What did you do on your layout today?

Finish for the night. Got the piece into place with a little bit of effort. I have a couple of gaps but I am not worried about them I will just add some dense shrubs into the areas............Pics...........Paul

Looks good in place, Paul!  You are right, shrubs and all those trees will cover nicely!

Your right Paul, ground cover can almost fix anything! LOL

Mark Boyce posted:

Yes, you never know what he might do!  As sturdy as you are building, boys have a way of proving you didn't do a good enough job!  LOL

Heh, too true. I'm trying to stay one step ahead and hoping when he finds the weak spot that it's not an expensive oversight on my part!

mike g. posted:

pennsyfan posted:

What I did on the Equestra Train Club layout today was run trains for about 300 adults and numerous children. Today was the first showing of our 2017 Christmas Holiday display in the community clubhouse. One question I was asked over and over again was how long did it take to set up? Here is a pictorial answer.

Day 1 November 9th, the layout was brought back from warehouse.

I didn't get any more pictures until today; so here is the culmination of 3 weeks work by 15 guys.

Video at the end, with the latest addition; thunder and lightning.

 

Future Engineers

 

 

 

Very Impressive Bob! Way to put on a show!

Thanks Mike; we have a great group of guys that make it all come together. Then I got to run the layout today while they were flipping pancakes.

Thanks Paul and Bob. Something fizzy is chilling as I type. I'm thinking Tuesday could be the day.

Sunday I painted all the new fascia with flat black, which I use as a primer. The final coat will be semi-gloss because it doesn't show scuffs as badly as the flat.

Looks a little different when it's painted.

So will the backdrop, later this month.

The other thing I did was cut a piece of plywood for the missing link.

Unfortunately, it's about an inch short. This is the Tuesday task.

The near end needs to go to the left

Ten sections of GarGraves won't be enough to do all the garden tracks.

Got my police and fire truck back from east coast circuits they did a awesome job

                                                                 hobo ride....

Brian - We have a Hobo Railroad in upstate New Hampshire that operates during the summer months and weekends through Christmas as a Santa train.  That Hiawatha is "looking good"!

                                                        some box car fun...

decoynh posted:

Brian - We have a Hobo Railroad in upstate New Hampshire that operates during the summer months and weekends through Christmas as a Santa train.  That Hiawatha is "looking good"!

                                                             thanks Matt...

                                                   is this the Santa train...

Elliot, the black paint sure changes everything, gives it that finished look! Sorry that your board is about an inch short and you lack enough track, but I am sure that is nothing compared to what you have ran into in  the past!

FL9, your right the police and fire cars and trucks turned out great! Might have to get some down the road.

Brian,  you got some great looking trains going there! Also some really long ones! I sure like how you display them while your working in the same area, It always looks so cool there. It took me a little while but I figured out what was missing, IZZY!

Matt, now that is a Hobo/ Christmas train I would really enjoy to take a ride on! Thanks for the pictures!

briansilvermustang posted:

decoynh posted:

Brian - We have a Hobo Railroad in upstate New Hampshire that operates during the summer months and weekends through Christmas as a Santa train.  That Hiawatha is "looking good"!

                                                             thanks Matt...

                                                   is this the Santa train...

 

That's it Brian.  I think that they have a dinner excursion during summer as well.  At this time of year hot cocoa is necessary.  Check out the kids.

                                              Matt, is this near you...

mike g. posted:

Brian,  you got some great looking trains going there! Also some really long ones! I sure like how you display them while your working in the same area, It always looks so cool there. It took me a little while but I figured out what was missing, IZZY!

          oops....

briansilvermustang posted:

                                              Matt, is this near you...

Brian -  There are several  tourist railroads north of us in the White Mountains, including the Cog Railroad that goes right to the top of Mount Washington.  I've ridden them all, but the Cog is the best.  

1/2 mile down the road is the crossing for the "Downeaster" linking Boston & Maine.  We had a car get hit on the tracks about a week ago.  big news for us locally.  Road crossing was newly paved and the white lines were not painted on roadside.  A woman from out of the area was using a GPS and when the GPS said turn right, she did right down the tracks & got stuck.  Luckily a guy was working in his yard and got her out of the car a few minutes b4 the train hit the car.  Car was totaled - no damage to the train engine!  There is a passenger commuter every 2 hours (60 mph?) & probably 3 or 4 freights a day (35mph?) per day.

I don't remember the location of that neat crossing bridge however.

With all the furious layout building going on here it is kind of like watching the Indianapolis 500 LOL. But it is bringing a wealth of different ideas and approaches to building. Started off this morning putting down the earth color. The paint cans are there for weight. I had applied plaster wrap to the plywood which seemed to stick but I think when I applied the plaster to that as the plaster dried it sort of pulled up the plaster wrap by the edge of the table. So I applied some white glue and put the paint cans on top to hold it down while the glue dries. Later on maybe I will start adding the trees and shrubs. I decided to build the table that will be directly across from the bottom of the stairs. It is not going to be a wide table. Just a foot wide and 7' long but at the end by the old shower it will come out to meet the width of the wall. Pics...........Paul

Fastrack.......check

EZ Track......check

Polar Express Coaches......check

PE Berkshire......check

NYC Hudson and PRR Y6B......check

Christmas Tree......check

Chance to set up and run more trains......priceless

For those who run on a table (like a 4x8), how did you treat the wood? I was thinking of going with either a black stain, or flat black paint. Not sure how well a "ebony" stain would work though, and figured maybe I'd just spray paint it all black.

Looks great Paul. I think you're one of the leaders in THIS Indy 500.

paul 2 posted:

With all the furious layout building going on here it is kind of like watching the Indianapolis 500 LOL. But it is bringing a wealth of different ideas and approaches to building. Started off this morning putting down the earth color. The paint cans are there for weight. I had applied plaster wrap to the plywood which seemed to stick but I think when I applied the plaster to that as the plaster dried it sort of pulled up the plaster wrap by the edge of the table. So I applied some white glue and put the paint cans on top to hold it down while the glue dries. Later on maybe I will start adding the trees and shrubs. I decided to build the table that will be directly across from the bottom of the stairs. It is not going to be a wide table. Just a foot wide and 7' long but at the end by the old shower it will come out to meet the width of the wall. Pics...........Paul

Very creative use of every available square foot Paul. The mountain is looking good!

Bob

RSJB18 posted:

Fastrack.......check

 

EZ Track......check

Polar Express Coaches......check

PE Berkshire......check

NYC Hudson and PRR Y6B......check

Christmas Tree......check

Chance to set up and run more trains......priceless

Looks like you are ready for action, Bob!!

Deuce posted:

For those who run on a table (like a 4x8), how did you treat the wood? I was thinking of going with either a black stain, or flat black paint. Not sure how well a "ebony" stain would work though, and figured maybe I'd just spray paint it all black.

Deuce- I've been painting as I go. probably should have done a base coat to seal the plywood first but I was in too big a rush to get track laid down. You can't go wrong with black or gray as a base color.

RSJB18 posted:

Chance to set up and run more trains......priceless

 

                                      AWESOME Bob !!   can't wait to see it !

I never took the winter scenery off my 4 x 8 Christmas layout this year.  I had too much going on otherwise.  This year I am going to put down a brick street instead of totally snow blanket covered and change out many of the buildings.  We have enough for two layouts.  I cut the vinyl brick material to the right widths yesterday.  No photographs yet, but hopefully later this week!

RSJB18 posted:

Deuce posted:

For those who run on a table (like a 4x8), how did you treat the wood? I was thinking of going with either a black stain, or flat black paint. Not sure how well a "ebony" stain would work though, and figured maybe I'd just spray paint it all black.

Deuce- I've been painting as I go. probably should have done a base coat to seal the plywood first but I was in too big a rush to get track laid down. You can't go wrong with black or gray as a base color.

I have never painted before, but plan to paint the layout legs, everything, this go round.  I don't know what color yet, but the workbench I am going to take apart and use for some of my construction is light gray, so that may be what I will go with.

Paul, not much I can say about your layout that Jerry and Bob haven't said already! But I think its looking just wonderful!

Bob, that's a nice way to get more trains up! I was going to try this year, but maybe next year, wife doesn't what Tank our English bulldog to eat the trains like everything else! LOL

Deuce posted:

For those who run on a table (like a 4x8), how did you treat the wood? I was thinking of going with either a black stain, or flat black paint. Not sure how well a "ebony" stain would work though, and figured maybe I'd just spray paint it all black.

          I have been using Rustoleum satin black to seal up the wood as I go along....

                                 brushed and rolled on, covers well...

mike g. posted:

Bob, that's a nice way to get more trains up! I was going to try this year, but maybe next year, wife doesn't what Tank our English bulldog to eat the trains like everything else! LOL

                                   maybe some TINPLATE would hold up ??

Mark Boyce posted:

RSJB18 posted:

Deuce posted:

For those who run on a table (like a 4x8), how did you treat the wood? I was thinking of going with either a black stain, or flat black paint. Not sure how well a "ebony" stain would work though, and figured maybe I'd just spray paint it all black.

Deuce- I've been painting as I go. probably should have done a base coat to seal the plywood first but I was in too big a rush to get track laid down. You can't go wrong with black or gray as a base color.

I have never painted before, but plan to paint the layout legs, everything, this go round.  I don't know what color yet, but the workbench I am going to take apart and use for some of my construction is light gray, so that may be what I will go with.

I've painted based on what colors the finished scenery will be as you can see from this photo. Helps to hide any gaps in ground cover, etc.

Bob

briansilvermustang posted:

RSJB18 posted:

Chance to set up and run more trains......priceless

 

                                      AWESOME Bob !!   can't wait to see it !

Thanks Brian- nothing fancy- just a carpet central but fun just the same.

briansilvermustang posted:

mike g. posted:

Bob, that's a nice way to get more trains up! I was going to try this year, but maybe next year, wife doesn't what Tank our English bulldog to eat the trains like everything else! LOL

                                   maybe some TINPLATE would hold up ??

LOL not sure, he puts dents into a lot of different things! LOL

Deuce posted:

For those who run on a table (like a 4x8), how did you treat the wood? I was thinking of going with either a black stain, or flat black paint. Not sure how well a "ebony" stain would work though, and figured maybe I'd just spray paint it all black.

Deuce, I'd go with a medium to dark grey. It will work well with whatever (if anything you put on top of it). A good way to determine what color the base should be is to look with one eye closed through an empty tube (paper towel roller) at some open mixed landscape off in the distance. You'll see the base (read basic) color is grey. Most modelers make a big mistake here and paint the base tan, some shade of brown or green).

Well, the layout has been fairly static for the past year when my son and I first created the table. I've been accumulating some accessories and other supplies to really have a nice set up. 

After adding some additional braces under the table, took a little break to run a few laps. We ran into some track continuity issues and the 022 switches weren't operating perfectly - at 60-70 years old, they're due for a cleaning and lube. 

Took a break from those issues to run a few laps. In the video, we are running an early version 2026 from 1948/1949.  When I bought it, the smoke unit filiment was broken. Through the help on the forum (thanks CW Burfle), I was able to get the right part and fix it last year.  Smokes pretty well now! The whistle tender has a shorted wire that I need to fix, so we ran it with a scout tender here. 

We are pretty much using all postwar equipment, so sometimes it takes a little longer to work out the old age bugs like dried out wiring, but it is very satisfying to breathe new life into some incredibly designed old toys that need a little TLC.

briansilvermustang posted:

mike g. posted:

Bob, that's a nice way to get more trains up! I was going to try this year, but maybe next year, wife doesn't what Tank our English bulldog to eat the trains like everything else! LOL

                                   maybe some TINPLATE would hold up ??

Sounds like cast iron might be the best bet

          guess that's why they call him TANK !! 

Yesterday we where going to put up our tree, but the tree ended being broken, so we have to junk that one. So we got another tree for free. Also put up the oval of track for my Polar Express, really need to put in some more power drops, since it slows down a lot on the other side of the track.

Figuring I should build a platform to rise it up off the floor slightly to run wires underneath so I can add buildings and street lights in the future to make it look like a winter city.

One quick question, could one put something like batting for stuffed animals or quilts under FastTrack to reduce the noise a little bit, and to sort of simulate snow, or will that cause more problems that I want to deal with.

tcochran posted:

One quick question, could one put something like batting for stuffed animals or quilts under FastTrack to reduce the noise a little bit, and to sort of simulate snow, or will that cause more problems that I want to deal with. 

Sure!  I run FastTrack on grass mat with no problems.  Quilting will give you some noise reduction over bare floor, but don't expect miracles, since the hollow base of FastTrack acts like little megaphones...  

MItch 

tcochran posted:

Yesterday we where going to put up our tree, but the tree ended being broken, so we have to junk that one. So we got another tree for free. Also put up the oval of track for my Polar Express, really need to put in some more power drops, since it slows down a lot on the other side of the track.

Figuring I should build a platform to rise it up off the floor slightly to run wires underneath so I can add buildings and street lights in the future to make it look like a winter city.

One quick question, could one put something like batting for stuffed animals or quilts under FastTrack to reduce the noise a little bit, and to sort of simulate snow, or will that cause more problems that I want to deal with.

 

Yes, something like that white fluffy fabric that people put under the tree; but, to further reduce the sound, take either some wadded up paper towel or pieces of an old T-shirt wadded and put in the empty spaces on the underside of FastTrack to reduce the drumming effect.