What did you do on your layout today?

The people enjoying the park add a lot to the park scenes, Mike!  

@Mark Boyce posted:

The people enjoying the park add a lot to the park scenes, Mike!  

Thanks Mark, I have an HOA meeting today so not much will get done. So I wanted to get something done before the Meeting.

@mike g. posted:

Thanks Alan!

I went out this morning to take a couple photos for SWAT and while I was out there I added some people to my second park and train platform, also a couple folks to the new pedestrian bridge. Here are a couple photos.

What a nice layout!!!

@mike g. posted:

Mike, Your layout is really coming together.  Nice job on the bridge, track and ballast work!

Cheers, Dave

Love the bridge Mike - can you pan out and take a pic so that we can see how it is integrated into the layout?

On the pedestrian bridge, did you use mini clothespin sides for the railing posts?

Mike g., I’m so glad to see your feeling better and working on your railroad, the pedestrian bridge is an excellent idea and looks like a fun walkover, great idea, Alan Rogers, that Texaco Station brings back fond memories from the past, neat work and a good addition to your layout, Nice work gentlemen, Now, Lionels prewired Accessories makes it a little more difficult to install, thank goodness for the adapter cable which comes in handy. I know I could simply cut and splice the wires however I like to keep everything original for resale purposes. Either way, the Fake News Newsstand has a new home. I wish everyone a Happy Weekend, and as always, Happy Railroading Everyone  

I just added the light, which is an LED and the accessory runs off of low voltage. I will do a video one day however it’s very quiet compared to the post war newsstand. Thank you Lionelski for your compliment, your layout is lots better.

Chris, Thanks for the videos attached to your post of 1/4/21- LOVE the layout.

Those sounds......

The engines........

The retaining walls....

The fantastic but simple mountain backdrop that makes the layout seem to go on forever.....

The track plan....

Did I mention that I LOVE the layout?

LeapinLarry,

Fantastic integration of post and pre-war items with your realistic scenery. Your cliff sides are unique, interesting and just plain wonderful. How did you design and build them?

Hi everyone thanks for the kind words on my bridge and walkway.

John, the railing post are really old wooden ties from old gargrave track!

After putting the Christmas tree and decorations away for another year I finished the balsa on the wood tunnel portal today. Next step is to rough in the rigid foam for the hillside behind the wall.

Bob

RSJB18,

I plan to do the styrofoam hills routine soon as well, so please give us a blow by blow as you go as your portal.  Your wooden walls are different and looking good.  I have enjoyed your process.

Thanks

In the AM at the club's well-equipped work bench, I cut a rectangular piece of styrene sheet and secured it to the frame of my PW LIONEL Burlington F-3 A unit's chassis and reattached its electronic e-unit with some fresh 3M double-sided tape.

Next up was a newly acquired PW SF 2243P with a balky e-unit.  Turns out a 60+ years old solder joint failed and a motor wire needed to be reattached.  Once reattached, the old guy ran around the permanent layout for 10 minutes smoothly and quietly.

My test subject LIONEL offset vista dome shell received another coat of SCII white paint for the stripe--one coat just wasn't enough on top of the light green NP NCL applied previously.  Hopefully, after it dries for the requisite 24 hours, I can apply the 2mm Tamiya tape mask then spray the NP dark green tomorrow.  I'm hopeful this will prove a successful approach to creating the thin white stripe of the Lowey dark and light green livery of the NP North Coast Limited.  Photos to follow.

Lastly, a club member had offered his business' machine shop services to remove the extrusion ridges from the aluminum shells of two LIONEL UP offset vista dome shells and brought one in to show me today.  It looked good to go, so he'll have the second shell done and return both to me next Saturday.  The two will be donors for my on-going GN Empire Builder paint project.  Just another added benefit of being a member of a train club--meeting new folks and sharing talents.

Tonight I started on my upper loop/level. I have the new Legacy Boston & Maine E8 Passenger set coming next week, but my lower level only has O42 curves. Upper level will be O54 with ability to add second track of O72 in the future.

I will end up building this to look like concrete supports, right now I’m in the rough stages. Track is about 64” off the ground and around the layout I’ll have room on the upper to add buildings and other features down the line.

I got the new lionel 120th anniversary trolley (model 60) and installed a small trolley line inside our little layout. Also got the trolley announcement track piece. My son really loves how we can customize it using polar express recordings.

Just finished hooked up 5 Atlas O light stands and wires to distribute panel for car repair shop. Carmen are happy now! 😉

Had to go to Menards mainly because they were having their if it fits in the bag 15% off sale. So while shopping I decide to find some sandpaper that I could redo the roof of my machine shop. Guess I wasn't really happy using the construction paper with the kit. So I decided to buy a few packs of emery cloth to use on the roof. Finally going to do something constructive but also finish it so I can get ot off the table so i can start working on the layout again. A few pics. ............Paul 2

When its OK to be a foamer 😁

@RSJB18 posted:

When its OK to be a foamer 😁

Looks great, Bob, BUT...

“When its OK to be a foamer” - Really??? Don’t give up your day job

@Apples55 posted:

Looks great, Bob, BUT...

“When its OK to be a foamer” - Really??? Don’t give up your day job

Ditto 

I added some street lamps. I haven't had a chance to wire them yet though.

@Apples55 posted:

Looks great, Bob, BUT...

“When its OK to be a foamer” - Really??? Don’t give up your day job

@Mark Boyce posted:

Ditto 

I'm here all week! Try the fish 😂😂😂😂

Great work everyone!

CGWforever, Nice work on the yard lighting! I like the sidewalk the post areon!

Paul2, Roof looks much better and you cant beet the 15% off!

Bob, if you can retire from your day job, then by all means become a fulltime FOAMER! Looks Great!

PRRick, the street lamps looks perfect!

As for me I didnt do much, I went back to trying to figure out why my crane makes so much noise. So I have it apart once again! LOL

I hope you all had a great weekend and found time for your trains and layout. But most of all I hope you all had fun!

P.S. DO NOT TRY THE FISH! LOL

@RSJB18 posted:

I'm here all week! Try the fish 😂😂😂😂

I had to look that one up.  I don’t get out much!  😄

Haven't posted to this forum in a while.  I've been busy with my latest project for my home layout.  When it is done I'll post a comprehensive thread. Here's a quick look at what I'm working on.

In the meantime I've added some homemade trees to a corner of the layout.  I used Autumn Joy sedums,  picked them in August and let dry for 4 months .

Spray with cheapest hair spray and sprinkle ground foam on them.

@mike g. posted:

P.S. DO NOT TRY THE FISH! LOL

Sage advice, Mike (especially considering the source of the recommendation) 😂😂😂

@Mark Boyce posted:

I had to look that one up.  I don’t get out much!  😄

Mark;

There is old advice that you shouldn’t eat the fish if you can’t smell the sea... although Lawn-guy-land is an island, the waters are a bit suspect (Billy Joel did a song some years ago about the plight of the LI fisherman - can’t remember the name).

@Apples55 posted:

Mark;

There is old advice that you shouldn’t eat the fish if you can’t smell the sea... although Lawn-guy-land is an island, the waters are a bit suspect (Billy Joel did a song some years ago about the plight of the LI fisherman - can’t remember the name).

Well that explains it!  I never liked Billy Joel’s songs.  😄  Nothing against him though.  My little sister liked his songs, but she’s 6 years younger.  So I never heard it.  

Bill T., I really like your ship and sedum trees!!

Just finished today's little project. Before and after pics:

@mike g. posted:. DO NOT TRY THE FISH! LOL

I thought you were referring to the movie KRAMER VS KRAMER.

@third rail posted:

I thought you were referring to the movie KRAMER VS KRAMER.

I Like the tag: "It is easier to receive forgiveness than permission."

BUT I tried it when my wife said " You Put Your TRAINS in THe Dishwasher With The Dishes We EAT With!!!???"

......Well, honey, I couldn't agree with you more, I don't know what I was thinking, Ill Try harder next time...... MITCH said It Cleans up old Engines really well......

Apparently my budget for purchasing trains stuff has been re-directed for a new dishwasher......(hey, I got room in the G-Rage) (winner winner...)

Sorry Mitch, did I throw you under the bus there? <silly face>

@Miggy posted:

Sorry Mitch, did I throw you under the bus there? <silly face>

(mildly) Well, I DID say there are advantages to the solitary life, trains-in-the-dishwasher-wise... 

Mitch

Looking good everyone! Lately I have not done much to the layout but I was able to get this video made on the layout! Thanks for reading/watching and happy railroading!

@Alan Rogers posted:

I built this kit from Bar Mills. Believe it or not, they modeled this from a prototype somewhere. I like Bar Mill's kits very much. It was an absolute joy to build from start to finish.

I will be adding lights and other details soon.

Alan maybe it was from this one from my Mom & Dads home town of DeSoto Missouri. Seems like when I was a kid visiting my Grandparents I don’t recall the canopy on it it looked more like the Bar Mills

I won't go into details, but this is my third attempt to paint four Northern Pacific North Coast Limited offset vista dome passenger cars using LIONEL 15" aluminum cars as donors.

The stumbling block was creating the approx. 2mm white stripe that separates the light and dark greens.  A satisfactory way to paint the stripe (after a previous failed paint procedure, and failed attempt with piecing decal stripes) has now been found.  This is the test mule for trying out the masking procedure, Scalecoat II thinning, and PSI for the airbrush to achieve an acceptable result.  It needs some minor touch-up, but the procedure works and the three remaining cars can now proceed to the paint shop.

And Christine Braden shipped today the vista domes she painted for me.

A day in the life of a model RR'er.

Due to new back to back turnout placement an innocent "S" curve turned mean & reared it's ugly head.   Sunset GGD 80' cars run through easily however It turns out that Weaver Bradley bolsters are located in a scale location which makes them more sensitive to  "S" curves.

The full length passenger cars need to use  each switch's diverging route to access the new passenger station which meant that I had to move two mainline turnouts further apart.   Problem was that the diverging tracks of  one of the switches  straddles a wall stud between two thru wall tunnels. and that stud is a primary support of an upper level Millhouse TT so it required a closer look-see.

What I did was to cut a 50% diagonal relief which provides clearance for an NMRA 0 scale template.  The stud is not in a bearing wall and it still has sufficient strength for a Millhouse TT in the upper deck.

The normal check for "S" function is having a tangent separating opposing curves equal to the length of your longest car.  The reality is, will the "S" lift a wheel or strain a coupler?   After some test run throughs with different lengths of tangent track and Weaver Bradleys,  I was able to determine that 11 1/2" of tangent between the point tips provided a 150% safety margin.

The tapered removal of the stud material saved having to remove the entire stud and rip into the wall to install a header.  Just need to drop several feeders in new locations for some track powered locos.

@Pingman posted:

I won't go into details, but this is my third attempt to paint four Northern Pacific North Coast Limited offset vista dome passenger cars using LIONEL 15" aluminum cars as donors.

The stumbling block was creating the approx. 2mm white stripe that separates the light and dark greens.  A satisfactory way to paint the stripe (after a previous failed paint procedure, and failed attempt with piecing decal stripes) has now been found.  This is the test mule for trying out the masking procedure, Scalecoat II thinning, and PSI for the airbrush to achieve an acceptable result.  It needs some minor touch-up, but the procedure works and the three remaining cars can now proceed to the paint shop.

And Christine Braden shipped today the vista domes she painted for me.

Nice job on the white stripe, Carl.  I have two engine shells I want to give to Christine to paint.  She is top notch!!

I received my MTH 031 turnouts from Cabin Fever yesterday. I took a quick look at them and it looks like cutting them down will work. The rail height to 027 tubular is not too far off either.

Carl,

I wonder if you sprayed the center section of the car white, then masked the stripe area with automotive pinstriping tape, painted the other colors, and removed the tape, how it would turn out?

@RSJB18 posted:

I received my MTH 031 turnouts from Cabin Fever yesterday. I took a quick look at them and it looks like cutting them down will work. The rail height to 027 tubular is not too far off either.

Bob, that height works out nicely for you!!

I always spray the area to be the stripe first, let it dry a few days, then mask, paint half of the surrounding area, let it dry a few days, mask again, then paint the other half.