Hey, some of you may know me from a few places (like the Bachmann and TYCO forums, Facebook or YouTube...), or if you don't, I thought I'd share my unique HO-scale train layout!
Although I enjoy HO-scale model railroading, I am also into some of the "old school" HO train stuff, especially older products made by companies like AHM, Bachmann, Life-Like and TYCO. (It helps that my first electric train set when I was starting out was a Life-Like set!) This layout features a nifty combination of older and newer stuff, and while it may not be totally realistic or prototypical, it's lots of fun, and I enjoy running it like a real railroad. It features older operating "action" cars and accessories, some classic rolling stock from the '60s to the '80s, structures from that same era, and more! Yet there are still plenty of "newer" model railroading entities utilized, such as DCC, knuckle couplers, nickel-silver track, etc.
I first began building it in March 2014. It is on an L-shaped platform made out of two 4x8 plywood sheets; one of them is supported on an old modified dining table, and the other is on 3x2 lumber benchwork with a shelf underneath for storing stuff. Landscaping was done with painting directly onto the table, with the appropriately-colored ground foam (mostly Woodland Scenics) added in necessary areas. Most of the track is Atlas Code-100 nickel-silver snap-track, except for a couple of grade crossings and the lighted bumpers.My main railroad that runs on my layout is the BNSF Railway, along with Amtrak passenger service. There isn't really a set time period on my layout, as sometimes you'll have steam and diesel running together, the BNSF using an old Santa Fe F3 on one train and a modern BNSF Dash-8 on another, etc.
Overviews of the layout.
My long-distance passenger train consist. The locomotive is an Athearn ready-to-run Amtrak P42 "Genesis" diesel (I already ordered a decoder for it), and the rolling stock is older 72-foot Amtrak cars made by TYCO and Life-Like. It sure beats using one of TYCO's unprototypical Amtrak locomotives!
The station is a Life-Like "Snap-Loc" Dickerson Station building kit that came with my "Freight Runner" train set from when I built my past layout. I added details, figures and interior lighting to it.
TYCO lighted freight station from the '70s. This particular station was also sold in kit form by Revell, AHM and IHC over time.
Life-Like lighted yard tower and Model Power operating wayside signal.
The farm on my layout, including an apple orchard and a stock pen (from Life-Like, it also came with the "Freight Runner" set.) The barn is a Plasticville kit that I modified by painting white trim (as I didn't really like the plain red look to the walls and doors...) The chicken coop is also Bachmann, the produce stand is from Woodland Scenics, and the windmill is from Life-Like.
More of the residental area. You can also see an Exxon gas station (an IHC kit formerly made by TYCO), and the church and general store (both Life-Like kits that are still made today.) The green farmhouse was made by Pola, and is currently being sold by Walthers in their Trainline series (mine was branded by TYCO.)
A Woodland Scenics tunnel, with trees surrounding it (from Bachmann, Life-Like and Woodland Scenics) and a few deer (Model Power figures.)
One of the two freight trains I normally run on my layout. The locomotive is a DCC-equipped Bachmann BNSF GP40 that came with my E-Z Command unit, pulling various rolling stock from AHM, Bachmann, TYCO and Walthers.
My control panel. It's also sometimes used as a workbench for small projects. As you would expect, the Bachmann E-Z Command unit is what I use to run my trains. The TYCO power pack operates the turnouts and a few classic TYCO action cars/accessories. The Atlas Connector is used to provide power to an isolated siding for parking an analog locomotive on.
A TYCO operating box car from the '70s. When the button is pushed, it unloads crates into the bin, very much like the Lionel equivalent.
Say what you want, but the freight trains on my layout still use cabooses!
A newer Bachmann "animated" stock car featuring bobbing horses. Lionel made a similar product back in the '60s.
A TYCO crane car and boom tender. They made a Santa Fe version in the '70s, and a The Rock version in the '80s. (I went with the Santa Fe version, to keep with the BNSF consistency.)
|Lighted bumpers. The one on the left is a TYCO Tru-Steel lighted bumper track from the late '70s or early '80s, and the one on the right is a newer Life-Like nickel-silver lighted bumper track (Life-Like began making nickel-silver snap track early last year.)
TYCO freight-unloading depot. When a button is pressed (wired from the accessory), the forklift thingy will push a pipe section off the flat car.
Most locomotives I run on my layout are much newer models than what was available in the '70s and '80s, in most cases, like this BNSF "Fakebonnet" Dash 8-40BW from Walthers (I hardwired a TCS T1 decoder into it for DCC operation.)
The school on my layout consists of a Life-Like Union Avenue School building kit from the '90s, with a Plasticville school building behind it for additional classroom space.The industrial section, with a Life-Like Ace Supermarket located near it. There is also a Life-Like Mt. Vernon Manufacturing Co. kit, a TYCO Lighted Factory building from the 70s, and a TYCO "Machine Shop" building kit (made by Pola; this kit is now being sold in the Walthers Trainline series.)
TYCO operating crossing gate. This is the older version with a more detailed base, and a removable track section (I replaced the original brass track with a nickel-silver track section, for obvious reasons.) Quite a few other companies copied this, such as Bachmann, Life-Like and Pemco. I may someday install LEDs in the signals and wire it up so it flashes when a train passes through.
A Moped dealership! This was made by Life-Like in the '80s as one of their "Build-a-Scene" kits.
The furniture store, movie theater and drug store are TYCO "Center St." building kits from the '80s. IHC also sold them for some time in the '90s, after TYCO stopped making HO trains.
I even have a KFC, a Burger King and a Pizza Hut on my layout. The KFC is from Life-Like and is still sold today, and the Burger King and Pizza Hut were both sold by AHM and TYCO back in the 80s.
The hanging traffic light in the foreground is from Walthers. I may install an additional traffic light and a controller for them. The two TYCO traffic lights behind it are used for fire station signals.
A TYCO crossing flasher from the mid '80s. It doesn't flash realistically (both lights just stay on as long as the pressure sensor is pushed down), but it does look cool.
A TYCO operating lighted signal crossing from the early '80s. It works similar to the crossing gate; there's a pressure-operated mechanical bell that operates via windup clockworks, and as the bell dings it also operates contacts that make the lights flash (it gets its' power from the track.) It does go a little fast, but it still looks pretty cool, and is much better than Bachmann's attempt from this time!
TYCO operating log dump car and bin from the '70s. It operates via a wired remote pushbutton, like the O-scale Lionel and Williams versions.
The rail yard. The track with the Amtrak Genesis locomotive and TYCO crane car and boom tender is my isolated siding, and I parked the Genesis there as it currently doesn't have a decoder yet (I already ordered one for it.) For this picture, the Amtrak train is powered by my F40PH diesel locomotive (also a Walthers Trainline model, with a decoder installed and Operation Lifesaver markings.)
The purists and "true and real" model railroaders amongst us will probably shudder when looking at these pictures, but I bet you had (and still have) a lot of fun with that layout - and that´s all what counts!
53 years ago, my model railroading career began with a Marklin HO scale tin plate starter set, and for some years I have been making plans to build a nostalgia layout using exclusively the materials available in those days.
It´s a yet unfulfilled dream, but who knows, maybe one of these days ...
I LOVE IT! Mostly because it just looks like a lot of fun. It might not be an exact museum scale model but I bet it’s more fun to play with because you can actually unload the cars. My first layout was Tyco trains and slot cars. Over the years I upgraded but I still run a lot of my old Tyco rolling stock. The Tyco engines died a long time ago. I replaced the Amtrak F7 with one from Altas.
With a couple of after market parts the Walthers B40-8Ws can look pretty sweet.
I have many of the same structures including the Tyco house which I also have a pool in the backyard.
If anyone doesn’t like your layout they don’t understand that what you are doing is Toy Train Collecting and it is not trying to be scale.
When I finally finished shuddering, I thought: "Hey, that guy needs a coal unloading trestle."
My neighbor had this one, by Revell:
Tyco came out with one a bit later:
And then there's the hard-core REAL modeler's version:
For those of you who weren't there at the time, all three of the above were designed to work with their own operating hoppers.
Ed
My original HO layout dated somewhere back to the late 1950s, so I recognize some of cars and buildings, too. I still have most of what I had then, and I've incorporated a lot of it into my present layout, which I try to make look like a "real" model railroad, if you don't look too hard.
This is a Life-Like model, but I doubt they ever built one like this:
These Plasticville buildings do seem a bit small for HO, but in the back of the layout they work fine. The Post Office is intact. I took the Supermarket and turned it into a ski shop, and the Hardware Store kit is now part cigar store and another "vacant" shop that may some day be a Chinese restaurant.
I think I've got 11 of these old Tyco "clamshell" hopper cars. The hopper doors open when they pass over a special actuator. I can also fill the cars with "coal" from this old Vollmer loader, with the chute doors operated by solenoids.
The cars may then be unloaded at this bin across the layout. The pile of coal under the track is built like a volcano, and the hole in the center allows the coal to fall through and be caught in a box below.
Thanks for sharing your layout with us, and thanks even more for keeping some of the old fun of our childhood train sets running.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
wiley209:
Welcome to the MR forums!
Your layout is very entertaining! It is the embodiment of every kids dream layout in the 1960s - 70s.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
May I add.........
Those vintage Revell MR kits were lifesavers for a lot of young folks trying to build a decent layout. Back in the '60s, I had them all and without them I suspect my interest in the hobby would have gone downhill.
BTW, I took two of the engine houses and kitbashed them back to back, and they fit right into my current "1950s" era pike.
IMO, Revell and Atlas and MRC and Athearn were the key companies in getting this hobby (HO) to where it is today.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
I find your approach lacking and disappointing. We expect better on this forum; No green plastic TYCO actual fan driven steam whistle? Tell me you have at least one on the layout and redeem yourself! I think they had it "hidden" in a petroleum tank. And a good ol' tender driven Chattanooga Choo Choo to use it with would be a nice addition, keeping with the overall fidelity of your otherwise fine train set.
I will say that your control panel is probably the crowning touch. I'm trying to remember, where in the distant past have I seen a similar classic example of such uniformity and neatness? It looks so familiar it's downright nostalgic. Ohhh... Mmmm.... It'll come to me.