Go West

When Dave and I were salvaging and cleaning what was left of my grandfather's model railroad, we discovered there were many items that had an Old West theme to them. In fact, there were enough to at least fill one half of one side of our layout.

During one of our early designs, we decided to do just that. The result was a pleasant surprise and even though our skills were pretty raw at the time, the design turned out very well.

Dave named the town Tuco, after a character from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Tuco comes complete with a couple of saloons, a doctor's office, a general store, a gun shop, a dentist’s office, sheriff’s office, cemetery and saw mill.

Our goal in the future is to dedicate one whole side of our layout to an Old West theme. It's going to take some time before we collect enough items to do that. We are hoping to have enough in about two years.

Until then, I hope you enjoy the photos.

Going Hollywood

As you have noticed by now, the D&P Railroad has a lot of vehicles. Dave and I believe this helps with the realism of our layout. We just about every make of car you can think of, but I'll go into that in a future post.

Today, I want focus on five unique cars. They are cars that will take you back to some of your favorite movies. These cars are brought to us by Reel Rides.




Perhaps our favorite car is the 1981 Cadillac from the movie Casino. For those that have seen the movie, this is the car that saved Sam "Ace" Rothstein towards the end of the film. In this photo, you can see Ace getting into his car.





Another recognizable auto would be the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am featured in Smokey and The Bandit. You can see The Bandit following closely behind old Snowman now.




Next we have the 1967 Plymouth Belvedere GTX as featured in the classic Tommy Boy. Ours is in a little better shape than the one in the movie. It's the blue car.






Our next Reel Ride is one of my personal favorites. It's the 1970 Pontiac GTO the Judge from the film Dazed and Confused. You may remember this as the car Matthew McConaughey's character David Wooderson drives. He has one of the best lines ever in a movie. "That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age." The the orange car driving down the street.


Sticking with Dazed and Confused, next up is the 1972 Chevy C10 Pickup Truck the seniors use to terrorize the freshmen.






We also have the 1958 356A Porsche Speedster Convertible featured in Top Gun, but we have so many Porsche's, it was difficult to find the right one. I think it's somewhere in Souva City. It's a lot like the one next to the Chevy truck, but it's black.

Dave and I are waiting for Reel Riders to come out with the best movie car ever, the De Lorean DMC-12 as featured in our favorite movie back to the Future.

Marty McFly: "Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?"
Dr. Emmett Brown: "The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"

Trust me, if they come out with a 1:87 DeLorean, we'll be one of the first to have it.

Next week, we'll take at look back at the Old West layout we had early on. In the coming weeks, we'll feature all the different vehicles that make the D&P Railroad come to life. We'll also show you how to put more detail into a layout. That and much more will be coming in the next few weeks.