Got moved into our new home. I am looking forward to getting started on the layout,  but have a few things I have to take care of first. One thing im working on is putting in a split air conditioner. Does anybody have any experience with these? 

Another concern I have is running 2 air conditioners and what that will do to my electric bill. So Monday morning I have a guy coming to give us an estimate on putting in solar panels.

After many years of not having suitable space for a layout, we are having a block home built here in central Florida (Block is an issue in Florida). 

The wife has agreed to let me have the 1 car garage for a train room, and it was her idea. The home will be completed in 45 days and I will post photo updates.

I would like to hear from those who have detached building as a train room such as yard barns,ect. I have to admit when I was up north I never liked the idea. The thought of walking out in the cold and through the snow never appealed to me. Now that im down here in Florida Im starting to warm to the idea. Im interested in hearing about problems, size, built on site or pre-built. Ive been thinking about going through a rent to own dealer that delivers the completed structure to your property.

50 years ago. 12:01A.M. Feb 1,1968  Penn Central was born. 

Here is a video I made several years ago while going through Fostoria, Ohio. I hope you like it.

Moderator note: Changed the video to embedded.

I started working on some Continental Grain covered hoppers. The darker ones are Exactrail cars that I used an airbrush to do a fade on. After watching Garys video im starting to rethink that, especially since they turned out darker than I wanted. The other 4 ribbed 4427s are P2K kits and the 6 ACF 4650s are Intermoutain. Which was like finding a needle in a haystack since they were sold out a log time ago. I was able to find a shop that had all 6 road numbers. I cant remember the name of the shop, but it was somewhere in PA and the guys name was Fred Nixon, super nice guy.

I grew up on the west Side of Indianapolis in the mid 70s, which explains my love of Penn Central. It was 1974 when I got a Tyco train set for Christmas and I have been modeling in HO scale ever since (with a couple of breaks here and there).