I was going to take down the ‘silly sale bundle deal‘ on the print out scenery yesterday.
(I ran the sale to help with the competition)
But then these turned up from Dana and John:
“Hi Al,
…some pictures of over 25 models I have built using your stock designs and changes and additional structures I added to make my western 1880 town and logging mill and farm land….over the past six months,
Dana Green, Maine USA”
“Dear Al,
I started on the challenge project yesterday…
This is a little freight shed… O scale…
My current progress..
What you see here was “borrowed” from your covered bridge kit, your wood tunnel kit, the barn kit and a little scratch work of my own for the top of the platform… Yes, it is all card.
I did go a little crazy and detail the interior a bit…
I really enjoy your site. I thought I would send a few pictures of my layout four years in the making. The layout is 9’-0” X 17’-0” (274 x 518). We can run four trains. Some of the scenery is store bought and a lot is scratch built from materials around the house.
The table is built aircraft style with ribbed construction and 2 x 4 legs that have gusset braces at 8 perimeter locations. The center is supported by 4 2 x 4’s. The deck is two layers 1/2” plywood.
The trackage is the old fashion Lionel tubular track set on foam track bed. There are about 800 hand cut ties glued under the tracks with o scale ballast.
The layout is powered by two Lionel 275 watt transformers.
The lighting is divided into five separate circuits and are powered by five multi tap transformers.
All of the building scenes are built on 1/8 thick board so that I can remove each scene and place it elsewhere on the layout.
The mountain and tunnels are made of scrap styrofoam and sculpted using a hacksaw blade attached to piece of wood and heated red hot with propane torch then covered with plaster cloth.
All main buss wiring is # 12 with # 14 feeders. Wanted to make sure minimal voltage loss. One thing for sure is that you learn to correctly wire the layout so you don’t burn up things.
Have some of the usual accessories. Coal loader, stationary crane, water tower, culvert loader and a circus car. The locomotives are Lionel, K-Line and Williams 1950 to present.
Thanks for a great site and all of the ideas. It great to see what you folks do across the pond.
Gus”
A big thanks to Gus for sharing his O gauge layout. Whenever an O scale comes through at the mo, I always think of Martin’s O scale.
And here’s one from Dave that fell through the cracks:
“Hi Al, just uploaded this video trying to lighten the day.
Thank you for all the posts! I read them every day and save most of them for future.
I have finally started!
As a kid, I set up my Lionel around the Christmas tree and ran it until tinsel fell on the tracks popping the circuit breaker. It has been seventy years since those days and I have finally started my layout.
I decided my first effort would be a conservative 4 x 8 early twentieth century California Sierra Mountains logging operation with two connected tracks in HO scale; an upper/inner logging track bringing rough cut logs down to the mill and village where they would be cut and loaded onto flat cars for transport to “market” on a larger mainline.
I have completed the bench work and laid out both lines, but now I am losing some confidence.
My lower mainline should be fine with 18” radius and 2% incline/decline, but I’m more concerned about the upper layout.
I have designed the track on a 12” radius with 3% to 4% incline/decline hills.
My intention is use a small loco, x 6 x, or Shay at slow speeds pulling three or four logging cars. Am I destined for continuous frustration with derailments using this tight of turns?
Thanks in advance for your input.
Bill
California, USA”
Please do leave a comment below if you can help Bill.
Here’s Daniel’s answer if you missed it in the comments:
“The car was indeed part of an eastern railroad, as John indicated. The Delaware and Hudson was the railroad, and was used for one location; Tunnel, NY where the D & H had a tunnel. This is northeast of Binghamton, NY.
Above is a photo by Bill Mischler (D&H Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment – a GREAT book btw) of the prototypical car as seen in Oneonta, NY. Its usual home was in Binghamton, NY.
Below is the truck the D & H used to clear ice at the Ticonderoga tunnel. This photo is by Jeff Martin (D & H Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment) and was taken in July of 1968.
Daniel”
Now a small correction.
Yesterday I said Peter’s layout was HO – it’s not, this part of his layout is HOn3.
Peter’s video got me thinking too. I wondered how many posts of his there are. I started going through them all and that killed a very pleasant half hour. So I thought why not?
Speaking of which, I heard from Ron yesterday. Here’s what he said:
“Alastair,
Glad to hear that the “Silly Sale” was such a big hit that it carried the day.
Still glad that I was able to put a bit of cushion under you anxiousness.
Now as far as the donation goes, your contest sounds great and I cannot wait to see the results.
I trust that Rich most likely feels as I do in this regard.
I will not be competing, too busy wiring my O-gauge 13” x 25’ layout (lower level). This coronavirus “stay at home” routine has given me a bit of time to put the diagrams and wiring schematics together for the track – structures and signals are yet to come. Now when Amazon delivers, I will be crawling under the table.
Though you have announced the contest, did you consider a possible 1st and 2nd and Honorable Mention recognition.
Especially, if you get a number of entries. Don’t you just like it when the peanut gallery chimes in with suggestions after the fact!! Ha, Ha.
Stay safe and well.
Ron”
Well, I think it’s only fair that Ron (and Rich) get some say in this.
So now there’s a second and third prize too. I have no idea what those prizes will be yet, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.
Are you going to join in the fun? May as well, we’re all in this for the long haul. Here’s a recap:
