Growing Our Roster
Considering our First incarnation humble beginning with a Bachmann Big Hauler B&O Royal Blue Passenger set, a simple 4-6-0 engine with tender and two passenger cars, our roster has certainly grown since then. At first we kept with what we knew, 4-6-0 "ten wheeler" engines and passenger cars. Fast forward to the latest Barkyard incarnation where we added our lighting controllers and led strips for effects and remote WiFi control.
Most recently, we've added transition era steam and diesel power and heavyweight passenger equipment. USA Trains had recently revived their F7 line of models, so we stocked up while they were available! They had a package deal for a set of ten heavyweight cars for black Friday, so I snagged the deal while it and they lasted too. Unfortunately, their only steam era offering is an overpriced FEF UP Northern. Yeah, keep it for that price!
Thankfully there were a large number of Aristocraft steam transition era offerings on eBay, including 2-8-2 Mikados and 4-6-2 Pacifics. That had me watching some of the large scale forums where I found not only an Aristocraft B&O Royal Blue Pacific, but a number of heavyweight passenger cars in the same livery. I bought the whole kit and kaboodle as a birthday present to myself!
We added another B&O Pacific and some beautiful heavyweight passenger cars to the roster in 2025.
We added "modern" steam engines to our roster - for pulling the heavyweight passenger cars!
We added a locomotive we always wanted but could no longer find at any price.
We passed on acquiring equipment in the past when it was out of our price range, then plentiful on eBay at the time, only to find those items no longer available at any price later. A good example is the 2-6-6-2 saddle tank Mallet. Back when we were buying log cars and other logging related related items to go with the three truck Shay Ann gifted me for Christmas, that Mallet locomotive was plentiful, both the LGB and Bachmann varieties.
By the time we finally got around to buying one of those Mallets, you guessed it, not a single one to be found! We looked every now and again, but never were able to find them, not a single one! We gave up looking. We added diesels over the past years. And Gramps tank cars and the old style reefer boxcars and more recently, modern 40' and 50' steel boxcars. But still no old timers.
One of the online hobby stores we've purchased from in the past sends the obligatory emails with the occasional sales of pre-owned equipment from time to time. As fate would have it, one of the pre-owned items in their Black Friday sale for 2023 was the LGB 2-6-6-2 Mallet! Now a "Collector's Item", and priced three times what it was previously. We were surprised they still had it in stock by the time we looked, so we jumped on it!
In the past, it was more haphazard though, perusing eBay and filling out our Big Haulers roster. We may have been a bit obsessed with them. That same year Ann gifted me the Shay, I gave her the fancy Virginia & Truckee 4-6-0 she wanted... And half a dozen passenger cars! We have at least a dozen of them and another dozen in plenty of other liveries too. Most of them have our lighting controller installed.
Most of our roster prior to moving to Mount Dora, the First incarnation of our garden railroad, was ten wheelers. Some acquired while we made renovations to our home, like the flea market find. And some between what we call the Nest and the Third (Barkyard) incarnation. We like to say humble beginnings, and indeed they were. Starting with that Bachmann B&O Royal Blue set for the low, low price of $50!
That First incarnation at our previous home in Wekiva was coming together nicely, complete with water feature. Ann bought me a Bachmann Three Truck Shay for Christmas 2013. And I got her the spiffy Bachmann Virginia & Truckee ten wheeler and a set of passenger cars to go with it. That was the extent of our equipment for a long time after...
We installed our own inexpensive, WiFi Remote Controlled lighting in our passenger cars!
There's a whole 'nother story behind our move to Mount Dora, but we'll save that for another place, another time. The big push for all the Bachmann ten wheelers was based on trying to upgrade that busted up, worn out original Royal Blue with new replacement parts from Bachmann. It went from there to Ann's V&T, then the "Tweetsie" one with the green Pennsylvania passenger cars, then making new engines using those drive mechanisms paired with new shells and... You get the idea.
Too many of those Bachmann ten wheelers later we still have engines awaiting assembly from parts. Again, we may have been a bit obsessed with them. Not to worry, the excess makes it easier to decide to try another "Frankenstein" project, like converting one of those 4-6-0s to a 4-8-0 similar to the Strasburg #475. Another kitbash idea is to "reskin" the Bachmann Pennsylvania wood sided center cupola cabeese to become N5C style.
There are plenty of other projects to keep us busy before starting on any of those though.