What did you do on your layout today?

mike g. posted:

Johan, what kind of car is that? I have never seen one before! Sure is sharp looking along with your great scenery!

Scott, Thanks for the information. I to would also like to have the brewery, but then again I also want to stay married! LOL

Brian, Looking good and sounds like you have a great plan! Good thing you have that New Haven switcher to help you out!~

Mike. Thank you. That is a B&M Doodlebug rail car. 

Johan

Scott. I really like your city how it’s on a curve very different and a great job

Brian. Thanks I just can’t walk away from this car till it’s complete. I like that AB switcher never knew they made them in AB 

Steve. Great idea and thanks for posting I need one of those for my work bench 

Well this morning I was back at it on this Reefer car. I put the trucks and Kadee couplers on added some more details including Scale City Designs stirrups and the ladders were to long for the car so I cut them off and save the excess to make the side door reefer steps. Then I decided to go out on my comfort zone and put a brake wheel and rod on it I have two handrails to put on it then it will be finished I’m gonna let things set up then I’ll finish painting 

BAR GP7 #63 posted:

love the photo!

Steve, Sure beats a flashlight! LOL Nice work!

Johan, thank you, Looks Great and now I know what a Doodlebug car is!

Lee D, You are doing a KILLER job on the reefer car! Just wondering how much of your rolling stock have Kadee's?

Well the CEO let me go out and play a little so I was able to get the Kadee's put on my dummy engine and put back in the fleet! Here are a couple photos! Who knows I might even get a little more done like clean the darn room! LOL

gandydancer1950 posted:

BAR GP7 #63 posted:

love the photo!

Ganfydancer1950. Thanks.🤝

Johan

Lee, beautiful!

But Mike, cleaning takes away from train time. 

Of course, not cleaning can make our beautiful trains all dusty&gray. 

I finished the control panel for my yard.

Bob, I was thinking similar to you.  1/4" square basswood dowel is too large.  The caliper measures it as .130 inches, slightly larger than 1/8".  I could get 1/4" and sand it down.  I don't know how much torque it would be on basswood to wear it down and get sloppy.  Maybe it would have to be metal, but I don't know if it is too tight it could crack the plastic.  I can try something and see.

Scott, the town is going to look great!  I too, like the Altoona building with the round turret!

Johan, I agree, that is a great scene with the doodlebug and the cars on other tracks behind!!

Brian, that car will look nice with that paint scheme!

Steve, the LED lights under the layout are great!  You just can't have enough light when we get older.

Lee, the reefer is looking tremendous!

Mike, the engines look great!  Also, the room doesn't look bad.  Lew is right, you move the dust around and get natural weathering!

Ross, the control panel looks pretty snazzy.

Spent the day pointing brick......

Well not really but I did take a stab at white washing the mortar lines on the machine shop. I used white acrylic and mixed in some light brown to tone it down a little. If you look closely at most brick buildings, the mortar is as far from white as you could get. Even on new buildings. Not disappointed with the results at all. Once I paint the doors and trim I think it will be just fine. I'm going to do the window and door lintels to look like sandstone so I thought a beige mortar would match best.

I cleaned up the pieces first and washed all the parts too.

I'm going to add a floor on the second floor, the model doesn't come with one. I want to do some lighting and interior details too. The footprint is only 6X6 so can't do too much.

I also settled on a couple of smaller size prints of the two buildings and cut them out and glued them to some thin cardboard. Once dry I'll cut them out and figure out where to place them later.

Bob

           Bob, your building is looking great !!

"Brian, Looking good and sounds like you have a great plan! Good thing you have that New Haven switcher to help you out!~" 

      thanks Mike...   really like it...

     your BNSF engines look great together !

                  are you going to have an auto-rack siding...

                            to be able to use your ramp for unloading vehicles ?

Lew, I didn't clean, but I did try to run trains. I founfdd out I have some wiring to trace and track to clean. Trains run, go threw switches and die! It has me scratching my head, so I am going to retrace all the wires for the sidings!

Ross, Nice control panel!

Mark, Thank you! If you would like I can cut you some thick Plexi Glass to close to size and you could still sand it to fit!

Bob, Nice Job on the white/Tan wash! Plus the printed buildings are going to look great on your layout! Your right there fallowing in Paul 2 feet!

train steve posted:

On my layout today I installed led lighting underneath the kit is made for under kitchen cabinets but should work for me took 2 hours 

That is an idea I could use, never have enough light down under

MikeG. Thanks this has been really fun Brian the Silver Mustang sent that Reefer to me as a gift out of nowhere. I like that ramp and you trains look very good. About half of my rolling stock is Kadees. I’ll get some pics of my Rolling stock with Kadees. 

Lew. Thanks I appreciate your complement 

Bob. I just watched a video today on YouTube of Mr. muffins white washing and mortaring brick buildings you’re doing a fantastic job

Johan great pics as always 

Mark. thanks for the complement 

Brian. Nice switcher 

Ross. I second that nice panel very impressive 

I’m calling it a day on this Reefer. Tonight I painted the Hardware on the Brake Wheel and platform and I also added some end rails at the roof top and sides. Next I have to add the air tank and valves and roof walkway supports at the ends and  I’m calling it done 

B&O Fan posted:

Randy Harrison posted:

Scott:

Thanks for your quick reply. It is a GREAT structure. I guess they wont just sell me the office?

Yes, you can get just the office. That's what I did. 

Have a good day, 

Scott 

Scott:

Thanks again for the information. Again, you did a GREAT job on the building.

Mark Boyce posted:

Bob, I was thinking similar to you.  1/4" square basswood dowel is too large.  The caliper measures it as .130 inches, slightly larger than 1/8".  I could get 1/4" and sand it down.  I don't know how much torque it would be on basswood to wear it down and get sloppy.  Maybe it would have to be metal, but I don't know if it is too tight it could crack the plastic.  I can try something and see.

Scott, the town is going to look great!  I too, like the Altoona building with the round turret!

Johan, I agree, that is a great scene with the doodlebug and the cars on other tracks behind!!

Brian, that car will look nice with that paint scheme!

Steve, the LED lights under the layout are great!  You just can't have enough light when we get older.

Lee, the reefer is looking tremendous!

Mike, the engines look great!  Also, the room doesn't look bad.  Lew is right, you move the dust around and get natural weathering!

Ross, the control panel looks pretty snazzy.

Mark. Thank you. 🤝

Johan

lee drennen posted:

MikeG. Thanks this has been really fun Brian the Silver Mustang sent that Reefer to me as a gift out of nowhere. I like that ramp and you trains look very good. About half of my rolling stock is Kadees. I’ll get some pics of my Rolling stock with Kadees. 

Lew. Thanks I appreciate your complement 

Bob. I just watched a video today on YouTube of Mr. muffins white washing and mortaring brick buildings you’re doing a fantastic job

Johan great pics as always 

Mark. thanks for the complement 

Brian. Nice switcher 

Ross. I second that nice panel very impressive 

Lee. Thanks. 🤝

Johan

Brian, thank you sir! As for the Auto-rack siding I am still working on it. I have 2 auto-rack cars that's why OI built the ramp. I even built one for Cabinet Bob! It even made the back of the last Menards train catalog!

Lee D, Amazing work! Looking wonderful. One has to ask what's next when your done with the reefer car?

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and finds time for your layout and trains!

EricaAnn posted:

It's not so much what I did for my layout today, but what I did for someone else's layout. Working on 3 locomotives for a client. The two A units were originally Lionel 2032 Erie Alco's, circa 1952-1954. The B unit is from Lionel's MPF days. The two A units were "artistly" repainted by someone using a brush trying to stay away from the decals. Same with the truck side rails. Guess they wanted to update the color scheme. 

I was able to strip away the brush applied paint job as well as Lionel's original decals, black paint & yellow side strips. These shells have now had time turned back about 67 years and all of lead based paint is gone! 

After stripping a number of older Lionel cars my stripping solutions has enough lead in suspension to probably offer some limited radiation protection. 

A couple weeks ago I shared a few photos of the stripped ALCO shells I was working on. Well, I thought I'd share a photo or two of the completed locomotives before I deliver them to my client. The "old girls" got quite a facelift!

As a result of wanting to display one of my recent finds I did some work on the PER's scenic backdrop.

I put together three pics from a mid-'50s Shawmut excursion:

The left photo is of a pair of Shawmut SW9s with B&O Fs idling in the background. This would have been at Brockway where the Shawmut and the B&O interchanged and was surely the end of the Northbound leg of the trip.

Dad took the top photo in the morning on the B&O high bridge over the Allegheny River and the Shawmut RR.

The bottom photo was in the afternoon with the excursion train Southbound now passing under the B&O high bridge.

I also changed things a bit on the West wall, trying for perspective-filled shots to go with the D&RGW up-the-mountain pic:

I feel like I done good work.  :

Over the weekend I weathered my fleet of ore cars and my 0-6-0 tank engine. 

First I attacked the bodies with acetone to dull the finish and lighten the lettering.  The next step was a coatiing of Dullcoat.  Then I  brushed brown oxide powder all over, followed by a second dullcoat spray.  Finally the B&LE  cars got a wash of gray. 

 On the tank engine, I first removed the US  STEEL logo with 91% ISOPROPYL Alcohol followed by an initial coating of dullcoat. 

The next steps included brush painting the loco with acrylic paints, grimy black, dirt,  oily black,  and white.  It also got some brown oxide powder on it. 

Hope you like them.

This weekend my youngest son (8 years old) and I  spent a lot of time working on the layout. As you can see from the photos, he really likes the flowering clumps available from Walthers and Woodland Scenics. I'm not sure how many switch towers have landscaping but ours does.

Erica Ann, Those Alcos look great!!

Lew, your collage of prints looks great!  You cover quite a bit of territory all the way from the Allegheny River to D&RGW country!

Bill, the weathering looks superb!  Yes the B&LE cars that traveled through Butler County looked that way.

JLM1973, If it keeps him enjoying the layout, then by all means!  I think it looks great!

Johan, Living in the so called "Rust Belt" The rust is impeccable!

third rail posted:

Over the weekend I weathered my fleet of ore cars and my 0-6-0 tank engine. 

First I attacked the bodies with acetone to dull the finish and lighten the lettering.  The next step was a coatiing of Dullcoat.  Then I  brushed brown oxide powder all over, followed by a second dullcoat spray.  Finally the B&LE  cars got a wash of gray. 

 On the tank engine, I first removed the US  STEEL logo with 91% ISOPROPYL Alcohol followed by an initial coating of dullcoat. 

The next steps included brush painting the loco with acrylic paints, grimy black, dirt,  oily black,  and white.  It also got some brown oxide powder on it. 

Hope you like them.

Great work on the tank engine!

Mark,  I know I ran into this year's ago...  I would shop for some "Shaft Key Stock"....  It tends to be available at a good old style full service hardware store.   It's square steel stock made for keyways in drive shafts and mating hubs to prevent slipping....  

It's still or at least was fairly common hardware, find it on lawnmowers, snowblowers etc.....  If my memory serves me right it comes in common US standard fractional dimensions  3/16 sq.  1/4 sq etc.....

I think I re-installed mine with some acrylic latex caulk like DAP230 to keep it from falling out again. 

Sorry I am many days behind getting on the forum, went skiing with my daughter Saturday in NH>....   

mike g. posted:

Brian, thank you sir! As for the Auto-rack siding I am still working on it. I have 2 auto-rack cars that's why OI built the ramp. I even built one for Cabinet Bob! It even made the back of the last Menards train catalog!

Lee D, Amazing work! Looking wonderful. One has to ask what's next when your done with the reefer car?

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and finds time for your layout and trains!

Mike I have a few ideas 

Mark Boyce posted:

Erica Ann, Those Alcos look great!!

Lew, your collage of prints looks great!  You cover quite a bit of territory all the way from the Allegheny River to D&RGW country!

Bill, the weathering looks superb!  Yes the B&LE cars that traveled through Butler County looked that way.

JLM1973, If it keeps him enjoying the layout, then by all means!  I think it looks great!

I second that everything Mark said great work everyone 

EricaAnn posted:

EricaAnn posted:

It's not so much what I did for my layout today, but what I did for someone else's layout. Working on 3 locomotives for a client. The two A units were originally Lionel 2032 Erie Alco's, circa 1952-1954. The B unit is from Lionel's MPF days. The two A units were "artistly" repainted by someone using a brush trying to stay away from the decals. Same with the truck side rails. Guess they wanted to update the color scheme. 

I was able to strip away the brush applied paint job as well as Lionel's original decals, black paint & yellow side strips. These shells have now had time turned back about 67 years and all of lead based paint is gone! 

After stripping a number of older Lionel cars my stripping solutions has enough lead in suspension to probably offer some limited radiation protection. 

A couple weeks ago I shared a few photos of the stripped ALCO shells I was working on. Well, I thought I'd share a photo or two of the completed locomotives before I deliver them to my client. The "old girls" got quite a facelift!

Very nice always enjoyed your work on these you have some great ideas 

chris a posted:

Mark,  I know I ran into this year's ago...  I would shop for some "Shaft Key Stock"....  It tends to be available at a good old style full service hardware store.   It's square steel stock made for keyways in drive shafts and mating hubs to prevent slipping....  

It's still or at least was fairly common hardware, find it on lawnmowers, snowblowers etc.....  If my memory serves me right it comes in common US standard fractional dimensions  3/16 sq.  1/4 sq etc.....

I think I re-installed mine with some acrylic latex caulk like DAP230 to keep it from falling out again. 

Sorry I am many days behind getting on the forum, went skiing with my daughter Saturday in NH>....   

 

Chris, Thank you for the good idea!!  Don't worry, it is so easy to get behind on this topic of 888 pages and counting!

Been a busy little beaver today...

https://ogrforum.com/...p5-to-ep4-conversion

https://ogrforum.com/...ights-using-12v-leds

Haven't done much on my layout of late. 

The layout at the JRM museum, on the other hand, is a much different story...

Here's the layout back in 2018: 

And the layout today: 

Just a wee bit of difference.  ;-) 

Mitch 

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Been a busy little beaver today...

And the layout today: 

Just a wee bit of difference.  ;-) 

Mitch 

Looks good, Mitch... looks like you’ve hot a lot going on in a relatively small space. Did you give up on your idea to have that center track include a reversing wye???

Apples55 posted:

Looks good, Mitch... looks like you’ve hot a lot going on in a relatively small space. Did you give up on your idea to have that center track include a reversing wye???

Yeah, we're gonna have a different mountain built, instead, so I decided to go with 042 and 027 ovals.  Between replacing the Fastrack with tubular, and putting a layer of Homasote scrounged from a scrapped HO scale layout on the table,  the trains are a LOT quieter...   

Mitch 

What did I do on my layout?? I took a pic of this enlargement which is part of the scenic backdrop of the Plywood Empire Route:

Why did I put up this and similar enlargements on the train-room walls?? Because that is me on the left. My experiences depicted in these old photos inform my life and are one of the roots of my interest in model railroading. Why did I then post this pic on this Forum?? Because that is what I did on my model railroad today and that is the topic of this thread and this Forum is for sharing OT thoughts, experiences and yes, pics.

At least that is my understanding of the TOS.

Erica Ann, Wonderful work on the Alco shells!

Lew, those are some fantastic photos! Thanks for sharing with the rest of us~!

Third Rail, Great job on the weathering, thanks for the step by step information!

JLM, Your son has an eye for taste! Let him flow with it, it will help keep him interested!

Johan, You never let up! Once again what a great looking scene!

Mitch, Outstanding work, what an improvement and I bet the kids really love it!

As for me, nothing, noda, zip, zilch. I guess you all get the point, been working on the house! LOL

geysergazer posted:

What did I do on my layout?? I took a pic of this enlargement which is part of the scenic backdrop of the Plywood Empire Route:

      

Why did I put up this and similar enlargements on the train-room walls?? Because that is me on the left. My experiences depicted in these old photos inform my life and are one of the roots of my interest in model railroading. Why did I then post this pic on this Forum?? Because that is what I did on my model railroad today and that is the topic of this thread and this Forum is for sharing OT thoughts, experiences and yes, pics.

At least that is my understanding of the TOS.

Lew, Check your email from me.  That is familiar country and ROW to me too!

Johan, those are great pics. You have a good eye for capturing a scene.

Mike g, good to see you got a chance to run trains. Hope you find the problem with the power to the track.

Erica ann, very nice paint job on the diesels.

 And to everybody else you have made for good reading today on all the projects going on. 

Took a trip to Menards to get some spray paint for the different silos along with some basswood strips from the hobby section to make some loading docks for the new flats. Also picked up two 3 inch clamps that had a great rebate on them. 4.99 each with a 4.00 dollar rebate on each one. The rebate was a limit of two. Today I applied two more washes to the machine shop. Then I started piecing in the flats to see how they will work together. Did some changing out of the flats I already had in place. I decided to cut off the bottom on one of the last flats I got. I think I am pretty close to this being the final positioning. Pics..........Paul 2