Preparing for the layout table

Back inside now after quite a few good hours outside with the garden railroad.
I have made arrangements with Oscar Hagerman, a local builder, to construct the train tables needed for the indoor layout. We agreed on a price and are ready to go, all I need to do is save up the money and construction will begin. The layout will be a large U shape table featuring a downtown area with a nice park for the residents and a passenger station, a farming area, a coal mine, a freight yard area, and a camping area. I have a few buildings from a layout I did for practice that I will be using.
I figure that I will be ready to start construction on the tables sometime before Fall. I can hardly wait.

It's a Beautiful Day

The weather is turning warmer and there is not a cloud in the sky. I am ready to run my garden railroad today. The New York Central Alco F-A unit is ready to pull my freight cars. The track is all cleaned off and ready to go. Sandy is going to glue down some landscaping highlights. and I've already repaired the buildings that were damaged over the Winter. It tried to run it on March 7th but the wind was to strong. Wish me luck.

Special Thanks

I would like to take a few moments to give thanks to Mountain Town Hobbies in Mt. Pleasant Michigan for all the help they have given to me over the past few years in getting together the items I have needed to build up this hobby. They have special ordered many items for me that they don't even stock as my needs have come up. The people who work there have made valuable suggestions, and saved me a lot of time and effort. I highly recommend that store to anyone who is into this hobby.

Outdoors Here I Come

The snow is almost gone and I am getting the bug to go outside and run the garden railroad. I have repaired the broken buildings and I am set to go. I have set the buildings on the layout. I might have to do some clean up on the outdoor track. The ground may also need a bit of leveling. The transformers are all set out and connected to the track.

This will be the earliest I have ever been able to run the train since I first set it up about 5 years ago. The earliest I have done it in the past was in mid March.

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.