What did you do on your layout today?

More stinking $#%^^sheetrock. It is a big basement.

Oops!!  Did NOT get roof panel epoxied.  Must have mixed it wrong late last night.  And so the old axiom, "Do it right or do it over" applied early this morning. Ridge

pole and other panel installation delayed!  Grrrr!

My Slopes leading up the mountain are done. Hopefully we can paint the mountain and slopes this weekend. Scenery is placed and all the lights are lit, Almost.

 

did some more work on the retaining wall and building the mountains behind it also made another bridge.

more progress. plaster clothed the mountain today and painted alittle on a foamcore building.

Cleaned up some wiring and decided to run some Postwar.

 

 

 

 

Study and more study of trying to understand these books for hooking up the legacy and DCS. NOT as much fun. Especially for a old guy. I may have bit off a wee bit more than I can chew.

Larry,

 

Why don't you find a fellow collector in your area who has probably gone through what you are going through and would be willing to help.

 

A few years ago I was having problems with some restorations and found a fellow collector who had done many and he coached me through several until I felt reasonably capable.

 

Most collectors are very willing to help in any way possible.

 

Jim

 

Jim

Jim

I appreciate that suggestion. But, this forum and all the books I have bought is it. The one I would be asking is CSAM and he is to far away for me to be asking , even though I know he would help if we were closer. His club is the only thing I know of even close.

 

So far with my one electrical question post Barry is helping me with the dumb questions.

Larry

I made a new addition to the layout today. I have a few diesels mainly Union pacific I have always liked the idea of a engine shed on the layout so a up shed for my diesels was the plan of order. I wanted a floor I wanted lighting . so here is what I have come up with. still working on it but it's a start.

 

I've just about finished my quota of track for the month of May.

Quota?

Let me explain. I started this monster layout 10 years ago. Two years in, I ran into some health issues, and took the next six years off. I almost didn't even look at it for all those years. Two years ago, I decided to get back into it.

I figured if I was ever going to see this thing operate, I needed to set a deadline to have all the track done. Back in march 2013, in a reply to a comment by Lee Willis, I said I was going to have all the track down and powered by the end of 2014.

Hence the May quota.

East Minneapolis yard is done!








I still need to add a few more sections to the curve, but I can get that tomorrow.





Here's an interesting view of Park Junction. The opening will need to be moved a little to the left.

 

Patrick will be over tomorrow. It's going to be a busy day!

Randy: First; what are your using for logs for that cabin...running through the bushes to capture them in the wild? I use different methods depending on what kind of shingles I am using, and I have used different materials, such as sandpaper sprayed,

then cut into strips, for shingles.  This Stone Mill kit had a roof cast to two pieces, with shingles cast in. so I oversprayed it in green, and then, with a small brush, using acrylics, started with a light green and added gray, brown, and yellow progressively and in slight amounts, skipping around the roof, maybe doing a quarter of it, until I mixed in another color, brushing individual shingles cast in the roof panels.  The intent is to make the roof look aged.   Now that takes patience. For the gabled awning over the wheel, I used sticky-back thin wood veneer strip shingles.  With several green, gray, and shades of brown rattle cans....I sprayed each strip separated, first with the green, and then, after dry, I overspray with quick passes of whatever I am in the mood for, maybe not the whole strip.  Each strip then has a different shade, and when you string the strips up the roof, you get interesting patterns that I hope also look aged.  Now I haven't, but if you are doing individual shingles, I would spread them out in groups of as many as you have rattle can colors, after the (green?) base coat, and spray each group with its color.  Then I would mix them all up and apply for a random effect.  Overspray all with Dullcote when done (if you sprayed with acrylics,

probably won't need the Dullcote).  Today I have finished the mill, with its wheel, BUT

have not begun the flume.

Removed bad PS2 broads in a MTH SW1500 and installed a ERR DC commander.  No room for sound. Will add sound to a MP15 dummy in the future and MU then for yard/local work.

Larry SR, Contact me via my e-mail address in my profile.  I live in Erwin. I think I can help you with the Legacy.

I want to add something else I did today It might not be a new idea but I was sitting here thinking I don't like my black bridges with fastrack and grey roadbed just doesn't look right draws to much attention to the road bed. so I took a single 10 inch piece figure if I don't like it it's just one piece bad and I spray painted it flat black. let it dry then cleaned off the rail tops . I also tonight finished the lights on the shed. here's pics of both.I will need to do another piece on an angle for this bridge and paint the bottom of the bridge also.

 

 

Patrick was here today. We would have gotten a lot more done, except I made a mistake figuring the grade on the hill. So after he got the last riser installed, I realized that it was going to be at least an inch too short to clear the tall cars.

Here is the completed and correct height incline. There will be an industrial area at the top, which we will work on next week.

When the track is done on the hill, the entire bay will be complete on all 3 levels.


All 3 tracks are now well beyond halfway around the curve.


I'm planning the next section.

 hmm got 2 boxes in the mail today. one from scenic express the other from err. so I installed railsounds in my alco #218 sounds good just to quiet probably speaker placement want to move it to the B unit but no power pickups. so that will be a later project. installed cruise commander in my UP gp20 works good until it fell off the layout. due to grand daughter playing with tunnel portals from scenic express. engine runs good just can't pull anything with out a coupler . so I moved on and placed the same tunnel portal and did some work around it building up the mountain in that area. turned out decent. neither engine ran great tonight trying to be quiet not to wake the whole house up

 

 

 

 

didn't get much done today. ran trains today. I did put a err cruise commander in a brekshire jr that took all day. then I mixed up so water stuff ever something can't remember. and poured my creek then planted 4 trees the rest was running trains for the granddaughter. but more for myself finally 4 tmcc engines. then decided to hook up DCS to the same 2 mainlines and ran my MTH engine with the tmcc engines it's nice having things work correctly.

I got up early, and cleaned up the train room.  We  have some friends over tomorrow to run trains and the place looked a bit chaotic, given all the recent projects and work.  I straightened every thing up, ran the track- cleaning and vacuum cleaner cars, etc., and mounted some of the new locos I know folks will want to see on the layout.  

Lee:  Tell me about that "vacuum cleaner car" you ran on the layout.  I do have several track cleaner cars, one that has abrasive bars, the other just a weighted clean felt cloth, but i have always thought that a vacuum cleaner car would pick up all the loose stuff.

 

Paul Fischer

https://ogrforum.com/t...ar-that-really-sucks

You are really cruising!  The water looks nice.  I agree, it is SO nice when things work like they are supposed to.  I'll bet you have fun running trains for your grand daughter.

a lot of the layout was built with her in mind. I added little windows for her to see the trains in the tunnels she crawls under the layout well I crawl she bends over alittle and walks under the layout to see them run under the layout too. she is 33 inch's tall the layout was built to 32 inchs so she can see most everything. and as you get further from the edge the higher the layout goes. here's a pic of her windows the last pic is her inside a MTH box she loves papa's trains or her words choo choo's she has her own Thomas already

 

 

That's great!!  The one of her clapping is the best!  Kids always love playing in boxes.  Though no grand children are in the immediate future, I have one daughter engaged, and the older one probably will soon, I have been thinking how I can interest grand children in my trains better than I did for our daughters 20+ years ago.

what I did was I was making my tunnel portals 2 inch pink foam and a pencil and a 1/4 inch square dowel I handed her a pencil and a piece of foam and she thought it was the coolest thing drawing on foam like papa.

 

I had some help tonight. My 12 year old wanted to paint. so I ran some trains and did some scenery. and worked some more on the maintenance shed.

Jhainer,

 

It is looking good!  I'm glad to see your daughter wanted to help paint.  It is great when the kids want to get involved.  Also, some of those jobs are getting a bit tedious for someone like me who has some dexterity and vision problems.  Keep up th good work.

Quick test of my new Lionel 6-25574 Union Pacific Station Sounds Diner Car

 

 

Another quick test of my new K-Line Lackawanna Coal & Lumber Co. Shay

 

 

 

 

well still Playing my daughter helped me some more painting and I did some more scenery. until I ran out of ballast. also received a few vehicles from a forum member.

 

Ran my 2005 Lionel scale N&W J class 611 pulling 14 scale boxcars and two cabeese. All those boxcars looked good coming down the main line.  The J was kicking out a heavy plume of smoke.

 

Also had my MTH Canton Railway switcher taking care of business on the Mountain Division today.  

 

As for actual work on the Free State Junction Railway .... none at all.

 

Tomorrow the neighbor kids come over to check out the trains.  The little guy next door has already declared that he want to be an engineer when he grows up.  He watches train videos all the time.  He LOVES trains!!!!  i know the feeling  

Thank you . I try wish i had more ballast ran out hobby lobby is closed until tuesday not sure about legacy station for tomorrow thats the only places to get around here. So ballast work stopped.

Let's see it's Memorial Day and it is 90 degrees outside.  Do I want to go outside and enjoy the heat or go down to my invitingly cool basement and run trains?  Not a hard decision to make.

 

Art

I've spent the last few days on my back, on the cool concrete, under the new hidden yard, dressing the feeder and detection wires. I'm almost done!


When I'm done and the tracks are tested, the whole space will become train storage, and finally empty box storage.


I started carving roadbed profile into a section of fiberboard. This is the transition from fiberboard to Homasote. It blends nicely.


I still have one more profile to cut. The rail has to be painted, and then it is ready for ballast. I need a test section.


Friday morning, I went to the quarry and picked up some roofing granules. This is a very close up look. They're perfect, and they should be, because it is the same rock that the real railroads use.


Matt was here this afternoon and did some more tortoises. He's starting to work on the upper level now.


This is the upper mechanism. It's not as clean as it would be if I drilled holes for the direct drive mounting, but I like the way it works, and it is a lot less fussy to install. It still looks better than clunky twin coils. I've never liked them.



Patrick will be here Thursday. The plan is to get the next section of backdrop on the upper deck, and continue working on the industrial area up the hill.

Started my replacement of Atlas switch motors with DZ1000s.

 

 

 

 

Peter

More LEDs went into the round house over the holiday weekend.....

 

50 down, 34 more to go!

 

 

These are the AC/DC converter/regulator modules. They are mounted under the RH and the wires are fed through tubing into the building to simulate conduit.

After ignoring it for 6 weeks, I cleaned the track and ran trains.  That is one way to pass the time while doing the laundry.

A member of the OGR site (rb2hogger) volunteered  recently to help me understand Legacy and came by today. It was not only a nice thought on his part but very educational for me.

We fired up the new Legacy that's been in the box well over a year and also 3 new Legacy engines to program also out of the box.

 

I had no idea there was another train guy in this small town. Especially one that has been in the hobby so many years. A very good day. I certainly appreciated the help.

Larry