Large Scale Central

Buttoning up for the winter

Cars and buildings all tucked into the shed for the winter.

What no winter operations? Should at least run until that ugly white stuff starts flying. I guess it is now project time.

A lot of mine are coming in, but only to get refurbished…then right back out again…(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

I’ll be buttoning up too, probably after Turkey Day.

Bob, what are those gray shelf car holder things?

Cliff Jennings said:

I’ll be buttoning up too, probably after Turkey Day.

Bob, what are those gray shelf car holder things?

Looks like bread trays… Bob must be doing a side business of stocking bread in grocery stores.

Where did the running season go? The leaves are starting to make a real mess on my RR and soon it will be too cold out to comfortable enjoy watching a train go by. I have several buildings that come in like my engine house and turntable but most stay out year round plus about a dozen cars.

Bob do you run at all in the Winter? What if the snow is perfect for plowing?

Craig Townsend said:

Cliff Jennings said:

I’ll be buttoning up too, probably after Turkey Day.

Bob, what are those gray shelf car holder things?

Looks like bread trays… Bob must be doing a side business of stocking bread in grocery stores.

They are bread trays. A local farm stand went out of business about 10 years ago and was selling off everything. Got these for $1 each

Todd Haskins said:

Where did the running season go? The leaves are starting to make a real mess on my RR and soon it will be too cold out to comfortable enjoy watching a train go by. I have several buildings that come in like my engine house and turntable but most stay out year round plus about a dozen cars.

Bob do you run at all in the Winter? What if the snow is perfect for plowing?

Nope, don’t run in the winter.

Don’t let Bob fool you, a local bakery is still looking for their bread trays!

Brought some potted plants in tonight. I think I’m one day late; got what looks like a few spots of frost burn on my palm plants. Wall Station and the platform will come in soon, but everything else stays out. I’m probably done with winter ops unless there is a perfect amount of snow.

Took all my buildings in last weekend before the big storm came through, still have my bridge out over my koi pond just on case I get the itch to run one last train for the season.

But even that will be headed inside by weeks end.

Hell I haven’t even open up for spring… (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-yell.gif)

Winter? What is winter? Oh, the days get shorter, so I can’t stay late at work if I want to run trains.

(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Greg

I buttoned the T&LBRR up back in September. I have to bring the structures in before the Santa Ana winds kick up, which usually occur by the beginning of October.

And…, they can’t go back out until the winds calm, usually in the beginning of June. That’s why I always do open house the second weekend in June. Even then, I’ve had to contend with them.

The trestle even has bricks on it to keep it from blowing out from under the track.

It must have gotten cool tonight. I fired up the woodstove!

For me the season is just starting. Once the trees are finished dropping their leaves, the layout will get cleaned up and ready for some winter fun in the snow.

Headed south for the larger 7.5 inch gauge ride on stuff. Campground we stayed at last night has palm trees next to the campsites, so we are getting closer. Plans are to be at the Ridge Live Steamers this weekend.

Bob, what did you use for slides on your bread trays?

Way to early to button up. We are in the middle of our prime construction season. We still have another ops session and a running session still to go. Unless we get heavy snow we do not plan to button up till mid December.

Stan

Pete;

I use the same storage method as Bob does. The “Slides” I use, and I think Bob seems to use, are made using two pieces of 1x2 strapping, glued and screwed to form an “L”.

I have been using this storage method for at least 15 years. Each tray holds 5 cars, at least when using 1:22.5/1:29 equipment. They won’t hold long cars like the 1:29 Aristo passenger cars.

I line the bottoms of the trays with thin foam, and use cardboard separators between cars.

I was fortunate to be given the bread trays by several grocery stores around my area. I didn’t get them all at once, but got them over a period of several years. Having over 300 cars forced us to come up with some way of storing them, and some way of carrying the cars to their locations for operations.

Some people suggest keeping the cars on storage tracks, which is a fine idea for a small fleet, but getting the cars to their locations before an operation, is an operation by itself, along with returning them to storage. The storage tracks take up a lot of room, to say nothing of the amount of track and switches.

Some leave their rolling stock out all Summer, but from over 20 years of outdoor operations, in our climate, the cars do deteriorate too much to make it a practice.

This is just my observation, others may have different opinions and suggestions.

Fred Mills