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Posted - May 24 2018 : 3:41:58 PM
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I work and travel worldwide as an Quality Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry.The company I work for is based out of Houston,TX. My children are all grown and at the present, I have no grandchildren. I've lived and worked on dozens of large pipeline projects all over the world. Presently I live in Sherwood.
I've been into model trains since the 1960's. My first trains were Lionel O gauge and Marklin HO. I built a N scale layout when I was 11 years old,N scale was still in it's early years and didn't run well. In my early teens, I started finding lots of used Lionel and HO trains at Garage sales,Flea Markets and even Goodwill. The train collecting craze hadn't kicked in yet so trains were really plentiful and cheap. I built a small HO layout (The N scale was sold) and a large 12 x 16 Lionel layout in our basement. When I left home for college,the trains were all packed up. In the early 80's I got back into trains. I mostly just collected Lionel and HO as I didn't have a suitable room for a layout. I did a lot of buying and selling at train shows to supplement my income while raising a family. Eventually, a long term illness and then a work layoff forced me to sell off all the trains and all my efforts and time were then focused on raising 5 children.
After about a 10-15 year hiatus,I returned to the hobby. My kids were grown,I was single and had the means to buy trains. I liked the O scale hi rail equipment that was now available from MTH,Lionel and others. I focused on large steam locomotives. Over time, the collection grew and grew. A small layout - 8 X 12 was constructed in a spare room to at least run some trains. I found the trains to be of poor quality and problematic. At least half of the locos failed out of the box.Three years ago, my fiance' and I purchased our present home. It has a full finished walk out basement. There is a large 20 X 40 game room. Perfect for a large layout. I started to construct shelves to display a lot of the O gauge and tinplate trains. A large 16 X 25 layout was begun but progress was slow due to long work weeks and overseas work.In the meantime, I had been accumulating a lot of nice HO locomotives.I also bought a few large HO collections while traveling. As my interest in the O gauge was waning (Due to bad quality issues and lack of parts/support from MTH and Lionel) I was looking for a change. I had picked up a lot of BLI and Athearn Genesis steam locomotives and found them to be excellent runners with a great reputation for quality and super manufacturer support. In the fall of 2017, I decided to start over and build a large HO layout.
Over the years, I've purchased scores of beautiful HO trains from the 1950's and 60's. Now I have a nice display of those early HO trains in my home office. On display is 1958-68 Mantua (Tyco-Mantua), Athearn, Marx, Penn-Line, Gilbert, Lionel , Varney and Fleischmann.
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Posted - May 24 2018 : 4:39:16 PM
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Welcome to the forum. You'll find all kinds of collectors, repair/restore and informational types here. You might want to post some photos of your collection some time. Sounds like a really nice collection.
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Posted - May 24 2018 : 5:05:40 PM
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Hi Ricky,
Welcome aboard. There are lots of good ideas on this forum. Feel free to chip in. Looking forward to seeing your HO layout.
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Posted - May 24 2018 : 6:28:30 PM
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Welcome to the Tyco Forum!!! Looking forward to your future contributions, and good luck on the construction of your large layout.
-RP
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16
Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/rpmodelrailroads
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Posted - May 24 2018 : 7:47:19 PM
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Welcome!
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Posted - May 25 2018 : 2:46:33 PM
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Welcome aboard!
Sean
"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!" - Mario Andretti!
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Posted - May 26 2018 : 09:42:24 AM
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Sounds like your trains have been around the block a few times. :) Sounds like you got a nice start the 3rd time around with a new home, family situation, and layout. Can't wait to see some of your equipment, I'm mostly interested in vintage HO, although I do have a BLI J engine with sound I run at train shows. Nice intro, being watching for more of your posts, Ricky.
Jerry in Virginia
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - May 26 2018 : 10:58:08 AM
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Welcome Ricky... You will enjoy this environment...
Mike
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Posted - May 27 2018 : 03:18:22 AM
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"I found the trains to be of poor quality and problematic. At least half of the locos failed out of the box."
I hear this a LOT about these new brands. Troublesome that the manufacturers go to all this expense and trouble to make great looking models and then fit them with the most wretched transmissions, motors, and electrical components known to man. In my small O collection, I have a 1960 Lionel Scout, a version that I am told was made for a brief use in the Christmas Season in the display window of Woolworth's. It is clearly of a cheap construction, but runs as well as it did.
In HO, Bachmann really needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Beautiful models, horrendous side rods, motors, electricals, and transmissions. Sooner or later the model railroading community will feel the trend. Most lately they seem to have done a minor upgrade to the PCC cars, with an open frame motor replacing the worthless junk of a pancake motor. Also, the Acela set has been run by me alot, at wide open throttle, and it is a reliable performer. I've had two Doodlebugs with failed transmissions. I've witnessed several of their steam locomotives failing in all the mentioned categories, and do so with proclivity. Rotten.
The Proto 2000 series had a horrific failure rate with their split gears. I've been told they improved, but I really don't know. Their bad impression has left me quite leery.
We will look forward to seeing your layout progress in your new abode.
Edited by - Chops124 on May 27 2018 03:21:02 AM
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Posted - May 27 2018 : 9:03:00 PM
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quote:"I found the trains to be of poor quality and problematic. At least half of the locos failed out of the box."
I hear this a LOT about these new brands. Troublesome that the manufacturers go to all this expense and trouble to make great looking models and then fit them with the most wretched transmissions, motors, and electrical components known to man. In my small O collection, I have a 1960 Lionel Scout, a version that I am told was made for a brief use in the Christmas Season in the display window of Woolworth's. It is clearly of a cheap construction, but runs as well as it did.
In HO, Bachmann really needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Beautiful models, horrendous side rods, motors, electricals, and transmissions. Sooner or later the model railroading community will feel the trend. Most lately they seem to have done a minor upgrade to the PCC cars, with an open frame motor replacing the worthless junk of a pancake motor. Also, the Acela set has been run by me alot, at wide open throttle, and it is a reliable performer. I've had two Doodlebugs with failed transmissions. I've witnessed several of their steam locomotives failing in all the mentioned categories, and do so with proclivity. Rotten.
The Proto 2000 series had a horrific failure rate with their split gears. I've been told they improved, but I really don't know. Their bad impression has left me quite leery.
We will look forward to seeing your layout progress in your new abode.
Originally posted by Chops124Â -Â May 27 2018Â :Â 03:18:22 AM
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I've been happy with my Bachmann/Spectrum purchases. The Lima Berkshires (NKP,PM and C&O) have been decent, reliable runners. The B&O EM-1 is wonderful, maybe Bachmann's best effort so far.
I've bought several of the faulty Proto 2000 locomotives with the cracked axle gears. I've picked up brand new C9 and C10 locomotives for $5-20 each because they don't run. It's really a easy fix and Athearn SD40-2 axle gears are a perfect replacement.
I still have my "original" Lionel Postwar trains including my childhood trains and they all operate perfectly. I plan to display these also.
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Posted - May 28 2018 : 10:22:37 AM
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Here some pix of some of the displays and my train room before and after the changeover to HO.
Marx and Allstate sets. I cannot find pix of the other Marx display.
Some of the Tyco. I need to build many more shelves.
Train room while it was becoming a "catch-all" for tinplate. July 2017
Train room after change over of layout to HO - October 2017
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Posted - May 29 2018 : 10:27:55 AM
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Nice collection. I just love that train room(drooooollllll). Nice and big!!!
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Posted - May 29 2018 : 6:38:52 PM
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WHOA! Nice collections/displays and layout!! Congrats!
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16
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Posted - May 29 2018 : 11:15:59 PM
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Welcome, Ricky!
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Posted - May 30 2018 : 3:30:09 PM
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"Train Room." You've no idea how great that sounds. I have a 4x4 plywood with a circle of track lying on a bed in a spare bedroom. What fun it must be to have an entire room to customize (nice sky and clouds), wall racks, etc.. You've a great setup. Thanks for sharing.
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