Your Model Railroad Wishes/Plans

My Personal Plans start with a new table, one that I don't have to worry about the cars falling off the table. I want to incorporate DCC, and try to include catenary as part of the details. I plan on having a 3-4 track main line, a 4 track maintenence area (including a turnaround loop), as well as a 4+ track Union Station. (I'd have at least one more station in the form of an Amshack.) As for trains:

1) Auto Train

2) Pennsylvainian (All Amfleet II Phase IV, flexibility of adding Heritage Sleeper to make Three Rivers)

3) Metroliner (Phase III era)

4) NJ Transit Commuter Train

5) Northeast Direct (Flexibility to run w/ Baggage Car)

6) Acela Express (Expansion Plan at later date, don't currently own a set)

7) Broadway Limited (All Heritage Fleet Consist, eventually Phase III, but phase IV mix would remove above flexibilities, eventually repaint Phase IV cars to Phase III. I only own a Phase IV Sleeper, Diner, and Baggage Car)

And the Best for last

8) Silver Meteor, all Viewliner Consist in Phase III, starting with 2 Viewliner Sleepers (#2300 & 2301 or #2300 and Diner 8400) It would require painting and Kitbashing, probably by a professional. The power for this train are P40's #838 and #803.

What are the plans/wishes for the rest of you for the upcoming year?

Well, I don't have any plans, but my wish is for the space to put a model railroad. I'd love to do something related to the BNSF highline that the Empire Builder runs on, so that I could have both freight and Amtrak to play with. Right now, however, I don't have any space for even a simple loop track.

VIewliner, how many cars long will your Auto Train be?

I saw somewhere on the net some HO scale LIRR M-1's, I would love to aquire a set of them for any possible layout I might plan later on. However, they cost $200 fr a 2 car set so I guess I'll need an MTA sized budget to make that type of purchase.

Bill Haithcoat said:

VIewliner, how many cars long will your Auto Train be?

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Bill, I'm thinking of Doing Just the Passenger Cars at least for now, following one about the size of the Derailed Auto Train. I don't know if my new table, which isn't even under construction yet would handle a 40+ Car train. I don't really have a budget for any additional cars for a while, but I'd probably get another Auto Train 2 pack as a next car purchase, since that's a limited run deal, and an AT has 2 Lounges (ex-Diners), although, I could do one that substituting a Sightseer Lounge in, since I have one, I probably won't. Eventually, I realize, I'm going to have surplus cars, (Sightseer Lounge, Coach Baggage, Heritage Sleeper, Heritage Diner, and maybe a Heritage Baggage)

The Heritage cars are Surplus, b/c eventually, I'll be doing an all Phase III Heritage Consist (Hopefully).

Right now my Auto Train (a partial, and Screwed up consist) has 1 P-42, 1 Transition Sleeper, 1 Deluxe Sleeper, 1 Sightseer Lounge, 1 Diner, 1 Superliner II Coach, 1 Superliner I Coach Baggage, and 1 Auto Train Lounge.

tp49 said:

I saw somewhere on the net some HO scale LIRR M-1's, I would love to aquire a set of them for any possible layout I might plan later on. However, they cost $200 fr a 2 car set so I guess I'll need an MTA sized budget to make that type of purchase.

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Tp49,

I'm asssuming you meant the set from IHP. They do nice work from what I see, but again, I don't have that budget either. Their prices seem over-inflated, I can't imagine they do a hell of a lot of business.

VL,

That would be the set I was talking about. Ever since I was a child I always wanted to have a model train layout that had NY area comuter and subway cars but those seem to be nearly impossible to find and when you do find them they are incredibly expensive.

tp49 said:

VL,
That would be the set I was talking about. Ever since I was a child I always wanted to have a model train layout that had NY area comuter and subway cars but those seem to be nearly impossible to find and when you do find them they are incredibly expensive.

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Well, I know its a different scale, but I think MTH (Mikes Train House) makes subway cars, with and without graffiti.

Walthers is doing a Metro North Set soon, I know you're an LIRR grown railfan, I'll do a search and see If I can come up with anything related to that. If you wanted a Penn Station Set Up (Sort of like mine, only with Superliners) you'd also Need NJT. Unfortunately Atlas Discontinued many of its Electrics, but a local hobby shop (Probably more of an NY area, may still have Amtrak AEM-7's and NJT ALP-44's). Bachmann is doing models of the HHP-8's soon.

Well this year I wanna get alot of my scenery together throughout my layout, as well as getting a signal system going. Also I would like to get my main locos equiped with DCC.

My next step on the layout is to get the final track plan down, which I hope to do in the near future. Then after that I can get started on the scenery, which includes two citys based on Pittsfield and Rensslear, they have sort of the same qualitys but my citys are gonna be slightly different then the prototypes do to the unusual shape of my layout. There will also be some rural, Berkshire County type scenery on the layout, as well as a State Line Tunnel.

As for expansion of my "Amfleet"haha, I dont really plan much for the up and comming year, I have most of the equipment I want. Maybe a nice Amtrak switcher unit for my new Albany-like scene, which includes a small yard, and possibly a second powered AMD-103. But thats it, like I said its mostly actual layout work for this year