OK now I'm really getting excited. This is so cool.


J

JimT

Member
I have another thread going so if this is a boo-boo the powers that be can move this. Somehow today I got impaitent after dinner and began looking at the stuff I'd found... and there is more to go through. In addition to trying to read online and re-famialize myself with whats available (probably a hopeless task) I've spent an hour or so a day opening long unopened boxes "looking" and finding.

I've come up with three loco's, nothing special really. A "new" AHM Atlantic.. seemingly new in the box (don't remember it), a Bachmann 0-6-0 USRA switcher and a kitbash project. An old monotruck powered RS-1 Alco that I had re-chassied and remotored with a sagami can. I also found an MR 501 throttle pack, literally new in the box. Alas it took a half hour to peel the box off the powerpack... but, no corrosion. 4 sections of brass snap track and I was in business. Cleaned the tracks a little with some knife honing oil....

First, the AHM Atlantic 4-4-0 was new... except no drive shaft... Help? The Bachmann needs some soldering but seems OK with clip leads. I noticed it has a lot of extra detail on it. Best news... the ALCO was perfect, didn't have to clean the wheels, it just creeps along smoothly. Needs paint, details, lights, guardrails..... but it's working perfect. I've found a lot of stuff, even pleanty of KayDee's to do a whole layout. 100's of people, a lot of structures some unbuilt, some those brick modular things from the 80's. I must have near a thousand windows. There's still a few boxes to look through, wish me luck. But... there were trains running for a few minutes tonight, 27 years later.
 
Sounds like you are having too much fun. Any plans to base your new layout on a particular prototype?
 
The two "railroads" that I enjoyed (then) and admired most are John Allen's G&D and FSM now by George whom I remember well from trade shows. I am much more whimsical now than I was in my thirties. Georges has done most of his work since I "retired" from MRR'ing. Currently I'm well satisfied with runs well and looks right. I'm aching to start looking for some of those turn of the century pieces of rolling stock from ... ah .... Model Die Casting. I wonder if they are still around? I kinda ignored them in the "wayback".

If I needed to make a final choice right now I would lean heavily on John Allens work in the 60's. But, I don't need to make that choice now. Most importantly I want to get the area cleaned out, repainted blue (sky) from about 48 inches up, (maybe 36) locate any remaining bits I can use... and "drive that first spike". I'd given up hobbies as a single man. Boy was I silly.
 
I think Athearn has the old MDC stuff. They have upgraded them a bit. Forexample the price has been upgraded over that which you would remember.


http://www.athearn.com/Products/HO/#rnd


The old time stuff is in their Roundhouse range. You'll find the odd old MDC item in their RTR range too (eg: ore hoppers).

A good way to save money is go to the shows and swap meets, then hunt for the old second hand stuff. People have been picking up lots of old blue box and similar on the cheap.
 
Obviously the divorce "auditor" was a lazy man (so was I sorta). As I went through the boxes I found literally thousands of dollars of stuff, at least ten pounds of car and loco details, same thing with walls and roofs etc, I can't remember the manufacturer. As mentioned earlier, windows and doors, hundreds of "people" painted and unpainted, lots of structure details by SS, and other manufacturers. A big box of material, plastic strips and sheets, and brass. I also probably have enough rolling stock to get started. I haven't found my paint box, which I have seen. Tons of tools, 3 airbrushes, moto tools... Now I need a bunch of lumber and track I'll be on my way!
 
You can check Craigslist for model railroad items. In my local Craigslist somebody is selling a complete layout, with everything included, for less than a grand.
 
Well Jim, it sounds like you've received a serious bite by the model railroad bug! The only known treatment is indulgence in the hobby.:) I see that you seem to have started treatment. It is strongly suggested that you receive treatments on a regular basis and continue as long and as often as needed. If you're like most of us that will mean a lifetime of care. If only all ills were so easily cared for! Good luck and enjoy!
 
I do feel that way. I remember back in the 80's maybe early 90's when I began to be dissatisfied with code 100 rail. I'm torn between code 70 and code 83 everywhere visible. Any advise? I don't expect that I have much of a possibility of having much motive power, and that's probably OK. Lumber and materials and rail and turnouts are my major need now. I expect to have some pictures of the space next month.
 
JimT said:
I remember back in the 80's maybe early 90's when I began to be dissatisfied with code 100 rail. I'm torn between code 70 and code 83 everywhere visible. Any advise?
Click to expand...
Well, that would depend on when and where you decide to model. Code 70 and 75 would be good for main lines from 1900-1940 and branches everywhere. Code 83 for big time railroading 1940s through the 1980s. In the 1990s railroads began cutting back from the class 5 track (Alas even the Santa Fe speed-way was downgraded to class 4 rail), so back to code 75 would be most prototypical.

code 70 and code 75 limit your choice of track vendors. Many more companies make code 83 and code 100 track. Code 83 is almost the "standard" these days. That AHM 4-4-0 might have a really hard time with code 83 rail. the pizza cutter wheel flanges are just too deep for code-83 and will often bounce along the top of the rails.

BTW - I am doing the opposite thing in reverse. I am doing some interior remodeling, so I had to move the train equipment. I was going through the boxes to catalog them doing into storage and have been amazed at the cool things I found that I had "forgotten" I purchased through the years, or I had just not seen in a while. For example, I found a "pizza" storage box (36"x24") of almost the entire roster of Platte Valley & Western box cars. They looked so nice all laid out each in their own pigeon hole. The next pizza box had the locos. Wow, I quit the PV&W in 2006 and the layout was razed last year. Memories. I found a BLI SW7 painted for T&P....
 
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I'm leaning to code 70 where visible. I'm sure I'll make a sacrifice or two along the way. I have a bunch of AHM/Rivarossi cars that wont be a problem as I have found literally hundreds of truck and wheel set to change them over. So much to do.
 
Found lots more stuff, no track though. So it's plywood, screen, and some lumber waiting for a but more. Actually I decided to built an oversize John Allen timesaver expanded to allow for scenery. That won't cost to much, and I even have a big piece of ply..... still exciting!
 
JimT and all,

At first, this might not sound like a lot of help. But let me ask anyway...

What do you want to do? Is there a particular railroad or time period you want to model? Do you want the craftsmanship that the folks who are into prototype modeling strive for? Are you looking to build a layout that looks great enough to be on the cover of Model Railroader? Would you be happy with a layout that runs perfectly but doesn't have much (if any) scenery? Etc., etc., etc...

My personal philosophy is -- it's MY railroad, I will do whatever I want with it. If you (with "you" being in the figurative sense) don't like it, that's your choice. Feel free to fire away with criticism, comments, whatever... but when all is said and done, it's still MY layout, MY railroad.

My goals are to have a layout that runs pretty well and looks pretty good. But I don't particularly care about 100% "accuracy". My general time setting will be somewhere from 1968-1972 -- but that's just a general time setting. I have a nice 4-6-0 and a short string of 1880's - 1890's passenger cars that will make an occasional appearance. Engines from different railroads that never interconnected and/or different eras will appear. I just might get a kick of said 4-6-0 pulling a string of hi-cube boxcars around. :D Amtrak will most likely NOT make an appearance -- and there will be ABSLOUTELY NO "MODERN" GRAFFITI allowed!! (Well, unless I get an urge to build a boxcar or two that we see nowadays -- just to see if I can do it...)

I realize that some of what I've said will be considered sacrilege to some... my apologies to those folks, you have every right to be offended. But it's still MY railroad, and I'll run it the way I see fit. Now that doesn't mean I won't listen; a good, convincing argument might show me "the error of my ways"... :confused:

Personally, I will be running a lot of old Athearn blue-box engines and cars on Code 100 track, using DC and not DCC... I do not want to incur the expense of changing those old Athearn engines to DCC, nor do I want to get rid of all of my Code 100 track. To me, properly laid, painted and weathered Code 100 looks good enough for me. I will note that I've completely changed over to Kadee couplers -- those old "horn-hooks", while cheap, were way too much trouble! :( And I'm the the process of changing my rolling stock to metal wheelsets. But overall, I'd rather spend that money saved on "new stuff", such as the better detailed scenery that's now available, or the wider choice in buildings and motor vehicles.

Yes, the equipment that today's producers are coming out with is miles beyond what most of my 30-40-50-year-old stuff looks like. However, as I get older, I find my fingers don't quite have the same "touch" that they used to -- and I've broken pieces off of some of my newer equipment that are just too fragile for me to handle. Some of my stuff was acquired 50+ years ago, when I was still in grade school -- but I don't break those when I handle them. And most of the time, I just don't see a lot of difference in the cars when the train is moving (as long as they're properly weathered). So for me -- the "old stuff" is good enough.

But that is just ME. In my OPINION, we are all free to do whatever we wish with our layouts. You've asked for suggestions, and maybe someone will guide you into where YOU want to go. Maybe what I've posted here will be of some help... and maybe not.

Either way -- welcome back to the hobby! And HAVE FUN with it!! After all, what good is a hobby that is no fun, eh? :D

Good luck and best regards,
Tom Stockton
 
We share many of our outlooks on life, and MRRing Tom. If pressed hard I would have to admit that now, my prototype is more John Allen's Gorre and Deafeated than anything else. In my former life I was a devote of the Union Pacific, and while I'd love to have a U.P. 2-8-0 on my layout I can almost gaurentee it would be the biggest locomotive on my rails.

Money is a huge problem, just the lumber, rail, wall paint, track and roadbed will be a major chore to be plotted and planned in the next year or so. But that's OK. I've been lucky enough to find a few hundred Kadee's, 6 cheap turnouts, and all the tools and hardware I used to have (it's still there!) I also have a couple of more loco's found. Enough UP ballast for a huge layout, and all the tree making stuff I'll use. I found a few rock molds, most are gone. Tonight I found 350-400 bottles of Poly S and mostly Floquil, in the box was my old Oster hand "massager" I shook a couple of bottles of Floquil and it turned back to paint. Generally speaking, I'm feeling really blessed.
 
John Allen was subjected to criticism in his own time period by some who believed that modeling was an excercise to recreate a period absolutely as it was. I think that's fine but it runs into trouble when taking that position means that anything less is "just playing with trains." I loved Allen because he was capable of remarkable detail while at the same time displaying a great sense of humor. For me, Allen is the artist painting the picture while the hard line prototype person is a craftsman, working from blueprints. Nothing wrong with either unless they get in your face. Tom Stockton has it right in my mind. It's his railroad. The same applies to mine. What gets bad is when you are not willing to show what you do because someone is going to try to dismiss your efforts.

We all love trains. That should be enough.
 
G'day Jim...Your diagnosis is "Modeltrainitis"...It's a particularly virulent disease , incurable , addictive , and you'll be afflicted for the rest of your life , most probably but what a way to go..I have it myself , along with millions of others ,,epidemic proportions...The main symptom is being at work or somewhere and all you can think of is getting home or to the club for the next building or Ops session...Another symptom is a related affliction called "Ebayodema" "..when you 'must' check Ebay for some great deals , Buy It Now or Auction for model train stuff and manifests itself when the patient gets angry when saying "Why didn't I make the Maximum bid on that loco more." or you have fits of joy when you successfully win a bid..Does MTA exist ..Model Train Anonymous..and if it was illegal to have fun...There'd be lots of us arrested...You are one of us....Thanks for the great post...Cheers Rod..
 
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Well, I don't expect to be arrested Rodney, and I have made progress. First, I am spending an hour a day on my railroad room, cleaning it out, getting rid of stuff (selling some!) and in general de-bugging it. My cats (2) are quite interested. I have been to Home Depot and have a gallon of light blue paint, backdrop goes on the walls, I own this place. I already have about a gallon and a half of white. I also have a buddy at a construction sight who is "putting aside" long chunks, hopefully this will defray some lumber costs.

Now to the trains, I have salvaged much scenery and tree stuff, probably 50 bags plus about a dozen tree kits, Woodland Scenics, and I know about our local bushes. good. Lots of ballast, lots 3 times more than I'll need. I've found a couple of small boxes of rock molds, forgot who made them. I have a big piece of plywood for the Timesaver. Lots of structures I probably won't use all of them. I read the thread by HOexplorer and have started again, that's about half of what I'd like to do. While my previous scenery experiance wasn't up to his, it's given me a place to start. My space is substantially bigger than his too, and I intend to have two temporary extentions for "running" as he called it.

Equipment / Era? I couldn't decide between 1st gen desmal and light steam, so I'm not going to decide. I can have two sets of motive power in my budget (which is tiny). I sold a Mantua Pacific and an Mogul on flea bay already..... giving me more than enough ammo to aquire an GE 44t, GE 70t, with almost $75 to spare. Along with my three Alco RS-2-3's (3 total) I'm set for 1943 wartime desmal power. I can take all the time I want looking for more steam for my 1930 steam roster. Currently I have an OK Rivarossi 0-4-0 with a tender (Mantua) that runs nicely. And a small shoebox of 0-4-0 Dockside and 0-6-0 Tyco "big six" carcasses, I really want another Rivarossi two truck Heisler. I'm searching for (not impatiently) Roundhouse "old time" flat cars, a tank or two, and maybe a few ore Hoppers. I FOUND and fixed two Varney tank cars that are beautiful, and a couple of low, 40' box and cattle cars. I have cabeese too, I'm pretty flush actually. There are no more boxes to sort. I'm giving a lot (not actually a lot, a big box) of sectional track and toy cars to a charity, as soon as I find one.

This is fun! An hour a day on the room, and spare time tinkering with the stuff I've found like those Varney tank cars, and old loco's. Sold the big Mantua's already, plus a bunch of slot car stuff, and no household money gone. I'm impatient as heck.

Will someone tell me what happened to that HOexplorer guy..... his thread was inspiring (although I wasn't impressed with his trackwork). I can't wait to write, "There be trains thar"....
 
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