If I Had Disposable Millions....

Personally, I would rather see an available 8 driveled steam locomotive restored, which would be more suited for todays "modern era" main line excursions. The best example I can think of would be CB&Q O5b 4-8-4 #5629 out in the Colorado Railroad Museum.

First, I'd buy a new house with about an acre.   It would have to have a completely separate and large building for my layout.  It would be a train room only.  Then I would donate money to my local favorite steamer...the SP2472...to keep it in tip top running shape.  I would also donate money to the Golden Gate Railroad Museum so they could continue to restore some of the locomotives and rolling stock they have at the Brightside Yard.  Matt

I would still have to wait until my kids were through college and out of the house!

Then I would buy an ole right of way and start my own passenger steam service...

There are so many steam engines to restore, the problem is hiring the right people that know how to build, restore and operate such an animal.

Most are long gone....

Close. I'd have the Hudson streamlined in the Dreyfuss Hudson style.

It's never cross my mind to put money into rolling stock I'd have to have someone else's RR permission to run on.

After everything was paid off, I'd be sure wherever we lived, we wouldn't be moving, then I'd have a 24" or 36" gauge railroad built on the property. I'd have a small steam engine, like a 2-4-0 or that size, and a couple of diesels for the time I just wanted to fire up something and run by myself for the heck of it and now wanting to spend hours getting a steamer hot then colled down. I'd build a couple of celestory-roofed coaches like Disneyland started with, and a few freight cars, as well as a classic caboose. And a couple of depot buildings. Nothing huge, could be storage buildings looking like RR stations.

I would want to buy the Durango and Silverton, and the Cumbres, and see if I could not get the Navajo to allow me to relay the track back to Alamosa, and from there

at least to Pueblo.  I'd also want to relay the Chili Line to Santa Fe.  This might even

be commercial as the auto route into Durango from the east is a two lane road over

a high, or very high pass.  As much as I'd want to, I would not relay the Mears lines,

but would look at the remote practicality of relaying the Rio Grande Southern.

I do not know that any of the Grande's standard gauge big steam was saved, and

could be restored.

And since I am pounding kronor down ratholes, I will follow the Flynns and Maury

Klein and make my own three rail trains, in all the versions I want and have seen

in HO for years, all conventional but, like HO, prepared with room for electronics for

those that want them.  There would be a plethora of small locomotives and little

train sets like were just addressed on another thread. (that could be a long list

on this post, but would also include On3 train sets, DC, two rail, with the track for

them, made up of the usual D&RG, C&S, RGS with geese rolling stock)

This just covers trains...automobiles are not the subject of this forum.

And now we come out of the coma and wake up.

GREAT ideas, ALL! 

http://prrt1steamlocomotivetrust.org/

 

Don't dream... do.

 

/Mitch

No. 2124 would be heading Iron Horse Rambles again

I would start a program to put every park steamer under cover, then offer privately owned locomotives an option to build a cover.   If a city/park showed interest, fund quality cosmetic restorations once they had successfully put the locomotive under cover.

 

To better preserve what we have today for tomorrow.

 

Bob

 

 

I would buy a short line railroad like the Florida Northern and collect some antique rail equipment to run on it.  I would also rebuild the the tracks to higher standards.  I would also start running weekend excursion trains.  

What we really need is one the last NYC Mohawks restored.  L3 anyone? 

Sorry, I disposed of all my virtual millions long ago.  I gotta work like everyone else.

 

Rusty

That would be neat.  I wonder what it could cost to build?  Do the original blueprints, etc., still exist?  It would not surprise me.

I'd provide every seven year old kid in the USA with a Thomas the Tank Lion Chief set for the winter holidays.

If I had disposable millions...I probably wouldn't be spending time here.

LOL!  So far the only one I believe is mwb. 

Disposable millions???   If I had enough, it would be neat to acquire a run down factory of a suitable configuration, and rebuild it to support all these restorations that everyone else wants to do!  And when we get enough collective experience under our belts, then we'll scratch build that big Central J1e...with all the bells and whistles...and a booster, two speed and reversible, no less !  Encore?  N&W Y6b ! !

Disposable millions.  I used to have them.  Unfortunately they were in Lira!

Well....at this point in my life, I think if I had millions of dollars that I really wouldn't miss, I would try to help those that really deserved it....  Perhaps those families in our country that honestly were trying their best but circumstances beyond their control just needed that extra to make things better.  With millions, I would assume I had all the trains I could enjoy already.....

 

Alan

Become a stay at home dad and have as many kids as my wife was willing to give birth too, and if I wanted more, then adopt.  And play trains with all of them.

Return to operation all surviving N&W Steam locomotives.... Then build a private luxury train (Observation, Diner, Sleeper, Full Vista Dome, Baggage) and set off to see America behind one of my steam engines.

 

Gilly

I would build a turntable and roundhouse in my backyard.

 

I would lay track from my house to my favorite local pizzeria.

 

One day when I go to pick up my pepperoni/sausage pie and veal parm sandwich, I would jump out of a cab of a old East Broad Top RR Mikado. Another day ... the cab of a shiny red Canadian Pacific AC44CW. Another day .......

I would build a bigger shed for the locomotives and rolling stock at Travel Town so they would not continue to be bird poop targets.

 

I would commission a Milwaukee Road Class A and 6-car consist (or acquire the remaining Beavertail Lounges and have them restored) to add to the Milwaukee Road Historical Society to do with as they please.

 

I would find a way to reunite and restore the remaining Blue Comet cars.

Cool!

My backyard is a 7% slope!  It would have to be a cog railway !    I like the track to the local pizza joint, could send back a tank car of October Fest and a reefer of Scrapple !

Well...at least with all that consumption of pizza, scrapple, sausage, etc....you will be able to have your own funeral train after the heart attack!!!...OK, just had to "rib" ya a little about it...hey, did I say "rib"....boy do I like ribs!!  May have to join you on the funeral train!

 

Alan

I would buy the Pere Marquette 1223 from Grand Haven, MI.  Restore her and team up with the Steam Railroading Institute to run double header excursions whenever I want.

 

I also would buy the Great Lakes Central and use their tracks to let any steam locomotive in the country run as they please on my tracks.  I would build a roundhouse just like the Age of Steam Roundhouse and restore steamers from all over the country. 

 

I would offer free train rides for children less fortunate and give them free Lionel Starter sets as they got off the train.     

... I would not be hanging around this forum. 

 

Larry

How many acres and miles do I need to run a big boy :-P. Buy a city?  Buy an island and name it Rail Isle?

I forgot to add that I have long had this fantasy of owning a condo, with at least a 3 car garage, in a gated community that was in the center of the triangle made up of

York, Carlisle, and Hershey.  Maybe at Dillsburg, on 15, where I used to stay in

a 40 watt bulb mom and pop motel years ago.  It would probably only be used

four weeks a year.  (I used to take a 100 watt bulb with me to read at night, when

staying in one of those motels on Roosevelt Rd. the night before Wheaton)

Art......great thread......I love your ideas for a new Hudson.

 

Peter

Well I would try to build the ace 3000 steam locomotive.But I would try to get to be able to operate in ether direction.And to able to use biofuel.Then I would buy about 400 trainsets for kids around christmas time.I would have heck of a layout.Well you asked.

I'd need lots of millions.

 

At least 41 to restore all 41 miles from Mt. Union to Robertsdale.

 

Ten or so more for rebuilding tunnels and bridges like the deck truss at Pogue.

 

Another 20 million for stabilization of the shops at Orbisonia and equipment rebuild.

 

That ought to do it.

 

I'd have Charles Babbage's analytical engine built: the  final big-machine design - complete, all of it, and commission work to develop programming guides, write some period programs for it (tide computation, spreadsheet for the royal navy budget and its interactions, circa 1840, improved computation of the orbits of the planets, etc.). 

 

I'd rather have and play with that than a T-1.  Steampunk fans the world over would love me, but so would computer science historians everywhere. 

In the practical range:  Restore that ex-NdeM 4-8-4 that's sidetracked at New Hope and ship it up to the Adirondack Scenic.  Perfect match -  It's an oil burner (low fire hazard) and was designed for light trackage. 

When I make my first billion,  contact me about replicating a CNJ Pacific! 

Better yet ...a CNJ Train Monster !  Huzzah !