A chance meeting at a coffee shop, I met a fellow and we started gabbing, he just barely mentioned model trains (just to see my reaction) and I said I was mildly interested, his mood changed and we exchanged views, I asked if he had a layout and he sort of sheepishly said yes, he asked if I would like to see it, off we went to his modest little house and downstairs I spied a 4x8 layout, It was magnificent in detail and design, it had one track off the 4x8 along a wall down to a loop which was a small logging operation, now here comes the kicker.
Upon closer examination I asked about the buildings he said he scratchbuilt everything (I thought they were kits) then I saw all brass track, all the locos were old, as were all the cars, all horn-hooks, many rebuilt, he explained he is on a very limited budget and he accepted others castoffs and donations of equipment from friends, his big treat was to attend a train show once a year and spend his $20.00 on a pile of older cars and refurbish them, this was one of the best layouts I have ever seen, and his imagination and abilities was limitless and he was so happy and proud of this great layout.
What a pleasure to have met this guy and see the true pleasure this hobby is bringing him, to me it was like meeting the top model railroader in North America, a truly upstanding citizen. I’m looking through my small pile of MR stuff and will see he gets some of the scale lumber I make, along with a few other goodies, what a guy. sort of makes a guy stop and think eh?
This proves what one can do with little or no cashflow—and he saved $20 for that show. One can do amazing things scratchbuilding—and enjoying the hobby.
One never knows who he will meet through the hobby…I met a guy on my morning walk and after several mornings of talking at the T&OC station while we was “resting”-we both have heart conditions that requires taking a rest during our walk-and I was surprise when he showed up with a photo album of PRR on the old Ft.Wayne and Sandusky lines as well as some NYC pictures-especially the GP7 that work out of here(Bucyrus).I never knew NYC had a local crew based here.He has a jim dandy 4x16 foot Lionel layout in his basement that features NYC and the old yard here-well a close enough rendition.
As far as horn hooks and brass track they still work quite well for those that use 'em.
A chance meeting at a coffee shop, I met a fellow and we started gabbing, he just barely mentioned model trains (just to see my reaction) and I said I was mildly interested, his mood changed and we exchanged views, I asked if he had a layout and he sort of sheepishly said yes, he asked if I would like to see it, off we went to his modest little house and downstairs I spied a 4x8 layout, It was magnificent in detail and design, it had one track off the 4x8 along a wall down to a loop which was a small logging operation, now here comes the kicker.
Upon closer examination I asked about the buildings he said he scratchbuilt everything (I thought they were kits) then I saw all brass track, all the locos were old, as were all the cars, all horn-hooks, many rebuilt, he explained he is on a very limited budget and he accepted others castoffs and donations of equipment from friends, his big treat was to attend a train show once a year and spend his $20.00 on a pile of older cars and refurbish them, this was one of the best layouts I have ever seen, and his imagination and abilities was limitless and he was so happy and proud of this great layout.
What a pleasure to have met this guy and see the true pleasure this hobby is bringing him, to me it was like meeting the top model railroader in North America, a truly upstanding citizen. I’m looking through my small pile of MR stuff and will see he gets some of the scale lumber I make, along with a few other goodies, what a guy. Sort of makes a guy stop and think eh?
Unfortunately, I’ve never had this kind of luck. Typically when I meet a girl in a bar, and tell her I have a model train layout, she just rolls her eyes and walks away… I never get invited over to see HER trains!
It must be the way I wear my hair…
But seriously folks, there’s a lot of guys out there who do the best they can with what they have to work with, and in many cases (it sounds like this is one of them) they do a lot better than we do with our credit cards and otherwise flexible spending limits…
I suppose necessity really is the mother of invention!
Bruce: Your generosity is overwhelming, but Canada customs will turn your gift into a nightmare, a couple of us are making sure Santa leaves some goodies on his porch. bless you. Look around your area, I’m sure there are some worthy recipients locally, Merry Christmas.
Somewhat along these lines but not much of a money saver story here. About a month ago I met a guy thru the Model Railroad grapevine here in town, who wanted some Micro-trains couplers installed on his N-scale deisels. So I went up to his place about 2 miles from my house and heres this N-scale layout filling one bedroom and then going thru the wall about head high and then around the walls into two other rooms in his basement. He models the UP from Idaho to somewhere in Neb. I think and has about 100 locos all modern deisels. He likes cabooses and so still runs UP cabooses, each one with its own safety slogan. He documents tonnage etc for his operations and assigns locos accordingly. The kicker though is that almost 90% of his structures are scratchbuilt from Card, This includes heavy industry like refineries,grain elevators ,cement plants, and even a major coal mining facility. I would guess there"s well over a hundred structures.
By now you’re probably asking yourself " why would someone like that want someone else to do his coupler conversions for him?" Well I asked the same question and the answer was “Oh, they’re just to fiddly and hard to see.” Well cool for me as I made about $50 bucks plus parts doing about 15-16 locos. Fun Stuff!!!
At any rate I now have a new model railroad freind.[8D]
I’ve said it until I’m blue in the keyboard, YOU DON’T NEED THE LATEST GIZMOS, THE MOST ADVANCED CONTROL SYSTEMS, OR STORE BOUGHT ANYTHING TO HAVE A GREAT TIME WITH MODEL TRAINS. This story just goes to show that it’s whats in the heart, not always the wallet, that makes one a model railroader. This guy uses brass track and hornhooks, I used them for years and years back in the 70’s and 80’s, they both worked great. As time moved on I had to move with it, but if I could find a stash of stuff like this dude, I would not hesitate to use them.
Thanks for sharing this story. Give that brass track guy a pat on the back from me!
The opening post reminds me of how the hobby used to be. How many of you recall Model Railroader magazines from decades ago? I mean if it’s at least 50 years old. Does anyone recall the “Dollar Car” series for instance? I have some of those old isseus as well as some old Kalmbach books. Indeed, it would be fum to build the “Kitchen Table Locomotive” now that I think of it.
It’s good to know about the resourceful modelers like those of 50 or more years ago. I am glad for this thread to remind us of how things can be. Thanks very much to Tatans for psting it.