The "More Than Just HO, HO, HO" Story

Hand-made row houses which is where my friend Jerry lived when
he was a child.  You can see him playing in front of his house while
his bike sits along the curb in front of the Yellow Cab.

It was an ordinary day.  Standing in front of my childhood friend Jerry's home on Manheim Ave.  Place seems so much smaller than it did when I was a child.  Probably because it is 1:87 scale!  Yep, it really is that small, since I am standing in Jerry's basement looking at his HO train yard and his old home is part of the layout.  I wrote a story recently detailing Jerry's new addition to his train collection, a pair of diesel-electric engines, but his train yard is more, much more, than the trains that run on the nickel silver tracks.  

A Pennsylvania Railroad electric engine pulls out of
Lancaster Train Station on this HO train yard.

First, I should clear up what HO really means.  When I was a child my dad bought me a Lionel Train set for a Christmas gift when I was 10 years old.  Back in the 1950s "O" gauge miniature railroads, which was what the Lionel set was, were the rage, but in the 1960's HO began to challenge the market dominance of "O" gauge.  The HO designation came about since it's scale is about half that of "O" scale.  

Some of Jerry's many trays of supplies he uses on his train yard.

HO scale layouts are more suited for smaller spaces and tend to cost much less than the "O" scale layouts.  HO trains run on two-rail track which is powered by direct-current.  The locomotives, rolling stock (cars and carriages), buildings and scenery are made by quite a few manufactures in a variety of price brackets.  That being said, Jerry likes to make all his buildings as well as much of his scenery.  He has a few kit buildings which he bought, but most of his structures are hand-crafted such as the entire row of homes where he grew up in Lancaster, PA.  

The scene behind the trains is one of the few things on
Jerry's train yard that he didn't make himself. 

He buys materials to make these structures from hobby shops and catalogues.  He also uses items found in nature to help make his scenery for his train yard.  His entire catenary system (wires above the train tracks that are needed for  real electric engines) is hand-made and actually can be used to run his electric locomotives.  He currently is working on a few more buildings that surrounded his neighborhood near Manheim Ave. which was a block from my childhood home as well as a block from the Lancaster Train Station.  Could be where he began his lifelong love affair with trains.  I have included photos of some of my favorite parts of his train yard so you can see how detailed and realistic an HO scale train yard can be.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - click on photos to enlarge.

A car dealership under construction. 

Here a train passes by a church and under a covered bridge, all hand-made.

A woman hangs up wash while her children play nearby.

The old swimming hole.

Hand-made garage with a 1:87 scale red truck similar to Jerry's own real-life truck standing in front of the garage door.

Workers work on a new roof while another worker creates shingles under the porch.

Jerry's Circus has the elephants raising the Bigtop.

More elephants take a break in the shade.

A casting facility that was close to our homes.  It was leveled years ago, but brought back to life in Jerry's train yard. 

People wait for the train at Lancaster Train Station's platform #2.

The "Two Longs, Two Shorts, Two Longs" Story

The lead diesel-electric engine exits the engine house on Jerry's layout.
Click on photos to enlarge them.

It was an ordinary day.  Pushing the button on the controller as the train approached the crossing; two longs on the horn followed by two shorts, followed by two longs.  I'm running Jerry's two new engines that he had just unpacked; #7608 and #7609.  

The detail, including the engineer, is amazing in HO scale.

These HO scale engines are so realistic that if you closed your eyes and listened to the horn or bell you'd swear you were sitting in your car at a train crossing listening to a real train approaching.  Jerry's engines are a matching pair of diesel-electric engines that simulate the 1957 to 1958 General Motors Electro Motive Division engines that were manufactured for the Pennsylvania Railroad.  

The controller is used for throttle, lights and sound.

The detail on the miniature engines is amazing with lights, railings and even bolts that you would swear are real.  There is even an engineer sitting inside the lighted cab running the engine.  Each engine has six axles with two wheels each in order to yield greater pulling power with more surface touching the rails.  

The twin engines pull the train past
the reconstructed Lancaster Train Station.

With two engines, one facing backwards, pulling the load it can pull a greater amount of cars than one engine is capable of pulling.  The engines have motors powered with diesel fuel that turn a generator that makes electricity that powers the wheels; that is in real life.  On these miniature engines the power is supplied by direct current operated by a hand-held controller.  The controller acts as a throttle to run the engines as well as a device to add lighting and sound to the engine.  I pushed and held the #2 on the controller to activate the horn while the #1 activated a bell sound that would be used when heading into the station.  A few other things the controller could do were: #3 - coupler clanger, #4 - simulate an air compressor, #5 - revving up the engine, #6 - revving the engine down, #7 - illuminate auxiliary lights, #8 - mute all sounds, #9 - diesel engine start-up.  

#7609 leads the train along the rails on Jerry's HO layout.

When Jerry unpacked his new engines he had to program them before operating them and had to set the one engine to run in reverse since the two engineers face in different directions when they run tandem.  The sound, as I said before, is authentic train noises.  Jerry has a friend who owns a business where he records real locomotive sounds and digitizes the sounds then sells the digital sounds to model train manufacturers.  

This engine is an electric engine. The rear pantograph is
raised to get power from the overhead catenary wires.
Jerry has a catenary system throughout his entire layout
so that he can, if he wishes, run his electric engines using
overhead power.

And, each type of engine has different sounds.  The older steam engines have an entirely different set of sounds than the new engines Jerry just got.  The Electric engines have a different sound than the diesel-electric.  So to have a real authentic train layout you need to have a few of each type of engines on your layout and Jerry has some of all types.  Fun to hear the differences in the engine noise as it would be if you were sitting on a bench in a train station watching the real engines pass through.  Well, I have to get back to work and back the dual engines onto a siding and pick up a dozen or more car carriers so I can take them around the small town at the other end of Jerry's layout.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.