I've got a closet full of HO and much older Lionel.

No to high jack the thread, but I've always wanted to get into live steam. That would so bloody cool.

I'm guessing you might mean Fleischmann and Marklin? They're neat, but my interest ls American steam locos because...see my earlier post.

I remember when I saw pics of Euro locos and they looked 'funny' to me, not to living up to big, burly American locos. :)

Oh yeah! But just to look at and fantasize about having on my fantasy country estate.

Sure does. Nice! That station, less the covered portico, reminds me of the old NP station mentioned in my post. It had a small waiting room with wood floor and was painted gray.

Me too. Don't have the time either. Actually, I'm considering a small diorama (?) like Buckterrier's.

I am sometimes tempted to build a small, wall hugging logging or mining layout in HO or smaller gauge-but I'm skeptical of smaller than HO being satisfying (maybe too small).

I've got N, HO, O, and G scale. The Postwar Lionel is by far my favorite.

Jackson

That is absolutely astounding!

The Balboa Park Model railroad museum in San Diego is really cool but nothing like the link.

Nice! Clever and very creative.

I'm gonna look into that one.

Nice site. Are they still in business? If I get up to Riverside (perish THAT thought :)), I'll surely stop in.

Sounds like a way cool job you had!

Strikes me that that your dad and you are superb craftsmen Dave (your gee tar's a knockout). Got any old pics of the layout? Turning any more bowls? They're great too.

If any are around, they are in the boxes of misc photos at my parents. I think there are a few "incidentals" - not the primary focus of the pic...

My dad saved most of the removable scenery, including buildings. I recently dragged a few out.. At the moment, they are accessible. I will try to unpack a few things in the next couple of days and get some pix...

No hijack. I've been toying with the idea of buying an alcohol fired tabletop steam engine for some time now. Larger scale is beyond my scope.

When I was a kid my dad bought me one with a red Bakelite, electrical boiler that you could take apart and reassemble in two configurations: horizontal piston and vertical piston walking beam. I actually found one for sale on the web, but in the process of looking I looked at a ton of.German models, shiny brass, highly detailed and got hooked on getting one of them. Of course, you can never have enough small scale steam power and I got hooked on the old popcorn steam engines, but they're a bit big and beaucoup bucks.

My uncle had a large basement with 80% of it filled with a Lionel layout. For my first train set I asked for American Flyer. I hated Lionel's third rail :) and thought American Flyer made a better scale model.

I hated diesels too. Who would want a diesel? They looked wimpy beside a steam loco and had no valve gear. Nothing moved! Hated them (the full size ones too - two of the three railroads running through my town were still running glorious, steam belching monsters).

I really, really hated the sound of diesel horns (actually still do). They have absolutely no soul whatsoever! Any one who's heard a steam whistle knows exactly what I mean. You could identify the different engineers by their individual display of virtuosity when they blew their two longs, a short and a long. Diesel horns were/are just annoying. :D

Great. Scenery building and building building (ha!) are real art forms themselves. Exquisitely built and weathered locos and rolling stock are overpowered by poor scenery, buildings and details.

Got pics?

What is it that makes Lionel your favorite? Their third rail always threw me off visually.

seems every kid in Germany gets one of these setups..
then the Dad claims it..
mine did..

that place in Hamburg is unreal..

have a Museum dedicated to this about 4 blocks from the house..
SAMRA

Rika

Starting in the mid 60's the the Japanese started making Brass Locomotives, then the Koreans. Those have become collectable.

I could see myself collecting those. About $400 would be the tops for one at auction. But alas Spoons take all my Dinero.

here is a link to a model Railroad at the Deutsches Museum:

Deutsches Museum: Model railway

The write-up says that it was built in 1996. In the seventies there was a much larger one. I don't know if that one is still there, or where it went, and I haven't yet found any pictures.

A bit closer to home..for a few of us anyway.

Northlandz in Flemmington, NJ

Home

A friends Father was big into German trains (he was also IMSA mechanic of the year the 1st 2 years of IMSA) and has passed, and the Son was talking about selling some off since there was so much.. Mostly the bigger, high end stuff..