The Inventory is Over

At last the inventory is finished. I have a lot more train cars than I thought. If I wanted to I could inventory my buildings, track, people and a lot more stuff, but enough for now.

I have gone back to buying track for the HO New York Central layout. only two more packages of 28" diameter curved track. and a lot more straight track and I will be done with that phase of it. Then I concentrate on the tables to put the layout on. I believe I've mentioned in an earlier post that I will need to build them so they are portable just in case I need to move the layout at a later date.

The layout will accommodate a passenger train, I'm still looking for a good DC steam locomotive New York Central of course, and a freight train, a few extra cars would be nice. I plan to build in a freight yard and a small village. I have collected a few buildings but I still have a long way to go.

Finally inventorying my rolling stock

I found an inventory program online called Yard Office. I am trying it out and so far I like it a lot. It keeps track of just about everything you want to know about the items you have.
I started with the garden railroad and will soon be working on the HO stock.
I did discover that the program does not work in Windows 7.

Pere Marquette locomotive needs a workout

As I look over my G scale items to run next spring, I came across my #1 gauge  Pere Marquette locomotive and caboose. I have been on a quest to find rolling stock for it. I prefer passenger cars however I will take anything in 1/32 scale. So far no luck what so ever. I might just have to resort to having cars custom painted. I have no idea as to what that would cost.

I have enough curved track to set up an 8ft circle, but I don't have a transformer yet to power the track. I still could use some straight track, a circle just isn't interesting enough. Plus I will need to be sure the place I lay the track is very level as the locomotive is very picky as to the levelness of the track.

The attention turns to the outdoors

My thoughts are turning to making ready the garden railroad for the spring season. There are about 4 buildings in need of repair, and a bit of track leveling I will need to do. As usual I plan to expand the layout, so I will need more track. The bulk of the track I am going to need is straight sections. Unfortunately the outdoor track I want is very expensive so that part is going to take a bit of time for me to save up the money. This plan for the new layout will take track into new areas of the yard. the ground will need to be leveled and a firm roadbed will need to be established. The plan also includes the inner and outer tracks.

Currently the inner track accommodates a gandydancer which is a real hoot to see running around the track. The outer track is used for a New York Central freight train. I currently have around 6 freight cars and a caboose pulled by an F A unit. I had the chance to pick up on an F B unit but I passed it by. I am kicking myself over that choice. I still am looking for a place to run my Pere Marquette steam locomotive and caboose, and naturally I will need more track.

Well as you can see this is most definitely  a long term pipe dream, but you achieve those dreams by chipping away at them piece by piece. I will fill you in later as to how the dream is coming along so stay tuned.

A New Blog

My daughter just started a blog about cooking. The URL to her blog is: http://cookingwithmoxie.blogspot.com
Its an interesting blog. I invite all to check it out.

A New Year & a New beginning

Well here we are 2012. I am wishing everyone a happy New Year and I hope it will be the best year ever. My attention, at least for now is going to be on my family, nuclear and extended. I will be planning how I am going to build the tables for the track, but that will be only as I have time.