Welcome to Vintage Road & Rail! My name is Stan, and I am relatively new to the hobby of model railroading. Like many people in the spring/summer of 2020 I was locked down at home with not much to do besides watch Netflix and RU-vid. Thankfully I stumbled on a couple videos about model railroading and the rest is history. My model railroading is in 2 parts. 1st: I like to collect vintage trains from the 70’s and 80’s from the likes of Tyco, Life-Like and AHM. 2nd: I was fascinated by DCC and the power and detail of modern HO scale locomotives. On my channel you will see videos on the items I collect as well as following me on a learning journey as I get more involved with DCC. Make sure to like, comment and subscribe; but more importantly HAVE FUN!!
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Thanks, Just bought my first 2 decoders for my Fleet of Protos (8 pin ready), using the adapters to go to the decoder... This will be a fun ride, I have about 90 dc locos ....
ATHEARN “BODY MOUNTS” you speak of are simple to upgrade to KD#5. HOWEVER: SOME ATHEA ROLLING STOCK HAS “TRUCK MOUNTED” Couplers .. HORN type.!! THE TRUCK MOUNTED ARE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO UPGRADE TO KD#5’s. MUST MODIFY THE BODY TO GLUE ON A GEAR BOX, CHANGE THE COUPLER, SNAP ON A LID … OR THE COUPLER HEIGHT WILL NOT ALIGN. COMPLETE NUISANCE
I have never run into any Athearn cars with truck mounted couplers. I'm not saying they don't exist I've just never run into them. However I have run into many older cars with truck mounted couples. I don't use #5s on those. Like you said it's a major pain.
I love this layout and it’s 4 train action. I want to build a 5x10 o scale train layout and I always thought I can only run two trains, maybe three, but four is crazy(five of you count the trolley) I want to base my layout after this one
Nice! I Don't know the exact date. But it was a bicentennial train set, so I would guess between 1974 and 1976. That's when most bicentennial stuff was made/sold.
Great video on how to take these apart, check them out and get them running again. I have a B&O version coming that was a little more than 3 bucks, and will probably need some TLC. I’ll share it when it’s pulling a nice passenger train on my layout. BTW, I use a magnifying lamp when it gets into the nitty gritty…
Its been 3 yrs but I am watching for the first-time. I have n scale and got a Eurotool. It is like the fiberglass pen, but uses a fiber that is maybe 3mm. I haven't been able to find any more of these. I am glad I bought 5 extra fiber pieces.
You have demonstrated why I throw out every slotted screw I ever encounter. I have thousands of button head Allen socket 2-56 x 1/4” long machine screws 🤣 to replace those British crappy screws !
I hate the slotted screw heads. I swap them out for Phillips head when I can. Didn't know they made them with an Allen head. Like those even better. Much harder to strip out
Nice haul, I'm mostly hunting around for high hood GP7/9's my favorite locomotives, Athearn, Life-Like Proto 2000, (pre Walthers) And the long defunct Front Range Products GP7/9's They were the best of the whole lot they were super customizable, I would have put Atlas on my list but due to the fact that their frames rot out, I'll get Atlas when they improve on the frames with stronger metals.
There's a video of guy restoring old computer parts yellowed plastic yellow plastic in tub of water with hydrogen peroxide left in the sun takes yellowing out
For the love of God don't use sandpaper you wouldn't use that to clean your glasses would you, just baby while a wheel. I'm glad you ain't got a body grinder
You can slightly file down the edges of the turn outs. I see the cars are bumping when the hit the rail of the turn out that isn't part of the main line. that will stop that not so smooth transition from the turn out to the main and the same way coming into a turn out. It appears the coupling issues are on small curves.
I use # 148 couplers on Athearn cars. The little brass coupler spring on Athearn is just a little to high. No worry on those with 148s Easiest solution for Athearn cars.
Super. My railroad only had one Bicentennial locomotive, a Tyco EMD F-7A unit, bought new in 1976, with an Aussie variation of the Mantua MU-2 truck drive. It still operates on my railroad, almost fifty years later, both inside and outside, and has a nice patina on the paint job now that makes the locomotive look very realistic. Hello from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. 💙 T.E.N. Edit: I wonder if there will be any "Bicentennial and a half" Red, White, and Blue locomotives or rolling stock for 2026? 🙂
About ‘75, I got the Tyco Spirit of 76. It was based on the Alco 430. I got my first train set on Christmas ‘69. That one was also an Alco 430. It was a Santa Fe “War Bonnet” (red & silver). I don’t have a layout now.
I have a scrapbook of HO train set advertisements from the 1970's. The spirit of 76 train set with diesel loco was $29.99 top of the line set. I still remember the jingle. The spirit of 76, the red white and blue. The spirit of 76 for me and for you. Alas all of my HO trains were stolen from my storage unit while I was in the Air Force. I have a scale Williams GG-1 and a K line in Bicentennial colors.The K Line plays God Bless America when you press the horn button. My cutoff date is the Bicentennial on my PENN CENTRAL layout.
I just finished watching the video. I found out why you were having problems on that turnout. It was thrown in the wrong direction of travel. We all forget to throw the switches sometimes for the route we needed.
Super. Cox locomotives are not as common as the other brands, but the drive truck is comparable to a Mantua/Tyco MU-2 drive, and they are pretty good runners. All of my Life-Like, Bachmann, AHM, and Rivarossi four wheel drive diesels died decades ago and got turned into dummy locomotives, but one Cox F-3 and seven Mantua/Tyco MU-2 drive locomotives, (EMD GP-20, Brill Trolley, EMD F-7, 2 × Plymouth CR-4 switchers, Plymouth MDT, and a Baldwin RF-16 Sharknose) are about to celebrate their fiftieth birthday on my railroad, along with about 15% of my locomotives and about 25% of my rolling stock. The Cox and Mantua/Tyco locomotives operate great, inside and outside, MU well with my more modern locomotives, and have a nice patina on the paint job, after all the years of use, that makes them look very realistic. Hello from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. 💙 T.E.N.
