Model Railroading in the bus.

FawnaFox

Advanced Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2025
Posts
32
Location
Tampa
Hi,
I'd like to just discuss the model railroading on a school bus topic. I plan on having a 10x2 desk that you can lift a cover that contains the railroad. Is that a good idea? I'd like to hear your opinions/experiences with model railroading and living on the road!
 
Would be a first for me. Assuming your cars are secured while driving, I don't see why it wouldn't work.
 
No toy trains in my bus. I use the bus to go to the railroad and play with the real thing. :)

We did move a railroad car( old C&O horse car) full of HO gauge model trains without any problems, but that was also a short distance and on air ride. My concern would be how rough does your bus ride? If you have air suspension that will help. If springs then you could re spring based on your finished weight. As far as the layout the less plaster and other hard brittle materials you use the better. Track and buildings should be no problem.
 
My bus rides on air, It's a surprisingly smooth ride, even empty.
No toy trains in my bus. I use the bus to go to the railroad and play with the real thing. :)

We did move a railroad car( old C&O horse car) full of HO gauge model trains without any problems, but that was also a short distance and on air ride. My concern would be how rough does your bus ride? If you have air suspension that will help. If springs then you could re spring based on your finished weight. As far as the layout the less plaster and other hard brittle materials you use the better. Track and buildings should be no problem.
 
The only cool thing I have from my childhood is my Original NES, Toaster model from 1985. It still works, and I've actually upgraded it over the years. There was a short time you could buy an HDMI daughter board upgrade which requires you de-solder the CPU and PPU of the Nintendo, and plug those chips into a new board with a ribbon cable that goes to the HDMI daughter board. it bypasses the old RF modulator and uses the pure digital signal from the CPU/PPU, and you can play the old games in 8K if you want using an HDMI Cable. I plan to have a station space for the Nintendo on my travels. I've also recently added USB, and Bluetooth to the Nintendo. That upgrade came out last year for it and makes use of the expansion port underneath which was never used by Nintendo, so now I can use bluetooth or USB controllers on my games.

It's really amazing to take such old tech and modify it and modernize it and carry something that gave you so much fun as a kid with you throughout your whole life, and it grows up and changes with you. I plan to keep that thing running till i'm 80 years old.
 

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see what you did there.... now i had to dig into my storage and look. when i was young, my dad had a 4x8 railroad in my room that folded up against the wall. here is the only remains of it now. that would have been circa 1970.
 

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