Actually there are a fair amount of people into that. I know a gentleman that belongs to a club that has 20 acres of track in central Florida. I met him down there one time and between all the members that were there (several dozen I think) they had 25-30 locos (some live steam, some gas and some using golf cart type motors), dozens of freight cars and probably 12-15 passenger cars. I rode trains for several hours and it was a lot of fun but with the price of the equipment I'll stick with my N scale stuff thank you!
Winning Powerball numbers dream. Some of the stuff was pretty detailed. Can you imagine that -9 in my New Haven "retro" theme?
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attachment=9737]
There is a club, not to far from where I live called Pionner Valley Live Steamers. They are located in Southwick, Mass(Yep..same Southwick as my HO scale Southwick and Winsted short line). They go to the big Amherst show at the Big E fairgrounds every year. Every Fathers Day they have an open house. I've always wanted to go, but something always comes.
Here's a link to their website:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.pvls.org/">http://www.pvls.org/</a><!-- m -->
It'd be nice to be able to afford something like that,if i won the lottery.I have always been impressed with just the imagination of men and how far they will go to create something in different sizes,and of something they love(trains).I'd love to see a 1/6th scale SD 70 ACE Locomotive in the Heritage CNW or SP paint scheme.
Hard to believe that custom built cars like that are for sale cheaper than garden gauge rolling stock at the LHS.
I wanted to get an estimated cost for building a 7.5" gauge layout similar to my HO layout.
Here's what a bit of research/guessing.figuring provided:
(Note: revised figures are in a post below. I mistakenly sized all the distances in 1:1 scale instead of 1/8 scale.)
140 acres of cheap land out in the boonies @ $1000 per acre = $140,000
Landscaping and dirt work = $150,000
78000 feet of rail @ $13 per 10 feet = $101,400
104,400 ties @ $1 each = $104,400
208,800 tie plates @ $0.15 each = $31,320
28 turnouts @ $1100 each = $30,800
480 yards of gravel for ballast @ $50 per yard = $24,000
8 assorted bridges @ $6000 each = $ 48,000
30 industry structures @ 3000 each = $90,000
10 GP and SD locos @ $15,000 each = $150,000
200 freight cars @ $1100 each = 220,000
Miscelaneous = $100,000
About $1.2 million
Hey Greg... I think I'll just be satisfied with watching them.
Oh... I just realized I made some mistakes... I converted all the HO distances to full scale, not to the 1/8 scale. All of the track and acres above need to be divided by 8.
Revised figures:
20 acres of cheap land out in the boonies @ $1000 per acre = $20,000
Landscaping and dirt work = $20,000
9750 feet of rail @ $13 per 10 feet = $12,675
13,050 ties @ $1 each = $13,050
26,100 tie plates @ $0.15 each = $3915
28 turnouts @ $1100 each = $30,800
60 yards of gravel for ballast @ $50 per yard = $3000
8 assorted bridges @ $6000 each = $ 48,000
30 industry structures @ 3000 each = $90,000
10 GP and SD locos @ $15,000 each = $150,000
200 freight cars @ $1100 each = 220,000
Miscelaneous = $100,000
About $720,000.... that ain't so bad! This is looking do-able!
Do not forget to cover the full operating cost incl. labor, bank interest (or cost of capital if you are good on cash:-) and depreciation (how long will the expensive stuff work until it needs repair and replacement?). That should be planned for at least 3 years. A to optimistic estimate of the break even point is a common error.
The rolling stock is 370k$ worth. That needs a solid shed for protection, a 7/24h guard and a well balanced insurance incl. hurricane and flooding.
Concidering that these are built just like the big ones those prices are rather reasonble.About 35 north of me is the White Creek RR a 7.5" gauge railroad with the last I heard 6.5 miles of mainline.This railroad is operated just like any model railroad.except you ride on the trains instead of follow them around the layout.
You could get a real 36' car for the same price... in 1898!
![[Image: 41844.jpg]](http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/cpr_rolling/41844.jpg)
Matt
That's because in 1898 $600 was REAL money! 8-)
Those are the coolest thing since sliced bread
Gary S Wrote:Checkout this website. Wouldn't it be cool to build these for a living? I figure the market for them is pretty small though.
http://www.discoverlivesteam.com/discove.../index.htm
D#$n you Gary - I just spent the last two hours jumping from one link to another and thinking "It'd be kind of cool to have a 1.5" scale cylinder casting for my coffee table.."
