Putting up train set in closet.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I can't wait. I can't wait!!!!
Every year I set up the Christmas train. Every year I tear it down. The train is just a basic lionel train which goes in a small circle around the tree and chases it's tail. This year I added some cars and track and it made the train much better. I even started weathering the train with hobby store powders and such, putting some rust around the boiler/ etc...
I'm not a huge fan of O gauge, because it takes up so much room, and has that third rail, so not wanting to booger up the house with a big train set, I am taking to my downstairs closet/mancave to set up a circuit around the room. The coolest thing is that everything seems like it is going to fit. I'm just waiting for track at this point!
I scored some rusted track on fleabay. It will need the rails sanded, but it has wooden ties and looks weathed. Hopefully the exposed ties will look great from underneath.
For the start, I am going to keep the rubbermaid (or whatever) shelving. It will all match and sort of has a trestlelike quality underneath. It will be a good start. Give me a week or two







ARGHHH!!! I can't wait for all the stuff to come in to finish this!

[masraum]

Very cool! Make sure you post once it's up and running.

[GWN7]

O gauge rail with wooden ties is generally Atlas products.

Atlas O 3-Rail Track

[LEAKYSEALS951]

It's a lot like Atlas, but it's called Gargraves. It has a hollow core and pins like lionel track, and isn't nickel silver. I wish it was solid like Atlas and had the HO style joiners between railbeds, but oh well.

For the price I couldn't resist. I simply cannot believe how expensive O gauge track is. Even used, the lionel fastrack goes for pretty much new prices. Perhaps you save a dollar or two, but not much.
There were several people on ebay selling torn up sets where they pulled up their old track, and I ended up getting over 700 inches 50+ feet of track. The pictured track was something that was unused, but stored in someone's damp attic or something. Cleaning the tops will hopefully go easy.

Will update when it comes in.

[HardDrive]

Love it. Keep us up to date.

[mreid]

Go for G gauge. I had the basic oval and then wanted to extend it. Discovered a second mortgage wouldn't cover my ambition.

https://www.trainworld.com/manufacturers/model-train-specials/specials-g-scale/specials-engines-1/

[Scott Douglas]

G scale wouldn't fit in that space I don't think. That is going to be fun once up and running.
Keep the pictures coming!

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Some slow progress today (It is Christmas after all and I need to wrap presents!)
Took a straight piece of shelving to the chop saw and cut out the rear supports to build an 0-72 arch for the back wall (really an 0-79):





Also got a "spare" tender from ebay.



Polar express stuff is a dime a dozen. When they do not have in abundance in lionel (well... for under $200) is an honest to goodness water tender for locomotives. The coal dome will come off of this with dental tools (if the dremel can't cut it), and a new flat top will go over it, so it will look like this:



The "real" polar express tender is labelled with "pere marguette", and I might change the polar express logos to that if I can find the lettering. This pic also shows some of the weathering on the boilerplates and first tender compared to the "new" tender in back.

[mreid]

Looking great! Keep it coming.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Well... That was a b#$tch!!!
Spent the whole week setting it up. Ran the track today and got a first run in. Had some other projects going too- so I'm whipped!
Too tired to post pics of the building process, but, got two runs in on video. The first one is here.



The second one is with the lights off, and I get the train up to full speed by the second lap. I will post it here in a couple of minutes. Pretty impressive for a "toy" train! Cool watching the lights of the passenger cars going behind shirts in second video. The train ran super smooth at full speed in the second video. I will post more details later of the track.

The good news is that I can justify it to my wife under the condition of "If I am posting train videos to youtube, at least I will keep the closet clean."

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Second video: pretty much same thing but faster on second lap:

[Scott Douglas]

That is too cool!
Congrats on doing a fine job of it. Sounds like it is really smooth too.
Now, get a small video camera and put it ON the train for the video. =;>)

[304065]

I nominate this thread for best PPOT contribution of 2017.

[masraum]

Very cool. I like it. I work with a guy that's into model trains. I sent him links to your videos. He showed his wife who exclaimed that if he had that, he'd never come out of the closet. Apparently, they had quite a laugh shortly after her comment.

[mreid]

Ok, time for a little Gomez Addams action!

Great execution, well done!

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Thanks folks!
I've got some more ebay hoardings being shipped my way at this minute, and will post video when I get it. I will also probably have some questions for the brain trust when the time is right!
Later,
Ron

[MBAtarga]

Put a gopro on the engine to get a different perspective of the track.

[Seahawk]

[Scott Douglas]

What you need is a flat car to mount the camera on so you can get the perspective of actually being on the train. You'll get a cool looking view if you mount it so you can see down the left side of the train since that'll be to the inside of the turns. Counter balancing will be tricky since it's narrow gauge track.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Hello everyone,
Long post. I figured it was time for an update.

I want to start with an admission of stupidity (and share) for the sake of learning.
I had thought in the world of model trains, there was "O" gauge, and "HO" gauge (half-o), and "N" gauge (really small).

I was wrong. In the world of model trains, there is "O"gauge, "O"scale, and "HO gauge", and "N". That's not including "OO" gauge, of narrow HO gauge, or double rail O scale, and G scale.

Basically, what it means is this- The polar express train I had was "O gauge"- meaning it is a smaller version of "O-scale" meant to fit on "O" size track, but able to navigate a (in the O gauge world- a small) 27 inch circle (o-27). By itself, it looks okay. With the others, it looks like a loaf of bread. "O scale" is built to run on O track, but is made to scale. O scale really needs at least a 72 inch circle, and that is even pushing it. HO is half that, and in the same space can be made to scale, hence... DUH.... HO is why HO is so popular.

Disclaimer: I only went with O gauge initially because it was on sale and my daughter was two! I really wanted HO all along!

Here's a pic:
(model train spoiler alert)... once you see this, it cannot be unseen!



The car in the background is a madison O scale 18 inch heavyweight car. It is proportional. The car in the middle is the "O gauge" O-27. It has been fudged to look like a passenger car on an "O" track, but is only 12 inches long. The small car is a HO Madison length (about 85 feet). It is HALF THE SIZE of the O-gauge middle car (called "baby madison") but is JUST AS LONG!!!!

Basically, what it means is this. O gauge is something to run under a christmas tree. O scale can be magnificient if you have an entire city block to make a train set. Otherwise, the cars go around stupidly unrealistic bends.

So I made the choice to transition to HO.

Mr. Douglas had suggested a POV go-pro video from the train, and I did a bit of that, so here is a rough copy. The funny thing is that two things happened. One- I decided to make the transition to HO scale, and two, there was a thread recently about bad videos on youtube- so with that in mind, here are some updates on the train in the closet.

First- a POV video montage of some footage before I decided to transition to HO. There are some SERIOUS technical errors in this tape, but I am too darn lazy to correct them! Since the middle of the video is just a repeat of the first video I posted here- fast forward though it!




Second video:
The HO train (by itself) which is now sharing space with the lionel O-gauge train. I got some vintage italian rivarossi engines to double head a passenger train. I think it is infinitely more graceful!



Third video- fun video of both running together with my daughter. This is what it's all about!



So there you go... I'm thinking dropping the HO set to a sublevel below the o gauge track so I can see it better. I'm tired of hitting my head on the ceiling!!

All in all- here is where I am. And I am experimenting with the go-pro on the HO scale, but it is going to be a challenge!