hello Bill...it was 1959,i was 4 yrs old...when i woke up one christmas morning to an unfamiliar sound......the sound of that old 671 steamer with its whistling tender racing around the track.!! i will never forget that sound of the whistle screeching out its sharp tone. and i still have that set today.!!! my Dad also had cut the layout in half...for easy handling. and it too spent its life on sawhorses built for it. the platform degraded severley after we moved in 1969 from the suburbs of Philadelphia to the mountains of northeast Pa,,...and the set went into storage. i resurrected it for the first time in 2002,,,,when i used a small oval under my christmas tree on a 4x4 piece pf plywood with some brand new 027 track.. the engine still runs as strong as it did then,and the whistle still blows well. a yearly teardown and cleaning and lube does them very well. i am in the process now of building a local "trainyard scene" on a 38 x 82 inch plywood and 1x3 constructed layout using 027 curves.lots of switching action and several seperate block sections let me run 2 locos independantly of each other and also a few select handcars from my collection.the old 671 has trouble navigating that 27 inch track,but the NW2 switchers and short 4 wheel locos i now own run well on it. a few building,some landscape and some railyard figures will be all i will add. hope to post pics when its done. finishing up my block wiring and un-coupler wiring as i write!! all wiring is color coded and labeled to make for quick troubleshooting when problems develop...and we all know they will!! my collection has grown considerably the past 9 or so years, but i still own the 671 with its tender and the 5 original cars that we had so many yrs ago! just thought i'd share a bit of nostalgia with you all.
For the O gauge layout I'm planning, I've been thinking of having an amusment park and a loop of N gauge around the perimeter so the park goers can take a cruise around the park.
It was around 1954 that I graduated from a Lionel floor layout that had to be disassembled each time after running the trains to a 4x8 real layout. My Dad and Uncle built the saw horses and had to cut the sheet of plywood in half to navigate the tight stairwell to my bedroom. Pretty much took up all the available space in my bedroom that was not needed for my twin size bed. Those Postwar locomotives really logged the miles then.
Bill T.
yeah thats what happened to me Becky, one little 4 x 4 ,with a 36 inch Fastrak circle...under the tree a few yrs back....now it's hard to find a place to sit in here...lol its amazing to watch some white pine and plywood take shape though!!!
survivor thats a nice lil layout.... pics can be decieving......how 'not so little' is it actually?
thats a nice lil layout.... pics can be decieving......how 'not so little' is it actually?
4 by 6 feet. It's not much but it's all my little bedroom can handle! It started out as a circle, just a test track. But as we all know, those little circles are prone to rapid expansion!
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Good afternoon all,
I have a 4x12 Standard gauge layout in the attic, and some floor O-gauge layouts in the main floor area. If and when we get a room addition built, I plan to have a 6x12 standard gauge and a 4x8 permanent O gauge set of layouts in that area. Possibly I may add a small HO layout to display all the Plasticville from my youth. I hope everyone has a good day.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Note: I edited the topic to read 'separate' instead of 'dual'. Sorry for the confusion.
Layout is 100% O gauge 3 rail but on occasions will set-up a Standard Gauge or a Kusan 2 rail O gauge on the carpet.
i have a hard enough time with 3 seperate layouts...O ...Ho...and N all in my liv room...hmmmmm,combining scale...now theres an idea...think ill need a bigger room
I have often mixed some "O" with my "S".
Ray
Bayville, NJ
Life is what happens to youWhile you're busy making other plans - John Lennon
I haven't run any O Scale trains since 1965 so excuse me for butting in here. The last dual scale layout I built was HO and N, but not running side by side. This layout was pushing forced perspective to the limit. Two trains, one HO, one N. Otherwise identical. The HO train would be running at the front of the layout and go into a tunnel. Unseen by those watching it would stop. After a suitable amount of time the N Scale train would start and emerge from a tunnel at the back of the layout and run about a bit before entering another tunnel and stopping. Again, after a suitable time had passed the HO train would start and emerge from another tunnel opening at the front of the layout. There wasn't much in the way of operation but it sure was good for a gag.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
It's small, but I run O and S gauge in my bedroom:
This was of course the Christmas version. It gets remodeled around this time of the year into my "summer layout."
However I've always wanted to do scale O and On30 on one table, S and HO on another and G and Standard on a third! Maybe even some N gauge on the big trains layout running in somebody's backyard!
As you probably know by now from reading my posts, I was "into" H.O. for a long time before joining the "O' team. Thought I was cured.......A neighbor brought over an H.O. engine to look at and, like a recovering addict, the "juices" began to flow.
How many of you have sparate layouts, that is, one for the "O" and one for another gauge?
As always, many thanks.
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