Howdy!

Growing up in Texas, I was greatly influenced by the beautiful scarlet and gray locomotives of the Southern Pacific passing near my home.  I remember almost crying when I heard they were acquired by Union Pacific.  So naturally when I became serious about modeling, I gravitated towards the friendly SP.  However, I have always been charmed by the colorful paint schemes and beautiful scenery of the more northeastern rail lines.  The Chessie system I feel is the most colorful of them, and easy to research to boot.

My ultimate goal for the hobby is to build a large N scale layout based on the Southern Pacific Lines routes from Beaumont, to Houston, then Dallas in Texas.  Running long trains across great expanses of track is one of the best parts of model railroading to me.  However, due to my student status, I cannot begin building this grand dream until I graduate (soon hopefully) and settle down.  Now, my current layout does not allow me to run multiple, long trains over long distances, so I started looking for other options.  That is when I found a local HO club with a large layout and friendly folk, so I signed up.  Since their layout is freelanced, I have no dedication to modeling the SP, and can let my northeast tendencies take over.  It also works well as I started off the hobby in HO and have a lot of rolling stock left from the early years.

As a college student, I understand the constraints of finances on the modeling world.  Loans, rent, tuition, food and other things are very demanding on the pocketbook.  Fortunately I found a part time job thanks to my girl, and I can afford these things with a little leftover to fuel my passion for trains.  In this blog, I will be covering my mediocre attempts to be a decent modeler in both scales.  In N scale, I will be showcasing the work on my modest 3' x 5' layout, and in HO the work on my locomotive, rolling stock, and possible modules.  As for now, I have spoken enough.  Feel free to leave criticisms, and contact me wtih  questions, etc.  The point of this blog is share my opinions and ideas, and you are welcome to do the same.