Any Model Railroaders here??

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Princess Valiant

A.K.A. Rainy Day Auto
Joined
Dec 14, 2011
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I know a number of members are model railroaders as well as car nuts but we have a lot of new members so thought I would see who is out there now.

I used to have a small undeveloped and economy H.O. scale setup.
I sold everything a few years ago because I felt I only room in my heart for one hobby, however i have been thinking of getting back into it.

i am not sure if i want to get into "N" scale or "H.O" again.

Mr. RRR has shown me "On3" which is some very cool stuff but it's much different than most of what i am familiar with.

My absolute favorite is first gen. diesel, cant say i have ever been much for steam. I also like a lot of 90s and up style of locomotives. My childhood discovery days were in the late 90s and 00s so i like the locomotives that were new then.


who is into what on here :)
 
I have N gauge from around 1974 era. Been thinking about setting it back up next winter for the grandkids. They love to go to the annual train show/swap meet
 
I have never been in the hobby, but back in Cameron, MO where I used to live near, the local donut shop owner was a big time railroad guy, he had tracks that ran up high on all the walls, but what was so cool was he had working signal lights, whatever you call them, the BIG ones. and all sort of cool stuff like that! ya got to hear the cool "WOoooo WOooo while ya got your donut fix! ha
 
Have HO Steam. Run 4-8-4, 2-10-2 and Big Boy. Run them for Grandkids and they love them.
 
My father did HO for many years and afterward he lamented that he had so much invested into HO, he couldn't afford to switch to N. He wanted to do that because he could make such a larger layout with N that he could keep adding villages, etc. that wouldn't be possible to fit if he kept in HO.
 
I have an interest in "S' gauge American Flyer trains from the late 1950's, into the 1960's.

Grandma bought me a American Flyer train set as a Christmas present, one year, when i was a little curtain climber, rug rat, so i guess the interest carried on into old age.

I was originally from Waterbury, Connecticut, and American Flyer was manufactured a few cities down the road, in New Haven, Connecticut, so maybe thats how it all started out with me, other than a Lionel train set up. Dunno.
 
I never got into railroading, but I had a slot car track set up for the kids
I believe I used some HO scale houses to spruce up the track

that might be something to consider doing, putting in both a railroad AND a slot car track :)
 
I was into model railroading for a number of years. It started with a Lionel set. My father bought the trains for me back in the very early 1950's. They included a 686 Steam Turbine and tender, 8 cars, and caboose. A number of building, a stock yard, a logging facility, and much more.
When I was about 12 years old, I switched from "O" gauge ( Lionel "027) to HO.
Presently a lot of steam and diesels, and three GE-GG1's.
Steam includes a Southern Pacific 4-8-8-2 Cab Forward, an American, A PFM "West Coast (3 truck) shay, six 4-6-2 Pacifics, and a pretty nice assortment of steam, diesel/electric switcher, and a number of GP units. A 8 of F3, F7, and F9 A/B, A/B/A, and A/B/B/A units. All together I've got about 28 powered units, 12 Dummy engines, and about 80 pieces of rolling stock in HO. Also have an HOn3 D&RGW or train.

Have a small collection of "N" gauge. Mostly diesel engines, an two F9 A/A set the ATSF "war bonnet" paint scheme, and a few various GP units. O have one "N{ steam engine, it's a 2-6-2 with tender. It was a set that came with 4 passenger coaches and a baggage car. About 12 pieces of freight rolling stock.

Had a 12' x 16' HO layout for a long while. I sold the layout about 8 years ago, and now the trains have been packed away for that long, too.

Will probably be set back up again in Florida, at some loft space I've set aside at my shop building down there.
 
I was into model railroading for a number of years. It started with a Lionel set. My father bought the trains for me back in the very early 1950's. They included a 686 Steam Turbine and tender, 8 cars, and caboose. A number of building, a stock yard, a logging facility, and much more.
When I was about 12 years old, I switched from "O" gauge ( Lionel "027) to HO.
Presently a lot of steam and diesels, and three GE-GG1's.

Have a small collection of "N" gauge. Mostly diesel engines, an two F9 A/A set the ATSF "war bonnet" paint scheme, and a few various GP units. O have one "N{ steam engine, it's a 2-6-2 with tender. It was a set that came with 4 passenger coaches and a baggage car. About 12 pieces of freight rolling stock.

GG1's are insanely cool but I always liked them in the pennsy road name in either hunter green or maroon.

I was thinking ATSF was common in my area just because it's the southwest. I always wanted to do a setup in mostly Pennsylvania but that stuff seemed rare and unusual in this area.


My absolute favorite are the Alco PA-1 And FA-1
 
I did some HO in the past. I helped a friend build a glasstop coffee table with N gauge. With the wood and plaster, the thing felt like it weighed 300 lbs. Before I pass, I want to do a coffee table N gauge railroad, but less wood and no plaster. Waiting until I retire, because model railroading is a way of life.

N is tiny, so have good eyes. But for a coffee table, the only choice. If you want to just have fun with it, HO.
 
Had a HO set up, gave it to my grandson when I moved, did not have the room for it. Now am interested in the garden railroad, would like to go live steam, any suggestions? looks like Joey needs another server for Just Trains Only !
 
My family has been wrapped around my grandfathers old Lionel train setup ever since I was a kid! There are trains in the collection that date back to 1908, when my grandfathers sister was born! She was supposed to be a boy, so their father bought one of those old large scale brass trains, when she turned out to be a girl, the trains was given to my G-pa when he was born! He used to take off the entire month of December and set up the entire set, including all of the Plasticville town sets, seperate passenger and freight lines, all of the mountains and fake snow a young lad could want, and we would watch them run for hours if he would let us!! My brother has all of the trains stuff except the brass train, which my uncle has, and we set it up for the first time since 1981 just a couple years ago!! Oh, the memories unlocked in that train hold my youth and love for my grandpa!!!
 
I started tearing down my 15x19 foot, around the walls HO setup built on hollow core doors, because are you ready...I didn't have enough room to do what I wanted!

I bought my house specifically for that "extra" room, and because you can drive a car between the house and the property line, and there's enough room for a sizable garage.

I thought about switching to N scale and modeling the phosphate traffic and general freight I see local to me, circa 1998. I had plan that would let me almost replicate the area around me withing about 10 square miles. There's a lot of interesting stuff RR wise near me including a crossing diamond, an ethanol trans-load, a power plant, and an industrial park.

I found however, As I started collecting models, that N is just too small for me to work on as I am periodically requiring more powerful reading glasses :(

Coupled with that (pun alert), A prototypically correct version of my favorite small steam engine has been released (PRR H-10 2-8-0), making for more realistic proportions in my room.

So now the HO version of proto- freelanced 1948 SW Ohio PRR is back on, but this time I'm building an additional lower deck that will have a staging yard, and a mine branch. Except fot the mine, I'm shooting for the flavor of the line that ran nearest my house when I was growing up, and that I saw almost daily, but back dating it.

For the record, I'm also a big Alco FA fan, and I have the production engineering sample from Broadway Limited/ Precision Craft, before they lost the tooling in a lawsuit. I bought it at their headquarters "garage sale" for $40 along with a few other tasty pieces of MRR manufacturing history.
 
Here's a turntable I scratch built using a laser printer stepper motor bearing, and some measurements I made of the yard because I thought there might be a future possibility of needing to rebuild it. The curve going around behind the roundhouse was the potential lead for a helix, which it turns out (another RR pun) will come into play after all.
 

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I was in to the O and O27 gauge stuff for several years as my sone was growing up. What I liked about that gauge stuff was it was easier for him to pick up and they also are not as delicate as the HO stuff.

It's all boxed up and the layout never got put back together after the last move. Not sure what will happen. Thinking as the years go on and I can't work on the car maybe I can do the train thing again, maybe grand kids?
 
I have Lionel,Marx,and HO. None of which is together,but like my mopars i keep collecting it .I have a figure 8 track for the Marx and I run it now and then with the oldest grandson....He Loves It..............................................Jeff
 
I have an HO layout that I'm building in two spare bedrooms with tunnels through the walls to connect them. They are built up high to be close to eye level which allows room for a desk under the layout in one room and a guest bed under the layout in the other room. I have been accused of building the layout more for a display of 1/87 scale HO cars (smaller than Hot Wheels cars).

Heres a link to the pictures of the build so far.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...073741869.100001111775214&type=1&l=07439c1f4f

Below are a few pictures of the layout. Not sure why, but none of the trains made it into these photos. I run B&O diesels on the layout.
 

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Lookin good yall. I am just now getting my large scale layout down and changing back to On30. If any of yall are interested, I will post pictures of The Beaver Hole Hardwood Company as it is being built.
 
I have collected Marx tin on and off since inheriting my dad's old set as a kid. Particularly the 6" 4-wheel cats with tab/slot couplers, as well as Marx and Plasticville accessories and structures. I've wanted to expand into postwar Lionel (46-69), but cash and space won't allow for a while..
 
I've been out of it for probably 25 years but my thing was the Illinois Central and their "Paducah rebuilds"-still have the Model Railroader issues with the dimensions and details of their modifications somewhere. Hard enough to find time and money for the car w/o taking on another hobby but maybe someday again......
 
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