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HO Trains
The Layout
The Layout is 38' wide by 12' deep. The Layout was built with Atlas HO code 83 tracks: Crossings, Switches and Super-Flex. There are 39 Switches and 3 Crossings. The software that controls the tracks is called JMRI. It's a very powerful yet free software that allows more than you can handle. The Track is divided into 71 sectors, each controlled by a block sector. The name and position of trains are always displayed on the Layout Monitor.
An idle train is usually in a blue sector.
Pink defines the end of the track so that a train can be stopped right there before it goes off track.
If a train moves from sector 1 to sector 2, sector 1 goes from red to gray and sector 2 from gray to red. The best thing is that programs can be written in Python to control each train automatically and launch various itineraries (as long as they do not collide – Yeah! Right! Lot of fun!)
The “New” Trains
Acela
TGV-POS, TGV
ICN
ICE
Shinkansen
Got it from a shop in East Jesus in Tokyo !
CRH
Got it from a shop in West Mao in Hong-Kong !
Thalys
Frecciarossa
The “Older” Trains
The Orient Express
The TEE (Trans Europe Express) looping around other trains
The Talgo, a French/Spanish train which, because the Spanish and the French gauges are not the same, had the particularity of being adjusted automatically :
The Capitole: Paris – Toulouse
The "Corail" Train
Several locomotives are Steam: P141, Lematec P231 (black), one P241 and a second P231 (green) with smoke and sound.
Three railcars: Lufhansa Express Rail, Autorail X2700 and Micheline (the railcar of my youth with sound!)
Three French Electric Locomotives: 2D2 (see Talgo above), BB-9004 and CC-7107, both world speed record @ 222 mph (331 km/h) in 1955.
Two Diesel Locomotives: Lematec 060DB (had the privilege to start the real one when I was 11 years old!) and a 040DE.
Other Photos
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