Running Bear's Coffee Shoppe LIX

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I get to drive to work today. Ordinarily, I would drive the car, because it does better in snow and ice, but the car is in the garage, with snow and ice past the bumper height. And the garage is at the bottom of the several-hundred-foot-long driveway. Hopefully, I won't find any black ice, once 4 tons of metal starts going where I don't want it to, it's almost impossible to correct.
 


Good morning. 28 degrees with cloudy skies.

Hopefully those dealing with the aftermath of the east coast storm are getting their driveways cleared out and that the roads are getting better.

Karl - better get to wotk and get your roof cleared off. That's a lot of weight up there. Just south of us in West Yellowstone, there is a guy who earns extra cash by snowblowing rood off. It's not uncommon to have four or more feet of snow on the roofs down there.

Willie - If you like skiing, Bridger Bowl is about 25 miles north of us and Big Sky Ski Resort is about 30 miles south. The lost snowmobiler was in the area just a couple of miles from Big Sky.

Terry - good luck out on the icy roads. I have no problem with icy roads, but I can only drive my car and can't control what the other idiots out there are doing.

Here's another photo from my old calender. Guess this on would be for Bob and Garry

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Have a safe day out there.
 
From what I've experienced so far I would tell people it takes about two years to START to "build a layout"! I cleaned out the room and had a table built and was running in 1 year but it was a TOTAL 'rush' job! Now that I've seen a little bit of what this can and more importantly CANNOT do, I've been actually planning and I would recommend it to any 'newb' as strongly as it was recommended to me!! Also this forum would I recommend to 'old and new' alike, it is a MAJOR reason I do not 'cry,cry' over mistakes I most certainly would have made and money I most certainly would have wasted!

Was just gazing glaze-eyed at the layout, 'grooving' on what I've got, envisioning the new set up and could not help it! (The MUSE was upon me!) LOL! I think I'll mix em up "by hand" and run the "switcher of the day" back and forth and 'sort em out' just for kicks!

Have a great day out there!
 
WOW! "Montana" that 2-6-2 is BADAZZ! I love them "oversize" lookin drivers! I always thought that was a 'cool' look for a loco! It's what I like most about my Bachman 4-8-4! Not quite the same as my BLI 2-10-2 and 2-8-2. Though the 'ten wheel truck' set up on the 2-10-2 IS pretty cool. I was always fascinated by the 'hardware' on the outside of the Steamers, so much going on there.
 
New Guy - I was wondering how long it would take for the light bulb to come on. I think all of us wanted to see trains running when we first got into the hobby. I know I did with my first HO layout when I was a kids. With the room you have there is so much potential to have a great layout.

Before I started my present layout, I was lucky enough to have seen a lot of great layouts. I think John Allens Gorre & Daphetid was my biggest inspiration. There are a lot of books available with track plans and numerous model railroad magazine articles on layouts wit track plans of the layout. Nothing says that you have to use an exact track plan, but these plans can give you ideas that you could incorporate into a layout.

Here on the forum, there are a lot of photos of different layouts also. You can pick and choose different features that you may like into your own layout. When I was in the service there was no way I was going to be able to have a layout, but I did subscribe to a couple of different MRR magazines and did find things that interested me.

When I finally moved into my current house, I was in N scale and I think I pretty well did just what you did. Laid track and wanted to see trains running. I enjoyed the layout but as I have mentioned, the locomotives of the time were crude to what is available today in N scale. After tearing everything out and starting bench work for my HO layout, I did a lot of planning before starting.

A railroad needs a purpose to exist. What industries do you like?? Curt is doing a fantastic job with his coal mine, which is among many industries on his layout. The big thing years ago for mines were what was called empties in, loads out. A coal mine would be built up agains a mountain and the main line would wander around the layout and on the other side of the mountain would be a power plant. Loads from the mine would go around the layout and the loaded coal cars would be backed into the power plant. Hidden tracks in the mountain would connect the power plant to the mine. The loaded coal cars would appear in the mine and the empty coal cars that the train would haul back to the mine would end up back at the power plant.

This is just one industry idea. Do you want to model a particular area or just a railroad without any particular area in mind. It's your railroad. You can do what you want with it.

It seems you now have some interest in scenery. I figured that would come about. A little bit of scenery sure can make a lot of difference on a layout.

I'm glad to see you settling into the hobby. Your thoughts are evolving. I'm sure that you'll come up with something. With the amount of room you have, you could end up with a fantastic empire.

I have a photo of the 2-10-2 that is great. I'll post it later. When you see larger drivers on a steam locomotive, it is a good indication that it was designed for passenger service like that Pacific. Smaller drivers would indicate that it was designed more for freight service.
 
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Excellent words of encouragement Chet!

Perhaps I should consider myself lucky in this hobby since I had many years experience - although it was decades ago I hadn't forgotten everything. I can't imagine coming into this world as a complete green horn. At least not in these days with so many options now available that hadn't even been invented back in those "old days".
E
 
Good Morning--25 and snow. Only supposed to get 1 to 3", nothing like snowmageddon.

Karl--nice posting the photos of your snow event!
 


CHet .... Thanks for posting the photo of CB&Q 2202. it was one of dozens of CB&Q 2-6-2's which operated in the first half of the 20th Century. The Prairie type locomotive was ideal for most of the territory in which the old Burlington Route operated.

# 2202 was built in 1907 and was retired in 1950. It is a CB&Q Class R-5 locomotive.

My CB&Q 1701 is a Class R-1 Prairie type.

2-6-2%201701_zps0td9rj6h.jpg
 
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Chet- Excellent advise.

Garry- Another beautiful photo of a rocky scene and weathered cattle car.

Phil
 
Garry - Great scene, (as I have come to expect from you).

Chet - Another interesting steamer.

This is not necessarily railroad related, but too good not to share. I drove my wife to her doctor's appointment this morning, and the building in the picture is across the street from the doc's office.
Farmingdale 1-25-2016.jpg
Click to expand the photo, and look up at the chimney mid picture. No that is not an ornament or pigeon chaser, that wing span is real.
 
Here's a cool video Phil sent. STAND BACK !!!

<strong>[video=youtube;5eggYBVAYiI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eggYBVAYiI[/video]
 
montanan said:
New Guy - I was wondering how long it would take for the light bulb to come on. I think all of us wanted to see trains running when we first got into the hobby. I know I did with my first HO layout when I was a kids. With the room you have there is so much potential to have a great layout.

Before I started my present layout, I was lucky enough to have seen a lot of great layouts. I think John Allens Gorre & Daphetid was my biggest inspiration. There are a lot of books available with track plans and numerous model railroad magazine articles on layouts wit track plans of the layout. Nothing says that you have to use an exact track plan, but these plans can give you ideas that you could incorporate into a layout.

Here on the forum, there are a lot of photos of different layouts also. You can pick and choose different features that you may like into your own layout. When I was in the service there was no way I was going to be able to have a layout, but I did subscribe to a couple of different MRR magazines and did find things that interested me.

When I finally moved into my current house, I was in N scale and I think I pretty well did just what you did. Laid track and wanted to see trains running. I enjoyed the layout but as I have mentioned, the locomotives of the time were crude to what is available today in N scale. After tearing everything out and starting bench work for my HO layout, I did a lot of planning before starting.

A railroad needs a purpose to exist. What industries do you like?? Curt is doing a fantastic job with his coal mine, which is among many industries on his layout. The big thing years ago for mines were what was called empties in, loads out. A coal mine would be built up agains a mountain and the main line would wander around the layout and on the other side of the mountain would be a power plant. Loads from the mine would go around the layout and the loaded coal cars would be backed into the power plant. Hidden tracks in the mountain would connect the power plant to the mine. The loaded coal cars would appear in the mine and the empty coal cars that the train would haul back to the mine would end up back at the power plant.

This is just one industry idea. Do you want to model a particular area or just a railroad without any particular area in mind. It's your railroad. You can do what you want with it.

It seems you now have some interest in scenery. I figured that would come about. A little bit of scenery sure can make a lot of difference on a layout.

I'm glad to see you settling into the hobby. Your thoughts are evolving. I'm sure that you'll come up with something. With the amount of room you have, you could end up with a fantastic empire.

I have a photo of the 2-10-2 that is great. I'll post it later. When you see larger drivers on a steam locomotive, it is a good indication that it was designed for passenger service like that Pacific. Smaller drivers would indicate that it was designed more for freight service.
Click to expand...

LOL! It hadda happen. Bit by bit I'm becoming a 'foamer'! Two years ago if someone said "two, ten, two" Ida thought it was a locker combination! I TOLD ya's I was a noob! Serious ignorance was my problem, I just did not know ANYTHING! I was resisting a lot of things because I was trying to avoid "overload", so much to absorb and too little time! I had to structure my exposure in a unique way so I would not up and quit out of sheer frustration! There are at least two or three 'phases' that are real conundrums with no guidance and have the potential to knock some right out of ever even getting started! Especially going BIG like I did right out of the gate, I would have been LOST without this forum or one like it! I had no clue about 'operations', I just wanted the 'roundy-round' action! DCC blows the lid off and allows people with no wiring experience(like me!) to do contemplate doing the AWESOME stuff like the 'pro's' do!

It's kinda scary at first cause I did not want to "screw it up!" Realizing that that is nearly impossible is taking some time to digest! There really is no 'rong' way but there ARE some 'right' things we kinda sorta SHOULD do! It's a "fine line/gray area" that is YOOGE!

I'm narrowing it down to the usual suspects, passengers, general freight, livestock, oil, gas, lumber and mining! (TOO many?) LOL! Being from Detroit originally, I would like to do an auto loading facility like they have there but those kind of rail cars are PRICEY! I'll build the loading facility eventually(planned for layout "#3") but it may be a while before any of those covered auto carriers show up around here. I looked at "intermodals" and quickly looked away!$$$(OUCH!)

I'm right over the edge of "too big" with this size of table! The possibilities are too many and can cause gridlock if I'm not careful! I'm liking the overall shape I came up with, it has possibilities. The final (ha,ha!) product will not entirely be 'mine' it will be a combination of all of yours! My 'end game' has highly detailed scenery on every square foot of the nearly 500 square feet! Ambitious? Yes! But if Jump School taught me anything it was that you CAN have what EVER you want! IF you "Endeavour to Persevere"!
 
I am really glad to see that you have finally realized what can be done in the hobby. A layout, even the size of what you have available doesn't have to be overly expensive. You already have your DCC equipment and apparently a lot of track and locomotives. You can probably pick up additional freight cars at swap meets if there are any in your area or on ebay at a reasonable price.

I have found that scenery also doesn't have to be expensive either. Ground cover such as ground foam which is commonly used is fairly inexpensive. If you want to make mountains, you can use foam as a base and then cover it with plaster cloth or sheetrock mud like Ken did with his D&J layout. Rock castings are easy to make. I shipped some molds down to Eric and even though he had never done this kind of work before, he got great results.

If you have any questions, there are a bunch of folks on the forum to help you.

We'll post the photo of the 2-10-2 later.
 
Here it is. Couldn't remember where I put this photo. There were quite a few posts about the BLI Union Pacific 4-12-2 last year, Ken from he D&J posted some great video of it. If you have one, you can check out the detail. What was ironic is that when the thread was first posted, this locomotive was hanging on the wall.

Here's the Monster.

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