Something Vintage This Way Comes...

[DKS]

But ... why are you guys saving all this stuff you're never going to use again?

Because memories are priceless!

This, this, a thousand times this. It's why I started collecting Postage Stamp Trains... which then led to my Postage Stamp website (which then led to my Birth of N Scale website). Just opening one of their "bookshelf sets" will stir 50-year-old thrills.



http://davidksmith.com/postage-stamp-trains/index.htm

[wm3798]

Playing around with the vintage track again...  I have a couple of old stripped down Ntrak modules, and there's a corner of the office where they just might fit...It's funny.  I enjoy tinkering with the track, putting it together in different configurations... but I know, in my heart of hearts, that the only way it will be functional is to settle on a plan and solder the track joints, figure out the cab control wiring, etc., which will force me to stop noodling around with the plan.
   


So I want a plan that is fun to run, with capability for more than one train to operate at a time, but has some interest for a little car bumping.

I also want to set it up so I can push a button and switch the power supply from traditional cab control to DCC so I can run my newer models.  While I want to maintain the vintage atmosphere, with more emphasis on the traditional N "tin plate" style track and structures, I do want to create a new home for one of my favorite projects.



I might have to tweak a few things to get it all to fit the way I want, but so far the math seems to be working out.

Suddenly I find myself in the market for a bunch of Atlas snap switches!  I need one LH to complete the main line plan, and 8 more plus a RH to finish the "freight" line to serve local shippers.

This is going to be fun...
Lee

[Point353]

Playing around with the vintage track again...  I have a couple of old stripped down Ntrak modules, and there's a corner of the office where they just might fit...It's funny.  I enjoy tinkering with the track, putting it together in different configurations...
Suddenly I find myself in the market for a bunch of Atlas snap switches! 
This is going to be fun...

Said the man who recently stated that "I've always had more of a bent toward operations, so the clip together roundy roundy ethos doesn't hold my interest."
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=33399.msg586031#msg586031

For the full vintage experience, you'll need one of these:

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I would love to do a small layout using only 1960's equipment and scenery techniques. Maybe a small diorama of the same scene on my main layout to make an interesting juxtaposition.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lee, I don't think you need to solder everything. Just make sure you've got good connections with the rail joiners and maybe shoot some conduct-a-lube in em.

[Dave V]

I'm a solder-everything kinda guy, but no matter what you do with it, that little layout looks like a whole lot of fun!

My father's been collecting trains from his childhood (Varney and such) and I didn't understand it at first.  But then a train store opened here in Colorado Springs (yeah, I know, opened) which basically just sells old and used stuff, and coming across some of the Tyco HO stuff I remember as a kid triggered a nice warm feeling.  Suddenly I had the urge to resurrect the 4 x 6 HO layout my father started building me when I was 8.

Model trains and nostalgia are practically inseparable.

[wm3798]

@Point353 you caught me! 

All things being equal, I still prefer an ops based layout, but the facts of the case at this moment are that I just don't have room for one that has the fundamentals that I pine for.  The bigger fact is that this cool vintage stuff is the bird in the hand, and it will fit in my office. 

I'm going to add some turnouts to give it some switching capability, but at the end of the day, it's going to be a roundy round that will growl away in the corner while I'm working.

At least I never claimed that Mexico was going to pay for it!!

Ed, that's a good point.  The collection I received includes somewhere in the order of 9 million fresh c80 joiners...  I'm going to manufacture a bunch of wired joiners to drop feeders all over the place, and the neo lube is a great idea.

Lee

[wm3798]

But then a train store opened here in Colorado Springs (yeah, I know, opened) which basically just sells old and used stuff, and coming across some of the Tyco HO stuff I remember as a kid triggered a nice warm feeling.  Suddenly I had the urge to resurrect the 4 x 6 HO layout my father started building me when I was 8.

Model trains and nostalgia are practically inseparable.

@Dave V , having managed a Habitat ReStore, and labored under the life long affliction of being incapable of throwing anything away EVER, I wondered if there was a place in the universe for a ReStore for hobby supplies...  There's got to be 11 million miles of unused vintage track, hundreds of thousands of unopened structure kits, and enough junk boxes to reach the moon and beyond.

Wouldn't it be incredible to be able to browse all of it in one big warehouse!
Lee

[DKS]

Man, if I wasn't eyebrow-deep with house stuff, I'd be back to work on my Postage Stamp Central, where the only "modern" thing is (or will be) the throttle.

[DKS]

@Dave V , having managed a Habitat ReStore, and labored under the life long affliction of being incapable of throwing anything away EVER, I wondered if there was a place in the universe for a ReStore for hobby supplies...  There's got to be 11 million miles of unused vintage track, hundreds of thousands of unopened structure kits, and enough junk boxes to reach the moon and beyond.

Wouldn't it be incredible to be able to browse all of it in one big warehouse!
Lee

Yep, I have a 15 x 15 storage unit packed to the gills with (mostly) vintage N Scale stuff, plus a trailer full of just Postage Stamp. So I could populate a sizable portion of your warehouse.

[wm3798]

Let's do it!

[nscalbitz]

There's some pretty large lots of vintage equipment up on ebay presently... no affiliation... apart from the awkward way they're posted, just scanning through the photos is a walk through an N scale museum.
Just do a search for "n scale" and they come up as sponsored links.
Lee

If not already mention- Awkward and super rip-off prices. A decade ago I got brand new, mint-in-pack there for abt $5US unit (cost not freight) and would pay local $10 for same simply because of the exhausted supply.
It appeared to me and still does that perfectly serviceable '70s' models are still the best for a diverse Transition Era fleet.
Effect rather than rivet counter accuracy, with exceptions ** of course.
dave

[MK]

@Dave V , having managed a Habitat ReStore, and labored under the life long affliction of being incapable of throwing anything away EVER, I wondered if there was a place in the universe for a ReStore for hobby supplies...  There's got to be 11 million miles of unused vintage track, hundreds of thousands of unopened structure kits, and enough junk boxes to reach the moon and beyond.

Wouldn't it be incredible to be able to browse all of it in one big warehouse!
Lee

N Scale Good Will Store!

[Point353]

N Scale Good Will Store!

Or an N scale Pick-n-Pull.

[Doug G.]

Hmm, maybe I should build a layout with Atlas, Minitrix, and Rapido track intermixed. Lord knows I have plenty of each to do it! Well, mainly Atlas, I guess. I have oodles of that, some dating back to 1967. And the Atlas track originally had a more rounded rail top kind of like Rapido but it soon changed to flatter by 1968.

Doug