New To Model Railroads. VERY VERY EAGER TO LEARN!!

Hello everyone.

My name is Larry. Im 31yrs old and i live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I have always loved trains since i was a little boy but unfortunately waited until now to actually start getting into it. I actually have my wife to thank for reminding me to start doing this. My previous hobby was Nitro RC Cars. She informed me that i needed a new "LESS EXPENSIVE" hobby. So i told her that i COULD start doing model trains and everything. So she kinda snickered and said "Yeah go ahead. Im sure thats not NEARLY as expensive as the Nitro RC Cars" (Little did she know HEHE). Anyways after we discussed where i would put everything and had my "Hobby Area" selected we went to my local Hobby Store "HobbyTown USA" and started looking at things. Once she aw the prices of the stuff im pretty sure it was then she realized that maybe she should have looked into how much it could possibly cost before agreeing to it. But i also told her it could be something that she could help me with as well. Anyways with all that being said I have started ordering some things online (Ebay, Amazon.com) and also went to my local lumber store and purchased the materials i need to start building my table or (workbench?). I will have all those supplies and will have it built by this weekend. I dont have ALOT of room to build my layout. So right now i am currently making a "Typical" 4x8 table with enough room to add another 4x8 table as well down the road. I will be building in the N Scale due to limited space and majority of the research ive done all suggested with the space i have available that N Scale will be my best bet.
Hopefully that was a decent enough introduction. I am excited to learn from members on here and if anyone has any questions at all please feel free to ask.

 

Hi Larry and welcome aboard. I don't think ANY hobby is inexpensive, but it's great that your wife approved of this new move. I do not model, but I am probably one of a very few on this board who do not. I'm the old twelve inch to the foot steam curmudgeon here. I have, however, read a lot of the modelers conversations, and remember as a kid in 0 gauge, the 4' X 8' is probably a big layout for N gauge. Go to the N gauge forum and I'm sure you will get some valuable advice.

 

Hi Larry, Welcome to the Train Board, glad to have you on board. Another suggestion would be to find a club in the Tulsa area where you and your wife could visit and chat with folks for ideas. I hope that Tulsa has a local hobby shop (LHS) in the area, again for talking, looking, and "drooling". A LHS would be much better for "touchy-feely" and advice before buying than buying blindly from eBay, Amazon, or HobbyTown. Also a LHS could give you information about local clubs.

 

Thank you everyone for the warm welcomes and info about other options on bench work sizes. I chose the 4x8 layout as it seemed to be the "Basic" intro selection to go with. I am def going to be looking around the forum more to get a better idea. Because I was going to get the top to my bench work today but if other options seem to "Make more sense" then I might go with that to start out with like with the door option. I have also thought about doing modular sections and then slowly adding those together. Again ALL good info for me and it is appreciated. I forgot to mention that I build and repair computers as well. I also repair cellphones, tablets, laptops ect. But I hope my experience with computer wiring will help some in wiring up everything in the future I.e lights and track. But again thank you to everyone who has offered some insight. I have been trying to find local train hobbyist in my area to meet up with and learn and share but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any clubs close to me anymore as they have migrated more south of me OKC (Oklahoma City) area. As for my wife's involvement she is pretty artistic and she seems interested in being involved. But not as much as my 4yr old daughter is. Honestly she is part of the reason I also chose to start getting back into trains as we was at our local hobby shop and was looking around when she saw the N Scale buildings and the N scale people and thought they was (cute) I explained to her what they was for and she wanted me to buy the stuff RIGHT AWAY lol. So like my title says I am eager and excited.

 

I have aver visited our local hobby shop. I was able to look around and check out the different scales and such. Unfortunately there isn't anywhere local that I would be able to actually see any models set up to see in action. I wish there was. From what I've been told is that there was a few local clubs in my area awhile back but have since then discontinued(which I was sad to hear that ANY local hobby group discontinue)

 

Well a brief update. I would like to thank those of you who has offered to help me out and donate some of your "Extra" N scale things to me. It really means a lot. I also appreciate you sending them to me and trusting that I am actually going to use them for myself AND NOT TO JUST TURN AROUND AND SELL THEM. I'm still looking for a few other things so if anyone would still like to donate any extra N-Scale stuff I would appreciate it. Scenery stuff, track pieces (Unitrack ect ect) rolling stock and so forth. I am wanting to kind of set it up like the town I used to live in which was Claremore, Oklahoma. If you guys are not familiar with that town (which I'm sure majority aren't.) I would recommend googling it. There are 2 mainline that go through that town CONSTANTLY. So I was wanting to make my layout based on that area. As before I am willing to pay for the shipping if you decide to donate anything. Also the 2 people that have sent stuff to me so far I have told them that I would send what they sent me back once I was able to replace them. They both stated that once I didn't have a use for them that I was to "Pay it forward" and donate it to someone else who will need it FOR FREE. Because that's what I got it for. I don't plan on selling ANYTHING that is sent to me PERIOD!! So if you come across stuff that you could donate please comment below or send me a message and I will provide my address.

Thank you everyone in advance for reading this and even considering parting with some of your stuff and donating it to someone who will APPRECIATE IT AND TAKE CARE OF IT!!


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