What did you do on your layout today?

CGWforever posted:

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!

Neat project that came out great GCWforever. It really updated the PW style bridge

Don McErlean posted:

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

 

Don,

All I can say is wow! I remember as a child going to our local mall. That was back in the day when all malls had at least one toy store. I saw this train and wanted it, why, because it was a train. As I was being taken home that day I thought about it the entire time. When I got home I started to cry. Walter my "fill in" grandpa asked what was wrong and I told him. He told me that tomorrow he would pick me up and guess what I came home with the next day? You guessed it Papa Smurf and the gang!

Thanks for posting,

Dave

Lionelski posted:

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?

He wears his costume under his clothes and changes at super-speed so no one can see him.

He super-compresses his Clark Kent clothes and puts them into a pouch in his cape.

John, I love what you're doing with the Santa Fe...Santa brought us some people this year and I'm bringing home finish samples from work to try and dress our Santa Fe and Tri Rail cars up...hope ours come out half as good as yours!

John Rowlen posted:

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, I love what you're doing with the Santa Fe...Santa brought us some people this year and I'm bringing home finish samples from work to try and dress up our Santa Fe and Tri Rail cars...hope ours come out half as good as yours!

Dave:  What a great story, its always more fun when we can connect the toys we find to the joy that they must have brought to real young people.  If you still had yours, we could run a "double header" impress "Smurfette" for sure!

John/Lionelski/GeoPeg:  You bring up tough questions concerning Superman.  Where did he put Clark Kent's suit in the Phone booth?  The chewing gum under the shelf seemed just to "icky" to be the answer.  Besides the suit, where did he put Kent's Fedora Hat?? You know that in those days no gentlemen would be caught outside without a hat on...I have pictures of me, 5-6 years old, in about 1949-50 dressed for church and I have on my little hat!  I still have a Fedora, I wear it in the winter sometimes as I am mostly bald but really just to mystify my students...they look at me like I am from outer space...and they and their ball caps all worn with the brim anywhere but in front. 

My layout work today was to finally tackle a job I had been putting off for a considerable period.  I gathered up all my stacked copies of "Toy Trains", "Train Collector Quarterlies", "Lion Roars", "Toy Train Bulletins" , as well as my stack of catalogs from as far back as 2009 and organized them in a filing system.  I got these big magazine "envelopes" they call them but they are really just a magazine sized 3 sided box to hold them in chronological order.  Got rid of duplicates and sorted all out.  I really didn't get too much more room in the layout space but it certainly looks like there is more room and it enhanced the look of the train display and layout.  Now...where are those Tylenol for my back! 

Don

Don Mcerlean, I’m glad you mentioned cleaning your inventory of all the train books, it can get out of hand in a Big way, it ties up room space, and what you did is amazing. If possible, post a picture of the book holders. I did this 2 years ago and have all of a 23 plus years if Model Railroader, CTT, OGR, Railroad Model Crafftsman, Trains Magazine, Special Issues Of Classic Trains, Classic Trains, TCA, LCCA, and all the Kalmbach books on how to do this and how to do that, it becomes a Monster..... Yes sir, you worked on your Railroad today. What’d I do, lots of wiring, hooking up lights and accessories and it’s really Exercise. My layout is 23 years old, I’m 75 now, and it’s a good thing I go to the gym, or I couldn’t do this fun job. Thanks for sharing your and please post a picture. I’ve cleaned up my train room and now folks can enjoy videos, refreshments and train running time. Happy Railroading 

Vincent Massi posted:

Lionelski posted:

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?

He super-compresses his Clark Kent clothes and puts them into a pouch in his cape.

This was explained many years ago in one of his comic books.

LEAPINLARRY:  Wow, like your room.  Mine is more restricted as I share it with my Daughter in Law who is a fitness fanatic and keeps some of her exercise gear in there, maybe I will try some ... Ha!.  Anyway here are some pictures.

Space is long and thin, periodicals and books are at the end.  I named ,RR the "Lexington Park and Savannah" after some places we lived but more so that I could nickname it, the "long and skinny".

Other side of the room.  I just bought some train shelves from "Glenn Display Systems" and those are going to go on the wall with the picture to give me more shelf room and allow me to get more trains out of their containers so maybe I will be able to run them sometimes.

Here you can see the magazine "envelopes" and how they organized the periodicals. 

Here is what one of the "envelopes" looks like.  Its about 10" on the bottom but only about 4" wide

Maybe a better view showing how they hold the periodicals and in my case train catalogs as well.

Here is the product label from the envelopes.  I got them on line via Amazon.  They are shipped "flat" but are no trouble to pop open.  They came in a 12 pack at a cost of around 1$ apiece.  I priced them at "Best Buy" and they wanted nearly 5$ each for them. Delivery took about 3 days.  

Don, thanks for the pictures, I will take some of mine tomorrow and post them. I like your layout, your organizational skills to. If ever in Tennessee please come see me. We really have a great time in our hobby. I have been selling on the OGR Forum some of the train items I can’t use on my layout and there’s still lots to go. Then my train room will be a lot better. This hobby can be very addictive.... Thanks for sharing your ideas. Everyone on the forum has great trains and nice layouts, or nice collections. Amazing. Here’s rolling Thunder...Happy Railroading 

I'm playing around with where the railroad unit sign goes.

I think this angle make sense from the perspective of someone entering the area, as well as a viewer of the layout getting to see it.

This is the computer graphic I created for it.

Carl,  The seat back Plastruct is #90759 .060 1/4" (.250") White styrene plastic. There are ten strips in a pack.   I cut the height a little less than the large sofa seating in the center of the Santa Fe Dining Car.  I pre-paint the seat back strips with two coats of paint, and then cut them and touch them up after I glue them to the back of the seat cubes with Krazy Glue.  I let the glue dry overnight before closing the car up. 

Krazy Glue fumes can fog clear plastic if not ventilated until dry.

I placed seated people in the center sofa/booth seating area of the Sanra Fe Dining Car tonight. I took a break to watch football with Mom until Halftime., then went to work on the passenger car.  The people took extensive cutting and grinding.  The end dining seats will be easier and hopefully finished tomorrow.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Thank you, John.  Always appreciate your photos, text, and information.

Worked on painting and installing window sills on my current structure build as well as figuring out the last section of the city. Have to get some more track down before I anchor the base for the structures. 

Scott 

Morning everyone! Its been awhile since I have been here! I have been keeping up to date on my smart phone, but not on my computer. All I can say is WOW everyone is doing such great work!

John, the work your doing on your passenger cars is just amazing! Your detail really brings your cars to life and not just some steel rolling around the layout!

Brian, Great photos of your layout! I wish I lived closer so I could come and see it in person!

Larry, the same goes for you, I just love your train room and your layout is wonderful. One I would truly like to see in person one day if I ever get down that way!

Johan, your scenes are perfect as always! Great work!

I know there is a lot more to comment on but I am just overwhelmed getting up to speed on what everyone is doing. 

I haven't been in the train room for awhile as I am still working on the house. I hope to get out there today as I want to finish the fixed pilot project on my dummy engine so I can move on to something else. But first I have to clean up the mess made while putting in the mini split heater/AC unit.

I hope everyone has a great Sunday and if your football team is still in the chase they do well, unless they are going against the Seahawks! LOL

         was having some engine problems last night...                                        

          caught it on video...

                had to bring in some backup...

              have a great day everyone !

briansilvermustang posted:

 

         was having some engine problems last night...                                        

          caught it on video. Had to bring in some backup.

      have a great day everyone !

 

 

Brian, great choice on backup! Guess you couldn't find a BNSF engine to save the day!

I had a hour or so of free time before starting my game day preparations so I painted and assembled 18 pallets. Hey, every layout needs them.

Two busy days in a row, but I got a third train set up on my "Knights of Atlantis" lay-out. I also improved the looks of Sodor Island, I couldn't improve the looks of those two pirates though.

Vincent, congratulations on 3 trains running!  I like the Power Bridge in the first photograph!!  Everyone needs at least one. 

Today, I didn’t get to run trains or work on the layout, but I’m getting ready to wire up some MTH Passenger stations that make the folks disappear like there boarding the train. Anyone have advice on these accessories? 

Mike G, thanks for your kind comments, come in over to Tennessee, it would be nice to have you and your family visit, this is a great part of the country, middle Tennessee. Be sure and keep us posted on your layout progress, it’s a great layout.

Briansilvermustang, Wow, you have the Diesels, Steamers, and Simply a great Collection. Congratulations on a job well done. I love those Santa Fe diesels!

Vincent Massi, I like your unique trains, are they LEGO? They are very colorful and fun to see. Give a little more information. Thank you.

Strap Hanger, I like the idea of making pallets, cool looking. 

B&O Fan, I like your construction project and the pictures of your layout, keep them coming. I like the buildings in the corner scene, very nice.

P51, Lee, I like your pictures very much, a really nice layout and great scenic detail. Simply awesome. Thank you.

John Rowlen, I like the way you work on your new train cars. Amazing. I do not do any repainting or taking apart, my dealer installs my passengers, I admire your work and you must have a lot of patience. Great work.

Keep the great pictures coming, have a great week everyone. 

Thank you for your comments and questions as I continue to detail the nine Lionel Santa Fe 21" passenger cars #1927010, 1927020, 1827030 and 1927040.

I just finished gluing the last Preiser 65602 Seated Passenger in the Dining Car. There are 26 adults and 3 babies. I am glad that I had 20 boxes of 36 figures painted already.  It made filling the cars easier.  Most of the figures were painted last January and February, 2019 and stored in their packaging.

I still plan to detail the kitchen area of the dining car, but will move forward with the 5th car, the Santa Fe Coach from the 1927020 2-pack.  It makes sense to keep painting the seats and placing figures in all the cars, before I come back and build the kitchen.  Delaying the kitchen build gives me time to buy some thinner Plastruct sheets and think about the final design.

I posted some pictures of the dining area.  I can't tell if my eyes are overly tired or the pictures are blurry.  Maybe both.  One day I will read the big instruction book that came with the camera.

Have a good week.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

John Rowlen, Wow, the passengers are looking great, your placement of the figures is so neat, the woman holding the baby so real, the folks on cell phones, simply wonderful. Your pictures were clear. Thank you for that.I can see them at the station, ready for a long journey to points unknown. Enjoy.

John, wonderful progress photos once again.  Very well-planned to have a large inventory of painted figures on hand when your passenger cars arrive.

Also, what is the head count on painted figures you have done for your various passenger cars?  I lost track, but it is a stunning total by any standard.

Stunning total is right, Carl!

Larry, great populated cars also

leapinlarry posted:

Vincent Massi, I like your unique trains, are they LEGO? They are very colorful and fun to see. Give a little more information. Thank you.

 

 

 

Larry, the one train I assembled today is an L gauge Lego train. The other two I have running are HO. I have considered starting a thread on L gauge trains, which I THINK Lego has abandoned.

L gauge is 17% wider than O gauge, yet its curves are so tight that an L gauge oval is only slightly larger than an HO oval. You lose realism in exchange for flexibility (If you don't like any of the railcars, use your Legos to assemble them differently). Tracks are FAR cheaper than regular tracks because they have no electricity. The locos are run by 6 AAA rechargeable batteries and are radio-controlled.

Lego made three powered sets (One has a powered tender that pushes the steam locomotive) and a Hong Kong knock-off company made a very nice unpowered steam loco that I assembled.

My small house has a 6' by 8' train table, so I have to use HO and N scale rather than O. However, the tighter curves of L gauge track make the larger trains possible.

Strap Hanger posted:

I had a hour or so of free time before starting my game day preparations so I painted and assembled 18 pallets. Hey, every layout needs them.

I hear you on the pallets can't have too many, nice job

I had to make a lot also for the brewery and barrels of course

Interesting for me to see painted figures in passenger cars, which I have never done. However, I am on the lookout for nice, economical painted figures that are sitting.

This is why:

As you can see, I have a long way to go in order to fill the bleachers in my 2 baseball stadiums. LOL, Arnold

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Interesting for me to see painted figures in passenger cars, which I have never done. However, I am on the lookout for nice, economical painted figures that are sitting.

This is why:

As you can see, I have a long way to go in order to fill the bleachers in my 2 baseball stadiums. LOL, Arnold

Well, Arnold, if you lower your ticket prices, “they will come”  

Vincent Massi posted:

leapinlarry posted:

Vincent Massi, I like your unique trains, are they LEGO? They are very colorful and fun to see. Give a little more information. Thank you.

 

 

 

Larry, the one train I assembled today is an L gauge Lego train. The other two I have running are HO. I have considered starting a thread on L gauge trains, which I THINK Lego has abandoned.

L gauge is 17% wider than O gauge, yet its curves are so tight that an L gauge oval is only slightly larger than an HO oval. You lose realism in exchange for flexibility (If you don't like any of the railcars, use your Legos to assemble them differently). Tracks are FAR cheaper than regular tracks because they have no electricity. The locos are run by 6 AAA rechargeable batteries and are radio-controlled.

Lego made three powered sets (One has a powered tender that pushes the steam locomotive) and a Hong Kong knock-off company made a very nice unpowered steam loco that I assembled.

My small house has a 6' by 8' train table, so I have to use HO and N scale rather than O. However, the tighter curves of L gauge track make the larger trains possible.

Larry, thank you for asking.  I thought one train looks like LEGO.  

Vincent, so you said L scale is discontinued.  What scale are LEGO trains they sell now?

Larry, your more then welcome, its easy to make nice comments on your layout as it is one of the nicest ones I have seen! I can tell you put a lot of time into it! I am working on getting fixed pilots on my dummy ES44 right now so I can move on to something else. I am not sure what is next, but will keep you posted!

John wonderful job on the passenger cars! The pictures were nice and clear, maybe you need to take more breaks! LOL

Strap Hanger & Sidehack, great job on the pallets!

Arnold, great looking ball parks! Maybe if you offered free hat night or something like that you would get more people!

Vincent, nice job with the lego's! I don't thing I could do that as sometimes I have a shot temper! LOL

I hope everyone has a great day and enjoys time with there layout!

Before putting my Polar Express set away for another year I had to fix two issues with the observation car.

1- the lights kept flickering so I had two options, buy GRJ's passenger car cap kits, or go low tech and clean and tighten the wipers on the axles. Went with option 2 for now.
2- glue the &%$### observation deck on the back of the car so it doesn't keep falling off

Then I removed a trespasser from the layout

Happy Monday

I know what you mean about that observation deck, Bob!  It would fall loose but not completely down just running around the track on my old conventional set.  I sold it when I bought the LC set two years ago, and wondered if they would have done something different, but no it was the same.  All I can think of is they want it separate for shipping so it doesn't break off.  

I recall having a similar trespasser on my layout when I was a teenager.  My sister's cat would jump up until I moved the layout to a higher table in the basement.  My wife is a dog person, not a cat person, so we have not had any Catzillas since!

Three day report here.

In the past 56 hours, I removed the second level again.  I had to move a curve further from a wall.  I replaced the control wiring on two more switches.  I put a momentary switch for track power to two new spurs.  I modified the North end and wired two lighted buildings.  I put updated liquid smoke parts in my PW #736 and #671.   Lots of smoke from both.  Today will install my radio tower and a Lionel switch tower.

Gee, seven sentences does not seem like much words to describe what I accomplished.  Maybe I'll just run some 70 year old chain smokers.  I know.  I'll hook a prewar tender to #736 and pull some really old stuff!

Bill

NMRA MCR Div 7 layout visits after the meeting.

A very nice 3-rail layout by Bill and a picture of Jim of OGR was there. 

https://ogrforum.com/...8#126859556543933508

      running some Amtrak with some private cars on the end...

Mark Boyce posted:

 

 

 

 

 

Vincent, so you said L scale is discontinued.  What scale are LEGO trains they sell now?

I'm not sure that it is discontinued, but the Lego store we visited last week did not have any of them. Lego has not posted any plans to make new ones. However, if you go to the Lego online store, you can still buy them.

Vincent Massi posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

 

 

 

 

 

Vincent, so you said L scale is discontinued.  What scale are LEGO trains they sell now?

I'm not sure that it is discontinued, but the Lego store we visited last week did not have any of them. Lego has not posted any plans to make new ones. However, if you go to the Lego online store, you can still buy them.

Okay, now I understand.  I didn't read correctly!! 

Bill, It sounds like you accomplished a lot!  Get something right before you move on in the way to do.  " 70 year old chain smokers"!  I never heard it that way, but you are correct!  Have fun running trains!

Mike,  I took your advice and rested my eyes today. I am taking Mom for a drive through the Cleveland Metroparks to Berea Station to see the NS and CSX tracks and hopefully some trains. Mom has been very patient with my detailing of the passenger cars.  She will sit and watch me work, but not for long. The cure for cabin fever is a nice car ride and a hotdog and hot fudge sundae from Dairy Queen.

Carl,  I honestly have lost track of the number of people I painted. The total was at 3,500 a year ago.  I bought 15 more boxes of 36 Preiser 65602 seated people in 2019 to go with five I already owned, but had not painted.  I also had some boxes from the previous painting sessions.  I stocked up on the Preiser 65602 people because they had been unavailable for a year or so in 2016.

Larry,  I like your passenger cars.  The layout at night looks very good.  I like to watch my passenger trains snake their way around my Valley of Bridges layout in the dark. I may never finish my layout, but at least I have a place to run my trains.

Mark,  I am doing my caregiver duties today with a ride in the park for Mom.  She deserves some fun at age 93. Trains and ice cream, at least the ice cream and a hot dog, make her happy.

Sincerely, John Rowlen