I will have to scare some up but wanted to start this thread. I have recently seen some old layout photos and there was a lot of stuff in the pictures that was very nostalgic!!! So drag out those scrap books and photo albums !!!! Mike
How about August of 1976, is that old enough? The loco is a Raipdo Pacific. The town of Grimy Gulch back in '76. A narrow gauge loco is on a flat car.
Ah, what a great idea. I'd scanned these a while back for laughs. This would be about 1974-5 or so on the first Santa Fe layout. I now love this shot. Taken with an Argus C-4 rangefinder and an adapter with macro lenses. Before MT couplers, decals, handrails... pretty much of everything! The tower behind the loco was one of my very first scratchbuilt structures. The Con-Cor box survives today, the Rapido GP units were redone twice before sold about five years ago. This was back in the era when this was the ONLY GP7/9 available, remember those dark ages????? These would be some of my very first model pics ever attempted when I was about 17 or so. The amazing part is that those Stewart fueling facilities are still on the current layout. This was when John Allen was posting photos in MR, and I had no idea how any of that was ever being done. I got one picture published in the NMRA Bulletin, though!
Russel, I see you've got the greatest fighter pilot of all time guarding your layout behind that russian helicopter
That helicopter was the worst kit I ever built. It was an authentic Soviet product and nothing lined up. The Sopwith Camel kit behind Snoopy was easier to build. Here is another photo from the same time frame. I was rearranging track. It appears I had some Atlas freight cars by then to go along with some Vollmer building kits.
Mike, Five of the six buildings in that row were scratch-built, mostly out of wood. The far left one that is hard to see is a plastic kit.
Working on the railroad, circa 1979. Entire RR scenicked on kitchen table then carried to basement. Ben
Here's a shot from my N layout in 1974. I started work on it in May of 1973 - work pretty much halted in 1975, and in 1979 it was dismantled. Wish I had some pics from it's more "completed" state showing the scenery, roundhouse, and engine facility. It was a really fun, nice operating layout.
John: Do these scenes still exist in some form on your current layout or are they completely gone? Thanks.
This picture isn't "vintage" on the grand scale, as it's only from 1998. But it's "vintage" for me. This was my first attempt at a serious layout, with planned provisions for actual operations. But it never got past the early tracklaying stages; although I was able to run trains around the mainline, I never finished adding the industry spurs and siding, and never really began scenery. Here's the layout as I was starting to dismantle it, the most complete pictures I have: I had run out of space in my apartment, and needed room to work on modules for MARRS. My first module can be see at the foot of the layout table in the bottom picture, folded in "transport mode." Since then, I've moved into a real live house, and I have dreams of doing a (relatively) big layout. But that's still in the future.
Flash, This layout was torn down sometime in the late '80's and another one started in the same area. The bents from the trestle were saved and I used the wood for two of the narrow gauge bridges on the present layout. The layout started in the late '80's was not coming along the way I wanted so about the mid '90's I started the present layout. Herwe are a few more photos of the first layout in this area in May of 1982.
In 1968 I had a 2' X 4' layout on castors that I slid under the bed when not in operation. We lived in a tiny apartment at the time. I actually submitted this photo to MR, who rejected it because of the lack of shadow detail, plus I had not stated the scale. "Presumably HO," the editor guessed, so I was pleased with that part of the response at least. In the late 80's I had a bit more space.
Here are a few more oldies; Aug 1976 The next one is a shot of my first suspension bridge, made out of wood, in 1976 The next one is too dark but one of the few I have of the wood cantilever bridge and the canyon. All of the above bridges no longer exist.
