Jump to content

My cobbled together layout


traingeekboy
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi Griff, thanks for the Amazon link, will put in a search on you tube also and see what comes up on Colorado disused branch lines.

I have been searching for a decent pic of my Indian Pacific or Ghan locos, did try to load on a Ghan NR, was disappointed, came across this pic of the IP with the IP logo and colour scheme, I do have one IP NR loco NR28 and 17 IP coaches and will be modelling the same station on my layout, awesome train over 17 feet long

Hopefully will get the some of the station platforms set up over the weekend.

Tony....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Absolutely no layout work. I just can't seem to get the urge going.

I do have an observation.

This morning I was sitting here at the computer when I paused and glanced up at one of my British outline locos sitting on a shelf. One thing that had been curious to me was the absence of a light. As a kid I always liked the headlights on my toy trains. Sometimes I would turn out the lights and watch my loco do it's roundy roundy in the dark with the headlight showing what was ahead on the track. So yeah, this whole no light thing was a quandary for me. I googled up some old pics and sure enough, no headlights. How odd this seems to me to run at night without lights to reveal what's on the track ahead.

And another thing. I recently upgraded computers. Along with the upgrade comes and up rage. Instead of a simple spelling highlighter, the darn thing wants to predict and change just about anything I type. It's really a pain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Griff, yeah you can get like some days, I now can only do one day a week on the heavy construction side and another day doing light stuff like track laying, Saturday I did that, just about finished the construction in the car port where part of the layout will be.

Yes will have to agree what you are saying about the older locos without loco light's, I have an Aussie loco NR class that is light up like a Christmas tree, is DCC ready, will have to take a pic of the loco.

The older locos can have a DCC decoder in it, as a member of my train club told me it can be done, he had working lights in a British 125 inter city class loco, push pull train .

I have being searching for a replacement power truck for Lima DB103 class electric loco for yonks, found one on an Italian EBay, language issue was difficult got around it, this block rebuilds them, looking at buying the centre piece to fix up the broken power truck in the loco so I can have duel motors in the loco, keeping an eye on a set of Lima Rhine gold coaches to match the loco.

A friend gave me the loco as a dummy loco, I want to get it running, amazing what you can find on eBay, this loco doesn't have running lights as well, will change

Computers can be a pain and have your hands in you pocket, same with up grades, can agree what you say about what you are saying about spelling corrections , depends on what English you set on the windows programme in the ways the word are spelt like your mom, over here is spelt mum, colour here and color, gray is another word spelt different which both words have a red line under them, the colour gray over here is spelt grey.

Do you have the red line under the word down worry about it as when you send either an email or on the forum the red under line disappears , I use spell check a lot or if that fails put a search on the net for the right spelling.

Going by the research the Germans don't run the Rhine gold coaches anymore must be moth balled or in a museum, that doesn't matter.

Winter not far away, morning are cool we have had 4 degrees in the morning to a nice 25 degrees during the day, how did you go with those twisters do you get being next door to Kansas.

happy modelling from down under Tony.

103 a.jpg

DB E03 Loco a.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My italian locos actually surprised me because they had directional lighting in them. There is a rocker piece on the side of the motor that moves according to the direction of travel.

The old limas are out there for parts, but it sounds like you are doing a rebuild.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi GRiff, Italian locos are pretty good, a lot of detail, some classes I wouldn't mind getting, like the high speed train that goes between Italy and Switzerland, do you know if they have replaced the first one.

Yes a complete rebuilt will get the loco running , hopping to replace the motor in the old power truck as the same bloke is selling that part, the loco will then have duel motors, pull a decent train, here is a pic of the Rhinegold four car set I am hopping to buy and two separate coaches that have the red stripe the same as the loco.

A question Griff how do the Europeans use for a power car to run air-conditioning lighting and so on.

Tony

Lima Rhinegold coach set a.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DO you mean in the models? A lot of those older Lima's had lighting kits you could put in them. These days I'd go for something home made, but my personal preference has always been for incandescent lights. I know a lot of people like LED's, but I seem to always see in a flicker in them and I don't like the colors they come in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Griff, you are right about the older lima locos, especially the European locos, I saw a pic of the DB 103 Electric loco I have which did have directional lighting, I would like to have Led lights that do have two colours can get them that change to red.

I fixed the loco chassis, quite happy with the way it turned out, just looks link a hair line scratch, but I have to figure out how to fix a broken buffer, not just the buffer, the whole piece is broken, can't wait till the replacement power truck arrives, good timing coming up to my birthday in June , my friend gave to me a couple of years back, nice if I can get those blue stripe Rhine gold coaches.

We had 2 degrees this morning, going to be a cold day as well with the col wind 21 degrees where I live will check my weather station what the temp is outside, warming up where you live in Colorado.

Happy modelling from down under, Tony.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

As I've said before, not much going on with the railway. Working on other things in the meantime. No plans to tear it out, but no plans to fix it just yet either.

In the meantime I am doing my usual ebay lurking and waiting for good deals. Just delivered to my house… 2 lima freight cars. Price was 12.50 if you count shipping. (12.5000 USD = 8.1450 GBP) It was a pretty good deal and the blue car even has moving slide panels on it.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/FAAAAOSwstxVYgsI/$_57.JPG

NO camera handy so I just linked the image off ebay.

We've been getting quite a bit of weather here. Got hail the size of a quarter, or maybe over and inch around tonight. The layout seems to have withstood it ok. Will have to check it in the am for any damage.

Tony, I didn't realize you guys got such low temperatures. I doubt you'll get as low as our -23 C we got this winter. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Griff, I heard you had some pretty bad storms are you ok, we don't get them as bad as you do, once ever few years we may get a twister storm.

One day you will get the erg to power up your layout and try out the new rolling stock you are buying, I like the blue van you bought with the panels that slide out the way, you could model different loads to put in it.

Talk about eBay, I bought a Mehano THaly's 6 piece set from a bloke in Slovenia, he customises different sets for you, I picked a 6 piece set with two powered locos so I can buy 4 more middle coaches once my friend saves up the money to buy my Duel tender flying Scot.

 

Both locos are DCC ready and directional lights in DC, will buy a sound decoder and decide if I buy two o them or just one for the front and just a lights one for the other loco, can't wait for the parcel to arrive just in time for my birthday end of June.

Yeah I don't think I could handle your winters, we copped zero this morning and Jack frost paid us a visit' all the grass it burnt, end of the green grass.

Take care and happy modelling from down under ,Tony

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I've been eyeing the layout, but to be honest I am distracted by my other hobby lately. It was actually someone on here that got me re-addicted to wargaming.

Last weekend my mates and I got together for some civil war re-enactment on a friends pool table.

gg26.jpg

This is from a previous battle.

gg27.jpg

About a year ago I got the chance to play some civil war minis with a bunch of old gamers from minnesota. I bought a bunch of plastic OO scale figures and didn't even bother painting them. I mounted them on card stock bases that I painted olive green. We use little dice to mark casualties. The uno cards are part of our simulated chaos of war. Each player gets as many cards as he has units. There are two wild cards. We draw cards to see who gets to move. If a unit moves a double move it cannot fire in that turn. If a half move it can fire. Once the two wild cards are drawn the turn is over. It is supposed to simulate the chance aspect of warfare where a general does not really know if his troops have received their orders or not.

Now I am obsessing over a bunch of WWII metal ships I bought in 1/1250 scale, along with a set of rules from the 50's called Fletcher Pratt's Naval War Game. The ships I bought are all from actual wwii spotter training model molds.

So, there is that distraction for now. But you can be assured there are certain preferably priced train items being watched in my ebay for future railroading.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

Ok, it seems like my last post was a long time ago. I just haven't been playing with the trains at all. I missed it, but had little motivation.

I realized what the problem was. One needs an operating railway, even if it is in disrepair, so that when one gets the feeling, it's easy to go play trains. Today I looked at the railway and hauled some lumber between weeding the veggie beds. Then another thing happened…

I often feel self conscious when I play with my trains because my railway is in the front yard. If I am running trains I am in plain sight for everyone to mock. Yet I have never had a negative comment and have several posts about people thinking i's cool. It happened again today. I am down on my knees weeding and this guy walks bye and says hi. Then he asks if I own the house, which I do. And then for the finale, he says "I always walk a bye and look at this thing. I've been really looking forward to seeing it running." I seem to have acquired fans of all ages who see my dormant railway and want to see it running again.

I suppose I just need to suck it up and get fixing the railway. ok, now to go look at everything again and figure out a fix.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try wearing a kilt as I occasionally do, then wait for the comments!!!

Some you like and the wife doesn't, some you don't like, Some you both don't like... and then once in a blue moon someone will say something very nice..

Come August I'll be operating a model railway at a show in a kilt!

There are several Kilt wearers in Denver!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's funny Q, but I have never had nasty comments when kilted. Of course there is the usual question about what I'm wearing underneath it, but my answer that it's for me to know and them to find out is enough. For the uninitiated, nothing is worn and nothing is rusty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"What will next door think" well who cares! Being the end house l only have one "next door" and as they only venture into the garden to put the washing out l dont think it matters to much. The other side is an enterance to a park and has a 6 foot high fence along the boundary, the railway at present runs along that fence so cannot be seen. I would love to extend down the other side but that would be more exposed and could be seen by Joe Public.

A friend of mine lives in North Wales and has 12inch to the foot narrow gauge in his very large back garden. Hes a bit tucked away and a lorry delivering a new loco to him got lost. The driver stopped to check his sat nav when someone tapped on his window and looking at the loco on the back just said"you must be looking for the Englishmans house" and pointed him in the right direction.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

traingeekboy said:

....but maybe a half an hour of digging out tools and plotting is on the horizon.

Looking forward to that - it's a long time since we saw anything on the 'my CTL'. Go for it Griff!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Griff , great to see you back, have to agree with Mick, always some easy that to gets you motivated again, I wont have that problem got 6 foot fences on both sides and the back fence as well, no young kids except one neighbour has a 12 year old but we neve see him venture out the back yard. So might see some trains running soon.

Tony from down under.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

Well gee,

Big changes on the forum lately. Am I on the right Forum now? :$

As per my usual state the past few years, I am working a lot. No real time to work on the railway, as when I get free time there are so many house repairs I need to finish up. :o

And yes, My war gaming habit came back so I do a little bit of that as well as my weekly computer game addition called empire. cyber1.org it's all 1970's style and still extremely compelling.

 

But, the train is always on the brain. Despite the fact that the railway is in extreme disrepair, I just leave it there. My station platform has completely broken apart, so I now have results on THAT experiment. :D But my track is looking fine despite being outdoors for many years, so I know have some results on that as well. there is a temptation to tear down and rebuild, but i think that would create so much delay and require so much time, that it's just not worth it. In stead I just leave and plot all kinds of adjustments and of course a track plan redo for my station area.

Still pondering the old: To DCC, or not to DCC, that is the question!

I've also eyed all my N scale US prototype stuff. I have an entire layout just waiting to be assembled there. Boxes of everything just ready to go. And of course the age old plan to build this HO layout in N scale, since it would fit on a door panel of about 3x7 feet and provide lots of shunting action.

http://s158.photobucket.com/user/powershots70/media/EPSON001a_zps3e31cde8.jpg.html

I've been picking away at some items since my last posts. I will need to get some pics of all this stuff. I may have posted about some of it before too, so pardon the repeat blabbing. 

1. A French box car from the 60's or 70's. Half the reason I bought this was because I liked the packaging so much. It's just an old printed box with tab ends like matchbox cars had. And the printing just tales me back too.

2. An italian Lima low side car with a break cabin. Here is a stolen web image of one. Hard to explain the sort of drooly train moment that the little stand up break mans cabin gives me, but I used to see this as a kid.

http://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.t8OBm9hHMve1yEneMa7S2gEsDE&pid=15.1

3. My desire for OBB passenger trains is now partially fulfilled. I was able to locate the two center cars of this four car set fairly cheaply. Then I found a loco in near pristine condition in the box… ok, it had a buffer broken off IN the box. But the color on the model is still vibrant unlike the coaches. So it's been over a year of searching and eventually I will locate the end car for this train. I see the sets on ebay for around 300 dollars. I have spent less than 100 so far. (Stolen image below)

$_84.JPG

 

4. And in amoment of whimsy, I bought a couple of DB RDC's that if they are too messed up can be used as parts: buffers, motor, wheels, etc all come in handy on these old models. But once I had them they looked perfect except for the crushed roofs. I've already fixed one roof and will be doing the same on the other. But yes, I do need to begin thinking of the future and buying parts locos. I figure in 20 years my entire fleet will be in need of an overhaul using rare spare parts.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Lima-309195-Deutsche-Bahn-DB-BR-815-Engine-and-Coach-HO-/352003106670?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=lKh5J%2FX41b6s2kVjqrb565GtNZA%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

5. Perhaps my biggest leap in train fanaticism is my first really contemporary set; just purchased it from Ebay. It's a Freccia Argento, or Silver Arrow ETR485. It may be a post hornby takeover model as well. That is different too. I had seen some models of these ay high prices. This one doesn;t sell that high new, but instead of being in a setbox, it's all in separate lima boxes. The store said it was a demo model. barely run, like new, perfect for me!

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ePwAAOSwB-1YwwY-/s-l1600.jpg

So while I have not been playing with all my pretty trains, I am getting well stocked for future slack jaw train moments. ;)

Another thing on my mind is a display cabinet. If I can get one of these and add some shelves it would fit perfectly in my house and keep dust off my collection. Sara doesn't mind if I have this in a public area either. The main thing with this model is that it's as cheap as one of those wall mount displays one see's so often in railway magazines, but it is much more spacious. 

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00242278/

ok, now to trawl the site and see what everyone else has been up to. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...