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John, I like that scene. Once it is done it is going to make a good spot for photos. Also I like the idea of two different types of bridges. Makes it a bit more interesting.

Mark, I never doubt Mike he always has all the bases covered.

Well I went to Homedepot to use up a card. No luck on wire but found a jar of paint fopr 50 cents plus I picked up some more glue. Came home and told the wife no luck I am going to Menards. Wel no luck on wire there but picked up some two packs of 4' LEDS to replace the flourecents in the attic. And I hit the train aisle and picked up a Katy bopx car. Now I have to figure what I am going to do for wire. Pics..............Paul

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Lee, looks good for SWSAT!!  Excellent idea for a snowy day!!

I finished attaching all the piers to my 4x7 Christmas layout today.  Then I screwed down the track and Masonite to the piers at either side of the Polar Express girder bridge.  Finally, I ran wires through a hole I put behind a pier and powered up what is in place.  I won't attach anything more on the top level until I get the real Masonite and track fit in place.

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John, your work on the Phantom Canyon is really coming along! Very nice work there! Keep us posted!

Paul, I am sorry to hear you didn't get any wire, but I also see you didn't get any tape either! LOL But atleast you didn't come home empty handed! From what I seen on the news this morning you folks on the East Coast should just stay inside and work on trains today!

LIRR Steamer, Congrats on getting the second level up and running! Hope you have tons of fun!

Lee, You got yourself a nice little switcher there, looks very nice!

Mark, way to go! You will have it done in no time and running trains!

As for me I went and got another sheet of plywood, I think it will be the last one I need. We will see as long as I don't make any mistakes I will be good to go! LOL

Mark Boyce posted:

Lee, looks good for SWSAT!!  Excellent idea for a snowy day!!

I finished attaching all the piers to my 4x7 Christmas layout today.  Then I screwed down the track and Masonite to the piers at either side of the Polar Express girder bridge.  Finally, I ran wires through a hole I put behind a pier and powered up what is in place.  I won't attach anything more on the top level until I get the real Masonite and track fit in place.

2018-11-15 16.55.41

Very cool Mark!  Reminds me of what Stonehenge would look like with a train on top. I like it. Do you have a bridge that you could put in the back?  Good work. 

Being the nice guy that I am I painstakingly dug through boxes and boxes to find Paul some very (22g) thin black stranded wire.  I knew I had some extra laying around for my good friend and will give him freely all he needs when we meet up at Perkins tomorrow for breakfast.  

Also for the NEO and W PA guys looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow morning for the inaugural Western Reserve Breakfast Group meeting.   

mike g. posted:

John, your work on the Phantom Canyon is really coming along! Very nice work there! Keep us posted!

Paul, I am sorry to hear you didn't get any wire, but I also see you didn't get any tape either! LOL But atleast you didn't come home empty handed! From what I seen on the news this morning you folks on the East Coast should just stay inside and work on trains today!

LIRR Steamer, Congrats on getting the second level up and running! Hope you have tons of fun!

Lee, You got yourself a nice little switcher there, looks very nice!

Mark, way to go! You will have it done in no time and running trains!

As for me I went and got another sheet of plywood, I think it will be the last one I need. We will see as long as I don't make any mistakes I will be good to go! LOL

measure twice- cut once.

jgtrh62 posted:

Thanks guys, I really appreciate!

 

Mark, your Christmas layout is shaping up nicely! Reminds me though I need to get off my tail and get mine ready soon too, I'll put up a small G scale oval around the Christmas Tree for my Bachmann Christmas Trolley.

mike g. posted:

 

Mark, way to go! You will have it done in no time and running trains!

 

decoynh posted:
Mark Boyce posted:

Lee, looks good for SWSAT!!  Excellent idea for a snowy day!!

I finished attaching all the piers to my 4x7 Christmas layout today.  Then I screwed down the track and Masonite to the piers at either side of the Polar Express girder bridge.  Finally, I ran wires through a hole I put behind a pier and powered up what is in place.  I won't attach anything more on the top level until I get the real Masonite and track fit in place.

2018-11-15 16.55.41

Very cool Mark!  Reminds me of what Stonehenge would look like with a train on top. I like it. Do you have a bridge that you could put in the back?  Good work. 

John, Thank you very much!  I wouldn't be this far along, but my semi-retired part-time status changed to semi-retired 'we don't need you for a while' status.  So, on days the weather was too bad to rake/blow leaves and I didn't have to help the elderly relatives I was able to get some work in on this.  Last year, I never got much done, but I had never gotten around to taking the Christmas layout down, so it didn't matter. 

Thank you Mike!  Yes, I am pleased.  Last night when I couldn't sleep because of the sciatic nerve, I dug out some more Masonite, fitted it, and marked it for sawing for the back half.  

Thank you, Matt!  Stonehenge!  Yes indeed!    I have a through truss bridge that would work, but I was thinking of making a mountain to hide the train.  Maybe an opening somewhere for the bridge to add some visual interest.  Hmmm.... Good idea.  I will have to mull it over, but I have to get as many of my wife's ceramic buildings and figures on there as I possible can.  

Just came in the mail,MTH blinking led boxcar PRR. When you only have a carpet, it is all about the lights,sound and what grandma will tolerate.   Also just figured out the using the Lionchief remote, lets you start the engine from a dead stop, while taking a video, might be difficult running the app and trying to make a video at the same time.  So another vote for a remote.  Oldmike

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Got a box with what some might call junk, but I call treasure last night.   One of the interesting pieces was this postwar AF station, in somewhat distressed condition but with all the major components still there:  

GEDC1265

A bit of cleaning and some Elmers' Wood Glue later,  this charming little structure is well on its way to recovery! 

GEDC1266

In honor of comments being made in another thread (coughcough @Adriatic cough cough),  I have decided to rename my Plasticville garage...  

GEDC1267

If anybody wishes to roll their own,  here are the signs in PNG format: 

Joe's Garage

 

Mitch 

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I started out the day taking the led lights to the attic to replace the flourecent bulbs. Unfortunately I bought the wrong ones so I had to take them back and get the right ones. Hope these work. No work on the passenger cars till I get the wire from Bryan tomorrow at the NE breakfast. I got a package coming in the next couple of days and I have no idea what may be in it. Well I will be pleasantly surprised no matter what it is.................Paul

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Got a box with what some might call junk, but I call treasure last night.   One of the interesting pieces was this postwar AF station, in somewhat distressed condition but with all the major components still there:  

GEDC1265

A bit of cleaning and some Elmers' Wood Glue later,  this charming little structure is well on its way to recovery! 

GEDC1266

In honor of comments being made in another thread (coughcough @Adriatic cough cough),  I have decided to rename my Plasticville garage...  

GEDC1267

If anybody wishes to roll their own,  here are the signs in PNG format: 

Joe's Garage

 

Mitch 

Awesome, Mitch!

paul 2 posted:

Second time is a charm. I got the new bulbs installed. Has anbody replaced 4' flourecents with 4' LED's. Reason I am asking is these bulbs seem to have a dark strip on one side. When installing them do you place the strip on the top or on the bottom showing. Right now I have the strips on the top. Pics.............Thanks PaulYes, Paul, I took out the ballasts and

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Yes, Paul I pulled out the ballasts and rewired the fixtures for the LEDs. The lights are very white. Black strip towards the fixture.

There is a scene in the movie "Castaway" when Tom Hanks pounds his chest and bellows with pride that he made a fire, thereby enhancing his own survival. That's kind of how I feel now. I just opened up a 1033 and  RW transformers, replaced plug wires, and replaced the rectifier discs on the whistle controllers. Those fast nuts Lionel used to secure all the rectifier discs are awful and a really bad idea! No doubt someone's brother-in-law had a stolen truckload of fast nuts from New Jersey that Lionel bought cheap.

This was the first time I opened up a transformer and really didn't know what I was doing until I did it. Both transformers whistled poorly, hesitant and without conviction. I bench tested both repaired transformers and the test whistle tenders sang like canaries. WOO HOO!

Now I know that whenever I am evaluating a whistle tender I should also evaluate the transformer.

HCSader73 posted:

There is a scene in the movie "Castaway" when Tom Hanks pounds his chest and bellows with pride that he made a fire, thereby enhancing his own survival. That's kind of how I feel now. I just opened up a 1033 and  RW transformers, replaced plug wires, and replaced the rectifier discs on the whistle controllers. Those fast nuts Lionel used to secure all the rectifier discs are awful and a really bad idea! No doubt someone's brother-in-law had a stolen truckload of fast nuts from New Jersey that Lionel bought cheap.

This was the first time I opened up a transformer and really didn't know what I was doing until I did it. Both transformers whistled poorly, hesitant and without conviction. I bench tested both repaired transformers and the test whistle tenders sang like canaries. WOO HOO!

Now I know that whenever I am evaluating a whistle tender I should also evaluate the transformer.

Yep good feeling.  I just did 2 KWs... rollers, whistle diodes and modern circuit breakers

Fendermain

 

 

Fendermain posted:
HCSader73 posted:

There is a scene in the movie "Castaway" when Tom Hanks pounds his chest and bellows with pride that he made a fire, thereby enhancing his own survival. That's kind of how I feel now. I just opened up a 1033 and  RW transformers, replaced plug wires, and replaced the rectifier discs on the whistle controllers. Those fast nuts Lionel used to secure all the rectifier discs are awful and a really bad idea! No doubt someone's brother-in-law had a stolen truckload of fast nuts from New Jersey that Lionel bought cheap.

This was the first time I opened up a transformer and really didn't know what I was doing until I did it. Both transformers whistled poorly, hesitant and without conviction. I bench tested both repaired transformers and the test whistle tenders sang like canaries. WOO HOO!

Now I know that whenever I am evaluating a whistle tender I should also evaluate the transformer.

Yep good feeling.  I just did 2 KWs... rollers, whistle diodes and modern circuit breakers

Fendermain

 

 

I was tempted to replace the rectifier discs with diodes. Some people swear by the diodes, and the more modern circuit breakers. If it weren't for those nasty fast nuts I doubt any one would give diodes a second thought. I am more convinced about the circuit breakers, and will likely put in modern ones when the old ones fail.

HCSader73 posted:
Fendermain posted:
HCSader73 posted:

There is a scene in the movie "Castaway" when Tom Hanks pounds his chest and bellows with pride that he made a fire, thereby enhancing his own survival. That's kind of how I feel now. I just opened up a 1033 and  RW transformers, replaced plug wires, and replaced the rectifier discs on the whistle controllers. Those fast nuts Lionel used to secure all the rectifier discs are awful and a really bad idea! No doubt someone's brother-in-law had a stolen truckload of fast nuts from New Jersey that Lionel bought cheap.

This was the first time I opened up a transformer and really didn't know what I was doing until I did it. Both transformers whistled poorly, hesitant and without conviction. I bench tested both repaired transformers and the test whistle tenders sang like canaries. WOO HOO!

Now I know that whenever I am evaluating a whistle tender I should also evaluate the transformer.

Yep good feeling.  I just did 2 KWs... rollers, whistle diodes and modern circuit breakers

Fendermain

 

 

I was tempted to replace the rectifier discs with diodes. Some people swear by the diodes, and the more modern circuit breakers. If it weren't for those nasty fast nuts I doubt any one would give diodes a second thought. I am more convinced about the circuit breakers, and will likely put in modern ones when the old ones fail.

I figured since I was in there doing the rollers I would do the other two as well.  I was also concerned that if a problem occurred the old breakers would not trip fast enough to save modern electronics.

Fendermain

“Hi, It's me, I'm back... I bring you a special presentation to show what can happen to you if you choose a life testing theory like does humor belong in model railroading.” 😲 Get your pink or black napkins ready for the drool Mitch🤤. Gee Mitch, One car looks to be from.... “the future” 🤔😀… Oopah! 😈😁 Is it “a new car?; do you like it”. You must have had to break open your “chrome piggy bank from the closet”. It's no “mystery, man, the layout's out of sight. Why pay a nominal service charge, when you can show um how to do it right”. Thanks for using your “Brownie to show it all complete” “(like those jokers Brian & Bryan causing trouble every day” ) . I’m glad it's in color,” there a whole lot of times I wish it wasn't black&white. It stirs a fire in my heart I'll not put out it tonight”. Outside that “ little white box uptown, along the line. The guy ridin’ the prairie on that small tiny hoss is mighty little. Where did you find the blanket and saddle? He’s a good hoss, even though he's a bit dinky for dinky daddy to strap a big saddle or blanket on anyway”.. “Even if you think it is a little silly, folks; I don't care if you think it's silly folks. It's hard breeding a dwarf; like reading a mean tarot”. “But I'm gonna find me a horse just about this big, and ride him all along the line too. Every other wrangler would say I was mighty grand. By myself I don't have no boss and and, and and, and and”….I think” Yuda man I'd like to work for” so “stick it out”, “dont be taro-fied it's just a token of my extreme”. If I AH-MET a “pigmy ponies (or gi-raffe), brillo-y mane gleamin' in the MOON-lighty night, I'd get a cup o’ coffee, baby snake python boots (for pushin’ off DE-WEEZILs into a breach with my foot), and don a Mexican poncho (not a Sears poncho) to keep my T-shirt from getting all wet and jiggly if I get caught in the showers, then just jump back on an’ ride like a cowboy into the dawn. Maybe to Montana or Idaho or Kansas”. But where would the hoss water come from? “From a swimming pool if the water hasn't been turned black from Bobby washing his stanky poodle bites (Who could imagine in Kansas?) Yippy-tye-o-tye-aye”. Ike! A brave man might likely quit with that head Turner phrase afore “they has a fit at my social suicide, but yowsa yowsa yowsa, I'm a fool” Is there room for “44 men working on a tank?” “Is a green burning camp-fire ring to ever show ?” A big screen TV? Chain motels? Flossy thrushy shrubbery (ni) or green Brillo bushes? “A watermelon to go with the Easter hay turf?” “(I hear he used to cut that grass)” I think a bashed “Packard Goose” would fit in better than ever now, no denyin’. One might “scrutinize” such a place in such close proximity to a paired, parallel, iron railed, conveyance mechanisms “you can hear the steam”-”roll-o-n’ ” by might be “researched” for an “anointing” with a “utility” zone for ‘loading’. Or even ‘unloading’. “ The white zone is for loading or unloading only. If you have to load or unload, go to the white zone”. When “the water comes”, “most people would prefer a yellow under snow to be ogled at on that tundra”. “While regular folks like to marvel such lofty scenes as though through the dysentery green of attic bedroom windows resembling crystal balls” “ I myself care less for them in icing applications”. “ I say there is naught, nor ought there be, nothing so exalted on the face of God's grey earth as that prince of colors, white”. It may seem I'm “arrogantly twisting my sterile snoot near….ha ha, let's try that again… at your canvas”, and may be perceived at various moments to be the “vivacious father of the oblivious”, who “a huffin’ and puffin’ and cryin’ to the night, didn't know nothing”. And “I may be totally wrong and a fool”. Butt, please be “seated at the ‘chair” and table’ (“commercially sold strictly” at the San Ber’dino Square, a real deal'o)’ of your “utility laboratory”, first removing any remaining “slime” or “dried pumkin’ remnants not yet sensationally barking(not arf arf arf) overnight, and proceed whipping out a choice oversized chrome (or zircon encrusted) razor from your shaving kit in your robe, dip that mustache in wax and swoosh it around, brush your scapular to the side, or steal mama's apron from serving the boys at Ed's cafe to protect your tie if it's in your way and go with the conceptual continuity of pooting forth a white zone.” “Or can't you do that on a forums stage anymore?” It may seem “I plucked all day an' all nite an' all afternoon” to do this. Like some “Lonesome Electric Turkey” on “hoop.la oink oink” thinkin’ “I'm so cute”. But it kinda comes ‘natural’.. except for “carrying on without commas” and dwelling on all the lovely “Apostrophe’ “ and quotes which mostly denote titles and quite convoluted mixes of lyrics that only a true Zappaite MIGHT catch without them. and I really only barely touched on the more “commercial” of the lot. “Don't dare to look behind my eyes, you don't know what I have seen”. If this isn't your audiophiliac bag (”tears a fallin’), he also conducted symphonies and did a “ jazz from hell” album of things that shouldn't work out if you follow established music theory, but do. That's genius ioo (Plus the Packard Goose & hoopla (honestly lyrics!) reference alone was reason enough to test “Does humor belong in forums” eh? Besides, I'm only trying to inspire him further; being a proud enabler & all.

Started by cleaning track in the tunnel that goes through the mountain in the far left side of the layout as I face it. Then, I decided to replace 3 old tubular track sections on the outer loop at that location with new track sections.

This was not easy because, although my layout top is 48 to 50 inches above the floor, I still have to crawl on my hands and knees and contort my body to do the above track work.

Good news is the trains seem to run better at that location on the layout as a result of doing the above work.

I did some more on my Christmas layout adding Masonite roadbed to the back section.  I forgot to take photographs, and am not going to at this late hour.  More later. 

Tomorrow, I'll be going to the Northeast Ohio (Western Reserve) group's first breakfast and outing to the Warren, Ohio Menards.  I've never been to a Menards.  Yes, they were kind enough to invite those of us who are just across the border in Pennsylvania.

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