Three wall switches were installed next to the doorway when the train room was originally constructed. The intent was to use one for conventional room lighting, one for layout lighting, and the third for all of the railroad electronics. The idea being I could turn off all three switches when leaving the room and be [...]
I am so glad a fellow posted a comment on MRH about Party Lights. What a wonderfully easy way to add a whole bunch of lamp sockets in a hurry. The upper valance has 96 lamp sockets neatly installed and ready for CFL bulbs. It was a piece of cake! The sockets are on 24″ [...]
I am in the midst of installing the party light strings when I could stand it no longer. I had to do a mockup to see if the lighting would be to my liking. Now, stop laughing at the crudeness. This is just a quickly thrown together test. I don’t have my reflectors made yet [...]
The grid to hold the ceiling lighting panels is installed. Laying out the locations of the cross tees was far more difficult and time consuming than actually installing the cross tees. Armed with a framing square, tape measure, mason’s string, and a pencil I measured and marked the locations on the wall [...]
The holiday break is over and I am quite pleased with the work accomplished on the valance. The blue paint is on and it came out looking real nice. The room looks rather monochromatic with the walls, backdrops, and valance all the same color blue. The layout itself will add the necessary color to bring [...]
Work on the upper lighting valance continues with the installation of the drop ceiling grid. This is no ordinary drop ceiling installation. For starters there is no conventional rectangular grid. Instead, the grid work follows the wavy contour of the valance panel and the backdrops. The result is a challenging installation. Placement of the wall [...]
A coat of drywall primer and 2 coats of blue paint complete the backdrops for now. They turned out really nice. I am very happy with the results. Next, install the suspended ceiling grid over the layout area. Stay tuned…
Just a quick update after spending the weekend in what felt like my own personal flour mill. Everything is sanded in 180 grit, pinhole free, and feels reasonably flat. By golly, I think I have backdrops ready for primer and paint.
I have been making slow but steady progress on the railroad. With the completion of the south helix wall I was able to move on to putting in place the hardboard backdrop panels. As a design feature of the deck spacing, the backdrop panels are used at their full 48″ width which greatly reduced the [...]
All of the upper valance panels are in place. The piece near the workbench that makes a curve under the HVAC ducting was a bit of a challenge to install. The straightening boards had to be attached before installation due to a joint midway across that has no attachment point to the ceiling. With my [...]
It’s all in the presentation they say. I agree. What more is a model railroad than a presentation of an animated miniature world? I like the shadowbox effect when used on a model railroad. It really draws your eye to the scene. The shadowbox idea makes hiding the layout lighting much easier too. In my [...]
The first construction of the LK&O Railroad is the wall. Specifically, the peninsula support/backdrop wall. The layout decks will attach to this wall with shelving brackets eliminating the need for legs. The helices will also support the bench work above them. My 1:1 blueprint was measured, marked, and cut for the wall. Then key points [...]
Labor Day weekend was a milestone for me. The construction of the LK&O railroad is underway after 20 months of basement preparation. Hurrah! A 1:1 blueprint was my first order of business. The fill colors on the XTrkCAD track plan file were changed to very light shades to reduce printer ink consumption. Then the layout [...]
The LK&O Railroad, a railroad with relevance… Right down to the music system. I had three good buddies in high school – Dan Harvey, Roger Kollar, and Tom Barna. Together we had some great times. Among other things, Tom was a true blue audiophile. He educated us of the difference between listening to music and [...]
Sometimes the silliest things give the greatest pleasures. Such is the case with the new phone in the train room. My long time best friend Tim spied this and knew it would make the “right” phone to have in the LK&O train room. He was spot on. Now, when the phone rings……. How cool is [...]
In the not too distant past I thought social media was a waste of time. Useless dribble exchanged between teenagers. People tweeting what they were eating for breakfast. Popularity contests to see how many Facebook friends could be accumulated. As far as I was concerned social media was a big waste of time for the [...]
The cabinet project is finished. Other than I may want to put some handles on them. It is a guessing game which side to grab when opening them because I am not used to them. Still, I like handles on cabinet doors. I am quite pleased with how they came out. All of the pipes [...]
With the installation of the window frames I can now pronounce the train room finished and ready for layout construction to begin. Although, for the moment it is still acting as temporary storage for items that belong in the workshop. The cabinets need to be completed so they can be filled with all the stuff [...]
The wall cabinet idea is working out just fine. The drain pipe is inside of the cabinets and doesn’t eat up too much space. I couldn’t use a standard tee bar to mount the cabinets like would be used in a kitchen installation because of the pipe. It was necessary to position each cabinet individually [...]
The baseboard installation is all done. It came out quite nice I think. Sure did eat up a lot of stain and satin clear! With baseboards complete I have moved on to the window frames. They were originally going to be plain drywall but late in the game I changed my mind. That’s the beauty [...]
Every once in a while you get lucky. Such was the case today. The master plan for the workshop calls for cabinets along the wall above the workbench however this addition has always been one of those when I get around to it things. Building cabinets is such a pain for me because I am [...]
This week marked a significant milestone in the creation of the LK&O railroad. Orders were placed for all of the track needed to build it. There should be some smiling online hobby shop owners out there right now because the orders were significant. Model railroading may be the World’s Greatest Hobby but it sure isn’t [...]
If you stopped by hoping to see a site about model railroading then you will have to do the same thing as I – be patient. Never would I have imagined on Christmas morning 2009 that it would take almost a year and a half to make the basement ready for trains. Had you asked [...]
As it seems to be with all my projects progress is slow but I am making forward progress. A few more shots of the workbench construction. Once I get the trim boards clear coated and installed the workbench will be finished. Oh, there is one more little back panel piece to make, paint, and install [...]
I have the train room all ready to go but before I dive into building a railroad empire there are a few projects that need to be completed first. There is a high likelihood that once I start building the railroad it may be difficult to stop and do the other things. So the workshop [...]
I enlisted the help of Byron Henderson of Layout Vision to critique my track plan before I begin building. Having no former experience building a model railroad I wanted a well trained eye to look over what I had designed in hopes that serious design blunders would be found before saw blade hits lumber or [...]
My Druthers called for a single deck layout. Staging and the continuous run-back were to be suspended below the deck in a semi-hidden fashion. As I worked through the construction details I realized this may be a less than optimum way to go about it. Lack of clearance, difficulty in laying and cleaning track, and [...]
After a year of doddlin’ and noodlin’ I have arrived at what I believe to be the final track plan for the LK&O. See it here. What seemed so simple at the onset turned out to be an utterly complex problem solving exercise. And a tremendous learning adventure as well. Layout a track plan. Sounds [...]
Blue paint is on the walls and first impression tells me the color choice is right. The blue shade is the right hue and lightness when compared to the horizon of real sky visible through the windows. It is winter so the sky isn’t as blue as it will be in summer but that is [...]
2 coats of drywall primer on, blue paint next. The anticipation is killing me!
This post is a bit overdue but to keep the chronology correct here goes anyway. The train room is ready for paint finally! All of the drywall and joint compound work is complete and the cleanup finished. My lovely and painting talented wife has begun to work her magic with the brushes and rollers. An [...]
The FedEx man arrived today. He delivered my 6 new InterMountain AC&Y boxcars. All with unique road numbers I might add. How cool. These cars are the first AC&Y rolling stock I have that was not searched from old stock on dusty back shelves of hobby shops or e-Bay. It feels good to see manufacturers [...]
Moving right along on the train room. Got all the dry wall taped and mud layer one done this weekend. The application may scream home owner!!! to the professional but you can’t take fault with the final results based on the rooms before this one. I’ll knock the tops off the rough spots and put [...]
The basement reached another milestone. The last piece of drywall has now been put in place. Hurrah! The built-in shelving area has been painted to match the walls of the workshop. Looks nice. The bathroom is painted in Behr Polar Bear White matching the center room. Once again my wife did the painting and it [...]
My wife is fond of making fun at the way marketers use the phrase “Collect them all” when they are trying to entice you to buy more of the crap they want to sell you. Now I am guilty of the same. The eighth ACY FM H16-44 has joined the roster of the LK&O. I [...]
Progress has been slow on the basement finishing over the summer but now that colder weather has arrived things are picking up. This evening I pronounced the bathroom and center room shelving area ready for paint. Earlier today we picked up the last few sheets of drywall needed to finish the train room. As predicted [...]
The LK&O roster includes a Genesis SD70MAC “Spirit of Cumberland” because CSX is part of the LK&O and therefore must be represented in motive power. Like on the prototype the big CSX six axle diesel will pull coal trains out of the mountains of Maryland to far away consumers. However, rarely in real life do [...]
I had an epiphany. Why not use the space under the layout table for storage space? Duh! Originally, the plan called for leaving the built-in shelving in place because they are large and store many of those big plastic totes real well. My wife uses the totes extensively for items stored in the basement. It [...]
My wife and I made our yearly pilgrimage to the mountains of Maryland to visit her relatives. It is so peaceful and a slower way of life there. I love it. My wife’s cousin Rick, a born and bred mountain man, took me and my wife’s brother Dan on a hike into the mountains so [...]
Paintwork is all finished in the center basement room. It looks real nice. My wife did her usual bang up job of paint application. The picture doesn’t do her work justice. Next, the wash tub will be installed and plumbed. I am considering adding some sort of waterproof wall sheathing behind the tub. Obviously that [...]
The model railroading forums are an immense help to me. The entry before this one was about my posting of the proposed LK&O track plan on the forums asking for critique. It is a week later and the advice has rolled in. Bountiful advice matter of fact. Having so many experienced modelers give your plan [...]
I have been working on the track plan for some time. Essentially from Christmas on. This weekend I had it to the point where it roughly satisfied the Givens & Druthers. A lot of artistic liberty had been taken with the placement of industries relative to Brittain yard but I was at a loss of [...]
Have you seen the Bird’s Eye view feature on Bing’s maps page? Really cool. The images are high quality and you can rotate the camera angle. Technology is amazing! Check out the views of Brittain Yard I was able to get from Bing. Now if only I had available the entire 68′ it would require [...]
On a recent trip into Akron I was able to get some nice photos of the diesel shop at the former AC&Y yard. Thanks to the Wheeling & Lake Erie yardmaster for allowing me to photograph there. At least I should be able to reproduce this part of the building reasonably accurate. The other half [...]
A common site on railroads is the unit train. This is an entire train devoted to a single delivery of a single commodity to a single customer. Coal is often shipped to power plants in long unit trains. On the LK&O Mettiki Coal, located in Table Rock MD, ships unit trains of bituminous coal from [...]
My wife and I live on a small 10 acre horse farm. Actually, the horse community calls it a hobby farm since it is solely for our recreation with no commercial interests. It is a wonderful place to call home. As an added bonus the sunsets here are breathtaking at times. However, keeping that much [...]
The big road locomotives get all the attention and are usually the romance of railroading. But the hard, down in the trenches work is done back home by the lowly switchers. Working the classification yard sorting cars, pulling the local across town, or spotting cars at the local industries, the railroad would come to a [...]
One lingering challenge in the design of the LK&O is how to introduce elements (locomotives and rolling stock) from a wholly different time period into the scene in a manner that minimizes the negative visual impact. The situation is created as a result of conflicting interests. I want to model the AC&Y and I really [...]
In actual history the AC&Y railroad was merged into the Norfolk & Western railroad in 1964. To quote Wikipedia “In 1964, the former Wabash; Nickel Plate; Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway; and Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad were brought into the system in one of the most complex mergers of the era.” The really cool [...]
Check this out. An Accurail AC&Y boxcar. This is the first Accurail boxcar to join my fleet of AC&Y rolling stock. Thanks eBay! I have learned that model railroaders call this kit, and the Athearn kits in previous posts, “shake the box” kits. Easy enough to understand where that name came from. I like shake [...]
Few things can compare to having a wife that truly loves you. I am blessed so. This whole model train thing began as a Christmas present from my wife. Had a casual observer been present at our house on Christmas morning the big box under the tree must have seemed like a rather childish gift [...]
It is late and I really should be in bed. There is another busy work day coming quickly but I couldn’t resist the urge to share my find. Some time back I stumbled across a web site for a hobby shop in Australia. To my surprise they listed Atlas #9539 AC&Y locomotive #200 as being [...]
I am not a big eBay’er but you can’t beat it when you are looking for out of production MRR stuff. Last week I found, bid on and won an Atlas locomotive PT#9539 F-M H15-44 AC&Y #200. New in the box. And at an attractive price. This part number is nowhere to be found at [...]
Why is it that when you sand a small area of drywall plaster in the far corner of the basement you can later find plaster dust in your bedroom closet which is on the opposite side of the house and a story up? It is amazing how far plaster dust carries regardless of how you [...]
Well, I am almost 6 months into the model railroad room build and progress has been slow. Real slow. But progress is being made nonetheless. Summer is here so the outdoor activities have picked up. Mowing and trimming take almost a full day of each weekend. And then there is horse pasture maintenance. Over Memorial [...]
I accidentally stumbled across 2 more AC&Y box car kits so I had no choice but to press the Buy Now button. The Athearn kits took on a new specialness with the recent announcement that Athearn has discontinued the long running Blue Box kits. It is a shame the BB kits will not be available [...]
A diagram of how the basement is being transformed. The basement was one single large area when the house was brand new. Now it is essentially 5 rooms – mechanicals, workshop, bathroom, trains, and general space. All in all, I am quite pleased with how it is taking shape. The east end of the basement [...]
Tonight was filled with apprehension. I soldered the last pipe of the new plumbing for the basement bathroom and wash tub. It was time to tie the new plumbing into the house system and turn on the water. The usual problem of getting all the water out of the system so the solder joints will [...]
My Genesis SD-70MAC Spirit of Cumberland arrived today. What a beautifully detailed locomotive. The quality of the paintwork and level of detail is stunning. If it runs as good as it looks I will be one very happy camper. If only I had some rails to place it on. All in due time I suppose. [...]
A good friend reading the LK&O blog for the first time commented that I did not make it entirely clear what railroad is the LK&O (or will be). Is the LK&O a real railroad that is being modeled or is it fictional? What relationship does the LK&O have with AC&Y, CSX, and CN? Actually, his [...]
The Thomas Subdivision is the CSX line that runs through Kitzmiller MD. Actually, it goes through Blaine WV which is the itsy-bitsy little town just across the Potomac river bridge from Kitzmiller. Nevertheless, it is the coal mine haul that will be modeled on the LK&O. Thanks to an email advertisement from Pacific Western Rail [...]
I am now an official member of the Akron Canton & Youngstown Railroad Historical Society! Not only will it be cool to chat with other people that share an interest in the railroad, their knowledge of the AC&Y will be invaluable when modeling Brittain Yard. I recently visited the site with camera in hand while [...]
Everything seems so simple until you start getting into the details. Building a room in the basement for the LK&O is turning out to be no different. Laying out and building the walls was easy. A trip to Home Depot, a couple of evenings measuring, cutting and nailing, and presto I had walls. But wait. [...]
Google is my friend. The mere fact that I can search countless hobby shop inventories from the comfort of my home is amazing. We live in a rural area which is a little piece of heaven on earth however one penalty we pay is the fact that it is a minimum 3 hour round trip [...]
…the Akron Canton and Youngstown RR is not a fallen flag? …the AC&Y interchanges CN at Delphos and CSX at Mogadore? …unit grain trains move from Michigan to western Maryland? …endless coal drags move from western Maryland to Michigan? …everything is 1/87th size? …some guy is having a blast in his basement? You would be [...]
Thanks to my great friend and all things Internet whiz kid Greg, I now have a place to share my experiences while enjoying the world’s greatest hobby – model railroading. This is going to be so cool!