Model Railroading > Happy New Year - and some trains "under" the tree

Historically, we've done Fisher-Price Geotrax as our trains under the Christmas tree after my oldest got a set as a todler for Christmas years ago.  I've thought about putting my HO trains around the tree, but I wanted large curves for my autoracks for example, which might have made the loop a little too big.  Plus, we've had little kids for years and years and I didn't trust them or our pets.  So we've stuck with Geotrax, until this year.  For some reason we never got around to setting those up, but I finally started building a little loop on a 2x4 piece of plywood for my trolleys that I've slowly been collecting.  Since they don't fit on my regular layout, I thought a little layout would be fun to build and run, especially with my youngest two who are 8 & 9.  I'm still not quite done with the loop, I'm building it with blocks so I can try out my Digitrax equipment before I set it up on the main layout - one day.  I was showing my oldest what I have setup before he went back to college this afternoon, he likes the electronics side of things and we might have to figure out how to use his Arduino he got for Christmas on this layout.  The littles even helped with driving the track nails - though we were only sucessful with about 50% of the nails - that has made progress quite slow.  But we have a siding and half a loop, and the boys enjoyed it tonight.  I cut off the video too soon, the were cracking up that Dad forgot to flip the switch/turnout and almost caused a wreck!

The Mehano Boeing LRV (eBay find the other year) and the Bachman PCC (gift from my family when I was in high school) will need some TLC, my 8" radius curve is just a touch too tight.  But my Bowser F-Line PCC works like a charm, and all my kids like the command 7 option which plays the "stop requested" sound, slows the car to a stop with the brake lights lit, and then plays the door opening sound.  Do that again, and the door close sound plays, the gong rings, and the car resume the previous speed.  While this could have been a simple DC setup, that feature alone makes DCC totally worth it.  I might have to tone the noises down a bit though for my wife.  :)

It's going to be fun telling my kids my memories of these trolleys (and the Rapido New Look bus!) growing up near San Francsico and starting my career there - with lots of train rides as part of that experience.  The old kids remember the PCCs and the Cable Cars, but we haven't been back in more than 10 years, maybe it's time for a return trip.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and here's to a Happy New Year with lots of model train opportunities!

Nathan

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Awesome to see.We had a similar Christmas project and  the adults were just as excited as the kids,we loved every minute of it. Happiest New Year!
D

Very nice! Great memories being made for sure! Happy New Year!

Way nice! Thanks for posting!

Bob Phelps
Micanopy, FL

Most excellent!

That's lovely! 

You will need one of our new CLRV models. Demo run in the Bay area! 😁

-Jason

rapidotrains Wrote:
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> That's lovely! 
>
> You will need one of our new CLRV models. Demo run
> in the Bay area! 😁
>
> -Jason

That would be cool! I love all the transit models you are releasing Jason. I missed out on the first run of the BART cars, but have my order in for the second run. My overly ambitious idea is to build a model/diorama of Market St - F line on the street, the entry mezzanine, the Muni Metro under that, and finally BART.

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