hon30critter Frank! Handsome dude! Unlike most of the rest of us!! Always wanted to drive one of those rigs. Nobody was stupid enough to let me try. Dave
Frank!
Handsome dude! Unlike most of the rest of us!!
Always wanted to drive one of those rigs. Nobody was stupid enough to let me try.
Dave
Dave,
LOL. Those were the good yrs. You wouldn't want to drive one of those on the bad days. Same truck, 2yrs later, stuck in truck stop for 17hours, because of bad wreck on bridge near Oil City. PA.off of I-80, don't make no money sitting still and You still got to pay for the fuel that I'm burning sitting there:
Take Care!
Frank
I figure my layout is at about the -1 year mark. My son, after a couple of setbacks, has finally landed a real career at which he he will be able to make a really decent living. The next step will be to get him to move out on his own, which he really wants to do and has for some time. He has enough money in the bank now to take on an apartment, but he is fixated on buying a car. Tomorrow, on the occasion of his 25th birthday, we will solve the car problem by giving him our 2008 Honda Civic. Hopefully, and with a little bit of loving pushing, he will find his own place soon.
Then, THE GARAGE IS MINE!!!! Ha Ha Ha Ha (evil chuckle sound effect)!
Heck, I've aready cleared out enough junk out of the garage to actually be able to use my spray booth again for the first time in several years. The layout can't be too far behind!( he says hopefully!)
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Jetrock,
Your layout sounds interesting. I was always interested in street running and interurban, but really never got my feet wet. I grew up in Chgo in early fourties, so saw a lot of that.
Built the first three sections (adding up to 17 linear feet of shelf layout, 21 square feet) in 2005-2006, moved the layout to a new house in 2006, added four more modules and expanded one from 3 to 6 feet--currently at 46 linear feet of shelf layout, about two-thirds of the way around my 11x24 foot layout room, about 56 square feet. The plan is eventually to reach all the way around the room, finishing the existing modules before expanding farther--then, expanding via peninsulas into the center of the room. HO scale standard gauge, interurban/urban switching layout using small diesel and electric locomotive, minimum radius 15" mainline/12" siding.
Let's see. I started one about 12 years ago in the basement of my then current house. It never got beyond the raw wood stage because I moved into the condo I am in now. I tried to move the layout and, needless to say, it didn't go well. I reassembled parts of it 7 years ago, other pieces of it were recycled, added two new sections and began the scenery about 3 years ago. I still have some raw wood so my the objective is to get these areas 'done' this winter - maybe. Looking at adding another new section.
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
This layout began in 1983 and it has grown over the years. Just about the time I think it is done, I come up with something else to change. The only thing that is still as it was on the original layout is the farm and that has moved across the layout. Oh, well.
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
richhotrain NP2626 I started this layout in 1988 and have been working on it for 26 years. 20 locomotives and 130+ freight and Passenger cars later, the layout seems to take a back seat every once in a while to R/C airplanes. I have determined that maybe 20 locomotives is 10 to many, the maintenance on that many, takes up to much time. I suppose if I'd bought all DCC ready locos the maintenance would be less. Still, I sort of enjoy taking DC locos and converting them to DCC. NP2626, it was your reply to another thread where you mentioned 26 years that inspired me to start this thread. My goodness, that is a long time. Good for you. Rich
NP2626 I started this layout in 1988 and have been working on it for 26 years. 20 locomotives and 130+ freight and Passenger cars later, the layout seems to take a back seat every once in a while to R/C airplanes. I have determined that maybe 20 locomotives is 10 to many, the maintenance on that many, takes up to much time. I suppose if I'd bought all DCC ready locos the maintenance would be less. Still, I sort of enjoy taking DC locos and converting them to DCC.
I started this layout in 1988 and have been working on it for 26 years. 20 locomotives and 130+ freight and Passenger cars later, the layout seems to take a back seat every once in a while to R/C airplanes. I have determined that maybe 20 locomotives is 10 to many, the maintenance on that many, takes up to much time. I suppose if I'd bought all DCC ready locos the maintenance would be less. Still, I sort of enjoy taking DC locos and converting them to DCC.
NP2626, it was your reply to another thread where you mentioned 26 years that inspired me to start this thread. My goodness, that is a long time. Good for you.
Rich
I have an understanding wife who has encouraged me to continue to be involved in the hobbys I participated in, as a kid! She tempers my buying habits which would be: see it, like it, buy it, if not for her. I'm concerned (as I have been many times in the past) that I may have overstepped my boundries this month, as I just bought a Walther's Proto 0-8-0 N.P. switcher and a few other items and am over $300.00.
Still she knows that I wouldn't do this if I didn't absolutly need this stuff!
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
richhotrainI just wonder how old are some of your layouts?
Mine began with the rental of a diamond concrete saw in 1995! I had to move the darned laundry room from the outside basement wall to a more central location and the drain lines had to be moved... I never looked back. I like the design and track plan I have for my layout, tonight it is 13°F outside and 71° in the basement. I have indirect lighting, drop ceiling, "almost" wall to wall carpet, stereo, two big flat screen TVs and I can stay in my basement layout room 'til the goats come home (I raise goats) So I am reasonably content trains are proof that God loves us! Well, and too! Ed
I must be a poor hobbiest because the initial work on what is now called in my household as the Cascade Valley RR, started life in July/August of 1959. At that tender time it was going to be the Great Atlantic & Pacific RR. As I have become more and more vintage, the scope and backstory gets refined to a smaller and tighter framework. As a youth I could easily envision conquering the world, now just maintaining order in one corner of a cluttered basement seems like a larger accomplishment.
This layout still has original lumber in the benchwork and has been moved many times. Ten years in a hayloft spurred one of several rebuilds over the years.Each rebuild has kept some of the previous work and improved either track work, operations or scenery. I can be as critical of my own work as any one else, but learned a long time ago that I could live with almost any imperfection for a long time, so long as I kept searching for a preferable improvement.
Despite being a bit anachronistic and contrarian to current trends in this hobby, building and operating a railroad is a journey-not a destination. So many facets that I have yet to master, so much great modeling that others do that I take great delight in seeing.
Don H.
Have fun with your trains
Only about 2.
NP2626 Per carl425 "I've got a pile of Proto 2000 GP9's you can convert if you need a "fix"." These are pretty easy to do, if I remember correctly, its simply a matter of removing the circuit board they are provided with and installing a drop in decoder.
Per carl425 "I've got a pile of Proto 2000 GP9's you can convert if you need a "fix"."
These are pretty easy to do, if I remember correctly, its simply a matter of removing the circuit board they are provided with and installing a drop in decoder.
Mostly, although I rip out the incandescent bulbs and add LEDs with resistors, and just use a regular wire harness decoder. End result is 0 worries about any defects on the factory circuit board and lights that will outlive my grandchildren, should I ever have any (not in any rush here...)
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
How old is my layout? What time is it?
We moved to our current house for good (it was our vacation house prior for about a year) this June, and in late August She-who-must-be-obeyed gave me dispensation to take over the 3rd bedroom for my trains. Just got the last of the benchwork up last week, using wall brackets and 80"x18" folding doors I got from Home Depot.
Unlike my previous layout in our last house that I started building in 2003 with stand-alone cookie-cutter benchwork, and never really finished because it got away from me (plans didn't match reality, a sad, often heard tale), I'm keeping this one simple. Around the wall (U-shaped with removable staging tracks at each end) switching branch line, combo of pink foam and Woodland Scenics SubTerrain, with mostly a single track with two passing sidings and a bunch of industrial sidings.
I have most of the base scenery for one of the three sides done (ran out of foam and waiting for more to arrive), and should have it done enough to have trains running on it by Thanksgiving.
So my layout is probably the "baby" of the bunch here. :)
I started on my layout in January 2011. I can always add detail,more lighting,etc.,but it's basically "done". I plan to run/work on this for at least a few more years - I am still having fun with it,but at some point I'll tear it down to the benchwork and build an On3 layout in it's place...or not...
Mike
Buckskin & Platte (BS&P) Coal Brick Loop - Consolidated Materials Group.
Est. June 2, 2004 (N.M.R.A. 14-006). Reporting mark: BS&P R.R.
Five-months, 15-days- -and it looks like it!
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
richhotrainyour reply to another thread where you mentioned 26 years that inspired me to start this thread. My goodness, that is a long time.
Kind of reminds me of the Japanese kid that gets a Bonsai tree at birth and seventyfive years later it is still only a foot tall. We'll call this Railroad Bonsai.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Alton Junction
About 9 months old - still being built.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
NP2626Still, I sort of enjoy taking DC locos and converting them to DCC.
I've got a pile of Proto 2000 GP9's you can convert if you need a "fix".
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
I had built 4 layouts when I was kid. So, I’ve been at this hobby a good long time
A good lookin guy Frank. I'm sayin that because you kinda look like me. My wife walked buy and did a double take, I think she was wondering why I was on a CSX truck. I never did any long haul trucking, The extent of driving tractor's was relocating one or taking it from the airport to the shop or something local in an emergency when the regular guy got hurt or didn't show up at the last minute.
I drove an awful lot in my job and that included a lot of weird airbrake and/or electric vehicles that you might see around an airport or other similar place. Mostly it was a pickup, van or car between the airport, docks or railyards. I drove enough that I got inducted into the million mile club after 21 years. I retired from working logistics with the the Federal Government with 36 years of accident free driving.
I'm getting the feeling that most of our layouts are 10 to 15 years old.
Hi Guys:
Started remodelling the basement in 2002, first operating session in Dec of 03.
Some sidings and lots of scenry added since, as the first session was on bare plywood with cardboard boxes in some places for industries.
I started my N scale 15'-12' MKT Ozark division one year ago to the month! It took me about 10 months to finish the benchwork, and for the last two months I have been laying track. I'm hoping to do some wiring this weekend and have a train running by next week!
BATMAN richhotrain Frank's would be the oldest so far That's because Frank is the oldest.
richhotrain Frank's would be the oldest so far
That's because Frank is the oldest.
I resemble, that remark! LOL.
Yours truly, with His new 1993 Freightliner at 51yrs old:
richhotrainFrank's would be the oldest so far
All very interesting so far. Started in 1981, Frank's would be the oldest so far, but if it has been "redone", it may be newer. Hoping to hear about some more ancient layouts.
Started on mine 1981...has been redone, downsized for being too big and now one end section being completely redone and of course it will never be done. If it was....it would be boring to me. I enjoy, building, not playing. LOL.