Terry's Standard Gauge Layout

[Terry]

I haven't done an update in a while and I had people over this morning so the train room is neater.

I got almost all the wood trim up on the layout. The lower trim comes off so I can get to the O gauge wiring.

 

I ran all the different trains around and parked them on their sidings and ran other trains on the same track. The industrial area still has the temporary wiring so the 380 set just went around in circles until it dumped the cars into the river.

 

The 380 has derailed there before, and the 1835E loco pulling the blue/aluminum cars had problems in the same area.  I'll change out the switch and the curve when I put the permanant wire in.

Here's pictures of the town area with the houses and streetlights in. All the exposed bulbs are vintage. I have a bunch of Kenton, Hubley and Arcade cast iron vehicles similar to the few that are already out to put on the roads.

 

 

 

Here's the town view with the lights on. The two bulbs in the 124 station must be at least 100 years old and look FINE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cookies from the bakery. There was a box of butter cookies too!

 

[CNJRR]

They do look tasty.
"Neat "looking layout, love the old road vehicles you show on the roads.
Car hauler too? How old are they?

[Terry]

Most everything on the layout is from the 1920-40 period. The figures are from 1930-50. I have more figures than I can put on the layout so I decided to put shelves on the ends of the layouts for them.

Here's a scrap of wood to see what a shelf would look like.

 

Here's some more Barclays. 

 

The shelf wood went up from $9 to almost $13 for a 1X6 eight feet long since August.  It's MDF particle board, and the glue formula changed too.

[CNJRR]

I have some of those, probably around 7.

[Terry]

I'll be selling a bunch of these in the future on eBay. Probably in December as they are unlikely to get damaged in shipping and December is a high da,mage month due to the temp workers.

[Terry]

I was down in the basement today and I heard a loud snap. Like a .22 rifle. Now I'd heard these pops before, but never could localize them. I'd always be too far away to tell where the noise came from.

Today, I was about 6 feet away and it was real loud. Turns out it's the cast heads on the 440 signal bridges.

This is the one that went today:

 

Looks like it cracked too!

[Terry]

I finally got enough blue bulbs for the ceiling cans. The blue gives the layout a twilight look.

Here's no lights but for the train layout:

 

Here's the same area with blue lights:

 

A few pictures of other areas with the blue lights:

 

 

These are Phillips Party LED bulbs from the Grocery Store. There are 5 on the ceiling in cans.

[starfire700]

Interesting color lighting and about the "pop". We always called these chips pops, but I have never witnessed it happening. Surprised in your dry climate in controlled environment of your house, this would happen. Physics 101, have to ask Sheldon to explain it.

[Terry]

Here's the Bilt Rite backdrops installed in the corner. I tried to get them scanned and then enlarged, but couldn't find a scanner that could do them. I used green sheets from Life-Like above the backdrop because blue looked too bright, and plain green carpet looked too dark. I think this looks OK

 

 

Here's some shots of the west end of the layout with the trains back on. I need to iron the felt roadway and put some more cars on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

if you look at the maroon walled 126 station above the blue comet loco, you can see what I did with the box from the backdrop. The figures don't stand on the carpet well so I cut the cardboard to make little platforms at some of the stations. I don't know if it's worth the effort to paint the cardboard.

[Terry]

Here's a bunch of layout pictures. The standard gauge layout is running well. I have toi add another Z transformer for the lights, and repair a few of teh switches, but the disruptive work is done.

[Terry]

I can only do 12 photos per message so here's some more:

 

I thought this rubber mat would look cheap, but it came out nice. Lemax makes 3 styles of mat so I can do some more when I find more. I'll add a bunch of figures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a shot of the next layout in the series:

 

I started unpacking last night and was amazed by the quality of the trains.

[Terry]

I added a bunch of trees, people and animals, and some clutter to the standard gauge layout.

I added the under shelves for figures, but the one end is near the Marklin layout so I put trains on it.

I ran all the trains on the layout today for visitors except the coal train and the Blue Comet. The 392E and Flyer freight sets ran without problems. The  blue and alum 309 cars ran well. The State set derailed on one switch three times. The  402 and 380 sets each derailed once for no reason. The 9 knocked a bunch of items over that I'd put too close to the track, but otherwise ran well.

Here's some pictures of the current state of affairs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CNJRR]

Did you spend a lot for the RR signs in the last picture? Marx right?
I use to buy those till everyone thought they were gold, I refuse to finance those sellers. I have not looked for them for a while now.

You said in a post the some figures won't stand in the grass and you used card board.
Another option is to try clear plastic from things you buy in packages. There are different thicknesses some work better then others.
I use them for my O gauge people, where ever they stand on your (dirt, grass, whatever) the color of the dirt or grass makes them blend in nice, you can hardly see them.
And I can move them around the table easy. I don't know how they would work on standard gauge people.

Nice pictures, you do have a bunch of trains!

[Terry]

I've been putting the Marx signs aside for years to paint them and put numbers on themto show blocks and switches. I think I'll just use colors with slashes on either round for switches and rectangular for blocks rather than numbers because that makes them easier to understand from 15 feet away.

I got some upholstery tacks for use under the trees. The tacks go into the celotex easily and are easy to glue onto the bottom of the trees.

Tacks won't work for figures because the bases are too small.

I'm thinking about shoving pins into the bottoms of the figures and using hot melt glue to hold them. Some have hollow legs. I think I could also bend pins twice and them glue them onto the figures.

The hot melt glue sticks well, but peels off easily without leaving a mark. I have trains that had hot melt glue on them for 35+ years and the paint has been uneffected.