Mark, just put the snow blower to the front of a riding lawnmower!
Paul, you sure are moving right along! Between the building, cork. track. Next thing we know you will be going back to the magic mountain!
Mark is right were all characters and should be in comics!
They play the game because you never know who will win. I hate to see any team have poor seasons year after year
mike g. posted:Mark, just put the snow blower to the front of a riding lawnmower!
Paul, you sure are moving right along! Between the building, cork. track. Next thing we know you will be going back to the magic mountain!
Mark is right were all characters and should be in comics!
Mike, great idea! Now where do I find a riding mower cheap! LOL. I do get my exercise.
paul 2 posted:Done for the night. I was moving along at a pretty good pace when I heard the cellar door open and a soft voice said time to call it a night and come upstairs and watch TV with me. I stopped working and came to post before I watch TV with the wife (CEO of the railroad ). I managed to get most of the cork down for the one freight yard. It may not be prototypical but I wanted to use up switches I had laying around first before ordering anymore. I should be able to finish laying the cork tomorrow. Pics...........Paul
Works the other way around at our house. My wife would leave me downstairs all night, because that way she can watch whatever she wants.
Mark I have one I could sell you for Cheap Cheap! But you have to pay shipping from Washington State! 
A beautiful cold, crisp day in the Midwest! Hoping to get a lot done today. Did more plastering yesterday and then cleaned the layout up after doing retaining walls all last week. My son Jim is coming over to work on the electrical to do list and I am painting until he gets here.
It's my wife's birthday so I need to practice wearing two hats today.
Plan to post a number of pictures celebrating the end of the year soon. Hope everyone has a great day.
Art
Got the last two sidings in the freight yard. I was going to start to paint the cork that dried from yesterday but then I said I'll wait till everything is dried and I only have to open the paint cans once. So maybe after dinner I can get it all painted. I know I won't be doing anymore track work. Putting in the freight yard used all the cork up I had. I'll have to ordered a couple of boxes this time instead of just one. Pics.............Paul
Pulled out ol’ 4436 and blew the webs out of the stack. Still runs like new...
Paul: Why don't you get a piece of 1/4" inch flat cork and use that for your yard areas. You'd loose the ballast embankments but notice that yards don't generally have ditches between the tracks. Much easier to install and, I think it looks more realistic, too. You can get cork sheeting at some lumber yards or artist supply dealers. Cheaper, too, and if you want to move some track around, some time, you can do that without much fuss.
Paul F.
Paul the cork is looking good, what are you gluing it down with?
Ted Nice train and nice video, thanks for the ride!
Mo Nice to see things coming along! I see your doing crossings, can you explain what your doing there for the rest of us who don't know!
Mike, I use Elmer's wood glue. I hold the cork in place with one inch nails till dry....Paul
paul 2 posted:Mike, I use Elmer's wood glue. I hold the cork in place with one inch nails till dry....Paul
Thanks Paul!
Sure Mike,
I've taken some strips of hardboard and plexiglass (on the curved portion) and placed them next to the outer rails. I filled the middle areas with drywall compound. When dry, I'll remove the strips and have my preformed areas for the wheel flanges, and the compound, after coloring, will look like asphalt ( I hope).
Good day of work today. Still pounding away on the last of the fascia. I got two pieces hung last Thursday, and two more today, including a near full sheet which connects the upper and lower.
These are the ones from Thursday. The one on the right started at the duck under, and the second went under the bridges on the left.
Took a couple tries to get the notches right.
At the end of Thursday, I put in the angle support, and glued on a splice strip.
Today, I started by filling in the last piece on the upper deck, that's the entire layout!!!
Took a few tries to prop up the sheet, but I finally got it into place, and got a few screws in it. Then I marked out the cuts, and made the first one.
All the cuts are done. I've got a nice big blank canvas here, which I never really thought about. It never really existed until today. This plan was always in my mind though.
When complete, the Milwaukee Road Short Line bridge over the Mississippi should be rather dramatic.
Mo985 posted:Sure Mike,
I've taken some strips of hardboard and plexiglass (on the curved portion) and placed them next to the outer rails. I filled the middle areas with drywall compound. When dry, I'll remove the strips and have my preformed areas for the wheel flanges, and the compound, after coloring, will look like asphalt ( I hope).
Thanks Mo! That is one cool idea! It so fun when I learn something new here!
J,
Broke out the Tin Plate and test ran the 263E Work Train Consist, with the 800 and 600 series Crane Cars, and Islay's rolling stock, on the new DCS/Legacy over head FasTrack Layout. The 263E P2 ran smooth as Glass on the 1st generation FasTrack. The construction on the Multi Track Bar DCS/Legacy Train layout, is coming along and the traditional floor type layout in front of the Fire Place, is now in the planning stages. Had to remove 5" of snow from the Driveway, Back Patio and Front Walk today also, this outside work ate into my layout building time. Can you imagine my wife actually wanting me to due something else besides work on my Train Room at Christmas time. I tell ya it's Husband abuse, the next time the Va medical people me ask if I feel I have been threatened.
Merry Christmas everybody!
PCRR/Dave
Looks good Dave, I have another question for you though. The power drops are the on top of the shelf?
Ran them for my four year old second cousin!
Tom Tee posted:Could not decide to paint or ballast the second level of my staging area so I just poly coated it.
Tom, the wood looks great! But what are the holes for? Also do you have a track plan you can share so I can fallow along?
I'm stuck in a rut, haven't done any work on the layout in a long time, so all I do is operate my little basement empire. Oh well time to get off the computer and get back in the basement 
Clem
Clem, Call Brian he will help play with the trains! Tell him to bring his Amtrak stuff!
Elliot, The facia is looking good! I’m looking forward to seeing the Mississippi River bridge!
Dave, the tin plate looks great up on the high line!!
Mark,
Thanks buddy, have you started on your 072 curve overhead project yet? It's Christmas time!
Clem,
Just take the computer with ya to the train room!
PCRR/Dave
Dave, I was just looking that over after coming in from shoveling snow today. I’ve been too busy with family to get started.
You know Dave and Mark, If I lived closer I would let you pay me to come over to take care of your snow! Then I could get more trains!
Thanks Mike, you are all heart!!
Mark Boyce posted:Thanks Mike, you are all heart!!
Just trying to lighten things up! I really feel for you guys back East getting hammered with cold and snow!
Thank you. I agree. We have been blessed with only a little, nothing like our friends in Erie, north of here!
Mark Boyce posted:Elliot, The facia is looking good! I’m looking forward to seeing the Mississippi River bridge!
Dave, the tin plate looks great up on the high line!!
Thanks Mark. It's going to be a while before I get to the actual bridge. I have to figure out how to build a straight bridge on a curve.
Mike,
The slots.
When I do a bunk bed staging I usually hinge the top deck for access like this:
This permits physical and visual access. However this time I am going to use a fixed top deck with observation slots between the supports for visual access only.
Because the lower tracks are so open and accessible I do not feel the need to have a hinged deck. Here is a shot of the lower deck uncovered:
This is an off stage work room with hidden turntables serving three different branch line ends.
As far as a track plan goes, well, er, I have changed it so much that posting it would only be misleading. This is a tee shaped 2k sq ft basement with an interchange yard serving five branch lines mounted off the wall. Lots of of track, 87 turnouts, five turntables, 9 CM-20 powerpacks, three Dallee power packs and ten Z-1000 AC packs with 9 panels. 90% benchwork done, 80% of track down, several panels need built. A maze of wires run and more to go. Should have gone R/C battery.
An early shot before changes:
The long arch bridges are now in the far back at top of photo below:
Tom,
I see the difference. Both methods look great! It just depends on how much higher the top level is from the lower level!
The tracklaying looks great!
mike g. posted:Nice video, I like how the coal train goes behind the Menards American power plant!
Thanks Guys!
Tom, thank you for explaining it to me, also WOW what a great looking layout! I am kind of glad I don't have that much room, cause I don't have that much money! LOL
Took care of a little project yesterday. I bought a Plasticville water tower kit a while back. Been looking at the box for months and months so I opened it up and assembled it yesterday. Very simple little kit.
Of course I can't leave things alone so I added a blinking LED to the top of the tower. The more lights on the layout the better
I just need to wire it on the layout today.
Bob
Big_Boy_4005 posted:Mark Boyce posted:Elliot, The facia is looking good! I’m looking forward to seeing the Mississippi River bridge!
Dave, the tin plate looks great up on the high line!!
Thanks Mark. It's going to be a while before I get to the actual bridge. I have to figure out how to build a straight bridge on a curve.
And how many times did we say " I'm never gonna need geometry in real life" in school......
Nice progress this week Eliot. The fascia really gives the layout a finished look. I need to put a couple of pieces on the front edge of my table too..a whole 4' 
Nice job on the water tower Bob, where do you get your flashing LED's?
clem k posted:I'm stuck in a rut, haven't done any work on the layout in a long time, so all I do is operate my little basement empire. Oh well time to get off the computer and get back in the basement
Clem
I know a layout is never done but your's is about as close to done as any I've seen Clem. Enjoy your model railroad empire!
Bob
mike g. posted:Nice job on the water tower Bob, where do you get your flashing LED's?
I took them out of a set of Model Power crossing signals. I bought a flasher relay board to control the signals not realizing that they came with flashing LED's. I wanted a realistic sequence to the signals so I took out the random flashing LED's and put regular ones in their place. Real PIA to work on this little stuff.
I fried two of them and cooked one yesterday with the soldering iron so this was the last one. I'm sure they are available on line.
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