Yesterday my wife and I found out that we are finally having a boy, and today, she agreed to let me decorate the nursery with trains...with a compromise...a circus train to fit the jungle animals that she wanted. I plan to make a shelf above door height and use either O-27 or O-31 track and have a simple loop. I have a ton of postwar Lionel, but is there a good, inexpensive circus train that I can use? I am hoping to sneak in SoPac Tunnel Motors and a bay window caboose in a couple of years... I have a Lionel Santa Fe ALCO FA A-A 204 and a 2-6-4 2027, she does not mind me using them if I had some animal/circus cars, but I don't want to sink a ton into this. Thanks
I have an idea that serious collectors will not like. It may be hard and expensive to find factory-made Lionel circus. But I have seen a lot of fair quality (not mint) Lionel cars at inexpensive prices, $5 and $10 a car. Why not buy a few inexpensive cars and decorate them yourself in circus and animal themes?
I would agree. This is definitely the route to choose. As times goes by, the youngster may eventually wish to place hands upon this, and find a way. If any damage, the dollar loss is greatly reduced. I can see, also, where this will make some interesting family photos, and a few great memories.
Recently I saw a great suspended layout by a member over at MRF. He used suspension and through-truss bridges for a lot of it, and t is really neat. His is an HO layout, but you might be able to draw some inspiration from that or pick his brain some about the problems he encountered and such. He is a real nice guy, goes by RCShadow. Click here to see the thread about this great suspended layout over at MRF. There is also another guy doing a suspended layout over there right now, his name is Logandsawman, and is about mid-way through his project. Also, there is a thread over at MRF about modeling the winter quarters of Ringling Bros Circus, click this link to see it. Caution: Clicking that link will probably cost you an hour, there is so much great work and all around neat stuff in that HUGE thread with lots of circus train ideas. The project in that thread is HO , but there are lots of links in that thread to all kinds of different scale Circus Train MRRs, some really large scale. No, those are not midgets. Regular people and BIG Circus train! Great picture of the real deal I could not remember what forum that Circus Train thread was on, and I stumbled upon this thread (click this link to see it), which is current, over at O gauge railroading. This thread is bout Tinplate O Gauge Circus Train stuff, this might be what you are looking for. Might be more info over there about O gauge circus trains too. Sounds like a fun project. Good luck with gathering and/or building your circus train, and of course congrats on the new model railroader coming down the line!
Was browsing O scale vehicles and came across these O scale circus wagons. They appear to have pretty good detail, but are in dire need of a decent paint job. Cost is about $7 each at one of the hobby sites, that I will not linc to. These would be a good start on your O scale Circus Train as flatbed loads.
Thanks, the wife and I were thinking about using old flats that I have. As for the shelf, I was thinking about using 3/4" plywood as a shelf and brackets bolted in to the studs
Zombie thread, I know, but I was curious as to how this worked out? My husband and I did something similar in our last train room and it was incredibly noisy, even with a thin foam under the tracks. We have a new house and want to do a suspended track again. Thanks, Sophie
Well, plans have changed....I still haven't done anything and the wife now wants the Lionel Batman subway train....
