From Texas originally, hence the forum name Texas Railroader. First exposure to HO trains was at the age of 8. My dad built us an oval track on a 4x8 piece of plywood and he broke out his box of HO trains for us to play with. There was one old steam engine with a light I loved but I could not tell you what it was but I do remember 4 drive wheels on each side. This was way back in 1960. He had had the trains for a few years and when a was 4-5, I remember he had build a track up next to the ceiling in our house to keep us from getting to the layout. After about the age of 10 or 11 we moved and the trains were boxed up never to be seen again. Christmas of 2014 I bought my grandson a started Bachmann train set, which he was really too young for, age 4, and my interest in the hobby was reignited. I began building a segmented 4x8 layout, built in two 4x4 sections for ease of moving later, in September of 2015, with intention of making it DCC. I bought a Bachmann DCC steam loco with sound for the grandson for Christmas 2015. We ran the train on the 4x8 layout, that was (is) in progress, and he (we) loved it. Progress on the layout stalled but since I retired last April, I've begun to make progress on the layout again and hope to make significant progress this year. I found some old train locomotives recently at a yard sale, all at least 26 years old, some older, and was able to rehab 9 out of 10 and at least 3 of those are worthy to convert to DCC. There are two Tyco (one GP20 Chattanooga 5628 and a Santa Fe F7), to be relegated to the grandson's DC track, two Bachmann GE U36Bs (one Chessie System and one Spirit of '76, nice!), one Athearn Super Power, B&O F7 with fly wheels), one Bachmann GP40 (road number 866) also to be relegated to the DC track, but I bought a spare 866 for parts and ended up rehabbing that one as well and will convert it to DCC, one Life Like Amtrack EMD F40PH and a Life Like B&O 0-4-0T Dockside Diesel Switcher. One of the nicest in the group turned out to be an AHM Tempo, FM Consolidate Line (C-Liner), a Fairbanks Morse 1950-1955 version. Didn't like it at first but it cleaned up nice and purrs like a kitten. It had a Santa Fe shell, which I didn't like, and bought a, like new, New York Central shell for .99c on ebay. Now it's one of my favorites. The last one I was unable to rehab was an old Lionel 0055 M.Stl. Diesel Switcher. It will sit on the DCC layout as a derelict. The four I plan to convert to DCC and the four that run the best are the Spirit of '76 U36B, which I intend to repaint as a Norfolk Southern, the AHM Fairbanks Morse C-Liner which is now a New York Central, the Athearn, Blue Box, Super Power F7, Baltimore & Ohio and the Bachmann GP40, Union Pacific which I bought as a spare for parts. One of my favorite rehabs of the 10 was the Tyco GP20 Chattanooga, road number 5628. Really cheesy cheap loco, but I was determined to get it running well, even though there is no hope of converting it to DCC because of the metal, pancake motor. It runs beautifully now but couldn't tolerate the Chattanooga paint scheme. As an experiment in repainting a loco shell, I found a 'how to' video by Nsmodeler24 on YouTube and repainted it to a Norfolk Southern paint scheme. I'll post some before and after photos for fun in the HO forum later. I'm also exploring all that is Arduino, motor shields and DCC++ which led me to this site. After rehabbing 10 engines, and researching DCC, I'll be up to my eyeballs in HO in the months to come. Best Regards, TexasRailroader (David)
Welcome, sounds like you know what you want and how to get it. Better than me. I think you will find lots of ideas and suggestions here. These are a great bunch of folks.
Decided to post rehabbed Chattanooga photos here. Original Yard Sale Purchase (Pretty Awful) Repainted Shell with Spare Chattanooga used for parts. Another View Runs like a top now. Will outfit with LED lights.
Howdy, David. Welcome aboard. I think you are gonna need more than a 4x8 layout to accommodate all of your power units! As you progress, please take and post some photos.
I'm making the layout expandable, on both ends, so modules can be added later. I've also made room on the current layout for a turntable. I can keep a few engines there.
Welcome aboard, David. Nothing like buying a train for a grandson to get you back interested in the hobby. Happened to me, too.
Welcome to trainboard! I got a Grandson for Christmas in Dec. I better start saving up for a train set for him. Or just give him the hi stuff I've got. Of course I'm thinking my 7 year old granddaughter might be interested. You got me to this thinking about getting grandkids into this hobby. Thanks.
