Bonita Grand central


B

Bonita Grand Central

Well-Known Member
That's the name of my railroad and my name is Pete McGill. I live in Bonita Springs, Fl. and I've been in model RRing since1973. That's when I was finally living in a house that had enough room for a layout. I've built six layouts of various sizes and working on the seventh now. I do not model any specific era or place but rather a strictly off the cuff layout with whatever rolling stock is running at the time. I also build model planes,cars and boats from kits and ship models from scratch mostly. I'm very interested in classic cars and have restore seven of them, all Lincolns, from 57 to 86. Born in Massachusetts and have lived in Florida since 1961 which adds up to 80 years old. Ya, I'm old but i can still run my trains. Glad to be a member here now. Oh yes, I have a neat dog named Echo that is part German Shepherd and part Bernese Mountain dog and part stomach. I can't believe how much this dog can eat. Pete.
 

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They're all activities that I have dabbled in over the last fifty years. The ones that give me the most gratification are the ones that I do often like building a train layout or creating a ship model. However it's nice to have an alternative hobby to switch to when you get bored working on the same old thing. Ship model rigging can get very tedious after a time so giving yourself a break from that with a jet fighter just makes sense.
Thanks for the welcome Smudge617. Pete
 
Welcome to the forum, Pete.
We have something in common in that, I like modelling everything as well. Airplanes, armour, R/C, figures, ships and trains are all fair game.
I happen to be relatively new in trains and working on my first layout, but, I've been building airplanes since I was a child.
The photos you've posted are simply wonderful! Good looking dog!
Welcome to the forum!
 
Thanks for the welcome McLeod. I started with a Stromberg model sail boat in about 1950.A friend came to visit on a rainy Saturday afternoon and brought the model with him. When I realized that I could actually make something out of a box of parts I was hooked. Think I was 9 years old about then. Been building everything since. The four foot long cabin cruiser in one of my pictures was the first boat I built from scratch. The gangsters yacht that is visible off shore in the movie "Key Wes"t gave me the inspiration and I combined that yacht with the Mariner Two, another big yacht, to make the plans and build what you see in the picture. That gave me a big thrill to build from the ground up with only the simple plans that I drew. It gave me a lot of confidence for models that came later. By the way that movie was filmed at a place called the Caribbean Club which is only half way to Key West. I've been able to down several cold ones in that place while looking out to where the movie boat sat. Found out later the boat in the movie was a painting and not a real boat. So my model is of a boat that never existed.
Glad your getting into trains. More challanging than other kinds of modeling. Shoot us some pics when you get a chance. We can let you know when your screwing up. Ha! Pete
 
hey two tracks. Where are you located? "The other side of the map" covers a lot of ground. Ha! Everybody was new at it at one time or another. Just takes practice and mostly trial and error. Main thing is to have a plan to start out with to get you going. The plan is only a guide. Don't be afraid to make changes as you go along. Don't spend a lot of time figuring out how many pieces of track you need. Just start building and it will all sort itself out as you progress. Do take breaks and try to think ahead. Works very time. Pete
 
Welcome aboard Pete. Position your computer pointer over Jerry's avatar and note that he is from Southern Oregon. I am in Era TX, about halfway between the two of you. I am only on my fourth layout, but it will be the final one once it is finished. I also make changes as I go - didn't start with anything but a rough sketch. If you find yourself with nothing to do, come on over to the Coffee Shop and shoot the bull and get to know some of us better.
 
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Great picture Willie. Looks like you have a ton of room to play in too. And double deck I see. Bet you don't run out of things to do there. I thought about N scale for the layout I'm building now but the cost of all new everything was a bit much for me. Then what would I do with all my HO stuff? So stayed with the HO and compressed what I wanted into the space I had. It's all going along fairly well so far. Working on a coal mine scene right now and it's fun as usual. Ha! Thanks for the pic.
 
I started this thread in the "introduce your self" title but do I keep adding to this or do I start a new one somewhere? I generally like to stay on one thread if possible so I can find where I left off the last time I posted. Here's a pic of the coal mine at this stage of the game. I don't know if it actually looks like a coal mine or not but there are a lot of hours in it and has a ways to go yet. The plan is to get the coal on this end of the layout to an electric plant on the other end with a town stuck in there too. There is a later pic of the mine but it's lost in my computer somewhere. Damned Windows 10.
 

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Pete - I think you can do it anyway you like, however you could start a new thread "layout design and construction" section maybe easier for new people to know this is your layout under construction specifically.

Looks like you have a great start, Dave LASM
 
Nice mine shots.

Technically I'm on my 4th layout. First 2 were my original Lionel oval and after we moved to Kansas, my 16'X12' Lionel layout in High School. Then I got stupid and traded for HO and after 25 years in the boxes, built the first HO only to take it down to move again. It was down another 5 years before the tables and track of my current layout were laid.

BTW: Welcome to here.
 
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