MyAustinBlogg.com: (toy train tips, tricks and chicks)

And the fun in Austin continues…

Photo 1 is Austin’s tallest structure; actually, there are very few tall structures. Why?

Because old Southwest style Tex-Mex, BBQ, and nightclubs are much more popular than big corporate-type buildings. After all, Austin is about having fun!

Photo 3 is about 2 a.m., somewhere on 6th Street (my memory is a bit cloudy). The police shut down all traffic in the 6th Street area so that Austonians and out-of-towners have more room to stagger. (That’s me on far left; 2 ladies are my co-workers). FYI, the best Texas beer is Shiner. Ask for it by name. That’s “Shiner.”

But there’s more to do that party in Austin.

For us few (very Very few) ferroequinarchaeologiests, there’s 3rd street, where bits of trolley track and even a tie peek out from the pavement. A short spur (not shown) runs for about 100 yards and no longer connects to anything.

So, besides partying and eating, what do Austonians like to do best? They’re a bit batty, so they watch the bats. At 6 p.m. pronto, the bats emerge from the Congress street bridge in search of insects over the water (shown here, minus the bats, which didn’t cooperate that day).

Now, on to the toy train aspect of Austin, and a continuation of Bob’s cool layout (more to come this week)…

Chiefie already discussed Bob’s modified turnouts, and they are not something I was gonna repeat, but what the heck, you gotta love this…a full-blown yard on a narrow shelf, using 027 switches that create very close tolerances between the trains (Bob carefully measured the width and swing over every one of his trains and has this down to a science). After cutting the turnout, he did need to do some rewiring under the turnout.

Do you see the nut and washer protruding from the table? We’ll discuss why that is there in an upcoming blogg update this week.

Today, we’ll check out Bob’s modified “small boy” made from a big boy. Some of the Big Boy’s description, I believe, is in another post. So I’ll quickly recap. It’s an MTH loco that has been completely modified to run conventional (sort of). Since Lionel has the best sounding whistle, Bob has added that. He also added a side lever, which I’ll discuss in this blogg later this week. He also installed an E-unit.

So how does one of the longest locos in the world go thru the smallest O gauge turnout in the world (027)?

Bob’s modifications include removing 2 step down ladders and adding extra pickups. He also moved the 2 blind drivers to the outside (shown in closeup photo) and 2 flanged drivers to the inside so the Big Boy can pirouette around like an ice skater. Pretty slick! (or should I say sick!?)

So, what happened to the MTH circuitry in the Big Boy? I believe you can find it about 30 feet below the ground in an Austin dump.

Incidentally, one of Bob’s favorite railroads is the Railway Express Agency. You can see a couple of REA green trucks here. He’s got quite a collection of REA trains as well, in various styles and schemes.

In addition to Lionel-style 027 turnouts, Bob uses Marx turnouts as well, which he says work really well (as do others who use them).