Fourfouro

NEWS 6/16/04 - Added my Shay project 1/25/05 - Added Bachmann 4-4-0 wheel fix 8/22/05 - Added Christmas layout 2004 12/20/05 - Added Kentucky Railroad Museum pics 12/20/05 - Added Steamtown PA. pics 12/27/05 - Added more tourist sites. 1/15/06 - Added HO EZ Track siding page

4/20/2002 Welcome to my Model Railroad site. I'm in the process of building a 19th Century HO model railroad layout. While this site will be mostly about my layout, the Fort Michael and Shelby Station Railroad, I'll be putting up stuff about model railroading in general (concentrating on 19th Century HO stuff), my "trials and errors" in building my layout, some tips and things I have learned, my experiments, and pictures of tourist railroads I've visited. Terry Toenges Update 11/20/2005 As of October of this year, I switched over from HO (1/87 scale) to On30 (1/48 scale) which is O scale equipment which runs on HO track. It is called "narrow gauge". The "30" means 30 inches wide in real life. Standard track is 4' 8 1/2" in real life.

This is a photo of my turntable (after I had just gotten it.) I had set it in place to experiment with the track arrangement around it. The locomotives around it (counter-clockwise from 8 o'clock) are: 0-4-0 British made by Playset, 2 Bachmann 4-4-0's, Mantua 4-6-0 (black), 2 Bachmann 4-4-0's, Lifelike old time teakettle 0-4-0 (upper right with 2 ore cars.), Mantua 4-6-0 (yellow), IHC 4-4-0, Bachmann 4-4-0,  and a Bachmann 4-4-0 on the turntable.

The name Fourfouro comes from the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement that was common on steam locomotives in the mid to late 1800's. This arrangement was also called an "American". Back in the 1800's, a guy named Whyte developed a system to classify locomotives. He used the front wheels, the big driver wheels in the middle, and the rear wheels. Thus, 4-4-0 means 4 small front wheels, 4 big driver wheels, and 0 back wheels. A 2-8-2 would mean 2 in front, 8 in the middle and 2 in back. These classes also had names: 4-4-0 was an American, 2-6-0 was a mogul, and  4-6-0 was a ten wheeler, and on up the line. As you can tell, my favorites are the Americans.

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You are here - Fourfouro Go To - My layout in progress Updated 3/1/2004 Go To - Layout plans Go To - Christmas layouts Updated 11/24//2006 Bachmann HO/On30 tips - EZ Track sidings New 1/15/06 Train projects - My MDC Shay New 6/16/04 Train projects - Bachmann New 1/25/05 Tourist railroads and museumsUpdated 12/22/05 Link

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Email - Fourfouro@sarget.com

My pages,  pictures, and text - Copyright 1999 - Terry Toenges

Link to Sarge T's website