HO trains and layouts

[popeye the sailor]

      I had a train set when I was young........don't remember the manufacturer,  don't recall the cars that came with it.......all I can recall is that it was a steam locomotive and the layout.  the layout was a 4 X 4 foot square.......plywood covered by a huge vacuform scene,  with a road through the middle and a tunnel.  given the size of the layout,  the track was simply a huge circle,  and the train went 'round 'n 'round.  it was awkward to set up every time we wanted to use it,  and one day it got even more awkward.  my brother in some fit or another,  decided to turn up the voltage high enough,  that the train crashed into the tunnel,  breaking a chunk of it off.  Dad was pretty angry.......he put it in the pump room part of the cellar,  and we weren't to play with it anymore.  

   time past,  and the desire to play with it grew.......I figured I could set it up and get it back in the box before Dad came home from work.   all went well,  wrestling it out of the box in that cramped room....it was annexed off from the rest of the cellar.  it was the only part of the cellar that had a cement floor,  aside from where Mom did the laundry.   I played with it for a while,  losing track of time........my sister came down stairs.  she knew....and told me I had better get it back in the box.....pronto!   in the rush,  I accidentally hit the regulator for the pump and broke it.  yup!........warm fanny......you bet! 

    I never had another one after that.........had a slot car track,  but it just wasn't the same.   ....probably why I got into models.......it was a lot safer    in my early days,  I didn't know much about the model train medium.......saw pictures,  but never put two and two together.  I'd guess it has been the last 20 or so years,  that I began to see a lot more of the medium........it's a lot bigger than some realize.  I know I've posted it before,  but this article was very interesting to me.....

 

A Brief History of Scale Modelling (As I Recall It) by John Loughman

 

I thought to myself....as much as I sometimes loathe the internet,  it has opened our eyes to thing we may never see.  it gives us insight to the models that we are building,  and the tools to build a better model.  I would always build out of the box,  and not outside the box........  now,  I can see much more,  than the field outside my window.   but I digress........

   in 2011,  I received an Ambroid train kit from a past co worker at the shop...I was working at the Walmart DC.  his ex-wife's grandfather past away,  and while going through his effects,  she stumbled onto the kit.  she showed it to him,  and he in turn gave it to me,  rather than let her toss it out.  it is the Ambroid B&M Snow Plow, partially started.

     

 

some of the pictures are not that good........but yup......I had that purple / pink mechanical pencil even back then!    a good portion of it is done.....the metal stuff and plow needs to be done.  I'd have to sort through the pictures to see what is good enough to post.  I even proposed to do it as a diorama...a small layout of a place where they might keep such a car.  it's been in the closet since then.  

   my older son is into real estate........uses a drone to take pictures of the properties he looks at,  and then posts them on line as sort of a short video,  complete with music of some form of commentary.  recently,  he did a property.....the previous owner was still in the process of packing up.  he told me how it went down, but the gent literally gave him a trunk load of train stuff.......locos,  cars,  tracks and all that goes with it,  and a number of kits for buildings and train cars.  he showed them to me.....shocked me how old some of the kits looked.  he drives a Mini Cooper.......and the trunk space was totally full.......even a bit more in the back seat!  my first suggestion was to have the stuff appraised to see if any of it was worth selling.  he did find a place that sells stuff on consignment.  he did save a couple kits for dear 'ole dad....what a good son   

  the first kit is a 40 foot refrigerator car kit,  produced by Findex Systems LTD. Milwaukee.  I tried to look up the company,  but so far,  I haven't been able to find anything on it.  I did see another refrigerator car kit on E Bay.  the price extension on the kit box is $1.00.  working on this car will be a game changer,  after my experience with the Ambroid kit........it starts out as a wooden plug.

that's all there is for wood parts.  according to the instructions,  there is a covering that goes on the wooden plug.  it was not in the kit.

you see the fold out on the end....the yoke for the coupler.  they are included in the bag with the ladders,  staples for grab irons,  nails,  and the two cross bars for the trucks.

 

this is it........   there are options......Hobby Lobby and Hobby Town sells stuff for HO train and layouts.  here is a list of the places I have book marked.

www.walthers.com -- main page

Model Train Scale and Gauge - Railroad Model Craftsman

Model Train Stuff - HO Scale Microscale Decals

Northeastern Scale Lumber Co.

architectural model trim ho scale

I may have a couple more somewhere.  heck......I use some of the sheeting stuff for model ships.  I may even have enough to cover it.  another option is this model can also be done as a box car,  with very little modification.  we'll see when I start it  

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by popeye the sailor
delete picture

[ccoyle]

I still have all of the N-gauge track and rolling stock from my youth, packed away in a box in the fading hope that one of my kids might one day be interested.

[thibaultron]

The outside of kits like that were printed paper that you glued to the block.

[Jack12477]

8 hours ago, ccoyle said:

I still have all of the N-gauge track and rolling stock from my youth, packed away in a box in the fading hope that one of my kids might one day be interested.

Me too. Started mine after discharge from Army when an Army buddy introduced me to Arnold Rapido N scale train line. Like you, mine are packed away awaiting an heir 

[Rik Thistle]

Popeye,

 

A great read, and also the 'plastic model kit' history link to John Loughman.

 

As a kid I lost count of the number of aircraft windscreens I messed up with the kit glue.  Not the glue's fault...just my ham fistedness 😉

 

Richard

[yvesvidal]

9 hours ago, ccoyle said:

I still have all of the N-gauge track and rolling stock from my youth, packed away in a box in the fading hope that one of my kids might one day be interested.

 

The "fading hope" is key here..... Unfortunately.

 

Yves

[Canute]

My train club gets these "heirlooms" from folks turning in Dad or Grandad's train stuff as donations. We resell most of it at the semiannual train shows up near Asheville Airport. Any scale, it all sells. We have some dealers who come to the shows who scarf up whatever we don't sell during the show. For the club, it's all profit, since the stuff is donated. We survey the donations and if we have items we could use for the club or potentially offer on the online seller sites. Some items, like Denis's Findex car could attract collectors of these kits. Like Ron said, the sides/ends were a paper wrapper.Without it, it's scrap wood. Very early HO since the body is a solid wood block. Post WW 2, folks like Northeastern brought out precut floors, roofs and end blocks you could attach wood or paper sides and ends. Some kits used white metal castings for the ends. Looking at them nowadays, the castings could be pretty crude. The plastic aftermarket parts run rings around them.

 

But plastic kits are fading away. Many current hobbyists just buy ready to run; the old instant gratification. Luckily a few manufacturers still make undecorated kits. And resin castings are taking over for us freight car fans. The big issue for them is the quality of their instructions. Some are copy machine copies with poor diagrams; others do it up in color and you download a quality PDF or PowerPoint .

 

It's a big, fun hobby. Some of us get together at somebody's model railroad to operate in a prototypical manner, using radios, manifests and obeying track-side signals. Others just like taking their locos and cars out for a spin at our club, enjoying the sight, running through realistic scenery. Different stokes for different folks, as the singer sang.

[popeye the sailor]

hi all.......glad to see that there is some interest.  as a side note here.........I saw a plastic kit that I'd like to get.  it's hopeful that I might be able to get it,  but it depends on the budget director.  I last checked and it's still available.......and for some reason,  since checking,  the budget director has been bringing it up.  an omen from the model god?........we shall see    let's all join hands and recite the Mantra........"build it and they will come..........build it and they will come........STOP!!!!!!  holy crap!,......I got a baseball team here!    OK...OK...new Mantra.........."please?" 

 

but anyway.......it is good.  I checked to see if I had enough of that stuff.......what I'm referring to,  is corrugated aluminum siding.......I had a couple sheets of it.  I found it in the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby...had some minor damage,  but good enough to use for other things.  after finding that I either misplaced it or don't have enough,  it will be fairly easy to get more.  my only thought stumper at the moment is the apron around the base of the body itself......looking at the instructions,  you can see what I mean.  another was figuring out the placement of the cross members for the trucks,  but if the drawing is 1:1 with the model,  I can measure it and solve that small dilemma.  I'll continue to work on some sort of game plan in the meantime.

    I'm glad you liked the article Richard.......some articles I've read in the past were total B.S.  nor does it exclude the rail modeler's medium.  I can also relate to it,  even though I was one of those folks that built my models,  clueless to what was going on in the modeler's world around me.  yea.....I used to go to my favorite hobby shop and chat shop with them,  but I never really got the sense of how the medium was evolving.  I joined those old modeler's clubs and stuff......but never really liked them.  the sad part was that they were only aimed at those who were still in their little rabbit holes,  only aiming to make money off you.  then you had the individual clubs....they would be useful,  but I didn't know anybody or any groups,  living in the country,  as I did.

   it wasn't till the internet scene,  that I really started to see thing in a different light........and not to blow the horn  {on second thought....I will},  till I found sites like this one,  that brought modeling for me to a new light and level.  around this time though,  I had just resumed modeling,  taking time away for life and family.  life got even more interesting,  when I was introduced into the wood medium.........

....but I digress yet again......

   so.......if anyone has a special project going on,  or a link to a really cool place.........by all means...post it here.   oh.......and BTW.......the god smiled!  

[popeye the sailor]

so the other kit my son gave me is of a building........part of a set that spans several kits.  it's called the Keystone Locomotive works......what I have is the power house and boiler house.  research that I've done using google map,  shows a single building in Pulteney.  New York.  they indicated that they moved from what must be their old location {on the box}, Northumberland,  Pennsylvania.   the strange thing here,  is that where they are located in Pulteney,  there are no rail tracks.  for a chuckle,  I looked up Northumberland,  Pa......and there looks to be a rail yard there.  Wheatley Avenue {street name},  is not near the yard,  but what could be four or so blocks away,  more toward the interior of the city.  I've got it up on my computer right now......I'll look into this more later.

 

this is a multi media kit....and there is quite a bit to it.  for a small box,  it is crammed packed with parts.......it has some weight to it.  this is kit #6 according to the information in the beginning of the instructions.  the frame pieces all appear to be precut.

the boiler is comprised with plastic parts.  generically,  only one boiler is supplied,  but in the descriptive story that come with the instructions,  there were three boilers in the building.  they were located on the second floor,  with ash chutes that dump down to the first floor,  for ease of removal and cleaning.  the instructions gives you the option to scratch build them and detail the interior.

the trusses and eaves that base the roof,  are made of metal.  the windows and doors are also made of metal.  I've been meaning to order some plastic HO scale windows from Micro Mark for a future project....I may raise the scope of my order,  and do away with these metal parts.  we'll see about this when the need arises.  

there are four sheets of wood with brick detail.......a supplemental added to the instructions,  indicates a problem with them,  and a solution to remedy the problem.

there are many smaller parts.......different sizes,  of scribed wood panels.  as I recall,  scribed wood like this still can be purchased from the old Ambroid company.

Northeastern Scale Lumber Co.

architectural model trim ho scale

Laser-cut kits for model railroading and dollhouse miniatures - Website of nesm1!

Valley Model Trains -HO- Precision Lasercraft

Products - Decals & Graphics - Woodland Scenics - Model Layouts, Scenery, Buildings and Figures

I may have a few others..........my book mark list is very long    here are the parts.....

 

the instructions are somewhat extensive...but a bit vague at the same time.  I'll get into this in the next post.

 

[popeye the sailor]

OK....back from shopping     these are the instructions that came with the Keystone kit.  they show the basic assembly,  but leave out a lot of the detail.  the first page is a mix of history and information,  should one want to add more to their model.

 

they give an outline with regard to how the facility was set up.

 

frame layouts.......

 

 

 

 

 

it ends out with the parts list.   the text instructions may direct cutting out windows and doors.......I haven't fully read through them yet.   

 

[Old Collingwood]

Blimy mate - you have some work there  - should be an interesting project  -  with a nice set up when finished.

 

OC.

[mtaylor]

Denis,

That's not unusual that there's a train station and no tracks.   The city I grew up in had that with one station no tracks and many of the streets had areas of tracks from the streetcars and even railroads that no longer ran there.  They pulled up or just covered the tracks with they repaved the streets.

[popeye the sailor]

not to mention,  it's really an unknown at the moment when this kit was produced........I've yet to find any dates.  there is a train yard,  but it's not Keystone.  I think I'm tracking down a place,  rather than a model company   

[Canute]

Denis, this is another good site for sheet building supplies, the N Scale Architect: https://thenarch.com/

It's more than N Scale stuff, catalog links are at the bottom of the page.

 

Northumberland was a loco facility and yard for the Pennsylvania RR. Had a big many stall roundhouse, fueling docks, etc. They stored many locos there that eventually were moved to Strasburg, PA and the Pennsylvania State RR Museum. Worth a trip to go there, along with a ride on the Strasburg RR across the highway. Maybe include a trip to Scranton to visit Steamtown and an anthracite mine.

 

Dating those kits, probably late 60s-early 70s. Good for their time. Have fun with the build. If you use the kit sheet wood, cut from the back and use tape to draw your cut lines. As I remember, the sheet stock dries out and gets brittle.

[popeye the sailor]

book marked!    I'll do a browse later.....thanks for the link    I did notice a huge ganglia of tracks there,  and two groups of buildings.  I'll check them out in further research.  oldmodelkits has a large assortment of train kits........a few structures.  some are reasonably priced.  one did catch my eye....but it's not HO.  I'll see it in October........     I hope to get started on this soon.....

[jlefever]

Wow, that's a memory, the snow plow that is. Built that kit about twenty years ago.

 

Still have it, a bit dusty and missing the brake wheel but I feel like it came out OK. Those old wood kits could be a lot of fun in the days before laser cutting simplified things.

 

Jim

 

[Canute]

Nice job with your build. Forming that plow blade was fun.😁

[jlefever]

Thanks for the note and thumbs up.

 

The plow blade was formed from a fairly light gage aluminum sheet. It looked tricky but went relatively easily.

 

I did a handful of wood "craftsman" kits back in the day and enjoyed building them. I think my relative success with these kits ultimately gave me the courage to tackle wood ship kits. At least when I opened my first wood ship "kit" and found a box of un-formed sticks, I didn't immediately panic.

[CDW]

Took this photo while riding aboard the Conway Scenic Railroad in New Hampshire a couple of years ago. A 1:1 plow.

 

[popeye the sailor]

nice looking plow Jim........I've found a few pictures when I was doing some research on it.   mine came with the aluminum,  but he had already cut it  to shape.......tried to fit it,  but I think he might have done it wrong or something.  other ones I've seen,  it appears that the aluminum was not used and they did something else.  I'll get mine out and pop a few pictures......the camera I was using at the time wasn't too good.....might even be my camera savvy  

   I painted mine in kind of a brick red color...I was in the process of assembling the wings when I put it away.  same as you,  ships took over my world.

 

I did notice that whoever owned the Keystone kit tried to start it..........found a bead of glue on one of the brick parts.  I have started on it......assembling the framework for the power house.  the brick sheets are for the boiler house........there is a slip of paper outlining the shortcomings with the parts.  they will need to be trimmed.   also shows that the roof is pitched,  so I will have to cut the sheets anyway,  as outlined in the description,  the boiler house was made of brick,  rather than wood,  in the event of explosions and fires.  hard to see that this was a two story building.....  the instructions are a bit scant on measurements,  which does make thing a little confusing,  but I'm sure I can figure it out     there are pictures........I'll get some to you when I have more.

 

gotta be the angle of the shot Craig.......it looks like there's no back end on the plow .  I remember your trip   

[CDW]

Just now, popeye the sailor said:

gotta be the angle of the shot Craig.......it looks like there's no back end on the plow .  I remember your trip   

 

It's the angle of the dangle

 

[popeye the sailor]

that must be a Maine emblem on the side........nice picture  

 

so as mentioned,  I started to toy with it.  I was looking at the smokestack parts..........these pieces {plastic} lock together.  I do have a strange urge to turn this into a double smoke stack.

the sides that make up the boiler house......the measurements indicate the sides, the back and the front.  I will have to pitch the roof,  as well as cut out the windows and doors.

I got out the pine board that I turned into a boat slip,  and clamped it to the table.  the templates were laid out and covered with plastic wrap.  from here,  the first volley of frames were cemented together.  these parts came pre cut......but I did get shorted a couple of pieces {one was even the wrong size}.  I always keep a supply of 1/8X1/8 strip handy.

the frames on the left and center required two of them.......the one on the right does not.  I used brass to act as a bumper for the base strips.  when I knew they were sufficiently dry,  the two were pulled off and the other pair was laid down.   this morning I pulled them up and still need to clean them up a bit.

I really don't want to cut the panel templates out of the sheet,  but my first idea isn't working out too well.   the sheet was laid out and the windows and door were cut out first.

my initial idea was to simply slide the parts under the paper......but the first one I did looks a bit off.  I first thought that there was something on the other side,  but there isn't.  so I will cut them out to get a better gauge on the cut outs.

 

this is now done.

 

I did make it over to Hobby Lobby today.....would have made it over yesterday after our hair cuts,  but we got rear ended by a young fellow in a Mazda.  we are ok........he is Ok.  our car has a broken bumper {covering}  and the trunk lid is somewhat sprung......still works though.  his car.......well,  he's gonna need a face lift   

   they do have some stuff.......didn't have the brick,  but they had the corrugated aluminum sheets!  I showed them to the admiral.........and she decided to scratch on the surface on one of them     I'm like.........."don't do that!!!"   when she saw the scratches,  she told me to grab another one from the rack.........the last one was even worse!  to be honest,  they all had minor dings and stuff.......she only added to it.  I can scriber it out I think    I can order other things if I need to........they also have a fair selection of scenery stuff    here more proof that women love sales........she saw that all kits were 40% off.........so now SHE was looking!  I looked but wasn't interested in buying one.........so she starts to point out some that must have caught her eye........yess,  yess......very nice.......a 1:48 scale Black Widow.........she loved the purple color of the Joker mobile........and one that looked like my old olds Cutlass........  I was going to pick up a 1:800 U.S.S. Indianapolis {Academy},  but the 1:16 '57 Chevy Bel Air convertible won out.  I should have picked up another Lindberg 'nose art' B 17 {it was only $9.00....marked down},  but I put it back {could have gotten two kits!}   oh well.......I guess I do have SOME restraint    she was even looking at helicopters and tanks........my grandson Chase asked me why I never build tanks.  I'd better stop talking about it now........'cuz it's mak'in me feel like a first class fool...coulda walked out of there with more   I still have one in the wind.......it won't ship till the beginning of October,  because they are on holiday.  can't tell you what it is,  'cept it pertains to this subject.  what I can tell you is "yule love it!"

 

count on me to bring you something wild and interesting     more on this soon  

Edited September 23, 2021 by popeye the sailor
wording and spelling

[thibaultron]

Look up Walthers, the biggest Model Railroad supplier.

[popeye the sailor]

I have them book marked Ron......thanks    I listed a few earlier in the log......probably have some that I overlooked.  gluing the frames together at the moment

[popeye the sailor]

it took me a minute to figure which end was up,  but the framework is now assembled.   one thing I did notice are the doors......and the way they go all the way to the floor.  the base for the frame is outlined in 1/8th strip.  once the doors are cut out from the frame and put on the exterior of the building,  the doors will not fit.  I will need to raise the door openings 1/8....this way the doors will fit full height.

 

 

it's nice to be able to try out the new crane light on table black.  the admiral never got to ask me why it was so urgent to get one for it      now to work on the outer panels for it.

[Canute]

Nice framing, Denis. 👍 Brick looks good; just need to dirt them up or fade the mortar.

 

Those old kits leave a lot out. Most real structures have some kind of foundation to raise the door opening above the ground. I've seen plenty of articles about adding structures to layouts and adding assorted foundations to do that. I suspect that Keystone kit was designed in the early 60s, so foundations were not planned for.

[thibaultron]

The host of this plays a bit of the fool, in his videos, but here is the starting of a SD-40 locomotive, as well as three different Trackmobiles.

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

I started to cut out the windows and doors.  the instructions are vague on the placement of these panels......even had to figure out how the frame pieces fit together.  the foundation aspect may be what this model is missing Ken,  but with the panels in place,  one must have to cut out the small piece of frame where the door is located.  I still raised up the openings for the doors........if steps are involved,  I'll add one more step to remedy it  

the templates were OK........but there must be a better way.   I'll need to add frames around the windows and doors.......couple of cuts are a tad off.

these are the sides to the lower part of the structure.......I've lettered these as I identified them,  per what there is in the instructions.  I cut out the rest this morning........

what is left over must be roof parts....

[Canute]

Denis, I'd be surprised that they included the foundations back then. But maybe they did.

 

The roof could also be done in sheets of galvanized roofing. Build up a frame of rafters and lay the metal sheets you acquired over that. The thinness will look better than the 1/32 or 1/16 in thick wood parts.

 

The walls look good so far. What colors are you painting this? 

[popeye the sailor]

the left over wood is the roof........I was going to paint them aluminum and probably weather them......likely since the fresh paint will be shiny     I was on the fence with the overall color.......I'm thinking green though.  I have that can of flat green I used on the PT boat......I figure that with flat white window frames,  that I will need to make.  materials not supplied in the kit.  here is the Green I was thinking of.

darker I could go with a flat medium green......I've always like that color    the metal siding your talking about...........well,  I have two choices now  

this is the stuff I just bought.......it has wider ripples.  you can see that there are some minor defects,  but I can either try to scribe them out,  or leave them,  chalking it up to the building enduring occasional hail storms and such.  I was going through my plastic sheeting,  and found a package of aluminum siding with narrower ripples.

that's a sheet of .005 brass behind it......I have other sizes that came with the brass assortment I got from Micro Mark.  I have odd pieces too......

good picture showing the ripple indentation.  I've got other stuff.......copper and such.......I am such a pack rat     I hear you on the wood thickness,  but I'm having some thoughts on the rafter parts.......this lead like metal is something to work with...probably Britannia,  but not sure......all it says is that they contain lead {not for small children}.   for the exterior window framing,  I ran into a slight dilemma.........most of what I have is .5 X 3 mm strip and would be a bit out of scale.  I did find my assortment of mahogany strip that is a mix of 1 and 2 mm widths.  I think I have enough.

another trip to Hobby Lobby might be in order......I believe they have 1/64 basswood sheet that might work better for the roof.  the metal stuff is good, but I think a backing might give it some stability.  I may even resort to card if all else fails.

 

drat........I gave you folks a preview of my next update