New collector in need of guidance.

[Anonymous]

Hello - I am a collector of vintage memorabilia and am designing a vintage themed restaurant in the Atlantic City NJ area. One of my decor ideas was to have the large scale model trains setup to run the perimeter of the cieling throughout the dining room, through a wall where they would "disappear" from customer view and through a wall again to re-enter the room. This would be a great novelty and would fit in with the decor. The area to cover is approx. 33' wide x 29' deep, so I would need approx 130 linear feet ot track and or trestle.
I KNOW NOTHING about trains. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated on the best trains, guage, etc to select and the type of vendor or hobbyist to seek out in order to get this installed correctly. Please eMail Ken at [e-mail] with any suggestions. I'd be happy to reciprocate with advice in my area of expertise - coin op, memorabilia, vintage arcade, etc. You can check my site out at www.gameroomconnection.com. I'd also be happy to offer free banner advertising on my site in exchange for assistance or guidance in this endeavor. Any honest vendors out there willing to help? I'd love to chat. Please eMail [e-mail] . I am not a regular on this board, so direct eMail would be appreciated. Thanks. ...Sincerely, Ken Schaffer

[SPFan]

Ken, I'd suggest making the rounds of your local hobby shops and check out the magazines that cater to large scale trains like CTT and Garden railroading. There are ads in there for folks who do the work and supply the materials. You may want to ask also if there are local people who might do this.
Pete

[bowlerp]

By large scale, do you mean LGB type, known as G-gauge? They are good for such display because easy to see from below due to size. O-gauge would be another option - meaning Lionel or MTH (Mike's Train House). Both scales are simple to set up and run in your scenario. Perhaps the LGB has a slight edge. Marklin of Germany makes the best G-gauge trains, though they are not cheap. I suggest that steam locomotives are the most visually interesting to spectators, and pulling lighted passenger cars presents a nice little spectacle, especially in reduced room lighting. You must decide what era to buy - there are lots of LGB of the American west variety, little 4-4-0 locomotives and representations of small wooden passenger coaches. They also have mid-20th century American trains from the railroad zenith period. These are larger locomotives and streamlined passenger cars from the high speed era. Look at all of them and decide which you think fits your place best.

[marxman]

Ken;

What a wonderful idea! It would expose many people to model railroading. I also recommend making the rounds of your local train hobby shops to get imput on scale, area to model, what all you can incorporate into this. You also need to find someone locally who can not only help you set this up, but some one who can trouble shoot, service and repair for you on a regular basis.

I have a brother-in-law who does this for a restaurant in Michigan. Every week or two he checks in with them to see how their trains are running, and does any needed cleaning, service or repairs on them to keep them running. This is really some heavy duty service these trains pull running about 12-14 hours per day. An experenced service man will be an invalueable asset in this endevour. You may even be able to get some dealer or even a manufacturer to donate items in exchange for advertising their products.

Good Luck![:D]