What did you do on your layout today?

Did nothing.

Enjoyed the lake instead. 

RSJB18, if I had that view close to me I would take time off from trains to enjoy it too..............Paul

A little more progress.  Still a long way to go.

Looks great Terry! I like the look or vibe I get from it. I don't know why but I get the feel of a vintage layout from the fifties or early sixties.Maybe its the backdrop. Was it done by yourself ? Is the layout located in your garage and do you have any trouble with temperature swings?

Thanks;

Mike

paul 2 posted:

Working on getting the table into position but hit a slight snag. My measurements were too good. I didn't allow for swinging the table into the spot. So I have to figure how I can cut back the partial wall a bit more so I can swing the table into place without cutting the PVC sewer line. The trials and errors of building a layout. LOL.............Paul

Paul, if you just whip out the Jig saw and  go to town your there man! I am sure everything up stairs will be fine!

Mike welkie posted:

Looks great Terry! I like the look or vibe I get from it. I don't know why but I get the feel of a vintage layout from the fifties or early sixties.Maybe its the backdrop. Was it done by yourself ? Is the layout located in your garage and do you have any trouble with temperature swings?

Thanks;

Mike

That is the half that is in the garage.  The garage is insulated and I have a small air conditioner that makes it bearable most of the time.  We live in Beaumont, Ca. so hot is a way of life.  I model Southern Pacific in the central valley so that is pretty much what the hills look like. If it gets too hot I just close the door and work on the section that is in the house (picture attached)  That is a pretty early picture.  Things have progressed since then.

Doing a bit of research for rolling my own Girl's Train.  Anyone know where I can get decals or dry transfers?

Mitch

Carl Machen posted:

Had friends over last night to play trains and a cook out. I do believe every one had a good time and seem to like my layout. Trains ran great as they should that is why I love my all MTH layout. My friend took a lot of pictures as soon as he sends them to me I will try and post some of them. All the responses from every body sure mad me proud. I can now rest a lot easer. pictures will follow as soon as I get them.

Carl and his lovely wife Judy did a wonderful job of hosting the August Meeting of the NCHR Train Club.

Carl's layout has changed quite a bit since the last time I was at his house taking pictures of the layout. While I have not edited all of the pictures I took at Carl's house I will post some of the ones I did edit. 

Carl's layout is very interesting with at least four long trains running at once and a customized MTH Firehouse which has been updated to have the Fire Engine and the Fire Chiefs car light up during operation.

His layout features an elevated section of track and also an incline in the rear of the layout. His new Esso Gas & Oil depot really catches your eye as does his military trains. He runs a lot of B&O, Western Maryland and Pennsylvania RR locos. His walls are filled with various road names of engines, freight cars and passenger cars.

Hopefully these photos taken with my Nikon D5100 DSLR will give you an idea as to the time and effort it took to build this entertaining layout. I'm hoping to spend a day with Carl photographing the layout with my studio umbrella lights for greater depth of field and natural lighting.

Steve

paul 2 posted:

RSJB18, if I had that view close to me I would take time off from trains to enjoy it too..............Paul

Thanks Paul. It's 5 hours from home but worth the trip.  

Lake George N.Y.  

BOB

Bob, if you get bored over at LG, i'm about 55 miles away - go south to Saratoga and then come 34 miles due west on NYS 29. Visitors always welcome. Email is in my profile page.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJmTzIFKvys

jackson

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Doing a bit of research for rolling my own Girl's Train.  Anyone know where I can get decals or dry transfers?

Mitch

Lou Palumbo?

http://www.undergroundrrshop.com/products1.html

RSJB18 posted:

paul 2 posted:

RSJB18, if I had that view close to me I would take time off from trains to enjoy it too..............Paul

Thanks Paul. It's 5 hours from home but worth the trip.  

Lake George N.Y.  

BOB

Looks great, Bob!  We visited Lake George 5 years ago, and loved it.  We were planning a trip this summer, but both my parents were in the hospital, and we just got them into a personal care home, plus my widowed moth-in-law lives across the road and depends on us for most things; so we scraped the idea.  I was considering the Trout House this time.  We will try again another year.

It was my youngest grandson's Bar Mitzvah weekend and we had lots of family and friends in from out of town. Got to show off the layout and the latest work. Everyone was properly impressed, but I had problems running the trains. The misaligning rails at the swing gate caused the Super Chief to derail and drag the derailed cars into the tunnel. I couldn't pull it out by hand due to the angles of the cars jamming into the supports inside the tunnel, so I had to go under the layout and reach up into the track work and pull out the cars causing the problem. I did this while still wearing my suit just coming from Temple, therefore, I couldn't get down on my knees or sit on the floor. I did it and didn't get hurt in the process.

I found out that if I used a speed restriction, the train would negotiate the joint without derailing. It wasn't the misalignment per ce causing the problem. It's the velocity of the wheels hopping and what direction they were facing when they come back down. When I went slow the hop was insignificant.

Then I tried to run the Centipede and due to the length of the time it's been sitting in the same spot and not running, it ran terribly. It would go in one direction, but then spun its wheels when trying to go in the other when one of the units motors were not running in that direction. I then got it going and forgot to align the switch it was approaching and it derailed. When that multi-wheeled monstrosity derails, all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't get it back on the tracks again. I finally got all of its wheels back on the track and pulled it back into its siding to sit for another couple of months until I get in the mood to find out what's going on with it.

After initial teething pains, a revisit to my can motored 8977 was in order this weekend.  All the previous work in adapting small toothed gears couldn't be made to run smoothly or quietly.   It ran fine at a crawl but set up a grinding noise at speed that translated into a slight visible binding....definitely too much stress put on a small motor.

I returned to using the stock Lionel larger toothed gears.  A little heat from my propane torch persuaded the small brass gear off the armature shaft of the Pullmor and with a few short pieces of brass tubing, it was soldered to the shaft of the can motor.  One unfortunate trait of the poor little B6 is its lack of traction, what with no traction tires or Magnetraction.   The 2 lead weights in the ample boiler space makes puling a 6 car train up my 3% grades with only a bit of wheel slip.  After removing the U joint from the now back end of the motor, some more heat and a few taps with the hammer got the brass flywheel installed.  A number of other tweaks and re-engineering tasks were performed, flaws that came to lite in tests with the small toothed gear design.  My first motor mount design proved ideal for adjusting gear mesh and a brass cab floor supports a foam rubber pad for the motor to lightly rest upon.

All buttoned back up, the protruding flywheel is an unfortunate compromise, but with the Pullmor gone, there's enough room for a crew and some backhead detail if desired.  ERR Cruise Commander  ( no sounds ) takes up space in the tender, which can probably be shuffled just enough to fit in a sound board and speaker.   Electro-couplers, a whole nuther story, were applied for switching duties anywhere.   I replaced the cast coal load with real coal on electrically isolated screen for the antenna.  LED headlights installed front and rear topped off the job....for now.  The noisiest thing about her now is clicks from the smoke puffer mechanism and the pickup rollers over track joints.  Smooth and silent!

Bruce

Trainman2001 posted:

It was my youngest grandson's Bar Mitzvah weekend and we hadlots of family and friends in from out of town. Got to show off the layout and the latest work. Everyone was properly impressed, but I had problems running the trains. The misaligning rails at the swing gate caused theSuper Chief to derail and drag the derailed cars into the tunnel. I couldn't pull it out by hand due to the angles of the cars jamming into the supports inside the tunnel, so I had to go under the layout and reach up into the track work and pull out the cars causing the problem. I did this while still wearing my suit just coming from Temple, therefore, I couldn't get down on my knees or sit on the floor. I did it and didn't get hurt in the process.

We all know that'ssome kind of rule, inflicted on us in several stages, right?

(1.) Derail during company.

(2) Derail and drag crippled/motion-challenged cars into tunnels.

(3) Derailments cannot  be reached by thrusting an arm into a tunnel,

(4) Disappointed operator MUST have to crawl under the layout to dislodge the offending cars.

(5.) Hobbyist emerges from layout underworld crestfallen and feeling silly.

Yeeeegods, when will we ever learn. Learn what? I have NO idea.

Case closed. Errrr, well, rather, case continued, on infinitum.

Apparently.

FrankM.

No doubt there's some kind of cosmic intervention working. Possibly due to the upcoming solar eclipse that will affect the Commonwealth of KY particularly this time. I'm going to buy a de-humidifier for the basement to help control the dimensional changes of the swing door in the Summer season. The test will be if the door shrinks back into alignment in the winter.

Myles,

Congratulations to your grandson!  I'm sorry you had trouble when visitors were at the layout.  I visited a local Forum member this week for the first time.  He has an outstanding collection of engines and rolling stock, much of which he custom painted and weathered.  He ran some trains for me.  One stopped in a corner.  Another suffered a derailment.  He brushed it off as it only happens for visitors.  I agreed.  The last visitor to see my Ceiling Central RR witnessed two trains gently sideswipe and one derailed and shorted out the hot and neutral.  I had run those two trains several times with no trouble, and I told him so.  I attribute it to our old nemesis, Murphy!  Upcoming eclipse, sun spots, whatever!  Actually I don't believe any of those, but it is a strange phenomenon indeed!  We are all with you!  Your ideas on the humidity is really a probable cause in your case.  Mine is running two tracks above my head in I low ceiling basement room where I can't see exactly how close the tracks are at points, though I don't run anything longer than 40' boxcars.

Steamer posted:

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Doing a bit of research for rolling my own Girl's Train.  Anyone know where I can get decals or dry transfers?

Mitch

Lou Palumbo?

 

http://www.undergroundrrshop.com/products1.html

Thankee!  Just dropped him a line.

Finished wiring the last 12 turnouts to the SC2s for iPad control. At 1 1/2 hours per turnout it was a job but all 30 are done

steve tapper posted:

Carl Machen posted:

Had friends over last night to play trains and a cook out. I do believe every one had a good time and seem to like my layout. Trains ran great as they should that is why I love my all MTH layout. My friend took a lot of pictures as soon as he sends them to me I will try and post some of them. All the responses from every body sure mad me proud. I can now rest a lot easer. pictures will follow as soon as I get them.

Carl and his lovely wife Judy did a wonderful job of hosting the August Meeting of the NCHR Train Club.

Carl's layout has changed quite a bit since the last time I was at his house taking pictures of the layout. While I have not edited all of the pictures I took at Carl's house I will post some of the ones I did edit. 

Carl's layout is very interesting with at least four long trains running at once and a customized MTH Firehouse which has been updated to have the Fire Engine and the Fire Chiefs car light up during operation.

His layout features an elevated section of track and also an incline in the rear of the layout. His new Esso Gas & Oil depot really catches your eye as does his military trains. He runs a lot of B&O, Western Maryland and Pennsylvania RR locos. His walls are filled with various road names of engines, freight cars and passenger cars.

Hopefully these photos taken with my Nikon D5100 DSLR will give you an idea as to the time and effort it took to build this entertaining layout. I'm hoping to spend a day with Carl photographing the layout with my studio umbrella lights for greater depth of field and natural lighting.

Steve

 

 

 

Steve I can not thank you enough for taking these pictures. I enjoyed having everybody over playing trains. The fire house is the work of my sun in law Justin who is playing around with LEDs. I think this is  just the begining with him and LEDs I would like to thank him now for all his help and my Grand daughter Elizabeth who at the age of 6 started doing all the ground cover with fusion fiber. She did such a great job I named a town after her along with her sister and brother. They are what inspired me to name the railroad after them. the EA&J RR Elizabeth, Abigale  and Johnathan. thanks again Steve

brwebster posted:

After initial teething pains, a revisit to my can motored 8977 was in order this weekend.  All the previous work in adapting small toothed gears couldn't be made to run smoothly or quietly.   It ran fine at a crawl but set up a grinding noise at speed that translated into a slight visible binding....definitely too much stress put on a small motor.

I returned to using the stock Lionel larger toothed gears.  A little heat from my propane torch persuaded the small brass gear off the armature shaft of the Pullmor and with a few short pieces of brass tubing, it was soldered to the shaft of the can motor.  One unfortunate trait of the poor little B6 is its lack of traction, what with no traction tires or Magnetraction.   The 2 lead weights in the ample boiler space makes puling a 6 car train up my 3% grades with only a bit of wheel slip.  After removing the U joint from the now back end of the motor, some more heat and a few taps with the hammer got the brass flywheel installed.  A number of other tweaks and re-engineering tasks were performed, flaws that came to lite in tests with the small toothed gear design.  My first motor mount design proved ideal for adjusting gear mesh and a brass cab floor supports a foam rubber pad for the motor to lightly rest upon.

All buttoned back up, the protruding flywheel is an unfortunate compromise, but with the Pullmor gone, there's enough room for a crew and some backhead detail if desired.  ERR Cruise Commander  ( no sounds ) takes up space in the tender, which can probably be shuffled just enough to fit in a sound board and speaker.   Electro-couplers, a whole nuther story, were applied for switching duties anywhere.   I replaced the cast coal load with real coal on electrically isolated screen for the antenna.  LED headlights installed front and rear topped off the job....for now.  The noisiest thing about her now is clicks from the smoke puffer mechanism and the pickup rollers over track joints.  Smooth and silent!

Bruce

Nice job, Bruce.

I'm sure some black paint on the flywheel will help a lot. 

You're welcome Carl. Just glad that I was able to share these pictures here with you on the OGR Forum.

You have a terrific layout and it gets better every time I see it! Everyone had a great time at your party ans I especially enjoyed my conversation with your friend Bernie. I'm hoping to see his layout some day.

Here are a few more pictures of your layout and some of the neat trains you had running. I really liked the military cars from MTH and Menards.

Steve

Carl,

Wonderful looking layout and collection.

Steve,

Thank you for sharing your photos and writeup!

Carl Machen posted:

steve tapper posted:

Carl Machen posted:

Had friends over last night to play trains and a cook out. I do believe every one had a good time and seem to like my layout. Trains ran great as they should that is why I love my all MTH layout. My friend took a lot of pictures as soon as he sends them to me I will try and post some of them. All the responses from every body sure mad me proud. I can now rest a lot easer. pictures will follow as soon as I get them.

Carl and his lovely wife Judy did a wonderful job of hosting the August Meeting of the NCHR Train Club.

Carl's layout has changed quite a bit since the last time I was at his house taking pictures of the layout. While I have not edited all of the pictures I took at Carl's house I will post some of the ones I did edit. 

Carl's layout is very interesting with at least four long trains running at once and a customized MTH Firehouse which has been updated to have the Fire Engine and the Fire Chiefs car light up during operation.

His layout features an elevated section of track and also an incline in the rear of the layout. His new Esso Gas & Oil depot really catches your eye as does his military trains. He runs a lot of B&O, Western Maryland and Pennsylvania RR locos. His walls are filled with various road names of engines, freight cars and passenger cars.

Hopefully these photos taken with my Nikon D5100 DSLR will give you an idea as to the time and effort it took to build this entertaining layout. I'm hoping to spend a day with Carl photographing the layout with my studio umbrella lights for greater depth of field and natural lighting.

Steve

 

 

 

Steve I can not thank you enough for taking these pictures. I enjoyed having everybody over playing trains. The fire house is the work of my sun in law Justin who is playing around with LEDs. I think this is  just the begining with him and LEDs I would like to thank him now for all his help and my Grand daughter Elizabeth who at the age of 6 started doing all the ground cover with fusion fiber. She did such a great job I named a town after her along with her sister and brother. They are what inspired me to name the railroad after them. the EA&J RR Elizabeth, Abigale  and Johnathan. thanks again Steve

Carl:

My wife, son and I had a GREAT time at your open house on Saturday. Though we are no longer an official member of the Northern central Hi-Railers, thank you for including us. It was great to see Craig, Steve and Dave again. What you have accomplished on your layout is stunning! Justin's LED work is outstanding.  I do believe an O Gauge Railroading magazine is in your future.

Over the last few days, I expanded the rail yard, well sort of, up on the wall! 

My first idea was to use a 1"X4"X8', which I decided against.  I then used a 1"X8"X8' so that I could get 2 side by rails to be used for rolling stock that I wanted to use but not on a day by day basis.  First series of pictures show this, but before I even loaded up the rolling stock, I removed the rail closest to the wall and went to the next level.

I added a 2"X3"X8' in place of the rear rail.  That way, I can see clearly what is on the back rail.  I also want to add a safety railing for both levels.  I'm glad that I didn't dispose of the 027 track from back in the 40's & 50's.  My dad converted to tubular O gauge in the late 50's.

The 2 cars in the photo are test subjects, but most likely will not be up there.  The actual yard is directly below the new "shelf yard", I need to use the hand switcher.

Started putting down ballast, secured it with matte medium, cleaned track and finally tested it.

Carl Machen - your layout looks FANTASTIC!!!!!  BRAVO!!!!

This morning the first thing I did was to run trains, albeit for 5 minutes, they were a fun filled five!!  

Just received a new ( to me ) MTH Premier Western Maryland boxcar from the Bay and a new MTH B&O side door caboose with an air whistle.  The side door caboose works well behind my B&O C-16 docksider which has no whistle .... at least until now ... pretty darn cool!

On the project list for this month: install DCS system.

Randy Harrison posted:

Carl Machen posted:

steve tapper posted:

Carl Machen posted:

Had friends over last night to play trains and a cook out. I do believe every one had a good time and seem to like my layout. Trains ran great as they should that is why I love my all MTH layout. My friend took a lot of pictures as soon as he sends them to me I will try and post some of them. All the responses from every body sure mad me proud. I can now rest a lot easer. pictures will follow as soon as I get them.

Carl and his lovely wife Judy did a wonderful job of hosting the August Meeting of the NCHR Train Club.

Carl's layout has changed quite a bit since the last time I was at his house taking pictures of the layout. While I have not edited all of the pictures I took at Carl's house I will post some of the ones I did edit. 

Carl's layout is very interesting with at least four long trains running at once and a customized MTH Firehouse which has been updated to have the Fire Engine and the Fire Chiefs car light up during operation.

His layout features an elevated section of track and also an incline in the rear of the layout. His new Esso Gas & Oil depot really catches your eye as does his military trains. He runs a lot of B&O, Western Maryland and Pennsylvania RR locos. His walls are filled with various road names of engines, freight cars and passenger cars.

Hopefully these photos taken with my Nikon D5100 DSLR will give you an idea as to the time and effort it took to build this entertaining layout. I'm hoping to spend a day with Carl photographing the layout with my studio umbrella lights for greater depth of field and natural lighting.

Steve

 

 

 

Steve I can not thank you enough for taking these pictures. I enjoyed having everybody over playing trains. The fire house is the work of my sun in law Justin who is playing around with LEDs. I think this is  just the begining with him and LEDs I would like to thank him now for all his help and my Grand daughter Elizabeth who at the age of 6 started doing all the ground cover with fusion fiber. She did such a great job I named a town after her along with her sister and brother. They are what inspired me to name the railroad after them. the EA&J RR Elizabeth, Abigale  and Johnathan. thanks again Steve

Carl:

My wife, son and I had a GREAT time at your open house on Saturday. Though we are no longer an official member of the Northern central Hi-Railers, thank you for including us. It was great to see Craig, Steve and Dave again. What you have accomplished on your layout is stunning! Justin's LED work is outstanding.  I do believe an O Gauge Railroading magazine is in your future.

Carl's layout is certainly worthy of being featured in OGR magazine Randy. That is why I want to photograph the layout with my studio umbrella lights and assist Carl with his personal story of how he became involved in the hobby and how he built his layout.

As someone who has had their layout featured in OGR magazine, Run #247 January 2011, I know that I can help him accomplish this goal.

Steve

 Broke from the xmas layout construct and went to the carpet.  Ran a 3 unit MU for the first time. BNSF 6431, KCS 4685, BNSF 9380.  Worked out pretty good. Snipped a piece of video off to get under the 100Mb limit. 

trumptrain posted:

Carl Machen - your layout looks FANTASTIC!!!!!  BRAVO!!!!

Plus 1 from me Carl. It's fantastic. Ted

Spent the morning doing what Mother Nature was suppose to do for me.........rain. Well no such luck so I spent the morning and part of the afternoon watering. I didn't get down to the layout till late in the afternoon. I was able to get more wood cut off the wall. Worked the table into place but had to move it out to cut a bit more wood. I finally got it in after the third cut but then had trouble sliding it into the opening. For the life of me I could not figure what was hanging it up. Finally found the problem. The Masonite back drop was too tall for the opening. But after tugging and pushing to fit it in I decided to call it a day. Tomorrow I am going to work through the opening with a Dremel drill and trim the Masonite so it will fit into the opening. On a high note my Angie track side flats came today. Pics......Paul

MaxSouthOz posted:

Nice job, Bruce.

I'm sure some black paint on the flywheel will help a lot. 

Thanks, Max!  

Now that the mechanical and electrical chores are done, I can turn to the cosmetics when the opportunity arises.  You bet, I'll be following your suggestion.

Bruce

paul 2 posted:

Spent the morning doing what Mother Nature was suppose to do for me.........rain. Well no such luck so I spent the morning and part of the afternoon watering. I didn't get down to the layout till late in the afternoon. I was able to get more wood cut off the wall. Worked the table into place but had to move it out to cut a bit more wood. I finally got it in after the third cut but then had trouble sliding it into the opening. For the life of me I could not figure what was hanging it up. Finally found the problem. The Masonite back drop was too tall for the opening. But after tugging and pushing to fit it in I decided to call it a day. Tomorrow I am going to work through the opening with a Dremel drill and trim the Masonite so it will fit into the opening. On a high note my Angie track side flats came today. Pics......Paul

Hey there Paul, those flats look just wonderful! I hope you post some pictures when you have them in place! That sawsall work doesn't look bad either! LOL Dad would be proud of you!

Where did you get your backdrops?

I put the track pattern on the control panel for my lower yard. Now to install switch and track contol switches. 

NYC RS3 heading toward Walnut Creek......

DOUGER, I got the backdrop from angietrackside flats on the bay. They have a bunch in O scale plus HO and N. I am also thinking of getting some in HO for distance............Paul

Looks good Paul! I like their items and have bought several of their building flats mounted on foam core. I didn't know they sold one piece backdrops like the one that you have. Thanks for sharing that info!

Mike

trumptrain posted:

Carl Machen - your layout looks FANTASTIC!!!!!  BRAVO!!!!

Pat it has been a while since I'v seen you. I would love for you to come over one day and run some some trains. give me a call some day.