Greetings from Northern Illinois


Dave_D55

New Member
Hi,

I'm Dave in Northern Illinois USA.

I have recently retired from software engineering at age 62, and will be creating my first permanent layout. I have three Athearn DC locomotives, enough rolling stock for one passenger + two freight trains (mostly Athearn), and a lot of of never-used (code 100) Atlas flex track in storage from the 1980's. All of this is HO.

I have a 14 x 30 foot room in mind. I had sort-of convinced myself that N scale would allow me to get so much more modeled in my space - but every time I browse at my LHS, I realize that my eyes might not be good enough for such fine work. I keep reading books and lurking here to help me decide on a scale and layout.

I look forward to making some new friends here.

Dave




 
Welcome.gif to the forum Dave.

You have a generous space for a model railroad. Years ago (mid 70's) I started a small N scale layout that could be slid under a bed because I was stuck in an apartment. In the late 70's I moved back home to Montana and incorporated the small layout into an N scale layout with over 11 scale miles of main line. Unfortunately, the locomotives at that time in N scale for the most part were junk and I tore everything out and moved to HO scale.

I am now 71 and when I see N scale equipment I can't believe that I actually was working in that scale. HO scale is a bit easier on the eyes, plus if you are interested in adding detailed scenes there is so much more available in HO scale. I have been working on my layout for over 30 years and still operate DC only. I am a lone operator up here and there are virtually no hobby shops at all in the area contributing the the length of time it has taken me to get where I am.

You may not have a local hobby shop, but being in northern Illinois, Chicago has a number of shops and then there is Walthers in Milwaukee. There are some forum members in Wisconsin not far from Milwaukee.

This is probably the friendliest model railroad forum around.

Stop by the Coffee Shop, have a cup and meet some of the other members. We chat about most everything but politics.
 
Hello Dave,

Good to see another Northern Illinois member. I was in N Scale for several years, and here recently made the switch to Ho scale. Look forward to seeing what you do with that enormous space you have to work with.

Mike,
 
Thanks Chet & Mike for the warm welcomes.

Chet - your video tour is great. So many great ideas I'd to adapt. Your large, deciduous trees are awesome - especially the way the camera flies through them. Your towns & industries really work well too.

I am fairly lucky in that there are three local hobby stores within 10 miles or so.

When I started acquiring my locos and cars (back in the 80's) I had little appreciation for prototypical modelling. So, being the practical-to-a-fault engineer, I decided on AT&SF and SP road names - because I decided that (at the time) they were more thoroughly supported with RTR products. And I would buy multiple locos or freight cars with the same numbers - oops.

Now I am reading lots of Kalmbach books to pick the roads, locale, and era to model. I am almost certainly going with the transition era, so I can indulge myself with some steam locos. And I would like to find a locale that would justify my ATSF Super Chief to make an appearance - my father's Lionel layout was ATSF and was "current era" when he built it in the 50's. So as an homage to him - it would be nice to have some ATSF.

Dave
 
Greetings Dave. Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have a good start and a great space. Look forward to seeing what you come up with. You ought to stop by the coffee shop and say howdy over a cup. That's where most of the real action happens. Just check your politics and religion at the door. It's ok to have either, but we try to keep it civil over there. The girls hate it when we break the China. Lol

Jesse
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Now I am reading lots of Kalmbach books to pick the roads, locale, and era to model. I am almost certainly going with the transition era, so I can indulge myself with some steam locos. And I would like to find a locale that would justify my ATSF Super Chief to make an appearance - my father's Lionel layout was ATSF and was "current era" when he built it in the 50's. So as an homage to him - it would be nice to have some ATSF.
That covers a lot of locales from California fruit groves, to Arizona deserts, Colorado mountains, and lots of Kansas plains, and mid-west Iowa-Illinois farms. Is there a particular landscape you prefer?

Do you have one of the Walther's iterations of the SuperChief or an Athearn variation there of? That could pinpoint a time for you. I limited my time period because I want to run the high level El Capitan cars, so I can't be before 1956. If I ditch the high level cars my next limitation is the pleasure dome on the Super Chief, that takes me back to 1951. That is a fun time (1951-1954) on the Santa Fe because one can still run the California Limited along with the Chief, Super Chief, Fast Mail, and Grand Canyon. My grandparent's and uncle's farms were right on the main line in south east Colorado so I got to watch the daily procession of those trains when I visited. The company called Broadway Limited Imports makes four excellent models of Santa Fe steam locomotives. A 4-8-4 of the 3750 class, two versions of the 3800 class 2-10-2 and 2-10-4, and the 400 class 2-8-2.

Perhaps we can discuss the merits of various locations as I still struggle looking for an ideal spot to model.
 
Thanks Chet & Mike for the warm welcomes.

Chet - your video tour is great. So many great ideas I'd to adapt. Your large, deciduous trees are awesome - especially the way the camera flies through them. Your towns & industries really work well too.

I am fairly lucky in that there are three local hobby stores within 10 miles or so.

Dave

Thanks for the comments. The majority of those trees were hand made using sage brush. That stuff is all over the place out in the western state.

You are so lucky to have hobby shops close by. I probably lost ten to fifteen years of progress on the layout because of not having any shops close by. I would keep a running list of what I wanted and when we took road trips, I would stock up on supplies, but it never faild that I would forget something.
 
Hello Dave, welcome to the forum! Sounds like your off to a good start, lurking & intel gathering. I never did do N scale. When I got my first RR stuff from a friend, it was HO. I've stuck with HO because I like the detail better than N scale, although having more mainline miles with N is a plus. I am just now (last couple of years) building my first permanent layout. I've got a 12x20 room for space, but no matter what I had, I know I would want MORE! lol I'm modeling the first part of the transition era, when the F units & GP7's & such were really starting to make a showing on the railroading scene. Haven't caught the bug (yet) for the big steamers that the new generation diesels replaced, although I do have a 2 truck Heisler for my logging railroad. I'm modeling a freight railroad besides the logging line for the variety of the cars and operations. There again, passenger operations just don't interest me, (yet).
Lot's of great people here on the forum, with knowledge to go with them. Lot's of new learning curves in this new era of model railroading. Keep checking other forums, publications, both electronic & printed media to get idea's, techniques and help in all aspects of this great hobby.........
 
That covers a lot of locales from California fruit groves, to Arizona deserts, Colorado mountains, and lots of Kansas plains, and mid-west Iowa-Illinois farms. Is there a particular landscape you prefer?

There are a few competing ideas bouncing around in my head. I like bridges and tunnels - so one idea would be to model ATSF someplace farther west.

But another idea is to model the Illinois Central between Streator and Freeport IL - and passing through my home town of Forreston. The IC and ATSF intersected at Streator - but I am unsure if there was an interchange (I'd give anything to have a "year" slider in Google Earth). :) Just a mile north of Forreston the IC interchanged with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (The Milwaukee Road). I used to ride my bike out to the IC / Milwaukee Road interchange.

Both of these ideas are half-baked and require more research.

Do you have one of the Walther's iterations of the SuperChief or an Athearn variation there of? That could pinpoint a time for you.

Thanks for asking... It got me to dig out my passenger cars and see what I have and research consists. My passenger cars are all Athearn brand, Budd cars built between 1941 and 1950. One baggage (#3446), one post office (#3406), one diner (#606), 2 vista domes (both #500), one observation (#3246), and (...wait for it...) three coach cars (all #3150). No sleeper cars (were those pullman?).

Cars from the same series as my baggage, diner, and dome cars were in the Super Chief consists I found in the 1951-55 time frame - but my coach cars are not appropriate. So apparently I have an "El Super Chief Captain" from the 1951-55 timeframe. :confused:

Dave
 
The IC and ATSF intersected at Streator - but I am unsure if there was an interchange
I'll ask around.

No sleeper cars (were those pullman?).
Most Santa Fe sleepers were Pullman, there were some ACF (most notably the Regal and Palm class cars), but at least one Budd. The Pine series sleepers (10-6 floor plan) purchased for the 1950 Super Chief were Budd.
 
Jerry - Thanks for the welcome. Looks like we have the transition era in common.

Iron Horseman - I appreciate your help and ideas. Thanks
 
Cars from the same series as my baggage, diner, and dome cars were in the Super Chief consists I found in the 1951-55 time frame - but my coach cars are not appropriate. So apparently I have an "El Super Chief Captain" from the 1951-55 timeframe. :confused:
I have found the other trains much more interesting to model than either the El Cap or the Super...
Here is a pretty bad camera phone picture of one of my variations of the San Francisco Chief running west bound on the OC&E layout. Note the interesting mix of head end cars - with an express box and various baggage.
SanFranciscoChief.jpg

Here is another poor photo of my version of the Grand Canyon this time on my friend's Laramie Division layout. Pulled by a rare set of E8s and with an interesting mix of head end cars including a New York Central express box. Santa Fe never let such different things happen to the Super Chief's consist.
20170101_132415.jpg

What I am saying is that you can use your Atheran cars to make about any Santa Fe train you want. Well, except the pleasure dome - it was a super chief exclusive.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Iron Horseman,

Thanks for the pictures. It really gets me excited to start my layout.

Its encouraging that the cars I happened to buy will still work in a prototypical way.

I appreciate the help.

Dave
 



Back
Top