Oldrk: That is a "bad" looking engine. Real bad! :thumbs_up: And a classic, too! I do see N scale has made some advances even though there are still those of us who complain.
My first Piece. Well, I'm a Big Time Fan of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. It came about when I discovered my wife's family were railroaders. Her Grandfather was a Brakeman on the D&H, her other two grand uncles were full Engineers with the Erie. Uncle Howard even managed to get photographed in his Erie Berkshire Steam Locomotive in Kalmbach's Steam Cyclopedia. The family always enjoyed listening to Uncle Howard tell us all his wonderful Railroad stories. My interest with the D&H began when we visited my wifes grandmother in Honesdale PA. As we entered the town a Historic Landmark was displayed "Honesdale, Birthplace of American Railroading". As a History buff, that got my curiosity going. Naturally, my first Diesel Engine that I acquired in 1975 was a Con-Cor Delaware and Hudson Alco PA1. Second piece was a Con-Cor 4-6-4 Hudson in D&H colors, even though D&H never had a Hudson, I guess I'll exercise some artistic license here for the sake of "It looks really Cool" and runs very well. Bill :thumbs_up:
What a great thread to read on the day before Christmas. My first N scale piece was in 1986 and was a MT 40' box car lettered for the Pennsylvania RR. I had H.O. since 1976 but was fascinated with the size on N. I then "special ordered" my first N scale locomotive from the gentleman who later taught me how to paint. I was really proud of my Bachman Amtrak F9! I still have it, tucked in a box somewhere next to the MT Pennsy box car. I dabbled in H.O. until my layout was taken down in 1989 then got back into railroading in 1994 with a, yup you guessed it, Little Joe set at Toys-R-Us for $20.00! Haven't looked back since. Jim
Here is some more early Lone Star Treble 0 equipment. Really like those old Land Rover pick up trucks and Citroen autos. Another Lone Star F7.
When I was in highschool I had an english class where the cruel teacher made us read books! I believe the book I read was "Dandelion Wine" There is stuff about a streetcar in the book. If you made a diorama about something in the book you got extra credit and lord knows I neeeded it. So I got a foot square piece of plywood and cut out a notch down the center. I then painted the thing green to look like grass and glued a couple of Atlas cheapy plastic houses on each side. Then I painted the notch in the middle to look like a street. Then I glued a piece of track down to look like a trolley line. Not many streetcar lines have ties on the road but I really wasnt worried about detail. Then I took this old Lone Star coach I bought at a dime store for I think a quarter and glued a piece of rail on the top to look like a trolley pole and then glued it to the track. Maybe took me 15 minutes to do it all. It looked really corney and I was almost too embarresed to turn it in but if it got me to the next grade so be it. I took it to school and turned it in and you would have thought I was Picasso. Not only did I get an A but she kept it to show all the other classes. I still laugh when I think about that. I think I still have the old Lone Star coach around. If I can find it I will post a picture.
I repainted and added some more detail to all mine and put new trucks under them. They were UP but are now ATSF.
First n scale item My first item was a Bachman F9 train set, and U28 c minitrix locomotive back in the early 90s. Bachman spectrum dash 8's would follow some years later. Intermodal containers back then had to be painted and decaled. My how the hobby has come a long way since then.
I was given a couple of Atlas cars Christmas of 1971. The next day was Sunday and the only loco Sears had was a UP c-liner. I still have it. It never ran worth poop.
Thought I had posted to this thread but guess I didn't so here goes. Started out in the 50s with some old three rail Lionel then some two rail American Flyer. When I came back from a few years in SE Asia, all expense paid tour courtesy of the USMC, I started out with HO. Late 60s early 70s finally got to N scale with an old 0-4-0 that was probably my first bash. Turned it into a 0-4-2 cab forward pulling a small string of Bmann 65 footers. Think it could manage three of them. Somewhere I actually have a photo of that I'll find someday. Also in my early collection are some ancient PAs, still run, and either a PA unit or a E unit that has the old track slider pads for current pick-up. All still run, except alas the 0-4-2 cab forward is no more.
My first N scale gear was the ever-popular Aurora Postage-Stamp train set with the diesel F-unit, 4 or 5 cars plus a caboose. I can't remember the time frame but I'd guess it was around 1972. The next Christmas I got an Atlas/rivarossi 0-4-0 Shifter which I still have in running condition. The Trix F is around but in pieces.
November 6, 2006 - After spending the past few weeks dismantling my old HO scale layout, I went to House of Hobbies in Burbank, CA and bought these: Two Athearn boxcars, a piece of Atlas Code 55 flextrack and a piece of N scale cork roadbed. Obviously not enough to run, but enough for me to get acclimated to the size of the trains. The whole point was *transition* and the choice of Athearn was probably not accidental, since I owned many Athearn trains in HO. As you can see here, I posed my new N scale purchases alongside their HO scale counterparts. On that day I also got on eBay, an Intermountain SD40T-2 and an Athearn Metrolink F59PHI and three Bombardier Metrolink commuter coaches, but I wouldn't have them until a few days later. I wasted no time getting into this N scale thing!
This was my first n stock! It's Lone Star from 1959. It is "push-along" and featured ballasted track - eat your heart out Kato! Track was copied from the English "Tri-ang" 00 track of the time. No con-rods on the locos, or anything else really! Mostly British stock - I have a "Mallard" and a "Duchess" plus some passenger cars, in a box .................somewhere!
A Union Pacific, Atlas, RS type with a 5 car set of Atlas passenger cars to shove around. Sorry, no pictures.
good ol bachmann long hauler from the 80s! i still have it. detail isnt that bad honestly. seems like i cant find another set like this one with these particular cars.
And they got the color correct on the Santa Fe stock car. Everyone else seemed to be fixated on the incorrect green. Blame that on Lionel.
