What did you do on your layout today?

sidehack posted:

Lee that's nice...back in 2008 my son had a full calendar made up with all my layout pics

That is SWEET! Now we need to see more of your layout.

Dave

Dave it's not very big but I try to do a good a job as possible with the details.

Carl,  Here are two photos of the 1927040 2-pack Vista Dome Floor underside screwed onto the two posts designed to hold the Dome Floor with seats in place.  The space as designed has very little height for seated figures.  I back the screws almost out to lower the Dome Floor.  The screws in my Wabash were a little longer.  The two screws help align the Dome Floor forward and back to keep it from moving down the car.  The screws have a molded washer head.

By grinding some of the lower level wall under the dome floor, I am able to lower the Dome Floor to provide more height for the seated figures in the Dome.  I also have had to grind the bottoms of the figures to the point when any more grinding would distort the figure and cause the legs to fall off. I believe this car is like the Wabash and Amtrak Vista Domes.

I need longer screws to keep the Dome floor from skidding around inside the car on top of the lowered walls.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

The 3rd of 9 Lionel Santa Fe 21" passenger cars is the "Pine Bell" Sleeper, one of two cars in set 1927040.

The interior does not look like my Walthers HO Pine series 10-6 sleeper cars.  The ten seats are so-ooo large that they dwarf the Preiser 65602 1/45 seated figures.  The seats look like they could fit G-gauge people.  I thought the Pine series were 10-6 Sleepers, but the three bedrooms to the left have only one window for two rooms and no dividing wall.  There are no room walls as in the Walthers HO Santa Fe 10-6 sleepers.

I will paint the seats, but probably limit the number of seated people in the car.  The car is my least favorite Lionel 21" passenger configuration.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

John, thank your for the photos and text--I now understand the problem and your solutions.

My frame of reference for the dome floor attachment was L's aluminum extrusion which did not use screws to secure the dome floor to the shell; and, I didn't consider L had come up with a different approach; i.e., screws.

Thanks, again.

Today my buddy Kevin came over and updated my Ver 4.3 TIU to 6.1. I successfully commissioned the WIU that my wife gave me for Christmas. My TIU is a Rev 13a and I bought the USB/Serial adaptor cable and splitter off of eBay. I will admit to being a little nervous about this working together. I was anticipating having to buy a Rev L TIU.

Both of the granddaughters trains have run on G-Pa's iPad this afternoon. Life is good. While my DCS remote still works and I have a spare, this really takes a lot of pressure off. 

I tested twelve feet of new Menard's 30" track over the last few days. Ties are of a thinner metal than my Menards curves from a few years ago. You cannot step on these at all or tie's sides bend, lowering rail height overall to about 0-27 height..... convenient for me because I'm mixing 0&0-27 here, but far from the sturdy ties of my (older) Menard's curves. I'd say the new ties sheet metal gauge is about equal to those of lionel 0-27 ties.

...which all led to breaking out the box of extra track and forgoing any and all housecleaning since the year 2020 rolled in.

The Crumbville, Halloway, and Hermanstir Fork RR averages about a minute for a round trip. Unique; each reverse loop's hot power drop contains a single diode which randomly plays bell (or whistle on #2). The long connecting line between reverse loop & turnouts doesn't have a diode on it's drop. When close to the diode-drops you get a bell/whistle offset, and once about 15" away the sound shuts off again as the voltage offset weakens closer to the hallway drop without a diode at all. 

Sound system is Lionel Railsounds Berk. Engine is a RI dockside cab fwd with a flip phone, upsidedown and open at a 90° witha rubber band around it and the roof. I forgot to raise the resolution too, darn.

  "Brakezilla" sounds masks the cuff sounds dying....I didn't have brake squeel or chuff in my sound library;and well, you know the rule..... "no dead air" 😁

The rails themselves are still heavy gauge and if you notice it picks up a lot of speed on the new track vs old 0-27, even though all hot drops are only on the 0-27   😁  There is a common drop on the Menards; but I found removing it makes no difference;  new metal rocks "period";dot".

I get it Brian.  It's New Haven, not New Hampshire.

decoynh posted:

I get it Brian.  It's New Haven, not New Hampshire.

Brian, Now that's more like it.  I even like the colors.  Dark Pullman Green would be better, but I'll take what I can get.  

Moving on Hotel...still

Need to finish roof trim and may put basement floor in also which would show under elevated tracks

geysergazer posted:

Today the Postman dropped off a box and I unpacked it. This beauty was inside:

        

After changing out the couplers to the hidden-tab type (I have standardized on them because the remote-uncouplers&car-stoppers are spaced accordingly) the new car went into the interchange yard (fiddle yard).

This pic is for Mark:

      

"built by Pullman Standard Butler, Pa" 

I like the level of detailing on these MTH PS-2CD cars, nice paintwork&lettering but not too delicate for old arthritic hands to handle without [too much] damage. 

This car fits into my developing scheme of having a car on the PER for each road I have ridden. Still need Reading, Western Pacific, Mopac and Amtrak. Some small lines like the Apache railroad (White Mountains of Aridzona), the East Broad Top, the Penn View Mountain Railroad (Blairsville, Pa) and the Oil Creek & Titusville prolly not gonna' happen.

That looks like it says “Putler” not Butler.....😜

What'd I do? A recent equipment roster change meant I had to re-lay a carlength of rail that had been ripped up post-abandonment of the old Main Stem:

This because the Dinner Train now has three cars!

After the acquisition of the old business car and the subsequent refurbishment of wobbly-truck-syndrome there are now three cars available and Dinner patrons are happy because now you can usually get a table reservation with a day-or-three notice.

PER management and the Dinner Train concessionaire are happy too because revenue is up what with ten more tops (tables) and profit$ are up as well because with planning kitchen staff is able to handle the load so the increased expenses are more wait-staff and of course the car-cost. 

sidehack posted:

Dave it's not very big but I try to do a good a job as possible with the details.

Ray same here! 

Guitarmike posted:

geysergazer posted:

Today the Postman dropped off a box and I unpacked it. This beauty was inside:

        

After changing out the couplers to the hidden-tab type (I have standardized on them because the remote-uncouplers&car-stoppers are spaced accordingly) the new car went into the interchange yard (fiddle yard).

This pic is for Mark:

      

"built by Pullman Standard Butler, Pa" 

I like the level of detailing on these MTH PS-2CD cars, nice paintwork&lettering but not too delicate for old arthritic hands to handle without [too much] damage. 

This car fits into my developing scheme of having a car on the PER for each road I have ridden. Still need Reading, Western Pacific, Mopac and Amtrak. Some small lines like the Apache railroad (White Mountains of Aridzona), the East Broad Top, the Penn View Mountain Railroad (Blairsville, Pa) and the Oil Creek & Titusville prolly not gonna' happen.

That looks like it says “Putler” not Butler.....😜

Ha! You are so right:

It's a typogorical.  Oooooes! I wonder if that makes this car a rare collectible like those PW Lionel "production mistakes"?  Mebbe worth $$....A VL BB in my future?? 

The Lionel Santa Fe "Pine Bell" 10-6 Sleeper is finished, the 3rd of 9 cars.  I decided to add the normal number of people to this car even though the seats are very large and dwarf the passengers.  It would be odd to have seated people in all the cars except this one.

I took two pictures showing the painting of the seats. The middle Stateroom has one coat of paint and shows streaks caused by the oil used in the molding process. The left room has two coats, and the right has three in order to fully cover the seats.

I had to place the seated people on the edge of the seats in order for them to be seen through the windows.  If I push them back into the seats, they are not very visible.

I will assemble the car when the glue and Dullcote dry.  The next car will be the Santa Fe Dining Car in the 2-car set #1927020.

Have a good evening.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Been test running about 40-50 trains over the last 2-3 weeks to resolve all 'bugs' .

https://ogrforum.com/...2#126296579530158642

Still tossing boxes... Ugh.........

I'll make sure to share some of my actual layout work this weekend, but more recently my trains have become a major test subject for my new camera. (My apologies for flash, the lighting in the room is terrible, quite frankly. I'll get around to solving that eventually.)

Guitarmike posted:

geysergazer posted:

Today the Postman dropped off a box and I unpacked it. This beauty was inside:

        

After changing out the couplers to the hidden-tab type (I have standardized on them because the remote-uncouplers&car-stoppers are spaced accordingly) the new car went into the interchange yard (fiddle yard).

This pic is for Mark:

      

"built by Pullman Standard Butler, Pa" 

I like the level of detailing on these MTH PS-2CD cars, nice paintwork&lettering but not too delicate for old arthritic hands to handle without [too much] damage. 

This car fits into my developing scheme of having a car on the PER for each road I have ridden. Still need Reading, Western Pacific, Mopac and Amtrak. Some small lines like the Apache railroad (White Mountains of Aridzona), the East Broad Top, the Penn View Mountain Railroad (Blairsville, Pa) and the Oil Creek & Titusville prolly not gonna' happen.

That looks like it says “Putler” not Butler.....😜

By golly, I'm looking at it on the computer now and not the old smartphone screen and it does say Putler!!!     Send it back!!  Just kidding, it is bigger than lifesize on the screen and I had to really focus hard to see it was a P.  My eye doctor wouldn't be surprised!    It's all right by me, Lew!!

geysergazer posted:

Guitarmike posted:

geysergazer posted:

Today the Postman dropped off a box and I unpacked it. This beauty was inside:

        

After changing out the couplers to the hidden-tab type (I have standardized on them because the remote-uncouplers&car-stoppers are spaced accordingly) the new car went into the interchange yard (fiddle yard).

This pic is for Mark:

      

"built by Pullman Standard Butler, Pa" 

I like the level of detailing on these MTH PS-2CD cars, nice paintwork&lettering but not too delicate for old arthritic hands to handle without [too much] damage. 

This car fits into my developing scheme of having a car on the PER for each road I have ridden. Still need Reading, Western Pacific, Mopac and Amtrak. Some small lines like the Apache railroad (White Mountains of Aridzona), the East Broad Top, the Penn View Mountain Railroad (Blairsville, Pa) and the Oil Creek & Titusville prolly not gonna' happen.

That looks like it says “Putler” not Butler.....😜

Ha! You are so right:

        

It's a typogorical.  Oooooes! I wonder if that makes this car a rare collectible like those PW Lionel "production mistakes"?  Mebbe worth $$....A VL BB in my future?? 

 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

In view of the "Thomas the Tank Engine" layout shown by Vincent I thought I would share one of my more recent "junk" finds...a SMURF Train, complete with Smurf blue engine and tender and track!!  Battery operated, approximately O gauge or perhaps a little smaller, works, and was complete with box as shown.  Its  most certainly not high value but who among us can resist a full up operating train set in the box for 5$ !! 

Finally, in my "Grandson's" layout is my new Marx Union Pacific F-3 A / B pulling an all Marx freight.  Note it is passing a Marx "Frontier" litho tin log cabin in use as a station.  Like most all Marx, train was picked up for a modest price at a train show, put on track, immediately goes to work pulling trains!

Well, that's all from Waco folks

Don

I have Smurf Train envy!

Lew:  But of course!  thanks for the reply gave me a good smile.

Don

I started the 4th of 9 Lionel Santa Fe 21" passenger cars, the Dining Car #1489, part of 2-pack 1927020. The car arrived today from Gryzbowski Trains.

The Dining Car does not have sound, so the kitchen area is open and provides me with an opportunity to build a kitchen from Plastruct sheets.

I stated painting the table bases Testor's Flat Earth Red and the table cloth a Flat White.  (The tables have 1,2,3, and 4 coats of white paint starting at the far right and moving left.)  The tables will take five coats of flat white paint.  I cut the mold debris off the table edges to clean the interior appearance. 

I noticed that Lionel is now using a black steel 3/16" E-clip to hold the trucks on the 21" passenger cars.  It is an improvement.

This is where I end today. Until tomorrow.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Brian, Excellent down and dirty, weathered and worn railroad scenes!!

Brian....NICE

Finished the CAD design of the hotel facade, there are 33 individual pieces that need to be 3D printed

Not really on the layout, but I just finished making this 1950's store type display to hang over my new American Flyer alcove layout. I printed the decals too.

Lionelski posted:

Don McErlean posted:

 ..."about the same size as a telephone booth".  One day, in briefing some HS students, he realized from their blank stares that they had no idea what a "telephone booth" was!! ……….

 

Question, Don, where the heck does Superman go these days to change?

Which brings up another question; where did he put his Clark Kent suit when he did?

Rumor has it he stuck it up under the phone booth shelf and all the old chewing gum held it in place ...

I made some progress on the Santa Fe 21" Dining Car #1489 from the 1927020 2-pack.

The interior is painted and ready for me to place people in the car.  I added Plastruct seat backs to the cubes molded into the floor and touched up the seats.  It is nice to see a completed dining room with real chairs for the passengers.  It is better than a crate on the floor.

The kitchen area will get stainless steel counters, Refrigerator, stoves, ovens and grill with grill hood and sinks.  My Santa Fe Diner in HO has a counter mid-kitchen, blocking the cooking area from the plating and dish washing area. I am not sure how much Plastruct building I will do.  As long as it goes well, I will keep building.

Tonight I will place seated people in the Dining Car.  It is an enjoyable task, taking one person at a time.  I always leave a table or two open for more diners who just arrive.

Have a good night.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

John, the seat backs make ALL the difference; as you said, a chair instead of a crate to sit on.

Is there a Plastruct product number for the seat backs or do you fabricate them?  How do you attach them?  What adhesive do you use?  If you answered these questions previously, I apologize for not recalling the answers.

Looking forward to what you do with the kitchen.

Thanks, as always, for your photos and explanations.

John, I enjoy seeing what you do with the cars.  I have 2 sets of cars I want to add passengers and LED lights to some day.  I’ll look forward to seeing the kitchen too

I'm no carpenter, woodworker, never really modeled before but we needed to come up with some piers to support our bridge over the bay...took me nearly 2 hours to do this one (3 more to go) and it's not without it's flaws but I think with some paint to make it look like concrete this just might work (I'm open to ideas, criticism, etc. though...still need the boss [little man] to give final approval to live forward).

Hi guys- Took the Polar Express and Yuengling excursion train for one last spin before we took all the Christmas decorations down...... sniff Couldn't pass up a 55 deg day to take the outside lights down too. 

I hope to get some stuff done tomorrow. Need to power up the new siding and start leveling out the upper track to make the spur for the excursion trains.

Everyone's doing great stuff. John- the detail you put into your passenger coaches in top notch.

Bob

Just finished the project of die cast girder bridge for double main line. Bought pair of NYC girder bridges from auction site at very cheap price. Removed one side girder from each bridge into one wide bridge. Used middle metal plate from old Lionel girder bridge to fill the gap in middle. Sanded lightly to remove the prints, installed plastic plate on one side of girder for C&NW logo. Painted all. After paint dried, applied C&NW logo on the plastic plate. Used aluminum duct tapes under the bridge to hold together, painted it, installed under tracks. All done!