N Scale Hi Rail - Retro Hollow Core Door Layout

[Doug G.]

I can almost see the two holes in the side to hold the body on.

And, speaking of German cars and defrosters, back in early 1971 (January? - it was collllllld), some friends and I went up to Minneapolis to see Sha Na Na at the Depot (now First Avenue) and our friend who lived up there was going to drive us to the Depot. He had  a Volkswagen and when we got in the car, he handed out window scrapers to the rest of us and we asked why. He said,"You guys have to keep the windows cleared. There's no heater/defroster."

Doug

[C855B]

I can almost see the two holes in the side to hold the body on.

And, speaking of German cars and defrosters, back in early 1971 (January? - it was collllllld), some friends and I went up to Minneapolis to see Sha Na Na at the Depot (now First Avenue) and our friend who lived up there was going to drive us to the Depot. He had  a Volkswagen and when we got in the car, he handed out window scrapers to the rest of us and we asked why. He said,"You guys have to keep the windows cleared. There's no heater/defroster."

No worse than one cold rainy day in my '63 Beetle. On the freeway, windows start to fog a little, turn on the heater, move the lever to defrost - all windows instantly fogged-over. No visibility at all. Took a verrrrrrry looooooong five seconds to realize what I had done, wiped my sleeve on the windshield enough to (barely) keep from running into the car ahead, and cranked down the driver's window to stick my head out. Ah, to be young and foolish again. 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh man, that F unit is HOT!

Now that you posted that it reminds me. I have a collection of "old school Conrail monstrosities" that would look right at home. Think Concor SD50.

[Dave V]

This cries out for a Penn Central 0-4-0...   

[DKS]

Oh man, that F unit is HOT!

Now that you posted that it reminds me. I have a collection of "old school Conrail monstrosities" that would look right at home. Think Concor SD50.

Lee also has an FM in Conrail, too...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lee also has an FM in Conrail, too...

Be still, my heart.

[Doug G.]

[peteski]

Ah, the snap-on DB blister - must be an Arnold GP9!  Take the blister off and you instantly have a GP7 (at least according to Arnold marketing literature). 

In my early N scale days I custom painted one of these in late B&M scheme.

[Point353]

I have a collection of "old school Conrail monstrosities" that would look right at home. Think Concor SD50.

But, do you have one of these?

[wm3798]

Today's time waster was to install directional lighting in the Conrail F-M.  For little switchers, these things are stump pullers!
I have to replace the motor in the CR F unit, the spring that holds the brushes in place broke... but I've got plenty of spare parts to effect the necessary repairs.

So with the haul from DKS's Used Locomotive Lot, I can field the following:
PRR F-7 A with a dummy B to haul the growing fleet of smooth side Pennsy cars
PC F-7 A to pull the Atlas PC passenger train
B&O F-7 A-B (powered)B-A (dummy) presently hauling the Rivarossi Royal Blue (7 cars)
PRR F-M Switcher
PC F-M Switcher
CR F-M Switcher to handle various freight duties pulling the retro Rapido equipped rolling stock.

Also in the stable is the repowered RR Pacific I painted, although I'm presently in negotiations to replace that with the "real thing"...
A beefed up Bachmann B&O 0-4-0 with a new full pick up tender pulls a steam era freight, mostly comprised of my newer fleet so it's equipped with MT/compatible knuckles.  It also looks good toting around the two Bachmann "old time" passenger cars I have, lettered for the NY,PB&W.
as is the Bachmann 0-6-0 in PRR dress.  Both of these engines have been gifted with proper cabeese, the B&O has a wagontop and the PRR is trailed by an N5 in shadow keystone.

Coming soon will be the remotored/regeared/rewired Trix K-4 frame from @Lemosteam  to take on the heavyweight version of the Broadway, some streamlined B&O cars in both smooth side blue/grey and stainless... (The F's will be pressed into service to handle this traffic) and a couple of B&O style cars that will need to be painted to match the set.  I've also picked up a Lifelike E-8 in B&O that I plan to add a decoder to so I can take some of that stuff out to play, since the Con-Cor cars have flanges suitable to newer layouts.

I'm developing a system of individual felt-lined wood boxes to store the trains under the layout safely in between runs.  Basically, each morning I set up a freight and a passenger rig to run loops until lunch time, then I'll swap them out to another set of afternoon trains.

I'm probably maxing out on equipment now, so next I'll turn my attention to finalizing the track plan, adding another 2' to the platform, and figuring out how I can add this little bit of magic that also came in the haul from David...



Lee

[CRL]

In my early N scale days I custom painted one of these in late B&M scheme.

The one on the left looks better. 

[peteski]

The one on the left looks better. 

No sh!t Sherlock!    
I didn't have much clue of what I was doing, and that was before the Atlas Geeps were available.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That bus system box reminds me of Desert Bus:
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/desert-bus-the-very-worst-video-game-ever-created

[basementcalling]

Lee, when you finish, you should take pictures and list the layout and rolling stock on eBay as a vintage collectable layout.

Retro won't sell, but someone would drop way too much money for the "collectables."

[wm3798]

I sure have...