Evening all, I'm having a bit of a conundrum about what to do with a themed train. The set in question is an Aristocraft Napa Valley RR train inherited from one of my Dad's railroading buddies. It consists of 2 FA units, a B unit, a 4 wheel caboose, an older style intermodal with two Napa Valley RR trailers on it and about 6 heavyweights in NVRR colors. This has all been sitting NIB in Dad's basement for the last year or so and he has no plans for it. One of the things I plan for my new garden RR is to light it. All the buildings and a good bit of scale outdoor lighting is envisioned. I began to wonder about lighting the passenger cars. It'll be easy enough to do using AA battery power in each car. The locos would be converted to battery powered r/c as well. I can't decide if I should run it with all three power units together or if I should normally run it with a single loco which I believe is how it's done on the full size road. My biggest concern though is if I light the cars and convert the power units will I be ruining some intrinsic value in this themed train? Is this NVRR train a collectable that is best left original or can I make these changes without feeling as though I'm putting drag slicks on a Ferrari? I've not found more than a car or two on the auction site and Dad says that if he can only get $100 bucks per car he'll just keep them. He won't use them so I've come up with an idea on how to fit them into my new road. As an aside, is there a way to synchronize three Airwire G3 units? It's easy enough though a bit pricey to run all three units together but I wonder if there is a way to keep them from working against each other in case one or all run at different speeds at a given throttle setting. Insight is appreciated. Thanks. Rick H.
If you are in no hurry, I'd just give it some time. Poke around on the auction site, surf around the 'Net and see what shows up. You may or may not be able to develop an idea of worth.
No rush at all really. Plenty else to do before worrying abut running a wine train. About to start on the trestle, towns to build, earth to move.... Rick H.
