Trackage Rights

[RR Redneck]

I models of only western railroads, I am also the only one of all my friends in the hobby that has a operating layout. The problem is that they dont have western models. I have 4 that love the midwestern lines, and I have three that run nothing but eastern railroad equipment. Now I dont know about you, but a New York Central F7 looks pretty out of place in Death Valley. So charge my friends for trackage rights. For $5-10 a month they get to not only run their equipment on my layout, but they get to run my equipment when we hold our little informal operating sessions. All the money gets pooled towards building the eight of us a larger and more complex layout that we can share. So far we are just $150 off from our goal. We are shooting for an 8' x 14' three rail layout with a triple track main line. With out fancy scenery, just a green painted table top with a crap load of operating accessories.

[cnw1995]

What an interesting idea. I like the related concept of occasionally shipping some rolling stock to a friend to run on his layout - like the OGR forum's traveling boxcar/reefer.

[brianel027]

Well, neat idea you have for your layout-lacking friends. Good job on your goal. Simply scenery doesn't have to be boring... use blue styrofoam insultation board for making movable hills and mountains... works very nicely!

I'm an 027 guy and there are pros and cons to modeling trains of today: trains have gotten bigger and as models, they don't make 027 curves. Nevermind there is very little available from the train companies. I find I have to make things myself. MTH is the only company to have once paid attention to making modern locos for smaller layouts.

Where I live, the Norfolk Southern has a very visable and very busy mainline. The fun thing about railroading today is the variety of locos: it's not uncommon to see units from Santa Fe, BNSF, Soo, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific (CP Rail), Union Pacific, Conrail (still) and once in a while CSX. Even seen an older Southern unit. Yes, there are fewer rail lines today, but they sure do mix it up quite a bit.

I've also been surprised to see some older rolling stock still in use: Penn Central, Erie Lackawanna, Reading, B&O among others. The biggest surprise was about 5 years when I saw a NYC covered hopper still in original paint and looking pretty darn good for all it's years... didn't have my camera that day though.

In the days gone by, amyabe the railroads didn't mix it up as much. But like with one of my favorites, the Lehigh Valley, they had friendly agreements with the D&H and the N&W, so it wasn't out of place to see those units on the head-end of Lehigh trains. Guess it depends on the lines you model. I wouldn't doubt that at one time or another, a Santa Fe unit ended up on a Pennsy or NYC train, especially heading into a heavy metro area like New York City or Chicago.

[RR Redneck]

We sat down and agreed on just a painted table top. We want a layout focused more on operation, even if the scenery is lack luster. I'll admit that even to this day the buzz of vintage e-units and the lights and sounds of operating accessories facinates me, but then again, who isn't?