Stone Rails: Home Page
Welcome to my train website. I've been "into trains" all of my life, toy trains, model trains, and real trains, especially steam locomotives. Over 60+ years I have worked in, or at least "dabbled with" every scale and gauge from tiny Z scale up to 7 1/2" gauge "ride on" trains. On these pages are just a sampling of what I've done in more recent years, because until the eighties, I didn't do much photography, especially close ups of models, and the quality was poor by modern standards because I lacked a good camera.
On my first Christmas, I was given a Marx "mechanical" train set. At age four I was introduced to electric trains with a small American Flyer set, which was added to afterward at Christmas and birthdays. Beyond this I thrived on construction toys. Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, plastic bricks (long before LEGO), Kenner Konstructs, and of course Erector Sets.
In 1958 my professional model builder father decided it was time for me to "move up" to HO scale and "serious trains." In those days, this required building what we would now call very crude kits made of card stock (sometimes with all the freight car graphics printed on them), balsa, white metal castings, and stamped brass. These were generally assembled using the gooey Ambroid Cement and toulene loaded Floquil paints. Early on I got a lot of help from Dad, who it seemed could build nice models of anything, and do it from scratch using whatever materials he had at hand!
On my thirteeth birthday he tore down the small layout he'd built for me for the American Flyer (which had become an HO layout by then) and put a pile of wood and a few hand tools in it's place. I was on my own from then on. By the time I was in my thirties, I was "branching out" into other scales, and by the turn of the 21st Century, I was an experienced "rubber gauger" working comfortably in multiple scales at the same time.
I have authored several magazine articles about G, O, S, and On30, did a basic scratch building series for Garden Railways magazine for six years, did three "guides" for building and customizing S gauge trains, a kit bashing and scratch building series on an S gauge website, and have done a lot of posting on various model railroading web forums.
I have ridden in the cabs of both steam and diesel locomotives, including a memorable ride in East Broad Top's number 15. I have library of railroad history and industry books, some now quite rare, which I draw upon to do much of my writing. Even though I am equally active and knowledgeable with automobiles and racing, both "1/1 th scale" and the various model scales, trains remain my first love. -----Terry "Stumpy" Stone
Welcome to my train website. I've been "into trains" all of my life, toy trains, model trains, and real trains, especially steam locomotives. Over 60+ years I have worked in, or at least "dabbled with" every scale and gauge from tiny Z scale up to 7 1/2" gauge "ride on" trains. On these pages are just a sampling of what I've done in more recent years, because until the eighties, I didn't do much photography, especially close ups of models, and the quality was poor by modern standards because I lacked a good camera.
On my first Christmas, I was given a Marx "mechanical" train set. At age four I was introduced to electric trains with a small American Flyer set, which was added to afterward at Christmas and birthdays. Beyond this I thrived on construction toys. Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, plastic bricks (long before LEGO), Kenner Konstructs, and of course Erector Sets.
In 1958 my professional model builder father decided it was time for me to "move up" to HO scale and "serious trains." In those days, this required building what we would now call very crude kits made of card stock (sometimes with all the freight car graphics printed on them), balsa, white metal castings, and stamped brass. These were generally assembled using the gooey Ambroid Cement and toulene loaded Floquil paints. Early on I got a lot of help from Dad, who it seemed could build nice models of anything, and do it from scratch using whatever materials he had at hand!
On my thirteeth birthday he tore down the small layout he'd built for me for the American Flyer (which had become an HO layout by then) and put a pile of wood and a few hand tools in it's place. I was on my own from then on. By the time I was in my thirties, I was "branching out" into other scales, and by the turn of the 21st Century, I was an experienced "rubber gauger" working comfortably in multiple scales at the same time.
I have authored several magazine articles about G, O, S, and On30, did a basic scratch building series for Garden Railways magazine for six years, did three "guides" for building and customizing S gauge trains, a kit bashing and scratch building series on an S gauge website, and have done a lot of posting on various model railroading web forums.
I have ridden in the cabs of both steam and diesel locomotives, including a memorable ride in East Broad Top's number 15. I have library of railroad history and industry books, some now quite rare, which I draw upon to do much of my writing. Even though I am equally active and knowledgeable with automobiles and racing, both "1/1 th scale" and the various model scales, trains remain my first love. -----Terry "Stumpy" Stone
Yep, I still have it, my first train. This was for my first Christmas and I'm told I was facinated by it going around and around under the Christmas Tree. It was a Marx "mechanical" train set, which means it was what we called a "wind up train." No doubt a base line set, I suspect that Dad got tired of winding it up pretty quickly.
By the time I was three, I'm told that I could wind it up on my own. But the next Christmas an American Flyer set appeared under the tree, and Dad was set free of winding up the Marx. The "wind up" was retired to my grandmother's house where it was available when we visited. It remained there until her death, when I brought it home at last. It's a cheap set, but there isn't enough money to buy it from me!
Contact "Stumpy" at: [email protected] Due to Internet security reasons, please use "Stone Rails" in the subject line. Otherwise the e-mail may be deleted unopened.
OTHER WEBSITES
Slotless Racing: http://slotless.weebly.com
Science Fiction Modeling and Info: http://stumpyzone.weebly.com
Flexible Track Car Toys: http://flexcars.weebly.com
By the time I was three, I'm told that I could wind it up on my own. But the next Christmas an American Flyer set appeared under the tree, and Dad was set free of winding up the Marx. The "wind up" was retired to my grandmother's house where it was available when we visited. It remained there until her death, when I brought it home at last. It's a cheap set, but there isn't enough money to buy it from me!
Contact "Stumpy" at: [email protected] Due to Internet security reasons, please use "Stone Rails" in the subject line. Otherwise the e-mail may be deleted unopened.
OTHER WEBSITES
Slotless Racing: http://slotless.weebly.com
Science Fiction Modeling and Info: http://stumpyzone.weebly.com
Flexible Track Car Toys: http://flexcars.weebly.com