What did you do on your layout today?

While cooking & baking all day for todays dinner, my new (old) 626 Hudson sprang a drive rod! the screw that holds it in and the crosshead came off, the rod & cross head have disapeared but I found the screw!  Still missing 1 screw though!

Oh my! The missing piece can't have gone too far.

I know, right!?

One of these days I'm going to augment my track-cleaning car with a depressed-center flat car,  and line the bottom of it with rare earth magnets to grab all the screws that seem to inevitably fall out of my trains.

My wife and 2 of the kids are heading off to church here soon.  I am home with the little one who is under the weather.  She is going down for a nap while they are gone and I plan to do a little track work while they are gone.  

Attention Jdevieejr and Randy Harrison

I took DoubleDaz reminder and took pictures of my photos and posted them on the real trains forum.

 

Clem

finishing my gondola!

AG.

i ran the Lionel locomotive I received 59 years ago today.

NOTHING, It's Christmas.

Patrick's van didn't start Monday, so today was a make up day.

We got that light finished.


Now I can see what I'm doing with these electrical panels.


Patrick filled, sanded and sealed the rest of the backdrop. Monday the sky will be blue!


We built that set of shelves down in the leg space. The workbench is starting to get that "lived in" look.


That green spec in the middle of all that stuff is a Tortoise switch machine. I re drilled it to accept a larger throw wire. The little brass colored box next to it is an ancient Tyco power pack. Prototype test successful. Time to go into production on the first dozen. Let the fun begin!!!

Went to Lowes this morning and bought four sets of rope lights for under my layout.  Each 18-ft set was only $4.99.  Works great!  

c. lee colbert - I sincerely apologize for this late response.  Somehow I did not see your reply to my post earlier and am just seeing it now.   I used white styofoam sheets on top of 3/4 inch particle board as the base. On top of that white styrofaom I used a Snow Blanket ( I purchased from Harrison Trains which you can google .... great product btw) ).  For the mountain I used styrofoam covered with the Snow Blanket and lots of foam nails.  Sprinkled Woodland Scenics Snow over the entire mountain.

 

 I used Woodland Scenics snow on the roads.  I also sprinkled the Woodland Scenics snow lightly ( sparingly )  over parts of the snow blanket which gave a greater definition to the realism of snow.  The Woodland Scenics snow is expensive but in my opinion the best on the market. I've tried many brands and homemade things too.   With WSS you can create tire tracks, foot prints, sleigh runner tracks, etc. all of which I did.  It makes for the most realistic "snow job" that can be had and holds its color over time.

 

I hope this answers you question.  Happy holidays!!!!

I've been working on several things, 1) added an elevated loop for AF S gauge, 2) pulled up most of the track and put down a base coat of grey for the ballast areas, and 3) Since the area was torn up anyway, I've been working on my passenger terminal area that's based off the 115 station picture in the 1940 Lionel catalog.  I still need to find several more 156 station platforms but I think it will look alright when complete.

 

My son, Chris, and I are making slow but sure progress on the upper (3rd) level of our layout as well as the connecting ramp between the 3rd and 2nd levels. We have much more to do. Chris goes back to school at the end of January. So, we do have some time to finish the project.

 

Tried some of my BBQ dirt today. Mountains are coming along.......slowly. Do need to start experimenting with bushes, grass. trees when the puzzle starts to  come together. We will see. Still having fun.

Finished some more of the streets and got them into place, see photos.  Also wired the lights in for another building.  Finally starting to see some progress after two years.  

I primed the OSB benchwork surface in preparation for a dark brown paint base color. I also work in the design in sketchup experimenting with different elevation reliefs.

jlm1923 - your buildings remind me instantly of the square in Mercer PA.  Don't know if you were going for a particular look but those buildings put together put me in my wife's hometown in a heartbeat.  Looking good.

After much work over the years and numerous delays, I finally ran some wire under my layout. I wired up the outer loop and ran an engine for the very first time on my layout today!!

Tim C.

I found these guys in the clearance aisle at Walmart.  They cost me $0.48 (so I bought three!).  They measure 1.125" to 1.25".  If you shove an LED inside where the pencil is supposed to go, I bet it would look just like a 4-foot inflatable yard decoration.

 

 

Jhz563

Not looking for any particular look, just flying by the seat of my pants.  Thanks for your comments and happy railroading.

 

James

I placed a doorknob (common pin) on the door of the shack on my "beer blast" scene.  It's getting really hard to find any more to do on the layout.

Over the last 2 days I got all middle level track down. (3 main lines with 2 sidings and 1 passing sidings)  Wired the outer main line.  Then the real fun pulled out most of my engines (some I haven't run in over 6 years) and ran them around the outer loop.  They all fired up perfectly and ran like they did years ago.  Tomorrow the inner main lines will get wired along with the sidings and hopefully Tuesday all the switches get done.

Yesterday I dismantled the holiday layout and put everything away.

Today I tore up the outer loop of the basement layout and put in some 060 fastrack to run some bigger equipment.  Also hooked up the wireless remote for the z-4000 and ran a couple of trains and trolley that had been sitting in boxes all year.

 

 

We completed the ramp from the middle to the upper level of the layout enough to test-run a locomotive. Below is a link to the video of the test-run. It is best viewed in full-screen mode.

 

http://youtu.be/kxHFBVnVeZc

Yesterday Patrick and I attended the Choo Choo Bob train show in St Paul where I picked up 22 used Tortoise switch machines for $8 each.

 

Today I spent 3 hours removing the old electrical leads, testing, and replacing throw wires in preparation to add them to the layout. In the process I found 3 that were not functioning properly. They sound like they have gear problems. I'm gonna try opening up the worst one and see what makes it tick (literally).

 

Yesterday we ran our Berkshire with all our flat cars and ran our Hogwarts engine with the passenger cars around the town. Got really smokey in the room! 

LOVE that smoke! Can't have too much of it,but since that has never been a problem for me, I'd welcome more anytime. My best smokers used to be my MTH steam locomotives, but since I run TMCC engines exclusively, nowadays, they all seem insipid huffers-n-puffers.

 

When I had my MTJ scale Blue Comet (seen here) changed over to TMCC, it dropped from being my best room-filler, and the place has not been the same since, alas.

 

As long as people can stand up and not get woozie (except from the champagne glasses in their hands,) I can accept a London-fog. I consider locomotive smoke on a layout to be "room-filling-cheer."

FrankM.

P.S. Did you ever stand next to a real-life steam locomotive as it was resting, or pulling out, or roaring down the trax? I have (Pittsburgh,PA, in the 40's and 50's). You shield your eyes and do not wear white (though I did wear a new white baseball hat at Steamtown, Scranton, PA, standing next to the turntable pit, a couple years ago, and paid the price.)    Talk about smoke!!!

FrankM

Can't say that I have. :/ And the smoke is one of my favorite parts about the trains. The smell is instantly recognizable and without it model trains aren't the same. My Dad and I love it, but I think were the only ones in the house that do.  

My Grandfather had the  original Blue Comet, never got to see it in person though!

 

Randy that was great!! 

Finished the track laying on my new upper 0-72 loop!

 

Got the layout running again.  Updated the SCARM file as well as my Schem-It schematic.  Tomorrow I hope to label the wires and wire up the other two buildings.  Then I guess the wiring is done for the time being and its on to decorations.

Finished wiring the mainline a inner loops. Ran and engine through all and found a switch that did not pass power through the center rail. Had to run a jumper to fix that. Hope to start wiring sidings and turntable this weekend.

Tim C.

I installed the two Atlas switches I got for Christmas.

 

Now I have the beginning of a four track yard!

Beginning ballasting, so pretty exciting.