Building a Model Railroad

[OmegaDragon]

I hope that AT-AT is part of the final scenery that would be kickass.

[English Mobster]

It will be.

[Sel]

You have the most fucking awful writing I've ever seen.

I mean honestly, I haven't written that badly since I was 12.

Nice railroad though.

[English Mobster]

Yeah, my handwriting is horrible.

[English Mobster]

Oh, hello there.


Some recent news:

• I was at what essentially amounts to a model train swap meet in the Ontario Convention Center (in Ontario, CA, the convention center is just a few blocks from my house, actually), from which I acquired 2 new engines: a Santa Fe Dash 8 (the red engine in the video above) and a Santa Fe GP-50 to complement my OTHER Santa Fe SD-40. The GP-50/SD-40 team will eventually be used for light freight duty and switching coal cars at the coal yard; the Dash 8 will be used for heavy jobs like pulling coal or container trains. And yes, I WILL repaint some of the train cars and make them TF2 colors with "Red" and "Blu" on them, just because I'm cool like that. Look at the TF2 train prefabs in Hammer to see what I'm talking about.
• Since my last update, I have been working on the technical side of things. This means working out the bugs and working with electricity. Lots of working with electricity. Electricity is fun for your body and for your soul. Electricity loves you.

And I didn't forget pictures.
NEW TRAINZZZZZ:




(GAAAAAH INSTRUCTIONS)

AND TINY PARTS TO WORK WITH





Train car loaded with nails for trackwork on-the-go =

And let's take a look under the hood:


Every little bit of track is now wired up and ready to go. The train now has very little issues getting to any place on the entire layout; although the switch to the coal yard needs to be replaced (it causes a shitload of derailments).

[Heathen]

that thing looks like it is booking something fierce

hella fast

also nice train

[English Mobster]

I think that was only at perhaps 50% power, maximum. I've pushed it up to 75% before, but that particular engine I haven't tried to go any higher, speed-wise. I'd imagine the top speed would be twice what you see in the video.
E: I just did the math. In the video, the train is moving at about 60 scale MPH (that's .7 IRL MPH). The top speed for that particular engine would be 120 scale MPH. Not bad, for a Dash 8.

[Varmint260]

God damn, I really want to go dig out my old HO scale set and see what I have now. Too bad I have no place to set it up.

[English Mobster]

Playing with toy trains = manliest hobby ever.
Nearly cut my finger off earlier, I've met many people who have actually lost a digit.

[Cortexian]

Lego scale is the manliest scale ever.

SANTA FE Set:

Random BNSF Engine:

Bullet Train Set:

Work Train Set:

Commuter Train Set:

Steam Engine Set:

Thread jack spoilered for your convenience!