Our hobby has many facets, but like you Gandy, structure building is my favorite. I tend to scratch build or kit bash at least half of those structues.

love that trolley!

kzbin.infowv3pRWbz_u8?si=hImAuan5v6inxiPs

Sounds like a great modeling project, Gandy.

I'm looking forward to seeing that Engine House Kit assembled sometime down the road, Gandy.

I love the 'Mercury Living Presence' version of the 1812 overture! :)

Interesting background you have there Gandy, thanks for sharing.

Gandy, first of all, many thanks for the 'shout-out'! Now, how did I get into/back into the hobby? My path was similar to what you described in the beginning of this video. My maternal Grandfather had worked for the Erie RR back in NJ. He used his lifetime pass to take us grandkids on the train down to the Erie docks on the Hudson River. Something like that stays in your memory for sure. Dad, coming back from the war dug his Lionel engine and cars out, added a post-war steam loco, and had a 4'x8' layout that he set up at Christmas every year. The Christmas Tree was mounted in the middle of the layout. In grammar school and early high school, I built a 4'x8' layout in our basement with those Lionel trains. Then came cars, girls, college, marriage, and kids. In the mid-70's I built a 4'x8' Lionel layout for our sons in the basement of a house we moved into in 1975. We took that down when they entered H.S. Fast forward to the Christmas season of 1999-2000. Our family, including my mom and dad, visited Northlandz, a large HO scale layout in New Jersey. www.northlandz.com After that visit, both my father and I got back into the hobby - both building HO layouts in our respective basements. (Dad was 80 at the time.) And there we go. I had a nice layout back in NJ and have shared videos of that on my KZbin channel. Now that we moved to Michigan, I am rebuilding a layout in HO and HOn3.

It was nice of the town manager to pass that train set on to you, Gandy.

Thanks for the update, Gandy. Seeing those the way those stairs were constructed brings Rube Goldberg to mind.🙂

Having the Lionel go around the entire room will gain you a lot more trackage then a table Top. Having it not is deep is no problem. You are using o27 track I think, I think it’s important to be able to reach it

Thanks for the update, Gandy. Boy, you and your wife have a lot of irons in the fire for sure. However, it is clear that you need to address what the dampness has done in the basement for sure. I'm looking forward to future updates.

Don’t be sad about the old layout. New one is going to kick the old ones ass Plus the renoed basement and L Shape you will be way more happy. For cleaning the cars You take the wheels out of the trucks And use a toothbrush under water, make sure you dry it off with a towel. There’s most likely hair in the trucks. Either way they have to be taken apart if they don’t roll. Look at too many hobbies Jeremy and classic model trains channels here on KZbin. They work on Lionel and flyer and they show all the techniques of restoring old stuff like we would. Amazing guys. There’s a primer for the moisture you can use. For different situations the brand is called zinsser. I used it a couple times it deals your concrete. They have many different types.

I am an ex-RAN(Royal Australian Navy) firefighter veteran here in Australia and know all too much about the things that go on with us. It is also hard here in Australia as veterans are not as easily/well looked after or thought about as much as they are over there.. you are lucky in that way over there as there is a lot of talk and care for your veterans as here it is still something on the down low and it took me many many years to find the help. I got out in 1992 and finally got help and an advocate in 2022, before that, I knew of the RSL but thought that was mainly for older vets who fought in wars and mainly for the Army not all of the services as it mainly talks about the army personnel, not the other 2 services. There was no information given or spoken about when I got out and it is only recently highlighted over the past 10 or so years and there is still not a lot of help as most of it is just referral services to another referral service which is a joke. And because I served a specific time period there are only minimum services that I can access whereas if I served different times I would have access to all of the services that are available to vets, which to me is yet another joke.. we are all the same people who served our countries but only get specific services due to the time period of service. You are also fortunate to have a wife and family to support you as I am a single guy and have been for most of my life during and after service. I am presently designing a new layout and have a temporary one in use that I purchased second-hand, just to have something to run trains on while I create the new one.. I am operating HO and OO scale and aiming more to the steam era and not going to be prototypical at all..I just run what I like haha... 99% of my stuff is second-hand (much cheaper than new) and sourced from eBay, gumtree and marketplace.

Enjoyed listening and watching you. Love Mom

Nice workshop and very nicely organized, unlike my garage which just has stuff (I was thinking of a different S word) every where :(

Love the Amish Shed, Gandy. What a great work area! I look forward to your return to a regular posting schedule in the fall.

GANDY DANCERS ARE ONLY BLACK MEN. WHITE MEN WERE THE CAPTAINS. THAT'S AMERICAN HISTORY.

You've once again shown that model railroading "can be fun", Gandy.

And no mention of the black men who started this. Wow. Thiefs!!

We unfortunately just caught the tail end,or is it a caboose?,of your demo in VB yesterday. Hopefully you will host another in the future. Glad to know there are mrr's around these parts. Keep up the good work,I'll try to catch you at the farmers market some day. Have a good sunday.

Nicely done, Gandy. Nicely Done!

[thank, you for youre great helpful video]👍

The woodcutter's cabin scene looks very good, Gandy.

Gandy, I'm glad that you found that video of mine helpful. Very nicely executed! That is a fine looking evergreen tree.

Hey, I've borrowed a few of your ideas, so you should get the credit.

A great way to let the grandkids know more about you, Gandy. Thanks for the shout out!

Nice job on that old kit, Gandy.

10$ bag of tile grout for dirt 10$ bag of recycled rubber for rocks 10$ bag of playsand I have all of these in their own 5 gallon pail and that is the cheapest scenery materials you can buy.

Model trees are nearly always made too small by modelers. E.g., a Silver Maple, a relatively common tree around here, and not especially large or small, is about 60-80' tall at maturity. In O scale, that would be 15 - 20" tall. I've never seen anyone do trees that are that big relative to the primary subject of their scenes. (I don't do model RR anymore, mostly figure and vehicle modeling, but the same thing happens in both.) As you note, though, trees are mostly fractal, so they tend to look similar regardless of scale. Interestingly (at least to me), people tend to do cars too large relative to people. (It's common for people to use 1:43 vehicles with figures that are generally scaled at something like 1:64.) I would find it fascinating to see a G scale layout with a couple of hundred 4' tall model trees, though.

A good discussion on scale, Gandy.

Love it!

Nice job on that tree armature, Gandy.

3d printer Make detail parts for Pennies

I enjoyed the overview of the layout. That sign for Castaway is going to look great. Now, I have to go collect some appropriate tree bark it seems.🙂

Enjoyed it!

I chuckled at the "foot hills". Can't wait to see the final scene. I applaud your willingness/desire to restore that family heirloom.

Keep those 'old school' techniques coming!

There is nothing wrong with "old school", Gandy.

I always enjoy the commentary that you provide as you work. I'm a fan of pastel 'sticks' as well and use them often in my weathering.

Nice idea coating the foam with plaster. I hope that you are on the mend!

Ever notice that shop kitty decides where ever your working is the perfect place to relax.

Both the doors and loading docks look good. Kudos for showing your wife's hobby as well! In my case my wife's hobby is knitting. She is currenlty working on a Christmas Stocking for our youngest Great Grand Child. Good luck with the upcoming surgery.

😥 *Promo sm*

Thanks for sharing this.

Thanks for helping to promote the hobby, Gandy.

We bought new wireless microphones and started using my wife's tablet instead of the video camera. Lighting is the same. We both liked the results with her tablet, so I'm going to continue using it.

I'm lucky that we have a Michael's, Hobby Lobby, and JoAnn's all within a half hour of us. BTW, are you using the same camera and lighting as usual? This video is extremely clear and bright!

Very neat and I'm impressed with your skills I was wondering what scale you model?

Scratch building windows with that many mullions takes a lot of patience and steady hands. You see to have both! I've learned to 'trust my eyes' when modeling. Often the outcome looks better than when I carefully measure everything.