New Old Stock in Austin

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C

Coal it

New Member
Hi, I am basically new to the hobby. My dad built an N-scale layout for me in the 70's, we continued the hobby (this time in HO) never really finishing a permanent layout. Now I have 2 kids of my own, 5 & 3, girl, boy respectively and I want to start them early and re-start myself.

Not a lot of space, if you dig 6" here you hit rock almost anywhere, so no one has basements. I will slowly work the missus to allow some space somewhere in the house. As stated, I am in Austin and was using this as an opportunity to reach out to others in the area. I heard that a club is starting to form, meeting on the 4th Saturday at the only LHS left, have not been able to make it.

HO Scale
DCC
Trying to model steam/Diesel transition era.

I have nowhere to run, but have so far accumulated: Light Pacific, Consolidation, 4-8-4 and F7, FP7, and my favorite Diesel an Alco PA1.
 
Welcome! I found a Thomas engine (Spencer) at a hobby shop and that's my in with the kids. For some reason, the Thomas stuff seems to be expensive.
 


Sorry, had not had a chance to edit my profile. Name is Pedro, I do live in Austin, TX. For the last 20 years anyway. The real trains I would see go by as a kid were NdeM. Can't say I remember seeing F7s, but the math would say I might have seen some. I do recall the red and olive (looked black to me) paint scheme of the Diesels, my guess is they were GP35's or U30B's, I am by no means an expert and in fact not even familiar with that era's rolling stock.

I am trying to stay somewhat loyal to equipment used by NdeM. The Light pacific mentioned above has number 154, for which I found photos. The Consolidation was used a ton, and the niagara was also used (I think largest used by NdeM) the one I got is supposed to have 70" drivers, so if the guys at BLI did a good job, it matches well to the real ones that once pulled for NdeM.

I could not resist and I snatched a Centipede at a good price on Ebay, NdeM purchased 14(?) of those as well, it is a beast, almost as long as the Niagara/Tender combo.

regards

/p
 
Aww .. Pedro - You are going to have fun on this forum. I always liked the Centipede. It will be nice to see one done up in NdeM paint. Good to have you here!
 
Hi Pedro, Welcome to the forums here. As you can see by those who have already posted, we are a friendly group of guys a couple of ladies too I understand. As Sherrel say, you'll like it here. Willie is somewhere there in Texas but I'm not sure how close the two of you are?

What does the, 'NdeM' stand for? That's a road I hadn't heard about before, but I sure there are many others too I'm unfamiliar with.

As Sherrel also mentioned, be sure to join us at the ANPL Coffee Shop, Jeffreys' Dinner for some varied conversation.


David from Central Calif.
 
Trussrod said:
What does the, 'NdeM' stand for? That's a road I hadn't heard about before, but I sure there are many others too I'm unfamiliar with.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warm welcome.

N de M, stands for "Nacionales de Mexico". It was the government owned railway system, it was nationalized during the 30's out of all the smaller private railroads at the time, then privatized in the 90's. I remember the diesels, hauling both local and US rolling stock. A lot of yellow cars (The US ones) from what I can remember. NdeM cars were usually oxide, some blues. Always yellow caboose.

My other hobby (dormant right now) was RC flying, our field was next to a railroad track, we were too young to be allowed to fly, we would watch our parents, but when the trains came, we would put coins, often 2 stacked and you would get these amazing coin-in-coin flattened "art". These were the days of no helmets, drink out of the hose, blah blah blah, we would stand close enough to feel the breeze. I wouldn't let my kids do it, not that close, but it was fun for me.

Paint schemes were most often as seen below, later a two tone blue was adopted, but I like what I saw growing up.

Now I'm in Austin, one of the main roads is called MOPAC, most people don't know it really is MoPac, and surely the tracks run parallel to most of that road.

NDM%208716.jpg



regards

/p
 
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