Train status

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I think a lot of you thought I had lost my mind when I mentioned I was interested in model trains. Perhaps. But it's been a great stress reliever. Here's status. 

One can spend a bundle on model trains. So, I've tried to pace myself and be judicious. Since we don't have a lot of room, I've selected N scale, half of HO size and 2nd most popular scale behind HO. I've only spent half a bundle. : / 

I'm going to try and keep the train to an era from the 1880s to the 1940s. Pretty wide range, but it's hard to find everything at a reasonable price in one narrow era.

I've also decided to go digital. I'm interested in control more than scenery. The model train digital control standard is called DCC. It's much different than the DC my dad and I played around with in the '60s. It's very cool, allowing levels of control that weren't possible earlier. While I bought a DCC starter set, I hope to build my own.

I've purchased track from Kato, a Japanese manufacturer known for high quality modular track that can be reconfigured over and over. I've purchased enough track for an initial layout of a couple of loops and a couple of turnouts.
I purchased one new and one used loco on eBay. Both are Alco 2-6-0s, also known as Mogul's, made by Bachmann. (My new one is NOS, new-old-stock. According to one article, Bachmann made these in 2012.) The Mogul was made from the 1860s to the 1920s. My new loco, featured in the pictures, has a simple DCC encoder built in, which controls speed, direction, and simple lighting. It's marked New York Central #1906, which was built in 1899.
Here's a video of a very crude home brew DCC controller commanding the loco, and a GIF below.
My one other car is a Spokane Portland & Seattle "wooden" caboose. It's made by Micro Trains, a 2 brother company in Talent, OR. (Based on some ambiguous references, I think they may have "divorced" and split into 2 companies.) It is prototypically correct. The SP&S was a small line that ran in the Pacific Northwest along the north bank of the Columbia from 1905 until 1970 when it merged into Burlington Northern.

Bonus video and gif of "full" train.


Hank
[posted from email]

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