No HO Ho...a small response to Bob's HO model.trains

After seeing RSV-Bob's "HO Ho ho" thread, I thought it fitting to do a small Show-and-Tell.

This layout is from a really early train magazine. I have a scan of the plan someplace, which was made from the original article titled "Rubble Creek and Thunder Mine." As my boys got a bit older, I dragged it out of mothballs and we played with it for a short set of consecutive Christmas holidays. The oldest gave up...the youngest wanted it in his room. I took it back into hiding when I caught him and a buddy playing "Demolition Trains." It was too late...one locomotive wound up with a nose job onto onto the  concrete  floor.

Since I started cleaning up the Hobby Closet, I figured I'd introduce it...I've "threatened before," and would hate to die without having shown it to somebody else.

This build started in grade school over 40 50 years ago with the basic Bachmann oval diesel loco set. A casual friend with more money and space showed me his magazine collection, and I saw the Rubble Creek and Thunder Mine article within one of the magazines. My late step-dad always wanted to play with trains, so I showed him the magazine and stash. We organized a build period while my mother was on a trip, so she came home to a table with the mainline already nailed down.

You can count the number of old school isolated blocks and switches. This IS a lot of railroad on a 2 foot by four foot table, plus the dual cab control and switch board. Yes, this is before digital operations...and is all analog! The hobby closet is still a train wreck (yuck, yuck, yuck), so I didn't pull out any locos or cars. Since the theme is supposed to be a coal mine, I have a small coal-burner switcher, a couple of diesels and a pile of short coal cars. Time frame for the era would be late 40s through 60s.

It does look a lot better once the tunnel openings, walls, and structures are in.