Boston & Albany passenger train:

Finally got the signal bridge with its weight bearing activation device to work.

LC+ New Haven smokin' FAs pulling Postwar passenger cars around Yankee Stadium:

I ran a Lionel 0-8-0 New York Central switcher pulling 6 = MTH Madison NYC 13" passenger cars (baggage, combine, diner, coaches, and observation).  ALL picked up at a model train show yesterday.

I can't even begin to tell you how little I paid for these items (including a bunch of other stuff, too).  It's really criminal!!!  

The right place at the right time.  Probably never happen to me again.  Oh well, early Christmas present. 

Fendermain posted:

Postwar steam with prewar cars...Hey, I like smoke with my tin.      Fendermain

You have combined the charm of both, which makes many of us smile.

I only have a couple of Prewar cars, which I will share in a few minutes.

Fendermain posted:

A little 1930s prewar fun.        Fendermain

Great layout, I luv it.

Postwar switcher and Prewar cars:

I believe the 3 red bridges are also Prewar.

Richard Cuozzo posted:

Fendermain posted:

A little 1930s prewar fun.        Fendermain

Great layout, I luv it.

Thanks Richard...it's a lot of fun.       Fendermain

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Postwar switcher and Prewar cars:

I believe the 3 red bridges are also Prewar.

Good job.  Tin just seems more fun and festive around the holidays. It could be the brilliant colors and clanking sounds.  Thanks for posting Arnold.   Fendermain

Last night I ran 3 trains simultaneously on the layout, a local passenger trains pulled by  a camelback locomotive, a train comprised of gondolas with junk loads with an SW9 on the point, and a train of of pulpwood cars pulled by a 44 tonner.  Also running on the industrial spur was an 0-8-0 on a switching assignment.  All the while a trolley kept time going back and forth on the elevated trestle.  

Lionel 2350 with Modern Era New Haven passenger cars (from a good friend) and a 2055 pulling mostly post war freight cars.

2350 is powered from catenary.

https://youtu.be/jZ0xoeCr5-s

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

God Bless America BABY!  

   Most of the real estate plots are larger than my smallest layouts. Other plots bigger than my largest layout.

Where is this? Why is this? Who's is this? 

Washington Grain Train freight and a billboard freight.

   Bill T.

Best of Postwar: New Haven passenger train and Lackawanna freight train on the main lines early this morning:

Oil tanker cars, hoppers filled with coal, Tunnel through my mountains with me in control:

Lights flashing red, crossing gates go down, a smokin' locomotive makes that choo choo sound.

Arnold

This MTH Proto 2 Pennsy Turbine with a brand new BCR hauling endless boxcars:

AWESOME guys! Too weary from an over the top work week to run trains.

thanks to you all I could share in the excitement.

Hey Arnold, there seems to be no end to the enjoyment when you film the action! Thanks for ALL the videos. i needed that. 

Hey Fendermain,very nice colors in smoky action.

and to everyone else, great photos and films.

Leroof posted:

AWESOME guys! Too weary from an over the top work week to run trains.

thanks to you all I could share in the excitement.

Hey Arnold, there seems to be no end to the enjoyment when you film the action! Thanks for ALL the videos. i needed that. 

Hey Fendermain,very nice colors in smoky action.

and to everyone else, great photos and films.

 

Leroof...good to hear from you.  Work..that's a four letter word.  You will soon find time for PW activity.

Fendermain

Set out my PRR MP-15 to move some REA freight while NYC Plymouth is waiting to move a flat/ gondola combo to the work train.

Bob

Got Milk!!!

I ran my tmcc berkshire today.Pulling around 25 boxcars mixed freight.

I dug an old MARX 490 & slope back tender out of the junque box, Lubed it up, put it on the big Fastrack oval under the tree, hung a handful of old and abused 8-wheel plastic delux cars on the drawbar, threw up the throttle on my son's CW-80, and watched an Old School train chase its tail for a good, long (and noisy) time.  Brought back memories. 

The heck of it is, if I want to run my TMCC and Legacy trains on the big layout with the Cab 1, I will need to clean all the track, fiddle with the remote, fight with the rollers, and otherwise waste train time.  That process brings back memories, too:  why I got out of HO.

I know I sound like a single chime whistle, here, but that cheap, battered, low-end MARX set runs, which, at the moment, none of my expensive, pampered, newer trains do.  There is a lesson in there somewhere. . . .

O-h say can you see, by the dawn's early light:

The night train: TMCC Delaware & Hudson diesel hauling boxcars all night long.

Palallin,

Sorry you have had bad luck with your TMCC locos. My experience with them has been, by and large, positive. I can always put them on the track and they are ready to go when I am.

George

RSJB18 posted:

Set out my PRR MP-15 to move some REA freight while NYC Plymouth is waiting to move a flat/ gondola combo to the work train.

Bob

PRR - one of my favorites. Starting to like REA as well. And, as an acknowledged NYC fan, like the second pic as well.

Been enjoying these Railking B&O "torpedo" Geeps

Been giving my MTH Proto 1s with new BCRs a workout. Love the livery of this BN Premier diesel:

Arnold

Railking Proto 1 Union Pacific diesel:

 Santa Fe Williams FA-2s...good runner, great slow speed if that's your thing...with railking passenger cars.  Also Kline Pennsylvania A-5 steamer...great runner as well.

Fendermain

This has been conventional week.  My 1956 LV #627 44 ton loco, my childhood train, has been running on the layout.  Also brought out my weaver brass 0-6-0.  The switcher looks a bit funny at anything above scale 20 mph but it is nice to get these off the shelf.  The 44T has that growl I forgot about, nothing like those open frame motors.

My first video and my first new train in 50 years.  Please excuse the poor lighting.  A Lionchief+, Southern 4501 arrived last night.  My first new engine in 50 years.  I shall name my railroad the Bald Rock Mountain Railroad, BMR RR.

Bill,

I think you will enjoy your LC+ 4501. I have three LC+ engines, two diesels and one steam. They all work flawlessly. I run them on the same track as my TMCC and Legacy engines. It does take a little bit of dexterity to manage all of them.

George

Same ones I run everyday, Lionchief NYC RS3 and Penn Flyer, plus Toymaker Trolley.

Really want an MTH Ge Evolution with charging lights, but budget is blown, or is it. I am not a fan of adding another control system, but no Lionchief engines with charging lights. Come on Lionel.

Oldmike

Just got my annual Marklin Christmas car (last car on train).  Lego car was/is a Marklin issue. Basically a flatcar with a building plate on top.  I added the Christmas trees, Santa and the BB-8 droid.

Steve

MTH Railking Proto 1 Pennsylvania

Turbine coal drag & GG1 passenger service:

I am running an old tinplate 252, to show for a Christmas tree lighting this Saturday.  But a coupler broke right at a seam.  To weld or replace rivet

Dapperdan

If it is the two headlamp version just run in reverse since you have a time constraint. If single headlamp I would replace the rivet given that option for repair.

Fendermain

MTH CP Holiday Train.  First time I have had a chance to run it.  I just finished the first level of basic bench work on my new layout.  I figured I would stop work on the layout for Christmas and just set up a simple oval to run some trains.

Hey Fendermain, always happening here at the forum, one of my favorite easy access after work activities,  So Nice to see flying Yankee and 2035 with 600 series cars! Looks like a prewar showroom layout!

Thanks for the trackside view. Run'em fast and furious! So many fantastic colors...

Arnold!  A parade of demonstrative iron always super to view!

thanks appreciation as always!

PS. T-5 days and counting, Houston standing  by.....

Leroof posted:

Hey Fendermain, always happening here at the forum, one of my favorite easy access after work activities,  So Nice to see flying Yankee and 2035 with 600 series cars! Looks like a prewar showroom layout!

Thanks for the trackside view. Run'em fast and furious! So many fantastic colors...

 

 

Leroof....Swlabr...One of my favs.

Fendermain

Lionel TMCC Delaware & Hudson smoking diesel hauling oil:

Running conventionally, slow and steady, on 18 volts. Train starts up faster until reach about 10 to 12 volts, then it goes slower and steady when voltage is substantially greater.

Utowntech posted:

MTH CP Holiday Train.  First time I have had a chance to run it.  I just finished the first level of basic bench work on my new layout.  I figured I would stop work on the layout for Christmas and just set up a simple oval to run some trains.

Really nice setup you have started here!   Where did you get the beautiful photo/print for the backdrop?

It's a busy morning at the interchange.

Fendermain

For the Holiday season a Dept 56 freight pulled by a MTH 44 tonner

    Bill T.

On Track one: a PRR mixed freight headed up by  a trio of geeps. 

On track two: Penn Central freight with GG1 power

On track three this C&O U23B leads the way.

Track four: a trio of WM geeps rolls past the yet to be completed grade crossing improvements.  Boy, those guys work slow ! 

-RM

Taking the cab ride on 4141. The cameras mounted to the cab was a nice touch.

RIP 41

c.sam posted:

Utowntech posted:

MTH CP Holiday Train.  First time I have had a chance to run it.  I just finished the first level of basic bench work on my new layout.  I figured I would stop work on the layout for Christmas and just set up a simple oval to run some trains.

Really nice setup you have started here!   Where did you get the beautiful photo/print for the backdrop?

• Thank you C.SAM! This is my first try at a large layout.  I finally have the space and have been thinking about it for the last 4 years.  To answer your question about the backdrop, I purchased it from railroadbackdrops.com.

Greetings Fendermain, Disraeli gears indeed! Here in a wonderland...lol.

My wife doesn't know it, but I've become addicted. I've become a "train smoker:"

MTh Railking Proto 2 Pennsy Turbine (with BCR) and LC+ FA powered unit smokin' diesel (I gave the matching non-powered unit a break). Both locomotives are good smokers.

All of them

https://youtu.be/199USv75vCM

I  still can't seem to place the video in, just the link

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

My wife doesn't know it, but I've become addicted. I've become a "train smoker:"

Is that anything like a "chain smoker"?  I don't allow smoking in my basement.

Except for locomotives, of course. 

Was running this oil tanker freight train through the night as the ball was dropping in Times Square:

Club cars....

My 3 year old grandson was over for New Years Eve (early), always wants to go run the trains. Gave em all a workout, including some operating accessories (ice, barrel loader, the Erie hobo car). Ran trolleys, the gang car (at light speed), some F3's with a bunch of freight cars, the Flying Yankee, and some locomotives (736, C&O geep, GG1). And then to the standard gauge stuff! So much fun when you have young ones interested. 

Jim

PW ATSF # 623 on MOW duty pulling my prototype track cleaning car around.

The xmas trains.  Up till middle of January for daughter’s birthday.  Happy New Year!  🎊🎉  Thinking maybe something totally new for 2019.  We’ll see.

Alien Robot attacks trains, destroys Santa Village.

https://youtu.be/199USv75vCM

Still can't seem to post video just the link

TedW posted:

The xmas trains.  Up till middle of January for daughter’s birthday.  Happy New Year!  🎊🎉  Thinking maybe something totally new for 2019.  We’ll see.

 

 

Gorgeous, Ted.

Clem- right click and copy the link from youtube
Use the insert/edit media icon in the tool bar

Paste the link in the source box in the window
Viola!

Very impressive train. How long did it take to get it all assembled and running?

Bob

I was having a problem with two what I thought where real stable cars, early Atlas green Tropicana reefers. They where getting pushed off curve on level track. Between two unweighted Weaver cars. Relocated them, now all is right. No problems with string lining.   

It is the next to last day for our Christmas layout.  Normally we would start taking it and the decorations down tomorrow.  But that is my wife's birthday.  No way we are going to celebrate it that way!  So they come down on January 3rd.  

I made this layout about 15 years ago and it is wired for both TMCC and conventional trains.  But I almost always just bring up postwar sets from the basement to give them some run time, changing each about every three days.  What is running here is a 1946 smoke bulb Berkshire with the semi-scale operating boxcar, the black tank car and high end caboose.  It was a strange set, top of the line locomotive and cars, but only a three car set - as if it was a low end set.  The passenger is a Lionel Texas Special AB with Kusan Texas Special cars.  Never understood why Lionel missed the bet of doing the Texas Special paint scheme for either aluminum or 027 cars.  Rather it came as a freight set.  Oh, well, it looks great this way.

Peter, I'd love to see some close-up shots of those TS Kusan cars.  I'm sure I've never seen a set, but I remember the Kusan aluminum cars--in some respects they were superior to LIONEL's.

Perhaps before you put them away.  Thanks.

Carl, here you are.  Yes, I too, do really like the Kusan aluminum passenger cars and have a lot of them!

Peter

Everything today is either Chessie, Penn Central or PC / Amtrak.  

Peter, thank you very much for those excellent photos.

Yes, Peter, the Texas Special cars are beautiful and possibly rare. That was one beautiful train and in the late nineteen fifties, I rode on the Texas Special From Dennison Texas to St Louis Missouri. 

Early this morning, ran new PE cars and CP Holiday train.  

The second level of our basementlayout is still very much under construction. While doing some testing this morning I (accidentally) ran an Lionchief Metro North M7 set off the table onto the floor. Not a ding or scratch and the train still runs fine. Who says our toys aren't built right?

Ran the Pennsylvania Lines H-10. It's a fun little Locomotive.

Three of the grandkids visited on New Year's Day. I have the most fun when they are here to run trains with me. The two boys are getting big enough to operate things correctly and by themselves. I was too busy putting different engines on the track to take pictures. We ran a New Haven FL-9 and Alco PA (by Sunset/3rd Rail), LIRR G5s, New York Central 0-6-0 and Amtrak Genesis (by MTH), Amtrak F-7, B&M F-3 and Conrail MP15DC (by Atlas-O), and New Haven Ten-Wheeler (by Lionel).

MELGAR

MELGAR posted:

Three of the grandkids visited on New Year's Day. I have the most fun when they are here to run trains with me. The two boys are getting big enough to operate things correctly and by themselves. I was too busy putting different engines on the track to take pictures. We ran a New Haven FL-9 and Alco PA (by Sunset/3rd Rail), LIRR G5s, New York Central 0-6-0 and Amtrak Genesis (by MTH), Amtrak F-7, B&M F-3 and Conrail MP15DC (by Atlas-O), and New Haven Ten-Wheeler (by Lionel).

MELGAR

While pictures would have been nice, I’m glad to see you had your priorities correct!!! I foresee a few new New Haven fans in the offing.

Happy New Year MELGAR.

Harry Burris is old school. He had the Engineering Crew out on New Year’s Day, surveying some planned drainage improvements. The Second District local waited on the freight house lead for No.59 to pass, 2-8-2 3222 simmering and occasionally pumping a little air. A raspy exhaust announced the approach of 59, and Engineer Wallace White gave the big PA1 another throttle notch to keep the speed up through the curve, and she obliged with a belch of Alco exhaust.  The oscillating headlight wig-wagged against the embankment as the humble little passenger train curved past Harry’s survey party. After No.59 passed, the cantilever signal changed from red to flashing yellow. That was good enough for Engineer Buck Burleson, and he whistled off, dropped the reverse lever into the corner, and departed. He gave a short whistle salute to his brother-in-law (a rod man on the survey party) and had her hooked up and rolling as he left the curve. As Buck whistled for the Highway 70 crossing, Harry Burris wondered silently how much longer the sound of steam whistles, which - decades earlier -had lured him to a career in railroading, would be heard in the Texas Panhandle.  Harry listened intently as the exhaust of Mikado 3222 faded into the distance.  It would be a sad day, he mused, when the roundhouse put out the last fire and cranked up the latest quartet of brand-new EMD GP7’s.

OldMike posted:

Alien Robot attacks trains, destroys Santa Village.

No image here either... and the composer and  menu doesn't like this page much either. 

Trackside today at Jasper's Rock.  Amtrak F40P's   Western Maryland F7's + chop nose GP7
Conrail SD40-2 pair   Pennsylvania Geeps Three Unit Lashup

Hanging out in the Train Room......

Gary

Gary, sure looks like a great way to spend the day!

mike g. posted:

Gary, sure looks like a great way to spend the day!

Thanks Mike:

For safety, I did the glue process before they came over. They were aloud to play with the seated figures and then help with putting in the screws that hold the body to the frame, When this was completed they ran the passenger train. LionChief Plus.

Gary.

trainroomgary posted:

mike g. posted:

Gary, sure looks like a great way to spend the day!

Thanks Mike:

For safety, I did the glue process before they came over. They were aloud to play with the seated figures and then help with putting in the screws that hold the body to the frame, When this was completed they ran the passenger train. LionChief Plus.

Gary.

Man Gary, you just have to love that! I am still trying to get my grandkids into trains, when they came over for Christmas I gave them a train set and there mom told me when they got home they put it up and played for hours! I think its time for a better set! LOL

wmcwood - that is a heck of a bridge and suspended layout!  Did you build the bridge or source it?

David

Slow and steady MTH Proto 2 (with new BCR) Pennsy Turbine freight train passing scenic blue water (made with acrylic paints and Mod Podge):

Arnold

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Slow and steady MTH Proto 2 (with new BCR) Pennsy Turbine freight train passing scenic blue water (made with acrylic paints and Mod Podge):

Arnold

Your improvements look great.

Fendermain

My small layout looks best when running small trains. This one is scale-sized but as small as they get.

MELGAR

MELGAR, The "Bobber" caboose suits the engine perfectly. They really look right together.

FrankM

Moonson posted:

MELGAR, The "Bobber" caboose suits the engine perfectly. They really look right together.

FrankM

FrankM,

I agree. I think they are a perfect combination and enjoy watching them run.

MELGAR

My 10'-by-5' model railroad is complete on 99% of the table area, so I decided that it's time for a video... The engine is a Lionel Legacy ten-wheeler 4-6-0 model of New Haven #815. With four New Haven box cars and a caboose, this is one of the longer trains that I run on this small layout. The engine has very realistic sounds to which the video does not do justice.

MELGAR

MELGAR posted:

My 10'-by-5' model railroad is complete on 99% of the table area, so I decided that it's time for a video... The engine is a Lionel Legacy ten-wheeler 4-6-0 model of New Haven #815. With four New Haven box cars and a caboose, this is one of the longer trains that I run on this small layout. The engine has very realistic sounds to which the video does not do justice.

MELGAR

Wow, MELGAR... you certainly packed a lot of interest into 10’x5’!!! While your “tall” Supply Co. building is amazing, the passenger station at the start of the video is absolutely magnificent. Is that a kit or another of your own designs???

Thanks for sharing. 

Running a bunch of KMT beer reefers this week on the Seattle & Yakima RR.

Apples55 posted:

MELGAR posted:

My 10'-by-5' model railroad is complete on 99% of the table area, so I decided that it's time for a video... The engine is a Lionel Legacy ten-wheeler 4-6-0 model of New Haven #815. With four New Haven box cars and a caboose, this is one of the longer trains that I run on this small layout. The engine has very realistic sounds to which the video does not do justice.

MELGAR

Wow, MELGAR... you certainly packed a lot of interest into 10’x5’!!! While your “tall” Supply Co. building is amazing, the passenger station at the start of the video is absolutely magnificent. Is that a kit or another of your own designs???

Thanks Paul.

It is a model of the station in Phillips, Maine on the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad which was 2-foot narrow gauge. I built it from a kit by Banta Modelworks when I began work on the 10'-by-5' layout in 2014. I'm also adding a 46-second video which better shows the layout and the New Haven 4-6-0 ten-wheeler engine and freight train. The average speed of the train as shown here is 21 miles-per-hour.

MELGAR

New Haven Railroad #793 Fairbanks-Morse CPA-24-5 model by MTH with Atlas O 60-foot passenger cars on my 10'-by-5' layout.

MELGAR

Today...century club turbine. 

Yesterday...scale mth NYC Niagara and six 70 foot green pullmans... 

Before that...my lionel j3a pulled the same cars around...I have the tender from a mohawk behind it that's got really good sound, fatboy speaker and stuff...

Ran a 226E/2226W with about 8 MTH 2814 reefer cars and a few 2816 hopper cars

Le Train Bleu (the Blue train) from Paris to the Mediterranean:

Regards

Fred

Lionel 18045 Commodore Vanderbilt with a 20th Century Limited:

Regards

Fred