What did you do on your layout today?

Last night ran the mail train behind a K-line scale K4s with TMCC.  Ran my fantasy nine car tanker consist, MJHX, behind the Decapod.  The port traction tire came off so I replaced it.  Switched the tankers to the engine yard and switched the Gla coal hoppers from the engine yard to the main yard tracks with the #505 K-line B6s. 

Today I want to clean the the drive wheels and rollers on the #505 B6s.   And hope to switch mixed freights to the yard with #520 Lionel B6s and complete the coal train for a drag behind the H9 or the Decapod.

Some more progress on the waterfall lake area.

Finally wired in the switches in a permanent manner and added the wiring back to the control panel. Included wiring for a ASC that I picked up years ago. Just got to connect up to the ASC now.

Nick

                                  definitely needing this today... 

That white stuff is on its way to us in the form of a Nor'Easter.  NH is expected to get 12-24" from south to north.  Need to get the old wing plow ready with a switcher pushing.  Car is backed into garage.  Shovels are at the ready.  After filling the car with gas, I talked to Pete at Jones' General Store and they're about out of milk & bread.  Storm warning from 5PM today until 1AM on Monday.  Scary times!  LOL.  (Yes, the only store in town is Jones'.)

I'm getting close to finishing an old Palace theater redo. Two thumbs up to Miller Engineering.

working on Howard Park, a small town that traverses my laundry room. Should be interesting.....

Howard Park is looking like a nice town!!  Can you tell us where you got the printed buildings from?

Unboxed my new Legacy E8 A-A in the Louisville and Nashville scheme locomotive and took it around the layout a few times. 

I just received it from Michael at Crocodile Train Store. I would highly recommend him and his business. FYI, check out his store, I got this for more than 50% off retail, there are a couple of other legacy BTO items for a steal on his site too. 

Didn't get to the basement till late this afternoon. I marked off where I will be cutting the wall. I di start to take down some of the smaller boards. Maybe after dinner I can pull some more down. On the backside of the wall is a very old handmade shelf I'll have to get out of the way and into the garbage for Monday. It started snowing here around noon and has been snowing ever since. Watching the weather reports I made the decision not to go to the NJHR's Trainstock 11. I sure wanted too but the weekend didn't look promising. I really hated to cancel. But hopefully next year if they do it again in January the weather will be on my side to travel that far. Couple of pics of where I am tearing the wall and door frame down.............Paul

Nice work everyone.

I have all the lights installed in the mill. One thing I wanted was being able to remove roofs etc. without having to unplug lighting. So I use some phosphorous bronze sheeting and also some Kadee coupler springs soldered onto bronze plates to make connections.

Here is the bottom of main roof section with leds installed on bottom of rafters.

Here are the 2 spring contacts on the bottom of the roof

Here are the two contacts on top of saw floor wall that contact with springs above

Here are the 2 contacts on the peak of the saw filers wall that is at the very top of mill

Here is the underside of the filers roof with LED's and you can see the 2 spring contacts in the foreground

The side office section that goes over trestle/track is a seperate piece that can be lifted off trestle.

I wired these two contacts to the side of the main roof of mill

and here is the side of the office that goes up against mill

And here are some photos with the mill put back together

Now I have to glue down boards in saw tables, put some figures in and install control levers on saw floor and put the details up in the saw filers room. Got give him something to do. Oh yea, add some saw dust

brewcrew posted:

Unboxed my new Legacy E8 A-A in the Louisville and Nashville scheme locomotive and took it around the layout a few times. 

 

I just received it from Michael at Crocodile Train Store. I would highly recommend him and his business. FYI, check out his store, I got this for more than 50% off retail, there are a couple of other legacy BTO items for a steal on his site too. 

Love that paint !!

CSX AL, your build is completely awesome.  Beyond belief.

What is newest to me is your engineering of the electrical.   You've given me a few ideas that are completely new.  Where did you get bronze sheeting, and what type of lamps have you included?

I remain, completely envious of your obvious talent for this thing of ours.  (haha, La Cosa Nostra)

Jerry

Al, I’d be interested in some technical info on your lighting.  If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.  How many leds did you say were in the mill and additions?  What were the specs on them, e.g. 3mm or ?, warm white or ?. Got any idea how many milliamps they all draw?  Did they have resistors in series already?  Your spring and contact pad idea was clever.  They really look nice by the way.  Will be really attention grabbing in a night operatons shot.  Thx in advance.

WOW lots of good stuff going on here.   Everybody is getting something done!  Excellent!  I had to work today and man is it raining!  We are luck, no snow here.... yet!   Tomorrow the temperature falls like a rock from a trestle !!!  So stuff is expected to freeze.  

Meanwhile I am getting ready to take down that 4 foot x 4 foot bump out!  Too many ideas of what to do when its gone going through my head.   Here is a picture of my current layout in scarm.   Its missing a small section due to the track limit lol   The "swerve" on the leftt must stay so the door will open but I can add a straight track to move it closer to the wall.   Then everything to the right of the bulge can be changed! 17 feet by 11 feet.   

Jim 

Ok folks, I will start by saying I have been gone for 2 days, I open my computer and there are 259 e-mails! Took me forever just to get threw this page! LOL

There is great work being done by all! For you that are getting snow or about too! GOOD FOR YOU! LOL We are just getting rain here in the great northwest! first off I would like to say I really love this forum!

Chris, great work on the control panels! I will PM you about how you wired the LED's!

Dave, thanks but I got the control panel all repainted and it looks good!

Paul my plan is to sit my butt in that nice comfy chair and watch trains go by if I ever get it done! LOL make sure you take lots of pictures taking down the wall, so Jim has an idea!

Jim, watch out for the boss with the frying Pan! LOL Also look at getting the door to swing out!

CSX AL, your work is just mind blowing! I could see walking threw that as a little kid! Wonderful work!

Brian, a usual great pictures! You sure know how to capture the hobby!

I might get to the train room to work on the control panel today. I just got home from the local train show, didn't find anything I needed but did buy some rock molds to try!

P.S. Let it snow anywhere but here! LOL

I started land scaping a small aria for a few Woodland Scenic Trailers and removed my lake. Lots left to do after glue dries. 

Dave, looks good! Don't forget your sewer and water hook ups for the trailers! LOL

Mike, I agree there is a lot going on!!

Brewcrew, The L&N E-units look really great!  I got some great pricing from Mike at Crocodile last year on a lot of GarGraves track, and recently got a great price on a double sheathed boxcar.  He is a really nice guy to work with!!

Paul, So far we are still getting rain in Butler, but it has been snowing just a bit north in Grove City for some time.  The temperatures are forecast to drop around midnight, so we will start getting the snow.  Looks like you have a nice demolition job for you tomorrow inside the warm house.

Al, The lighting is superb.  That is an extremely well thought out plan for removing the roof with no plugs to have to worry about.  The springs remind me of MTH F-units and BL2 ProtoSound and PS2 I have.

Jim, Taking out that bump out will really give you a much nicer space to work with!

Dave, The trailer court is taking shape nicely!  Are you going to add some nice outdoor living areas for detail and for use of the residents of the cramped trailers?

Young Mr. Brown arrived with a long brown box on his shoulder and said,  "Here's 60 pounds of wood for you."  I was expecting it from Tim Foley.  I bought the Mianne CL02-24 kit which will fit in nicely along the left hand side of the layout.  I'll buy more when funds permit.

Annie has just finished the sniff inspection as I was getting the phone out to take her photograph.  She gave final approval!

 I already have all the leg assemblies and one of the 2' x 4' sections made.  Building benchwork sitting in a chair!  Hard to beat! 

Mark Boyce posted:

Young Mr. Brown arrived with a long brown box on his shoulder and said,  "Here's 60 pounds of wood for you."  I was expecting it from Tim Foley.  I bought the Mianne CL02-24 kit which will fit in nicely along the left hand side of the layout.  I'll buy more when funds permit.

Annie has just finished the sniff inspection as I was getting the phone out to take her photograph.  She gave final approval!

 I already have all the leg assemblies and one of the 2' x 4' sections made.  Building benchwork sitting in a chair!  Hard to beat! 

Mark, congrats!! As an LOL, when you said Annie sniff inspection, hope it didn't pass for the part where it smelled so good to her, that she started eating it? LOLOLOL.

Mark Boyce posted:

Young Mr. Brown arrived with a long brown box on his shoulder and said,  "Here's 60 pounds of wood for you."  I was expecting it from Tim Foley.  I bought the Mianne CL02-24 kit which will fit in nicely along the left hand side of the layout.  I'll buy more when funds permit.

Annie has just finished the sniff inspection as I was getting the phone out to take her photograph.  She gave final approval!

 I already have all the leg assemblies and one of the 2' x 4' sections made.  Building benchwork sitting in a chair!  Hard to beat! 

Mark, That ready to assemble bench work is really nice stuff. I wish I could start over with that but 7 layouts in the last 14 years is enough. I was sick for a couple weeks and contemplated starting over but decided I enjoy being married LOL.

You go Mark, Maybe you could put some wheels on that recliner and move it into the train room! LOL Cant wait to see more!

Tom, Annie found the fresh sawed wood smell interesting, but not enough to take a bite.  She was a drop off at our house 9 years ago when she was half grown.  The vet said she has terrier in her, and she sure does sniff everything!!

Dave, I am not a good carpenter, and have only basic tools, so my layouts have always looked rough, and shimmed hear and there until I got them covered with scenery.  After having back, knee, and foot troubles for a while, I am just not up for building from scratch in this new-to-me space.  I have and am still willing to sell trains to help pay for this Mianne benchwork!     By all means do whatever it takes to keep your wife happy!

mike g. posted:

You go Mark, Maybe you could put some wheels on that recliner and move it into the train room! LOL Cant wait to see more!

Mike, the wheels are already on it!    Now my wife understands what she needs to do to finish cleaning out the space she offered.  

Mark Boyce posted:

mike g. posted:

You go Mark, Maybe you could put some wheels on that recliner and move it into the train room! LOL Cant wait to see more!

Mike, the wheels are already on it!    Now my wife understands what she needs to do to finish cleaning out the space she offered.  

HMM, any Clive Cussler there, LOL.

Cool looking table. But as another LOL moment to the Annie eating joke, well now we know that if she ate some, you have the Operation Game on the shelf, LOL.

Tom, I found a Clive Cussler 'The Grey Ghost' for a dollar Thursday.  He is in the closet to the right of the photograph under the stairs.   Yes, there are games and records we had when we were kids on those shelves.  It is a hodge podge my wife wanted to clean out anyway.

Looks great Mark!

Since I moved the Christmas board to the spare room and added some spurs and such my son has had more interest in running his trains. He loves his Legos so I felt that it was a great opportunity to find a way to tie the two together and do something together. The result, a colorful single engine house. 

Wow, CSX Al, Your Saw Mill Refinery is Magnificently crafted, just need to hire some workers, just kidding, and Kon, great signs, and Briansilvermustang, beautiful pictures of the WP Trains, and everyone else, your layouts and works looks great.....I finally programmed my new Sante Fe ABBA (Lionel Legacy) and hooked it up to my Sante Fe El Capitan Passenger Set, with new LED lighting. The sounds are simply amazing...

Finally got this gondola with load done. I will some post pics of it on the layout soon 

Looks great, Larry!

Lee, I like the transformer load!

LEE, I like your transformers. One detail would be good to add to them would be some lifting eyes on or near the tops so that they could be lifted by a crane.

Thanks Al I was thinking of putting about 4 of them 2 for each. I’ll start looking for some lift rings I have some old grante line some where thank for reminding me 

TedW posted:

Al, I’d be interested in some technical info on your lighting.  If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.  How many leds did you say were in the mill and additions?  What were the specs on them, e.g. 3mm or ?, warm white or ?. Got any idea how many milliamps they all draw?  Did they have resistors in series already?  Your spring and contact pad idea was clever.  They really look nice by the way.  Will be really attention grabbing in a night operatons shot.  Thx in advance.

Ted,

I used 27 pico and Nano LED's. I got them from Evans Design. They are warm white. They have a resistor wired on them. These ones are rated for up to 12v DC. I wired them all together and are hooked to a DC transformer running less than 12v.

Larry, what a great train to run on such a wonderful layout! Looks Great!

Lee the transformers turned out very nice! Great Job!

Al, thanks for sharing the information on the lighting! We can all use that information!

Tonight after the train show I worked on my control panel, I hope to do more tomorrow! Here is a picture of the control panel and the rock molds I picked up at the train show. Also a crane I picked up on the way home at a garage sale for $10. Something for the grandkids to play with in the train room. Now all I have to do is figure out how to switch it from batteries to ac power!

Mike, get yourself a wall wart AC adapter. Just add up the voltage of the batteries and get one off eBay. Just that simple.

Thanks Elliot! I will check that out tomorrow, I ma just have one laying around. Whenever I find one I grab it never knowing when I can use it!

Mike, The panel looks really sharp!  Looks like you did good at the show.  That crane is impressive!!  The molds are nice too!  

Installed an ERR AC Commander in a 69 year old 2343 Santa Fe F3. An ABBA  set with a Railsounds II B unit from 1997 leads El Capitan from a signal stop. Runs pretty well for 69 years old if you ask me. 

Long as the voltage matches, you're golden. (get the polarity right)