I say sort of because when signing up, I apparently already had an account here. Go figure…
Just got my first print version of Trains magazine as a result of a Christmas gift. Loving it!
So, I like trains. Dunno why, just do. I’ve had HO in one form or another in my life for the past 50+ years. Nothing big. Right now, I have a seasonal railroad (Xmas) that includes a 2 track oval (4x6) with a passing siding and a short line. It has a spur that leads to a 6-track yard (1x8). This past season I had 6 locos running and about 40 pieces of rolling stock, passenger and freight. Every year’s different…
I’ve dabbled a little with 1:1. I used to hang out with a private car, the Catalpa Falls (ex PRR) and have done everything from being harnessed above on her roof to working her bar. I’ve loaded and discharged passengers on Amtrak platforms. As I’m approaching retirement (in
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4 weeks) I’m putting together my resume for a local excursion railroad.
Anyway… Just wanted to introduce myself and say, hey. Hey, y’all!
All at once? Very good question. No. As I only have two tracks on the main line, I can only run two at once. The tracks are divided into electrically isolated blocks. Most of my locos are analog, but in the last couple of years, I have a GP diesel that I converted to DCC. I really have a lot of fun with that, as I can sit back and run it from my phone.
Rich, here’s a few shots of the yard from this last season. That PV lit up is Walthers’ version of the Catalpa Falls, the car I hung out with for a while. The detail is incredible, the price even more so. lol. Unfortunately, I really can’t run it due to tight curves, by I just gotta have it in the yard with HEP. lol.
Flyer, over years I’ve gotten it down to a science… While all of the rolling stock gets packed into milk crates - with athearn blue boxes lol - the 4x6 and 1x8 sit on the crates, while the Xmas tree sits in that sea of blue.
Rich, back in the day we’d take the kids to the hobby shop - remember those? - and I’d pick up a couple of athearn blue boxes. I remember testing my limit against my wife. How much is too much? To this day, I tend to eBay a little too much… lol
My local model rail shop is fifteen minute drive away. It is great just to wander around the store. Something seems to say “Take me home. Take me home, please.”
At my favorite local hobby shop, every time that I walked in the front door, the owner would reach under the counter, pick up an item, usually a box car, sometimes a locomotive, and put it on the counter, saying “You need this”. Of course I would buy it.
I don’t. Whenever I walked into my favorite LHS, I had to get b past those old geezers sitting on the window ledges inside and on either side of the front door. There they inevitably were drinking coffee and BS’ng.