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My cobbled together layout


traingeekboy
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I used to have pics of all my coaches that were really nicely done by a friend who was a professional photographer. But I lost them in a computer crash. I don't really have that many locos.

I think I posted a pic of the blue one. There is the one in my first run that is a E645 in brown. The first page of my thread has the big steam engines in it, that's my favorite but I plan to seek out more ebay steamers from the 60's-80's. And I have the yellow DMU. I also have the Life like US profile 0-8-0. I will try to get pics though. I do have new pics of the the lima in pieces, he he he.

The interesting collection was my N scale stuff before I sold it. I had over 200 freight cars, 30+ coaches, and 30+ locos. It was too much stuff to fit on my layout that had 23 points on it.

My experience with having a lot of stuff is that it became less special. With a smaller collection I get sort of attached to them. Each one is unique. much of my stuff that I have now is old and slightly worn in places but I think it has character. It's sort of like being the kid who discovers a box of really played with trains in grandpas attic. :)

Now that I've discovered British trains, I see a lot of older really cool stuff I've never had a chance to become familiar with. For instance the old Wreen steam engines with cast metal bodies really catch my eye. Even the grey green printed boxe they come in is pleasing to me. At some point I will have to get one.

Damn I do get wordy, sorry about that. Ok, pictures of stuff.

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Well it's cold and snowy here again. Looks to be around a foot of snow on the tracks today and more on the way. I sort of need to test out the locos that I tuned up.

Still no pics. Grrrr...

I had cut a station platform out of ply. It's probably too tall for the track but am using it anyway. I was frustrated because the edge wasn't perfect. The saw being the old piece of .... that it is, cut poorly. I was pondering if the platform was worth keeping when I realized I could just use wood filler putty to fix the edge. So I suppose that is job number 1 on the list.

In other news an ebay seller that was near me had some 80's era hornby stuff for sale. I contacted them about it because of shipping costs to see if I could get it cheaper since I'm an hours drive away. The seller said he'd meet me halfway if I wanted to just buy the whole lot off him tracks and all. So... I'm still waiting to hear back on that with some photos of the stuff. All he had up on ebay was a boxy blue and yellow loco, can't remember the class, and a inter city coach in light blue to match. I am hoping he has a nice little collection of stuff to get me going on british trains.

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Well since I use this site as a repository for all my railroad musings I may as well keep filling it up.

I live in Colorado so it's natural that I also have a passion for Colorado narrow gauge lines. I still consider getting some On30 for my outdoor layout.

I also considered going into geology so I just like rocks, big rocks in the form of mountains.

Before I found this site I had a man link to me with his layout that was outdoors; that would be Woodie of Mogollon fame.

http://www.freerails.com/view_topic.php?id=1222&forum_id=17&page=68

He led me to a narrow gauge site....

Today I was posting a video of my experience walking through an abandoned rail tunnel that has been repurposed as a water conduit under the continental divide. I figured maybe you guys might find my video interesting, but it's better if you have some context for it, so I am just going to link to the free rails site:

http://www.freerails.com/view_topic.php?id=3660&forum_id=17

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I'll have to revisit your tunnel walk once I have some speakers coupled up to the computer. In my haste to get back online I have yet to reconnect them (or even locate them!) and silent films are much better suited to Charlie Chaplin or Laurel & Hardy etc.

That narrow gauge layout looks excellent. It's almost an indoor layout... only outdoors, and with some wonderful scenery. I can fully understand the attraction with narrow gauge but I just daren't.....

Are you still having pc problems or have you got things sorted out now?

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I've switched to my Mac mini. Yet my Ipod touch won't sync to this so I can't get at my pics. In all other respects I'm fine, though I do miss being able to set up the laptop wherever I want.

Woodie's layout is very inspiring. It's all hand laid ho track. His work is very fine scale, but it stays outside all year round. He's been a great resource and I'm not scale centric; I just admire any nice layout. If you scroll through his layout shots you'll find some of his home made operating accessories. He has a working tow line on one part of his layout to pull cars up a steep incline. He also has a ore bucket tramway. I think he is well published in numerous narrow gauge magazines, but he's just a very down to earth guy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well no layout progress recently, so today Sara and I cleaned up the front yard. I added spray paint onto sections that looked like they needed it and pondered what next. Then came a visit to the train store where I bought 5 pieces of flex track for stage two of the layout, the inner line. Of course I got home and realized that what I really needed was a wheel puller for my Lima's along with some small washers so the wheels don't howl anymore as they do in the video.

I feel kind of dumb about getting the right thing and yet not the right thing while at the store. Oh well...

Am I model railroading again?

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Well we had some amazing weather today; It was colder in the house than out. Sara went outside and I followed and then realized "gee haven't run the engines I worked on yet", so out came the trains. I think we spent over an hour outside running various locos on the train. i think it got up to 70's which isn't bad for november. We had a day like that last week too.

Noticed that where my ply is joined there are water marks on the beam below. I suspect that the snow melt caused that. Gonna have to rethink a fix for the seams on the layout.

I suspect my desire for a new loco was cutting into my brains ability to consider just running trains some more. Next week i'm gonna start laying more flex.

So the whole point of this is that I did get some vids and I will be posting those soon.

Sara commented that although daytime running is nice, it's the little lights she likes. Now I am pondering what to do to wire up my lima cars for lights. anyone done any home made lighting? Also, I will eventually be switching to dcc. Got the control system, just need decoders.

Is the voltage issue a problem? Do I need to throw some resisters on the lamps? I'm thinking scotch tape them to the inside roof for easy removal and repair. Sure the guys in the magazines do it all perfect, but I gotta keep to my modus and just rig it and have fun.

Oh yeah, anyone putting people in their coaches? Mine seem so empty, a couple passengers would be good.

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Hi TGB, I have some people in a couple of my blue/grey lima mark 1 coaches. They have been in there for around 20 years! You are right, they can look a little empty. If I can cast my mind back, I think they are Hornby. Those coaches are easy to get the tops off, not sure I would want to be dismantle newer more detailed stuff. give it a try, its a nice touch I think.

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traingeekboy said:

...Noticed that where my ply is joined there are water marks on the beam below. I suspect that the snow melt caused that. Gonna have to rethink a fix for the seams on the layout...

Oh dear - that's 2 of you having pains with the plywood. I'm going to have to have a rethink.

Never fitted lamps to any coaches. All the illuminated coaches I have were purchased like that. Did you see my post in Roy's drivel thread regarding the DCC Concepts Pullman Coach Table Lamp set? Might just be up your street and at only £76 per coach (that would be approx $117) an absolute steal! Still not sure I've read or understood that correctly...

People in coaches - sure, if you can get the lids off easily and can get hold of some passengers then they'll look great!

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Mick,

No worries on the ply or support. My whole approach has been to build a throw away layout from throw away lumber. Job number one was to just run trains and quit designing and thinking about running trains. If I do have problems I'll have a blast figuring out a fix.

Yeah, that is a mugging. :lol:

Right now I have the biggest layout in my life. It runs, it looks great, it's just plain fun.

Oh yeah and I make videos of it! he he he

Playing with lenses in front my my flip camera. This is an old enlarger lens.

The 241P or is it P241... Need to take it apart and clean and lube everything, as it's some what noisy right now. The cab shape with the point looks a great deal like some of the large British locos.

This is the same loco as in my first video after cleaning and oiling.

Note: youtube is using a new upload system. It is screwing up all my notes on the new videos. So the text won't match the video.

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traingeekboy said:

...My whole approach has been to build a throw away layout from throw away lumber. Job number one was to just run trains and quit designing and thinking about running trains. If I do have problems I'll have a blast figuring out a fix...

That's a great philosophy and I can see that it's worked admirably for you - the whole set-up looks a heap of fun.

I'm hoping that my layout will be a permanent fixture for a number of years so I'm giving it a bit of thought until I feel ready to go ahead. It's not just a case of thinking of a design but trying to imagine how it will all fit in with the rest of the garden and trying to ensure there are no complications. I'm as keen to get started as you must have been.

Loved the new videos and it appears you've got a couple of models there that weren't mentioned in the introductions ;)

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AndyR said:

Hi TGB, I have some people in a couple of my blue/grey lima mark 1 coaches. They have been in there for around 20 years! You are right, they can look a little empty. If I can cast my mind back, I think they are Hornby. Those coaches are easy to get the tops off, not sure I would want to be dismantle newer more detailed stuff. give it a try, its a nice touch I think.

Andy, I think I will have to try putting people inside. As I ran my trains this most recent time the interiors just looked empty. When I see people in coaches on peoples layouts it's just such a nice touch especially if there are lights in them for night running. i'll have to see what's cheap since I will need at least a hundred people; I have something like 15-20 coaches now.

My lima's are very easy to open up, i think it's just one screw.

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Back to the workbench on my station platform. I guess I'm doing it backward, got a platform, but no station.

Last thing I did was cut this big piece of ply for the platform. It's five feet long; I wanted it longer. Then I realized I had made some bad cuts due to the crappy tool I used. It is projects like this that make me pause in model railroading. It's a fail and it frustrates me. But this layout is teaching me something I had never learned before; "just make it better". I used to just give up and try to start over and then I'd give up and try to start over. It was a constant search for perfection. Not this time, i'm just gonna use it.

I figured out I could use a hand saw to sort of shave away at the edges where it wasn't right. This brought everything into a better shape. Then I realized I could line the edge with pieces of paper to simulate pieces of stone and then fill the middle with some fine ballast stone I have from previous unfinished layouts. So I am on my way again. i'll post pics when it's ready to be put on the layout.

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Hi Griff,

I've cut the platforms for my station from ply using nothing but a handsaw and have managed to get the cuts nice and straight and smooth. However, given the problem with the ply support rails, I'm going to hang fire until I see how the existing structure fares over the winter. In reply to a comment you made in the "Bottom of the Garden" thread, winters here (especially mild ones) can have humidity levels up in the high nineties This can have a pretty devastating effect on unprotected timber... :(

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TGB, my coaches just have a clip that needs pushing in with a small screw driver that is located in the carriage ends where the connecting doors are. Love the new videos by the way, I had a day running the trains last weekend. I'll try to get some photos up in a bit :)

 

 

 

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