Weekend Update 9/13/26

[PiperguyUMD]

This has nothing to do with N Scale, but I thought the folks might get a kick out of my recent train adventures.

My cousin's daughter-in-law's father recently passed away, and he was a Lionel fan.
My cousin asked me to stop in and give her daughter-in-law some advice on what to do with the trains.
So, I meander over thinking that I would just have to tell them the trains were junk with no value.

On the way to the basement there is a O Guage "Big Boy" sitting on the mantle.
We go down the stairs to a normal somewhat dirty basement and I come face to face with this:


And that was the smaller of his 2 layouts (maybe 1/5 the size of his other layout).

Here is the yard area of the "other" layout: turntable, roundhouse, transfer table, coaling towers, lights, ....


1,2, or 3 of every Lionel accessory ever made plus MTH/Williams buildings that also are very highly valued.

I felt light a kid in a candy store. It took me back to my childhood days traveling to the big city (Philadelphia) to see the Wanamaker's department store's huge Lionel Christmas display layouts. Just overwhelming!

I enlisted the aid of @Ntrainz1 and we went to work organizing the collection so that we could find the cars that went into the relatively few boxes we uncovered.
~ 125 engines, an S1, 2 Berkshires, 5 Hudsons, one absolutely beautiful MTH E6 Atlantic, ... 2 wall shelves of F units, 1 wall shelf of FA-1s, 1 wall shelf of GE 44 toners, 2 GG1s, ....  Maybe 25 junkers in need of repairs.


This picture of his passenger trains does not even include his beautiful, still boxed, silver Burlington passenger set.


I am sure there are well over 100 freight cars and we haven't even started on track or accessories yet.

This didn’t happen to be near Lancaster PA did it? Long story short, I had a host family about 15 years ago whose basement looked like this. I know it’s a long shot, but hey it’s a small world when trains are involved!

[N Scale Train Boy]

While many of you were having fun down in Altoona at the N scale Weekend, I was having a very New Haven weekend! I broke out my T trak modules and finally had the chance to give my growing New Haven Mail and Express train its maiden run late Thursday night - https://youtube.com/shorts/f_2ustqYNOU?si=nX1xWx6aKOhqb6PP - still more cars to add over time, and still need to really dial in the consist to be accurate to a train number out of Boston, but its coming along nicely.

After that run, I packed the train, the model of the Hopewell Depot it runs past in that video, and a bunch of my other New Haven models to bring them out to New London, CT for the annual New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Association Convention/Reunion! Friday night we were shown New Haven Railroad 33mm films and slides, including a very interesting never aired promotional film the railroad put together to promote the railroad's Cape Cod trains. It never made it to the general public for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the destruction on the Cape caused shortly after filming by Hurricanes Carol and Edna.

Saturday was the train show and presentation programs, where many great deals were had and models displayed. Here is a photo of the NHRHTA Model Display table, including my N scale models, my friend Chris Vigorito's O gauge models, Jim Fellows' NH Pullmans (which he gave a presentation on!), Peter Ness' model of Back Bay station in the New Haven Era, and others.


The other presentations given were my own presentation on the history of the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, Ron Poidomani's presentation updating us on the progress he's made on his layout based on the Manufacturer's Railroad and more, one of Peter Ness' always excellent presentations on the New Haven's TOFC service, and Brent Bette's presentation on the history and preservation of the Roger Williams Trainset (Preorders for the HO Scale Rapido model end tomorrow, and they're still a few short of the minimum, so if you are interested in the model PREORDER NOW!!!). The evening wrapped up with a banquet and keynote speaker Andy Kromer giving us a great presentation about the Metro North heritage program, and hinting at another wrap in the works!

Sunday was the day to travel home, and on the way I stopped in at Chris Adams' always beautiful Valley Local layout for a quick visit and the SONO Switch Tower museum.

I also brought a pretty great haul home as well, as for around $150 (ish) I took home these,

volume 2 of R.W. Nimke's fantastic CNE Book set, and a set of 1950s USGS Topo maps covering much of Dutchess and Putnam counties in New York! All in all, a fantastic weekend!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

It was the Altoona N Scale Weekend this weekend.

It was worth getting up at 5am Saturday for.

A couple photos.
First, a coal train on @randgust 's beautiful modules.



Then, the same train but missing a GP38-2 on my new Seidelmann Run T-TRAK module.



And some video from the same location.

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I'm working on writing up a post about the module. I think it's my best work yet.



Also, I can't believe I got to meet @Jim Starbuck and @skytop35 and so many other folks. Such good guys! It really IS the best event of the year.

[GaryHinshaw]

^Excellent runby video.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

^Excellent runby video.

Thanks! It only took me two takes and some post shoot stabilization, lol.

[Mark5]

It was the Altoona N Scale Weekend this weekend.

A couple photos.

Hotshots!

[btrain]

Had an absolutely fantastic time at the Altoona N Scale Convention this past weekend. The organizers really outdid themselves with a great variety of vendors, presentations, and of course the layouts.

It was good seeing everyone and their work, my apologies if I seemed a bit frazzled as the scope of everything was just impressive. Without sounding like I’m over fawning over everything, which I’m well guilty of doing, here are few of my favorite shots from the show.

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[InterurbanModels]

Power is an ABA Set of the old LifeLike plastic frame E6s.

That's a beautiful collection! I have also a LifeLike E6a, with metal frames, and I confirm that they can pull a helluva of train. They can even work together with the Kato E8. The LifeLikes are a little bit slower, but a LL-Kato MU do not derail, and if the train is just long and heavy enough, the load balances out the speed difference.

[rickb773]

This didn’t happen to be near Lancaster PA did it? Long story short, I had a host family about 15 years ago whose basement looked like this. I know it’s a long shot, but hey it’s a small world when trains are involved!

Close but no cigar.
You missed by about 70 miles [Deptford (SW) NJ]

[nickelplate759]

...

@btrain - any idea who did those awesome NKP RS3s?  That's some nice work!  Definitely not stock Atlas Classic!

[skytop35]

@btrain - any idea who did those awesome NKP RS3s?  That's some nice work!  Definitely not stock Atlas Classic!

Looks like Steve Holzheimer's work. They are exceptional!

[btrain]

Looks like Steve Holzheimer's work. They are exceptional!

That’s correct!

[chuck geiger]

It was the Altoona N Scale Weekend this weekend.

It was worth getting up at 5am Saturday for.

A couple photos.
First, a coal train on @randgust 's beautiful modules.



Then, the same train but missing a GP38-2 on my new Seidelmann Run T-TRAK module.



And some video from the same location.

/>
I'm working on writing up a post about the module. I think it's my best work yet.



Also, I can't believe I got to meet @Jim Starbuck and @skytop35 and so many other folks. Such good guys! It really IS the best event of the year.

The spirit of amazing modelers of the past jumped inside Ed, feel free to brag, you should this is top notch work.

[robert3985]

Had a little gathering of UP steam at Echo this weekend...

Photo (1) Union Pacific Steam at Echo...(please forgive the HF artifacts)


Photo (2) Looking east (actually south) at Echo...


I also got busy and started weathering a friend's Broadway Limited UP Light Mike.  However, my flat black had decided to dry up, so I haven't completed it.  Still got to streak the smokebox, apply a bit of coal soot to the stack and top, then some hard water lime deposits in appropriate places, and additional streaking & spattering.  It also needs number boards, and I think I'm gonna print some up, which would be a nice little addition to my parts lineup.

Photo (3) BLi UP Light Mike (or MacArthur) in progress being weathered:


I also added some spare modules and bridge sections to the rear of my permanent layout's modules before I build the actual sections that I'm planning on to complete this phase.  This'll allow me to run both mainlines in a circle while I finish off Echo, Echo Canyon, Emory Siding and Taggarts...

Photo (4) Backside of my layout today, comprised of two old unfinished 6' modules, my 6' test track module and a quick & dirty 27" bridge section made out of a 2X6:


Those were C-clamped together then attached to my existing unfinished Emory Siding section, and my Taggarts section essentially making one big 20' 3" long temporary bridge.

I'll be starting to lay track later today after I catch some winks. 

That's about it for this last Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[dandopinski]

Very nice, Bob.