NTSS&B MTH Rail King Lighted Billboard 30-90478

I finally had a little free time to work on the layout, and have been hitting it hard.  Another friend was moving into a small apartment, so he gave me a MTH Railking Long Island RR Billboard (30-90478).  It really looked nice, but the Long Island RR did not fit in with my layout scheme. Since I had just came back from the Lionel Operating Train Society (LOTS) convention in Buffalo NY, I decided o replace the billboard with one from the convention.  Then all I had to do was to find a place for it on the layout (there aren't to many spaces left)

Original piece

My Modification

NTS&B Lionel #394 Rotary Beacon

 My YMCA Friend's train also include a Lionel #394 Rotary Beacon. Since I have many planes above, I had to find a place for it.  The beacon is operated by a finned top over a dimpled bulb. If and when the bulb gets hot enough, the heat rises through the fins, which causes the beacon to rotate.  Since this seldom works, I decided to put it near the wall in the winter area by the Helix, and use a lower voltage to power it so it would not light up the wall.

NTS&B Lionel #252 Operating Crossing

A Friend at the MCA sold his childhood trains to me.  This included a Lionel #252 lighted Operating Crossing Gate.  I had never seen one before, so waned to use it.  It took some thinking, but I finally found a place to install it. Then I had to move a couple side panel switches around, but was able to add another button switch for guests to control the gate.

NTS&B A 4 Ft x 7 Ft 17 shelf addition

I cleaned off the wall facing the shop.  I moved the large painting and the lighted Lionel sign to the basement den. I raised the speaker up as high as possible, and removed the corner ceiling shelf which I gave to Carolyn.  I then built a 4 foot x 7 foot unit with 17 shelves.  Currently my father's work tool box is in front of the lower 5 shelves, but will be moved or given away in the future when more train storage is needed, which may be sooner than anticipated. 

Tool box and out door chair cushions

Top almost full already

NTS&B A 22 inch x 5 shelf addition

 

I had purchased 4 x 0 Gauge and 5 x S Scale 22 inch long aluminum shelves at a recent show, and made a small 22 inch long 5 level shelf under the layout at the shop end.  I ended up flipping the top narrower S Scale shelf over, and added a piece of 0-27 track.  I used some spare wood I had to make the side and back frames.  Since I'm having shoulder issues, it took about 4 days to build, and I did not paint the wood.

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