What did you do on your layout today?

I started re-building my 6x16 layout, post war lionel style.  Outside oval up and running, need to pick upthree 022 turnouts for 2nd oval, then on to upper level.  All Lionel tubulor track, love that look

Mike

Started putting up the roundhouse walls....finally!

 

 

Pressing on new diesel wheels. One more locomotive to do.

 

Clem k                 

Earlier this week I moved things around a little and made room for a couple American Flyer stations I wanted on the layout.  Today I ran some wires and got the lights powered up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laidoffsick, is that the Brennan MR Products kit?

YES it is, 7 stall with the extension.

Guess I was running the "Midnight Special" tonight. Had some out of town visitors over in the wee hours of the morning and showed them the layout. Except for the excess sparks from the dirty track, the train made it around the 500' loop perfectly.

Ran some trains and did a lot of plaster work

I cut the table out to install my rotary coal dumper.  Got that setup and running That thing is do cool, it's got some things that need work and half of the setup is temporary but it's going. After that I took the dog out pheasant hunting, she's a huntin fool. When I got back I spent a couple hours installing the turntable indexer, while doing that I found out I lost the DCS signal through the turntable bad fixed out channel on output 1. Swapped out TIU's and got it running again. Then I ran the Yellowstone I did a PS2 upgrade on. Finally ran with no issues.

 

thats why i havent cleaned the floor since i started the plaster work. its pointless.

 

I cleaned up this place and put a train on the track just for a picture for another members information.

Put up some more walls.

 

Really shows how much space this thing eats up. Now that's cubic inches! 

Hey I finally ran some trains this morning, first time in months.

The roundhouse is really looking good, Doug. Keep up the great work!  

My friend, Trumptrain, recommended that I start posting here. He found that once he began posting, the work on his layout became more regular and fruitful.

 

My layout has sat idle for a long while after my son left for college this past September. So, today, I took a break from York product preparation and did some wiring from my MTH Z-4000 transformer to the MTH DCS TIU as a first step to getting the second and third level of the layout on DCS. Those levels have been under conventional operation since 1999.

 

I will, hopefully have more to report inthe near future.

Ran trains to test wiring on lower level.  Glad to report all is well on the JKL Railroad.

Lubed, and cleaned wheels on my K-line, tuskan, 5 stripe, GG1, and matching "Fleet of Modernism" passenger cars. Then ran a nice quiet night train.

It has been awhile since any work has been done to the layout.

 

Unlike most of you this time of year I slow down on the layout, as work is getting busier.  After the holidays I will again be going full force on the layout.  Plans to get everything 100% plaster cloth by the end of the year still stand though.  

Spent 4 hours cleaning the whole RR.

Eddie:

 

Your layout looks great. Thank you for sharing the photos.

Eddie,

This very much reminds me of one of my Grandfathers many layouts. It was the one I was first allowed to run a train on all by myself. Seeing this has brought me to tears, but thank you. 

 Eddie sorry if I've not seen it in past post's ,but how did you do your roadbed ?  I really like how it looks

.

That's fabulous, Eddie G, with memories and treasures everywhere a person looks. Congratulations on such an accomplishment.

FrankM.

Eddie, your layout has a certain whimsy and charm to it, i love it

Oh my gracious ,  we finally get to see it , !

what is the foundation for your mountain,  and are all the ground

covers,  Scenic Express.!?

thanks

Edie G...love seeing the toy train layouts...I too have such a layout and will be doing some additions to it now that yo have given me some scenery ideas...thinking of using texture paint for the RR track bed...

 

nicely done my friend...

 

jz

Patrick was over yesterday.

 

He finished the last couple of lights on the first half of the lower level.

 

We trimmed the plywood and created a nice smooth flowing edge.

 

We added the second sheet of plywood to complete the end.

 

Finally, we started the rough in for the lighting in the second half of the room.

 

I'm going to head down in a little while and keep working on the electrical, so when Patrick comes over again tomorrow, we can get another 24' of decking down.

Making mountains out of peanuts!  We have so many of those pesky packing peanuts, it was decided to put them to use.  Just slathered glue on them, threw them on the pile and viola!  Woodland Scenics foam glue did the trick.  Today, we covered them with plaster cloth.  Tomorrow is paint day.  Making progress one peanut at a time.

It has been awhile since I have been able to do anything on the layout.  I have ran trains around the loop for the kids here and there but really nothing then that.  

 

This morning I had a very rare chance to be home alone.   I had planned to cut the lawn and blow out the sprinklers for the fall but luck had it that my wife had the keys to the gate in the van with her.  Darn no outdoor work for me.

 

I went to the basement and looked at the layout like I have 100 times before and was about to sit my butt on the couch and watch some TV.  I decided to fire up the layout and run some trains.  I switched out some cars off the car ferry, built a train for my Ten Wheeler to bring downstate, and brought a passenger train into the station.

 

Only had about an hour of train before I have to get ready for work but I am glad I spent the time.  This time of year I usually do not get much train time until after the holidays but I think I should find time every few days to do some operations.

 

Re-laid some track this past week.

 

I had a lead coming from the "off branch mainline" that was fine for setting cars out to be picked up and delivered, but when I made the return trip I forgot that the engine was at the head of the train, I had no way of moving the engine without getting the cars out of the way first.

 

I added a couple of switches so I could un-couple the engine, pull forward, and use the switches to round around the cars and back to the engine facility.  If I have more than 6 cars, I still need to cut the train in two so I don't foul one of the newly added switches.  I have a yard siding that wasn't get much use anyway so now all is well

 

On the non-layout part, I've been busy modify my Williams USRA 2-8-2 into a Seaboard Air Line Class Q3 Mike.  A couple of more mods and It'll be ready for the paint shop.

Made this rock cliff out of ceiling tile and pink insulation foam

Brilliant! Id like to learn more about exactly what you did.

I just take ceiling tile cut it into strips, make sure its wider than you want it and then start breaking the edges off that you want a cliff on. make sure you either screw or glue the pieces together it makes it easier to paint and keeps it all in place. Once you have a cliff, simply paint it with whatever colors you would like and add scenery. P.S. This was my first experiment with it.

Your cliff looks really nice.  I have a lot of areas I need cliffs, retaining walls and mountains.  I may copy your cliff for one area.

 

The rock texturing method? It looks very layered, yet I suspect(hope) simple.

 Is the pink insulation mentioned the bushes? Dipped in green paint? Sprayed?

Thanks for sharing! 

 

I'm still a noob working on my first layout.  I spent the late hours last night building the elevation out of scrap wood.  Hoping to get that done today so I can actually run my Halloween consist.  Just have to wait till my better half is awake so the chop saw doesn't get me in trouble.

I used the pink foam at the tops of the cliffs where the rock cliff starts to mellow out into a more flat area with dirt and trees on it. I have a Hotwire foam cutter bought it at a train show, works really well to make hills. The bushes are from michael's I don't remember what they are called.

WAHOO! I love it when I set goals and proceed to crush them!  I got the entire second generation of my layout up and running.  Took my two halloween aquarium cars out of the box and made several loops on both levels with both of my locos and of course the M&M's pump car took the test loop.  Even got another first...had to take both of the aquarium cars apart because the moving plastic scene was stuck on both.

 

Next step is to put down the cork road bed.  But that's for another day.  

This may be the busiest week the layout has ever seen. Patrick was over last Wednesday, then again Friday. Matt worked this afternoon, and Patrick will be back Tuesday.

Friday was spent getting another 24' of decking done on the upper level.

As well as the associated lighting.


Matt went through a half a case of Gargraves this afternoon.


This section is almost finished.


It was all I could do to keep him supplied with feeder wires.



Next time, we'll start tying up all these loose ends, and maybe even run them back to the power supply.