Terry's Standard Gauge Layout

[starfire700]

Green and big.........maybe a State Set!
In the mid 1970's my wife worked in a small metal-stamping shop. They would eventually produce our tin litho trains when we licensed the Marx name, but that is a different story.
The owner told Debby, when he learned of our involvement in trains, that his Dad had a large green train with STATE names on the passenger cars stored in a loft at the shop.
When she showed obvious interest, he said that just a few months before they had thrown it in the trash and "why was it worth anything???"
I forget what the 1974 value of a green State set was, but it was enough to make him realize what a dumb thing he had done. That may be why he went on to keep at least one production sample and 1 uncut sheet of litho for every item that Marx Trains produced.

[pjdog350]

The floor in the hospital was concrete or marble something hard a shiny. As this big green Lionel train with passenger cars went around the tree the track would slide. This caused it to come apart. The guy trying to set it up for all the kids was getting frustrated. He kept doing something to hold the track together but was not doing well. Finally another guy showed up and they got it to work. I think the second guy just slowed the train down? Not sure. But the bad side was all the kids came back from the Christmas party then I could not see anymore cause all the kids where blocking my view. I kept telling the nurse but didn’t help.

I was confined to bed so I didn’t get to go to the party which was fine I wanted to see the train. I remember it yesterday. That was 1947! I remember the ward I was in with lots of other kids and I remember one nurse. She seemed to always be looking after me. Every time I looked up there she was.

Funny the things that stick in you memory. I can still remember my grandmother phone number! A light bulb just came on. The nurse. She lived down the street from my grandmother. She had a big Collie dog that was beautiful.

[Terry]

Green and big is a 10 set. I ran trains at the local childrens hospital for years. I took a 671 turbine and a 2046 steamer and cheap cars. I put two circles on the floor along with two RW transformers and then let the kids play with the trains. in at least trips I only had one thing damaged, and that was a doctor who turned the transformer knob the wrong way.

Here's the latest on the layout. The carpet is there and resting. My Work week starts tonight so I'll glue it down on Saturday evening. Then It should be cool enough to open the windows and blow the stench out.

 

When I bought the blue felt, I also got some gray for the roadbed.  I don't like the way it looks. It's too thin and doesn't lay flat.

 

 

 

On the layout I did 30 years ago, I used gray carpet, but that is not available anymore. I'll try using spray starch and an warm iron to make the felt lay flat. Also might be able to use a spray adhesive?

Here's the area for the 00 layout:

 

I can do a 7 by 13 feet with a 30-36" aisle all the way around. I need to get the standard gauge up so I can empty those boxes to make room.

And over in this area, I'll do a Marklin Ho layout with a Lionel tinplate layout underneath so I have a place to put my 130 tunnel. That's 46 inches by just over 10 feet.

 

[Terry]

I finished my work early tonight so I played with the 3rd level. This is a 46 inch wide oval that will sit above the control panel with the 140 tunnel and the big 840 power station.

Here's the layout:

 

It goes above the control panel on the supports you see here and comes out to about the red mark by the yardstick:

 

I was trying to figure out if I can cut the corner off, but I'll have to put the track down on the middle level to see how everything fits.

I don't need a lot of clearance because I'll just run the coal train around it and put some hoppers on the siding.  I might put the 442 weighing scale up there, but right now I plan on putting the scale in the industrial area.

[Terry]

I got some major progress this weekend. All the carpet is down except for the little areas around the wood blocks under the hellgates. Those blocks are cut and painted so that will be done. I started putting track out where it goes but not near the river area which needs painting.

Here's some pictures:

 

 

 

 

I  painted the trim wood a week ago and cut it and put it in today except around the hinged bridge. I out strips of plywood along the layout so the trim sits out 1/4 inch. The carpet tucks down into the groove, and then a 3/16" sheet of glass goes in to keep the trains on the layout.

The glass is tempered display shelves and costs about 2.50 a foot, but is cheaper than plexiglass and requires no cutting.
 

I'm not happy with the seam between teh grass and the river so I played with painting scraps in the garage. The first is just black spray paint along the seam, second is brown.
 

 

This has the blue felt and the green painted with a brush.
 

 I like the spray paint better. I'll try lightly misting the blue felt with some white, gray and different shades of blue and then spraying the edge with brown and black.

[starfire700]

I like the idea of a leg that goes along the wall to expand the layout, yet still allow access. I did that with my previous layout, the Hole in the Wall Railway. I wish I had room to do that with my current layout. The Hole in the Wall went between 3 basement rooms through holes in the walls, also had several places where the standard gauge loop departed the main benchwork and followed the wall, as yours does a few pictures previous. I have attached a link to my first youtube video, about 6 years ago, shows the Hole in Wall Ry and the shelf parts of the line. In one spot it went along some windows that looked out into a greenhouse room where we wintered our tropical plants.

 

[pjdog350]

Holy cow Jim. What a layout. I like it. It must have taken you months to pack all that up to go to the new location. The expense must have been big for material to pack it all.

are the people in the movie you friends or family? Did they help you with the move.

Can I come live with you. I will NOT touch anything and I’ll clean the layout for you. Track cleaning and such. This makes me realize there must be billions of O gauge trains out there for you to have so much and yet there’s still some for us!

More O gauge hole in the wall movies. I hope you have some more to share with us!

A big thanks!

[Terry]

I like the frontage on the layout. The more areas you can stand at are better.

Jim -- I hope my trains run that well.

I've been so frustrated with the layout progress. Either the dog is messing with me or I have ghosts down there. Tools just disappear. Some one hid the drill from me and I spent an hour looking for it. Yesterday I spent 20 minutes looking for the hook-blade knife, then just hacked off the carpet with a straight razor. I measure and then go upstairs to cut wood outside and then come back and it's too short. Or it's too long.

I have cases of track, but no 42" curve track. I unpacked a bunch of accessories just to get boxes emptied. I "borrowed" some from a friend. 

Saturday afternoon, I put the upper level together where I'm going to use the 1930s Lionel rubber roadbed. I could only find straight roadbed. $*&^*% I'll just run it to make sure it clears the 140 tunnel.

I have a repainted 8 with a great looking motor for testing. The repro wheels are warped. The black 318 has worse original wheels. The ghost or dog hid the mohave 318. Those are the only small locos I have. Everything else I have is bigger.

I have bags of reproduction wheels and a press to put them on. Can't loose the press, and it has the wheel pressing parts mounted to it. So that means I can't find the wheels.

Friday night I sat down at my work desk to check out a postwar 2023 alco I bought for resale. I have a computer over the desk I watch TV shows on as I work. The ghost has allowed Windows 10 to  update and the new version has no sound.

I put together the Marklin layout wood so I can sort boxes into the underside to get them out of the way.
 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't find the 104 bridges that I was going to use here.  I think I sold them.

 

 

This corner layout will have Lionel O gauge from the late 1920s and early 30s on the bottom and Marklin HO from 1952-63 on the top.
 

Look -- the ghost shows up in the pictures:
 

And here's the other troublemaker:
 

[pjdog350]

Looks  like you Are making lots of progress. Lots of cool stuff too!

[Terry]

I spent the day in the garage cutting wood for the Marklin and 00 layouts. Then I went downstairs and ran a train.

1929 Lionel outfit 340E going around on the upper layout. Tunnel is a 140. Power station is 840. Cardboard mountains in background are copies of the mountains included in the 199 Scenic Railway cataloged from 1924-28.

That's running at top speed. The motor has oil wicks on both ends of each axel and on both ends of the armature shaft. It's also got a resisitor in the line so it runs slow. That's as fast as it goes.  That motor and frame was in the mohave 318E loco that my dad and I ran at displays. It was modified so we could just let it go and not pay attention to it. I need to clean the brushes so it stops whining. That motor is 93 years old.

[pjdog350]

Very nice. It looks new. I like the trains to run slow. Your layout is coming along real nice. The second time I watched your video I saw a couple more mint hopper cars behind the station. They look mint. You have real nice trains.

Could we get another O gauge movie form under the standard gauge. I’d like to see how that will display after the standard gauge was added. I’m an o gauge lover at heart!!!

[Terry]

I still have to vacuum the O gauge layout, and hook up the new transformers. It will get done in the next few weeks.

[pjdog350]

With all the trains you can run at one time your going to have lots of transformers, your light bill will go up allot?

[Terry]

I only plan on running one layout at a time. When I did Thom's layout you could run almost 40 trains at once. Too loud to talk, and when there was a problem, it was hard to figure out what it was.

[Terry]

I am ready to start cutting standard gauge track this weekend. The bridge is built and needs to be fastened down otherwise it's just track laying.

Here's some pictures:

 

view from the stairs.

I made this small almost 4 foot by 10.5 foot layout for Marklin HO on top and Lionel O gauge from 1924-34 on the bottom.  I closed in one end with shelves to make the O guage a lkittle hidden, and  give me a place to put the smaller sets.

 

I made the shelves high enough to hold standard gauge so I can use the area for pictures. I need to get some LED bulbs with better light for photos.

 

Here's some photos of the big O gauge layout now that I've cleaned it.