My cobbled together layout

[aussietmrail]

Hi Griff, go for it while you can before someone else does, not so lucky over here, the cheapest option is off cut 12mm ply from a timber mob or the big Bunning wear house sell full sheets of 12 mm ply for $35 a sheet, will have to ask my brother to bring his ute so I go and pit a sheet up.

Have been recycling the old modules from the old layout where I can, got to leave some for the station complex modules, need 7 there all up, it is starting to get warmer now , 6 degrees over night and I will be able to get back to my layout constriction again and finish off Tehachapi loop and the station modules and move on the filling in the sides and front sections.

That is the extra hidden cost of building a layout, a big bonus getting the timber for nothing.

Keeping an eye of for the parcel contractor as my new loco is suppose to arrive today from America.

How are you going with those trees made any up yet, I will be lazy and buy them as there Is some on the TL .

Tony.

[traingeekboy]

I posted the process I will be using on someone else's discussion here. If you click active topics it should come on the first page.

[aussietmrail]

Hi Griff, I found Active Topics but couldn't find where you are using someone's else's discussion, might have to help out there, thanks

[roddy]

Try this Tony.

https://www.sierrawestscalemodels.com/vanforum/discussion/164/furnace-filter-trees./p1

[aussietmrail]

Hi roddy, many thanks just mind blowing that forum link is will have to go back later was on it for half an hour, sure gives you scenery ideas especially modelling trees.

I am thinking about using al-foil for rock scenes on cutting, cheap enough to buy .

Tony.

[aussietmrail]

Hi Griff, I ended up buying three rolls of the Javis grass matting, two of the spring mix and one of the brown mix, got some help from the other forum FR from a bloke that uses free sand from the road gutter for his roads, recycled sand, got a creek a street back at the back of our house will go there next week and get some sand , pure magic.

Will see some progress on my TL tunnel 9module next weekend finely finished, all I will need is some trees.

The roll is 1200x305mm's, still far cheaper than buying the same stuff in a hoppy shop near the train club I go to in Brisbane.

My big boy kit is finely put together now just need the decals and then to move onto the diorama Kennefick park project, pics on my post.

Tony

[aussietmrail]

Griff, I finely tracked down what those boxes with the solar panels are used for at the Tehachapi loop before tunnel 9, with the help from another US friend from Oregon, he found they are flange oilers, he said the oil on the ballast inside the track was a dead give away .

http://coxy.squarespace.com/coxys-n-scale-and-railroad-bl/?currentPage=91

By the look at it now will be adding ballast to the bottom track before tunnel 9 module that will give the scene more realism.

Amazing when you find the right word to search what is out there, couldn't find any more on the TL with those flange oilers Cajon pass has them too and you will find that big curve near you will have them too.

[traingeekboy]

Been doing some things around the garden but not with the railway. Tore down the old metal shed. It was actually sort of fun to cut it up with a sawzall and break pieces apart with a hammer. Now I have a large blank space in the garden. I may load pics up later.

Also bought some things off of ebay for the railway. A plastic bit that holds the couplers on roco locos since my roco SJ loco has no couplers. This will make me want to do some running I am sure. I also found a lighted signal by Fleischman for only .99 cents. Put on a bid on it not expecting to win then came back and found out I had. Nice little addition and cheap too.

[aussietmrail]

Hi Griff what's your plans now the old shed has gone going to replace it with a new one, what I would like is a second garden shed to set up my wood lathe permanently with the bench grinder also , have to put up with the lathe on wheels to bring out in under the pergola to do woodturning., take a short while to set up.

Yeah I hate bidding rather go for buy now ,fought had to win a Bachman unpainted DD40AX, I had a limit on it, got it for $81 plus postage, not keen buying locos on eBay. other stuff is ok.

Be handy with those signals you bought a nice feature on the layout.

Look forward to see those pics of your SJ loco running, I think you have being trying to get couplers for that loco for adages.

[mick]

traingeekboy said:

Been doing some things around the garden but not with the railway. Tore down the old metal shed.....

I recently got rid of the plastic shed at the end of my garden - replaced it with another wooden one but this ones for Pam and I'm not allowed inside and neither are my trains!

So what are you planning on doing with this "large blank space"?

[traingeekboy]

Well Mick... Oh boy, lots of ideas.

1. My neighbor had a wooden pergola he got tired of and donated to me. (more free lumber )

2. Could just use that pergola as is.

3. Could use the lumber to frame in a green house and then start collecting old window frames to fill it with.

4. or.. Do the green house and also make a small sitting shed section... This would imply that I would need to run a line down the side of the house for another 30' of mainline to a small protected yard area. I have been pondering the addition of a long single line back to the back yard. It could be cantilevered off of the chain link fence posts very easily. The result would be more like adding a shelf to what's there. At the same time, I have not had the inspiration to solve the missing gap problem. I think that is top priority now, but I have zero motivation.

Funny things happen here. I was sitting inside my house on my computer. The curtains were drawn but the window was open. I hear footsteps and then. "Wait, stop and look at this. He's got an ho scale train in his front yard."

Womans voice, "oh wow."

Man, "That's reallly cool huh?"

Not the first or last time someone will show appreciation. I suppose I better get it looking a little less neglected.

[aussietmrail]

Hi Griff, wow neighbour giving you his pergola, yeah you have some good ideas planned for it , like the idea of planning to run your layout around the house longer running, will you go right around the whole house.

That's my plan also to do the same around my house with my layout at a later stage, unless our luck changes with a lotto win be nice, got to get moving even to get trains running around the Tehachapi loop .

Wondered when you were going to say about people commenting on your layout being out in the front garden, Robert must get the same comments also, as you said gives you that little incentive to get going on.

Pick up my new Iphone6 after brekkie, Apple have improved the camera side of the phone, didn't get the 6pluss, too big, my son has plans for the old Iphone4s wants to use it as an IPod for loading music onto it.

Thought of a small plastic shed just to store the mower and garden tools, with the heat we get in summer it wouldn't last long, going by the outdoor table setting, we used o have never lasted even though they in under the pergola the plastic parts go brittle.

[traingeekboy]

Nope zero progress. mostly just more shopping.

I really try to limit my purchases of things and try to keep myself focused on actual layout time over just being a consumer. And then you look at ebay and someone has posted a bunch of stuff with .99 cent starting bids and you just watch it for a couple days.

So that's what I did. And it was a huge lot of freight cars for near nothing and my anti spending money rule went out the window.

Up first:

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/3vUAAOSw-jhUJB8V/$_57.JPG

This is a Austrian railways intermodal car. Usually a Roco goes new for around 60.00 I got it for 15.50 plus 5 shipping. How could I resist right? There was another one with containers, but I had to limit my spending. Wish I would have had 100.00 to play with as there was a lot of cool stuff cheap. And to make an intermodal train I would need about 39 more of these.

Second:

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/ZHcAAOSw7NNUJB-C/$_57.JPG

A Roco interfrigo car. One would see this interchanged all over europe. It would go for around 30.00 and I got it for 4.04 + 5.00 shipping.

I really like waiting and watching for the deals. I figure 1/3 price when you include the shipping on both items. I'm still feeling elated over this find.

I am just linking the ebay pictures, so I expect after a while these links will go bad. I just couldn't resist sharing my victory ASAP.

[traingeekboy]

Also the previous weeks catch; I mentioned this in another post.

I had bought a Roco Swedish electric a while back. It was missing a couple peices. I think the owner had it only as a display unit so did not ever attach them. One hard to find piece was a coupler mount, finally found a seller in australia who was willing to sell me a spare. I paid about 4 times the value of the thing, but Roco couldn't source the part for me for some reason. I had no other options.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTAwWDE2MDA=/z/Nv8AAOSw91NTuouG/$_57.JPG

And then while peering at ebay a .99 cent auction item showed up. I figured what the hell, I'll bit .99 and somehow managed to win it. It's probably 1960's manufacture, it should go really nicely on my toy train set.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTU5OVg1NDQ=/z/UgoAAOSwnDZUGwht/$_57.JPG

[aussietmrail]

Hi Griff, fancy finding a seller in OZ that was able to sell you the parts, that's the trouble if you are after a part you would have to pay the full price, how many coupler boxes did you get, like the signal tower will make realism to your layout, not a bad price, yeah I have been the only bidder on a few eBay items.

I think I did some research on your switcher and did send Roco an email and they came back with the same answer, out of stock.

Griff do you know much about Pagosa Junction in Colorado, got a good topic going on FR's forum , been doing some more research in it's history, love finding out about railroad branch line ghost towns, this town had a big saw mill, there are quite a few other forums on the same topic, asking a bloke from another forum if I can post his pics on Pagosa junction.

Tony.

[traingeekboy]

I have never been to pagosa junction. I believe it resides in the Ute indian reservation and as such is off limits to us white folk.

[aussietmrail]

Hi Griff, from what I have been reading on other forums you can go there but need permission, the same over here with our indigenous people also, Eyre's Rock you can't climb any more for the same thing.

Tony.

[traingeekboy]

I seem to be neglecting my forum discussion. We had some severe cold back in october. Got down below zero for a bit. Then just as it was going to warm up I made a trip to Minnesota to do some interviews for a project I am working on. So I basically followed the miserable weather out to there and got even more cold.

I keep plotting train things, but without a dedicated work area I get a little put off by trying to model anything right now. I think it really helps to be able to leave a project half done and then come back to it, rather than having to clean up and put everything away.

Trying to think what else was going on. Oh yeah, I have also always been a war gamer on and off all my life. So I got to play some civil war miniatures with a bunch of old gamers in the Twin Cities. It gave me a hankering to play some civil war minis, so I decided to go cheap and buy a bunch of plastic American civil war miniatures and some rules. I also read two biographies on the civil war general stone wall Jackson to really get me in the mood for some war gaming. I'm all over the place with my interests.

Tony, To respond to your questions about Pagosa Junction. There are just so many cool places to visit for old train related things. I have a book called Tracking Ghost Railways of Colorado. It is full of maps to all the abandoned railway lines. It's a worthwhile read if you can find it. Although the old railways here are primarily focused around gold and silver mining, there is also a town called Marble Colorado that had a line to a marble quarry.

And just to get really amusing, we have a couple oval layouts in 1:1 scale. I was looking for an address the other day and whilst peeking at google maps I found this power plant not far from my house. I have wandered all around it, but never realized that it contained a fine example of the real life oval layout prototype.

It seems ovals are very common at power plants over here. We have several right here in Denver I had not been aware of, but this one is small enough that one could build the actual thing full sized as a layout.

[aussietmrail]

Hi Griff, good to hear from you again and you have different interest other than model trains, there is a group (Club) in Ipswich that has a shop also which sells miniatures war figures, from present to civil war to middle ages figures, will have to ring a hobby shop across the road from them what the clubs name is so I can get their link.

It is still very hot over here,36 degrees today, I am having a rest day as yesterday my state QLD had an election, I was out there handing out how to vote cards, luckily we had a nice wind of most of the day to cool it down and also had a gazebo too which helped. All paid off as the party I belong just need one more seat to form government, not bad for only having 9 seats from the 2012 election (labor), also the LNP Premier lost his seat, never happened in QLD before.

One month of summer left, I am just plotting along also on my layout doing a bit after tea, waiting on a cool day, don't think that will happen, Feburary is a pretty stinkinbg hot humid month, oh year and a cyclone is building up in the Coral Sea, predicted to hit the QLD coast up near Faser Island, we will get a lot of rain out of it.

That is interesting the google earth pic of the power plant with oval track, same practice over here also, even the Port of Brisbane has a oval track, good project to model., need a big base board.

Will check that book out my library may have it or get it in, like looking into abandoned railways , tunnels and bridges.

[traingeekboy]

Look for this: http://www.amazon.com/Tracking-Ghost-Railroads-Colorado-Abandoned/dp/0937080012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423062969&sr=8-1&keywords=tracking+ghost+railways+in+colorado

I should be clear that one does not actually read this book as really it's just a lot of maps.