Happy new weekend to all of my forum friends.
This is the weekly thread where we all share our fun photographs of model railroading subjects.
This week I am sharing the cutest picture I have ever posted on Weekend Photo Fun.
I know I am "stretching the format" a bit with this one, but if you read the story, I hope you will not be upset that I shared this one.
The Story: I don't know how many people read the stories that accompany the photographs that I share. I read the stories that are posted with all of the pictures. For me, the stories make the images more enjoyable.
I have mentioned many times the "dream house" layout that I built in N scale on the second story of the house my wife and I had custom built. This was in 1989-1992. We were newlyweds back then.
Recently, I went through over 20,000 photographs that were given to me by family members. I picked all of these up on my trip out West in June. I was hoping that somewhere buried in all these pictures I would find some of STRATTON AND GILLETTE layout #2, the "dream house" layout.
Well, I found pictures of SGRR layout numbers 1, 3, 4, and 5, but not number 2. Actually, all the pictures of the other layouts are just in the background of pictures of my kids.
Back before digital photography, I took thousands of pictures of my girls, but next-to-none of the train layouts.
That brings us to this picture. This was taken in the dream house. It is my middle daughter playing with her Brio trains. This is the ONLY picture of any train layout that I have from the dream house.
It is as close as I can get.
OK... Weekend Photo Fun is started. I hope everyone feels welcome to share any fun photo they like.
I love to see everyone's pictures of their new purchases, newly finished projects, projects in progress, your favorite layout scenes, pictures of old layouts, or anything else.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Thanks Kevin.
Trains are an important part of our life and a big part of this forum.
But sometimes more importantly are our Kids. I can see how important your Kids are to you by the joy and love on your faces you have posted through the years here
This time my Brittany and me built a pirate ship but it was a better picture than the time she got involved with the layout.
I shall get back on subject and post a layout picture later if I find a better one
TF
Track fiddlerI can see how important your Kids are to you by the joy and love on your faces you have posted through the years here
The girls are everything to me. Thank you for the kind comment.
I really hope I didn't break WPF this week, in only 40 minutes.
Not at all Kevin!
Everyone here loves their Kids just as much if not more than their layout or trains
I think you'll be okay
I better post something model railroad orientated now
The start of my layout over 3 years ago in foam. Not a grade over 2%. But honestly the whole layout is at or near 2%.
A minimum of a two locomotive pull Kids. One will not do it but two will pull a decently long train very comfortably.
I knew this from the start and bought two diesels or two steamers in pairs accordingly. And three or four crews too.
It didn't take long to figure out this layout endeavor got twice as expensive
P.S. They have a new cell phone tower up in northern Wisconsin now, ..... Look-out!
Kids are far more important than trains will ever be. But we're here cuz of trains. It's nice to include kid pix in that context. Last weekend while I was on a tree making rampage, I showed my nephew how to make a tree. He did great, first try. Like a dork, I missed that opp get a great picture.
Speaking of those trees, now it's time to plant 'em! This wall was barren. I expirimented with a few trees. Too sparse. Also note the lack of ground cover...
Same area, now with ground covered with gravel and some dirt, a little static grass. Barely visible, but you can also see the roundhouse roof is not white styrene now, but aggregate roofing.
Last week HO-Velo said he was looking forward to seing the forest. Well here it is Peter, on a STICK! Yep, that row of trees is mounted on a stickabout 2 1/4 in wide 1/4 thick.
To keep pesky intruders from wandering out of those woods onto RR property, I made a rusty fence on "The Corrugator", spray painted it brown enamel or lacquer, let it dry, and dry brushed rusty color acrylic craft paint into it. SO much easier to work on it this way, and just install the whole thing up against the backdrop.
The backside shows thick cardstock backing I used to fill in so that you cant see thru the trees. Note the fuzzy fiber fill on it. That was painted green and then more superleaves added so theres kinda 3-D trees behind the stick trees, giving a dense woods look.
This section was also barren from the pine trees down, to the right.
There will be more plants, bushes, grass, etc filled in on it too, but at least it's progressing towards my goal of no plywood, plaster or other raw materials showing on the layout.
Thanks for opening the weekend fun, Kevin.
Nice work, TF. I always doublehead any road engines too, if they're going into the staging tunnel, so if one tries to stall, the other will nudge it. And I like how they look.
Dan
Thank You for the great "Family Oriented" startoff to the 3rd week of August WPF, Kevin. What a great thing to have our children take an interest in our hobbies. I have two boys and they are wrapped up in career and family but there's a chance they will "find" model railroading. They were quite interested in their "pre-teens".
Thanks for your contributions, TF! Great modeling there
Dan, your trees are outstanding! I like the way you made your fence-line. Very clever!
I never know from one day to the next what will fire-up my inspiration. The other day I came across a few packages of Blair Line laser cut pedestrian crossings that I intended to use at Union Station for baggage trucks to cross between platforms.
Well, my platforms were taller than anticipated and I didn't want to reduce their height for the crossings so they sat for a few years.
Then I thought why not use them by the roundhouse and turntable? The ground was always wet, muddy, slippery and oily thanks to all the steam engines dripping "stuff".
Roundhouse_oilhouse-pre by Edmund, on Flickr
So here's how I began. Then I figured there needed to be a "destination" for the duck boards so I came up with this neat little brick shed which will be the oil house. I understand the railroads stored and dispensed oil from a building where a fire wouldn't disable the whole operation.
Roundhouse_oilhouse-p2 by Edmund, on Flickr
I decided to add boardwalks (Central Valley plank fencing) which I've frequently seen around the turntable and engine facilities.
Roundhouse_oilhouse by Edmund, on Flickr
The main area is "paved" with dark gray PVA foam "asphalt". This area has been in need of "finishing" for quite some time now. Glad to be making progress on it.
NYC_Steam-power-2 by Edmund, on Flickr
NYC_Steam-power-1 by Edmund, on Flickr
NYC_Steam-power by Edmund, on Flickr
Looking forward to more great and fun contributions, folks!
Regards, Ed
Kevin and TF- Good to see the family involved.
I'll have two videos this weekend. The second is a very special video to me that I will post tomorrow, but for now, enjoy this unboxing and a short run on my club module (first show is in September!!)
https://youtu.be/MPjVyqIt0jg
Harrison
Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.
Modeling the D&H in 1978.
Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"
My YouTube
Good morning from sunny and hot Northeast Ohio!
Kevin, thanks for starting us out, neat picture, my family has joined in on the modeling but support me in my endeavors. The oldest two did take the modeling class my club offered in Anchorage and had a great time.
TF, nice work on the layout and glad your family is involved also.
Ed, neat little details you added to your engine facility, those take up a lot of room so I probably will not have one on the planned layout.
Harrison, Jordan Spreaders are really neat, nice that your club is having an open house, we may have to wait till next year as the Strongsville Historical Society who we rent from will not allow indoor activities at this time except for our club members.
Got some modeling done this week, including cleaning up the workbench area.
Branchline 40' 1944 ARR Boxcar kit, added a 9' door, Moloco End of Car Cushioning pockets and A-line sill steps, then painted with a Mixture of Jade Green and BN Green Paint and lettered with Microscale Decals. The GN in 1961 acquired these car for special service as indicated by the cushioning and CarPak loaders and they were still seen in the 1980's in their original paint scheme.
Intermountain ACF Covered Hopper kit, painted with Scalecoat II MOW Gray paint and lettered with Herald King Decals. This car was on of hundreds owned by the B&O for grain service in the area the railroad served. (I needed some plain jane covered hoppers to go with some of the colorful ones in the fleet.)
Also built some prelettered kit cars to expand the fleet of PRR Coal hoppers, I did dull coat the shiny paint that came with the cars.
I picked up 4 more Tangent 86' Hi-Cubes last week, two were new road names as noted above. This gives me 12 Tangents to go with my already made Athearn and Walthers cars.
Since I got the new Tangent cars I took a bunch of my 86' Hi-Cubes, 60' Hi-Cubes and a coil car to replicate one of the Delta Turns where the DT&I turned over parts from Dearborn to the N&W who forwarded them to the Ford Assembly plant in Milpitas, CA and Kansas City, KS.
Thanks for looking!
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
Kevin ... That's a cute picture of your daughter and Brio trains.
TF .... I like the picture of you, your daughter and the pirate ship
Dan...Your trees look great. Nice layout ! ... I see you are another ore train modeler.
Ed ... I enjoy your layout photos. The roundhouse scene looks good with the walkway.
Harrison ... Thanks for the videos.
Rick ... Your DT&I train with the Hi Cubes looks great. I like the GN boxcar, B&O covered hopper, PRR coal hoppers, and the new Hi Cubes.
....
In my picture, a freight train with F7 ABA meets a coal train with SD9's in the city of Black Hawk. A Baldwin VO-1000 awaits its next assignment.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Fantastic work everyone! Kevin, I love memories like that. I find myself looking back at some of my old N scale photos along with the photo of my BMX bike I used to race back in the late 70's. Fun times!
Two years ago when my wife and I were having our home built, we made sure that we included a bedroom, bathroom, and a TV room for my in-laws. Well, my father-in-law passed away 3 weeks ago. He was 89 and his health had declined drastically in the past year. That is one reason I retired in May. Needless to say, I haven't gotten much train work done during the last month or so.
I love this hobby because it makes such a great getaway from the unpleasant things that we sometime face!
During this time, I was able to assemble and paint a PBL Sn3 narrow frame tank car. This one really kicked my butt! Sorry for the crappy pic, but I hate photographing black stuff. Hopefully I can get it done and some better pics for next week.
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
Good morning
Posting from afar from the Wisconsin Woods.
Your modeling looks Great guys! I always enjoy seeing the custom cars and the beautiful layout shots
Reception can be a little glitchy up here but it works! A bit dangerous around the bon fire last night near 3:00 in the morning
The state of mind was finally reached for the two SD40-2's that have been sitting in my cart for half the summer
I finally got-em!
One way or another two Twin Green Machines that I'm sure I'll enjoy with no regrets got bought Maybe I needed a really good time to pull the RIP-CORD
Cheers!
P.S. Great Trees Dan! I love making trees. Those are some good looking ones man!
Another good start to the weekend photos. Thanks for the start and for the photo of your daughter enjoying an early start to the hobby! You are a good father.
Track Fiddler, that's a neat model you and your daughter built. Enjoy your time on the vacation. I'm glad you were able to buy the BN locomotives.
Dan, your trees are very good! From personal experience, I know that good-looking realistic layout trees are hard to do.
Ed, your roundhouse area is very nice. I especially like the night photos.
Harrison, thanks for the video. I haven't watched the entire thing, but the start looks good.
Rick, as always, your work looks great. I really liked the B&O covered hopper.
Garry, that's a neat photo of the Burlington trains in the city. The top of your train station looks great, too. I love stations on layouts.
Chuck, that will be a nice-looking tank car. Sorry to hear about your father-in-law. It sounds like you and your wife were very considerate when you built your house.
I haven't had a lot of time on the layout for several weeks. I'm trying to fill in some areas that I want something there, but don't know what. Someone suggested some sheds and trackside structures. Realistically, there's not enough room between the tracks for these, but I put them there anyway. I'll still have to fill in some ground cover, put in some junk, and maybe a couple of vehicles and figures:
York1 John
Hi everybody, I will be back later with a proper response.
My 30 year old picture was mainly about my disappointment that I do not have any pictures of the train layout I built in the dream house.
All of my pictures that were not in the photo albums (thousands upon thousands) were destroyed in the mid 1990s when the HVAC unit drain line plugged and water slowly dripped into the closet where they were boxed and stored.
All pictures of that house and layout were lost (along with a rare DC House Of Mystery comic book collection) in that event.
It is amazing how memories change over time. The house was custom built and brand-new when we moved in. I remembered it as being magnificent and wonderful. Finding some pictures taken inside of it brought back a lot of reality that I had glossed over in thirty years.
The house had green carpeting throughout. There was a lot of dark wood panelling, and the kitchen had awful dark wood cabinets that matched. Everything is the house was "builder grade" garbage.
The house was also built Pre-Andrew, so building was cheap structurally. I doubt it would have ever survived a Category 3 Hurricane strike.
The upstairs train room was going to be incredible, but it was never air conditioned. That would have been added later.
The train layout area would have been unbelievable if it was ever finished. The CTC room was only ever used for material storage. The Library/Lounge was where the power tools were for layout building.
I really wish I had some pictures, but like my other previous layouts, they exist mostly in memory, and in the accidental backgrounds of pictures I sent to family members.
I believe all possibilities for finding pictures of this project have been exhausted, and that makes me sad.
I'm back... tonight since I'll be busy tomorrow. Please enjoy a layout tour of a retired D&H engineer, who has some amazing stories to tell, layered over real train sounds and model train sounds.
https://youtu.be/onf0ykIezbs
Sadly, we will be dismantling this layout soon, as he is in his final days of life, fighting cancer. Parts of the layout have bright futures, as I will be sharing once the aftermath is far enough away. Enjoy your weekend folks.
My laptop hard drive failed about 3 years ago, taking thousands of pix I thought I'd backed up. POOF! Gone. So I can relate in a small way. Six years of pix lost, with a few exceptions, like files still in some camera Xd chips.
I think this WPF started on a perfectly fine note. Even if stemmed by the bummer of losing your precious photo collection, it brought in positive energy, and is going in the right direction. Dan
Lots of greast stuff from everyone and it's only Friday night.
I've been looking for one of the IHC wedge snowplows for years. Rivarossi still puts one out but I'm not paying $70 for a snowplow that I have to repaint anyway. I stopped in at Sommerfeld's train store in Milwaukee on my way home from Chicago last Saturday. Normally I find some good bargains from them at Trainfest but no luck with Trainfest this year again so I made my first visit to their store. Lots of old stock to look through so it was fun finding some treasures. Found my IHC snowplow for $10.
Really old model complete with the hornhook coupler and lovely Soo paint job. A new paint job, arch bar trucks and a Kadee couple turned it into a CNW plow that fits right in with my era. Will add more decals and stone ballast weight later.
Scott Sonntag
Fiddler: That pirate ship that you and your daughter built, is it a Micron-Art model? I built a Millenium Falcon of theirs, and loved it. My favorite kit I ever built with one of my dauhters was a Tamiya mechanical racing horse. That was fun. Trying to figure out the linkage between the cams and the legs was hilarious.
Dan: Your trees are very good! I would hope I can do that good when I get to making my trees. I like the 3D backdrop effect.
Ed: The new walkway in your roundhouse facility sure looks much more safe for your little work crew. The improvements really stand out in the pictures. I love how you share your methods for making great modelling even better.
Rick: Your BALTIMORE AND OHIO covered hopper car looks fantastic. Your weekly shares of your accomplishments are something to strive for.
Garry: As always, thank you for another wonderful picture of your home layout.
Chuck: That tank car is coming along to be amazing. The detail on the brake rigging looks quite good.
John: The BNSF diesels rounding the curve make for a very good photograph. It sure looks like a great layout.
Harrison: Thank you for checking in and sharing a new video. I should be able to watch it tomorrow.
Scott: That old snow plow model sure cleaned up into a very presentable model. Great work on the make-over. I'll bet it will look even better with the load of gravel installed.
Kevin, Thanks for getting the WPF rolling. Seem to recall the kids or grandkids having some Brio trains, wish I'd taken more photos back then, by far my fav Brio product was the Labyrintspel.
Dan, Liking your forest and how the fence adds extra depth to the scene.
Harrison, Watching model train vids and unboxing a new model is always fun.
Chuck, Sincere condolences. You hit that nail on the head, Model Railroading can be a good refuge and brings me up when I'm feeling down. Btw, nice tankcar you got going there.
Thanks to all the contributors and viewers, have a good weekend and Happy National Senior Citizens Day. Regards, Peter
SeeYou190 Fiddler: That pirate ship that you and your daughter built, is it a Micron-Art model? I built a Millenium Falcon of theirs, and loved it. My favorite kit I ever built with one of my dauhters was a Tamiya mechanical racing horse. That was fun. Trying to figure out the linkage between the cams and the legs was hilarious.
SeeYou190 Hi everybody, I will be back later with a proper response. My 30 year old picture was mainly about my disappointment that I do not have any pictures of the train layout I built in the dream house. All of my pictures that were not in the photo albums (thousands upon thousands) were destroyed in the mid 1990s when the HVAC unit drain line plugged and water slowly dripped into the closet where they were boxed and stored. All pictures of that house and layout were lost (along with a rare DC House Of Mystery comic book collection) in that event. It is amazing how memories change over time. The house was custom built and brand-new when we moved in. I remembered it as being magnificent and wonderful. Finding some pictures taken inside of it brought back a lot of reality that I had glossed over in thirty years. The house had green carpeting throughout. There was a lot of dark wood panelling, and the kitchen had awful dark wood cabinets that matched. Everything is the house was "builder grade" garbage. The house was also built Pre-Andrew, so building was cheap structurally. I doubt it would have ever survived a Category 3 Hurricane strike. The upstairs train room was going to be incredible, but it was never air conditioned. That would have been added later. The train layout area would have been unbelievable if it was ever finished. The CTC room was only ever used for material storage. The Library/Lounge was where the power tools were for layout building. I really wish I had some pictures, but like my other previous layouts, they exist mostly in memory, and in the accidental backgrounds of pictures I sent to family members. I believe all possibilities for finding pictures of this project have been exhausted, and that makes me sad. -Kevin
I can related to your disillusionment with your dream house. I remember when I bought my first house back in 1979. It was a story and a half built in 1950. One of those Levitown type developments where every house on the block was the same plan. I loved it. By the time I moved in all the houses had been customized so that did away with some of the sameness. I had a decent sized divided basement with the utilities in one half and a 11x28 open section in the other. Certainly good enough for a decent one man layout. Unfortunately there were design flaws and overtime I lost interest in the railroad and began to see the flaws in the house, mainly not enough space. I designed my dream house over my dream basement and my current layout is everything I hoped it would be. My only problem is it has taken me so long to complete. I'm getting near the finish line but am not there yet. Hopefully one final big push this winter will get me there.
Thanks for all the kind comments this weekend everyone. Enjoy a D&H MOW train passing through Plattsburgh at track speed.
https://youtu.be/ZPbc1ZbU7Xg
HarrisonSadly, we will be dismantling this layout soon, as he is in his final days of life, fighting cancer. Parts of the layout have bright futures.
Harrison, when I was younger, I dismantled several layouts after the owner had passed. I have saved about a dozen beautiful buildings from these that will live on as part of my new layout.
Saving these structures is a great tribute to the builders.
Thank you to everyone that contributed to Weekend Photo Fun this week. You are all awesome, and I appreciate you keeping this thread great.
On to something else that happened this weekend...
I hope I am not feeding a troll here, but I pobably am, and probably giving him the attention that he wants.
A forum member, who never contributes to Weekend Photo Fun or Show Me Something, sent me an email this weekend. In this email he was quite proud of himself for "catching me in a lie" and went on to suggest that if I do not leave the forum, he will "out my lies" to all the members?
What? Well, it seems in my story about how I lost my photograph collection when the A/C unit leaked in the closet could not be true. He is an expert on all the legalities of construction, and it would never be allowed to mount an A/C unit in a storage space. He knows I am a liar, and he threatened to let everyone else know too.
I don't know why this guy is so obsessed with me, and sure none of you care, but just in case... here is a picture of the destructive closet with the (new, not leaking) A/C unit inside of it.
I can't wait to read the explanation of this. Some people can really be the worst in the best place.
Hope everyone has a great week. Stay safe.
SeeYou190What? Well, it seems in my story about how I lost my photograph collection when the A/C unit leaked in the closet could not be true.
I live in a ranch house and installed my own central air in the attic crawlspace above the living area back in 1999. There are ready-made pans available to set the air handling units into but being a handy fellow I made my own out of fiberglas cloth and resin.
I piped the condensate drain outside and I could monitor it to be sure it wasn't plugged up. There are also "bugs" or some such nickname that will turn the unit off if it detects water in the overflow pan.
Actually it is an ideal setub as all the cold air outlets are in the ceiling, where they have the best air circulation. For heat I have baseboard heaters near the floor.
After a 2011 fire a "professional" installer replaced the entire system. The installer told me "I don't know who sized that old unit but it was WAY too big for a house this size".
The new 2.5 ton Lennox system "professionally" installed practically runs continuously on warm days. I DO know who sized that unit and I miss my old generic, amatuer-installed unit.
One thing I won't do is get picky with a life-long Florida resident on the finer points of air conditioning!
Thank you, Kevin, for being a great host of the ever popular WPF and thanks to all the great contributors who encourage and compliment me on my modeling efforts.
Cheers, Ed
Great work everyone! I had a busy weekend but got a couple pics I'd like to share. Just a T1b Berkshire hauling a boxcar and caboose on my shelf layout while everything is getting mocked up. Still much work to do but I'm excited about this project and getting things going.
Alvie
An excellent response this WPF. Great pictures by everyone.
Some 'Victorian' people have arrived at Roseville Station. Just right for the car my younger granddaughter bought me.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought