Model Train Journal

Happy Friday everyone!

I'm back from a little train break for the past few months. After playing the game of musical chairs w/ kids rooms, etc it turned out that the baby would wind up getting the room the layout was in. My wife was kind enough to give me the office downstairs to put a layout in, so that's what I've been working on of late.

My youngest son is obsessed with the trains, so my goal is to make a semi realistic looking layout but not go crazy on detail & fragile buildings & accessories. This way the kids could touch them & I don't have to worry. So that means Lionel or MTH buildings instead of Woodland Scenics for example. Remember, it's ALL about getting kids involved & making it be fun! Hope to have some pics soon to share.

One thing I did recently get was the Lionchief+ Conrail Rectifier. Have to say I'm pretty impressed.



I spent a few days in PA each of the last 2 months documenting the PRR signals on the West Slope in their final days as well.
























After 20 years of shooting up there, this would become my final frame of a PRR signal on the Pittsburgh Line.
Signals were removed from service a few days later -



Some other highlights from the past few months -

Outstanding photo's as always. Lionel Lion chief has a lot of nice features without breaking the bank. For kids and folks more oriented to "traditional" stuff these are nice locos. I was looking at the feature set on LC Plus. There are only a couple of features missing versus full blown Legacy and you don't need the Legacy remote and it's baggage to enjoy the trains. Have fun with the new Layout and playing with it with your son.

chuck wrote:Outstanding photo's as always. Lionel Lion chief has a lot of nice features without breaking the bank. For kids and folks more oriented to "traditional" stuff these are nice locos. I was looking at the feature set on LC Plus. There are only a couple of features missing versus full blown Legacy and you don't need the Legacy remote and it's baggage to enjoy the trains. Have fun with the new Layout and playing with it with your son.

Thanks!

I'm stuck with 031 curves, so the traditional model works well for me. I was also looking at some of the Williams engines which would work well on a small layout, like the 44 tonner or the RS3. They seem to be solid models & come with sound which the kids like

Williams engines may not have ALL the bells and whistles but some are scale (e.g. RS-3) and they just work. Will probably pick up a SW to swap out my Lionel US Navy. The Lionel one is a terrible puller even with the second truck upgraded to power.

Glad you're back...thought we'd lost you to collector cars or something

Healey

Christopher,
Ditto Healey.

healey36 wrote:Glad you're back...thought we'd lost you to collector cars or something

Healey

HA! Lionel does offer their NASCAR line...... J/K