I'm gonna flood the lounge with this one post about Model Railroads and Model Railroading.

[Rabrrrrrr]

I love 'em, and I used to do it.

Always wanted to see Bruce Chubb's Sunset Valley - I read and re-read his articles in Model Railroader over and over and over when I was in Junior High and High School.

Here's a video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQPfTyGXC2k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWSflGSgLdM

And Lorell Joiner's O-Gauge monster layout, which I can't find any videos of, which surprises me.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. No model railroaders? Please tell me that they aren't all republicans!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear Rabrrrrrr!

Nope, not all model railroaders are Republicans! My dad used to build trains, and he is now a Democrat...

He gave all of his stuff to my brother, who unfortunately is a Republican.

We always used to go down to the train yards when I was a kid, and watch them switch around...

I even got to drive a locomotive once.

But that's another thread.

:hi:

[Capn Sunshine]

31. Peg, you just reminded me of a childhood memory

My Family had a business location in Watts, on Venice Bl. The trolley ran from Ocean Ave to downtown on Venice Bl. My Grandfather and I would get on and ride it all the way to the rail yards where they had a large turntable to turn the trolley around. I thought that was so cool.
(circa 1956)

[kick-ass-bob]

3. I used to do it too.

But alas, my space/time continuum is restricted...

[TZ]

4. My dad is a big model railroad guy

And he's even more liberal (now) than I am (he used to be a Reagan Republican-go figure). He loves his Lionel trains, got a nice one set up in his basement. He's been going crazy trying to find the old set we had in the house when we were young. Figures it must be in our attack somewhere.
He loves trains so much he bought us a kiddie scale engine that we rode around in circles on the tracks in our basement

[NewJeffCT]

5. Did a bit of it when I was a kid, and there is a big hobby store in CT

that has a huge model train display that draws visitors from all over.

However, we got cats later, and model trains & cats don't mix well.

[DainBramaged]

6. Used to, sold ALL of my trains on EBay in the early decade

when Railroad Simulators came out. Nothing liking driving a real train at your desk.......modeled since the 70's. Had a nice collection of N and HO gauge.

[hobbit709]

7. Check out this setup in Germany

http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/exhibit/multimedia/

[realisticphish]

8. My dad and I used to

we were really more interested in making the buildings than the actual track. Maybe someday when I have more room, rather than temporary setups

[Brother Buzz]

9. The Tehachapi Loop is a cool one I saw in Techachapi, California, years ago

Looks like there is another model of the loop in San Diego, now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRyO0Pfu6Eo

[Ptah]

10. IfI ever do build my trainset, it would look like this:

From Railroad Model Crafstman, July 1985:

Trackplanning the GN main

[hunter]

11. Beer. Couch.

'been working on the railroad.

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. I remember that layout!

:thumbsup:

[Old Troop]

12. Do they really have tiny people inside running them?

[madrchsod]

13. no problem here....big ho and n gauge railroad man

finally got enough room and time to build another layout.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. Sweet! Post some pics of your current one!

[old mark]

16. An old friend sells Z scale RR stuff. I'm not really interested, but the

stuff looks like great quality:

http://www.sbiii.com/fulthrtl/


If you are interested, he is a great guy and a real RR fan for many years.


mark

[hayu_lol]

17. One of the early modelers was...

a guy named John Allen(google)and his famous Gorre & Defetid RR. He was a professional photographer who had the opportunity to take life easy and turned to photographing some model trains/cars/engines on a door(was the base of his very large and complicated G&D.

A very innovative guy, he built much of his huge layout from scratch and wrote many articles for Model Railroader.

His operating layout was a fantasy world. After his death, his team of operators met monthly to run the layout. One night, they forgot to turn off the heater in the basement and the layout was reduced to ashes.

[guitar man]

18. My 4 year old daughter

Is a real train nut. She's into Thomas and friends right now but I have little doubt as she gets older she will move on to scale modeling. She has been fascinated with everything trains since she was an infant.

Here is her HO scale layout we put together.








and the junior modeler at work :)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

21. sweet!!

good job :)

[guitar man]

23. thanks :)

I think we're going to expand a bit this christmas, more track and another train :)

[woo me with science]

19. I love it. nt

[MilesColtrane]

20. Did you run your trains while wearing an engineer's cap?

That would place you a mere one step above a furry.

[Brickbat]

22. We've always been interested and thought about getting into it, but once Mr. Brickbat got on the

actual railroad, it seems a little more like work.

[A HERETIC I AM]

24. How about 1.5" scale? (edited)

Hand built, Live steam locomotives running on a 7.5" gauge track...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTHq1FlxpWQ
Take 10 minutes and watch that vid. Pretty cool.

The castings for that locomotive and tender will run you about $17,000 to $20,000 and that does NOT include the boiler. Includes things like the frame, wheels, trucks, cylinders, rods etc. The boiler you would need to have built or build yourself. It can burn either LP gas or actual coal. By the time it is finished, expect to have about $70,000 worth of time and materials into it. The 4-6-6-4 Challenger in that video was built by Bruno Platzer who is well known in the large scale community.

That Loco is my wallpaper;



A great resource for that scale is the "Discover Live Steam" website;

http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/

A friend of mine has over 3000' of track on his property in N. Ft. Myers. They have a website and several videos of trains running on YouTube;

http://www.buckinghamcentralrr.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/Papasmurf7597

Another friend of mine has built 2 live steamers and is working on a 3rd. Here he is sitting on his 4-8-4 Northern;



Edited to add that Bob has let me run that Loc and man, I am gonna tell ya, it is cool as cool can be. Puts out about 12 HP with just GOBS of torque. The BCRR has a fairly long straightaway and opening that Northern up on the straight is really impressive. If you have the nerve and the track was smooth enough, long enough and straight enough, it would probably run 25 to 30 MPH. Of course, it weighs just shy of a ton with the tender so it isn't something you want to have derail. If it does come off the tracks, it stops and I mean NOW!

The thing is, in order to build such a machine (and building one is tantamount to hand building an automobile) you are going to need access to a machine shop, or at the very least, a 3-axis milling machine and a metal lathe. Most of the enthusiasts in the live steam community are machinists in their own right.

I would love to get into this in a big way, but it is pretty expensive to start, particularly if you want to build your own. The community is worldwide and there are plenty of tracks around this country to run on (a list of which can be found on the Discover Live Steam website I linked above), with the largest layout in the world being "Train Mountain" near Chiloquin, in South Central Oregon with over 13 miles of mainline track and over 25 miles total trackage, which include all the sidings and yards;

http://www.trainmountain.org/


No, Rabrrrr, you aren't the only railroad fan on DU!!

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. That would be a hell of a lot of fun! Doesn't fit well on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood, though

:P

Expensive hobby, that, but I can't imagine ever not smiling while doing it!

[Parche]

26. N scale is the best

ihave Nscale amtrak........superliners!!!

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. N Scale could be a good size for my apartment...

i've long thought about making a module for N-whateverit'scalled

I'm not sure if anyone even does that one anymore - I remember back in the late 70s and early 80s, there was nation/world-wide modular idea of making small N-scale scenes that could then be fit together at railroad shows and whatnot, all designed in such a way that the three-line mains would match up, plus then each module could have sidings or whatever else the maker might want on it.

[Capn Sunshine]

28. Sorry , I was busy elsewhere. I had several awesome train sets

and used to read Model Railroader as well. My first set was American Flyer, the Great Black engine that smokes with the special drops:

with the water tank, the talking train station, the freight /barrel loader, and the cattle pen.

I graduated to HO , and ended up with a set that was 6'X 10 ft and included ho cars on a large highway I built. It was more fun building it than running it.I especially got into carving cliffs from plaster, and coloring them accurately, and little vgnettes I created with people and accessories. I finished it around age 14, and cars and surfing suddenly eclipsed my interest. My dad sold the whole shebang to someone in 1966 for $250.00 which was a LOT of money back then. Some kid got an awesome train set for Christmas. No pics. Unless there might be some family home movies of it floating about.

[kentauros]

29. Have you seen the show "James May's Toy Stories" ?

He did one episode on model trains, only to try and go the longest distance with them. It's a fun show to watch :D

part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyIgwqhBZi0
part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_EeKplF53s&NR=1
part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GakkE53_87w&feature=related
part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoKLMxlZIn8&feature=related
part 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-khDF4vhks&feature=related
part 6 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kux-I_Tw9ZY&feature=related

[LostInAnomie]

30. As an actual railroad employee, I'm always amazed by Railroad Buffs and Model Railroaders.

Mostly at the deep interest and total commitment to their hobby. I work around train stuff every day and I don't know nearly as much about the specs as most of the buffs I run into.