Experienced Model Railroader With Large Collection in HO, HOn3, and G-scale

October 25, 2010

Over the next few days I will publish some excellent ideas contributed by Jay the “super tech”. So keep watching this space!

In the meantime here are a few words from Jay…

You touched on a subject near and dear to me, as I have been buying and selling used trains for over 24 years. I do consider myself an expert at repair in most model trains, in fact I like to say that if I can’t fix it, it can’t be fixed. My background is a development engineer in electro-mechanical systems. I spent 18 years at the Hughes Research Center in Malibu Ca.

I buy lots of used train items, and hardly ever pay retail. Even though I try to be careful in buying used equipment, I expect that I may have to fine tune or repair the stuff. I love the old heavy die cast HO equipment, and like to bring it into the modern world with sound and re-motoring etc.

I have entered the DCC/Sound world about three years ago, and love what is out there, great stuff. I use a laptop and JMRI to program my decoders. I have the North Coast Engineering and digitrax systems to run DCC. I also have a very large collection in HO, HOn3, and G-scale including six live steamers in G.

I have installed sound into G, HO, HOn3 & N-Gauge Locomotives using the PBL system the sends the sound signals to the locomotive down the rails.

The PBL system is becoming outdated, but it is an excellent system to use. The real challenge is combining DCC & PBL systems into my layout, as one conflicts with the other, I have a selection switches in order to run both systems. With the PBL system, you can put sound and lighting into a locomotive for around $10 each, not too bad compared to DCC with Sound. I have so many locomotives, that I don’t expect to ever run them all with DCC, but the PBL will allow me to run them at a much lower cost.

Being retired, I do spend a lot of my time working on trains, I still buy, sell, trade and collect trains because I love it, I can’t stop. I will be selling some stuff soon on Ebay, as I decided to thin my collection a bit, under the handle “Jayofto”. Keep up the good work!

Robert comments…

Thanks Jay, for sharing your thoughts with other model railroaders. We need more people who are prepared to help others in the model railroading community. Unfortunately sometimes we are inclined to be secretive and keep our ideas to ourselves. It is a shame, because so many people who read this blog would benefit greatly from the ideas of others. And, I know there are a lot of very experienced and talented model railroaders out there.

Remember, to watch this blog in coming days for some of Jay’s ideas that he has kindly contributed for publication. Share this on Facebook and Twitter using the buttons below.