Wishlist

My girlfriend asked kindly to “not buy everything so she could get me something for my birthday”. I figured this is as good a place as any to start working on a wishlist, especially since finding specific cars and parts on Amazon is difficult.

But wait! We have this wonderful thing called TroveStar now! Let’s jump the tracks a bit and focus on that for a second!

Okay, back on track.

I don’t expect anyone to purchase anything off this list for me, and I can’t even promise a reward if you do.

I’ll probably be using this for ideas for myself just as much as for others. I’ll start with railroads, which apply to most of the locomotive and rolling stock items. I’ll list specific types of engines and cars after that. Last, I’ll put down scenery, track, and other misc items. When it comes to those, forgive me if I categorize things by scene, but that’s how it’ll make sense to me. Since I’m building modules, it just seems to make sense to build a list for specific modules.

Era and Setting

  • 1970’s, possibly dipping a little into the 1980’s
  • Diesel engines, but on the smaller side, since everything is modules. I feel larger engineers look out of place on what is certainly going to be a small layout for at least the next few years.
  • Maybe a smaller “museum quality” steam engine on display somewhere, or used for tourism if I find a place for it.
  • Metal/steel box cars and other rolling stock
  • Very few old wood boxcars, more for looks than actual use. Likely be very picky and only select specific cars (for example, I picked up a Dubuque reefer and a St. Louis reefer just for hiding on relevant modules).

Railroads

  • Personal favorites are Burlington Northern (BN) and Canadian Pacific (CP). I love the BN green and the CP “Pac-Man” logo, so anytime I can score those, great.
  • In general, anything you’d see from the St. Louis/Iowa area of the Midwest, Westward toward Seattle/Vancouver, and then South to San Francisco, would be acceptable.
  • All of Northern and Western “fallen flags” of BN are acceptable, including Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy (CB&Q), Great Northern (GN), and Northern Pacific (NP).
  • Canadian National (CN) works just as well, including their related brands, mergers, and acquisitions of British Columbia Railway (BCOL), Grand Trunk Western (GTW), Illinois Central (IC), and Wisconsin Central (WC).

Locomotives

  • Switchers!
  • Smaller diesels (think like a GP8 or GP30 or something along those lines, mainly those with 4 axles). The bigger ones just seem out of place.

Rolling Stock

  • Gondolas, since they’re so hard to find on the cheap!
  • Grain hoppers, especially the Canadian ones!
  • If I do end up doing passenger service at some point, I’ll probably end up doing the Great Northern “Empire Builder”. I like the green and orange paint scheme, and the train itself fits pretty closely with my overall locale. So, I ended up acquiring some Northern Pacific cars in their pretty two-tone green, and I think I’m going to go with that. No reason I couldn’t mix in some “Empire Builder” as well, but for now, I’ll focus on the NP’s “Loewy” paint scheme.

Specific Engines and Cars are now being added to the TroveStar wish list, linked above!

Parts

Paint and Decals

Track

  • Kato Unitrack, specifics to come.

Tools

Scenery

Scenery – Scrap Yard

Scenery – Beach

Scenery – Home Downtown

Scenery – River Downtown

Decor