I am new to model railroading, and looking to model the "Q" and Frisco lines from/through Quanah, TX. The original QA&P office in town is now the Hardeman County Museum. A few years ago, the museum acquired the HO scale model railroad from Fred Holland modeled after the QA&P short line. It arrived as a pile of track in various lengths cut into pieces, and 15-20 boxes of rolling stock, locomotives (steam and diesel) and scenery most of which was scratch build by Mr. Holland. The museum has ask me to catalogue everything in the boxes, a daunting task, but I thought this would be a way to educate myself in model railroading . My goal is to sort, catalogue, describe, and ascertain the condition. Some of the engines are DC and some are DCC. What do I need for each? There are some older transformers/power packs but none look like they control DCC. I think I will need a test track. What to build? Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Their ultimate goal to to restore the layout but that is going to take lot of effort and no volunteers. Check out Fred Holland QA&P.
Daryl the cheapest way to check DCC equipment would be the use of a device called a Sprog, connected to a section of track, and controlled by a computer through a USB connection running Decoder Pro. Decoder Pro is a program that runs on a computer and can program or run DCC locomotives. The combination of Decoder Pro and the Sprog make programming DCC locomotives easy.
Welcome aboard! The Quanah Route is definitely an interesting end of the Frisco system. You will find plenty of information here on the forum. +1 on the Sprog. I have one to connect my computer to a programming track.
Welcome to the forum. My wife and I live about 85 miles south of you down Highway 6 in Rule, TX. We have a 20' X 20' railroad room that you are welcome to come visit sometime. Feel free to message me through the forum if you would like to talk on the phone regarding your project or come visit.
HI Daryl, welcome to Frisco.org. I was born in Quanah in 1961, lived there several times in the first half of my life. My grandfather was an engineer for the "Q", retired in 1976-ish. There are several items of his on display at the museum nowadays. I have visited Mr. Holland's layout via the internet, was fascinated by the Q depot he scratch-built. Unless the breakdown of Mr. Hollands model railroad was well documented, I do not envy your task of trying to put it back together. I model the QA&P in HO scale as if it never went away, but expanded to El Paso and survives, with more modern power in the time period 1980-mid 1990s style in a 30' x 50' barn here in Grand Junction, CO. As far as a test track, may I recommend a figure 8 type, as it allows you to break-in or test locos and cars on curves in either direction. And in contrast to my esteemed friends here, you do not have to go DCC you can use DC. I still use DC, as do several others on this forum. Bunch of friendly people on this forum, ask questions without hesitation. And bear in mind sometimes it may take several days to get responses to same.
