Think you have a lot of trains?

WOW!!! I have to show this to "she who must be obeyed"

Wow, I asked our fellow club members whatever happened to Tom. Wanted to invite him to my open house. Was told he locked the door to his layout and had to walk away from it for a bit. Can't say I blame him, I am in a slump myself. Of course my slump is I don't work on trains for a while. I will just run them.
I hope Tom continues the fight, and others do as well, I do not own any DCS Equipment today, but someday I will take the plunge! Its a shame, Tom really is the poster child for MTH. They should embrace that.

You won't find a nicer guy than Tom.  It's a shame that his fire has gone cold for the hobby.  Fighting so hard for parts certainly could start to wear on you. Tom and I have talked about this many times as he was trying to work through his equipment and layout challenges.

 

Although he is a ways north of Detroit, We'll always consider him an honorary member of the Detroit 3 Railers and more importantly a good friend.

 

Few Photos I snapped while at Tom's:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miss Tom's postings here. Best of luck Tom and maybe you might say hi every now and then.

Well, each of us have our own way of describing things.  I understood what he meant (I think).  

 

Speakers?  Yep - they dry out.  Watch any political convention.  The speakers are pretty dry to begin with but over the three days or so: yeah, they dry out a lot.  Not sure if that was what he was talking about.

 

Seriously, and meaning no offense to this guy, I can see why he got burned out on it for a while.  His layout seems rather one-dimensional: lots and lots of trains, everywhere and lots of loops to run them around in circles on, but that is it.  Scher, in particular had an elequent discussion about it some months ago, and others, too, have observed in the past the greater pleasure that comes from varying what you work on and have - scratchbuilding structures and stations and putting together vignettes in addition to and as a change of pace from just amassing huge quantities of locos and filling the layout with trains and running them around in circles.  Personally I find combined trains with trucks and cars ('Streets) and moving boats and missile siloes keeps it interesting.  Trains and trains everywhere - yeah, that could get old.

Never... If I could sleep under a pile of rolling stock in boxes, I would!

 

I recently had to pack up for a move, and I had ten boxes of rolling stock! That's TEN boxes; each box is 8075 cubic inches! (4.67 cubic feet!)

 

And that just rolling stock... that's not motive power or boxed sets or boxed sets of passenger cars or ZW-C...

 

Thanks,

Mario

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome back Tom Z   Glad to see you up and running again!!

BTW...

 

Here's some pics from the last time I went up to Tom's (Earlier this summer)...

 

Man! Did it rain that night! But that steak was awesome!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the time spent, Tommy!

 

We shall meet again! (Maybe Rick will come with me?)

 

Thanks,

Mario

quote:

Capacitors dry out and speakers deteriorate?

 

I wouldn't say that I collect old stereo equipment, but I do like looking at stereo gear at the various sales and antique shows that my wife and I frequent. It is very common to find speaker systems that are in otherwise excellent condtion that have bad speaker suspensions, usually on the woofer (large speaker), but sometimes the others have problems as well. On many (perhaps all) modern large speakers, the cones are suspended from foam rings, and these rings seem to decay over time. Who knows why some are affected while others aren't. Perhaps its luck or the enviornment in which the speaker system was kept. I have a pair of speakers on my bench right now that need to have the suspensions replaced on both woofers. I founds kits to repair them for around $25 (does both speakers).

 

Lee Willis posted:

 

Scher, in particular had an elequent discussion about it some months ago, and others, too, have observed in the past the greater pleasure that comes from varying what you work on and have - scratchbuilding structures and stations and putting together vignettes in addition to and as a change of pace from just amassing huge quantities of locos and filling the layout with trains and running them around in circles.

 

Most interesting topic.  My obsessive-compulsive nature does get tired of things and I have been known to develop a project and finally just walk away.  Is that so unusual?  Tommy Z may have simply capped his interest and moved on to something new in his life.  I really don't think that is unusual and really, not even unhealthy. 

 

The comments about MTH may be real but in today's world parts for any early electronic item are no longer available.  (One of the reasons I hold on to my Postwar equipment - I know they will work for my grandchildren.)  I have a Lionel 6-18130 AA F3 that burned-out the TMCC command module and I found the last remaining module at Brasseurs.  So I put it on the side track and rarely run it because when it burns it's history.

 

I so agree with varying your activities.  In my case I built a good size toy train layout and got a little tired of just running it.  But, by engaging myself in this forum, I am now developing my techniques at building scenery, enhancing the track with ties and gravel and meeting other forum members in person. It has given me a whole new vision of the layout.  My obsession has been rejuvenated! 

 

Life changes, we have some control over what we choose but most of the time we just gotta go with the flow....  Thanks Tommy Z for all you have given us.... 

 

Good call... His Buicks are beautiful!

 

I drooled over his "Black Beauty", and he's got an all original one that is in outstanding shape!

I just have to chime in here...sort of to speak up for my buddy Tom. 

 

Lee....there is absolutely nothing "one-dimensional" about Tom's layout.  It is an extraordinary layout that compares I bet very favorably with yours.  Each of us enjoy our layouts in a different way and Tom happens to enjoy running LONG trains.  We should not judge based on thinking how we enjoy our hobby as being the way others should enjoy theirs.  In Tom's case, he feels strongly that he was not given the customer service he expected to keep the trains running...parts and repair were a problem for him.  It sort of took the wind out of his sail so to speak. 

 

I talked to Tom over the phone just a few weeks ago and he still has his trains and I am willing to bet he will have them for a long time to come!!  You go Tom!!

 

Alan

What an interesting quote! I have a friend over in the UK who has written the same

saying in years past.

 

Just interesting.

Certainly is a lot of trains with plenty of very long consists. I wonder why Tom doesn't try to get speakers from other sources such as Radio Shack.

Its over-stimulating.

 

 Well, I don't want to misrepresent him here. If I remember right it started over some warranty type issues. He has so many engines it would take a while and cost some money for sure. Something about body posts snapping off made him mad. Speakers crapping out and boards probably too. It's tough to service these engines as they get out of date.

 Whatever happened, his whole concept of running large trains is what I modeled after. I tried to do it in two rail. He put a lot of investment into his trains and if he wants to step back, I surely understand. There have been times when my trains won't make a single lap without a problem popping up. A lot of guys stay away from command control for that reason. When they're running good it is reward enough for me to stay interested. I wish he was my friend as I could have learned more than I already did from him. What kind of guy opens his house to anyone and shares his wealth? A truly rich man. Still admire him even if he leaves trains.

WOW!!! 

 

 Tommy Z, that's amazing and very nicely done!

 It is ashame that getting parts became difficult. And, I have seen some other posts regarding the same issue. But, you still have your trains and are still willing to share your accomplishment with others! I applaud you for that!