You are a great bunch of guys, Its nice to share my toys with you.
My wife thinks of them as silly toys and she is partially correct. They are toys, but not at all silly to me. I have a wonderful wife that never complains about my trains, the time, money or space they take up, but she could careless when I tell her about my latest toy. Only thing she likes about them is that they make me happy. I feel the same way about her jewelry.
That is where you guys come in. You know how happy our hobby can make us and sharing it is one of the best parts of it.
Rest easy Mike, the smoke and engine sounds were coming from my Lionel trains, I should have clarified that, sorry about that. Yes I do run O and HO on the same layout. Only because I have not yet found the time to get my HO bench work done. Maybe if I stop playing with my trains and fooling with my inventory I would have more time. I would not be too upset if the smoke had been coming from the Tyco locomotive. God knows I have plenty to cannibalize for parts, plenty of experience rebuilding them and I enjoy working on them.
Gary I have a 4 of those Santa Fe versions, 3 I use for parts and one in very good condition. I also have a Tyco Santa Fe GP20 in outstanding condition! I bought it on eBay form a guy that refurbished it and even hand made the railings and stanchions. The craftsmanship is as good as any I have seen, I really consider his work to be art and you know how much I admire an artist. I hope my work can be half as good as this guys work is. I was not looking to buy a GP20, I was just so impressed by the craftsmanship and no one had bid on it. I paid $24.99 including shipping. I feel I nearly stole it considering how many hours went into the work. its one of my most prized trains. The guy was happy when I told him how much I admired it and how happy I am to have it.
I Have not yet made any progress with scenery and art work on my layout, but you inspired me to start learning techniques and watching other peoples work for inspiration. I have had hours of fun learning. I now feel I can actually do a fair job at the work too. Thanks to you Gary my interest in scenery went from none at all to moving up fast on my to do list. After little league baseball season is over, I coach my grandsons' team, I will have more time and hopefully get it to the top of my to do list. That is if I can stop playing with my trains and changing my track plans, but its so much fun!
Thank you Willis and Tony, the decals are not perfect, but they are the best I have and have seen on eBay. I only paid $27.35 including shipping. I now have bought 17 Tyco ALCO 430s. Some for restoration and others for parts. I also have four 630s and the one GP 20. All totaled I have spent $433.01 on my Tyco Locomotives and another $75.95 on the detailing packs and other parts. I know it is a lot of money to spend on toys, but these Tyco trains are very special to me. My single Mom could not afford Lionel, but I know she did with out something to buy me my first train set, a Tyco and I really loved that train set!
I've rambled on quite a bit, but thinking about the Santa Fe has reminded me of a special (to me) story and if you don't want to read it you don't have to!
When I got interested in model trains full time I wanted to replace the trains I lost after my divorce. I bought a Tyco spirit of 76 and pieced together the rolling stock that I could never forget. I also bought the Life Like Chessie/B&O GP38 and the 100 ton hoppers I had. These were the trains I set up every year under our Christmas tree. I was so happy and I showed my oldest daughter. I asked her "do you remember these trains?" she said "kinda, but the one I remember the most was a red and silver one with big red letters" I had to think and then I remembered. One Christmas eve both my spirit of 76 and my Chessie/B&O broke down. I was working a second job at Toys R Us and I did not have time to go to another store so I bought the only locomotive they had left, a Tyco Santa Fe ALCO 430 red and silver. I only used that train for a short time until I fixed my others. I never used it another Christmas. Of all the years I had trains under our tree she remembers the one Christmas I used the Santa Fe. That must be one of the most memorable paint schemes in history.
