Good afternoon everyone,
I am in South Florida, well south of the mainland. I had an older set of trains my grandfather had given to me (lionel) that I had a fair amount of track and about a half dozen switches. Unfortunatly they were all lost in a disaster. I now am a father myself and having found a few boxes of train stuff I am able to start again. In the boxes were dozens of switches including 027, 031, standard, S, and HO. Multiple crosses, and a fair number of 072 turns, and some short strait pieces. Unfortunatly there were no trains, transformers, o27, or o31 track. I have "filled" in what was missing from hodgpodge lots on ebay. The 027 I've set aside for my son when hes older and I give him track (the o31 Im keeping for the family train). The S I gave to a shop in Miami so it could find a home, and the standard Ive shelved to be built into a christmas set adding a piece a year. I don't know what Ill do with the HO yet but I did find a set at a yard sale so its something that can be run now. On to what Im dealing with now.
I am a mechanic and have a bit of experience with models so working with trains is relativly easy. Of the purchases off ebay Ive got a couple pre war locomotives 2-4-2 and a post war 2-6-2 that Ive made work decent by fixing them up. I do want to remove the e-unit on one for my son so it will just go strait and tried that this morning but it wasn't running quite the same so Ill have to look at that later. The 2-6-2 is downgraded to a christmas train that I am building a plow for it (the steam chest was removed to replace a broken one on the 2-4-2) due to extreme wear on the gears. Ive sorted out the "022" switches from the lot and have been resoldering them to make them work correctly. We live in a small studio for now so the train set (getting quite large now) lives in a case and comes out usually for a couple days when its out. For Christmas my wife picked out a locomotive (she isnt much into trains) in the store as one she "liked" and considering it was the same one she had said she liked online I agreeded. Im sure the fact that its a steam switcher (we are all fans of steam over diesel or electric) and I could see use for it in the future Im sure had nothing to do with my saying "yes" we can get it . . .
For Christmas I've been given permission to get a locomotive for myself (son has the 2-4-2 with the backup) as my wife and son both have new locomotives. I know what I want but it's going to be a little harder than simply going out and just buying one. I just really like the look of the "ten wheeler" 4-6-0 circa late 1800's i.e. Casey Jones so that is what I plan on getting. And now you see why I am here and introducing myself.
