What did you do on your layout today?

Pat,

Looks like yesterday was a busy day at Patsburg!

trumptrain posted:

Today I had no time to do anything on the layout.  Last night I ran trains and took some photos.

Enjoyed the photos.

ok  a little something going on for the layout up north. Working on a Union Station for the layout using classic lionel items such as the station platforms and a 115 station. Tracks are on two levels and the station building is on a terrace extending over the lower level rails. The station plaza has a brick paving fenced in with a wrought iron fence. The arches in front will soon be covered with stone from Chooch model works. So here are a few photos. 

This morning I got the last light I bought up. Measured to see how many sections of brick wall I'll need. Found a different color of prairie grass and added some to the lift out section. After lunch I'll measured for side walks......Paul

Worked on switches in the yard.  They seem to work well now.  Then I ran a couple of freights, while the the passenger consists laid aside.

Late this afternoon my brick paper came. For the streets I decided I wanted brick roads and I liked the look of this brick paper. I ordered two packs but I should of ordered three packs. Did not have quite enough to completely lay out the bottom road. I was able to half the sheet for what I needed as to the width. I'll be placing sidewalks on both sides of the upper road when I get them. I decided to go with Korber sidewalks because they are 2 inches wide and I can cut them down to one inch which would give me a four foot wide sidewalk. The bottom road will only have a sidewalk on the building side of the street, I marked off each section and painted the area black. I figure if I do not quite get them butted up the plywood color won't show through. Maybe after dinner I'll start gluing the brick down. Pics.........Paul 

Paul,

I like brick streets too!  Your's will look good!

Mark Boyce posted:

Paul,

I like brick streets too! ...

Yes, me too, Mark and Paul, and here's one from a long time ago that still exists. It's called Center Street.

and another old one that is still around, called Second Street...

FrankM.

re-arranged several items on my Std. Gauge layout to accommodate the two No. 444 T-Reproductions roundhouse sections that arrived today

Moonson posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

Paul,

I like brick streets too! ...

Yes, me too, Mark and Paul, and here's one from a long time ago that still exists. It's called Center Street.

and another old one that is still around, called Second Street...

FrankM.

We still have lots of brick streets and roads in Butler.  Our older daughter and her husband live on a brick road winding down the hill.

Paul, I sure like how you think out side the box! I think the roads will look great when all said and done! Great Idea!

Mark Boyce posted:

Moonson posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

Paul,

I like brick streets too! ...

Yes, me too, Mark and Paul, and here's one from a long time ago that still exists. It's called Center Street.

and another old one that is still around, called Second Street...

FrankM.

We still have lots of brick streets and roads in Butler.  Our older daughter and her husband live on a brick road winding down the hill.

We still have a few roads here also in King County Washington, one is a historical site so about every 5 years they go out and re-sand the street and roll the sand in with a rubber tire roller. Then go back and sweep up all the extra sand and save it for next time. We have about 10 pallets of brick just for repairs on that one stretch of road!

Lions, Tigers, and Stations, oh my!

setting up the original Lionel No. 124 Station that just arrived,

and creating a vignette at the nearby original Lionel No.155 Freight Shed with some of the circus animals escaping...

Dear Lady - you need a much bigger house !!

Carey TeaRose posted:

re-arranged several items on my Std. Gauge layout to accommodate the two No. 444 T-Reproductions roundhouse sections that arrived today

Carey, if you are going to make your layout bigger and don't have room for a turn table you may want to use a 45 degree cross to enter the round houses. I've seen it done on one of the standard gauge youtube videos.  Each tail of the cross went to its own switch on the layout.  I think it was called Gpappy's Standard Gauge #7. If its not #7 then look at some of his other videos, it's there. Its a clever way to enter the houses on a narrow layout. Good luck.

                         just ran some trains for little while........

Today I got my upper road glued down. The bare plywood will be covered by the sidewalks. No work tomorrow on the layout. Independence Train and Toy show tomorrow, Saturday 10 - 3. I decided to take some things to ell that I have never used. Pics............Paul

Looks good Paul, but inquiring minds want to know what your selling!

I bet that's 'fun' driving down those brick roads with snow on them, or even if they're wet!  I remember going down one as a kid on my bike: ouch.

samparfitt posted:

I bet that's 'fun' driving down those brick roads with snow on them, or even if they're wet!  I remember going down one as a kid on my bike: ouch.

Yes that is all part of getting around in our very hilly area!  

Other than running trains, most of my building efforts seem to be at the workbench lately.  This cast metal MTH shell and chassis were found while scavenging under a vendors table.  It seemed a worthy candidate for bashing into a better representation of the NYC woodie.  It came decorated as a SF caboose so I removed the insignia and applied appropriate decals..

Catwalks were made from strip wood.  Later RailKing and Premier versions in plastic have these roof details cast into the shell.  A plastic version was canibalized for some of its parts.  Chimney and roof vent were fashioned from brass

Rather than bore you with all the gory details, it now looks like this.  Been dabbling in 3RS by adding Kadees and swapping out the pizza cutters on some of my recent rolling stock.

Bruce

Nice job, Bruce. 

Mighty fine job Bruce!

mike g. posted:

Looks good Paul, but inquiring minds want to know what your selling!

Hmmm, I could go to Independence and find out.  Only a 4 1/2 hour round trip!

Cleaned out a corner. Found rolling stock that I bought 25 years ago or longer I never used. Plus a couple of older ZW's I quit using when MTH came out with the Z4000. Also decided to try to sell my Atlas turntable. Bought that thinking I had a good area for it but found out I did not have enough room for anything else. More then likely what I take there tomorrow will come back home with me and go back in the corner again.................Paul

Paul, if you don't sell the Atlas turntable, I know a guy in Michigan who is looking for one if he knows it works first.  I found him one, then we found out the plastic gearing inside was stripped out.

samparfitt posted:

I bet that's 'fun' driving down those brick roads with snow on them, or even if they're wet!  I remember going down one as a kid on my bike: ouch.

Those two brick roads in my hometown area were awful to even walk on, let alone drive on, if they were wet, no matter the temperature. Of course, if snow or ice were present, you might just as well have sat down and gone for a bumpy slide.

On one occasion, a '56 Pontiac loaded with teenaged boys , out for a hoot, got a real HOWL when the brakes failed part way down old brick Center Street. We were especially FREAKED-OUT when we were frantically forced to speedily consider what was going to happen when we reached the intersection at the bottom of the steep hill. Throwing the car in Low and alternating use of the handbrake helped us to slow our roll enough to only ZIP through the traffic light, at the bottom, which, miraculously was in our favor by the time be reached the bottom.

And that's my brick pavement story, circa the 1960's.

need to get back to trains a little the other hobbies are to expensive !!!!.  I could have bought 2 Vision line Big Boys for the price of this repair. Machined the block .040 over all new internals should be putting out 450hp then new exhaust manifolds New tips and I did the glass work and paint. added the swim platforms after finding someone taking an original set off of there boat . Trains are much cheaper. also I did a motor swap in the tow rig too went from a 350 to a 454 in the suburban that pulls it. Trains are cheaper. 

Jhainer posted:

need to get back to trains a little the other hobbies are to expensive !!!!.  I could have bought 2 Vision line Big Boys for the price of this repair. Machined the block .040 over all new internals should be putting out 450hp then new exhaust manifolds New tips and I did the glass work and paint. added the swim platforms after finding someone taking an original set off of there boat . Trains are much cheaper. also I did a motor swap in the tow rig too went from a 350 to a 454 in the suburban that pulls it. Trains are cheaper. 

 

Nice work. I feel your pain as I've been working on my Humvee for the last month. I was going over what I have spent on parts, repairs and other things. Could of built the new layout and have money to by trains. Where's the pic of the tow rig.

paul 2 posted:

Today I got my upper road glued down. The bare plywood will be covered by the sidewalks. No work tomorrow on the layout. Independence Train and Toy show tomorrow, Saturday 10 - 3. I decided to take some things to ell that I have never used. Pics............Paul

Berea show next weekend.

suzukovich posted:

Jhainer posted:

need to get back to trains a little the other hobbies are to expensive !!!!.  I could have bought 2 Vision line Big Boys for the price of this repair. Machined the block .040 over all new internals should be putting out 450hp then new exhaust manifolds New tips and I did the glass work and paint. added the swim platforms after finding someone taking an original set off of there boat . Trains are much cheaper. also I did a motor swap in the tow rig too went from a 350 to a 454 in the suburban that pulls it. Trains are cheaper. 

 

Nice work. I feel your pain as I've been working on my Humvee for the last month. I was going over what I have spent on parts, repairs and other things. Could of built the new layout and have money to by trains. Where's the pic of the tow rig.

 the motor in the boat is the second one this year the machine shop made many mistakes and of course doesn't want to do anything about it . the second machine shop told me about the mistakes Wrong head gaskets, never decked the block, and still had metal shavings in the oil passages. so after 10 Hr's of run time the head gaskets were blown, cylinders were scared up from sand going thru the blown head gaskets into the cylinders. from metal the bearings were bad but not knocking yet. Crank needed to be turned again so the motor went from a .030 over to .040 over on the cylinders and .010 on mains and rods to ,20 on mains and rods . funny motor still ran great just down on power.  Cylinder after less than 10 hrs of runtime. I wasn't happy about it !! Trains are cheaper I have to say.. 

 Boats are fun, but money pits. We used to dock across from a Showtime (I), II, III &? etc on Erie and the Detroit River. It was basically around for as long as I can remember. The quality of most high turnover rebuilt motor suppliers is abismal. "Warrantys" that don't pan out, etc. It's nearly a racket; about a 50% chane of failure off the crate. So for stock-ish swaps, took to buying, disassembly cleaning the galleys (engines...not cabin and reassembling checking things quickly along the way.

Wet brick, and freshly wet asphalt is as slick as ice at times. I used to check my own lugnuts myself even and especially if a garage did the work, and my emergency brake gets set 2-3 per month to keep the cables from freezing up; summer and automatics too. It, especially the brake, has saved my life numerous times and is a usful tool for driving "with style", offroad, at the track, on downhill, on ice. It can keep you straight when sliding if abs isn't doing it for you.

I forgot about this brick. Old stuff,  less dog dust now

  There is a load sized, batt. op. Lionel fiberglass sport boat, and I hear that paint sticks to plastic pretty well I think you could wrangle something out of one of these boats to smooth your spending transitions and avoid any traumatic "hobby shock" .    Go rc. There's room. I bet 4 of these could fit in a boat shell

Jhainer posted:

suzukovich posted:

Jhainer posted:

need to get back to trains a little the other hobbies are to expensive !!!!.  I could have bought 2 Vision line Big Boys for the price of this repair. Machined the block .040 over all new internals should be putting out 450hp then new exhaust manifolds New tips and I did the glass work and paint. added the swim platforms after finding someone taking an original set off of there boat . Trains are much cheaper. also I did a motor swap in the tow rig too went from a 350 to a 454 in the suburban that pulls it. Trains are cheaper. 

 

Nice work. I feel your pain as I've been working on my Humvee for the last month. I was going over what I have spent on parts, repairs and other things. Could of built the new layout and have money to by trains. Where's the pic of the tow rig.

 the motor in the boat is the second one this year the machine shop made many mistakes and of course doesn't want to do anything about it . the second machine shop told me about the mistakes Wrong head gaskets, never decked the block, and still had metal shavings in the oil passages. so after 10 Hr's of run time the head gaskets were blown, cylinders were scared up from sand going thru the blown head gaskets into the cylinders. from metal the bearings were bad but not knocking yet. Crank needed to be turned again so the motor went from a .030 over to .040 over on the cylinders and .010 on mains and rods to ,20 on mains and rods . funny motor still ran great just down on power.  Cylinder after less than 10 hrs of runtime. I wasn't happy about it !! Trains are cheaper I have to say.. 

Boats and swimming pools- much better to have friends who own them....

                     played a game of CHESS ie.............

Agreed and I Have both go figure a 34x16 and the boat . SMH my old boat was a 1988 Mirage 217 with a 400 small block named Showtime over 600 HP I worked at Sunsation as a kid well 18 that's why I bought it. hasn't been bad I did a complete restore just 2 motors in a total of 2 seasons  with only about 10 hrs on the first one was a bite in the wallet As for my layout  I think I keep getting to ambituous and loose interest theres aspects I like and aspects I don't and My OCD/add if I don't like something its start over which honestly I hate.  so right now it is disassembled

Project completed!  I have reassigned an MTH, photo 2, Light Mikado, purchased on eBay, to the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railroad (D.M.&I.R.Ry).  This engine started life as a Baltimore & Ohio light Mikado.  Today it represents my version of prototype, #1326, Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railroad 2-8-2 Mikado.

Step 1: Removed original road markings - a soft cloth dipped in acetone removed all road markings without affecting the base color.

Step 2: Removed some of the pilot tubes to make room for added foot boards. Foot boards were made from styrene.

Step 3:  Construct new tender foot boards

Step 4: Removed tender coal load and modify coal bunker.  Narrowed bunker and added sloping sides per prototype.

Step 5: Constructed dog-house out of styrene.

Step 7: Primed new modifications with ACE gray automotive primer. 

Step 8: Applied finish coat as needed: ACE Premium enamel black Flat which proved to be almost a perfect match to factory coat. 

Step 9: Applied Tester’s 1261 Glosscote to areas to receive decals.

Step 10: Added appropriate decals and painted safety strips on foot boards.

Step 11: Applied Tester’s 1260 Dullcote to entire model - May do this to all of my steam fleet - really like the look of the finish.

Step 12: Replaced & cemented coal load in bunker

Step 13: Enjoyed a celebratory “Scotch on the rocks” as the #1326 dragged an ore load in revenue service.

At a later date - Step 14 - Weather the engine.

Dave

Step 1:  Remove original road markings and coal load

Step 2:  New styrene foot boards

Step 3:  Add new tender foot boads

Step 4:  Modified coal bunker

Step 5: tender "Doghouse"

Step 6:  Ready for primer

Step 7:  Primer all new additions

Step 8:  Finish coat - ACE Premium flat black

Step 9:  Transformation complete!

Step 10:  Back in service with the D.M.&I.R.Ry - Scotch in hand!

I made 20 of these. They're not so much a timetable as a guide for rules, the history of the layout and the overall concept of it.

They're even stamped with am embossing tool from a notary public that operated in the area the layout takes place, the stamp is from the 20s or 30s and names the correct county on it.

Anyone actually taking part in an op session is given one. I'd run out after my last op session.

briansilvermustang posted:

                     played a game of CHESS ie............. 

 

   Thinks he's one Fairbanks & Morse away from being Trains Master Chess -ie Player , but he's given me Freedom from my expected freight move alowing a switch to a runaround maneuver......

Steam's Northern to Cat's Meow, Chess-mate. 

That's the 7 moves game. I wanted to dump all that freight you took to clear my line. Watch your towers and look out for the iron horses better and you might win........and stop worrying about that shelf queen so much .....Another?