What did you do on your layout today?

Ok just finished play catch up on this thread.  Lot of cool work posted. I am surprised I got anything done this month, Between school concerts, parties, 5th grade graduation tomorrow, School field trips of which my son managed to crack a tooth in half at bush gardens and couldn't explain how and where it happened( Tooth had to be pulled) and the big one refinancing my mortgage and all the crap that went with that.  I some how managed to create time and finally upgraded my MTH GP30s to Kadees  and had installed a K line diner on my layout. As a brain dump since I needed to test run the GP30s as they hadn't been powered up in just under a year. I also made a couple of videos of which one was in response to a reply.

 

and this can also be found here.

 https://www.facebook.com/ogaug..._id=1494926475084922

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

paul 2 posted:

Mark, two hours is a bit of a trip one way. For the last two years, almost, this has been a great bunch of guys to be friends with. And meeting every Tuesday from early fall to just after York I have put many miles on my truck, well spent miles I will add. I am one of the further members so depending who is hosting sometimes it is almost an hour one way for me. But if you are ever in or near Cuyahoga Falls give me a call and you're more then welcomed to stop. I just got done running some trains. Heading to the basement to start working on moving and adding light fixtures over the layout..........Paul

Bryan in Ohio posted:

Tom Jr,

Your more than welcome to come to our Tuesday Night gatherings.  Most are down in the Independence area but we have a few guys in Lake/Geauga counties.  I'm sure the guys would love to have you and to see your layout also.  Unfortunately the Tuesday group is ending our season until the fall.  We usually do weekly hosting from Beginning October to End of May.  Remind me as we approach the fall and I can let you know when the meetings are.  Our coordinator Al usually sends out who is hosting and on what nights for the upcoming month a few days before the beginning of the month.  

Mark,

It is really a great group that is just getting bigger and better each year. Honestly, when the weather is good it might be worth the drive over some night.  I mean we are all kind of scattered and some of us do a 90 minute drive when we have to go to the west side or those guys coming to the east or southeast side.   

 

Paul and Bryan,

Thank you very much for the invitations!!  I used to go to your area a lot; my aunt and uncle lived in Northfield from about 1970 to 2001 when my then widowed aunt moved back to Pennsylvania.  They took us around the area many times, so I am familiar with the lay of the land.  Once I am retired, it should be easier getting the time to visit other modelers.  I have 2 friends about an hour or so away I have visited, but haven't had much success getting back.  Retirement should be at the most 5 years away.  I certainly hope so, or I may need a cane getting into the workplace!  

Doug,

I always love to see photos and videos from Winterton!!

After we spent an hour looking under the layout in the "box pile" for the box the NP switcher came in for the spare tires.  LOL!  Good luck on that one!  Dug into the spare tire pile until finding one about the right size and stretching it onto the wheel.  Hasn't come off pulling 20 car string out of the freight yard so hoping it hold.

Have to get this box pile problem under control.  Keep having to move them around to make room for stringing the wire for the turnouts on the CL Sub.

I think I got a lot done today. Replaced crossing gates with flashing lights. Installed tell a phone poles and used up two containers of ballast. I just tried to install my profile picture but I do not see it.

I just tried a few of the Menard's trees at our club. This is the road leading to the Morton salt. Trunks of the trees look black and shiny so I sprayed them with camouflage brown.

 

I can not believe I did it got my picture on here. Miracles will never stop

Kerrigan posted:

After we spent an hour looking under the layout in the "box pile" for the box the NP switcher came in for the spare tires.  LOL!  Good luck on that one!  Dug into the spare tire pile until finding one about the right size and stretching it onto the wheel.  Hasn't come off pulling 20 car string out of the freight yard so hoping it hold.

Have to get this box pile problem under control.  Keep having to move them around to make room for stringing the wire for the turnouts on the CL Sub.

that is a problem that I am rapidly trying to come to grips with. The old, yea, I'll remember what box that is in, isn't gonna cut it for much longer.

Cleaned up 3 inches of water under my layout......

We had 3 inches of rain last night in about 3 hours......hard to keep that much water out...really slowing down layout construction.....

AMCDave posted:

Cleaned up 3 inches of water under my layout......

We had 3 inches of rain last night in about 3 hours......hard to keep that much water out...really slowing down layout construction.....

OUCH! Did I hear someone say french drain and sump pump?

suzukovich posted

Max Been following the build or should I say refurbishment of the Tug.  It has come out really great so far and looks good.  Defiantly like the harbor scene you have created and the Tug seems to be the icing on the cake.. You said that you had purchased it from someone and this was a kit. . Out of curiosity  what did it look like before you started the rebuild?

Thanks, Suzukovich.

The hull had it's inside frames in, but they fell out due to poor glue selection, so I had to do them over and then proceed from there.  The aft deck piece was assembled, so all I had to do was put some braces in and repaint it.  The forward deck was part assembled, but there was no baffle around the hole into to the hull.  I added some 6 mm square oak, which stiffened it as well.  The superstructure had been assembled.  I had to remove the window glass as it was coming away from the walls.  The Bridge deck had been attached out of line, so I had to remove that and make a new one - including the curved section around the sides.  The wheelhouse had to have it's windows removed, glue joints made good and braced.  The flying bridge above the wheel house was broken, but I managed to repair it.  Then I made new fences, radar heads and new cross arms.  The cross arms and antennas were made from brass tube and rod.  The circular RDF antenna was made from two pieces of brass 1 mm rod.

There was a lot of other stuff as well, but I've forgotten it - or blocked it out of my memory. 

Sadly, I didn't take any photos of the rebuild.

Got back good steam coach kit bash photos, and want to post but am having trouble with this site. Can't initiate posts. May be from recent hacking we got msg. about.

Progress from Jasper's Rock...

Chessie GP38-2 heads up the grade behind the oil can depot. Just about everything (scenery-wise)  in the photo is new.

A trio of B&O Sharks round the new tracks alongside this new cliff face on the east end of the layout. Basic grass and a few tree so far. Still need some details. 

Needed something simple to fill this corner.  I hope they like trains. 

 

Finally able to run trains again now that the largest pieces are mostly done. 

Nice looking work there Ralph, Maybe a swing set next to the house. or a BBQ with some people standing around watching the trains go by!

worked on one of the control panels, made some tortoise wiring harness and played with some bumper lighting options.

ERIC, great job. What did you use for your track plan on the control board..............Paul

RR Track, printed to PDF and then had it printed on diebond (plastic between aluminum) at FedEx Office

Ralph, Looking Good! Keep the progress reports coming and it seems like a really nice plan. Good scenic detailing..

Enichter, wow, great control panel, neat bumper lighting, thanks. 

Suzukovich---Very very nice work, great pictures, neat coupling system...Wow!!

thank you all..

Playing around with road ideas...

New locos running past the cliff face Still needs bushes (lichen), weeds and few more trees, 

 

RSJB18 posted:

Kerrigan posted:

After we spent an hour looking under the layout in the "box pile" for the box the NP switcher came in for the spare tires.  LOL!  Good luck on that one!  Dug into the spare tire pile until finding one about the right size and stretching it onto the wheel.  Hasn't come off pulling 20 car string out of the freight yard so hoping it hold.

Have to get this box pile problem under control.  Keep having to move them around to make room for stringing the wire for the turnouts on the CL Sub.

that is a problem that I am rapidly trying to come to grips with. The old, yea, I'll remember what box that is in, isn't gonna cut it for much longer.

Have to bite the bullet on this one.   Bought a couple of the multi-compartment storage boxes.  Going to haul out every locomotive box and empty the spare parts/tires into a labeled compartment.  Then perhaps make space in the heated outdoor storage building and move all empty boxes onto existing shelving.

The next generation can worry about what to do with them, but at least my "where's the xyz box???" problem will be over.

:-)

Although I don't have an exact Inventory of my trains and all related items, I do know where everything is, the boxes, etc....This is because I have sold so many Locomotives and Cars, and Accessories that I really did not need???? Well, which I think is making the Wife Happy....Now when we work on the Layout folks can see Progress...Not Clutter, simply Fun to Run Trains...

I bought this a few weeks ago. It looks great, although I had to work on it for a little bit. It runs better than it did when I first put it on the track. So, I ran this for a while, before packing it away with our other trains, will be moving to another house soon. Leaving a few things out, so we have something to run in the meantime.

Lionel 2026, it's my Dads. I got it to run, it hadn't run in for a very long time. It's a good smoker! 

leapinlarry posted:

Although I don't have an exact Inventory of my trains and all related items, I do know where everything is, the boxes, etc....This is because I have sold so many Locomotives and Cars, and Accessories that I really did not need???? Well, which I think is making the Wife Happy....Now when we work on the Layout folks can see Progress...Not Clutter, simply Fun to Run Trains...

Larry it looks a local hobby shop! I won't say "near you" because those are starting to become extinct.

going to need more track, definitely... definitely going to need more track .... from carpet to corner.... gotta try making scenery, mountain, tunnel, elevated like New Stillwater bridge, lights, grandkids, painting.... gonna need more track, definitely definitely. 

LOL Frank, when I seen the first picture I almost started to bust your balls as it looked like you had more stuff then you started with! But then I scrolled down seen the second picture and the video! Man you have sure made some good work of the place! I bet your wife and grandson is so very proud of you! WAY TO GO!

Thanks Mike, I appreciate ya, Menards for track, cough cough and weed puller, yup yup, thats the ticket.... 

I tell ya Frank, Menards sure is making it easy for some of us to grow layouts!

I finally took down the rest of my old benchwork! The old layout is completely gone and now all that is left is to get rid of my pool table and some other items stored in my crawlspace and then it's time to begin building the new layout.

-Greg

In early May, I took delivery of some rather distressed rolling stock: 

Today, the class of 2017 graduates.  Rust has been wirebrushed off, corroded couplers cleaned, rotted wire replaced!  In the process, I've become acquainted with the inner workings of various postwar Lionel mechanisms...and I gotta say, they built the durn things to last!  Even rusted solid, I was able to get the milk and horse cars back into working order...

Mitch

nice job Mitch!

Mitch, well played, fix er uppers, luv iTunes as if they steam around the track just a little bit more proud, old and still, STILL useful and able to make a few smile. I appreciate ya,

This old All Nation PS1 boxcar kit provided a lot of fun at the bench a few months ago.

 

  It gave me an excellent canvas to experiment with my own paint formula for DGLE after never being satisfied with what is offered commercially.  It probably could have been a shade lighter but is unmistakably "almost black", as often described by those who were familiar with the PRR color.

I turned on the flash to better show that, yes, it's really green.  Unfortunately, it shows how washed out the color of a factory painted GG1 as well as straight from the bottle DGLE ( freight trucks ) look.  In fairness, both store bought colors are relatively flat compered to the gloss used to paint the car.  The decoration was simply to get a feel for how the colors would look together, rather than anything prototypical.  I'll probably use the car as head end express equipment.

Here's the fresh look of DGLE.

Bruce

 

 

Wow, very nice !!  looks great !

Miggy posted:

going to need more track, definitely... definitely going to need more track .... from carpet to corner.... gotta try making scenery, mountain, tunnel, elevated like New Stillwater bridge, lights, grandkids, painting.... gonna need more track, definitely definitely. 

I don't feel so bad. Cleaned out my garage last weekend of stuff no longer needed. Now I need to figure out were I going to put the stuff I need. 

brwebster posted:

This old All Nation PS1 boxcar kit provided a lot of fun at the bench a few months ago.

 

 

  It gave me an excellent canvas to experiment with my own paint formula for DGLE after never being satisfied with what is offered commercially.  It probably could have been a shade lighter but is unmistakably "almost black", as often described by those who were familiar with the PRR color.

I turned on the flash to better show that, yes, it's really green.  Unfortunately, it shows how washed out the color of a factory painted GG1 as well as straight from the bottle DGLE ( freight trucks ) look.  In fairness, both store bought colors are relatively flat compered to the gloss used to paint the car.  The decoration was simply to get a feel for how the colors would look together, rather than anything prototypical.  I'll probably use the car as head end express equipment.

 

Here's the fresh look of DGLE.

 

Bruce

 

 

That came out real cool.  Nice work.

Ran trains this morning for a very brief time.   Last night I shot photos for today's Switcher Saturday thread and had lots of fun creating the scenes!!  Here is a photo that was not included in today's Switcher Saturday thread. 

I just finished useing fusion fiber to do some additional scenery in small spots. This stuff is magic and very easy to use. You finish all the ground cover in 1 simple operation. Did a little wiring also for the lights and switches. some day I will be able to show pictures. I have an old out of town friend coming over this Friday to play trains. he is the man that got me into O gauge trains in the 80's. Thanks Joe. 

#GREG  congrats, taking steps, moving forward. How, what, where, wait.... how are you starting again with a new layout? I could use layout ideas :-) 

Miggy posted:

going to need more track, definitely... definitely going to need more track .... from carpet to corner.... gotta try making scenery, mountain, tunnel, elevated like New Stillwater bridge, lights, grandkids, painting.... gonna need more track, definitely definitely.

Lookin' good Frank. Next thing you  know it's gonna look like Elliot's layout