RailsAndRelics
New Member
Hi! My name is Jack and I have partnered up with Lyle Darnell who is the founder of a tiny
museum here locally in Carthage SD called "Rails and Relics", it's an ongoing project
started some 8 years ago, with Alan Windedahl being the primary artist who handbuilt
most of the buildings in addition to the layout itself. The main display is an HO model trainset,
with around 120 feet or more of track, all installed on a topographical representation
of the state, not to scale but showing the highlights and a nice model of this city as it was
back in the 1930's. We're a non-profit funded mainly by Mr. Darnell and maintained by
volunteers like myself.
The train is a Paragon 2 model from Broadway: "USRA Pacific 4-6-2, HO" (140 N de M).
It has been converted to pure RF/battery (no power to tracks) via a Ring Engineering HC-3
handheld controller and an LM-3S module, with a battery car and a "switch" car to trip the
track switchers.
Development slowed for a couple of years due to illnesses and some members of the original team
passing away. So early this summer I signed on to help get the museum fixed up and ready for a local
festival we have in August every year. I am myself completely new to model trains, so it's been quite
the learning experience and I still have a long ways to go, when I first started working there the
train would no longer run due to some wiring issues, so my first job was to take it apart and
completely re-wire everything, that was a hoot let me tell you!
But we got it done and started adding some artwork to the place, cleaned
all the track and dealt with some de-railment issues, and work will continue. We have
a long way to go but we're having fun and folks seem to enjoy the place, we've had
some nice artwork loaned to us and recently a large collection of vintage porcelain
carousel horses. The next big things will be large scale muraling, adding Mt. Rushmore
to the display, and another town + more figures and stations, possibly some additional
track and a second train. We don't have a website, there appears to have been one years
ago but it's gone as is likely the domain, but we should be able to get something up
in the near future.
I look forward to reading here and hopefully picking up some tips on things, i'm semi-retired
and work part-time online, so i'm setting up back in the office to do that, and so we
will be open quite a bit more than previously, if anybody is ever planning on being
near Carthage, feel free to e-mail me and i'll be sure we're open for you, there's not a
whole lot to see right now, but that is changing every day.
Thanks!
~Jack
museum here locally in Carthage SD called "Rails and Relics", it's an ongoing project
started some 8 years ago, with Alan Windedahl being the primary artist who handbuilt
most of the buildings in addition to the layout itself. The main display is an HO model trainset,
with around 120 feet or more of track, all installed on a topographical representation
of the state, not to scale but showing the highlights and a nice model of this city as it was
back in the 1930's. We're a non-profit funded mainly by Mr. Darnell and maintained by
volunteers like myself.
The train is a Paragon 2 model from Broadway: "USRA Pacific 4-6-2, HO" (140 N de M).
It has been converted to pure RF/battery (no power to tracks) via a Ring Engineering HC-3
handheld controller and an LM-3S module, with a battery car and a "switch" car to trip the
track switchers.
Development slowed for a couple of years due to illnesses and some members of the original team
passing away. So early this summer I signed on to help get the museum fixed up and ready for a local
festival we have in August every year. I am myself completely new to model trains, so it's been quite
the learning experience and I still have a long ways to go, when I first started working there the
train would no longer run due to some wiring issues, so my first job was to take it apart and
completely re-wire everything, that was a hoot let me tell you!
But we got it done and started adding some artwork to the place, cleaned
all the track and dealt with some de-railment issues, and work will continue. We have
a long way to go but we're having fun and folks seem to enjoy the place, we've had
some nice artwork loaned to us and recently a large collection of vintage porcelain
carousel horses. The next big things will be large scale muraling, adding Mt. Rushmore
to the display, and another town + more figures and stations, possibly some additional
track and a second train. We don't have a website, there appears to have been one years
ago but it's gone as is likely the domain, but we should be able to get something up
in the near future.
I look forward to reading here and hopefully picking up some tips on things, i'm semi-retired
and work part-time online, so i'm setting up back in the office to do that, and so we
will be open quite a bit more than previously, if anybody is ever planning on being
near Carthage, feel free to e-mail me and i'll be sure we're open for you, there's not a
whole lot to see right now, but that is changing every day.
Thanks!
~Jack
Those tiny screws are a challenge, I purchased some Labelle 107 and 106 as that's what the internet recommended for this train, hope that was right, i'm pretty sure it hasn't been lubed in years.