What did you do on your layout today?

For quite a while, I've had a first aid kit removed from a Milwaukee Road locomotive that is also Washington State marked. Those are very, very uncommon. I couldn't figure out what to do with the thing, and then it dawned on me that I could just hang it at the exit door to the layout room. I have a bunch of post-war and non Tweetsie related stuff on that side of the room anyway, and I think it looks pretty cool where I hung it. I don't have to worry about it sprouting legs and walking away, as it's almost beyond my own reach where it is.

p51 posted:

For quite a while, I've had a first aid kit removed from a Milwaukee Road locomotive that is also Washington State marked. Those are very, very uncommon. I couldn't figure out what to do with the thing, and then it dawned on me that I could just hang it at the exit door to the layout room. I have a bunch of post-war and non Tweetsie related stuff on that side of the room anyway, and I think it looks pretty cool where I hung it. I don't have to worry about it sprouting legs and walking away, as it's almost beyond my own reach where it is.

Ok Lee, explain to me how a Milwaukee Road first aid kit gets to become property of Washington State? Nice find!

Got some more shelves hung... I made the spacing much closer than the last ones which gives me more room for more shelves. That  ultimately leads to more trains now I've gotta go back and re-space the other ones. 

mike g. posted:

Ok Lee, explain to me how a Milwaukee Road first aid kit gets to become property of Washington State? Nice find!

Beats the heck out of me. It's only the second one I've ever seen (the other is on a wall in the room with a massive and impressive N scale layout in Olympia). The ePay seller said his Dad yanked it out of a GE locomotive in the Midwest as the Milwaukee Road was folding up, as he thought it was odd it was marked as such.

I'm sure one of the many Milwaukee Road fans out there could answer this, but I have zero idea. I liked it as the MILW ran to the ocean within less than a 1/4 mile from my back door (it's a partial gravel trail now, though). I also have a depot sign for Elbe, WA hanging elsewhere in the room, scored very affordably at a RR collectible show a year ago.

Directly below that 1st aid kit is a slice of rail from the original switchback at Stampede Pass, bought at the same show.

A chum of mine got a look at the boxcab's bronze chassis and said, "You have to name that thing 'Powerful Katrinka' from the Toonerville Trolley comic..."

Works for me. 

In any event, Katrinka now has trolley pole hooks, and poles have been duly test fitted...

Next up will be truck mounts for the pilot trucks! 

Mitch

well we ran trains yesterday and I was up early to run them some more. I love how these MTH steam engines smoke. after running for a couple of hours it was time to do some maintance on them. clean lub and change traction tires. and that was my day on the EA&J RR

Started roughing in the new Coal Mine Tipple module....  Finally finished weathering the Lionel Coal Tipple building.  

Built a "jig" to assemble and glue the wood beam supports for the tipple buildings and got 2 glued up last night.   Still trying to arrive at the best arrangement for the buildings.  I want to have a power house (brick building on left end).... 2 tipples, 1 general building and two company houses.  I will probably have to cut the buildings down to shorten the depth,  but I think I am close enough to pull the 5 foot long module in the work shop and start working on adding the backdrop mountain and roughing in the terrain, roads, trackwork etc.    

I have built small jigs before for doing trestle bents, but this one is made with 3/16 " luan so my 1/4 inch pine and oak stock sits above it enough that I can glue down the cross members on both sides in one operation...  The cross members are oak that I managed to cut down to less than 1/16 inches thick on the table saw....   I laid down wax paper this time so my parts wouldn't get glued to the foundation plate for the jig.   

chris a posted:

Started roughing in the new Coal Mine Tipple module....  Finally finished weathering the Lionel Coal Tipple building.  

Built a "jig" to assemble and glue the wood beam supports for the tipple buildings and got 2 glued up last night.   Still trying to arrive at the best arrangement for the buildings.  I want to have a power house (brick building on left end).... 2 tipples, 1 general building and two company houses.  I will probably have to cut the buildings down to shorten the depth,  but I think I am close enough to pull the 5 foot long module in the work shop and start working on adding the backdrop mountain and roughing in the terrain, roads, trackwork etc.    

I have built small jigs before for doing trestle bents, but this one is made with 3/16 " luan so my 1/4 inch pine and oak stock sits above it enough that I can glue down the cross members on both sides in one operation...  The cross members are oak that I managed to cut down to less than 1/16 inches thick on the table saw....   I laid down wax paper this time so my parts wouldn't get glued to the foundation plate for the jig.   

Looks great! May I ask what I am seeing on the upper left hand corner of the second pic? Looks like cotton or something of the sort.

Luvindemtrains......  It's low loft fiber batting like used to stuff pillows....   I found a thread on YouTube earlier this year for a really neat alternative to covering everything with plaster, or plaster cloth ..   If you go back in this thread to roughly April 19 or April 20th of 2017, I posted a link to the video when I was posting photos of the corner module I built with that technique...   Essentially the batting is glued down to your foam mountain forms, then you paint it with earth colored latex paint...  (alot of latex paint), then before it dries which takes several days you start putting down the ground cover right on the wet paint.  It definitely works, provides alot of tooth (texture) for the scenery materials to hang onto and leaves a really textured surface.  Check out the video. 

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Had planned to do a bit of work on the boxcab project, but Shop Supervisor Norma Bates Kitteh is busy doing a time-motion study... 

Mitch

So… do we have the study results??? Inquiring minds want to know how much TIME passed before the Shop Supervisor exhibited any MOTION???

chris a posted:

Luvindemtrains......  It's low loft fiber batting like used to stuff pillows....   I found a thread on YouTube earlier this year for a really neat alternative to covering everything with plaster, or plaster cloth ..   If you go back in this thread to roughly April 19 or April 20th of 2017, I posted a link to the video when I was posting photos of the corner module I built with that technique...   Essentially the batting is glued down to your foam mountain forms, then you paint it with earth colored latex paint...  (alot of latex paint), then before it dries which takes several days you start putting down the ground cover right on the wet paint.  It definitely works, provides alot of tooth (texture) for the scenery materials to hang onto and leaves a really textured surface.  Check out the video. 

Chris thanks! I will go check out the video. This seems like an interesting technique.

Apples55 posted:

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Had planned to do a bit of work on the boxcab project, but Shop Supervisor Norma Bates Kitteh is busy doing a time-motion study...

Mitch

So… do we have the study results??? Inquiring minds want to know how much TIME passed before the Shop Supervisor exhibited any MOTION???

I'd ask her, but she's expanded the study to include the bed and is unavailable for comment. 

Mitch

A fairly recent scrounge from the scroungeables bin.

It is an electric, the trolley pole isnt on yet in these shots.

And a nearly finished 4 or 5 year old shelf project.

...and Steamers 1615 thread has me merrily chopping up plastic steamers for another bash too.

  I want something "different". (any surprise really?).

  Almost needless to say, hacking kept me somewhat pre-occupied after the holidays again. 

  Lots more to catch up on too, including being "cut off" during a recent navel attack by Dremel Inc. 

(See the attachments, that "thing" is too large for most screens, lol) 

???... I must have overlooked the warning in the manual.

A fairly recent scrounge from the scroungeables bin.

It is an electric, the trolley pole isnt on yet in these shots.

And a nearly finished 4 or 5 year old shelf project.

...and Steamers 1615 thread has me merrily chopping up plastic steamers for another bash too.

  I want something "different". (any surprise really?).

  Almost needless to say, hacking kept me somewhat pre-occupied after the holidays again. 

  Lots more to catch up on too, including being "cut off" during a recent navel attack by Dremel Inc. 

(See the attachments, that "thing" is too large for most screens, lol) 

???... Maybe I overlooked the warning in the manual?

Nicely scrounged!  I approve! 

Mitch

This is small potatoes compared to the fine modeling from you folks.  Saw this in a photo from a Facebook friend and thought it would make a cool backdrop. I've been told that it's an old pea cannery in Utah. 

Adriatic posted:

A fairly recent scrounge from the scroungeables bin.

It is an electric, the trolley pole isnt on yet in these shots.

And a nearly finished 4 or 5 year old shelf project.

...and Steamers 1615 thread has me merrily chopping up plastic steamers for another bash too.

  I want something "different". (any surprise really?).

  Almost needless to say, hacking kept me somewhat pre-occupied after the holidays again. 

  Lots more to catch up on too, including being "cut off" during a recent navel attack by Dremel Inc. 

(See the attachments, that "thing" is too large for most screens, lol) 

???... I must have overlooked the warning in the manual.

Hey there Adriatic, You sure know how to make things look wonderful. I would like to welcome you back, it has been awhile from your last post. I hope things are going well for you and you are having fun!

Alan Rogers posted:

This is small potatoes compared to the fine modeling from you folks.  Saw this in a photo from a Facebook friend and thought it would make a cool backdrop. I've been told that it's an old pea cannery in Utah. 

Great Idea there Alan! Would you mind if I copied it and tried to build it myself?

I took MIKE G's order or was that advice LOL and took the day off but the layout kept calling to me all day so after dinner I had to go down and do something. I am done with the water. No more coats. Tomorrow I'll work on getting the duct putty off. So this evening I added some more ground turf to some spots. After I did that on the table I had a sand house which I have had for more years then I want to count. I bought it when Myron was owner of O Gauge Magazine. I was never happy with the sand tower on it so I pulled it off. My idea is I have a free standing sanding tower and I will just add some piping to go to it from the sand house. It should make for an interesting small engine facility. And while I had it on the table I added ground turf to it and a cinder walk coming off the door to the building. All still has to be glued down. Some pics...................Paul 

Continued building out scenery details and put down ballast.  So far so good.

mike g. posted:

Alan Rogers posted:

This is small potatoes compared to the fine modeling from you folks.  Saw this in a photo from a Facebook friend and thought it would make a cool backdrop. I've been told that it's an old pea cannery in Utah. 

Great Idea there Alan! Would you mind if I copied it and tried to build it myself?

I would be honored Mike. Please let me know if you need any dimensions, etc...

I'm Liking it Paul! Even though you didn't take the whole day off, You took enough time to re-engerize yourself and move forward! Great Job!

paul 2 posted:

I took MIKE G's order or was that advice LOL and took the day off but the layout kept calling to me all day so after dinner I had to go down and do something. I am done with the water. No more coats. Tomorrow I'll work on getting the duct putty off. So this evening I added some more ground turf to some spots. After I did that on the table I had a sand house which I have had for more years then I want to count. I bought it when Myron was owner of O Gauge Magazine. I was never happy with the sand tower on it so I pulled it off. My idea is I have a free standing sanding tower and I will just add some piping to go to it from the sand house. It should make for an interesting small engine facility. And while I had it on the table I added ground turf to it and a cinder walk coming off the door to the building. All still has to be glued down. Some pics...................Paul 

Nice work Paul!! I've been following this since the beginning!! You've come a long way quickly!!

Alan Rogers posted:

mike g. posted:

Alan Rogers posted:

This is small potatoes compared to the fine modeling from you folks.  Saw this in a photo from a Facebook friend and thought it would make a cool backdrop. I've been told that it's an old pea cannery in Utah. 

Great Idea there Alan! Would you mind if I copied it and tried to build it myself?

I would be honored Mike. Please let me know if you need any dimensions, etc...

Hi Alan, any information you have on this would be great! Once I get ready I will let you know and post some pictures!

mike g. posted:

Alan Rogers posted:

mike g. posted:

Alan Rogers posted:

This is small potatoes compared to the fine modeling from you folks.  Saw this in a photo from a Facebook friend and thought it would make a cool backdrop. I've been told that it's an old pea cannery in Utah. 

Great Idea there Alan! Would you mind if I copied it and tried to build it myself?

I would be honored Mike. Please let me know if you need any dimensions, etc...

Hi Alan, any information you have on this would be great! Once I get ready I will let you know and post some pictures!

Hey again Mike. I bootlegged a photo from a Facebook friend. It might be cooyrighted, so I doubt we can post it anywhere. I would be glad to email it to you. 

I am slowly working towards the summit!   This summer I have been chipping away at my mountain project.   Still have a long ways to go, but need to dumpster dive for more styrofoam before I continue my climb.   Today I finished the base coat and have a lot of rock shading and highlighting work to do.   I'm looking forward to adding ground cover and trees.    I would like to add a small HO village up in a mountain valley at some point.     It is tough to find time to work on the layout when distracted by fine weather and European travel.   At least, I have started and I'm enjoying the climb.       Dave

P.S.  It's nice getting the blue and pink color off the layout!

darlander posted:

I am slowly working towards the summit!   This summer I have been chipping away at my mountain project.   Still have a long ways to go, but need to dumpster dive for more styrofoam before I continue my climb.   Today I finished the base coat and have a lot of rock shading and highlighting work to do.   I'm looking forward to adding ground cover and trees.    I would like to add a small HO village up in a mountain valley at some point.     It is tough to find time to work on the layout when distracted by fine weather and European travel.   At least, I have started and I'm enjoying the climb.       Dave

P.S.  It's nice getting the blue and pink color off the layout!

  

 

Looks good. I agree pink looks bad unless you sell Mary Kay stuff.  The good thing about taking your time, it is easier to make a change or an adjustment.

Realized i need to start writing down my train numbers so i can remember the address code started my sheet      I have a few to many

darlander posted:

I am slowly working towards the summit!   This summer I have been chipping away at my mountain project.   Still have a long ways to go, but need to dumpster dive for more styrofoam before I continue my climb.   Today I finished the base coat and have a lot of rock shading and highlighting work to do.   I'm looking forward to adding ground cover and trees.    I would like to add a small HO village up in a mountain valley at some point.     It is tough to find time to work on the layout when distracted by fine weather and European travel.   At least, I have started and I'm enjoying the climb.       Dave

P.S.  It's nice getting the blue and pink color off the layout!

  

 

Can we say hit the jackpot! Great work and fun to see the progression.

Katrinka's pilot truck mounts, while a trifle Chic Sale, do in fact work...

Here's Katrinka on the high iron, walking away with a heavy consist:

Until a break-in-two causes what's known as "a regrettable incident"...

Much to the discomfiture of the parishoners of Our Lady Of Sudden Deceleration:

All in all, though, Katrinka's maiden flight can be considered a success, I think.  ;-)

Mitch

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Katrinka's pilot truck mounts, while a trifle Chic Sale, do in fact work...

 

Here's Katrinka on the high iron, walking away with a heavy consist:

 

Until a break-in-two causes what's known as "a regrettable incident"...

 

Much to the discomfiture of the parishoners of Our Lady Of Sudden Deceleration:

All in all, though, Katrinka's maiden flight can be considered a success, I think.  ;-)

Mitch

I'm sure that will buff out. Good thing Fortesque was not riding the front platform. 

Bob

RSJB18 posted:

I'm sure that will buff out. Good thing Fortesque was not riding the front platform. 

No fool, Fortescue.  He was safely on the station platform... 

I don't think Katrinka suffered any damage, she seems pretty stout, but, that N5C might not have fair too well in the hook up. I like what you've put together here, she seems to run great!

Rusty

Spent yesterday on the layout helping a friend figure out some TMCC problems on his layout.  What didn't work on his works on ours, so now the fun of figuring out why?  Is it the remote phone messing with it?   Florescent lighting perhaps?  We're going to have fun digging into his I think.  Love the Keep It Simple approach to setting up TMCC etc.  It's saving our butt on our layout, that's for sure!

What was really rewarding was being able to use our layout to help him out!  Big smiles all around.

Today I got the last pieces of wood cut out from under the stairs and out for garbage pickup. Now I can sweep up the area. This evening the wife will be watching the Cavs so I can work on getting all that duct putty off. Plus I got to surf the net looking for corn syrup tanks cars. No work tomorrow. Monthly luncheon with a group of TCA guys plus after lunch heading to a Tuesday night guy to see his layout after lunch. So full day............Paul

Adriatic posted:

A fairly recent scrounge from the scroungeables bin.

It is an electric, the trolley pole isnt on yet in these shots.

And a nearly finished 4 or 5 year old shelf project.

...and Steamers 1615 thread has me merrily chopping up plastic steamers for another bash too.

  I want something "different". (any surprise really?).

  Almost needless to say, hacking kept me somewhat pre-occupied after the holidays again. 

  Lots more to catch up on too, including being "cut off" during a recent navel attack by Dremel Inc. 

(See the attachments, that "thing" is too large for most screens, lol) 

???... I must have overlooked the warning in the manual.

The first to pics thats cool kind has that rustic look about it.

The GG1. Seems to me I have seen an actual pic of one as you have done that had been used as a yard switcher. 

I not even going to guess what it's going to be other then it had been attacked by the dreaded Dremel monster or just collateral damage from the navel attack?

So what's next Mr Wizard.

M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

RSJB18 posted:

I'm sure that will buff out. Good thing Fortesque was not riding the front platform. 

No fool, Fortescue.  He was safely on the station platform... 

I'm real sure the next time you let him have the remote he would of learned his lesson and have the video feed turned on, then have to feel the wrath of angry nuns again.

suzukovich posted:

darlander posted:

I am slowly working towards the summit!   This summer I have been chipping away at my mountain project.   Still have a long ways to go, but need to dumpster dive for more styrofoam before I continue my climb.   Today I finished the base coat and have a lot of rock shading and highlighting work to do.   I'm looking forward to adding ground cover and trees.    I would like to add a small HO village up in a mountain valley at some point.     It is tough to find time to work on the layout when distracted by fine weather and European travel.   At least, I have started and I'm enjoying the climb.       Dave

P.S.  It's nice getting the blue and pink color off the layout!

  

 

Looks good. I agree pink looks bad unless you sell Mary Kay stuff.  The good thing about taking your time, it is easier to make a change or an adjustment.

Amen to that!   Now it is off to Canada for fishing - Darn, another distraction!  When will it ever get done!!!

Dave

Beginning to ballast between tracks.  

Managed to re-use this tunnel portal which is scratch built from balsa wood. This corner is starting to look good. 

Looks very good Ralph!!