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Ever look back in time?

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  • Member since
    June 2005
  • 4,351 posts
Ever look back in time?
Posted by Darth Santa Fe on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 10:50 PM

As I continue to transfer all my photos out of Photobucket, I've come across a lot from where I was when I first joined up to where things are now.  Sometimes it's amazing to look back at how things were and wonder how you ever survived!


Stuck on the bedroom floor.  Didn't have many other places to setup at the time though!


And the tribble attacks were fierce!  I managed to fight them off with some quadrotriticale.


I finally started an actual layout!  Yay!!  That was 15 years ago...


Got the track arrangment set not too long after.


Added details little by little...


Today's condition!

My layout progress is a lot slower than many others, but I mostly work on the trains themselves, so the layout ends up being something I do a little at a time as I get to it.  Even so, things have really come a long way!  Do you ever look back at photos of your own layouts and compare them to now?Big Smile

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  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 11:07 PM

Darth Santa Fe
Sometimes it's amazing to look back at how things were.

The very first pictures I showed in here were of my efforts to back-date a gondola car.

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Darth Santa Fe
And the tribble attacks were fierce!  I managed to fight them off with some quadrotriticale.

How do you fight off tribbles using quadrotriticale? I thought they ate the stuff. That would just attract more of them, or they would breed more.

Geeked NERD ALERT Geeked NERD ALERT Geeked NERD ALERT Geeked

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Collinwood, Ohio, USA
  • 16,226 posts
Posted by gmpullman on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 11:59 PM

Sometimes I think I spend more time dwelling on my past and my childhood adventures than I do in the present. Call it my comfort zone Whistling

I'm on the left, my friend Jimmy Angelo on the right. Don't know who made the plastic track system we're playing with but we spent hours with it.

 EJT_1963 (2016_08_19 23_16_55 UTC) by Edmund, on Flickr

Regards, Ed

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Bakersfield, CA 93308
  • 6,526 posts
Posted by RR_Mel on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 12:54 AM

The older I get the more I think about my first HO layout back in the early 50s, I was 14 when I built an around the wall shelf layout.  I didn't have a camera so just memories. 

Back then there wasn’t any flex track, I had to hand lay iron rails on fiber ties.  The ties came as a 25’ roll from Atlas for $1.25 and rails were 5¢ each or 3 for a dime. 

I bought my first HO locomotive an MDC 0-6-0 kit for $6.85 with paper route money.  Still runs great!

Happy times!

Mel


 
My Model Railroad   
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
 
Bakersfield, California
 
Turned 84 in July, aging is definitely not for wimps.

  • Member since
    August 2020
  • 561 posts
Posted by Southgate 2 on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 1:04 AM

I don't have pictures of my youth-hood layouts. But here's a look at when I was beginning my current layout, 11-30-2006. The track in the right foreground was there from a section of the previous layout I moved into this room and expanded.

   

The track then was extended all the way around the along-the-walls layout, fully operational, and some scenery skeleton had been added.  What's ironic is that I didn't like what the track plan had become, I eventually replaced or relocated every inch of track, EXCEPT for what is in this picture! 

By 2018, the track plan had evolved to where it is now, but the backdrop had gaps in it, and didn't go all the way up to the ceiling. And there were only 6 light fixtures up there.   

   

 In 2018 I tore out the backdrop, sheetrocked all the way up and painted, and added 6 more lights to even up the light-dark contrasts. All with the layout in place!  Much progress has been made since then too, but I'm having some files troubles. Dan

 

 

  • Member since
    March 2021
  • From: Grants Pass, OR
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Posted by Pauley on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 5:14 PM

After I got into the hobby back in 2017, the town that unfolded looked familiar. When I had occasion to go through some old pictures, I found out why. I had created pretty much the same layout with a Kenner Girder and Panel Building Set back in 1964.

 The first part of my current layout, 2018:

  • Member since
    June 2005
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Posted by Darth Santa Fe on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 5:26 PM

SeeYou190

How do you fight off tribbles using quadrotriticale? I thought they ate the stuff. That would just attract more of them, or they would breed more.

I used it to lure them to the Klingon ship, where there would be no Tribble at all.Big Smile

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  • Member since
    January 2013
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Posted by PM Railfan on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 8:42 PM

Off Topic

"Ever look back in time?"......

          - Yep, every morning when i get my first look in the mirror!. Laugh

 

PMR

 

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    February 2015
  • From: Ludington, MI
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Posted by Water Level Route on Thursday, December 2, 2021 5:21 AM

I have no pictures of my early days of model railroading.  I still look up what the box of that first train set had and smile.  Everything to hook a young boy!  Not just a train and some track, but buildings, scenery, an operating crossing gate, and even a completely realistic mountain tunnel! Laugh  I had a blast with this set.  Didn't set it up like the picture, but I can still see that first layout clearly in my mind.

Mike

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, December 2, 2021 8:59 AM

Darth Santa Fe
I used it to lure them to the Klingon ship, where there would be no Tribble at all.

Bow  Yes  Laugh

I see. Baited tribble trapping to end the troubles. Nice idea.

Water Level Route
I have no pictures of my early days of model railroading.

I do not have any either. The oldest pictures I have of me model railroading are from High School days.

My younger sister is supposed to be bringing me boxes of pictures from my mother's belongings, maybe there is something in there.

We will see.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,333 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Thursday, December 2, 2021 8:25 PM

To go back in time, I just go up one flight of stairs.  My layout is Transition Era for a reason.  I like it back there.

Back in the day, I always heard crickets and tree frogs.   I saw fireflies and lots of stars.  I could hear trains on the other side of town if it was still enough.

We have lost much in modern life, haven't we?

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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