What did you do on your layout today?

I had to remove two MTH Girder Bridges and modify they so the Big Boy would clear the side rail.  While I was at it I replaced the wire that goes to the flasher circuit board for the bridge light.  MTH uses a very thin wire that I couldn't make work, so I brought out the soldering iron and unsoldered the wires and replaced then with a larger diameter wire.

Today I made some progress on the second of these oddball saloon kits, putting four

walls together, and then adding the trim around the borders.  Also painted porch floor

and porch roof and its floor for balcony above.  Unlike the first, this is a two story with

a hotel above, and I moved some doors and windows around on it.

Finished the bench work on my new layout -12'x12' about 32" off the floor in my dining area. Used 1x3" to make a frame 32'x 6' and another 36"x8', then two 4'x6' to tie them together. Used cross bracing with Homosote on top. Really sturdy and solid. Just have four loops of track-3 Lionel tubular and 1 S gauge  with one long siding.  Have  the accessories and buildings on it but nothing hooked up yet except the track but running trains while I figure what I want to do. Good timing-just as I finished the bench work my washing machine crapped out. I figured that could wait.

I also made a track plan for roads and buildings. 8 ameri-Town 6x6 3 story buildings might break it up abit with 2 story and single story building in a few places also picked up 9 telephone poles

Jon was here today. He tried to fix a troublesome segment of track lighting, but after almost an hour, we gave up. Still baffled, it made no sense. The power was getting through the connector, but the neutral wasn't.

We got out the chalk line, and snapped 6 center lines. Then I threw down some switches.


This is the last section of mainline, and all is going according to my sketch.


A little refinement, and this should do very nicely.


Jon and I started the uphill side of the hump.


Then I quickly laid a couple sections of track in the back, before we got too far along.


Still fine tuning the height.


The hump is connected.





Back at it again tomorrow.

Elliot,

When it comes time to ballast you will need one of these ....

I have been following all your progress and all I can is WW!  Looks awesome!

Today I held the important ceremony of driving the golden screw.  You are probably  familiar  with the more common golden spike ceremony.  The golden screw celebrates the joining of the east and west side of the benchwork for my new layout.  You can find out more in my new book Fifty Five Things you really, really don't want to do when building benchwork.

Thanks. Funny you should mention that. I need to call my guy at the quarry and set up another 300 lbs. I already have 600 lbs. I get it in 50 lb bags. Your method might have been easier. 

Painted more of the ceiling joists flat black until my wrist started getting sore, begun 3-railing a 2R Atlas CZ Dome Chair, and hung more layout lights.  Am now researching prototype pictures for possibly converting a couple of the Atlas Budd CZ cars to MoPac colors (Jenk's blue).

Not exactly today, but.. traded 2 wood Fago crates (12 quarts) for an old 4x8 layout with a 1033, 2-#90's, and acc./uncouple tracks, crossing gate, flagman shack, culvert loader, and an American Flyer talking station. All are working again now, just needed some loving care(lube & some brass wire brushing). They do still need some parts, like culvert control tower roof(bad chimney), flagman shack roof, and a light distribution bar on the crossing gate, to be at 100%, but for what I gave up, Im more than happy. The AF "station stop" mech. all works but the building missing its doors, roof, and the mech. needs a needle horn assembly. I already have a modified stylus set up ready, just need to assemble it further. The record is in great shape too. I will likely add modern sounds to it later. The rubber windows aren't great, and despite cleaning its still a bit dingy, so Im going to make a small factory out of it instead of it being a station (reversible) . Already painted the stacks & mounted them on a new roof too. It is made from wood paneling covered with a sheet of rubber cut from an old auto inner-tube. Right now Im taking my 2037 outside to run on the "new" layout before I rob it of all its goodies to put on my living room layout.

Speedy construction.  Sounds good and solid.  Sorry about the washer.  always something.

Hey I finally ran trains !! Some train friends stopped by, Ran trains from four to ten o clock. Wow what a great time!!!

Clem k

tried my hand at road making for some reason it's taking forever to harden completely. used plaster of paris. I tried tinting it with paint that might be the reason for the slow harden time. its hard but feels cold and moist.

It usually takes a couple days too fully cure.  If it's in a cool spot it takes a little longer.

I had a long piece of  inexpensive(cheap) indoor/outdoor carpet left over from my old layout, has a foam backing, so I cut it in to 3" strips and put it under the tubular track on my new layout. Definitely quieted the noise, you could hear the wheels on the track but that is OK. Think I will pursue that as a choice for the road bed. Gray would work.

Put some finishing touches to the Lionel factory that is next to my engine facilities area. I did a little kitbashing by moving the doors, change the location of the add on extension, and made a larger loading dock. I'm looking for a truck that will be backed up to loading dock. My next projects are a BTS C&O signal tower and then a diesel fuel facility. Not sure as to the "how" on diesel facilities since want it to be 1940-ish.

Though I haven't turned a wrench or cut a board to start my layout, a big moment happened today. The last of my track arrived!

Today no layout work so far per say but I just got done ordering more scenic material from Scenic Express and the last of the wire, terminal strips, spade connectors. Get lunch out of the way and head up to the layout to work on it but run a train at the same time for medicinal purposes instead of whistling while you work......Paul

I like those moments, too. They seem to me to be times when we reward ourselves for a life well-lived (and for behaving,) all the way back to elementary school days (!)

Nowadays, for me, such moments of reward are when a big shipment comes from Scenic Express. When I open the crates and start exploring all the foliage, trees, ground-covers, etc. my imagination lights up, and I am ready to craft something new.

Whole scenes get configured in my mind even before I have reached the bottom of the delivery carton. In a flash, I am in the crafting area of my trainroom and starting to put my hands on details and the buildings from my inventory which might be the main focus of some scenes, arranging and re-arranging what had formed as ideas in my head. Tweezers and dental-picks are out; paint brushes; surgical-clamps; scissors; razor blades; paints; weathering materials; base-plates cut, etc. Pretty soon, the glues start flowing .

Feels good!

FrankM.

Layout Refinements

This was a vignette that appeared quickly in my mind and didn't change much from the moment of imagination to completion, several days later. It reminded me of boyscout and altar-boy camps I attended when a child in the 50's, in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, not far from my hometown, Duquesne.

Well said, Frank.  This vignette shows just what you mean.

Yesterday I went to Home Depot and blew $20 on dark gray indoor/outdoor carpet which I cut in to strips and put down under my O tubular and S gauge Gargraves track as road bed. Must say that it really quieted things down. Well worth the expense.  There is more to be done to put the finishing touched on it. I ran trains today and found some places needing more work.  Gradually sorting things out and making some changes then comes the fun part-wiring up the accessories, signals and lights. Now if I could find the wire I had bught.

Moonson; another beautiful scene.

Started to get the train room ready for the film crew that is arriving the week after York. Should be a fun project to watch how they go about it.

Today I began deconstruction of one section of the layout that I'll be reworking after York. I tore out the MTH Railking Plastic Hellgate bridge and began removal of the Gargraves trackage.  

In place of what was there, I'll be constructing a hidden staging yard for the hi-rail portion of the layout. Above that will go an upper level (approx. 7' x 11') for tinplate o gauge, featuring a loop of t-rail track on the outside and an AF O gauge track plan on the inside.  

Sounds cool.  I like the staging yard idea.  I guess that is a throwback to my 45 years in HO.

That sounds like a great opportunity!!

Put together some storage tanks for the fuel oil in the engine service area. I have a vertical tank yet to build, and then need to find something to use as the pump house.

 What did you use to build those tanks - they're very nice?

jackson

I scratch built everything here except the office - wasn't that hard.

Beautiful, Frank. Another of your great slices of life.

Put together some storage tanks for the fuel oil in the engine service area. I have a vertical tank yet to build, and then need to find something to use as the pump house.

You are a true craftsman. This is what I want to make for my diesel fueling facility. May I ask where you get the valves or did you make them? I looked on the Internet but, I didn't find anything.

Excellent results! How did you make the big tank and the pump house?

Laidoffsick, Those tanks look real good. It's especially nice how you restrained yourself with the weathering; they look similar to a pair I saw along a local road between Cortland and Homer, NY. Real nice work, sir.

Modeltrainspar, WOW! What a perfect scene! Reminds me of a couple places I have seen along Rt.11 on my way from Clarks Summit to Cortland. I mean, you got every feature just right. I really like that scene!

And Spence and Mill City, Thank you for saying you liked  that vacation camp scene. Though I have always lived in or near urban centers, it appears I like being in more rural settings, too, huh.

I get a bit surprised when that kind of place flows out of me onto the palette, with such pleasure, but find myself enjoying very much sites like Modeltrainspar has master-crafted, too. I suppose it's the truth of the thing - we can tell when somebody is telling us the truth - in this case Modeltrainspar and Laidoffsick. They obviously know what they are talking about - saying with their art - and we respond accordingly with due praise. We appreciate the truth being told to us.

Well, that's my opinion, at least.

FrankM.

ARC,

The large tank in a previous life was a 32 oz.coffee can. i very carefully bent a piece of card stock  (that i was steaming - using a steam iron - to soften it) around it. i forget what i glued it with; either a thin application of contact cement or liquid nails. The bands were thin pieces of Evergreen strip styrene glued in place using Goo. The top was a circle cut from a piece of Evergreen sheet styrene. The two horizontal tanks were built the same way, starting life as shaving cream cans.

The little pump house was made from a scrap block of wood that i glued some simulated brick (plastic) and corrugated roofing (Plastic also) to; the door and window came from my scrap box. 

The piping and valves were bits and pieces of Plastruct  that i had lying around, and the hoses near the tank cars were pieces of solder painted black.

Tank near the gas pump was 3/4 of an old Lionel 027 tank car body (found at a train show for $.50!). Office - a building of unknown parentage found at a train show. Fueling rack - scratch built out of scraps. Richfield tank car in background - old Intermountain kit.

jackson

FrankM.

Thank you for the kind compliment.

Modeltrainsparts. Thank you for explaining the components of the scene. Another demonstration that the "worth" of a scene is often in the talent of the modeler and not so much the materials used. I love Moonson's comment on the truth of a scene and totally agree you've captured it. Very inspiring.

Thanks ARC, the tanks were a kit from Plastruct and included all the valves and piping needed. Alan Graziano designed these kits for Plastruct several years ago (I think). All I did was assemble the kit, cut a piece of wood for the base, paint everything, and add some weathering to them. Plastruct sells everything under the sun for piping, valves, vents, shapes etc etc, which you can find online at their website. I bought the Plastruct catalog because there is so much stuff in there, shapes and sizes, so I wanted to have it right in front of me, and I just order direct from them. That's where I got the 80+ lamp shades I put inside our roundhouse

Thanks Moonson, that means a lot coming from you. Your work is outstanding. All these tanks got was a couple washes of india ink/alcohol. I was going to add a touch of rust to the seems at random, but I'm happy with the way they came out.... at least so far.  

last night ran some wire for the ground plane fixed one area still have one that's an issue funny didn't have any issues for months on this layout until I put in the second transformer and made a upper and lower block oh well fix and move on. today some yard lights came in so modified them a little and mounted one. then tested it out. I finished the upper loop also so that I can run Thomas for my granddaughter we run it either on the upper loop or the loop under the table on the floor . either way she is all smiles. today playing trains was probably most needed today. If that makes sense. Saturday my lab took off my wife thought someone was breaking into the house nope my lab was breaking out couldn't find him until this morning he was found at the pound that was a plus. got in the car went to go get him I got a call from my wife so I thought nope police officer on the other end. she was in an accident in her truck 1 car accident too. I guess a tree fell down and was in the road well the semi in front straddled it my wife not so much hit the tree jumped the curb and with her push bar on the front climbed a telephone poll safety wire all I got from the police was she hit a tree and she hit a telephone pole so as you could imagine I was thinking the worse. not bad at all drove truck home from the reports and seeing the damage the front wheels were in the air the trailer hitch dug into the ground . one foot either way it would have ended much different. so her hurts so off to the hospital we go . then off to get the dog  then off to get eh granddaughter from preschool then home to baby the wife until she goes to sleep then feed kids then kicked them off to bed thought quiet time nope daughter in Michigan calls wants bus ticket home really I'm going to go play trains and relax

Yes,w I think running trains would be a good remedy!  Glad your wife and dog are okay.