February Layout Party? I cheated...

Gary S. said:
This Layout Party idea is great. I love looking at all the layouts and all of the work being accomplished. It also gives me tons of ideas. Thanks everyone! However, seeing all of the great stuff you guys are doing leaves me with the feeling that all of my plywood and blue foam is pretty boring to you guys.

But it's all a part of it, right? I'm really pleased with my progress. We had PERFECT weather down here on Sunday, I finished glueing all the foam to the shelves, and can say that the benchwork portion of my layout is COMPLETE!!!

Now to finalize the track plan and REALLY get started on making something happen.

Andrew: I had some more ideas on my layout this weekend, will get my thoughts together and post them sometime in the next few days.
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That's what it was started for. :) To exchange ideas. :) Pics are great!! :) Most of us that have built nice layouts, are looking at the bare layout & thinking "what did I do after this"? :D :D

We look back & reminesce about how we started, what we could or would have changed... and we think of the promise of the future that you have... Enjoy it. Once you start - your attitude will change forever.. That's why I still build and change things even after 14 years with this layout.. There is no feeling, like the feeling you get, when you build something and someone else "gets" the idea that you were trying to present. ....

.... Or the compliments you get for something you designed & built from scratch....

It's been said here lots of times: The Model Railroad you build, is somthing that is yours. It might not satisfy the Ribbet Counters, or be "real enough" to the prototype, but it is something that eventually you will be satisified with..... for the most part.. :D

You are never finished, because there is always some small part that you want to change or add to, took me 11 years to get my layout where I wanted it, then re-designed the whole thing, because I wanted to try a trestle bridge.... Now I'm set with it :) :D :)

But I still add and change things :D As long as you are happy with what tyou are doing, you're doing it right :) Just try not to spend too much money ... sign1 sign1 sign1
 
Here are the tanks and whatcha-call-its I scratchbuilt over the weekend. These items have no particular prototype and certainly no particular purpose. I was mainly just playing around and experimenting, hopefully I can use these to dress up my industries when I get that far. I still need to paint them and weather them up more. I've been using the technique of painting the items black first, then going back and dry-brushing lighter colors over it, I am pretty pleased so far.

One tip I can throw out is this: To make the tank ends, I stuff the plastic tubing with paper towels, then mix up some two-part epoxy, the JB Weld "Kwik" variety, and then glop it on the end, kind of round it off and it will settle into a semi-spherical shape.

The square silo was made from a junker three-bay hopper that was contained in a $5 big ol sack of junker train cars and dummy engines I bought at a show. (I wish I had 10 more of them $5 bags of junkers!)
 

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And here is some sort of a chemical process tank, maybe an industrial-waste cleaning unit or whatever (??). Anyway, had a lot of fun adding all the piping and stuff, although it is almost to the point of being "gaudy".

The main tank is half of a junker LPG tanker, the platforms are scale lumber, and lots of plastic tubing, wire, and parts out of junk box. (Junk boxes totally rock and I wish mine was 5 times as big as it currently is).

Anybody have any junker rolling stock and parts/junk boxes they need to get rid of?
 

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Oh... Mikey N-Gauger... if you are the person who started The Gauge I want to say "Thank You". Also, what about the cost of the site and stuff? Do yall ever need donations from the members to offset costs?
 
Well, I suppose the party is over.

Have been busy figuring out my layout to put down on the shelves, experimenting with the track arrangements and having a blast, running trains to see how my designs are working, some of it is good, some of it is quickly taken up and done differently.

I need to post some pics sometime, but have been real busy with meetings and stuff, and will be out of town for most of the next two weeks, but this weekend will be some intensive railroad layout design... and don't be surprised if I hit you guys up for a little help and inspiration.
 
Oh... one other thing. Using the blue foam as a base is great. I made some pins out of tie-wire and just pin the track down while I am experimenting, and can easily pull it up and try again when things aren't working out.
 
"One tip I can throw out is this: To make the tank ends, I stuff the plastic tubing with paper towels, then mix up some two-part epoxy, the JB Weld "Kwik" variety, and then glop it on the end, kind of round it off and it will settle into a semi-spherical shape"

That's a great tip Gary! Thanks!
Ralph
 
well, i'm still bogged down in deciding on the layout... plus I had a few weeks where I was out of town at meetings so haven't done much. Lately, I have been working on a couple of background buildings, the ones that Walthers makes.

On another note, in January I ordered a digitrax super empire builder and some decoders and things from the LHS, and still haven't gotten them! Is Digitrax stuff really that hard to get?
 
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