Caledonian Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 No interest at all (foreign stuff) until I was speaking at a conference in Houston TX and was put in a hotel room overlooking the Old South Yard... Back over here and my local model shop (Rolling Stock in North Shields) had a Kato SD45 in Santa Fe Warbonnet and the rest is history - or something like that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny4472 Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 My parents bought me an Athearn 'Rocky Mountineer' GP-40 while they were holidaying in Canada. It sat in a cupboard for a year until i watched a DVD they bought on the same trip, which covered the CP line through the Canadian Rockies / Spiral tunnels etc. I was instantly hooked. I started buying CP stock, and after buying a SOO Line SD60 based my stock & planned layout in the Minneapolis area. This led to me buying loads of BNSF stock too. I haven't bought any British outline stock since, which is about 6 years now. My layout 'St. Paul - Midway' is now under contruction, and is in the main board Layout Topics. I have also purchased a layout 'Cascade Lakeside' after seeing it a Perth Model Show. This will be renamed 'New Westminster' and based in the Vancouver area. This allows my CP / BNSF stock to be used, and also fellow US modeller on here Craig Watson's CN stock to be used. No way back now!!! Donny. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 This will be renamed 'New Westminster' and based in the Vancouver area. This allows my CP / BNSF stock to be used, and also fellow US modeller on here Craig Watson's CN stock to be used. Donny. If you're modelling New West, you'll also be able to include VIA, Amtrak and Southern Railway of BC. (Or should I not have told you that? ) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Boucher Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 The short flat car with the howitzer would be fun to model. You mean like this? (note that its technically a "mortar") http://www.btsrr.com/bts9506.htm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny4472 Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 If you're modelling New West, you'll also be able to include VIA, Amtrak and Southern Railway of BC. (Or should I not have told you that? ) pH Thanks for the info. I have some Via stock, but no Amtrak or BC. Plenty of stuff to look out for then. thanks Ian D Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 You mean like this? (note that its technically a "mortar") http://www.btsrr.com/bts9506.htm Indeed yes. And you're right of course, it is a mortar. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonOfMike Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 Personally, I blame the parents. Some of you on RMWeb know my Dad, and therefore probably know him as a serial O gauge GWR micro-layout builder. Anyone who has known him for long enough may also be aware that he has also produced many 4mm scale exhibition layouts over the years, but what you may not know is that he has also dabbled with the Dark Side (sorry mate but I did warn you that I may “out†you on here ). Back in the late ‘70s / early '80s he was a member of a small group of modellers who called themselves “The Narrow Gauge and Shortline Groupâ€. If I remember correctly, their aim was to introduce US modelling techniques and standards into the UK. The day I saw a weathered On3 K36 running on a diorama of a rocky canyon over a trestle bridge made from individual pieces of scale lumber with hand-laid track I was captivated. For someone who had grown up in the West Midlands on a diet of drizzle and fish fingers, and been “tutored†in all things Great Western by my Grandfather (who’s own father actually refused to travel anywhere if it wasn’t on the GWR) since I was a toddler, this was an epiphany. Then my Dad built an O scale Galloping Goose and at that point I was on my way to being lost to the Dark Side completely. Then I saw a Shay for the first time... It was during this period that I was first introduced to magazines such as Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman and the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette. The sheer scale of some of the layouts, the quality of the kits and RTR that were available and the obvious skills of the modellers inspired me to have a go myself and by the time I was in my mid teens I had my own HOn30 “Roccard and Brittel Mining Company†layout and considered myself every inch a model railroader. As stated in another post in a different topic, my interests took a different direction by the time I was about 16, but recently I have returned to the hobby again. Just before I “retired†in the 80’s I had built an HO 2-truck Shay from an MDC kit which I still have. I must have built it when I was about 15, for a standard gauge layout that never materialised. I decided, therefore, to carry on where I left off and now I am in the process of building things for a small HO layout; the freelanced “Jemima and Gulf railway†set in Louisiana. I don’t have much to show yet; I have the Shay (which still runs after nearly 30 years – I do not intend to alter it, I’ll keep it as I built it), I have a couple of small consolidations that I am building (inspired by Tremont and Gulf prototypes), a track plan (nearly), base boards, assorted rolling stock and a subscription to Model Railroader. Oh and Dad of course, who is still a source of knowledge and bits (can I still have those point motors that are gathering dust in your shed, mate?). It’s slow progress, what with work and family commitments etc, but I’ll get there... I’ll post some pics when I have something worth looking at. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 Personally, I blame the parents. Some of you on RMWeb know my Dad, and therefore probably know him as a serial O gauge GWR micro-layout builder. ..... but what you may not know is that he has also dabbled with the Dark Side (sorry mate but I did warn you that I may “out†you on here ). Blimey - what a dark horse, eh..?? No-one's secrets are safe around here!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Gwinnett Posted July 28, 2011 Share Posted July 28, 2011 For me it was either Tony Koester's coal branch series in Model Railroader inn the late 90's (I think) - or our first visit to New York for my 30th birthday in 1999. I'm not sure which came first, but those were the two seminal events for me. I tried to deny it for a long time, but the dark side had me in its grip... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldeagle Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 Returned to model railways two or three years back, after a break of just fifty years, and immediately found [british] private owner wagons. I now have dozens, some peering down from the shelf as I write, other packed away in boxes in the bedroom, my daughters are all grown up, gone and taken their dolls houses with them, and I live alone - heaven! Whilst in the process of getting angry and frustrated with horn and hook couplings, I started experimenting with "Kadee" style. Then in June, I visited the TVNAM show, near Rugeley, not too far from here..... As a result of that, I'm sitting here, looking at a "SOO" SW1500 switcher, and a "BNSF" SD45, plus an interchange siding. The interchange is a kit at the moment, that is, a heap of Code 83 and turnouts. I'm looking forward to my Grandson to cast off his nappies, so that he can go to his first show - his other Grand-dad gave him a wooden train and track when he was about a month old, and I gave him some "Thomas" books, so he's being dragged up proper! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Gwinnett Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 ... Then in June, I visited the TVNAM show, near Rugeley, not too far from here..... As a result of that, I'm sitting here, looking at a "SOO" SW1500 switcher, and a "BNSF" SD45, plus an interchange siding. The interchange is a kit at the moment, that is, a heap of Code 83 and turnouts.... That's it, you're over the lip of the slippery slope and speeding downhill. Enjoy! I'm looking forward to my Grandson to cast off his nappies, so that he can go to his first show - his other Grand-dad gave him a wooden train and track when he was about a month old, and I gave him some "Thomas" books, so he's being dragged up proper! Quite right too. Dragged my son round Carlisle yesterday, then Ravenstruther, then the forth bridge today. Can't have him sitting in front of his DS all day. Got an Atlas trainman "trainset" at the weekend- perfect for smaller people as the trainman stuff is quite robust, but still good looking enough to keep dad happy. Made sure both my nephews are well supplied with "Thomas" too! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Depot Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 Watching the Conrail locos shunting while sat by Newark airport NJ, Plane spotting! After that used to aways try and see a few trains when on a spotting trip to the US/Canada! Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 Well now I've been outed, it was after a visit to Bob's Models on the Coventry Road Birmingham in the 1970's. Lots of brass locos and a client base that were without doubt extremely good modellers. Brian Coldicot, Stuart McPherson, Lee Clarke, John Hughes to name but a few. OK, I've since gone back to all things British 0 gauge but, hopefully I'm still using the techniques our American cousins where using way back then. Mike- Dad of Son of Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldeagle Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 And as from a little earlier this afternoon, after a visit to "B & Q", there are a couple of pieces of 9mm ply, each four feet by 18 inches, "resting" in the back of my van. A little further down the slippery slope! John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 ... I'm sitting here, looking at a "SOO" SW1500 switcher, ..... An excellent choice, sir, if I may say so... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gridwatcher Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 My parents bought me an Athearn 'Rocky Mountineer' GP-40 while they were holidaying in Canada. It sat in a cupboard for a year until i watched a DVD they bought on the same trip, which covered the CP line through the Canadian Rockies / Spiral tunnels etc. I was instantly hooked. I started buying CP stock, and after buying a SOO Line SD60 based my stock & planned layout in the Minneapolis area. This led to me buying loads of BNSF stock too. I haven't bought any British outline stock since, which is about 6 years now. My layout 'St. Paul - Midway' is now under contruction, and is in the main board Layout Topics. I have also purchased a layout 'Cascade Lakeside' after seeing it a Perth Model Show. This will be renamed 'New Westminster' and based in the Vancouver area. This allows my CP / BNSF stock to be used, and also fellow US modeller on here Craig Watson's CN stock to be used. No way back now!!! Donny. Ian Did they buy the whole rake of Rapido coaches to match?...very generous if they did! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gridwatcher Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 pH Thanks for the info. I have some Via stock, but no Amtrak or BC. Plenty of stuff to look out for then. thanks Ian D Ian I can do you a full rake of West Coast double deckers and loco! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
signalmaintainer Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Born this way! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Holmes Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Seeing this thread got me wondering. I built my first US outline HO scale layout 25 years ago for the second Mablethorpe Model railway exhibition. 12th Avenue Yard I called it. But I'd been interested in US outline before then. I had been to the US a year or so before as an exchange student so I had first hand experience of seeing US Railroads, in fact I now recall looking over a load of CNW loco's in storage in Green Bay. That made an impression on me. I'm sure I've got pictures of that encounter somewhere. But I'd been curious about US outline since before then. I think it must all stem back to the very first issues of Scale Model Trains that others have mentioned. There was a layout in a paste table I seem to remember and a picture of a transcontinental freight that consisted of an F7 and a couple of freight cars. That must have been it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
armchair modeler Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Visited Canada 1986 and then again 2011. On the first visit was fascinated by the wooden grain elevators which were in nearly every town with a rail connection. Saw the huge cylindrical hopper cars in a plethora of liveries, especially the "coke can" CANADA, govt. sponsored grain cars. Back home and continued dabbling in British railways 1960's era. 2011, rode the Rocky Mountaineer Vancouver to Calgary. Spent a week staying near a rail line, Wooden elevators, so much an icon of Western Canada, all but gone.Huge concrete elevators and silos now covering a much larger collection area. Cylindrical grain hopper cars still very much in evidence. At least 3 different Govt. of Canada liveries, "Take an Alberta break, visit................." (pick a town name and there is a hopper for it) Various CP schemes and the latest "Saskatchewan!" green hoppers and the older Sask. paint scheme. Back home and the BR stuff is back classed. One wooden grain elevator kit, one concrete grain elevator kit, 6 Bachmann hoppers ( various liveries) 3 Intermountain hopper kits (will be Alberta break livery,decals from Ready Trains, Vancouver and some home produced transfers for the town names) 1 "Maltings" hopper, 2 CP hoppers en route via the post, 1x GP 30, 2x SD40-2 CP livery and I am going to hell in a hurry. Still not satisfied, I want some SOO line ( the wheat stalk livery) and above all else the Saskatchewan! 2008 livery. (PWRS have the licence from the Sask. provincial govt. for this livery so they are the only supplier. Cost of model plus postage from US/Canada........expensive!) That trip to Canada has cost me a fortune..............and it was not the cost of the holiday. Armchair Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewC Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Right, well I guess after reading everyone else's tales, I should lower the tone a bit. B) or maybe a lot. Born and bred Albertan. (those of you from the centre of the universe, don't bother with the red neck jokes, I hate country music and pick up trucks) Spent most of my first 14 years shuttling between Calgary and Newbury Park/Seven Kings. First train set was a Marx thing which I rarely got to go near as the adults always took control. Around the age of 6 I got a Tri ang Transcontinental set and was hooked. Dad worked for Canadian Pacific so I have a genetic dislike for all things painted with a wet noodle. Trips on the Canadian, trips on the RDCs between Calgary and Edmonton, Saturdays getting to cab ride with one of dad's mates on the 10th ave switching, cab ride on an FP9a from Field BC to Lake Louise though the spiral tunnels, all cemented my additction to trains. I've always been a contrary b*****d so by the age of 14 when the trans-Atlantic shuttling stopped and I was living full time in Canada I developed an affection for British trains. The Transcontinental stuff gradually made way to Hymeks, 37s, etc. Had anyone made Central Line underground stock at the time I would have been in heaven. Fast forward a few years and I was active in the local division of the BRMNA (British Railway Modellers of North America) as well as other local groups. Always modelling and exhibiting British with no interest in modelling the trains I saw outside my office window every day. I even did a consulting contract with CP for a while. Our annual camping holidays also had a train theme as we would spend a couple of weeks in and around Glacier Park, Montana, with the Izaak Walton Inn and BN main line as a diversion from the campsite. Roll on 2003 and a chance to work in London came so I took it. A trip back to Calgary in 2004 saw me pick up just a couple of pieces of CP in HO, just for a small diorama of course. No plans to do anything else. Well that seed sort of sat there for a while and germinated. A few more bits accumulated over the next few years until I got my hands on a pile of BN locos at the GOFARS American Show. Then a chance meeting with Roundhouse & Warbonnet of this parish finally pushed me over the edge. Time for me to be contrary again. Modelling CP and BN from the UK. All my British stock is now mothballed and I've joined the NMRA. Working on 4 (Alberta prairie, CP) modules for the Thamessiders group, and my own layout "Essex", Montana, which is coming along slowly. Add to that helping Mr. Roundhouse with operating his layouts whenever I can and I've come full circle from that first Tri ang F unit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
doodaa Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 I started In US modelling on my second trip where i did a road trip from Orlando to New York over a week stopping at different places every day, I had previously riden Amtrak Silver Star down from New York, on the trip back I found a few model shops en route so called in to see whats what, Saw an Athern Blue box model of a P42 , and thought a model of the train Ive just ridden on would be good. I now vist the US every 2 years and most trips are railway orinated with at least 1 long distance run last trip was The Cresent and The Cardinal. While driving around Lancaster PA i came accross Dillersvile Yard with a 2 road engine yard next to the road only separated by a pavement no fence, and though this would make a nice model/test track so started my first US layout with NS & Conrail stock. I try and stick to modelling trains Ive ridden on or the NS/Contrail stuff, but have wandered off every now and then i.e. an Illinois Central 1950's Panama Lmited. Still model UK its still my main interest, but US take up about 1/3 of modelling time and money doodaa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dtwo Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 I have not been on RMWeb for long and I recently discovered the USA & Canadian section. Since finding it though I've hardly read any other part! As such, I've just discovered this thread so I thought I'd add my story too. For a long time I worked on cruise ships, mainly out of Miami (and other places too). After some exploring with a rental car I found TexNrails, and I brought an N scale Kato SD40-2 in CSX livery (purely as a souvenir, honest!). But US locos are never used on their own are they?! So I couldn't have just one so another SD40-2 was purchased, this time from Ready To Roll, then came a few freight cars to go with the locos. Once I discovered that I could get the bus from downtown Miami to close to Ready To Roll look around the store the walk to the Golden Glades Tri-Rail station, then Tri-rail to the Metrorail interchange to Government Center (Which I've since found out is roughly where the Seaboard (I think) station was) for the Metromover back to Bayside. I guess it would have been easier just to get the bus back, but where's the fun in that?!! Anyway, because of this I became quite a regular customer at Ready To Roll. Consequently, I no longer have just a couple of locos. Since I stopped working on the ships I have brought a few things from Ready To Roll and, like everyone else, a fair bit from eBay. I don't have anywhere to run it all at present. After recently discovering Lance Mindheim's books, I am hoping to start an N scale layout based on the Palmetto Spur. Then, in the future something bigger as the majority of my locos are not of the switching variety! As with the first two, most of my locos are CSX, but I do have locos from other roads purely because I liked the look of them! Case in point, a pair of Southern E8s and twelve Budd cars to go with them! I hope I've not rambled on too much and bored you all, but that is a short version of my story. David S. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcanman Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Welcome aboard, David It would nice to see an N scale version of Palmetto Spur, I really enjoyed building my HO version. regards, Mal Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted June 20, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 20, 2012 Only just noticed this topic. As mentioned in a few posts back by both Warbonnet and Andrew C, a few of us went out to Florida in the early 1990's. We visited a few really good model tain shops We did some linesiding including a visit to the Fort Myers area and by chance came across the Seminole Gulf Coast dinner train which we we invited on board to have an impromptue tour around the train. We also saw a slow moving freight on the OSuth Central Florida line near Palmdale. We chased it and got to sidings where we parked up and photographed the train switching there. After that I soon got hooked on USA railraoding ecpecially after purchasing an Ahtearn blue box GP40-2 then detailing it up after a local railfan to Orlando showed us all the detail differences to look out for. That loco is now part of a mother and lsug in 'CSX stealth gray'. Of course I ocld just have these newly aquaired lcos sitting around on a shelf or in their boxes. 'Fort Myers' was then born and USA modelling took off from there. A subsequent visit to a shop in the LA area saw the owner running both an N scale and HO scale Kato loco alongside each other on a test track at a crawl. The N gauge was so impressive that I then had future ideas of an N scale layout which materialised in the form of 'California Coast' in 1999. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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