TRAIN TIME: Running A Marxawatha and Some Work On The Edge of Town Layout - Pt 17 of the EoT Makeover

 Progress on the the Edge of Town layout has been slow but steady. I have been transitioning it from a toy train layout to more of a hi-rail layout. Ohhh, it won't be totally hi-rail but it'll have enough detail and enough different things on it to make it unique.

The Plasticville Passenger Shelter now has a different name sign: "Deer Crest Lake" an homage to the little mosquito infested lake my sister used to have house on LOL

The Plasticville Roadside Stand has made some more progress.

At this stage the walls have been painted and a base added

The Menard's Cabin now has a Menard's Windmill

A tire swing has been added to one of the trees by the lake

A Marx uncoupling ramp was added by the Freight Depot. I haven't actually used it with Marx cars yet and am finding out some of my Lionel rolling stock is having problems going over the metal plate that sticks up. Should I keep it?  We shall see, we shall see.

I bought and installed these Woodland Scenics Light Poles. They don't shine very bright during the day (unlike the porch light on the Menard's cabin) but they're fine when all the lights are turned off.

Work on the corner hill finally started. The corner was scraped flat and a paper template made from which a scrap piece of Styrofoam was carved and covered with patching plaster

The Plasticville Corner Men's Store sat for months on the layout but it just didn't fit in. I mean, a fancy men's clothing store in this very working class neighborhood. So what would be more appropriate?

A tavern or bar of course!

I started with this Miller Beer sign from - appropriately enough - Miller Engineering. The sign can remain lit or blink, depending on which way the on/off switch is thrown

I wanted to be able to move the building around but these lighting units have circuit boards and battery packs which make it awkward to move the building. The answer was to install a styrene floor so that all the electronics can rest on it

(L) the styrene floor made based on the cardboard template (R)

One of two custom Marxawatha's I have. What is a Marxawatha? It's a Marx train turned into a Milwaukee Road Hiawatha. I have two different engines and tenders with one set of cars, all utilizing 'wraps' which were commercially available many years back. I got my sets off of ebay a long time ago. The engines have the Prewar Marx single reduction motors which means they don't run well through the switch on this layout. They work just fine on the Tinplate Layout which has no switch

The second of the two Marxawatha's

Being frustrated with trying to run the Prewar engine on this layout with the switch, I filmed it running on the Tinplate Layout - much better!

The corner tavern is a work in progress. I found this lighted sign on fleaBay and ended up removing the Miller Beer sign and replacing it with a Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer sign (also from Miller Engineering). There will be some more changes as the project evolves, so stay tuned!

This year's Memorial Day Tribute featuring a New Marx Army train which I've had on a couple of other videos

The VFW put on a display for the locals

Scenes along the right-of-way

That brings us up to May of this year. There's been so much done it's impossible doing it all in one post, so stay tuned to this channel! :-)