Sunday Photo Fun 5-21-06

[spankybird]

For those who are new to the forum, clicking on the pics will enlarge them.

For instructions on post photos, click here

Photo Posting

Lets have some fun [:D] [:)] [8D] [:p]
Tom

[tmcc man]

Nice pix Tom.
I will share some pix later on today, I am going to another open house today.

[Frank53]

Not much progerss this week, spent most of my free time finishing up the Indian Motorcycle dealer/repair shop.

This started as a project to conceal the large switch apparatus on post war switches in this corner of my layout in progress. I wanted to build something where the stanley knife is sitting on the right hand side.



I started framing out a structure that would conceal the switch machine and be something somewhat logical for the spot.



I had picked up a bunch of these vintage Indian motorcycles at Wal-Mart for $1.97 each, so I decided to make this a 30's-40'3 era motorcycle shop.

I wanted this to have a look like the building had been expanded and expanded over the course of years, so I went with all different materials and rooflines and roofing material on the three sections.



The plan was to enclose the center section so the switch apparatus would be concealed.





I decided to have a showroom on the left and a repair area on the right:



Although I still have some weathering to do, here's the finished product:














And considering the position on the layout, it hides the switch apparatus nicely:

[Brutus]

Cool pics guys - Tom, you always have some cool pictures.

I really think that's a cool way to hide the switch and really think it turned out great!

Here's some pics I took of my water tower and sanding tower lego projects I designed and built while I was on "vacation" after my appendectomy:











The arm on the water tower moves up and down and is weighted so it holds position. The sanding tower was cribbed from a kit I saw on the internet for a down home homemade backwoods setup - it's meant to be a sort of bucket on a rope with a winch and an arm that can swing it out over the train. There is a little pile of sand in a walled off area and a shovel to load it. The ladders turned out not to be actual lego pieces, although I had gotten 3 of them in a big pile of legoes from my nephew. We found some more in a lot of "lego ladders and fences" on ebay, so we had enough to fini***his off with all the ladders matching. My kids helped a lot!

[waltrapp]

Still have a few not-yet-used pictures from my 2005 Christmas layout. This one shows the Iron City SW9, by MTH.



- walt

[dwiemer]

Very nice work guys. Frank 53, one idea that comes to mind, is that you can have two different lights wired to your switch so that one light or the other will light up showing switch position. You could use something like a nearby stop light, or even interior light colors. Or, you could just leave it as is....looks great.
Dennis

[tmcc man]

Well, here are about 40 pics that I took from the open house. He even had a 2 Rail O scale layout downstairs that I took pics of. More on it later.

[ben10ben]

Earlier today, I was playing with the ability of the camera to make long exposures. This is what I came up with.

For the first one, the train was set to running at a pretty good pace, and all of the room lights were turned off. The exposure time was set at 2 seconds, with the camera mounted on a tripod. Partway into the exposure, I briefly flicked on the overhead room light to register the background details. The orange streak comes from the headlight.



For the second, I used the same set up, but bounced a Vivitar 283 flash off the ceiling rather than flip on the room lights. Since the flash only lasts about 1/2000 of a second, it does an excellent job of freezing the motion of the train.



I also did some experimenting with film, which generally handles long exposures much better than digital.

[jefelectric]

Great pictures guys,

Tom, Even got the caboose smoke in the picture.

No layout pictures this week. I was looking for some old pictures and came across some RR pictures that I took when I was in HS. Colin can tell us what the locos are!

Keep in mind these prints are about 55 years old.

[tmcc man]

Here are the engines in Jefelectric John's posts.

1st pic is a Baldwin Centipede (spelling?)
2nd is a pair of E8's
3rd is a Baldwin VO 10000, and a Baldwin Consolidation
4th is a PRR Mountain
5th is a pic of the yard
6th is the Mountain pulling out.

I am going to guess that the photos were at Enola Yard. Am I right on the location, and the engines, Jefelectric?

[pbjwilson]

Playing in the garden

[jefelectric]

Colin, You get an A+ all around except #3. If you look close you will see that one is a 2-10-0. Also I don't think they used the big tenders on the 2-8-0. At least that is what I think. The pics have no notes.

[tmcc man]

Jefelectric, when I clicked on the pic to enlarge it, I only saw 2 pilot wheels, and 8 driving wheels.

[tmcc man]

If you are referring to the 4th one, I know that is a 2-10-0.

[darianj]

Nice pics everyone! Alway enjoy the "Sunday Photo Fun"![:)]

[FJ and G]

Help from the ‘fleagle’ (sort of)

BB the Beagle (aka the bagle or fleagle) helped with continuing construction of the garden RR over the weekend, tamping the ballast (below photo).

The daisies appeared naturally over the winter, perhaps seeded by a passing bird. The flowers are way out of scale compared to the track and I considered pulling them but then decided against it b/c it adds so much color, along with the nearby oak tree (sprouting naturally there, not planted by me). This portion of the ridge, I’ve named “Oak Ridge” and is opposite “Peanut Ridge.” The Japanese maple is doing fine as well and I’ve let this side of the layout lapse with out of scale plants. It will be my “toy” section.

I wanted to show some construction photos, how a ridge is put together with large rocks holding smaller rocks in, atop which will be added “crusher fines” or slurry for the ballast. Not shown, dirt is then added on the sides of these rocks to make it look more natural and then “scale” plants are added like moss and sedum and thyme and wooley yarrow.

The tracks cannot be just laid into the ballast, they must have “battens” attached. If you look at on the table, you can see the track with battens under the ties. These battens add bite and hold the tracks securely in the ballast so there’s no lateral movement.

BTW, I had to realign the entire Oak Ridge that you see pictured here b/c I found that I didn’t have enough room to walk around the layout!

During a break from moving boulders, the fleagle ran off with my work glove and as you can see, she didn’t want to give it up without a struggle!

[laz 57]

JELECTRIC,
Were those pics taken at the ENOLA yards?
Is that a real BURRO crane?
Cool pics GIZ.
laz57

[1688torpedo]

Hello All! Very interesting photo's for this week from Colin & John(jefelectric) Dave-BB just wants to help out more with your outdoor layout! [;)] Take Care.

[jefelectric]

Good morning,

Colin, Us old guys seem to loose the ability to count. [:D]

Laz, Yes & Yes.

A lot of great pictures this week.

[Anonymous]

tmcc where was that open house?

I am located in South Jersey and that looks like a nice garden layout to visit someday