Here is a surviving pic of my firs N scale door layout circa 1982. Notice a lot of Faller/Heljan buildings as these were readily available at the time. The 0-6-0 switcher is from my first N scale set , the "Shifty Sam". Let's see some of your old pics!!! Russ
I strarted in N scale about 1968 and I don't have many photos from back then. I had a few small layouts and then devolped the RGW theme. The first RGW was in the house and theonly photos I have are bad, The second RGW was moved to the garage and here are a few pictures of it, This was taken in August of 1976. Same trestle in August of 1976. This trestle was eventually taken apart because I had no place for it on the new layout. The town of Grimy Gulch in August of 1976. There is a narrow gauge loco on the flat car. The roundhouse in May of 1982. Outside the roundhouse, May of 1982.
Jees, remeber the days when a lot of us had faller and heljan buidings? A lot of layouts had towns looking more like a swiss mountain village with those bright red roof tiles. How N scale has progressed.... Whoppit
I also remember the days of having mostly Minitrix, Roco and Bachmann steam! They ran good enough so that my imagination helped them look prototypical Great pics guys, let's see some more....I know that somewhere, out there, there is a picture of one of them old B-mann SD45's with blinking beacon light pulling a string of old timers or something.... Russ
The amount of old stuff that people bid on on ebay there must be whole layouts of prehistoric junkers still running, thing is, whos gonna admit to running a mehano fleet? whoppit
Russell, I am not even sure what that equipment is! (But I do remember seeing that pic before) Quite a difference from your current work! Thanks for posting that. Russ
Here is a little something different this time and I still do own this loco and it still does run. I am going to show you just the awesome drivetrain first and let you guess. I will post the rest of it later. (Hint: it's an early 80's loco!!) Russ
I started with lone star too. I have slides of that layout somewhere. I took a lot of slides back then. This is my second layout, with some Lone Star still in use, but all Minitrix sectional track. I never finished this one. I took these photos in February 1967 while home on leave prior to shipping out for Vietnam. I saved the trains, but the layout went in the back of the Model A pickup we used as our "garbage truck" back then. I understand from the collector who bought my Lone Star in the mid 70's that the yellow crane was not common. I sold these in Phoenix, and he had never seen the New Haven passenger cars either. Those came from International Hobbies in New York, summer of 1965. The photos are not that good. They were taken with one of those little Minox cameras. It could take close-ups, but had poor DOF and the tiny film made grainy prints. The Minitrix F7s were sold off last year to make room in the roster for Intermountain F3's, but I still run most of the cars. My Arnold Rapido FP9's were also reduced in number for the same reason. I kept an AMTRAK pair and a Northern Pacific pair. The Minitrix FM switchers and U-boats soldier on, waiting for someone to issue updated models. I still have a number of the Arnold FA2's, and I run them. They are stump-pullers, and you can hear them from the other side of the NTrak layout, so at least you know your train is still running. I'll post pictures of them someday. EDIT: I just remembered, the park is still using a photo taken years ago of my trains, on their "Railroad Clubs" page, the last one of the 3 thumbnails. The Arnold B&O "Capitol Limited" and NP "North Coast Limited" with extra cars are passing in the foreground. A pair of Arnold PC Alcos are hauling a 50-car freight on the mountain line, and there is a set of Minitrix Santa Fe U28C/U30CGs somewhere out of the picture on the blue line. Railroad Park link with my old trains! [ 18. January 2005, 13:53: Message edited by: LongTrain ]
Mike, you guessed correctly! It is indeed the old model power rear drive only FA-2. Here is a pic of the inards with the lone weight installed: Here is a shot of the whole thing: More to come soon! Russ
Here are somepics of my best layout. Took it to shows and really enjoyed it. wish it was still around.
