BarstowRick's H&P Layout Restoration

BarstowRick Sep 15, 2020

  1. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

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    That's a fact. :sick::confused:
    More fun then a demolition Derby, I should have said. Aiiyiiyii !!:whistle::whistle:

    We have a new layer of snow on the ground. That means the flatlanders and desert rat's will be heading for the mountains to get some skiing, snow boarding, and 360's in. You all come back safely, you hear?

    In Big Bear Country. The only time we got out during the winter weekends was to get off the mountain. Off to a train show or Balboa Park in San Diego, Ca. Down to the flatland's to get away from the Flatlanders. Gosh, the toe truck companies, ambulances and helicopters just enjoyed hearing their cash registers banging away.(y)

    The worst thing for me as a Mortician was having to get out in that traffic, for business reasons. Not fun!! :mad::mad:

    Now, I'm retired and back to being a Desert Rat.:);)

    I like it, I like it! :LOL::ROFLMAO:

    I need my :coffee::coffee::coffee: to get this day started.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2021
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  2. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

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    Do you remember when you could not, couldn't, not at all...:censored::censored:... get any kind of train equipment made for Rio Grande? Anyone out there remember that? The only resolution available. You got it! It was custom paint and hand letter your own units.

    I walked into Pacific Coast Hobbies, Riverside, Ca., hoping to find something. They were known for having custom painted D&RGW train equipment.

    What I didn't know, is my Dad at almost the same time stopped in at Doodlebug Hobbies, in San Juan Bautista, Ca. Just west of Hollister, Ca. He found a set of D&RGW Aspen Gold and Silver with the four stripes, Rivarossi Standard Passenger Cars. We now call them Heavy Weights, sigh!! Upon further exam we discovered they are missing a stripe, no they didn't put them on right. They should have dropped them down so the bottom line goes over the top of the silver. Oop's. Grudgingly, at the time it would do, grudgingly. We would have to wait for Micro-trains to deliver the goods. Much later then expected.

    At Pacific Coast Hobbies, I found the following: Did my heart skip a beat and did I start drooling. I don't know but the owner came out with a mop in his hand. Seriously. Well, he was getting ready to mop the floors. Doing a little housekeeping.
    D&RGW F9's & F7 007.jpg

    Above: These are Minitrix F9's. One of the representatives/associates who worked for Minitrix, custom painted these units in hopes of getting Administration at Minitrix to approve production. Didn't happen. It cost to much...they said.

    My dear old dad and I loved the D&RGW. It may have something to do with! His step granddad who worked as a Moffat Man, an engineer. He said he was tired of being cold and moved to Barstow, Ca. There he went to work for the Santa Fe. It can get cold in Barstow, but nothing like the Rocky Mountains. They have two seasons Winter and August.

    I stood there looking at these honey's thinking...well...isn't it obvious. Humm, do I or don't I?? They kept looking at me with those innocent eyes, wagging their tales. Oh wait that's the feline friends I have now. Okay, they were yelling at me. They wanted to go home with me. I negotiated a price with the owner and walked out with them.

    At the time I didn't much care for the Minitrix mechanism. They eventually failed me and I traded them out for a Life Like chassis. The shells snapped into place. Worked out well. Then, then, then Kato came out with the D&RGW paint scheme. Sorry, to say these three got relegated to commuter service. But when parked next to Kato's offerings they looked gigantic/over sized. Now what do i do with my Crown Jewels? Pride of the fleet. I kept them. Hard to give up your first love.

    Eventually, I was able to replace them with Kato's offerings. I was working then and had a few extra dollars I could spend. Not so much anymore. Someone saw a picture of the Minitrix set, on a toy train website. It wasn't long and they each found a new home. I think someone was selling one of them on E-pay not to long ago. Glad to see they are still in circulation.

    Below: This isn't the best picture in the world. This was taken while in my mobile home in Big Bear Country. On my work desk and test track. Check out the old computer screen to the left and what's on the screen. Research, research, research.

    Nothing like the "Dude I got a Dell." Like the one I'm working from now. Yes that's HO track. I had both at the time and occasionally I would make repairs on my own and other's HO train equipment. Fun working in two gauges.:D

    D&RGW F9's & F7 011.jpg

    Now look at the front of the F9 D&RGW. The coupler and anti-climber. The big hole. Now you know what we were up against. The hole was there because of the truck mounted coupler. Don't think for a minute that I liked that.

    My stomach is growling. I need to put some breakfast in it.:confused:

    Later.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2021
  3. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

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    The D&RGW train equipment that roams the rails on my train layout today, is by far superior to what we could find yesteryear. ;)

    ConCor and Rivarossi gave us some amazing stuff to run but it lacked something. Rivarossi lacked steps. I mean those poor passengers had to jump off those trains. I can imagine the local E.R.'s being busy with injured patients when the trains came in. :whistle::whistle:

    ConCor's doors on their passenger cars. You'd look at a picture of the 1:1 foot scale and it was obvious. Still, I kept buying them up because we had to have passenger equipment to haul our N Scale people's. And they wanted working toilets. What with all the Bulls#!t they had to deal with.:ROFLMAO::LOL:

    Then Kato loom's over the Horizon, the rising sun. They show up with Santa Fe passenger cars. Look at that dome!! Finally an authentic Santa Fe Dome Vista train car. The dinner. The Sleepers. Oh this was going to hurt my wallet. Looks like I'll be taking sack lunches to work.:confused::D

    Oh boy, I said sarcastically!! Bachmann, came out with a full dome but the more you looked at it the worse it got. Lettering to big as well as the letter board they sat on and other detail discrepancies. Typical of Bachman, I remember thinking. Harrumph. Well, I didn't just buy one I bought three? I sold one off and kept two of them. They were re-lettered but if you shut the lights off and run them by at 60 mph... you won't notice the foo-paw's. For now they would do. :(

    Why is it, no choice of our own did we have to wait so long for prototype train equipment. Yep, I know back to the Hick - BarstowRick comments.

    Darn toy train enthusiast. No, No, I didn't say that? Did I? Yes I did! Oh NO! That was sarcastic and I will need to take that back. No I didn't mean that. Where would the hobby be without them. They are the heart and soul of why we have the things we do today. Have you noticed? The toy train enthusiast are demanding more correctly painted and detailed train equipment. Check it out sometime. (y)

    We continued to look for a SP Daylight 3/4 dome. Oh, the news reels of the time called them a full dome. False news back then. They weren't correct. You had to go to Santa Fe, Great Northern, and Milwaukee Road to find the Full Domes. Is that nit-picking? Your damn right it is.:confused::eek:o_O

    Dad and I wanted pre-assembled train equipment. We didn't want to spend hours in our shops custom building this stuff. We wanted it now. Sadly, he left the world before he got to see my SP Daylight, California Zephyr, Santa Fe Hi-level El Capitan and more. He'd of been in seventh heaven and for all I know, he is. Probably operating trains unlike anything you and I have seen. Most likely showing them how. Rest In Peace, or not. Heck I'd rather be running trains, I can hear him say.;););)
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2021
  4. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    So I grew up playing in the woods. I learned what plants I could eat, how to catch fish and small game to eat. I did this in my early teens and can still do it today if I need to. So fast forward to last April. When every store near me was out of TP I didn't fret about it. I didn't have a stash that would last until my grandchildren were adults, I simply found something else that works just fine. I bought some baby wipes and some cheap hand towels. Thankfully we didn't need to go that route the package we had lasted until the store got more. But for those out there that paid $100 for a single roll... To them I say they have more money than brains. They had no clue how people took care of that business before TP was a thing. They used a damp cloth, then washed it, and then washed their hands. It was not rocket science. Oh and the information about how humans handled hygiene back in ancient times is as simple as LOOKING IT UP ON THE INTERNET! Ignorant is those who have the information at their disposal and refuse to learn it. ok off the soap box... Where are my trains...:eek::rolleyes:o_O
     
  5. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

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    Good survival skills.

    :LOL::ROFLMAO::DYou got me laughing here thinking about the S#!+ and ignorance that goes on. Having been in charge (Dept. Head) of a Housekeeping Department in a Hospital. I went to the same cleaning supply stores I used to buy from and found all the TP I needed. At $1.25 a roll. Solved my problem. Although there's been times that my washing machine smelled like...well...you know. :(

    During that time I saw a guy with a pick-up and toilet paper stacked up taller then he stood. I just walked away shaking my head. He must have been a Flatlander. Opportunist.:sick::eek:
     
  6. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    Our house was built before indoor plumbing.
    It was built with a dressing room, a square room with no windows, and high trim boards for cloak hooks to hang. The bedroom, attic and back stair doors open into the dressing room.

    In the dressing room we have an 1800's commode complete with thunder jug, a wash stand and two candle, hanging shaving stand.

    Under an access in the back porch floor is a stone lined hand dug well. Down in the well there are still some old jars on a ledge. We've used all but the commode during power outages. The well hasn't been tested so we just washed and flushed with it. We do not drink it but have filters if needed. I plan to start flushing it regularly and testing it.

    Last spring instead of going to the grocery we lived on meat in the freezer, fresh dandelion and garlic mustard greens, peanuts, fresh eggs and ginger tea. Probably the healthiest I've eaten in years. My blood glucose numbers improved.
    I picked greens at neighbors that don't treat there lawns and have no dogs.

    Picking and washing the greens took a bit of time but was fun.
     
  7. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

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    There may come a time it won't be a choice thing but we will have to once again learn to live off the land.

    My granddad lived similarly. He would build an outhouse. Every so often he would lay it over, dig a fairly deep trench. Dig out the honeydews and bury it in the trench. It always smelled funny around his place. Not haw, haw kind. Yucky funny stench.

    The family was pushing back wanting him to put in a water flush toilet. He was resisting, I mean you still have to get the septic tank cleaned out.

    Grandsons, can be mischievous. While he was using the outhouse one of us, I won't say who, put a Cherry Bomb down the vent pipe. Now, that was funny. And yucky, But we were rolling on the ground laughing when he came out covered with...yep you got it. I thought he was going to loose his Christian experience right there. We still chuckle about that at reunions.

    I've wondered if his lifestyle was healthier? The way he lived. I don't think so.
    His diet of unprocessed foods and greens...by all means.

    A not so well known survivalist once said that to have your own Garden and Poultry we will live like kings and queens.

    Again, excellent survival skills. You can have all the greens out of my back yard. If you are anywhere near Nampa, ID. The only thing to worry about is the cat's.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2021
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  8. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    And when we lived like that we were much healthier than we are now.
     
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  9. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

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    Looks like Grand Central Station, train time in the Hidden Staging Yard.

    This is a garden variety of passenger cars available before Kato and Micro-trains came out with their prototype versions. Here is a capture of the early ConCor, Rivarossi, Bachmann and Atlas passenger train equipment. There's some shorties in there and memory isn't working for me, as to who made them. I keep thinking that Arnold, Rapido, Model Power and even Kato had some shorties.

    Looks Like Grand Central Station.jpg

    I didn't catch the obvious when I posted this picture. You can see the D&RGW Standard, Dinner and the four lines. Note how there's no black line over where the silver and aspen gold meet each other. Who'd of thought they'd miss that one. The Obvious. Someone was Oblivious.

    The Union Pacific F7 sitting to the right is Kato's early version. Now, I'm messsing up. It's an E Unit a Life Like E Unit. I thought at first, it's not a passenger unit as it doesn't have the steam generator. It does. I missed that. Another feature I appreciate is it has windshields where the Minitrix models did not.

    Okay, U.P. and S.P. Kato's F7's don't have the steam generators. So running them in the front of a passenger train, you'd need a box car or baggage car that has a steam generator.

    Nonetheless, a shout out of kudo's to Kato.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2021
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  10. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    Sometimes I think that but Im not totally convinced.. Instead of Covid, there was typhus, small pox, scarlet fever, malaria, TB, anthrax, and all the other things called "fever".
    Ive read about our little hamlet being hard hit by several fevers in the 1800's. Almost every household lost at least one if not more family members.

    I have not been able to uncover the cause of death but the origional owner of my house died in 1823 at the age of 43. That was the average lifespan at that time.
     
  11. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    Hey Rick,
    I'm glad there is someone on here that rambles more than me!

    I'll have to pass on the greens. Google Maps says there is about 2400 miles between us.

    Your comments about Rio Grande painted models brought back memories of Christmas. Each year my father would put up a 4x8 for trains in the living room. One of his locomotives was an AHM Krauss Maffei (K-M) ML-4000 diesel-hydraulic painted in Rio Grande.

    I had forgotten all about that. I never new they really existed until I looked it up just now. Tomorrow I'll have to look for it in the attic.

    He also had an HOn2½ set that I believe was also AHM. I got started in N scale because I was given N scale stuff I could run by myself on the small 9mm gauge loop close to the edge of the 4x8.

    The rest is history!
    Thanks for giving the gray matter a little boot in the butt!
     
  12. Keith

    Keith TrainBoard Supporter

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    The Rapido DRGW F units were the first major N Scale purchase I made.
    Way back in the days of Caboose. Eventually, got a set of 6 ConCor streamlined
    cars to go with the locomotives, including the hard to find dome/observation!!

    Sold that set, bought an HO custom painted DRGW PA. Then, friend I sold them to
    decided to downsize his collection, so I was able to buy back my original train!!
    On the wall, on display now!
     
  13. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

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    You can ramble right along with me. No problem. :D

    Those AHM Krauss Maffei's were the envy of a lot of us. Then when the 1:1 foot scale Southern Pacific bought a different version of them. The fan club, hoped AHM would put those out. Didn't happen. Your Dad and You are the lucky ones.;)

    Your set of D&RGW F units and ConCor passenger cars were also the envy of many. Lucky you were able to get yours back. :)

    I've sold off a lot of my Dad's and I's early collection of passenger cars. We had a number of various railroad lines as you've seen in the pictures I've posted. Today, keeping the ones we prized and are still hard to replace. Lucky are you, if you have your original train sets.(y)

    It's all about having the train equipment that appeals to you. Rule #1, The fun you can have.:cool:
     
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  14. Keith

    Keith TrainBoard Supporter

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    Even managed to acquire another set of the Rapido F’s and
    I think, a 10 car set of matching Rapido shorty passenger cars,
    for RioGrande and 2 California Zephyr. Also on display!
     
  15. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

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    Well unlike our brothers and sisters in the Southern States. Idaho is prepared for cold weather and snow. That doesn't mean things can't go wrong, S#!+ happens!!:sneaky:

    Slip Siding Around. They aren't real strong about snow removal or treating the streets for ice and snow. :confused: Depending on your point of view, it's a lot of fun or scary as hell. :cautious::cautious:

    My back yard is not conducive to pulling a furniture Dollie... with trash can on board, through six inches of snow. Trash kind of backed up and started tickling my nose. Today, the snow had mostly melted off and the ground is still frozen enough to get the trash out. Done. It's going to be muddy and mucky for awhile.:sick::eek:

    Found some pictures you haven't seen yet. Do check this out.

    First off, here's a better look at the Life Like, Union Pacific, E7 pulling the Pioneer. How about the Western Pacific, Kato's, F7's sitting next to it?

    HP Rail Progress 007.jpg

    Who says I don't run foreign power?

    HP Rail Progress 003.jpg

    The same bridges you see above. Photo taken, just after they were installed. I knew then this was going to be temporary. Ever have that happen on your layout?

    27-Mainline to Left Coal Dist-Another View.jpg

    On the left with the crossover switches, the Mainline. On the right the Coal District. Did you look at the configuration of the switches? Proved to be a bit to much. The S curves made backing through them a virtual train wreck. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

    The bridge on the left is marked "Santa Fe" the bridge on the right is "Rio Grande." I was going to say I have two bridges to sell you. However, the lead in to such a comment doesn't work here. They are gone. Just as soon as I replaced these with Kato's assortment of Bridges. A good friend of mine said he had could use them, asking for them. Sold!!:)(y) They are now serving as a Curved Single Track Bridge on his layout. ;):D

    Odd, but as I look at the track work...well...I thought I did better work then that. Sigh!! I must have thought the same thing back then. I did change things up. The Mainline cross over is gone and all the switches in the Coal District are gone.

    Tomorrow, I head out to help a friend pull wire for a Church's Sound System. This will be easier to do then what I've been doing on my layout. No sitting under a train table to get the job done.:confused::cool:

    Again, thanks for all the likes, comments and visitors that have stopped by to check things out. .

    Later!
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021
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  16. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    It's ALL very impressive, Rick!

    Doug
     
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  17. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

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    The mortician in me must speak out. He most likely died of Pneumonia. Every disease you listed would eventually take a person because it turned into Pneumonia. Same thing is happening today with Covid 19, by the way.

    You can get a Pneumonia shot, these days.

    Now, back to operating trains while we are still here to enjoy them.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021
  18. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    Agree 100%
     
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  19. BarstowRick

    BarstowRick TrainBoard Supporter

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    You've seen and probably heard enough about the older girder bridges.

    Here are some pictures of the new bridges that went in.

    057.JPG
    Above: To the left the main line bridge. To the right the Coal District bridges. Cleaned up pretty good don't you think?

    The next two photos, I was focused on the Santa Fe Express Cars. Nonetheless you can see the bridge in the background.
    073.JPG
    One more.
    075.JPG

    Give me an air high-five if you like them.

    While I still have this CD in the DVD player. I can retrieve the following. Let me know what you think of this scene?
    056.JPG

    I need to get ready to head out for the church. We will be doing the Lord's work, pulling wire. What? What? It will be doing this for free so it must be the Lord's work. I didn't say that, did I?

    When I get back, I have a story to share about this last picture.

    Later!!
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021
  20. BNSF FAN

    BNSF FAN TrainBoard Supporter

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    For the Santa Fe express reefers
    27-275838_internet-high-five-clip-art-air-high-five.jpg
     

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