Inspired by a single locomotive in the hobby shop case

[davefoxx]

Seeing the Blackstone narrow gauge (C-19) 2-8-0s at my LHSs has very much tempted me back to HOn3.

At least you could keep the dog from pooping on that narrow gauge layout.   

DFF

[Mike C]

Seeing the Blackstone narrow gauge (C-19) 2-8-0s at my LHSs has very much tempted me back to HOn3.

  I bought one of their K-27s last month ( along with a couple of their 3000 series box cars and a long caboose  ) . Working on a 1' x 8' switching layout .

[seusscaboose]

Piggybacking on DFF's observation, think of Ed's other layouts as the whole football game...the "kidney" concept is a screen pass...quick, dirty and over in a hurry...still might have to make a few trees each night though...

Ed, have you ever looked at the Gold Hill Central layout MR did for their 50th Anniversary right before the Seaboard Central? It's a roundy-round with some ops & interchange potential. I built a version of it as my last HO layout, moving the locale a few thousand miles east to make it a WV shortline...that 4 x 6 size would scale down nicely to N...I wanted to do it for the raffle layout last year but Dear Leader talked me in to doing the T-Trak & Trolley one we did... come to think of it, I do have a lot of unused foam lying about...

Jeff

Hey!!!!
You know you and Matt had fun doing that layout!!!
It was a decent little concept!!!!

[LV LOU]

 Run with it Ed!! This started because of the Atlas Shay..Then another one..Now I'm gonna start scratchbuilding Heislers & Climax's..I need help..Really..But it's small...

[jpwisc]

I guess that's one good thing about not living anywhere near you modeling interest.

If I was still in MN, I'm sure I would have picked up one of these is if saw it at a shop and thus a whole new distraction.

...

The MNNR has distracted me a few times. I lived 200 yards off their Hugo Line. I can't tell you how close I came to building the Southern end of the Skally Line just to be able to use those darn red engines.

[Denver Road Doug]

I fell victim to the Amtrak P42 spell as well.   It's not entirely out of era for me, but the PhIII pretty much was but I had to have one anyway.   And initially they didn't have the Superliners so I bought some of the OOOOLD school Bachmann Amfleet cars and "improved" them to have something to pull behind.   It was a great little train.

It's funny everybody said those were ugly locos...I think they're pretty cool personally.  (I also like SD40-2's, SD70MAC's, and even SD70ACe's so I'm likely in the minority with locomotive design popularity...lol)   Now I'm looking for a PhV to replace the PhIII since it is more era-appropriate for the Heartland Flyer I am trying to model.

But I say go for it.   I'm pondering building a small kidney myself once I finally get my layout back together so I'm kinda looking for inspiration too.  Hopefully it comes from a loco I already own....I have no funds for a rogue loco at the moment.

[Rich_S]

Don't do it Ed, walk away slowly  I fell into this trap a number of years ago, thinking that unit looks neat. Next you'll need a caboose to go along with that unit, then you'll need a few cars in that road name, then comes the next unit that looks neat.  I fell down that rabbit hole a few years ago and now I have engines, cabooses and rolling stock for 10 different railroads.   All kidding aside, the only downside for me is, I live in a small apartment and only have room for a small 24" x 80" Hollow Core Door layout. On the plus side, all of the railroads are East coast lines, so I created a generic Eastern layout. Long winded story short, working on a new project from time to time does help keep the interest going, so my advice is go for it and post pictures of the progress of your new micro-pike.     

[ArtinCA]

Seeing the Blackstone narrow gauge (C-19) 2-8-0s at my LHSs has very much tempted me back to HOn3.

Those are *serious* crack...

I try not to make eye contact with them when I'm in a shop, but the last GTE show there were 4 dealers selling Blackstone. It was ugly..

[Chris333]

For me it wasn't a locomotive at the hobby shop, it was the latest issue of Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette. Every time I bought one found a new gauge, railroad, or locomotive I wanted to try out 

[Philip H]

Everything I see the On30 modular guys at Timonium I get an itch to do sugarcane railway modeling.

[Freight Train]

Had something similar happen a while back with a whole different twist on it. I had a old MR magazine from about 78 to 79 with a ad on the last page for Atlas's first and only run of RSD-12's manufactured for them by Kato. I always had a thing for the Nickel Plate engine but never got it. Going up to somewhere in the early 90's a new train shop called  Discount Trains opened in Brea, Ca and I was anxious to get there. One night I had a dream that I went to the shop and saw that NKP RSD-12 in a glass case. I woke up and thought about it figuring it was just a dream and this new shop in town probably wouldn't have it in stock. This happened during the middle of the week and I was  awaiting Saturday morning to arrive to hit the store. I kept thinking about that engine and decide to call the shop to see if they had it or not. So I called and talked to one of the shop employees and asked them if they might have this engine in stock? The first response I got was that they probably didn't have it as it has been out a while and Atlas hadn't done anymore but he would check anyway. He went and check the glass case and said, "Nope, looks like we don't have it.” And then he replied, " Wait a minute, yes we do have one. It's sitting in the middle of the rest of the N scale engines in the glass case! " Well when Saturday morning came I rushed down to Discount Trains and bought that NKP RSD-12 among some other things. And that engine became a birth of a layout and got me back into N scale as I been out of the hobby for a while. Though when I think about it, it's kind of freaky how it panned out. Having never been to the store and having a dream about that engine. And it was in a glass case just like in the dream. Years lately I found out Atlas made a foobie with that engine. Shell & frame from a RS-11, trucks from a RSD-4/5 loco and the only thing new manufactured I believe was the fuel tank. It may of been Frankenstein's monster but became pure enjoyment to me.

[ArtinCA]

For me it wasn't a locomotive at the hobby shop, it was the latest issue of Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette. Every time I bought one found a new gauge, railroad, or locomotive I wanted to try out 

7/8" scale calling your name? At least the roster would be small..