recent acqusition(s)

[Airslide]

without going into great detail I relieved a friend of mine of this 4X9 HO scale layout, since after all, i have the space. my model railroad experience has doubled in size since last weekend.

in addition to the table, i got 8 power units, 4 santa fe passenger cars, some landscaping materials, and a box of nick nacks and doo dads to play with.

the power units acquired include:

-3 santa fe's
-1 Union Pacific
-1 chessie
-1 rock island
-1 Amtrack
-1 santa fe 2-2 steam engine.

*im not at the point of eyeballing power yet and knowing the model number

the downside is, the track is older and may require some serious cleaning. The wiring as all DC and i havent really figured out all the blocks yet. There wasnt much rolling stock, but the ones that I got were all horn hook and plastic wheels. but those will be easy enough to replace.

In almost the same swift stroke, i came accross a small 4X6 board with a small oval and a couple of turn outs and slick set of buildings. The track is nailed onto the plywood right through a grass mat. pretty crude by today's standards...but i will make use out of it. The buildings are in fairly good condition though. Ill robably weather some of them to make them a little more life like.

So now I have two tables and the challenge ahead of me is to somehow convert all the wiring and power units that are in good order to DCC and somehow connect the two sets so thay can runn as one railroad.

my incomplete 4X8 and new(old) 4X9

my initial thought is to put a mountian/tunnell between the two tables to give the appearence of two cities, miles apart, and run freight between them maybe even have some sort of passenger/commuter service between them. and subsequently build a bench for the 4X6 board and replace the brass track and grassmat with foam and stud yard for rolling stock storage...

this may require a major overhaul as im not really fond of the track plan, but i can modify it to make it work to suit my needs. i think the hardest (and most expensive) part will be the DC to DCC conversion. I have some pretty good sources for DCC info and know i can count on this board and my LHS if i get in a bind. has anyone ever undergone a project like this. id like to hear stories and see photos if possible.

 

[V&AL]

wow, great for you!

what a mix of motive power, looks like some real cheap lifelike up to some newer bachmann/kato? and athearn stuff...

good luck on getting everything hooked up!

 

[Airslide]

*edit: the santa fe and southern F units and the CR and NS GPs were already mine. the rest came with the package.

the rock island is life like and yes is rather cheap looking, and running....however, the santa fe gp20 is also life like and it is worlds apart. like night and day. runs great - very good detail. i guess its just a low end high end thing. the rock island looks like its about 20 years old though.

the chessie is tyco. from my experience, tyco was never big on detail or performance.

none of them are kato, but the amtrack is athern and when i clean or replace the wheels i can tell it is going to be a beast.

 

[UP2CSX]

How come no one ever offers me complete layouts? Looks like a nice haul. It shouldn't be too hard to wire those up for DCC, just some extra feeders and hook up the controller. I'd draw out a track plan of what's already on the two layouts and see what you want to keep and how you'd connect the two. Since it doen't look like the thracks are ballasted, you may want to make some revisions before trying tomake them both one layout.

Whoever the guy was who had the smaller layout sure like AHM buildings. That's about one of every variation of the basic three story building AHM ever produced. With some weathering and a few extra details, they can be very realistic model buildings.

 

[FunValleyLine]

Looks like you caught some good items. Some simple work and additional weathering and you have some great structures. Dont worry about the quality of the locos just run the ones that work well or can be fixed easily. Dont forget that the less detailed ones will look good in an engine house or at the end of a siding with the parts stripped down and add some tarps and some other junk and some weeds and presto you have the start of a railroad junkyard. Good luck and have fun.