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 Posted - May 17 2008 : 6:28:27 PM
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I've just joined ... My name is Bill and I've recently retired from IBM (that is where my screen names comes from...). I don't remember having a train as a kid, but I did get one for my two boys when they were young. My oldest son still has it .. and won't give it back.
My grandfather worked for the Santa Fe for 49 years, so its in my blood, so to speak. A couple of years ago, I saw the TYCO Crane pair of cars at a second hand and I bought it because it said Snata Fe - and spent too much money. Last summer, I decided to use one of the spare bedrooms and play with a train set. Along the way, I found some more toy train components at an Estate sale and bought them. I now had two functional trains and some junkers. I bought a couple of new houses and began thinging about what to do next. Everyone at work asked the same question - what will you do? Well, I said, I've been wanting to play with a model train layout. Two days before I retired, a friend called and offered his train set that he had as a teenager (circa mid 1960s) and some houses. Now, I'm out of room since he had several houses, well made, and even had some of the instruction booklets. He is still a pack rat, like many of us. My wife consented to share her sewing room .. and I was off to the races. In Janurary, at the Dallas Train show I picked up some more items, for little money. Hmm, the cars and engines with the horn connectors don't cost very much. I got a real nice diesel for $8.00. Yesterday, at another Estate sale, I picked up some more Tyco, including a Tyco Steam Shifter (circa 1973-1976) this was only missing one of the tiny tractors for the flat car. The price was within reason.
I've found lots of ideas at various places, but have been relucant at sharing any pictures since the layout is a bit on the "toy" side. Earlier today I tried out the Testing forum and several folks gave me a generous welcome. I do feel at home.
So, here are a some pictures of the layout:
On the West side, two trains running in opposite directions.. Of these structures, some are new, some were part of the gift and there is one house (it has a thatch roof) that I bought at the Potter's Heron hotel in Hursley, England about 20 years ago. The cookie monster was added by my wife.
On the East side, one train - this is the residential side. All of these structures were done by my friend.
The Santa Fe train station is my first kit build:
My first pond - got a heavy West wind blowing. As you all know, we learned from our mistakes - and I learned a lot on this one part.
I'm hoping that WalMart will add some more 1:87 cars...
There's a lot to do .. but its fun.
Cheers
Bill
Edited by - cicsos2 on May 17 2008 10:53:01 PM
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Country:  USA ~
Posts: 122 ~
Member Since: May 17 2008 ~
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 Posted - May 17 2008 : 8:56:07 PM
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| Hi Bill--that is my dads name by the way. Thanks for an interesting post own your history. Don't ever think your layout is to toyish to post--no one here will slam you for not being professional--this site is not about that-- like others have or are. We are alll here to share-inspire and whatever else to have fun. One thing--i can not see your pictures you posted--there is a square box with a checker--check photo property and make sure is has .jpg at end--Brian[:D]
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Posted - May 17 2008 : 9:35:48 PM
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| Welcome to the forum.
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Posted - May 17 2008 : 11:09:09 PM
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Brian,
Thanks for the alert on the pictures - they should be viewable now.
Cheers
Bill
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Posted - May 17 2008 : 11:09:53 PM
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| Great job on your first layout. We all started along that line somewhere in the beginning also. I too --use real rocks. Your pond looks good also[:D]
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Posted - May 18 2008 : 12:12:06 AM
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Hey Bill. Welcome to the forum. I like your layout[:D]. It looks like the one I took down back in the fall...actually, I think yours looks better than mine did. You have more scenery. Hope to see more pics of ur layout and trains.
-cheez
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 Posted - May 18 2008 : 01:05:43 AM
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Hey Bill,
Welcome to the group. The pics are very cool. Keep them coming.
I'm sure you will like it here. We have a lot of great folks to share with.
Mike
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Posted - May 19 2008 : 09:54:41 AM
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| Bill, Welcome...You mentioned the Dallas train show..I live in the Dallas area also...most of my collection is old Tyco, although recently, I've been building a British collection, OO scale. Chris
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Posted - May 19 2008 : 10:44:56 PM
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Nice work, and welcome! I love the small town in fall foliage. Very colorful!
It's cool how everyone seems to start this way at one point or another....
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Posted - May 20 2008 : 12:25:24 AM
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Welcome,
Mike
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Posted - May 24 2008 : 4:02:55 PM
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I've decided to make my pond fed by a spring coming from the mountain. So, I'm replacing the real rocks with the following:
I'm using beaded stryofoam for the base (all shaping done in the garage)
Here is a distant picture:
Lets see how it looks with some rocks and trees
And then, using blue paper - layout the stream and its path down to the pond.
Back to the garage for some shapping, a layer of plaster cloth for the extension to the mountain
Rather than use real rocks, I took each of the rocks, put some plastic wrap used to cover a food disk, covered that with plaster cloth.
After a couple of house, I carefully removed each of the rocks and trimmed up the edges.
Before I forget, here are some pictures of the mid 1970s Tyco train set I acquired last week. The flatbed was missing one of the tractors. I added a small van, beand nameMalibu, cost 99 cents, at WalMart.
In the background is my "Art in the Park" - an old, wooden, Cookie Monstor.
Thats all for today, more to come.
Cheers
Bill
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