GeekOut! Time for trains

I don't often talk about stuff I do in real life ... that is the things I do away from the computer. Other than sinking money into my computer stuff and my business, I sink money into my N-scale model railroad.

Way back when I was in elementary school my dad build me a small HO set on a table. That was great and I played with it a lot but didn't really know much about actually building the things. We had some of that 70s era green turf stuff for "grass" and some track and a station.

Later on, after coming back from Africa I got involved with some serious model railroaders and I immediately wanted to learn how they did stuff. We moved again so I didn't get much experience (and I was still a kid) but I picked up a few things and throughout high-school I was determined to build a kick-butt layout.

But things never really moved much past the planning stage. I had a table set up but it was outdoors on our back-porch. It was covered but just the moisture in the air and the heat of summer and the cold of winter made it somewhat un-desirable. Upon going to college I abandoned the ambition.

After Jen and I got married I was going through some stuff my parents dropped off at our house and found a couple of N-scale pieces. I had bought them for my dad at one point or another and he didn't have the time to mess with it, so it had sat in a box for 4 or 5 years. I immediately took them out and set them up. The small size fit well in the small house!

That sparked a frenzy. I tried to expand the set, buying cheap train-stuff when I could find it. I really never got that far because I simply didn't have the space. Adam saw the terrain and thought he could have fun with it too. For awhile he started building his own but discovered that he didn't have space either.

We moved 3 more times, finally settling here, in our own house with a "play-room" (home builder speak for "useless 10x10 area where your bratty kids are supposed to throw their toys"). This "room" (its not really) basically perfect for the task of a decent sized layout.

I'm the track guy and Adam is the terrain guy. I must admit we really didn't know that much even when we started the current layout almost 2 years ago now. We got a part done and discovered that our grades were too steep and the trains couldn't climb them (oops) .. I also left a pile of ballist (little rocks) sitting on the tracks. Later I was testing Adam's Kato 2-8-0 Mikado. Little tiny gears and ballist don't mix well. (its still being repaired)

Anyway we decided we needed more space so we rebuilt the tables into modules and have taken over the whole room. The trains run on the outside edge, we have an average of 2ft width though one of the original tables was 3x5 so we just left it that way.

Our time-period is early 50s and Adam wanted to do a Southwest theme which means Santa Fe. I know pretty much everyone does Santa Fe in the 50s but at the very least its easy to find stuff to go with it! It also made sense given the engines we currently own. Adam's Mikado (letter Santa Fe already) is a little out of date but there was still some steam around. I also have a Kato ALCO RS-2. Its currently painted for Chicago and Western. I'm planning to repaint it with Santa Fe's black and white "zebra" scheme. I found out that they owned exactly one RS-2 back in the day and I know its number .. so at least I'm historically accurate in that regard :)

I also bought an F9-A with the classic red and silver war-bonnet colors and 5 passenger cars. The engine is Kato as well. The passenger cars are Con-Cor. They are okay but their couplers absolutely suck. I really wanted the Kato passenger cars but I was unable to find Santa-Fe at the time and I didn't feel like painting/re-lettering. So now I'll replace couplers instead!

Other rolling-stock is mostly Atlas with some Bachman. I really like the Atlas couplers. I've replaced the trucks on all the Backman's with Atlas. The only thing with the Atlas is they don't have a magnetic option. I'm debating if I want to go the Micro-Trains route and replace everything with full magnetic... the problem is they are expensive! The Atlas are cheaper so its kind of a catch 22. Atlas is better and cheaper now but I know I'd probably like the Micro-Trains magnetic stuff and it's absolutely awesome ... ah choices.

BTW if you get into this stuff, don't buy Bachman (or LifeLike or Model Power). You will be sad. The Atlas stuff isn't that much more money and its much better quality. Basically don't buy train-stuff at the big-box hobby stores. Except maybe buildings and terrain ... but be prepared to paint the buildings.

For track we've settled on Atlas Code 80. Most of it is flex-track but I have some sectional as well. I have a bunch of section curves and 9 1/2" and 11" radius that I really don't know what I'm going to do with now. On the new layout all the curves are 18" or higher to accommodate the long passenger cars. The turnouts are also code 80. Yeah they have plastic frogs but they work reasonably well and I can't spend $80 a piece for the track and the Tortoise electric switcher and all that stuff. Right now most of them are manual, which is fine, we can reach everything easily. Although Atlas is making an under table switch machine now. I picked one up for $7.00 the other day, I'm going to try it out. Since we don't have too many I don't see that as being too bad. Probably just electric for the mains for now.

As for power, right now I have the one main hooked up to a MRC Tech 4, though I have everything I need now for Digitrax DCC. I'm going to finish the other main and then wire that up. I've done under-table wiring as is recommended when doing DCC. Its really great actually I recommend that for even a straight DC setup, I'm finding it makes the control much more reliable.

Adam is doing a great job on terrain. He made this freaking awesome canyon which we will be building a bridge over. The canyon is hand-made, its 18 inches deep. Truly grand :). He's also been working on buttes for our desert area.

While we don't have a whole lot of total space, we're trying to make "scenes" with small amounts of transition between them. We have a farm scene that's mostly done though the area around it needs a lot of work. We have small down that's at least laid out. It was in the first incarnation but never completely finished. We have the vast majority of the buildings for it. We have a desert area with the big canyon and buttes and finally we'll have an industrial, large city type of area. Basically a scene for each corner of the layout.

I'll have to post some pics, its too late right now :)

I think that's it. Geek-out over.

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