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My story of model trains

795 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  holava 
#1 · (Edited)
Greetings everyone,
Oh where to start? The 2nd beginning I suppose.
Somewhere around 1973-4, because I was only allowed to play with our Lionel set at Christmas time. I was gifted a tyco brown box set. Burlington gp20 loco with a over under figure 8 track set. (2 fiber tie flex tracks too. Ugh!) most of that set met with an early demise. You know why.
My brother then set me up with a bachmann (hong kong) f7-9 sante fe a/b war bonnet pair. The one with the serious die cast chassis. 8 wheel drive & electric pickup. Boy did that thing run! I do still have it and, yes it still runs. Have 3 more too due to the love of them. Then, the teen years set in...
Fast forward to 1989 and a restart and dusting off. Thanks to A.B. Charles & Sons hobby shop for being a guru and sage to my questions, needs, and supplies. Oh how I miss those folks. This era saw me spending much on expansion. Still brass track though. That Lasted till about 1994. All packed away until 2004. Spent more money, got more stuff. Then packed away again.
Fast foward to October 2018 and then here I am. A couple grand spent. All new or barely used N/S track, turnouts, some more old school dc controllers, power, etc. and a penchant for collecting and rebuilding old locos and rolling stock. Even got my 1953 Mantua Mikado 2-8-2 running that I bought decades ago in pieces for $20. (New drive wheels and other parts).. Since then, many hours of reading, searching, then retooling, learning and relearning.
A well stacked and banded pile of 40, 1"x4"x6' and some 8', 10', 12' stock waiting.
So here I am reading for hours on this forum and in great appreciation of what all you folks are doing and sharing here! Thank you for letting me in to learn. I hope to be here for a lonnnnng time ahead.

And away we go!

Sincerely
Scotti
 
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#3 ·
Spence,

Thanks for the welcome here.
"Ready to build."
Getting close man, getting close. Much more to do to the 16'x18' room before the saws get plugged in.
Still fujjing with track plans too. We all know how that goes.. Oh the decisions are tough to settle on!
 
#6 ·
Welcome, that's a good pile to start building upon. A few grand spent ? lol ! From now on, you will spend tens of thousands, tell me about it. A shopping spree here, a shopping spree there. A week ago I had my little D Day, I received 16 packages of stuff in one day, they had a container with my name on it, I felt so train famous, for a high price, though. I had to pay import duties like a millionaire. The crazy customs guys here treat even used model train junk as diamonds to declare, a really thuggish way to get money off their clients.
 
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