What did you do on your layout today?

Haven't done much on my layout. 

Playing with REAL trains, on the other hand...  ;-)

https://ogrforum.com/...rkansas-and-missouri

Mitch

I've been cutting soundstop board I used on my old layout for the new smaller temp layout. I then have started painting it with the Krylon stone paint, looks ok to me .

@Mark Boyce posted:

Congratulations on a job well done, Bob!!

@decoynh posted:

Nice work Bob.

Thanks Guys. Been a frustrating month or so seeing the building on the work bench all the time.

Hello Darrell where did you buy the stone paint it looks good thanks Kevin

You can try craft stores, my local stores just had small cans in too dark color. Found what I was looking for on amazon.

Thanks Kevin

Over the weekend, I shot a lot of video for an online pay service (I don't think it competes with OGR though).

While trying out new angles I found one I really liked. I staged my own shot if a coal train, which I'm keeping for my own uses:

https://youtu.be/_qR5oo2NC4c

Yesterday at a flea market in PA I bought a PostWar SanteFe 623 switcher for a steal. The plan was to make it a custom paint project BUT, now that it is cleaned and lubricated, it looks and runs great - way too good for a painting project. Until I figure out what I want to do with it, it is on a shelf with it's matching sister, my SanteFe 622 bell-ringer.

Yesterday:

O Gauge -  still hunting down my recently repaired MTH AT&SF engine that has gone missing! It’s got to be here someplace!!!

Std. Gauge- FINALLY got the smoke unit on and working on my MTH Ives 1134 Circus Engine. BIG yahoo!!!

I have had some problems with my latest layout project.  Bob, I can relate to your woes. I decided to add a long siding in front of the lower mainline to take the place of the one I had to take out to put in my little yard to the right.  I had an extra GarGraves 042 left hand switch, and it cut right into the mainline great.  It kills me that the instructions say that they don't come prewired after some date in 2006, and the instructions don't tell me what to add.    I had made a bunch of connections to where I thought I had it ready to go.  When I powered it up, I saw I was still missing some connections in the frog.  I had also noticed that the plastic frog was too high, and thought that was messing with things, so I ground it down with the two-speed Dremel I bought 35 years ago.  That thing is a lot harder to control than it was years ago.  Couldn't be anything wrong with me!!  So, there are some gouges where I didn't want them. Finally, the Dremel sanding tool quit turning though the motor was running.  I thought the tool had gotten lose in the chuck.  After fiddling I realized, the shaft won't turn at all.  Getting back to the wiring, I had a bunch of holes drilled in it, and it was all screwed down.  I thought I would try to alleviate the problem in place.  Don't even ask what I was connecting; I want to forget the whole thing.  My 10-15-watt soldering pencil couldn't heat it up enough, so I got out the 35-watt soldering gun.  I wasn't getting good heat transfer, but the iron was tinned and tight.  Finally it slipped, and I melted a big hole in the switch.  There is something wrong with that soldering gun, but I guess it isn't a crime, it must be 50 years old, since I bought it when I was in high school to build my first layout.  So, I was so tired of it, this evening, I took the switch out, replaced it with the piece of track I had cut out and ran a train around and around.  I resolved, I am going to buy a Ross-ready 042 left hand switch at McCormick Hardware in nearby Zelienople and forget about the GarGraves.  This is supposed to be a hobby! 

@Carey TeaRose posted:

I love how your photo is on the billboard, which also explains the layout itself

@Darrell posted:

I've been cutting soundstop board I used on my old layout for the new smaller temp layout. I then have started painting it with the Krylon stone paint, looks ok to me .

Darrell,

I've done my road bed exactly the same way except mine is a brown speckled paint.  I spray homasote and I am glad I did because I had to move my layout to my new house and I can reuse it all.  I still have the 0-42 corner jig I made for my router -- so I can  make more.  Looks great!

Mike

Some days are like that Mark. Your layout is taking shape. Keep up the great work.

I am going to get a new front stoop, driveway and connecting walkway at my house in a week or so. I am worried that when they jack hammer the stoop and extension along the front of my house that the vibrations might cause my building flats and signals to fall on trains and buildings. So today I started to temporarily relocate eleven passenger cars and ten freight cars with B6s no. 5244 and moved fifteen freights with B6s no. 505 to what I call my yard tracks.

Mark, I would say that Murphy’s Law was hovering over your shoulder.

Ahhhrrrgghh ..glued more individual cedar shingles on the second half of the mill roof.  First half done.  Structure will have old wood shingles on front of roof and rusty corrugated sheet at the back. Building is a third longer than provided by kit, and looks better proportioned to me.

I did a few small projects on the layout during the last two or three days. I made our wye into a separate block and added a dpdt switch so either one of our two Z-4000 transformers can be used to control it. I also isolated the tail of the wye with a spst switch so that an engine can be left there.

I also made some new layout diagrams showing the locations of switches and blocks, and put them on the fascia boards around the layout.

And I added a couple more scenic details to the roundhouse area (a work in progress).

@pennsynut posted:

I am going to get a new front stoop, driveway and connecting walkway at my house in a week or so. I am worried that when they jack hammer the stoop and extension along the front of my house that the vibrations might cause my building flats and signals to fall on trains and buildings. So today I started to temporarily relocate eleven passenger cars and ten freight cars with B6s no. 5244 and moved fifteen freights with B6s no. 505 to what I call my yard tracks.

You may want to cover the layout with plastic too. The dust that is about to fall off the floor joists will have you cursing for a while.

Bob

I was thinking about that as well Bob. Great minds

Over the weekend I had knocked over (Aristo-Craft #1 gauge) Mrs. Buttons N. Bows - who is Owner and Head Clown of BUTTONS & BOWS COLOSSAL CIRCUS, and she is also the Owner of BUTTONS & BOWS CIRCUS RAILWAY, breaking off her hand and umbrella!

And I had knocked over (Bachmann) Clown Emmett Kelly, Jr. too, breaking off the base of his sweep broom- again.

Hubby Tom is the fixer/re-gluer in our house. The repair-er of my peeps as need be.

Today I'll be setting them both back up in the Circus area on the Upstairs Standard Gauge Layout. They are standing in front of one of my custom-design Standard Gauge Billboards that I created- this one lives on the Main Floor Layout- its to promote the Circus that is on the Upstairs Layout.

Today I removed buildings and other scenery things from a section to keep them safe from upcoming front stoop work. Good opportunity to clean up some stuff knowing I have to do it afterwards as well. Took two pics.

Unpacked and road-tested this beauty from Beth at The Public Delivery Track:

An MTH PS3 SW1500 (of course) and it runs as slow as a turtle.

They got the Tuscan Red pretty close IMO.

@Aldovar posted:

Made a cheap remote control holder and harbor rearrangement

Looks like a really good and fun way to have some team work to get a layout organized.  😉

@RSJB18 posted:

IT'S DONE!!!!!!

Not without one more fight though. I set the new pole and light in place at the end of the siding and wired it in. Worked fine for a few minutes and then it went out. After a few choice words.....I checked the splices and as I moved the wire, it lit again. Turned out to be the resistor adapter was faulty. I swapped it out with another and all is good. Glad to have this project behind me so I can get on to other things.

Ran trains for a while to celebrate too.

Bob

Very nice indeed, Mr. Bob! That is a good looking corner of your layout. I love the lighting effect!

George

Today we iced up the reefers.....

@gandydancer1950 posted:

Today we iced up the reefers.....

Fantastic railroad and your photography skills really shine.

The kind of look I can only dream of for what I could do on my layout. 🤓😴

Lew- very nice, now you actually have an engine from the home state of the PER. I have a Penn Central model from the Despatch Shops in Rochester. This is an earlier PS-1 version.

Gandy- nice refer collection.

George- Thanks for the compliment. The other back corner has been on the back burner because I need to climb up on the layout to reach it. My plan is to build a diorama that I can just drop in place and be done.

Bob

Put up another photo backdrop. One more to go for that side of the layout.

Gandy - Great looking layout, where did you find the workers loading the ice?

Stay Safe,

Scott

@Mark Boyce posted:

I have had some problems with my latest layout project.  Bob, I can relate to your woes. I decided to add a long siding in front of the lower mainline to take the place of the one I had to take out to put in my little yard to the right.  I had an extra GarGraves 042 left hand switch, and it cut right into the mainline great.  It kills me that the instructions say that they don't come prewired after some date in 2006, and the instructions don't tell me what to add.    I had made a bunch of connections to where I thought I had it ready to go.  When I powered it up, I saw I was still missing some connections in the frog.  I had also noticed that the plastic frog was too high, and thought that was messing with things, so I ground it down with the two-speed Dremel I bought 35 years ago.  That thing is a lot harder to control than it was years ago.  Couldn't be anything wrong with me!!  So, there are some gouges where I didn't want them. Finally, the Dremel sanding tool quit turning though the motor was running.  I thought the tool had gotten lose in the chuck.  After fiddling I realized, the shaft won't turn at all.  Getting back to the wiring, I had a bunch of holes drilled in it, and it was all screwed down.  I thought I would try to alleviate the problem in place.  Don't even ask what I was connecting; I want to forget the whole thing.  My 10-15-watt soldering pencil couldn't heat it up enough, so I got out the 35-watt soldering gun.  I wasn't getting good heat transfer, but the iron was tinned and tight.  Finally it slipped, and I melted a big hole in the switch.  There is something wrong with that soldering gun, but I guess it isn't a crime, it must be 50 years old, since I bought it when I was in high school to build my first layout.  So, I was so tired of it, this evening, I took the switch out, replaced it with the piece of track I had cut out and ran a train around and around.  I resolved, I am going to buy a Ross-ready 042 left hand switch at McCormick Hardware in nearby Zelienople and forget about the GarGraves.  This is supposed to be a hobby! 

Ugh--this is the kind of thing I hate--that is when a project stalls or aborts because of something weird--like Dremel tool failure! I've had to fix one of my Dremels multiple times. There are many different models so this may not apply to yours. But many of them have a plastic connector between the motor shaft and the tool head, inside the housing. If you open it up and see that, you can go online and order a replacement. Might as well get a spare too.

Those Gargraves 042 switches are strange beasts. I have several different Gargraves 042 models. I am not sure how that frog is supposed to match up with the track end. In the end, I gave up and went with a Ross 054. If you need one or more 042s, just email me and I'll be glad to supply them. I have a box of them (used and new) that I am probably never going to use.

Good luck Mark!

Don Merz

Gandydancer, amazing scene with the milk cars, great pictures, Wow, RSJB18 Bob, beautiful Diesel, your layout is so cool.... Thanks for all the beautiful pictures. I visited my friend DR. Jack, the pictures are of his awesome railroad, you can see his Milwaukee train videos on Mr. Muffins web site. Happy Railroading Everyone

Great photos everyone and sure is a lot of great work being done here! As for me I cooked 3 pans of dirt and thats about it. We are leaving tomorrow to head to North Dakota so I hope by mid week next week I will have a couple new building and some more autos from Menards!

I hope everyone is staying safe and having fun with there layouts!

Safe travels Mike and if you see some great scenery in ND, please send us photos !

EB

@Don Merz 070317 posted:

Ugh--this is the kind of thing I hate--that is when a project stalls or aborts because of something weird--like Dremel tool failure! I've had to fix one of my Dremels multiple times. There are many different models so this may not apply to yours. But many of them have a plastic connector between the motor shaft and the tool head, inside the housing. If you open it up and see that, you can go online and order a replacement. Might as well get a spare too.

Those Gargraves 042 switches are strange beasts. I have several different Gargraves 042 models. I am not sure how that frog is supposed to match up with the track end. In the end, I gave up and went with a Ross 054. If you need one or more 042s, just email me and I'll be glad to supply them. I have a box of them (used and new) that I am probably never going to use.

Good luck Mark!

Don Merz

Don, Thank you very much for your sympathy and providing suggestions.  I got on the computer to report in what I discovered last evening about the Dremel and saw your message.  Mine is a basic two speed model number 285-3.  Here is the photograph I took that shows exactly what you mentioned.  The flex coupling as the parts diagram called it had crumbled.  I made sure I dumped out all the little pieces and ordered a new coupling last evening.

I also connected temporary jumpers to all the power drops in my little three-track yard that has 2 GarGraves 042 switches, one RH and on LH.  I was able to run an engine everywhere with not trouble.    I have one more 042 LH switch I plan to install in the same location of the one I had trouble with and see what happens.  I will report my findings.  Garbage pickup is tonight, and the butchered troublemaker is already in the can.  Many would say keep it for parts.  I don't ever want to see it again! 

@mike g. posted:

Great photos everyone and sure is a lot of great work being done here! As for me I cooked 3 pans of dirt and that's about it. We are leaving tomorrow to head to North Dakota so I hope by mid week next week I will have a couple new building and some more autos from Menards!

I hope everyone is staying safe and having fun with there layouts!

Mike, Ah yes the aroma of walking in my grandma's house and smelling dirt baking in her oven!  It takes me back to childhood! 

Have a safe, fun visit to North Dakota, and we will look forward to see what your shopping spree turns up.

I posted the videos I took the other day on my YouTube page

https://youtu.be/yuUccJ0reVw

https://youtu.be/Vrh1eAvyqxk

https://youtu.be/m9098_73KvA

https://youtu.be/wGQCVoIJ5kk

https://youtu.be/YNYpVj8NJOY

John

@RSJB18 posted:

Lew- very nice, now you actually have an engine from the home state of the PER. I have a Penn Central model from the Despatch Shops in Rochester. This is an earlier PS-1 version.

Bob, I also have this MTH PS3 SW1500, the prototype of which "lives" and works in Pittsburgh:

Actually just South of the 'Burgh, from Neville Island to just South of Canonsburg.

https://hawkinsrails.net/shortlines/pohc/pohc.htm

@Trainmaster04 posted:

Got to run some trains and finished this video:

Great choice of fantasy engine schemes. 

@FrankRazz posted:

Great choice of fantasy engine schemes.

Thanks! When I made this video I had planned on doing a double header with the Blue Goose and with Lionel’s latest Meteor. Sadly that wasn’t able to happen due to I got a bad model from them.

@Mark Boyce posted:

I also connected temporary jumpers to all the power drops in my little three-track yard that has 2 GarGraves 042 switches, one RH and on LH.  I was able to run an engine everywhere with not trouble.    I have one more 042 LH switch I plan to install in the same location of the one I had trouble with and see what happens.  I will report my findings.  Garbage pickup is tonight, and the butchered troublemaker is already in the can.  Many would say keep it for parts.  I don't ever want to see it again! 

I installed the extra GarGraves 042 LH switch, connected power, and the train ran through both legs of the switch perfectly.  I still don't know what was wrong with the first switch, but I don't care.  It is out in the green can waiting for Mr. Green to haul it to the landfill tomorrow.

Installed and painted the base of my modified, hinged lift MTH Arch Bridge to connect my around the room tables.i