NTS&B LCCA Sign Installed

I bought an animated Light Works illuminated LCCA at the 2022 LCCA convention in Nashville, and have finally gotten around to installing it.  I located it on top of the Hard Rock building. Here is what it looks like.

 

NTS&B Some More New Shelves

 I keep running out of storage space, so needed to add some more shelves.  The shelves keep getting closer and closer together.  Here they are start to finish.

After clearing the stuff off the walls, I discovered that the shelf brackets I used had to be reversed (of course), so here is the final result

Using a router, I notched the full length of each 1x4 shelf for the train wheels, instead of using track.

 

I was actually making 3 set of shelves.  1 set was about 5 foot wide and from floor to the bottom of the ceiling loop.  The other 2 were about 3 feet wide to fit under the layout. After painting the sides and shelves,  I cut the boards to the desired lengths and assembled them.

I installed a hardboard backing, so the shelves would be free standing.

I had to make a couple cuts for the shelf bracket on top, and an outlet in the lower shelf.  After positioning the unit, it only.  After setting it in position, it only required a screw in each side on top to hold it sturdily to the wall.

The remaining pieces of the boards were used to make 2 small units under the layout. Each top shelf was made using 2 shelves together to make an 8 inch shelf.  This allowed me to display cabooses and tenders at an angle, greatly improving display space.

NTS&B Santa's Workshop

 My Grandson gave me a building he made for me for Christmas.  Of course I had to find a place to put it.  Here's a couple pictures of it all lit up.

NTS&B Some More New Shelves

 For some reason, I keep running out of display space for my trains.  I decided to fill up the last remaining space I could find in the train room with an approximately 8 foot wide by 7 foot tall shelf.  I reduced the spacing between shelves to the minimum I could, which picked up an additional 2 shelves over my other 7 foot tall one.  Here are the before and after pictures.

New shelves before loading up.

I have purchased a couple 4 car subway sets recently,  wanted to free up a couple tracks on the main line to accommodate visiting trains, and get my remaining trains out of the train closet.  The trains that were on the subway and mainlines were very long, so took up most of the new shelves.  By the time I got all of them on the shelves, I am almost out of space again.  Here are what they look like after being loaded up.

NTS&B Train Room Lighting

 I sometimes forget to turn the layout off, so I wanted a routine to run about 10PM to shut everything down automatically.    I used to use an X10 for home lighting control, but the system was not dependable.  Also,  the software was not upgraded to run on Windows 10 and my new system did not have a serial port, so I was out of luck.

Then may son gave me an Amazon Alexa and plug for Christmas.  With additional plugs, this gave me the flexibility to turn off my layout, and my workbench automatically every night.  

Along with my florescent lighting in the train room, I had 14 recessed spot lights.  I have been told that blue lighting over the layout simulates moon light better than just turning off the lights and using the lighting on the layout.  I decided to change out all of the spots with smart adjustable color floods and spots.  These are also controlled by Alexa, so I can change the overheads to any color and brightness I want.  The lights are very bright when set to white, so I can use them instead of the florescent to help minimize the fading caused by the florescent.  The Alexa routing also turns these light off automatically at night, in case I forget.  The flood lights from Walmart work very good when using the built in Alexa commands, but are intermittent when changing colors using a routine.

Here are a couple pictures.

Simulated Moon light with bulbs set to blue.

An attempt at Sunset

Ready for St. Patty's Day.  Can even set to red and green for Christmas.

And Bright White

NTS&B Name Changed to North Pole, Tinseltown, Sabastian, and Bigville

I am getting ready to paint and letter some cars, and decided that if I was going to change the name of my railroad, I needed to do it now.  The name was North Pole, Tinseltown South, and Bigville (or NTS&B).   

I wanted to include my 12 year old grandson Sabastian in the layout name, and had a small town that needed to be named, so I decided to name it after him.  He was born a couple years after I already named the layout, which is why it didn't originally include him.  So, now the new railroad name is North Pole, Tinseltown, Sabastian, and Bigville (or still NTS&B)   I have buildings, tunnel portals, and a bridge already with the initials, so none of that had to be changed.

Here is the new billboard leading into the town.  I used an HO street light to illuminate it.

NTS&B 2020 11th Piedmont Pilgrimage

Update-In December 2020, after this video was made, I renamed the layout to North Pole, Tinseltown, Sabastian, and Bigville.

Due to the COVID19 Pandemic, there were no live National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) Piedmont Pilgrimage tours this year. The NMRA decided to do virtual layout tours for interested participants, to keep the event alive.  Since I had already done 10 of the tours, I decided to continue my trend and do the virtual tour, which also serves as a nice way to document the layout .  Here is the youtube video. I hope you enjoy it.

NTS&B Shelves On End Wall

 Again, I find myself low on shelf space.  I built these 4 foot tall by 8 feet wide shelves on the end wall with the idea of finally getting everything out of the train closet.  

NTS&B Kathy's and Jennifer's Billboards Finally Installed

I finally got time and energy to finish the billboards.  I modified some medal spotlights I purchased years ago at the York train show.  I replaced the light bulbs with LEDS, and installed them to light up the new billboards.  Here are some pictures of the results.

Kathy was from Long Island, and liked New York Central, which allowed me to buy that line without getting into too much trouble.  I thought it was only fitting to take her picture with a NYC F3.

When Jennifer was little, I bought her an HO Santa Fe set.  She loved it because it was "Santa's Train".  Here is the O-Gauge version with her billboard.

NTS&B Dedication To Jennifer

On January 18th, 2020, my poor sweet daughter Jennifer passed away.  It's been really tough for me to handle.  Over the years, she has contributed many scenery items to the layout.  Sometimes, I think she just wanted to give me a challenge for how to fit them in, since most weren't train related.  Because of this, I wanted to do something on the layout in her honor.  I decided to make a billboard for her similar to the one I made for Kathryn.  Here is the result.