train hacking

well, your getting your post count up,..........

Totally confusing post!  What exactly is the point?

Hot Water posted:

Nice photo shop stuff, on the locomotives. Still a waste of band width!

somebody else made those not me but they did a heck of a job

He's a kid just getting into the hobby let him have fun...... That's what discourages kids from here Blasting him for having fun. The point of his post is explained in his post. You want the hobby to grow you gotta let them have fun. That would be a wild loco that I would definitely like to see run. Photoshoped or not. Sorta like our center third rail. Get it.

I agree with E-UNIT-79.  All too often many forget that O-Gauge more than any other is a toy train as well as a scale train hobby.  We have built Lego trains and more just for fun.  Anyone ever put Lincoln Logs on the track as kids? 

paigetrain posted:

 

What kind of curves would this monster require? I'm thinking like O-288 to look reasonable!   I also like the idea of lighting up an entire clear body locomotive but I would frost the inside of it so the whole thing lit up. I've actually been contemplating an steam freight ( a 675, tank car, gondola, hopper, boxcar, flat and caboose) done in glow in the dark paint with black decals similar to the lettering on the Girls Train set and maybe even a set like that done entirely in white.

Jerry

Fun, cheap and practical, made with "junk" parts: cut-down Marx E7 shell on 4-wheel modern Lionel switcher chassis.

Gunrunnerjohn made an oscar meyer weiner mobile on rails.  Lionel has made all kinds of off the wall items like area 51 alien themed trains and recently a zombie apocalypse response unit train.  You can get operating cars that launch missles and helicopters.  I also remember a post from some one who used to be very active on this forum about mounting a laser pointer that projected a target cross hair into the front of a lionel phantom.  

 Kitbash projects to make things either more rrealistic, look like they came from a different rr or just plain different have long been a big part of this hobby.  Making things from scratch takes model/toy trains back to its roots.  Have fun with it, that's the point!  In the meantime I will continue to run my 1976 broadway limited with two year old motor and electronics, my lego cars with O gauge trucks under them, wnd eventually finish my mongrel project of putting a lionel u boat shell on a wbb gp9 chassis being driven by a ps2 conversion kit.

or if you're modeling the Nullarbor Plains division of the Trans-Australian RR...

E-Unit-79 and a few others have it nailed. Toy trains should be fun to play with. That's why I left HO, couldn't get anything done because of a paralysis caused by "rivet counting" and the fear that I'd find more info after I modeled something.

Switched to traditional sized O, put up some tables and tubular track and am having a ball with it.

But we need to remember to each his/her own. What ever gives you pleasure.

Scotie

Not a lot, but not often enough either.

I've posted this before, so I'll just link the Mars silliness.

  There was a U.F.O./space themed thread, about a year ago, that had ideas you might like to use. I think the EVO's and Phantoms are in it too.

...  Ooo, I think that's where I posted the HO video I found..very cool (and in such a tiny package)

....that took some effort to find again...

Oh, the term many in model RR' use is "kit-bashing" vs hack. Originally about combining kits to get what you wanted, or use up leftover "options" out of the parts bins under our benches. It's sort of used as loose slang now for anything made that isn't a scratch build. In my experience anyhow.

One long-gone hobby shop I used to frequent had a few oddballs on display. Probably done more than once, but there was a diesel-boxcar-caboose combination all mounted on a diesel chassis. Front was a GP38, middle was a 40' boxcar door section, and the end was the back third of a caboose. Ideal branchline train - sorta. Maybe somebody out there has a pic.

overlandflyer posted:

or if you're modeling the Nullarbor Plains division of the Trans-Australian RR...

Is it a MARX 666666?

I think this is a great thread, I've never seen these.

Just keep watching, you might see anything around here.

Like the "Yellow Submarine Operating Launch Car".

Paigetrain,  being a toy train guy myself, I enjoy posts like yours.   It is fun to see what others enjoy in the hobby.  A while ago I posted the photo listed below and received lots of grief over it.  The fact that Mike Wolf signed it for me had no bearing to many.    Have fun and thank you.

Thank you,

Marty

Some unique stuff for sure. ....pretty cool.

Don't discourage him for not using correct terminology or not being more specific. I'm a collector now eight years into the hobby. Soon I'll be going to college. When I first started collecting postwar Lionel I wasn't taken seriously by other older collectors. However after learning how this hobby works I now have made friends with several people. Even now I belong to an NJ train club where the kids run the trains. I am leading other kids into this hobby now. Now the people who ridicule younger members ought to rethink their choice. A collection can't last forever.

I like the unusual stuff, especially for our modular train shows.  The kids get a big kick out of some of it, and I try to encourage the next generation of model train enthusiasts as much as possible. 

We have enough Debby Downers as it is in the hobby, we don't need people trashing newcomers because they don't like the cut of their jib.  Everyone enjoys this hobby in their own way.

I do it sometimes. Usually it's something small like a light where there wasn't one originally, but I have started a few lately that are more in line with wour bashes. Namely, turning a Marx 490 into a dockside (stalled by wheeling issues) and a boxcab diesel made from a Marx coffin tender, a Lionel sheet metal caboose frame, and a Marx 490 motor. And to think that in 2 years I will be off to an engineering school!

RaritanRiverRailroadFan4 posted:

Don't discourage him for not using correct terminology or not being more specific. I'm a collector now eight years into the hobby. Soon I'll be going to college. When I first started collecting postwar Lionel I wasn't taken seriously by other older collectors. However after learning how this hobby works I now have made friends with several people. Even now I belong to an NJ train club where the kids run the trains. I am leading other kids into this hobby now. Now the people who ridicule younger members ought to rethink their choice. A collection can't last forever.

Paigetrain: It wasn't meant as ridicule. If it struck you wrong too somehow, please accept my apologies. 

   I'd hope it wasn't discouraging. If he sees the word kit-bash in a topic now, he will know what we mean. Term and slang both. And the differences. If he uses hack again, we know what he means now too. Hopefully in the future we all use the same term. Traditional terms would be best vs an "evolution of them" but understanding both, just as important. 

I've been grateful  being told about terms new to me. But do know what you might mean as I've been "called out" before,  "switch track" vs turnout, "lash-up" vs consist (by RichM who greatly prefers we use consist outside of "command" talks) and very possibly "hack" for the very same reason. I just can't remember if it was my own question or a comment as that was another forum long ago.

The 1st two"wrong" terms are used by Lionel though.

Just trying to pass the favors. Really.

Now back to fun?.....

Dominic Mazoch posted:

overlandflyer posted:

or if you're modeling the Nullarbor Plains division of the Trans-Australian RR...

Is it a MARX 666666?

Clearly not...the number refers to it's beauty, 

Maybe some more scrap and empty soup cans, and I could match some of the lengths around here?

I've been hungry for a new project. Thanks for that

I remember some time back that Lee Willis was going to make an 8-8-8-8 out of a bunch of 0-8-0 locomotives, but he ran into issues that seemed to be unlikely to be easily solved and abandoned the project.

Just imagine the 2-8-8-8-8-8-2 riding your rails!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I like the unusual stuff, especially for our modular train shows.  The kids get a big kick out of some of it, and I try to encourage the next generation of model train enthusiasts as much as possible. 

We have enough Debby Downers as it is in the hobby, we don't need people trashing newcomers because they don't like the cut of their jib.  Everyone enjoys this hobby in their own way.

Our train club is run off of kids. Kids manage the railroad in different shifts. For instance one kid is the Yard master and another is our bridge watchman. Everyone has a part. We all run a variety of trains. It is not uncommon to see a vintage Marx prewar train running along side a Legacy Big Boy. Or Lionel postwar running along with modern MTH trains. The point is that we can't exclude the younger members and dismiss them when they do something wrong.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I remember some time back that Lee Willis was going to make an 8-8-8-8 out of a bunch of 0-8-0 locomotives, but he ran into issues that seemed to be unlikely to be easily solved and abandoned the project.

Just imagine the 2-8-8-8-8-8-2 riding your rails!

 

And here I had just about given up on championing this sucker!

I'd be worried about the O300 curves I'd need to run it.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I like the unusual stuff, especially for our modular train shows.  The kids get a big kick out of some of it, and I try to encourage the next generation of model train enthusiasts as much as possible...

Aren't you going to show us your weiner-mobile on rails?   

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

Paigetrain,  being a toy train guy myself, I enjoy posts like yours.   It is fun to see what others enjoy in the hobby.  A while ago I posted the photo listed below and received lots of grief over it.  The fact that Mike Wolf signed it for me had no bearing to many.    Have fun and thank you.

 

Thank you,

Marty

Well Marty, we'll have to see if the "Debbie Downers" still give you grief when climate change starts dropping regular 12" snows on the Sunshine State. There has been a lot of discussion round here lately about the future of the hobby - I think you have a perfect prototype of a train of the future   

P.S. Of course, by that time, Gillette Stadium will be under a 20 foot sheet of ice, but we all have our crosses to bear!!!

I have been looking at using various paints that that react or glow under UV light. Can you imagine illuminating a tunnel with IR LED's and having a drag of cars coming out that react to the light and glow wildly? 

I too, am rather tired of the folks that take this stuff so seriously. No one says a word about their fantastically weathered scale works of art on wheels, but heaven forbid, someone puts something fun or whimsy on... 

I do admire the amazing work done by others, but it just isn't my slice of pie.

Ace posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I like the unusual stuff, especially for our modular train shows.  The kids get a big kick out of some of it, and I try to encourage the next generation of model train enthusiasts as much as possible...

Aren't you going to show us your weiner-mobile on rails?   

But of course!  Here it is at the NJ-HR OGR Shindig.

And let us not forget all the "biffy" jokes in the NMRA Bulletin in the 60's-70's.

Scotie

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

Paigetrain,  being a toy train guy myself, I enjoy posts like yours.   It is fun to see what others enjoy in the hobby.  A while ago I posted the photo listed below and received lots of grief over it.  The fact that Mike Wolf signed it for me had no bearing to many.    Have fun and thank you.

 

Thank you,

Marty

Great model, Marty! I'll bet it throws out a heck of a bow-wave.     I have an 'Arctic Refrigerator Express' car idea floating around in the back of my head....

I have a plow just like Marty's only it's a yellow PRR one.  I put the wireless camera in right at the top of the plow, we can push it around and see the track level view on a monitor as we run.

Adriatic posted:

RaritanRiverRailroadFan4 posted:

Don't discourage him for not using correct terminology or not being more specific. I'm a collector now eight years into the hobby. Soon I'll be going to college. When I first started collecting postwar Lionel I wasn't taken seriously by other older collectors. However after learning how this hobby works I now have made friends with several people. Even now I belong to an NJ train club where the kids run the trains. I am leading other kids into this hobby now. Now the people who ridicule younger members ought to rethink their choice. A collection can't last forever.

Paigetrain: It wasn't meant as ridicule. If it struck you wrong too somehow, please accept my apologies. 

   I'd hope it wasn't discouraging. If he sees the word kit-bash in a topic now, he will know what we mean. Term and slang both. And the differences. If he uses hack again, we know what he means now too. Hopefully in the future we all use the same term. Traditional terms would be best vs an "evolution of them" but understanding both, just as important. 

I've been grateful  being told about terms new to me. But do know what you might mean as I've been "called out" before,  "switch track" vs turnout, "lash-up" vs consist (by RichM who greatly prefers we use consist outside of "command" talks) and very possibly "hack" for the very same reason. I just can't remember if it was my own question or a comment as that was another forum long ago.

The 1st two"wrong" terms are used by Lionel though.

Just trying to pass the favors. Really.

Now back to fun?.....

Dominic Mazoch posted:

overlandflyer posted:

or if you're modeling the Nullarbor Plains division of the Trans-Australian RR...

Is it a MARX 666666?

Clearly not...the number refers to it's beauty, 

Maybe some more scrap and empty soup cans, and I could match some of the lengths around here?

I've been hungry for a new project. Thanks for that

So if it derails, you can blame it not on 86, 99 or Control!

I did not see among the replies any comments about the Neil Young/Clyde Coil Commodore Vanderbilt painted in psychedelic colors from about 15 years ago. Many others have whimsical approaches to this hobby. 

I like the clear shell idea. LEDs available now are way past just plain red green and orange. 

Lou N

DDD40AX anyone?

Here is the infamous weinermobile passing through town on the club layout.

MP placed an EMD cab on a U boat.  A Mexican railroad put an F unit cab on RS11 ALCO........

MP placed an EMD cab on a U boat.  A Mexican railroad put an F unit cab on RS11 ALCO.  RGS Geese............!

Funny thing GRJ but last week I saw a real weiner mobile on the BQE in Brooklyn. Haven't seen one in 20+ years. Still brought a childlike smile to my face. And it has to be built pretty good to drive on that roadway..