Thanks Dan. I try to stay with the turtle approach, slow and steady. I try to do at least a little on the layout each week and to also spend some time running trains.
The mailman brought a package Saturday afternoon. Inside the package was this small house that will be the clubhouse for the trailer recreation park. Also in the box were policemen, deer, kids on bikes stopping for a Coke, a newspaper vending machine. young lovers and a package of 120 unpainted people for passenger cars. I have shaky hands and painting figures isn't easy for me but I think it will be OK since they will be in passenger cars and my poor painting won't be obvious. More to come.
The deer found a home on the layout. The Duplex house from Menards arrived last week and is on the layout. I'm not sure how these houses will be arranged yet so it's sitting in what I think will be it's final location. That's it for now. More to come soon.
I decided to run some different trains for a while. On the upper main I'm running an Erie freight pulled by this camelback. On the lower main I'm running the New York Central Aerotrain and a New York Central freight pulled by an Alco RS-1. A little train running makes for a lot of fun. I'm moving the buildings around in the residential area trying to find the best location for each house. Today I washed the unpainted passengers and they are drying, then I'll start painting them. I'm not sure how good a job I can do with my shaky hands but since they will be inside passenger cars I think I'll be OK, but time will tell.
Coming along nicely. One of these days i may have to go with a larger scale. My hands are starting to bug me when working on the buildings and the trestles. Dr. Arthur and Mr. Itus keep visiting me! Wish they would leave me alone.
Thanks Dan. I know Dr. Arthur and Mr. Itus personally. They are good friends with Dr. Shaky. When the three of them got together it was time for me to give up N scale. The good thing is that I'm really happy with O and I'm having lots of fun. I still like N a lot. I just can't work with it anymore.
Same condition here, complicated by illnesses and a once broken neck. But am still hanging with smaller stuff, as I live in a small apartment. As much as I love the post-War Lionel, etc, just have no room for such an alternative.
I hear you Boxcab. A once broken neck sounds very serious. I had no trouble running trains in N but switching cars was difficult. I did manual switching and used a Rix Pick to open the knuckle couplers. Getting that device between the couplers became quite difficult. Trying to build anything was impossible. I couldn't hold two parts together for the few seconds it took for the glue to hold them. If I didn't have the room for O I would go with N. I just wouldn't try to build anything. Kato Unitrack is easy to work with and very reliable. There are many built up structures available and plenty of R-T-R locomotives and rolling stock.
I just noticed that I didn't post a photo of the ranch house I ordered from Menards a couple of weeks ago. I got it less than a week before the Duplex arrived. The promotion when I ordered the houses was a free race car with a purchase of any item $19.99 or more so I received 2 race cars. I have a few MTH Railking flat cars that came with automobiles which I removed and have on the layout. The race cars don't really fit my layout so I put them on one of the flat cars and they are on their way to the race track at Watkins Glen, NY. This is the ranch house. This is the flat car carrying the race cars. Today I spent time running trains instead of working on the layout. I have been looking for a package of Bachmann unpainted people, a rooftop water tank kit and Hobby Tack and Scenic Accents Glue. I know I have them but can't find them anywhere. It's very frustrating. I bought another jar of the Scenic Accents Glue, but I would really like to find the people and the water tank. Anyhow, it was fun running trains.
Good one Kurt. I've never seen an O gauge moose but maybe Arttista makes one. I would love to have a moose and squirrel hanging out together.
I have been gluing down the roads in the small city for the last few days. It doesn't look any different than it did before but it's an improvement. I also have been working on a couple of signs, one for the campground and one for the church. First, the campground administration building and clubhouse. Next, the church. That's it for now. Happy Veterans Day to all the Vets.
I am working on the campground area and the residential area. The campground looks like this at the moment. The lake will be on the other side of the tracks where the canoes are and there will be a passenger platform nearby. I received an order from Mario's Trains that included the house, cream with brown shutters.... ...and some fencing (not shown here, will appear in future photos)... ...and these New York Central passenger cars. I didn't have a set of lightweight streamliners and finally got them. That'a it for this update.
I was at a train show yesterday with my modular club. We had a good time running trains. I picked up this LC+ GP-38. This locomotive violates my New York State rule but since I'm a Floridian now I'm including railroads that ran in Florida to my list of locomotives that I run. Or maybe I'll just ditch the NY state rule and run whatever I like. The whole purpose of the rule was to keep me from buying anything that catches my eye. We'll see how the whole thing works out. Anyway, here's the locomotive. The cab light stays on until the loco starts moving. I got a good buy on this loco from All About Toy Trains. The list price is $350, normal sale price is around $310-315 at discount and the show special price was $275. He also had the LC+ 0-4-0 in UP two tone gray. It is a very attractive loco. The show special price was $350 which was very tempting (list price is $499 and discount price around $425-430) but he only had it in UP. It's available in NYC but he didn't order any so I will probably wait for April and try to get one at a good price in York. In the mean time I had fun running the GP-38 last night.
Pretty much everything is available in 3 rail O from pure toys to accurate scale models where everything is to scale except the couplers and wheel flanges. My Camelback is a LionChief Plus but is actually scale size.
Too bad we aren't neighbors, else I'd ask if I could come over and play. The detail on it is quite extraordinary. That NYC RS-1 is mighty cool too.