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Official PCF Model Train Thread (2 Viewers)

slisk250

slisk250

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@Tommy @Irish

We’ve talked about it. Here it is. What could be more sick than grown men paying thousands for little clay discs? How about toy trains?

I went dormant in this hobby when I left the USA. I Did have a full NTRAK layout while in Saudi. Now I’m back and have the itch. There is a butt load of stuff hidden away that I’ve been busting out. I only do N scale but it’s all good. Who else has this sickness as well?

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Our layout is temporary, it comes out in November for the holidays and gets packed up in January. It's been an annual tradition with the boys for the past 10ish years that they now roll their eyes at lol. I don't have anything crazy nice, most of the engines and such are Thomas the Tank stuff from when they were really little. I'll try to dig out some pics over the weekend.

All my equipment is O scale, which conveniently is a very similar scale to Lego.....
 
Tommy said:
The technology drew me back in 30 years later.

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Tommy, become an expert on installing decoders into Kato engines. I would be a good customer. Of course if you are just reentering the hobby, everything is pre installed. I probably have 50+ engines, most there are drop in decoders for but some I need a pro. Don’t want to cook a $300 steam engine.

When you get to the stage of building scenery, don’t buy any rock molds. I have just about everything that Woodland Scenics made 20 years ago. Just borrow them and make a bunch.
 
Awesome thread idea. Just wish there were some Soprano train gifs I could throw out there.
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I know nothing about model trains bit curious what a “mid-level” setup would cost. Few hundred or a few thousand? More?
 
Running layout without trains and scenery could easily be built for under a thousand if you are using PECO or Atlas track. Kato Unitrack is expensive. It is a very difficult question to answers without knowing what you want.

For Kato engines 100+ each. Rolling stock 20+ but I only get the good stuff. The cool thing about this hobby is you can get what you want, unlike chips.

Another way to do this hobby is joining an NTRAK club. You build a module and all members can assemble them together in an configuration you want. There are 4 lines in a module. ntrak.org. I was a member of Sun n Sand in Scottsdale 20 years ago, soon will be in Pikes Peak Ngineers in Colorado Springs.
 
Many years ago (30+) HO scale, once I got married and had kids any layout dream faded away & trains went into storage and are still packed away god know somewhere. Had the train bug all my life as both parents worked for the MOP (Missouri Pacific). I did the Christmas tree layout thing for a few years when my daughter was young but eventually that died as well.

God knows I don't need to fall back into another money/time pit hobby. :wtf:
 
gopherblue said:
I don't know about mint condition, but the last time I set them up, they ran. Big MF'ers, though, and the ozone smell of the motors/transformers was :chefskiss:.
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Seriously you should look into a local train shop and have the motors serviced. Maybe you have a gold min. I know nothing about O scale in particular. If they are the right Lionel…..oh baby.
 
TheBigTater said:
Many years ago (30+) HO scale, once I got married and had kids any layout dream faded away & trains went into storage and are still packed away god know somewhere. Had the train bug all my life as both parents worked for the MOP (Missouri Pacific). I did the Christmas tree layout thing for a few years when my daughter was young but eventually that died as well.

God knows I don't need to fall back into another money/time pit hobby. :wtf:
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Solution is N scale. Much smaller.
 
I have boxes and boxes of old stuff my wife’s uncle gave us. I don’t even know it’s in there. Who’s the best person to help me figure out what we have?
 
Tonysquander said:
I have boxes and boxes of old stuff my wife’s uncle gave us. I don’t even know it’s in there. Who’s the best person to help me figure out what we have?
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Get it out. See what manufacturer. Hunt on eBay and see if there are completed sales and then you might get an idea.
 
I think they are probably old Lionel’s and tracks. Not looking to sell, it was a gift to my son, but would be interested to know if there’s anything really good in there we need to know about.
 
Picked up a Kato special order set with DCC and sound built in from Iron Planet Hobbies. It's sold out every. They have 2 left. Cheaper to buy it from their website instead of eBay.

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Picked up some other stuff on sale.

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slisk250 said:
@Tommy @Irish

We’ve talked about it. Here it is. What could be more sick than grown men paying thousands for little clay discs? How about toy trains?

I went dormant in this hobby when I left the USA. I Did have a full NTRAK layout while in Saudi. Now I’m back and have the itch. There is a butt load of stuff hidden away that I’ve been busting out. I only do N scale but it’s all good. Who else has this sickness as well?

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Tommy said:
The technology drew me back in 30+ years later.

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Irish said:
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Our layout is temporary, it comes out in November for the holidays and gets packed up in January. It's been an annual tradition with the boys for the past 10ish years that they now roll their eyes at lol. I don't have anything crazy nice, most of the engines and such are Thomas the Tank stuff from when they were really little. I'll try to dig out some pics over the weekend.

All my equipment is O scale, which conveniently is a very similar scale to Lego.....
Click to expand...

gopherblue said:
I have all my dad's O scale stuff from the 1950s-60s, and my HO scale stuff from the 80s. Oh, god, another rabbithole. :eek:
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TheBigTater said:
Many years ago (30+) HO scale, once I got married and had kids any layout dream faded away & trains went into storage and are still packed away god know somewhere. Had the train bug all my life as both parents worked for the MOP (Missouri Pacific). I did the Christmas tree layout thing for a few years when my daughter was young but eventually that died as well.

God knows I don't need to fall back into another money/time pit hobby. :wtf:
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Surely there is a Choo Choo Train Forum?
 
Tommy said:
Hey, I have a 5 and 7 year old so cut me some slack.









They are really for me though.
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Trains are too slow for my liking. I'm more of a slot car type of person. Maybe someone should start a thread for that as well?

One of my nephews always wants help building his train set when I visit and Id be lying if I said I didn't enjoy watching him have so much fun.







I had a little fun also. :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
 
Tommy is getting some good stuff. The Tortoise slow switch machines are the best.

@davislane - yep sloooowwwww. The slower your trains can run well, the better quality they are. These things can haul ass though but who wants to launch a $300 engine off the side.
 
I haven’t been shopping lately but 2 stores I like are Nscalesupply (local too) and texnrails. I’m looking for a deal on a Kato Orient Express full set. They are out there.

I collect international passenger trains, some Western passenger and lots of freight. Long ago I was building huge stack trains but they never ran well around the bends. Maybe somebody is building something better now?

The Amtrak stuff is cool but growing up in AZ never saw it.
 
There is one I joined today that isn’t bad. Easy to navigate.

Here are some silly cars I customized. Can’t remember how I found a set of 1:160 scale Cup cars. Replaced the Rapido couplers with Microtrains magnematics. Why put race cars on a Japanese vehicle hauler train? Why not?
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