Over the top of the single stall engine house, looking down the yard throat. Looking down the side of the engine house with work train on the left. Along the pier, freighthouse right of hoppers. Across the throat, overlooking the coaling tower and turntable. NP 225 has just backed in on ready track one, going for a spin next and out on ready track 2 for coal after an inspection. NP 225 on the table, after inspection in the now empty engine house. I got all the track in and secured today, all the commons in, all the mainline wired through, yard leads, part of the engine terminal. Thought I'd get some photos. Dave
Sort of. It was kit form. I built the railings and platform, and control booth. The brass sides of the pit were covered when I built it with thin cardstock painted grey....but the years have not been friendly to it, buckling and peeling, so I'm pulling it all out, going to paint the brass concrete (still have some Floquil Concrete, I think). Bowser kit. Don't ever buy one. Royal pain...the pins and setscrews to hold to the shaft will not stay put. I think it's 22", the big one is not yet in service as I may move it. It's gear drive. Have a three stall roundhouse I built up from a kit for it, water tank, sand tower. I built this 30 years ago, then 20 years ago we parked it, took a wall out, excavated, expanded, used the dirt on the outdoor railroad, and never had time. Couple of years ago, I decided to put it back in service and expand into the new space. This part got moved to make it more usable in the new design, that's why no ballast yet. This is the L1s I built 35 years ago from all Lionel parts. I traded it off when we parked the layout, got it given back to me from the guys estate. Another view, and on the "new" part of the layout.
Yeah..that was given to me. Poorly done, nothing square or straight, bits missing (scratchbuilt). I spent a lot of time fixing it, making it presentable. It will go on the ready tack of the big turntable. I have a scratchbuilt water tank I am going to split and gut, and wrap it around one of the 4" steel posts holding the house up. I think the red Botchman (Plasticville) one by the small turntable is the one a buddy heavily modified. Spliced two vertically, the chute is counterweighted. I have two up on the mine branch spliced side by side. Effective, anyway. I have a lot of photos. I can load them up and start in if you want. This is what the engine terminal looked like in it's old location when I started re-lighting the layout. 20 years of dust and dirt, concrete...we still find big chunks of broken concrete in various places. Cleaning engines, cars, track, switches.....took forever to do. This is the new engine terminal, yard and reverse loop just after shifting the benchwork. Test fitting track (and this GarGraves is OLD...third or fourth relay......)
This is what I was confronted with..the end of the line. The original line came towards you swinging to the left, through two steps on the stairway, across the east concrete wall, then re-connected and all that was gone. This is where I had to stop and figure out what to do now. This is from about the same spot, with the yard moved, new switches and track, and a three track lift out accessing the new portion
I started out in 3-rail in...1952-ish. That 225E is my first engine, inherited from my Uncle, who got it Christmas of 1940. I moved to Half Zero in High School, had around the wall layouts when nobody else did..they were all 4X8. TruScale, also inherited, loved it. Navy, tried, moving a lot...Atlas snap track didn't like to be set up on the carpet very much. Tried Nano scale for a while (fit on the kitchen counter top), finally snagged all the Lionel and dragged it out to where I was stationed. I do HiRail, or semi-scale. Notice the NP engines have cab backs, handrails (safety white, no less), proper lettering, front couplers I developed long ago. Nothing better than a show with 80+ Lionel NP freight cars, helper 60% back in tonnage, and one at the rear...all steam....all moving at prototypical speed. I've got NP F units...in fact, at a LOTS convention, the Lionel guys saw my custom painted 2343's, took a lot of photos..and two years later came out with their NCL, with FA's. Gues how many FA's the NP had. GarGraves track, operating signals, I even have one walkaround (looking for a couple more)...AllTrol. The stuff is wired state-of-the-art 1940. I did my buddies NP Lionel pike oh, 20 years ago, had one solder failure on an anodized centre rail (SOB to get solder to stick to) and one Tenshodo/Kemtron switch machine fail in all that time. Early green: FT freighters on left, 2349 Geep helping on the point of the Loewy F units: FT A and B with an F9 following on the point of a coal train: Loewy F units on a caboose hop back to the yards. You can see the spliced coaling towers at a mine tipple on the mining branch above: I went outdoors in LS, radio battery, still do that, but really trying to get this all back..including full double track main. Dave
The ore train had been trapped on the upper mine branch for those 20 years. Finally got the line re-opened, sent a pair of NW's up to pull them down. Here they are coming through the crossover: Those NW's are General Models and All Nation cast units, made and sold in 2 and 3 rail versions. They have Dallee revering units in them. Dave
Just finished the first run of a train from the liftout to the liftout...all the way around the loop. Had to do a temp common until I get the liftout common feed soldered in to the main common feed. Have the wire, just have to do it.
