I discovered the OGR Forum about a year ago and have enjoyed reading the many helpful ideas that are generated and commented on here. After observing the Forum from a distance for an extended period, I felt it was time to join and at least introduce myself. My name is Tony Webster and I live in northern Virginia. I grew up in northern California and, until moving to VA six years ago as the result of a job change, had spent my entire life and career in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've had trains of some kind since I was four years old, mostly Lionel postwar, but wandered away to HO for a time during middle school. The highlight of that "wandering" was a visit to John Allen's home in nearby Monterey (I grew up in Santa Cruz) to see the G&D about a year before he passed away and the G&D burned. My interest in O scale was re-kindled with the move to VA where I have access to a spare bedroom for a layout. I had built a room-sized postwar layout years ago before we had children; however, with the many new highly-detailed products now on the market, I decided to set the postwar items aside and go with all new stuff. I am a lifetime fan of the Southern Pacific and my small (9x13) layout is an SP Shasta Route lumber theme from the 1950s-1960s. Progress on the layout proceeds at a slow but steady pace. Nearly all the track is in place--that was the source of a long delay due to lack of one Scaletrax #4 RH switch, since acquired and installed. I know from posts on this forum how hard those are to find these days. I run Atlas and Lionel locomotives using TMCC, though I'm thinking about moving to Legacy; most rolling stock is also Atlas and Lionel, with a few Weaver models in the mix--nearly all are western roads: SP, GN, NP, WP, NWP. I use Scaletrax track and switches for the realistic profile, not for their easy availability and low maintenance. I appreciated Dave Hikel's help in teaching me about using Lou Cross' ROW joiners for flex track. It takes some time to install those, but I think the results are worth it. This summer, I'm hoping to paint and ballast the track and install ground throws on most of the switches. I've included a couple of pictures of the layout in its current "under construction" state. Looking forward to learning more from you all!
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