People see my model train videos with train tracks all throughout my house...
And trains running everywhere...
And they just assume that my house is like that every day.
But it's not. It's just a normal house.
I work a four-day work week. I have three days off every week, and...
Maybe once a month, sometimes twice a month...
I'll set up my model trains on my weekend...
And have some fun and make a video.
Usually the first one of my days off I'll be setting up tracks and getting everything running...
And playing with them to have some fun.
Then on the second day I'll actually shoot the video...
And on the third day I put everything away ...
Maybe start editing the video.
On today's video, I'm not gonna have any trains running throughout the house.
I'm gonna show you some behind the scenes stuff...
That you wouldn't normally see in my model train videos.
Now I'm sure if you've watched a lot of my model train videos...
You've probably seen one where there's a long set of tracks running down the hallway and a model train will go down there and make a left...
In to a room at the end of the hallway.
That room is this room.
It's the room I call my train room...
And it's where I store a lot of my model train equipment.
Up on the top shelf I've got empty boxes from my locomotives and rail cars.
Down on the bottom there is just a ton of track down here.
So much track that...
You may have seen the video where I ran a set of tracks over to my next-door neighbor's house, and back.
I've got that much track. Actually, I bought more since then.
One of the fun things in this room is a simulated steam train whistle.
(toot toot)
(laughing)
How about that?
I try to fire that one off when my wife is least expecting it!
Well, now let's talk about all this track.
I've literally got thousands of dollars of track right here.
It costs $7 a foot.
The metal rail is made of brass and the little rail ties are plastic.
The basic building block of any G scale layout...
Is a piece like this. It's about a foot long.
150 millimeters.
Because G scale was developed in Germany. So they use the metric system.
So, there's $7 worth of track right there.
Then they make pieces that are twice that long.
That's a 300 millimeter section of track.
And what I use a lot because I have some very long layouts that I do...
It's a piece that's twice as long as that.
A 600 millimeter or about 4 feet piece of track.
So, I really love those 4 foot pieces of track because...
That allows me to make some really long layouts throughout the house...
And running out into the yard.
Those 4 foot pieces of track come in a box like this.
There's five pieces in the box.
I have 18 of those boxes in my collection .
Down here. More of them up there.
Between just those 18 boxes of 4-foot sections of track...
That's $2,700 right there, just for those!
Not to mention any of the rest of this stuff... The switches and the curve track and all that other stuff.
So, you can see how it's a super expensive hobby.
Not recommended for people early in life.
It's something that people do much later in life...
After they've saved up a lot of money and invested well over a lifetime.
As far as curved track... I've got the basic curve, known as the R1 curve.
It's a 30 degree curve.
It makes kind of a tight circle.
You need 12 of these to make a full circle, and 12 come in a case.
I've taken mine out of the cases and just put them in a big stack here.
But I also have other types of curves besides the R1 curves.
This right here is called an R2 curve.
And it's just a little longer 30-degree curve.
I've got boxes and boxes of those.
Now there are some really big trains in the G-scale world...
That don't do very well on a tight curve.
Some that won't even run on an R1 curve.
They need at least an R2 curve as a minimum...
And they really do better on an even more gentle curve than that.
And I've got seven or eight cases of those.
It's called an R3 curve.
It's a 22.5 degree angle.
So, it's a more gentle curve than the others.
Makes a much bigger circle.
They do actually make an R5 curve.
That's a very gentle curve... only 7.5 degrees.
A very wide curve.
I don't use any curve like that in this little house, but...
Maybe when we move to the new dream house I will.
Sometimes when you're building a model train layout it is very handy to have small pieces of track to fill in little gaps in your layout.
I have a lot of these 150 millimeter track sections.
I use those a lot.
There's an even smaller piece... like that.
And the smallest piece that I own...
I very rarely need these but every now and then they really come in handy.
That's a six dollar item right there just for that little piece.
Now I've brought a few things out that I think you might be interested in.
I'll just work my way down here and show you.
This orange thing is called a re-railer.
And this makes it super easy to get a train on the track in the right orientation...
With all sets of wheels on the rail.
I showed you my big simulated train whistle...
I've also got a second train whistle.
I bought this up in Alaska when I rode the White Pass railway.
(toot toot)
Switches are very handy when you're building a model train layout...
And I've got several different types.
They're expensive, like all g-scale stuff is.
The manually operated switches... $42
And if you want one that you can remote control... that's $57
And if you want one of these big R3 switches...
That's an $85 item right there.
I've got a few of those!
Now I pulled out a couple of special cars to show you. These are unusual things in my collection.
The first one is Winston.
That is the smallest item in my collection that actually is powered and will run on the rails.
This yellow car there on the shelf from the White Pass Railway...
That's an unusual piece from my collection.
That is a livestock car...
And inside there is a sound system and a speaker...
That simulates the sound of goats and sheep and cattle being transported on the railway.
(Animal sounds)
Then there's the Coca Cola railcar. That also has the sound system built in with a speaker.
And that plays a Coke jingle.
You know G-scale trains are designed to run indoors and outdoors...
In all weather conditions but there is one problem you run in to...
If you have track that sits outdoors all the time.
That is over time the brass rail will oxidize...
And that messes up the electrical connection between the train and the rail. So...
That's when you need one of these. This is the Piko clean machine...
And it's a battery-operated track cleaning locomotive.
See those little red pads on the bottom.
Those will actually scrape the oxidation off of the brass rails as you run this over your track.
Before I wrap this up I want to just point out that up on the top shelf...
Those empty boxes are from some trains that I think you'll recognize from my model train videos.
Here is the White Pass diesel locomotive box.
And the two boxes from the Santa Fe Super Chief locomotives. The "A" and the "B" unit.
The box for the Coca Cola train.
And over on the other side of the room those yellow boxes are from my MTH brand locomotives.
I've got three nearly identical Dash 8 MTH diesel locomotives
The Santa Fe...
The Amtrak...
And the first-responders locomotive.
There's the White Pass railway steam train, #52.
And right next to it the AT&SF locomotive, #707.
And to the left of that my Christmas steam train.
So, in this room you've seen a lot of tracks and switches and empty boxes.
Maybe you're wondering where are all the trains stored when I'm not running them.
Well, there's a few that are down on the floor of this room but...
Most of my trains are stored out in the garage...
In this little structure that I built just to get them up off the floor...
And stack them vertically to save space.
That's something you wouldn't normally see in my model train videos.
I hope you've enjoyed the tour of my train room and some of this behind-the-scenes stuff.
Next time we'll get back into running some trains!