malletman
Alcohaulic
Thanks to some household bills, my larger HO scale Marklin layout is on hold for the time being. So what to do to enjoy my smaller trains. Well, years ago I had a small 33" by 55" portable layout that featured Marklin European trains from the late 1960's. I still had the table, it having some beat up 2 rail HO track on it, along with looking a bit worse for wear due to storage in my shed. So, I stripped the table back to bare wood top and worked up a simple track plan using Marklin's C-track with a passing siding at the front and a stub siding at the rear. The siding did get flipped opposite of shown due to that particular turnout jamming when I remotely changed it. My left hand turnout worked fine so I just reversed the set up on the rear stub siding. Control is still digital using my Uhlenbrock Intellibox IR with the optional infared wireless remote control. This time the theme will be USA Santa Fe but more midwestern with the green grass vs the desert western area. A dealer at the Muncie, IN train show had all his HO scale 50% off. So I purchased a nice clean pair of Marklin diecast metal Santa Fe F7's and a tinplate Western Pacific box car to get things started. I got the 3 items for $60, which was all I was allowed to spend at the show. I am in the process of swapping my German ore train set for more older USA prototype items from Marklin to use with this layout. The table, once stripped bare, was recovered with indoor/outdoor green carpet and the track fastened down with screws from Marklin, specially made for that purpose. The grass helps with sound deadening, which is important for me being autistic, loud or constant sound causes a sensory overload and puts me into a meltdown(yes adult autistic's have those). A nice station from Atlas will go up near the control panel and one of the tinplate, functional cranes with electromagnet will go on the stub siding. A few other small town buildings will populate the rest of the town. Roads and such will be added to the layout, which will have a mix of 1960's to current day modeling styles, tinplate and metal trains, modern C track and digital control. The layout just fits in the back of my Jeep Liberty and I am planning for its first public outing at the Autism Ability Fest at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in April. Mike
how the layout looked several years ago
how it looked saturday evening after returning from the train show and beginning the project.
and now there is grass and the track is fastened down(siding got flipped right after this pic)
Motive power purchased at the show, diecast metal shells!
how the layout looked several years ago
how it looked saturday evening after returning from the train show and beginning the project.
and now there is grass and the track is fastened down(siding got flipped right after this pic)
Motive power purchased at the show, diecast metal shells!
