What is Northlandz?

 So far I've done two entries that talked about Train displays that were no longer around in Roadside America and "Railroads in Action". In this blog though, I wanna talk about a train display that's not only still around, but actually got saved. 

It all started in a basement

The story of Northlandz started in 1972 when it's owner Bruce Williams had his first home built. After the construction workers left for the day, Williams would go down to the basement and start creating his own little train layout. 

According to the about us page on Northlandz.com, Williams first started showing off work in 1977, when friends insisted he have a train show for charity. 

Williams would eventually buy land in Flemington NJ, and start to create the building that Northlandz is now in. In the documentary "Some kind of quest", Williams would explain that he would spend a whole day building the current display, with him waking up at 5:30am and ending his work day at 10pm. 

By the time everything was done, Northlandz had 8 miles of track, 200 tunnels, a 35ft canyon, and 400 bridges. 

Not Just a train display 

While trains do take center stage at Northlandz, their not the only attraction. Northlandz also features art pieces that can be seen through out the display. A mini doll museum is featured halfway through the attraction. Finally, there would be a pipe organ that Williams would sometimes play during the day. 

Saved by the business man. 

Earlier in the blog I mentioned how Northlandz was saved. This is thanks to business man Tariq Sohali. According to "Good News Network", Tariq bought the building from Northlandz as he was looking for more warehouse space. Once Tariq saw what was inside, he decided instead of destroying Northlandz, he would save it. 

Northlandz had seen better days by this point. Williams was looking to retire and just couldn't keep up with all the maintenance involved in the display. 

Slowly but surly, the team at Northlandz began to make repairs and changes, some of which can be seen on their Youtube channel. 

 Northlandz has also been taking donations, accepting buildings and trains that can be run on the display. 

While Northlandz still has some repairs to go through, I do appreciate everything the team has done to fix it up, or even improve it. The thing that wins me over with this place is the fact that it was made by one man, and not a team of people like with Minature Wunderland in Hamburg, German. 

As much as I'd like to say I could make a massive train display like this with my eyes closed, I wouldn't know where to start. 

To plan your visit to Northlandz, you can visit their website by clicking here. 

Digital Command vs. Analog: my thoughts

Photo curtesy of Amazon

Photo curtesy of Trains Magazine 

 It's been a while since I've done a good old fashion "response to a video posted on Youtube" blog, and I wanna do anther one today. 

This time, it's not about weather a manufacturer is bad or not, but about how one were to run their trains. 

Sam's Trains released a video that talked about which way people refer to run their trains, analog or digital? 

Now before I get too deep into things, I wanna quickly go over what that means exactly. 

Analog means you plug in your controller, put the train on the track, and run it. No fancy bells or whistles are attached, just you, your train set, and your controller. 

Digital Command means you've got some options for how you can run your trains. You can run them just like you would analog, but you can also run multiple trains at once and control their speed separately, and the thing DCC is most known for: you can control the trains sounds. 

Trains with Digital Command come with sound that include chugging, puffing, and the trains respective horn or whistle. 

So which is more popular then? Well, in Sam's video he did a poll on Youtube that showed that more people prefer to use Analog over digital, but Sam pointed out that there's more to this that meets the eye, and it really depends on who you ask or where. 

I have to agree with Sam on that point. Weather someone wants to use analog or DCC really depends on how they want to operate their train layout. 

Some people might want DCC for their railroad for the sound and to add realism. Others may just stick to having analog because they have older engines in their collection and model trains coming with realistic sound is a "take it or leave" it type of deal for them. 

Personally, as much as I like trains that have sound, I do mostly want to run digital. As of the time of this blog, I mostly have trains that run analog, as they have no fancy sound controls or even a chip inside them for that to be a thing. 

I'm also still on the hunt to gather up enough money for Bachmann's EZ command controller. 

Yes guys, I know I'm gonna sound like a Bachmann fan boy for saying this, but A: I do have a lot of EZ track, and in turn EZ power track, and B: At least as someone outside looking in the EZ digital command seems very simple. 

The most complicated part of the process is assigning the train (or trains if your running both at the same time or a double header), to your controller, and that for the most part is just pressing some buttons down for a couple of seconds until the engine scoots up a bit (which is a sign that the engine has been connected to the controller according to Bachmann. 

One final thing I will add is that I do appreciate those manufacturers who make trains that can be run by analog or DCC. As I've stated before, I don't have a lot of DCC trains or the Bachmann EZ Digital Command, so it's nice to see certain trains come with an option of being run by regular old analog, or DCC. 

What are your guys thoughts? Do you run trains by analog, or DCC? 

Bachmann 2002 catalog overview

 For those who are wondering, part of the reason why I've been doing blogs on train catalogs is because I have a huge soft spot for them. I remember spending countless hours looking at train catalogs as a kid, and still to this day I like to read them over and see what train sets, train cars, and other accessories are being offered. 

My last blog about a Bachmann catalog was from their 1997 catalog when Bachmann was getting out of the "toy train" phase, and offering more reliable products. 

So, 5 years down the road, what did Bachmann have to offer in the 2002 catalog? Like the 1997 blog, I wont' be going over everything, but just things that I found interesting. If you want to check out the blog yourself, a user by the name of Radio guy on the Bachmann's train forum has some PDF's of their old catalogs. 

The catalog starts off with Thomas and his railway friends. I do think getting the rights to Thomas and friends (for HO scale) was a smart move for Bachmann. A good portion of kids got into trains because of the blue tank engine, and Bachmann's ability to makes sets for Thomas clearly has brought in a decent amount of revenue as their still doing it to this day. 

Right after Thomas is The Hogwarts Express train set, which included Weasley's flying car and platform 9 and 3 quarters. 

I know interest in Harry Potter has gone down, but I still wish Bachmann would try to do this train set again. It kills me how the only way to get this train set now (outside of Hornby and Ebay) is via Bradford Exchange. 

No offense Bradford, but I really don't want to pay $88 a month for the Hogwarts Express. In fact I'd rather not pay any train sets for 4 low monthly payments (even at the price of train sets these days). 

I'm normally a fan of Bachmann's Christmas train sets, but the North Pole Express is a bit of a miss in my eyes. 

I get what you were trying to go for Bachmann, but an EMD diesel in the same scheme as the Santa Fe but with red and green just doesn't look that great to me. The set also feels more like a repaint of Bachmann starter set featuring the Santa Fe EMD but with a Christmas theme. 

I'm open to Bachmann doing anther diesel Christmas train set, but not like this one...

"The Lafayette", "John Bull" and "DeWitt Clinton" were offered in this catalog. For those who aren't railroad experts, these 3 trains are one of the earliest examples of steam locomotives. 

As I mentioned in the Bachmann 2025 mid-year announcements blog, the DeWitt Clinton is making a comeback, with Bachmann making the train set available for purchase again. Hopefully "The Lafayette" and "John Bull" aren't too far behind. 

Over in N-scale, Bachmann has the McKinley Explorer, though this train set is different from it's HO scale counterpart, with an EMD F3 leading the way alongside an unpowered one. 

I do wish Bachmann had continued to sell this set. The Alaska EMD F3 does look pretty nice, and I'd love to give the set a few extra cars and a powered EMD F3 to run around a winter scene layout. 

The Explorer is anther train set that I'd like to see make a comeback, though with two powered Santa Fe's instead of one. 

Hey why not Bachmann? You already have a massive steam train set, why not add a massive diesel train set to the mix? 

Over in G scale is something a bit surreal, a "Polar Express" train set not made by Lionel. 

Yes I know, the train and cars clearly aren't the ones same as the one in the movie, but I'll give Bachman some credit. Lionel has pretty much held onto the Polar Express licenses basically since the movie came out, and Bachmann did beat Lionel to the punch with a G scale Polar Express train set, as this train set came out way before the Battery operated one. 

I'm still waiting for Bachmann to bring back some of their older G scale train sets, including "The Great Northern" and "Bumble Bee." 

Yes Bachmann I know, your busy making modern cars and Diesels for G-scale which honestly isn't that bad of an idea as G scale still is fairly popular, but for Pete Sakes can you offer a train set that isn't the "Night Before Christmas"? 

In the back of the catalog we go onto Bachmann's Spectrum line. As a quick refresher, Bachmann's Spectrum line was a high end line of trains that Bachmann sold with a great amount of detail put in. While the line isn't around anymore, Bachmann still sells and makes trains that would be considered a part of the Spectrum line. 

One of those trains being the Acela Express. 

I really do like Bachmann's Acela Express set. It really takes the Amtrack Acela passenger train and shrinks it down into HO scale with a decent amount of details and more to come in the future. 

I wouldn't mind Bachmann reselling some of the 2-8-0 passenger trains again. I do have a soft spot for the 2-8-0, and while I'm more of a smooth streamline passenger car guy, I do like a well detailed Heavyweight passenger car. 

Alongside the Acela in N-scale, some of Bachmann's N-scale spectrum train sets look pretty nice too. 

And now for the On30 trains, which Bachmann stated were made with Department 56 like villages in mind. 

I can't exactly argue with that. I've always felt as though Department 56 and Lemax's houses were around the size of O scale buildings. I still do wish we'd get more HO scale Christmas buildings, but I'm fine with going out and buying an On30 train set...from Bachmann, not Bradford...

The Wonderland Express may not look like a Christmas train at first glance, but the more you look at it, the more it seems to stand out. To me it's just a beautiful train. It's darker colors work well, and I'd love to see the train travel around a well lit up Christmas village with the lights dimmed. 

The North Pole express is anther train set that looks nice. It's got brighter colors then the Wonderland Express, and the reef decorations on the side of the passenger cars look nice. 

Final thoughts: 

Anther reason why I like going over Bachmann's older catalogs is because it's nice to see how far they've come. Yes guys, I know I'm sounding a bit like a broken record in regards to how far Bachmann has come from toyetic train company to serious powerhouse, but outside of selling more detailed models, I think it was wise for Bachmann to also provide a decent selection of train sets for everyone. 

From Thomas and friends for the younger ones, to On30 train sets for those who want a train running around their village but don't have much room for an O gauge one, I feel like it's these decisions alongside the more detailed models that really helped Bachmann become more and more of a household name while compotators like "Tyco" and "LifeLike" fell to the wayside.