TrainMan2001's HO/OO Trains

There was a train show yesterday that I got to go to. Unfortunately, the section I worked on fell apart, so we weren't able to use it. I was able to get the Thomas' Christmas Express set by Bachmann though. Although I now have a second Thomas, I do have an opportunity to learn how to repaint trains. If I do that though, it probably won't happen until sometime next year. I was also able to get a 2018 Bachmann Catalogue for free.












I took my 2-6-0 to run, as well as my original Thomas and Ben, but I only ran the original Thomas for an hour before it started to get hot, so I swapped it out with the new one (with the snowplow) and ran it for the rest of the show. It never really warmed up too much, even though it was run for about 5 hours.

We had a little bit of trouble getting some trains to run because some of the track wasn't lining up as well as we hoped, but we are getting closer to having the layout run well. The 2-6-0 struggled for a while running forwards, so we took it off for a while before I tried running it tender-first. It ran perfectly for the rest of the show.

Time to talk about some projects. We are planning on turning the 3 tunnels into a locomotive museum, which is why there are only small sections of rail with the engines on them. I am going to make a sign for it. I am also planning on making Keep Out signs for the area under the trestle. There used to be a logging mill that was accessed by going under the trestle, but we don't use it anymore, and everyone asks what we are planning on doing with the track. We also have a little mountain wit some openings I will make Keep Out signs for as well. The small locomotive in the front of the museum was going to be a new Hogwarts Express locomotive sincd the original doesn't work, but it's couplings were the wrong height, so we are looking for a different locomotive to use. If we find one, I might repaint it, which means my project for repainting my old Thomas will be good for practice. I am also planning on repainting my brake van to look more like what was seen in the show. I also got a small fire station from one of the club members to build for the layout, so I will post pictures of that when I decide to build it. Here is an old picture of the trestle for a reminder:

My first club project is finished.











This took a while as I had to cut the bottoms of all of the walls off and cut the openings for all of the doors. I am glad to have it done though. I am excited to see what it looks like on the layout in January.

[Super]

I have always liked this shed and have wondered how it would look with a Plarail Layout.

For Christmas, I got Bachmann Skarloey, Narrow Gauge Open Wagon, Narrow Gauge Red Box Van, and a Red Open Wagon. I now have the complete range of narrow gauge Thomas & Friends models that have been released so far, though I plan to get some Bachmann Branchline Narrow Gauge models in the future. I also plan on getting Rusty and the Blue and Red Carriages when they are released.I'm also looking forward to the announcements for both narrow gauge ranges in 2019, which should come in the next couple of months.








Super, as a treat for you, I took pictures of the fire station / storage shed in a Trackmaster set up (I don't have any Plarail track, but if the new Thomas Basic Set comes to Amazon, I may be left with no choice...). I think the building would work well with a TOMY layout, but it is quite the building project.





Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Hopefully you can get your Plarail package problem sorted out. You might want to talk to your post office about delivering random packages!?

[Super]

Looking good T-Man

There was a train show a couple of weeks ago, and I bought Bachmann Duck and some Kadee Knuckle couplings to start converting my Thomas trains to. The first few I was able to do worked well. Now I just need to buy some more to do this to the rest of my engines and rolling stock.






The nice thing about these couplers is that the trucks couple a lot closer together, so it looks more prototypical. They are also a lot easier to couple and uncouple than the hook and loop couplers. They are also smaller and less noticeable when coupled together.

A lot has happened in the realm of Model Trains too. Hornby has announced a new version of the Hogwarts Express in OO scale including a lot of buildings, Bachmann UK has announced new good looking recolors for their narrow gauge line, as well as awesome new toolings for it as well, and Oxford Rail just released an N7, which is quickly proving popular with a lot of modelers in the UK. Bachmann US hasn't even done their announcements yet either. Does anyone have a cure for the Might-As-Well Syndrome?

[Super]

That Duck looks great T-Man

"Does anyone have a cure for the Might-As-Well Syndrome?”

Aside from being totally broke, I can’t think of one!

Wow, it's been a while. I decided to play with weathering powders and a rattle can (flat clear coat) a little bit, so here are some pictures.










The Thomas with wheels is stock standard from Bachmann with the exception of the coupler. The Thomas without wheels is the one seen through the majority of the pictures on this thread. I hope you can see the difference.





It feels pretty nice to finally do some modelling again. Oh, and before I forget...


I set up a mini layout with some of my old trains because running model trains on carpet is a really bad idea and I missed being able to watch trains run.

[Super]

Nice work T-Man