The life and times of Alex Schuler

A Model Railroad Tale December 31, 2005

When people ask me my hobbies, I’m always a little hesitant to answer. Although I love model railroading, and I think it’s great, I’m always worried people will think I’m a nerd or geek for it. I could see how that people could think that model railroading is a nerdy hobby, but really, its not, but blogging is .

When I was a little kid, my fascination in trains probably came from my great-uncle Tom Lewis, who had a large basement HO layout, and another large basement O layout (I think) but that was pretty much it. When I went to visit him, I loved trains, but when I went back home, I was outside playing soccer and totally forgot about diesels, steamers, and open-loads. But when I turned 13 or so, I stumbled upon an old HO layout. It was my uncle Brian’s from when he was a kid. It was a basic layout on an 8’x4’ board, nailed onto corkbed. No scenery at all. I named it the, “Plywood Express.” After explaining my newfound interest in model railroading to my grandparents, they helped my put it on some basic benchwork so I could begin the back breaking process of restoring the Atlas code 80 brass tracks.

Now the main problem with brass tracks is that when they oxidize, the rust they give off does not conduct electricity. That is why most modelers use nickel or silver tracks nowadays. So before I can even begin to put the trains on the track, I had to remove all the rust, and smooth out the tracks. The first step was removing the rust. I started by pulling out some rubbing alcohol and an old toothbrush. This did the job of loosening the rust, but not really removing much. I then took some sandpaper (never use this on track by the way) and sanded down the rust. All I was really doing was loosening the rust. Well after about three days of work on the track it was run able.

More to come in the second installment of A Model Railroad Tale.