I'm here in my garage, where I store all my model trains when I'm not running them.
This is kind of a big day because this is going to be the first time that I will run my model trains in the back yard of my new house here in Washington state.
Now, I've got all these great model trains to choose from.
Somebody has to be the first one to run.
I'm going to pick one.
I hear people already shouting...
"THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE!!! RUN THOMAS!!!"
"TOBY!!! I WANT TOBY!!! PLEASE PICK TOBY!!!
(Laughing)
I think I'm going to make a sentimental choice, for me.
A train that means something to me personally because I've been up to Alaska and seen the White Pass railway in person.
So, I'm going to run the White Pass steam train, #52, first today.
So, I've got a handy little gadget here, this orange thing... that makes it really easy to get the trains on to the track.
Once I get 'em all set up on the track here I can send them right out that special door that will take the trains out in to the back yard.
Now I've got the train peeking out the train door there and all I have to do is bring it up on the tablet here and we can make it go.
So, yeah! Here we go!
We’re off and running with the White Pass Steam train pulling freight cars on my first outdoor layout here at our new house.
Now this is the west side of the back yard and you can see that there’s a large cement area there on that side of the house that offers a perfect place for me to set up the trains.
And the train right now is heading down a three-foot-wide cement path that circles all the way around the big lawn area in the center of our back yard.
Now the train is coming up here shortly to a ninety degree turn in the southwest corner of the yard.
And I call this "Zim’s corner"… because of the Zim sign there.
Now this view right here… I love this shot!
I’m actually shooting this with my drone.
Getting this shot from the drone is incredibly hard to do.
The direction the drone flies… and the direction the camera on the drone points…
are controlled by two little joysticks.
To fly the drone smoothly...
And keep the camera pointed at the train the whole time, especially when the train makes one of those ninety degree turns… is just really hard to do.
After many attempts at it, this one worked out pretty well.
So, that last ninety degree turn was called Zim’s Corner… And this next one that we’re coming up to, I'm going to call "Deadman’s curve".
And not for any particular reason. This house is brand new.
No one’s died here in the back yard, yet.
But I like the sound of Deadman’s Curve, so that’s what I’m calling this curve here.
Now I’m sure you’ve noticed that there’s still a lot of bare dirt all around the edges of the yard.
The landscaping back here hasn’t been completed yet.
The weather’s good right now, but we’ve got winter coming up soon.
So, I’m going to hold off on planting anything else until the Spring.
See those big rocks at evenly spaced intervals in the dirt?
Where each one of those rocks is now, I’m planning on planting a tree next Spring.
So, the master plan is to have a line of trees circling the entire perimeter of the yard.
We’ve got another curve here.
I’ve got a rain gauge mounted on that black pole you see there…
And there’s an electronic weather station mounted on top of a metal pole near those trees…
So, I jokingly call this "the Willard Scott curve"…
After the famous TV weather man from the 1980s and 90s.
You can see the hot tub to the left of those trees.
That is one of my favorite features of the new house.
I think maybe as a gimmick in some future model train video…
I’ll just sit in the hot tub and run the trains from there.
In this video, you can actually see me there in the shade, at the patio table…
Looking down at the controls for the drone, and trying to fly the drone without crashing…
As well as keeping the movement of the drone and the drone’s camera nice and smooth for the video.
The train has almost completed one full loop around the yard here at this point.
We’re on a half-acre lot. That’s a HUGE back yard…
And it took an incredible amount of track just to do that one loop around the yard.
The LGB-brand G-scale track I use is incredibly expensive at about $7 a foot…
It literally took over $2000 worth of track just to make one loop around the yard.
So, we’re going to have to take a break for a minute…
Allow YouTube to drop in a commercial…
And hopefully that will help pay for some of the track I had to buy!
Don’t go away! There is a lot more of this model train video still to come.
My very first video of the trains running in my new back yard here in Washington.
After the break, I have the White Pass steam train and the Santa Fe Super Chief trade places...
So that the Super Chief can do a loop around the yard on the mainline.
And I’m going to show you a little accident that happened…
When I was doing the switching involved in having those two locomotives trade places.
Oops! My bad!
Now you get to see a pretty good head-on crash.
I did NOT stage this for the camera.
This truly was an accident that happened when I was having these two locomotives trade places on the layout.
I guess I had a little senior moment.
There are two switches in the layout right here, and I should have thrown both of them…
But I only threw one of them… and this was the result.
Oh!
I don’t think there was any major damage.
G scale trains are pretty tough.
So, I was able to get the cars back on the tracks and get things running again.
I think I’ve done enough talking in the video at this point, so…
For the rest of the way, I’ll be quiet and let you listen to the sounds of the Santa Fe Super Chief going around the layout.
As we go up, up, and away via the drone…
It is time to wrap up today’s video.
I know that the younger model train fans are probably a little disappointed that none of the Thomas & Friends trains made it in to today’s video.
Don’t worry. You’ll get your turn.
You just have to wait for my next video…
Which will feature Emily, Thomas, Toby... and other Thomas & Friends characters...
Making the run through this big layout in my back yard.
Things are going well for us here after our first month at our new house in Southeastern Washington.
And I am LOVING retirement!
Especially that hot tub in the back yard.
I’m Jim Zim. Thanks for watching!