On30 ET&WNC R.R.

[Chris333]

You could do standard guage in P:48.  How much standard gauge will you have?

[Dave V]

But, I don't foresee me ever going back into G scale.

DFF

I hear ya.  My G scale excursion was fun, but in addition to it being a costly distraction, it was a lot of work.  Not necessarily fun work, either.  I spent a lot of time with an allen key wrench tightening overjoiners each time I wanted to run...and about twice a year I had to do major roadbed work to include ballasting.  The first time you do it, it's fun because you feel a little like a real railroader.  The fifth time you do it, you wonder what the hell happened to all the work you did the first four times!  And, I'm glad I didn't let you guys talk me into a permanent roadbed solution, because it was very easy to convert that layout into a pretty rock garden when we sold the house.

The builder of our new house is doing over $20,000 worth of landscaping at no extra cost because we bought it as spec.  I don't have immediate plans to violate that landscaping with G gauge track!

[davefoxx]

You could do standard guage in P:48.  How much standard gauge will you have?

Yeah, that's the idea.  I haven't designed a layout, but the first dozen or so miles of track from the Johnson City to Elizabethton, Tenn. was dual gauge on the prototype. So, if I do dual gauge, it would be significant.

As I stated upthread, the ET&WNC switched narrow and standard gauge cars with the narrow gauge engines.  They had these cool swiveling couplers that allowed them to couple to standard gauge cars regardless of what side of the standard gauge track the narrow garage track was situated.  It's this and a neat coal trestle in Johnson City that allowed the standard gauge cars to dump coal into the narrow gauge cars that I really like.  But, I believe that both tracks were dual gauge.  I would assume that the ET&WNC could dump iron ore into the standard gauge cars, too.  I need to do more research.

DFF

[davefoxx]

I hear ya.  My G scale excursion was fun, but in addition to it being a costly distraction, it was a lot of work.  Not necessarily fun work, either.  I spent a lot of time with an allen key wrench tightening overjoiners each time I wanted to run...and about twice a year I had to do major roadbed work to include ballasting.  The first time you do it, it's fun because you feel a little like a real railroader.  The fifth time you do it, you wonder what the hell happened to all the work you did the first four times!  And, I'm glad I didn't let you guys talk me into a permanent roadbed solution, because it was very easy to convert that layout into a pretty rock garden when we sold the house.

The builder of our new house is doing over $20,000 worth of landscaping at no extra cost because we bought it as spec.  I don't have immediate plans to violate that landscaping with G gauge track!

I'm curious about whether the buyers of your current house mentioned the garden train in their negotiations.  Also, good job on your negotiations with the builder and the $20,000.00 of free landscaping at the new house!  Well played.

DFF

[Dave V]

I'm curious about whether the buyers of your current house mentioned the garden train in their negotiations.  Also, good job on your negotiations with the builder and the $20,000.00 of free landscaping at the new house!  Well played.

DFF

We specified in the contract that the garden railroad did not convey.  I would have been willing to negotiate but it didn't come up.

That said I now have a mess of G scale track.  Some of it I got free from @rswinnerton so I wouldn't sell it without a little profit sharing back to Russ.  The other half is new and almost new LGB and Piko I bought.  For running, I'm now in the Denver Garden Railway Society so I'll be able to run my RGS goodness at the Colorado Railroad Museum's big G scale layout.

But yeah, the pickings in HOn3 for Tweetsie are slim.   There is a lot of Tweetsie in the 2016 HOn3 Annual, though.  Still, I like the heft of On30 and if you've got the room, do it!

[Chris333]

What is a good book on the ET&WNC ?

I don't know much about it 

[davefoxx]

What is a good book on the ET&WNC ?

I don't know much about it 

The go-to resource for me is "Tweetsie Country" by Mallory Hope Farrell.  There's also several volumes of ET&WNC books by Johnny Graybeal.  I only have the first two volumes, which I bought directly from the ET&WNC HS, if I recall correctly.  My first volume is signed by the author.  I bought these a dozen years ago.  My copy of "Tweetsie Country" was a gift from my former mother-in-law in 1992.

DFF

[basementcalling]

I have a friend who says inside of every N Scaler is an O Scaler waiting to get out...

I dunno, combine N scale and O scale and you have "no" scale or would that be "ON" scale?

[Chris333]

Found Tweetsie Country for $25 

[davefoxx]

Found Tweetsie Country for $25 

Wow!  Good price.

[Chris333]

As luck would have it... Right after I order the book for $25 I go to a local narrow gauge show and find 2 copies for $20 each. Oh well, bought a book on the Gilpin tram instead.

[davefoxx]

As luck would have it... Right after I order the book for $25 I go to a local narrow gauge show and find 2 copies for $20 each. Oh well, bought a book on the Gilpin tram instead.

Haha!  Never fails, does it?

DFF

[davefoxx]

Sh!t just got real, yo!



Unfortunately, I will have to cheat history by about one year.  No. 12 didn't get repainted into the WWII black scheme until somewhere in 1943.  Sadly, No. 14 didn't get repainted into the black scheme and was off the roster when the U.S. Army had it sold and shipped to the White Pass and Yukon in 1942.  I'll get over it.  I've ridden behind the prototype No. 12 on the Tweetsie Railroad, where it exists to this day.  It's probably my favorite locomotive.

I also received three passenger cars this week.  Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that they are all observation cars.  But, the fact that I got them at only $24.95 each, plus the fact that these cars will be eventually be rebuilt with aftermarket wood side kits, which will eliminate the open vestibules, means that this is not really a problem.  The ET&WNC, at one time, was the only narrow gauge railroad with closed vestibule passenger cars.  Classy.





DFF

[Scottl]

Very nice!

[Dave V]

The ET&WNC, at one time, was the only narrow gauge railroad with closed vestibule passenger cars.  Classy.

...until late 1936/early 1937 when the D&RGW refitted coaches and parlor cars for use in its Shavano (Salida to Montrose) and its San Juan Express (Alamosa to Durango) trains with closed vestibules.