Here is a blast from the past. Some photos I found of my two older brothers and me with our Marx trains. We (well, they didn't really let me do much) set them up for the holidays in December 1955. My Dad scratch built the baggage car as Marx did not make one.
Photos from my new module: first one, the module seen from the other module. The concrete bridge, the left track entering a tunnel and the right track going into a cut On the other side of the module, you can see the tunnel exit (on the right) and the track coming from the side of the mountain. Panoramic view of the cut: Track level view of the cut: Ciao,
Two more shots. Track level view of the track snaking on the side of the mountain: The two module connected: ciao,
and the last one... with a train (early '70s BN local). I think it helps to give the module the correct proportion! Ciao,
I hope you still have these trains!! If I ever get a scanner I have a similar pic from about 1965...GREAT stuff, thanks for sharing these!
Great rock bluffs above...nice work, jgiovenni. Jeff, good job on the tank car tagging. Secret weapon, good looking old bridge there. Russell, I hope you grin when you recall the emotions of those innocent times.
Great pictures, Russell. Reminds me of my Christmas, too. Really neat that your father made that baggage car. IIRC, Lionel did make a silver car baggage of some type; I'm not sure when, though. If that is Marx, does that mean S scale?
Yes, I still have those old Marx trains. They are O scale and run on 027 track. You can see the Santa Fe E units on the shelf above my work bench in this photo.
Russ- that pic of the Marx trains took me back to the mid-1960s, when I was a kid in Saratoga, Wyoming. Dad had bought a box of Marx trains from somebody in the area, and when I came downstairs on Christmas morning, Dad had them all set up in the floor of the living room. He had them going at a decent speed, and seemed to be having a little fun himself. We had them for several years, until we moved to Iowa due to Dad's job ( a lot of stuff got sold off or left to reduce the amount of stuff we had to move). That was my start in this hobby, which I took up again in 1973, and have been active in since. Thanks, Dad- and thanks, Russ, for sharing the pictures.
I went to Wal-Mart the other day and got a quart of flat latex the same color as the WS blended turf I use in my scenery. Today I put it to the test. I paint an area then sprinkle on some blended turf. What would have taken an hour or more now takes about ten minutes.
Since I am on a dial-up connection this week, I am slowly going through photos. Very slowly. Here is a old photo of mine. Not as old as Russell's, but 6-8 weeks old, anyway. Union Livestock Yards, San Antonio - Westside. Not a prototype; a DPM kit bash.
I spent some time last night installing three flood lights on the front of the south engine house. They have quite an impact when the room lights are off.
Harlowton, MT was an important town for the Milwaukee Road. It was the beginning of the 440-mile segment of electrification from Harlo to Avery, ID. Trains surrendered their steam and diesels locos here, in favor of locos powered by "white coal". The depot, a shop switcher, snowplow, and a Boxcab electric are all preserved, along with other items like signals, telephone shacks, etc. The depot is nice, but the colors have weathered to a very feminine color: E57B once served the Milwaukee, and is now on a well-deserved vacation from lugging heavy freight trains over the Belt, Bitterroot, Cascade, and Rocky Mountains. The CMStP&P ran these boxcab electrics from their construction in 1915-1974:
Progress! Just some shots of the progress on Bealle's Saloon. This will be my second all-foam board structure.
Two Teens and Their Younger Sister Annie brought three of her kids over Saturday night: Matt at the controls of: 1 x Atlas GP38, 18 X Fox Valley Models 50 foot box cars. Kudos to FVM. These tracked flawlessly at all speeds and when backed up through a 133 degrees of curve including 5 turnouts that reversed direction. My prized grain train made up of IM cars would not stay on the tracks. I was not happy. Helping with the backdrop: At my direction the boys, er, guys, (gotta watch that), Cut a foam sheet to size Arranged and mounted Pete's 2nd backdrop Replaced the weights. Next week they will help mount it on the layout and take down the current one for redoing or fixing. Running Trains: Matt and Rachel both took trains out of the yard and returned them smoothly and successfully Next week it will be out of the yard and onto the inside track. Hmmmm. The inside track had a pre-staged bullet train. The two concentric loops lent itself to "racing" but they were also careful. It was impressive to see the Atlas GP38 with 19 cars hit about 60 scale MPH. Experimentation: Matt, 14yo 5'10" - (with the hat), is the curious one. How does this work? Why is that like so? What happens if? Well, at one point he wanted to learn about short circuits. Unbeknown to me he held a nail across the tracks of the inside loop where his sister was running the bullet train. So now Rachel is trying to figure out why her train is acting up. She is starting to ask when "Ouch! OMG, it got hot!", and her brother drops the red hot nail. He had to endure a 4 minute lecture - not on behavior, but on electricity, resistance, and heat. < deep evil rolling chuckle >. Mike, 15yo, 5' 11.5" - is the entertainer / artisitic one studied Pete's backdrops and started planing scenery. Rachel - 11yo, 5'5" - The quiet one was thrilled to be treated as peer and quite happy to run the bullet train, stopping to pick up unseen passengers and dropping them off for shopping. Annie (aka Mom) - 4'9" - no I am _not_ giving out her age - loved watching her children having fun. Future: All 3, um 4, are expected back. Matt really wants to learn about soldering and electricity. Mike seems interested in that along with the scenery. Rachel - Running trains and shopping and being treated as a peer. A good time was had by all Here you see Matt at the controls. I have given him a green light to open throttle. I fully expected a derailment but the FVM cars held the track.
