What did you do on your layout today?

I've bought from Pat's trains before, in person, and online, and have been satisfied every time, with every purchase, to date. He has a good selection to choose from, I wish I lived closer to Wheeling, so I could shop in person.

Rusty

Ditto to all Rusty said.

Mike G. you have inspired me. I have in my garage two pallet-sized wooden frames made very sturdy with heavy wide wheels on the bottoms. I think there were used to transport drink refrigerators into a drug store across the street. But no matter. With a tiny bit of work, I could put sides on them and use them for boxed rolling stock storage with the boxes on the ends so I can read what is in them. Each one will probably hold 40-50 cars. Then they will roll right under the layout! Nice! This will free up a TON of shelf space for me. I want to take down some of my shelves. 

So thanks for the idea!

Don

Decided to build shelves for my small collection of engines and rolling stock. So far five 8' shelves done and filled. Nice to be able to see everything.

Got home from short extended trip and my neighbor brought me two boxes left at my front door. GGD PRR b70 and Weaver New Haven b60. Unboxed, inspected, compared with my K-line kitbash project, put on track, ran around the main, through town, back and forth through tunnels, bridge approaches for clearance. Worked great. The mail train now consists of 7 cars front to end, prr b60, prr bashed to b70, a New Haven b60, another prr b60, ggd prr b70 and finally two faux K-line rpos destined for kitbashing. BTW, it's a heavy train and I have 2.25 percent grades. I had a roller incident years ago with a K-line passenger car so I removed all the rollers on my cars. So this afternoon I removed the rollers from the new cars.

This past Sunday I got the next section of the layout built and started laying out the track. Should be an interesting section, I'll have 3 different elevations coming together to make two double track mains for a high line and low line. 

Stay Safe, 

Scott 

Thanks  Everyone for the nice comments about my storage cart! I would like to thank Dave AKA (Darlander) and Matt AKA (decoynh)! They both suggested rolling carts!

Matt, I thought about that and will probably build a couple with no shelves just for that. It would be nice to get things off the floor!

Tom Tee, To keep the rolling stock from rolling off the ends I installed 3/4" X 1/2" wheel stops at each ends of the shelves!

Crane RR, You and Christopher did a great job!

Bob, Sorry for your broken wire, but it couldnt of been that bad. You got it fixed!

John R. Great work on your business/observation car! But thats nothing new coming from you. You always do great work!

Leroof, very impressive! Nice work.

Mark, Things are really looking good! I am happy to see your moving right along!

Lee D. Wonderful work on the international RC truck!

Don M, I am with Mark, its your layout so do what makes you happy! As for the cart I got the idea from Darlander & Decoynh we both have to thank them!

Pennysnut, your mail train is looking outstanding! Keep you the wonderful work!

Scott, your correct. Looks very interesting! Keep us posted!

Well I did get a little more time in the train room been switching out my freight train for my military train and had one of Bob's Oh no moments! LOL My flat car with a chinook helicopter would not fit under my scratch built parking lot for my Menards Power & light building. So I thought I would check it out around the rest of the layout. Worked fine in all the tunnels, but come to find out it would not fit under the Menards Morton Salt and Power and Light buildings. I really like the helo so it make things work I just took the wheels off and there is it, well almost I still had to plane the under side of the parking lot. But it all works fine now!~

I hope you all are well and being safe! But I really hope you all are finding time to have fun with your trains on your layouts!~

@B&O Fan posted:

This past Sunday I got the next section of the layout built and started laying out the track. Should be an interesting section, I'll have 3 different elevations coming together to make two double track mains for a high line and low line. 

Stay Safe, 

Scott 

Scott 

I like those risers looks good 

Thank you, Mike!!  I had one of those moments today also.  Last evening, I removed the curved switch that faces the wrong way for the car storage tracks in anticipation of my order of 3 switches arriving today.  I also glued down some leftover HO cork strips butted side by side for the storage tracks.  The switches arrived; wye will go on the enginehouse level, the 054 switch will fit in place of the curved switch nicely.  I opened the 042 GarGraves switch for the storage yard, and got one of the 042 switches I bought for the earlier rendition of the layout.  They are both left hand.  Here I thought I had two 042 RH switches, and needed a LH and a RH for the yard.  Now I have three LH and only need one.  Add them to the collection of switches I'll be posting for sale here one day.  

@Mark Boyce posted:

Thank you, Mike!!  I had one of those moments today also.  Last evening, I removed the curved switch that faces the wrong way for the car storage tracks in anticipation of my order of 3 switches arriving today.  I also glued down some leftover HO cork strips butted side by side for the storage tracks.  The switches arrived; wye will go on the enginehouse level, the 054 switch will fit in place of the curved switch nicely.  I opened the 042 GarGraves switch for the storage yard, and got one of the 042 switches I bought for the earlier rendition of the layout.  They are both left hand.  Here I thought I had two 042 RH switches, and needed a LH and a RH for the yard.  Now I have three LH and only need one.  Add them to the collection of switches I'll be posting for sale here one day.  

Well Mark, look at this way. 1 is better then none!

Started my 8x8 table today. I settled on 28 inches height. That allows me to sit comfortably and still have a nice view of the entire table. It also allows me to prop one hand on the table and lean to reach the center without needing a cutout. So far I have the corner legs and some braces holding the outer frame. Tomorrow I hope to get the rest of the legs and framing done, so I can put the plywood on. I'd like to get around to adding a protruding shelf for my  ZW. If I get that far, I'll be able to start figuring out my track design. Tom sent me a really nice box of layout goodies to get me started  andI can't wait to put them to use! If all goes well, I'll at least be able to run my trains by Saturday, might even have a station and some nice lamp posts lit up around the track too!

I ran some trains for the first time in a while, now I got to pick it all up!

I made adjustments to my Bush Funeral Train Dome Dining Car by adding five people to the Lounge and two more to the lower dining area.  There are now 19 people on the lower level.  Lionel had only installed 6 Little People.  The additional people make the car more interesting to watch as it passes by.

Tomorrow I will pull the cars with the Bush 4141 Engine.

Have a good evening.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Spent portions of my day installing 1/16" white stripes along the lengths of 2 LIONEL 15" aluminum offset dome cars (1 stripe per side) and cursed the eBay vendor who sold me stale/old product that broke apart about 50% of the time for the 12 or so decal stripes I used, often multiple times for the same decal piece.

I was already in a foul mood because I'd messaged him at the time of the purchase requesting he insert stiff card board to protect the decal sheet; he ignored my request; shipped in a bubble envelope with no reinforcement; and, the decal sheet arrived with a deep crease that won't go away.

Rather than return the sheet, even with the crease there was 3X the amount of stripes for my small project.  What I had not expected was the staleness of the product.

My happy ending is the stripes went on eventually and, to my 72 year old eyes, are fine for this Lowey two-tone green, NP North Coast Limited paint job.

I managed to get over half of my Benchwork done today, then ran out of screws. I have horrible luck with regular screws. I use the more expensive "star" head screws and try not to buy more than I need. The Benchwork has been a learning experience, to say the least.  Tomorrow the other half of the frame should get finished and the other sheet of plywood can go on. Then it's a matter of making the area for the ZW to sit and mounting the hub that will turn on and off everything in the room. It's similar to a surge protector, but it's a large flat steel box with a 15 amp breaker and power switches with red LEDs for each outlet.

I'll try to post a few pics tomorrow night.

Pingman: So Carl, from your description you decaled with dry transfers? How did you line up your stripes to be even/level. When you hit a snag, how did you correct it? I'm curious because I am going to jump in to dry transfer in the future after I read lots about how to do it and tricks and things to avoid. Thanks for the heads up on stale decals.

Received a postwar Erie Alco loco AA set today which had some issues, three issues to be exact. Two of the issues I knew about beforehand, but I noticed a short in the dummy engine. Found the short right away after opening the unit up, which was two bare connected wires touching the frame (shown below). Then to fix the powered unit which has its headlight out. I will be fixing that Saturday. The bigger job is trying to fix the battery operated horn and another loose wire that appears to go to the truck (and where does that go?) I will have to look at some wiring diagrams to find out.

Upgrading wiring on layout. Small layout but adding power drops anyway. 

Not so much what I did on the layout but what I did off the layout.  The other day a Locomotive that I can depend on to run anytime, just was not acting good.  I removed the engine to take it into the shop to see what was going on.  I for some reason while it was sitting on the layout but off the track, I mistakenly turned it on its side and the problem became very evident.  There was an ungodly amount of grunge on the wheels and pickup rollers.  I took my Dremel with a wire wheel and cleaned the junk off.  It ran much better.  I started looking at other Locomotives and none were as bad but still there were layers of grunge.  All my Locomotives are now scheduled for a cleaning and I am not looking forward to cleaning all my track.

@Pingman posted:

...I was already in a foul mood because I'd messaged him at the time of the purchase requesting he insert stiff card board to protect the decal sheet; he ignored my request; shipped in a bubble envelope with no reinforcement; and, the decal sheet arrived with a deep crease that won't go away.

Rather than return the sheet, even with the crease there was 3X the amount of stripes for my small project.  What I had not expected was the staleness of the product.

My happy ending is the stripes went on eventually and, to my 72 year old eyes, are fine for this Lowey two-tone green, NP North Coast Limited paint job.

 

 

 

I understand your frustration with the lack of care when sending items to us. Along with that I also dislike not accurate descriptions for items being sold and defective items. It can ruin a perfectly good day working on our trains.

@pennsynut posted:

Pingman: So Carl, from your description you decaled with dry transfers? How did you line up your stripes to be even/level. When you hit a snag, how did you correct it? I'm curious because I am going to jump in to dry transfer in the future after I read lots about how to do it and tricks and things to avoid. Thanks for the heads up on stale decals.

 

Should have said I was using Microscale PS 1-1-16, white, 1/16" waterslide decal stripes.

Sparing everyone the details, I decided to start over with new paint and go from there.  

Plus, I now have a train club where I can run long passenger trains, so I've decided to add two more domes to my NP North Coast Limited train (per the prototype which had 4 domes) and an A unit for an ABA F-3 set.  The two add-ons were recent purchases on eBay; and, are already disassembled with the domes packaged to be shipped to Christine Braden for paint.  An 8 or 9 car NP NCL with ABA F units will make a nice train.

Ran my mail train and sent videos to my grandkids and friends. I will try to do that on the forum soon.

Here's a couple pictures of my latest paint project. I finished it late today while staying in out of the heat!   Hope you like it.     Well,.......    I guess i'm not out of the woods yet, I want to build a potash train so only,......Maybe 12-14 more cars to go.  That's not too bad, is it?           

I would like to see that myles! Great work.

I got the Benchwork done and the plywood on yesterday. 8x8 seemed big enough until I threw a test track on it last night. It doesn't look that big now. I was going to run it like this for a while, due to financial restraints, but the noise is pretty bad, so it looks like something will be going over the plywood. I've still got to run around the edges of the table with a sander and so some other little odds and ends. I'm glad the table is  together. It's been a rough week. I haven't done this much in years and I'm really feeling it. All the track I had cleaned and stored a few years ago has gotten a little rusty, so I have a lot of re-cleaning to do. I also noticed that some of my track isn't quite even. Some rails seem to be made of a thicker metal so there's a bit of a bump where they meet up. I have enough track to switch them out, so that's high on my to do list today, after a few hours of relaxing of course.

Aam4378, one thing I learned through hard experience is that the BRAND of track matters. I originally wanted to do my layout all in Lionel tubular track. Then I discovered that you can get twice as much layout in the same space--and maybe more!--in other brands. So after many months of research and planning, I settled on Gargraves track with Ross switches for my limited space. Being able to bend the Gargraves gives me infinite flexibility. And he fact that Ross offers a full line of curved switches allows me to fit track in place that it otherwise would not fit. If you have a small space, Hargraves and Ross are your friends.

Don Merz

Don M.

I wish I could agree with you coming from experience, but alas, I can't. When I started purchasing Atlas track many years ago it was relatively easy to acquire at a decent price. With my last expansion, which I am currently working on, it was excruciating to acquire unless you wanted to pay MSRP.  With your selection of Ross/Gargraves, you don't have to worry about the product finding its way to a container and then wait for a slow boat across the ocean. 

I had fun today running the Lionel George HW Bush Funeral train with the addition of the Lionel Excursion 2-Pack #3 on the front end of the four-car Funeral Train.

I overcame a smoke issue with the engine by adding 60 drops of smoke fluid after the smoke initially stopped.  The wick must not be touching the bottom of the smoke fluid reservoir.  I used a needle smoke fluid applicator to add the final smoke fluid through the hole in the engine funnel top on the smoke unit. 

I am happy with the set and hope to add Union Pacific #9096 to the train.  The passenger cars match nicely with my Union Pacific Excursion cars.

Have a good weekend.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Here is another view of the George HW Bush Funeral Train with Union Pacific Excursion 2-Pack #3 at the front of the four passenger cars..

Sincerely, John Rowlen

I did some digging through the boxes of track I had. Some was clean, some wasn't. I did come across a large amount of loinel that had more ties under it. It was in good condition and clean. I must have gotten it in one of the lots I bought back in 2015 and forgotten about it. It was enough for the large loop around the table, with some to spare. If runs smooth and seems much more quiet. I still have around 300 feet of track left (estimate).  For my plans, it's going to be more than enough. Now I have to sort out some under-table storage for all my engines and rolling stock. I'm starting to be able to imagine the scenery now.  I'm thinking 1950s desert. The left rear corner will be a large mountain, with a tunnel. Over top of the mountain will be a large flying saucer, lit with color changing LEDs. There will be a chain link fence in front of the mountain with lights and some armed soldiers or men in black. On the right rear corner a small base for the soldiers or MIBs.  Halfway up the right side, a canyon, either dry or a tiny bit of water, going under the track where there will be a small bridge with a few lights. I'll leave the middle o the table and the front unfinished while I figure out some buildings, like a diner, gas station and such. Once I have those I'll add them and a road with a lit crossing, street lamps, etc. So far I'm liking how it looks in my mind, and keeping it simple should keep it cheap and easy to work on as I go. Like I mentioned earlier, I'll try to post some pictures, but I've been so busy and then sleepy. I just haven gotten around to it.

John. What a beautiful train really liked the videos thanks for posting 

John, I agree with Lee completely!  It is a beautiful train!

Lee and Mark,  Thank you for your response.  The George HW Bush Funeral Train is a nice running set and the cars blend well with other Union Pacific 21" passenger cars.

I have two Norfolk Southern Coaches that need painted people and I will be done.  Two Preiser 65602 sets of 24 Unpainted People that I purchased on Ebay arrived today.  I will put the first coat of paint on them tonight.

Have a good weekend.  The summer is flying by.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

@John Rowlen posted:

Here is another view of the George HW Bush Funeral Train with Union Pacific Excursion 2-Pack #3 at the front of the four passenger cars..

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Great video John! Love the music and visuals.

Loose caboose--heck, I hadn't even thought of shipping issues! Yikes. Let us know how that gets resolved!

Don

I have the wiring task coming right up. I hope against hope that it goes smoothly.

Don

Hi Don M. 

After a bad scenario with my normal supplier, I tried fleabay and again a bad experience. Finally, I contacted Mr. Muffins Trains after contacting others with no success. They had what I needed. Kudos to Jeff at Mr. Muffins. He was very accommodating. Thank goodness I have no more real estate in the basement as this is my last expansion. 

@John Rowlen posted:

Here is another view of the George HW Bush Funeral Train with Union Pacific Excursion 2-Pack #3 at the front of the four passenger cars..

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Beautiful train John. Your attention to detailing your cars really shows.

Bob

Not on the layout but for the layout.

I picked up some plastic storage drawers for my rolling stock that is not on the layout. I like to switch out what I run on my small layout and have been storing the extra cars in a pair of tubs. They are a PITA to dig through when I'm doing a change. These stack together and should give me plenty of space. The CEO found two that were clearance and she had coupons for the retailer we were in. Net cost under $60 bucks.

Bob

Bob. Very nice I like them