What did you do on your layout today?

Now that I have finished moving my brass instrument repair business out of my house to a new location in downtown Baltimore, I have some time to work on my layout. Today I spent some time removing old track and road bed from our city scene  in preparation for new track, with more switches and sidings as well as a fresh blanket of snow for the city of Christopolis. There is new industry moving into Christopolis and a two - track siding must be installed for the loading dock area. Also, our busy dock at our harbor is getting its own siding to facilitate the transfer of freight form boat to train. Switches are also being added to the two mainline tracks that serve Christopolis to act as passages from one main line to the other to more easily route trains to their correct tracks at the new Union Station that is being built. The rural suburb of Terryville will also receive a face lift once the city scene is completed.

Randy, I'm glad you are at it making some upgrades to track, industries, and scenery!  A new blanket of snow!!!  Oh, it's too early for that!  

Mark Boyce posted:

Randy, I'm glad you are at it making some upgrades to track, industries, and scenery!  A new blanket of snow!!!  Oh, it's too early for that!  

By the time  am finished it won't be too early.

Also Mark, I am eager to see your layout as it progresses.

Thanks everyone for you kind words & support, getting ready to power up and do test runs with ol' ESPEE AS616  bought at JIMS TRAIVS 2008

took 4 1/2 minutes to run loop  at  30 mph

Randy, I am with you that the snow will be flying by the time you get that far!

Jushavnfun, And a drum roll please....  The AS616 is really great looking!  Good choice for a first run!

Jushavnfun posted:

Thanks everyone for you kind words & support, getting ready to power up and do test runs with ol' ESPEE AS616  bought at JIMS TRAIVS 2008

took 4 1/2 minutes to run loop  at  30 mph

I've got one of those as well. A mid 90's release from MTH. Has only a horn. It's been dead reliable for years.

My wife and I just got back from a vacation in Boston. Still have a couple days off so I had a beer and ran some trains, a freight with a couple Geeps and the Chief.

jgtrh62 posted:

Some excellent modeling here guys, always nice to check in here to see what folks are doing! Nice photos as usual Brian, nice scene and backdrop Bob, Mike that power plant is incredible, Chris all I can say is WOW! Jushavnfun love the transcon concept, can’t wait to see more. Lee the AN cars, your auto scenes and video look great. Thanks to all for sharing!

Thanks John 

and to all you guys on this fourm its a real inspiration to me most fun I’ve had model railroading. 

Once again but it bares repeating this thread is the best by far....so many great ideas and inspiration to keep one going.  So with that said got the prison and Menards police station wired up tonight and played around with populating the prison.  Still have more prisoners to put out there but until I get some more guards union rules say they will have to stay in the box.  Added some prisoners to the Menards police station as they will be processed before moving up the hill to the prison.  More little details to add but not a bad start. 

Bryan, I’m glad you are beefing up security!  You don’t have a bay like ALCATRAZ, and you don’t want an Attica fiasco!  I think folks are safe from jailbreaks, which is good for us in Northwest Pennsylvania too!!  

Ran trains and took some layout photos.  Got some ideas for some new camera angles which I will go back and shoot later this week.  Had lots of fun! 

Randy Harrison posted:

Now that I have finished moving my brass instrument repair business out of my house to a new location in downtown Baltimore, I have some time to work on my layout. Today I spent some time removing old track and road bed from our city scene  in preparation for new track, with more switches and sidings as well as a fresh blanket of snow for the city of Christopolis. There is new industry moving into Christopolis and a two - track siding must be installed for the loading dock area. Also, our busy dock at our harbor is getting its own siding to facilitate the transfer of freight form boat to train. Switches are also being added to the two mainline tracks that serve Christopolis to act as passages from one main line to the other to more easily route trains to their correct tracks at the new Union Station that is being built. The rural suburb of Terryville will also receive a face lift once the city scene is completed.

Wow Randy, I wish you were closer. I have the hardest time trying to get a good repair man for school instruments. I have always said there is a connection between music and trains, lol.

Dave

Bryan, The prison looks fantastic. I like the addition of prisoners to the police station. The only thing the prison could use, IMHO, is a guard tower with a searchlight. Great scene regardless, though.

                             starting out the morning run...

Repainted an old Postwar caboose that I converted to a track cleaner.  The paint match is a little light but close enough for me.  Now I need to find US Army decals & also Hospital Red Cross decals.

Bryan, the prison and police station look great! 

Matt, the green looks good from here, if you don't find decals you might try to just print some up?

Pat Kn posted:

Bryan, The prison looks fantastic. I like the addition of prisoners to the police station. The only thing the prison could use, IMHO, is a guard tower with a searchlight. Great scene regardless, though.

I wanted to do something like that but space in that corner was at a premium so somethings had to be left out.  Heck the one corner is really too close to the fence that someone could jump over the fence from the 3rd or 4th level.  

You talking from experiance Bryan LOL Prison and One Police plaz came out great. ...........Paul

Randy Harrison posted:

Now that I have finished moving my brass instrument repair business out of my house to a new location in downtown Baltimore, I have some time to work on my layout. Today I spent some time removing old track and road bed from our city scene  in preparation for new track, with more switches and sidings as well as a fresh blanket of snow for the city of Christopolis. There is new industry moving into Christopolis and a two - track siding must be installed for the loading dock area. Also, our busy dock at our harbor is getting its own siding to facilitate the transfer of freight form boat to train. Switches are also being added to the two mainline tracks that serve Christopolis to act as passages from one main line to the other to more easily route trains to their correct tracks at the new Union Station that is being built. The rural suburb of Terryville will also receive a face lift once the city scene is completed.

Randy - great to hear that your layout is progressing!!  It's going to be fantastic when completed!! 

Hey Paul,

My Menards order is in why don't you run over there and pick it up for me and bring it tonight to Dennis's.  lol

Jeepers Bryan as much as I would like to do that for you I have less then a week to get ready for next week. But maybe I will just call Al and cancel....Paul

Finally finished the canyon/lake/trestle corner of the new table.

       looks GREAT Bruce

Well I am down to being half a procrastinator. Yesterday I ran out of time. Too many things going on. Today though I got all the pieces of wood cut for the control panel. So that's a wrap for the day because tonight is another Tuesday night Train crew get together. Tomorrow morning I have to cut some pieces of wood to anchor the plywood together. Then I can start to put it all together and see if it is going to work. Pics...............Paul

Fantastic job Bruce

Bryan in Ohio

Make it a "smart" prison with robotic gun turrents

 Talking about prison escapes always puts my mind on this scene's close  

https://youtu.be/pibqo6Z4Cgo?t=2m4s

briansilvermustang posted:

 

Last trip to Universal....

Got this Miller Engineering sign mounted and wired on top of my layout's Union Station. 

I think I worked myself down to only being a 1/3 procrastinator today. Started the day off by cutting pieces of wood to reinforce the plywood for the control panel. Had to stop to open a package dropped of today. Another Weaver TOFC. But the joy of getting something in the mail is past and now back to working on the control panel. Pics.......Paul

Brian, the fleet knows no end!! 

Lou, that Miller Santa Fe sign looks terrific on your Union Station.  The layout looks cool at night!

Paul, You are doing just fine.  It is always worth the break to open a package that came in the mail.  I love that green and orange scheme the Great Northern used in those days.  The TOFC looks great!!

Brian, some really nice pictures there! SP sure had some nice looking engines!

Lou, Wonderful work on the EVENS sign! Looks great!

Paul, Your moving right along, I can almost see the switches being thrown on your new control panel! Nice work!

Finished milk platform scene:

Mike, thanks. The control panel is going to be small. No switches on it. The majority of the switches will be using Caboose ground throws and the few that will be out of hand reach their controls will be located near them on the facia. Also uncoupling track controls will be located on the facia too where they are on the layout.............Paul 

Not a lot of work done this week tbh, but I did fix a broken truck fixing pin on an Atlas N&W bay window caboose, so now I have an actual finished caboose to use on my layout instead of a primed wide vision I bagged from eBay a while back.

I also picked up an unbuilt Williams cupola caboose kit and some Athearn 2-rail trucks for it to ride on. After removing the cast on grab irons and hand rails, I've primed it red. It will eventually become an ex-Savannah and Atlanta cab in Southern Railway colours. I still need to do a lot of work on the chassis, and scratchbuild both of the cab ends, handrails, brake wheels, etc, but I'm making progress.

Hopefully it'll be ready for use on my layout at the Winchester O Scale show on October 20th.

Ed, the milk platform area looks nice, good work!

Paul, if no switches, what is going on the control panel?

Dan, great start on your caboose! Take your time and have fun!

Once again , Nice Brian!

Gonna sell an older set of Super Chief cars due to a recent upgrade.  So I whipped up a few flats for a background to make some beauty shots.  Nothing special, but does the job.