What did you do on your layout today?

Added a trolley loop to my layout 

MIKE G, I don't have scale trax. I use Gar Graves track..........Paul

Greetings Everyone,

Decided to do a little scenery on the south side of the layout.   Didn't get too involved but I just wanted to do a little track work to see if I liked the results.   So far, so good.

Chief Bob (Retired)

I had a clash of hobbies today.

I used to collect VW toys (and the prototypes ), and had many hundreds of them.

Somewhere along the line I picked up an MTH Type I sedan (Beetle) inspection vehicle, and always wanted a Van (Bus, T-2, Transporter, Kombi, etc.) to go with it. 

I sold off most of collection, but have a few kicking around that matched the scale of the MTH Bug. I had read the "Back to the Future" thread aboout dreams of powering an O gauge Deloreon, and got to recalling the movies VW Bus scene, and then my MTH, and that lead to thinking about VW's R.R. MOW equipment, VW Fire Trucks, and VW Ambulances; all very interesting builds mechanically; and to make a long story........   I finally tore into one of my T-2 VW toys. No power yet.   It's just a rolling trailer right now.

  Video won't load right now, so here is some stills of what got me going, and grabs of where I might end up. I'm going to have trouble deciding.

The frame's front axle saddle was too thin to stand the O.D. of these fat axle Rivarossi pilot wheels. I had to add a plate of white styrene to the black frame's top to reinforce the frame and after removing the saddle.

Kinda neat, in the VW scene a popular dress wheel is this 8 spoke, or a rare 10 spoke; so the spoked look "fits"

The axle rests on the new styrene, in a widened slot that was the saddle. It is held centered by axle grooves with homemade stainless steel U shaped "staples". Run now there is a saddle an inch or so long. Thats a lot of drag so I will likely  cut out the center above the axle, leaving two small outboard saddles to support it.

Despite resting on the styrene, it still sits higher in the front than it originally. It was dead level originally. The rear end squating is normal prototypically, and a heavy duty set of springs would raise the front. However, it is still exaggerated here. But I kinda like the extra squat too; you can't help but be reminded of the proto's stance.

A quick set of drawbars. (The MTH Bug got an Erector Set's 'L' bracket, which also accepts a lobsterclaw coupler/adapter for running tandom tenders. The Bug can pull one light car..or this bus till I power it)

This broken bumper was how I decided which toy Bus to hack on. I'm thinking about a vintage push bar/brush gaurd set of bumpers (frnt below)

...or maybe forgetting about a motor, and hack another Bus to make a car?

What do you think?

Maybe a fire truck? Ladder and hose racks go on top, they have pumps powered by a second vw 4cylinder too.

 Hmmmmm.....

Or maybe I should think bigger?

Hey Mike which would you go with? 

(How's IS the thumb ?  

Happy Halloween everyone! 

I like it !

Adriatic, I really like the idea of the Fire truck! I was a volunteer fire fighter for 20 years so that would be great! The thumb is doing ok, kind a makes it hard to type, and hurts like hell when I bump it! LOL 9 more days then I go get the stitches out.

                                            got the 1st row of shelves down....

  before......

    after......

  a lot of painting to do now......    everything down here gets painted flat black.....

                                                   are we done yet ?

mike g. posted:

Adriatic, I really like the idea of the Fire truck! I was a volunteer fire fighter for 20 years so that would be great! The thumb is doing ok, kind a makes it hard to type, and hurts like hell when I bump it! LOL 9 more days then I go get the stitches out.

" Thumbs up " .... That's too funny 

Chief Bob, the scenicing looks great!

Adriatic, I love the VWs!!!  You showed some great handy work here!  I always liked the pickup truck style myself, but it's your RR!!

Brian, More of the same; you accomplished so much!!!  Are you retired???

still working, 10hrs a day.......12 more years to go.....

briansilvermustang posted:

still working, 10hrs a day.......

Wow!

I'll second that WOW! Mark Brian is just like the Energizer bunny! He just keeps going and going!

Adriatic, thanks for the modified thumbs up! LOL That's just great!

Ran a data wire to the rest of my DZ2500 switches and got them programed.  Also made a small rack for my smaller wire spools (don't know why I didn't do that earlier) and cleaned up a little bit of my accessory wiring.

                                             saw this earlier on the web......

                                 went home and ran this one at lunch today.....

I ran the trains around the layout. Every locomotive, from one end to the other. Just because I could. Then, I took a couple of shots of the layout. Again, just because I could.

On Saturday, I had the op session day. I volunteered my layout along with several others in the general area, all for charity. People came from several different states, to run trains on various local layouts.

I had two groups of people, all apparently had a good time.

One guy kept throwing turnouts under locomotives and cars, and had several derailments that the previous group didn't have. Other than that, I think it went pretty well.

Lee,

I'm glad everyone had fun on the operating day!!

Finally got my N. P. dummy unit fixed. Bought with all sorts of issues but thanks to a few members on here she turned out great. 

Sure are some great looking Pictures there Lee! You should think about shooting a black and white video! 

took a few photos of the activity at Elizabeth Station today.....

                                                    went trick or treating.....

                                                                  then....

                                       some more layout deconstruction......

gandydancer1950 posted:

took a few photos of the activity at Elizabeth Station today.....

The station area looks quite busy!  Looks great!

Decided to bring my ICBM's up to the launch pads..... just in case   

GG1, 

LOL!

Slow progress on the mountain.  Funny thing, but as a manager I used to be good at making mountains out of molehills.

Looks like you are doing it right, Mayor!  I like the adage, 'slow and steady wins the race.'

Very nice Mayor Magoo !!   looking good

quick tour of the progress of the layout sorry for some of the mess

took a nap

Mess is acceptable, FL9!

I see you are into coal power stations, the older and newer!  I like the rotary coal dump.  It was cool watching the prototype dump when I worked at the power station many years ago!!  It is all looking mighty good!

Mark Boyce posted:

Mess is acceptable, FL9!

I see you are into coal power stations, the older and newer!  I like the rotary coal dump.  It was cool watching the prototype dump when I worked at the power station many years ago!!  It is all looking mighty good!

I love it as well there was one by my house in Baltimore were I grew up at so I had to have it on my layout

GG1 posted:

Decided to bring my ICBM's up to the launch pads..... just in case   

DEFCON 4!!!   Rocketman better cool it! 

I started the morning finishing off the re routed drain pipe for the furnace. I had Duct putty left over so I packed it around the pipe where I drilled through the walls to get it to the old shower drain. I cut out some more cardboard to see how a road would look crossing the tracks on the lift out. Then I measured for the first table extension and got it cut right the first time. This is the 4 inch wide piece. I still have to cut the 3 inch wide piece for the other side of the lift out and mount the wood brackets for that. Taking time for lunch then back to the layout. Pics............Paul

This afternoon I got the other section cut and both are now screwed into place.  Also decided to round the end of the long section rather then just have a corner sticking out in the aisle. And the lift out section goes in easy. Pics...............Paul

That looks really good, Paul!

Mayor Magoo, I think your on the right path. Go to fast and something always gets missed and you have to go back to fix it. Slow and easy is the way to go!

FL9, thanks for the fun video, I see a lot of Menards stuff there, I can see you agree with a lot of us you cant beat the product for the price!

GG1, I feel sorry for anyone who wants to screw with you and your layout! LOL

Paul, as always things are looking just wonderful! Great call on rounding the corner cause it would really hurt when you hit it!

It's really hard to say a lot when Mark  has already said what needs to be said about you wonderful builders here!

Hey Mike, It is all worth saying again and again!

Finished off with painting the edges of the plywood and getting out a few Downtown Deco buildings for the lower level. Pics............Paul

                                          a little demo and a couple beers....

                                    looks like puppy joined in on the demo day.....

                                                  old garage days uncovered.....      

                                                         getting there.....

                                    have used wood everywhere now.....

                                                 time for another beer.....

Brian, sure looks like a lot of work. Do you have a layout plan you can share so we can fallow along? Looks like the pup was just trying to get comfy!