I have to admit Ive been bit by the standard gauge bug. I was always into O gauge. I have a 5x16 board covered with carpet in my living room that I would put a simple tublar track plan up and just run the trains. No fancy scenery and all that jazz..just some track and trains. All of a sudden I find myself with a nice little assortment of standard gauge engines and cars. I haven't quite figured out whether Im going conventional or command..thats another discussion...matter of fact..probably making it harder than it needs to be...a little bit of both..is probably the answer. My wife has allowed me to extend my layout into an L shape. The 5x16 will extend to a 5.5 x 19 and then an extension of another 5.5 x 18 to form an L (going to 5.5 so I can go with 57" curves from USA track) . I had no idea how I got here with the standard gauge..was it the beauty of the enamel..the size..? My wife has insisted that it makes sense....she tells me that "You never were into the scenery and all that stuff..that board has been built in the family room for years and you haven't done a darn thing with it except put up track and run the trains. You have all these trains and no layout" She continues to tell me that I enjoy trains for the toy aspect and have no intention of building a realistic layout and tinplate seems to scratch the toy aspect of the hobby which I seem to enjoy the most. I believe she's right. Yesterday I was at Sidetrack and Al had the two tone MTH presidential running on his suspended layout. I really enjoyed listening to the metal of that tinplate set. After christmas...Ill begin the extenstion. What is it about SG tinplate that has you hooked?
Heres a picture of my current board.
Thanks!
Sunrise
