains tonight a bit while working on my newly installed spur. Had BIG FUN!!!

More wiring and a lot of cussing at the worn-out soldering gun.  More wiring today for track power, then on to fixing up the wiring for the four turnouts which will use relays for bridging power to eliminate blinking car lights.

Today I added a new set of AA  Legacy Sante Fe Blue Whiskers to the layout...Although they will have limited duty, they will be a back up to other systems already in place....Thanks to OGR Forum members...

rainy day, playing in the dark.....

It has been a kind of slow month working on the layout. It's been so nice having everything cleaned up, I haven't wanted to mess it up. I need to set my chop saw back up and start making sawdust again. In the meantime I've been working on a few "clean" projects.

For the last month and a half, I've been unpacking trains and adding them to the layout. This is my spreadsheet that I use to list the inventory. I printed the list and gave it to my wife, so she could write out the car cards. I just use the Micro Mark card system.

I painted a bunch of the card boxes. I'll be mounting them to the fascia very soon.

Here is the box for Pig's Eye.

The cards are all sorted and placed in order by track. That took a while!

All of this is prep operating sessions. It's coming together.

Not a detail missing. Great as always Elliot.

Bob

Looking very nice Elliot! You and your wife sure are making thing run smooth around there! Have fun!

#Elliot, I hope helper scott, won't tip those out onto the floor again..... ooooops

Did you happen to run any steamers in my absence?  =-( ?  i am putting my skillset to work on a Honey-do-list..... for THE boss, my sweetheart, cause she always lets me do what I want anyway..... she is just NOT into: Planes....Trains.....nor Automobiles..... I asked where WHY she married me, to which she responded: "I-Don't-Know.........." I know, Right! Hash-tag  Just-Too-Funny-for- Words.

Deciding what to build next...so much on my "I want one o'them!" list.  McKeen car and Mack railbus look difficult, a smooth-bodied Unit-Stanley steam car might be workable from a stream line O scale passenger kit but a Baldwin steam car would use a Walthers heavyweight kit.  The U-S looks harder to get right. Small Baldwins carried the steam cylinders on the trucks. A lot else here needs doing besides rolling stock or structures, but building them is more fun for me...

Thanks guys!

Bob - Running a railroad realistically is all about the details. I'll be getting to some of the visual details later this year, but in order to operate this is what is needed. I find this stuff to be most interesting.

Mike - My wife has been very helpful with layout projects. The trick is to find things that she likes and does well. My handwriting is so bad! We're just about to head downstairs, and start the second and final batch of those signal cards. She is also very good at shopping on the net. She found me some real cool paper clips with numbers.

I plan to use these in my yards to hold the cards for the cars on a particular track.

Scott - No steamers yet. It always helps to have an understanding wife, and making her happy makes life much easier. Let me know when you empty the honey-do list.

Great idea on the numbered paper clips!

mike g. posted:

Great idea on the numbered paper clips!

Didn't know such a thing existed until this morning. Not sure how she finds this stuff, but it's cool. I think they were $5.99 for three sets of digits, so 30 total clips, on Amazon.

Fixed a wiring problem on the main line out loop. ( without any use of %$&##! language )  Powered up my new siding.  Ran trains a bit and had fun!!  All is well in Patsburg!

trumptrain posted:

Fixed a wiring problem on the main line out loop. ( without any use of %$&##! language )  Powered up my new siding.  Ran trains a bit and had fun!!  All is well in Patsburg!

Pat: Was the wiring problem that you fixed the lockon where the trains were stopping? Post a picture of the new siding.

Added USB charging ports to the National Capital Trackers power cabinet.

Steve

made smoke 

Ran a train on my test oval this morning and this evening for a while. Maintenance of Way also got out for a while today, also. It was quite therapeutic. 

Steamer posted:

made smoke 

Highball! Smoke is good! 

Even though we are still working on the benchwork for the upper street level I put a Lion Chief NYC RS3 and a few cars on the lower level track and gave the remote to my wife to try. She th0ought it was fun.

Here's a few shots of my new siding .... all finished with ballast and scenery.  This siding comes off the outer loop main.  Eventual plans are extend this portion of the layout and make a 3 - 4 track yard.  Right now though its a siding and increases the choices in switching operations which = more fun!!  Siding is on the right side of these photos.