Tolga's Railroad Repository

A last minute Christmas surprise, you could say. Since I abandoned any intent to build the FEC in LEGO bricks, that of which is coming back, and if anyone happens to remember, the two FEC SD70M-2s I considered active were stored, #100 and #106. #106 is already in shambles and not going to be rebuilt. #100 sat in a corner in my room by the computer. Well, #100 is rebuilt. It became a brief parts source and lost its trucks, radiator (somehow), and tail end. All were reinstalled and now the unit is back in running service on my annual Christmas layout. Image of the old #100: It got a new cab window design in late 2008 but now with it came a whole herd of dark blue that I scored within the past year, plus a newly assembled radiator.  Soon, the unit will get more adjustments. It will lose two plates vertically mainly off the yellow section to be more proportional. Even though the unit will leave the FEC in real life, I think this is a unit that deserves a permanent pla...

Eurobricks member Just2Good posted a slideshow of these sets and I thank him for taking the time to do so. I really like this line of sets. All repetitions aside, there are a select few that really stand out: 60076 Demolition Site - Don't think this is a first for City, but still a very creative and lucrative set. Really love the crane, uses classic arm parts previously seen in the 4565 Freight & Crane Railway, as well as the treads from Indiana Jones (Jungle Cutter) - which really eliminates juniorization from it. 60081 Tow Truck - While the tow truck is repetitive at best, and I already have two from 2013 and 2014 lines, at least this one uses a lot of SNOT technique and just looks very detailed. While still 6-12 material, I like ow the technique is continually used. It's very Road Rangers-esque. 60067 Helicopter Pursuit - I should call it Everglades pursuit ... feels very set in a South Florida environment LOL. While I don't particularly plan to invest in ...

The return of the academic year for me means the Holiday season is fast approaching. At this point in the year it is not too early, rather just right to begin conceiving how the annual Holiday display I do shall look this year. Past photos of the mostly suburban layout available here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brickbuilder711/sets/72157637527799965/ This list of projects for the Fall-Winter is not limited to what's going under the tree but does set up well for that layout: Promenade resort and night club. The big centerpiece for the holiday display will be a beach resort with an outdoor version of a nightclub, probably similar in essence to LIV Miami. It will join a strip of a marina on the left side, hotel in the center, and lead to a beach on the right. The beach could be parallel to a double track section of LEGO track that turns around at the end. Similar in essence to Escambia Bay, FL or even stretches of the Pacific Surfliner. I even anticipate installing state of...

Not that it is going to last, but by utterly dumb luck I found a cleared lot on SW 2nd Street in the spur that CSX uses to deliver cars for Amerigas, that affords a decent vantage point of switching operations for the customer. This came up as I was chasing the shoving local, O717, which as some may know I have been trying and trying to model in HO Scale, when killing time waiting on a "coal train that never came". The very interesting thing is, this is a brand new spot, if you will. According to Google Earth, under seven months ago there were buildings there, but someone bought the land and razed the heck out of it. Here is a Street View image of the place circa 2011. What's also fascinating is a long ripped lead that involved delivering cars inside a warehouse. For industrial development and simply on the zoning of the property, this is prime real estate so let's hope some rail served business comes up. A multi spot boxcar warehouse could be a perfect ...

Recently, as with many developments, opposition has tried to bite All Aboard Florida's project bringing intercity passenger service between Miami and Orlando. People have a fancy for distorting the truth about what the project plans to do and bring to the communities involved. My efforts were combined with the High Speed Rail America Club to produce a video contesting the top 5 butchered claims about the system. Here is a summary of the top 5 misconceptions about the service: 5. All Aboard Florida will cause economic impact. There is no logical way that a city's economic health can be ruined. In fact, the contrary, due to the easier logistics and added service/hospitality that is to follow. 4. All Aboard Florida is Publicly Funded. All Aboard Florida's only gov't involvement is a loan. Other than that it is simply 100% private, run by FECI which is in the Private Sector. 3. All Aboard Florida is Noisy. Any noise impact by a light nine-car trainset cannot match ...

Friends; Many of us are aware and know that the current passenger rail system in the United States is not exactly living up to  systems that are seen throughout the world .  The High Speed Rail America Club is a group chartered within Florida International University and aims to bring high speed rail to the United States. While admittedly such a system is difficult, costly, and takes time to execute, it is NOT impossible, and quoting university president Mark Rosenberg, we as people have the power to "Turn the Impossible to the Inevitable". Our main goal at the moment is to produce a documentary that highlights the current state of rail travel in the United States and what can be done to improve and bring it up to High Speed standards. We would like to film our documentary on and revolving around present day passenger rail, while discussing within the film and later focusing on and cooperating with prospective systems such as All Aboard Florida, which we know that s...

This is a Trainz route that I like to work on in the fall. But, something just occurred to me that made me want to rework the track layout in Key West just now. I was looking around in Google Maps and noticed that the viaduct that connects the main island to one of the industrial islands, which is where Nikos laid the main yard, felt lower. This apparently justified making the track lift bridge a fixed span, but I felt that since there was a marina, the idea was no good. But it was worth the while to adjust trackwork in the area  to be more realistic. The first issue I attacked was the fact that the yard and the lead to Fleming Key needed a Wye lead so that engines and stuff can more conveniently turn around. If I were to turn power other than a turntable, I would need to run something through the docks. A wye track was constructed to also cross one of the industrial leads, which is something that works in modern cities. The diamond is manual and yard jobs would 'need per...