One thing about working with grand scale trains is experiencing problems that never happen in HO or N in your basement or spare room. At least I hope no one here has ever caught a 140' wood trestle on fire!

I'm Jim, and as the title says, I'm broke. I'll spare everyone the details of how I got to this point, but suffice to say I've spent a total of under fifty bucks on the hobby in the last two years. Model railroading can be a very expensive hobby, but I'm working to see how inexpensively it can be done. Luckily, I have acquired a modest stockpile of supplies over the years, so it's now time to burn off some of the fat, so to speak.

Last month (May), a man contacted me through our shared Local Hobby Shop:  He had a 3'x16' HO layout that was half done.  He also had grandsons who are 7- and 8-years old and who really wanted to run trains with Grandpa.

The challenge was that, ever since being diagnosed with cancer a year ago, between the chemo and the medication he just didn't have the energy to continue work on the layout.  So he needed a strapping young man with the muscles and know-how to get the layout done and running well.