What did you do today on your layout? (HO and other scales)

[Cat]

History shows again and again,
How nature points up the folly of man.

[cteno4]

Catzilla!

 

i see a spoof video with cats in the making to BOC!

 

that song was one of anthems in grad school at Berkeley as it did so well cranked to 11 (yes I fixed it with nice new numbering so our 250w stereo in the lab went to 11). Sure I lost a couple of db of hearing to it...

 

jeff

[MichiK]

I just logged in, and... this is quite priceless!

 

 

 

Could the reaction probably look something like this?!

 

https://twitter.com/Hiro2035/status/1162637788480602118

[Cat]

9 minutes ago, MichiK said:

I just logged in, and... this is quite priceless!

 

 

 

Could the reaction probably look something like this?!

 

https://twitter.com/Hiro2035/status/1162637788480602118

Why, yes it could.
=^,^=

[cteno4]

The cat’s guessed you’re password michi! (Was it the car’s name?)
 

jeff

[disturbman]

Well...

 

 

When one doesn’t do any “proper” layout building. This is not HO scale.

[MichiK]

It may not be "proper" but it's damn cool! 😎

[disturbman]

And pretty fun too 😄

I love the automation tiles. Too bad they are not sold individually.

Edited February 14, 2020 by disturbman

[shadowtiger25]

Hard wired DCC in to my tramway Kiha 23 with some oversight, and then detailed it when I got home. Its hard to see but there is a lady in the cab and some people inside. (ignore the obvious wires please...) the light is so bright in the first picture because it doesn't have the destination board in yet

[Kiha66]

Nice work!  It looks great.

[shadowtiger25]

5 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

Nice work!  It looks great.

still needs some work. I screwed up some how, and the lights on one side just stay on all the time so eventually I have to open it back up and solder some more. As well as I need to work on concealing the wires from the DCC chip because they are quite noticeable from the sides... but Its a start. I like tramway, but many of the factory installed detail parts kept popping off and I had to glue them in, and the canopies they came with wouldn't go on so I had to cut the pins on them and glue them strait on...

[GDorsett]

Finally got around to building modules and my next layout. They've been replanned twice now, but have since settled onto this fairly elongated arrangement. It will be laid with modified N scale track for HOe trains.

In town A the station will be shared with normal HO scale track and town B will have a similar arrangement for connection to a HOn3 layout. In the middle is a farm and a lead for a mine. The mine lead will also serve as a connection to other HOe modules. The other side piece will be an uphill climb to a hotel/onsen.

 

 

 

 

I'm gonna need a van after all...

[cteno4]

Wow thats some modules! Yes transport always the challenge! Need some racks for storage/transport.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[GDorsett]

7 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Wow thats some modules! Yes transport always the challenge! Need some racks for storage/transport.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

Well thankfully I'm working on that. I've finally about given up on my old Crown Vic and am working on buying a nice minivan, something that will last me a long time.

[GDorsett]

Update:

The first rails have been laid today for my dandy new narrow gauge layout. I got a huge lot of N scale track off of EBay for dirt cheap, so it looks like that's what I'll be using. I figure the frequent tie spacing will be hidden under ballast, turf, pavement, walkways, the usual narrow gauge stuff.

Initial test:

 

 

And a slight track rearrangement:

 

Once again, sorry for the upside didownwn pictures. I still have a few things I need to get for the rest of the layout, but construction should go at an acceptable rate now that I have most if not all of the track I need.

 

 

[GDorsett]

Town A has received some scenery, which is now on hold untill further notice because I need to find some proper buildings to use...

 

Anyways, here's some road using drywall compound:

Initial paving:

 

After a whole lot of repaving and smoothing, it got a basic grey colour painted over it to be altered from there. Black washed the [expletive] out of it a few dozen times to make it grimy/dirty/old/whatever as well as ran some tar snakes around potholes, cracks, and other issues as well as a few random ones in the middle to break up a flat boring area. I also used some of the plastic display tracks from Tomytec as a disused siding. I trimmed away some of the base so the ends can be tapered down and some areas in the middle could be saggy.

 

 

 

The first round of ballasting tests. Nothing was glued down at this stage yet as I wanted to figure out if what I wanted to do would work. Spoilers: it does. The gondola is a Tomytec HOe car.

 

 

 

 

And after today's effort, ballasting has been completed around the two standard gauge mainlines, the narrow gauge tracks around pavement and roads, and in the "paved" potholes. Fine ballast was added to the deck of the little row home building to cover up the unholy plastic base. I've got some planters handy that I want to plant around the fence and against the building's wall to add to the scene. I probably have some outdoor furniture somewhere that I can use as well, but that's details for another day.
Some turf was added around the building and in some of the bare spots. I sprinkled some turf around the tracks as well to add a sense of weeds.

Here is a scene I threw together using some of my American vehicles and standard gauge stock to see if it all turned out alright:

 

 

 

 

 

Some things to note:

You may have noticed that the above Plymouth diesel and gondola have Kato 11-702 knuckle couplers on them instead of the original boxy Rapido/Arnold couplers. The boxy ones proved unreliable on the locomotives and this was the next thing I had available. I'll need to get a bunch more to outfit the rest of the fleet, but this is a start. The two coaches, one other Plymouth loco, and two more gondolas have all gotten the couplers...and then I ran out.

I do not have any Japanese 1/80 scale cars/trucks yet, so I'll order some once the Virus restrictions lift. Untill then, if anyone has input on what sort of European trucks I can use, I have some Scania, Volvo, and a DAF trucks in 1/87 that don't match my American truck collection that I can use if I can.

 

Scenery on the rest of the module is stalled untill I can find some structures that'll work. It's harder than I thought to find Japanese buildings in HO! Some of my European buildings would work, but not many...

 

Once I find my sander, work can begin on the rest of the layout. It won't all be flat, so engineering risers should be...fun...

[marknewton]

That's looking good, you're making an interesting scene there.

 

There are building kits in 1/80th if you look around. The largest range that are easy to get are the Sankei card kits, which are very nice. Cosmic also do some mixed card and acrylic structure kits. I recently got a kit from Pairhands which is very sweet.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10657814

 

Have a look through this list, there's some nice stuff out there.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/list/3066/0/1

 

I've seen a lot of ready-made buildings for sale on Yahoo Japan auctions as well. Some are a bit pricey, but very well made as a rule. That's also a good source for 1/80th scale vehicles. I've gotten most of my buses from there.

 

Also worth noting is that many Japanese buildings are fairly nondescript boxes, which makes them easy to build yourself in card, wood or styrene. My appliance repair shop is mainly Evergreen styrene, with Tichy mouldings for the windows.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[Martijn Meerts]

A lot of the pictures I've been going through trying to get inspiration for my own H0 project shows a lot of wooden buildings around the narrow gauge lines, even around station areas. If you don't need any interior detail, they should be pretty quick to scratch build using some scale lumber. It's a bit of work, but considering it's wood, it all glues together really fast, and painting / staining / weathering them will be much easier than plastic. Just use one of the existing buildings to get a feel for the size.

 

[AhmadKane]

Begun first testing of the Marklin layout

 

 

[Khaul]

BWAHAHAHA! I am back! 

 

I left my N scale Tsurumi line project 3/4 done. It is just decorating the second module, but I could not find the motivation. The missus changed jobs. She used to work in Canberra. It is a harder to find time to build and operate layouts now that she is in Sydney. However, we have already watched anything that is half decent in Netflix (not that much) so I have recovered a bit of time. The other problem is that my N project grew out of proportion. It requires extending the dining room table and building a bit of track raised on wooden blocks. It is a bit too much to be bothered.

 

However, YouTube showed me the way in the form of an OO Peckett B2 review. Wonderful! I have acquired the Peckett and eight pretty and short wagons so I can finally have my Inglenooks puzzle. I have already replaced the unsightly tension couplings with Kadees and shunting like there is no tomorrow. Of course, I will build more than an Inglenook but I will keep everything under control this time. Promise. Let's see:

 

I have made a 1:1 track plan. You can see the baseboard (105x27) and two fiddle yards. The one between the teapot and the headphones is the main fiddle (or a cassette feeder). Trains enter this way in the layout through a tunnel. The other fiddle is to store wagons that enter a siding to a factory. The same factory is served by another siding. This one visible and parallel to the other two tracks in the yard. There is also a run around large enough for 6 of the cute wagons. And there will be also a platform and an engine house.

 

That'a a mockup of the engine house. I think it is a tad too tall. In any case, it fits fine between tracks.

 

Another view. The busy missus in the background, behind a more recent love wearing green.

 

Ain't she sweet?

 

I am running everything with a Kato SX so this is still sort of Japanese. It would be nice to add sound at some point. I have always been tempted by the Sound Box as a way to avoid fall down the DCC rabbit hole, and well, the plan is for a one (or two) loco layout. Generic little steam loco sounds would do. I have been looking at the C11, but the American style whistle would be terrible in this context. Any ideas? Also, I am thinking what to do about the baseboard. I want to be more serious this time, but the board is little so perhaps not so serious. Any suggestions? Bear in mind I am scared of woodwork and tend to think easy is best.

Edited August 20, 2020 by Khaul

[Das Steinkopf]

Nice to see you back in action Pablo, I think it will be interesting when we get out of this COVID-19 situation and hopefully get to have a running session, we could have a choice of prototypes and scale as I have plenty of Great Western stuff in OO Gauge, I also have a Peckett W4 which will be a colliery shunter at some point in the future.

[Khaul]

Nice! In the meantime I have given a little bit more thought to the track plan. The board is only 101x27, but I can see lots of shunting possibilities. 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2020 by Khaul

[Khaul]

To prove that I am serious, mostly to myself, I made a baseboard. It is just 101cmx27cm. Bracing is 30x30 pine and the board is 4mm marine grade plywood. All glued with the best PVA I could find. It looks very solid and it is certainly a huge step up from my previous attempt (cardboard and balsa wood). I am so smug that I consider I may not need to put any screws...

 

 

[cteno4]

Khaul,

 

that should be nice and solid! Nice job.

 

jeff

[Khaul]

Thanks Jeff!