I successfully restored my model of a Tankar gas station, after taking one day off to sulk, and read this huge book on western ghost towns picked up at Indy O scale show. Two days of work after that and l managed to even duplicate the Inselbrick l had to strip off walls. Didn't find duplicates of all signs, but substituted. Read can before you spray! Now l have a RightOnTrack Models grain elevatorkit in front of me, and am mulling over how to bash it, maybe with a higher tower?
Since I'm hosting our train club in less than 2 weeks I really can't start any new big projects. One item that has been bugging me is just seeing the green foam board where landscaping, water, and roads will eventually go. So even though it will eventually be covered up it visually helps visitors see what I'm envisioning. So I found some old paint and got the water areas painted tonight. Over the next few days I'll do street and landscape areas.
Quick and dirty water, Bryan! I like it. It really made a difference as a stand in until you get time to do some of your great modeling on the water scene!
TedW posted:Well, I at least looked at mine...
This is what I saw.
lWell done. I love it night scenes they are illuminating😎
LUVINDEMTRAINS, Be careful, Brian has every road name in the U.S., Probably the WORLD! LOL
NECRAILS, its never to start on scenery! I have seen people rip out stuff they have had for years and redo it!
Mark, if I were you I would just roll that nice blue cart into the new train room when ready!
Bryan, looks good to me! No matter what the guys will love your layout! But if you wanted to have a little fun you could put a small boat in the water with Paul in it! LOL
Bryan, I have found model railroaders are some of the most imaginative people. They can see things before they are finished. Tell your guests that there is water under the bridge, and they will see it. Give them a fishing pole and watch what they pull from the water.
The layout is beautiful. Remember that deadlines are self-imposed. There is always the next open house. It's not procrastination, it's creative reflection.
Sincerely, John Rowlen
mike g. posted:LUVINDEMTRAINS, Be careful, Brian has every road name in the U.S., Probably the WORLD! LOL
NECRAILS, its never to start on scenery!
Mark, if I were you I would just roll that nice blue cart into the new train room when ready!
Bryan, looks good to me! No matter what the guys will love your layout! But if you wanted to have a little fun you could put a small boat in the water with Paul in it! LOL
Actually under water sleeping with the fishes lol
Bryan in Ohio posted:mike g. posted:LUVINDEMTRAINS, Be careful, Brian has every road name in the U.S., Probably the WORLD! LOL
NECRAILS, its never to start on scenery!
Mark, if I were you I would just roll that nice blue cart into the new train room when ready!
Bryan, looks good to me! No matter what the guys will love your layout! But if you wanted to have a little fun you could put a small boat in the water with Paul in it! LOL
Actually under water sleeping with the fishes lol
It must just be a blast when you 2 get together! What great friends!
Mike, good idea about the blue cart! It may become a fixture!
colorado hirailer posted:I successfully restored my model of a Tankar gas station, after taking one day off to sulk, and read this huge book on western ghost towns picked up at Indy O scale show. Two days of work after that and l managed to even duplicate the Inselbrick l had to strip off walls. Didn't find duplicates of all signs, but substituted. Read can before you spray! Now l have a RightOnTrack Models grain elevatorkit in front of me, and am mulling over how to bash it, maybe with a higher tower?
I was speachless when I read that. No jokes or consoling words would have cut through the gloom. Glad to hear it panned out well after all.
Test before you spray, don't just read. And let the test dry too. I've gotten gloss in cans marked flat and flat in cans marked gloss, and clear in a black can (or was it silver?) as well. I.e., from Rusty, to Duplicolor, and Krylon, nobody's paint is immune to packaging mistakes....test it.
Will run trains for ice cream... 
Brian, Nice CP engines! The cartoon could be captioned, go to town building, and plan later! 
Is Izzy's tummy too full of ice cream she needs a nap?
Hanging another Millhouse TT from T nuts, screw down the Homasote yard and cementous spackling of the divots and feathered edge. One of my branchline end of run engine spinners. It's been a long trek up the mountain. Labor and management interruptions! (work n' wife)
Tom,
"Another" Millhouse Turntable!!!! Wow, very impressive indeed! That is great you can put in a turntable at the top of the mountain as well. Please show us some photographs when you think construction is at a point when you can do so!!
Mark, My "mountain" is only 20" above the base level. The challenge was to find enough footprint for the ROW to get that rise without a helix and to try to hold a .87% grade. Kinda funkie in spots but there are no RR police in my place.
Overall photos are awhile off. The RR is presently the Homasote & Cinderblock RR
I’m with you Tom on that! Still 20” is quite a rise. Mine will only be about 8”
necrails posted:After finding multiple reasons to avoid trying this, after years of bare wood in some cases populated with track,, and after finding every other project known to model railroading known to humankind, I have begun adding scenic materials to the layout. Not buildings but turf, brush, trees, etc. Why I didn't do this sooner will remain a mystery. The results while probably not as professional as some of the layouts we see in OGR are immediate and essentially make the layout something new for me. Now I can't stop.
The nature of those that model railroad as a hobby is to derive pleasure from it. Hit on one aspect that's particularly fun and it may look as if we're ignoring others on purpose. That tiny fear of the unknown processes can make us appear stuck. But as long as we're doing something related to the hobby, things as menial as cleaning up, we are making progress. Heck, being here online in this forum, you can learn so much it's time spent wisely. Some day I hope to become proficient in signals and implementing them on the layout...then there's prototypical running adaptation, and on and on. I gave up deadlines and goals for fun, therapy and reality escape. It justifies for me the effort expended, even when the efforts are most challenging. Congratulations on taking the important next step!
Bruce
Mark Boyce posted:The cartoon could be captioned, go to town building, and plan later!
I
Hey! That's my creedo! Can't believe somebody used my track plan too.😉
Bruce
Here’s some Y3 action.
Jack118711 posted:Here’s some Y3 action.
Sweet!!! Love big steam.
Who doesn’t!? Lol. Random question. Does anyone know what the minimum curve is for a atlas O scale PS low side hopper? I ran it on O-60 but the wheels rub pretty badly on parts of the underframe.
Really great engine, Jack!
Nice, Jack. Glad you finally got to run it. Even the sound set seems acurate, if my tin ear fidelity when listening to Winston O Link recordings is any indication. I'd better forget about finding one at the train show tomorrow, which is very unlikely and couldn't afford it if there was.
Bruce
Mark Boyce posted:Really great engine, Jack!
Thank you!
brwebster posted:Nice, Jack. Glad you finally got to run it. Even the sound set seems acurate, if my tin ear fidelity when listening to Winston O Link recordings is any indication. I'd better forget about finding one at the train show tomorrow, which is very unlikely and couldn't afford it if there was.
Bruce
I normally couldn’t afford something like this as well but got lucky and bought it for dealership cost. Good things come to those who wait! I’m sure you’ll get lucky in due time :-)
Good deal, Jack!!
Mark Boyce posted:Good deal, Jack!!
I enjoy your enthusiasm!!
Bruce, there’s also a protosound 1 version they made that’s not too expensive. BUT if you run DCS then I’d definitely save up for the PS3 one.
Got some more landscaping done tonight
mike g. posted:LUVINDEMTRAINS, Be careful, Brian has every road name in the U.S., Probably the WORLD! LOL
NECRAILS, its never to start on scenery!
Mark, if I were you I would just roll that nice blue cart into the new train room when ready!
Bryan, looks good to me! No matter what the guys will love your layout! But if you wanted to have a little fun you could put a small boat in the water with Paul in it! LOL
Mike,
I thought about that as soon as I submitted the response. I said, uh oh! It's all good Brian but tame the beast.
Dave
Yesterday I decided to some cleaning / organizing under the layout. A few months back I took some engines for service to Mr. Muffins. I was looking for the engine boxes and of course found every one but the ones I was looking for (thanks Murphy's law). I decided to relocate the engine boxes from under the layout to the attic of the house. With a little help, I moved over 30 MTH, Atlas and Lionel engine boxes from the basement to the attic. I then celebrated that by running trains for over an hour last night with 7 trains running and me walking from room to room with my iPad using the MTH WiFi. THAT was a lot of fun.
Lee, your landscaping is looking very nice! Keep up the great work!
I got two more terminal blocks powered from the transformer. I thought when I did that I would get enough power and continuity to run an engine over the bridge onto the island portion of the layout. It doesn't look as if that is going to work. So I plan to come up and over the opening over the bridge with wires. Going to use PVC pipe to enclose them. And since I am going to have to do this I might as well run extra wire to the island for possibly accessories and DC. This is my weekend project...................Paul
Paul, sounds like a good weekend project!
jbmccormick posted:Yesterday I decided to some cleaning / organizing under the layout. A few months back I took some engines for service to Mr. Muffins. I was looking for the engine boxes and of course found every one but the ones I was looking for (thanks Murphy's law). I decided to relocate the engine boxes from under the layout to the attic of the house. With a little help, I moved over 30 MTH, Atlas and Lionel engine boxes from the basement to the attic. I then celebrated that by running trains for over an hour last night with 7 trains running and me walking from room to room with my iPad using the MTH WiFi. THAT was a lot of fun.
Here is what I did with my engine boxes so I could find them if I need to ship one out. Of course you can see I don't have anywhere near 30. They make a nice little view block of boxes for ceramic buildings as well.
Here are all the rolling stock boxes in the closet under the basement stairs. They will go under the new layout once construction allows. At 62, I'm tired of crawling in here.
Great collection Mark! But I do have to ask one question! Is your layout going to have room for all those engines and rolling stock?
Mike, the layout shown with the boxes is the Christmas layout, which I hope to redesign this year. The Christmas trains Polar Express, North Pole Central, and Hallmark Toymaker are stored behind the MTH boxes. I can run 2 engines on the Ceiling Central Railroad, and the rest on the new to be built layout. Yes we were discussing engine storage on my layout plan-build topic back in the spring. I think we are good, except for the Premier F7 and F3 ABA units. MTH has them tethered together which I find difficult to setup. I do plan to upgrade the PS1 set to PS3 with separate boards in both powered A units, so then the tethers will go away. That is the MTH recommended method. The plan doesn't show engine storage tracks I hope to put in when building. I do have trouble holding onto some of them, and plan to have engines not in use on the layout somewhere. The tracks may end up in the hidden lower level in the upper left. It looks like I wouldn't have good access, but actually I will with the planned roll-out section. The other place could be in the lower right. The yard in the middle is intended for switching cars on and off the layout. I hope to start cleaning out the space in the family room after all my and my dad's leaves are cleaned up, then start real construction right after Christmas. I have to be realistic, as I would like to start sooner.
Mark, at least you have them neatly under the tables. Mine are all over the place with no organization. I was going to go to Menards to get my PVC but I found a gift card for Lowes I had forgot I bought sometime back. So I got all my pipe, fittings and hardware to do the project. I was going to use 1/2 inch pipe but then decided to go with the 3/4 inch figuring it would be easier to get the wires thropugh the elbows. After I make Chili I'll start working on it. Pic .....Paul
Thank you, Paul! I’m a bit OCD. I had to mellow to survive since my wife and older daughter just drop stuff anywhere. Who said men are all messy and women are neat? LOL
Yes, always use larger inside diameter conduit than you think you need. I don’t know how long a run you have, but if it is any length at all leave a pull string in the conduit and tie it off at both ends. If you need more wires later you will be glad you did. In that note, we always pull spares whether it is copper or fiber optics. You may want to do that too.
Chili!!!!! That would have me spending the afternoon in the bathroom instead of the train room!!!! LOL
Mark that is a good thought. I am planning ahead by running 4 wires through the pipe. One for power, one for ground, one for accessories and one for DC..................Paul
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