I thought it might be fun to find out about how we all started in Model Railroading, Where we are now, And what we plan for the future. I started with an O-Gauge Lionel 3-rail set that I kept under my bed. I don't remember exactly where that set went, but when you are little things have a way of disappearing. As a young teen I was into HO-Scale and built a 4'x8' layout that lasted a couple years. It was the only layout I can say I EVER completed. All buildings were lit, I had those cheesy airbrushed styrofoam mountains, and that green dyed sawdust for groundcover. It was a blast! It ended up in the local creek as the roof of a fort neighborhood kids built to avoid our parents. In my mid 20's I discovered N-Scale, and have been with it ever since. I had built 4 layouts before joining an N-Trak club in the 80's. I jumped on the DCC bandwagon in the 90's. I still model modular, but not N-Trak. I have dreams of building a Train Shed in the back yard and getting my trackwork right some day for a prototypical NP layout. I have often thought of defecting to Z-Scale, but there is just not enough stuff available yet!
Began May this year. First layout ever. Learning a lot, having fun, and with DCC as part of the mix, well, it's a joy running those trains. Pics on the site. I have never even attempted block wiring so I'm behind the curve on that aspect, but until I need detection or transponding I don't need it! This is really fun.
My first train set was a Tyco HO Shifter freight set, with an 0-4-0, three cars and a caboose, that I received almost 30 years ago. I ran that train until it nearly wore out! I built a railroad in a building that my father made for me and my siblings, but I ended up taking it over, except for the freezer I had to share room with. I still have that engine, now with a new motor, and two of the cars. They kind of blend in with all the other engines and cars I've acquired over the years! My hobby has helped my start three different businesses: a custom model railroad construction company, and two different hobby stores, the second of which has moved with me to Eastern Oregon. I'm currently determining the direction my business will take, whether to open another hobby store (in an economically-depressed area) or to start selling custom-painted and limited-run cars and engines. Comments? Currently, I'm building a 6'x8' switching railroad that I started about six years ago, but never had the room to set up. I'm getting a lot of help from my kids, so I'm also planning a 9'x10' O gauge railroad to keep them busy. Next summer, when the weather gets warmer, I've got a spot set aside for a garden railroad. and I'm planning a 10'x20' HO railroad, based on the Oregon Trunk between Redmond and Madras. Maybe it will get built one of these days! Pat
It all started with a sign. I was walking down the street one afternoon in May and saw a sign that said "Model Train Show Today" and since it sounded more interesting than going home I went in. I was instantly hooked. I'm still a member of that club and looking forward to another busy open house season as a host. My first layout was in the room I was renting in a old Victorian house in Bellingham and it went through several interations until in my final year there I was sleeping in the closet to make more room for the trains. The layout came down when I went to work on the boats and I did all my running at the club layout during the rare occasions I was home. In the middle of last year I bought a house and shortly thereafter quit the boats, and so I'm slowly bilding a layout in my garage. I've got 15 by 18 feet and am building a modified loop design layout in it. At the moment I've got the bulk of my cork down and am trying to find the money to order track. Until then, my time is going into building custom loads and building structures. One of these days I'll "borrow" the digital camera again and post some photos of the layout.
My start in model railroading started in fire nd destruction. I almost died! Well not quite but it makes the story sound better. It was when I was at secondary school in England. The school caught on fire so we were all sent home. I was actually i a room right above the fire but I just asumed it was a fire drill untill I got out and was told otherwise. We were told that if we lived ear by we could go home otherwise we would have to wait for 3 hours for our busses to come. I didn't live close so I went hoe with a freind. At his house up in the attic he had a OO scale train set which is how I got interested. When I moved to canada I finally had space to start building my own although I know now that not enough space really isn't a good reason not to have a layout.
Hi pray59. Its been awhile since i posted. i started with a Lionel HO set built on a 4'x 8' top that could be raised up and down from the wall (like a fold up bed). i still have the set, thou in very rough shape. The set consisted of a GP 7, a rocket car, helicopter car, exploding freight car, dumping log and coal car and a caboose. The rocket car could shoot the freight car, and the helicopter car could release the heli to fly up. It was a neat set. That was my first train set, but i have been modeling since the age of 7. i use to build model airplanes. Then ships and finally cars. i even have my Aurora model motoring set. 12 yrs. ago i got back into modeling trains with a fair size layout in a small space. Spagetti bowl junction. Last year i packed it all away and that is where i'm at today. i also enjoyed having a train site on the net but that got closed down by netscape making changes to their site. For the present i like the train net clubs and i enjoy reading all the old train mags and watching my train videos. i have plans for a new HO layout in a 20' by 20' room. Once i get the room built. It will be a walk around dogbone layout with point to point operation. i have a plan already started on atlas RTS but i have a few modifications to do still. Once i get the bugs worked out than i will post it for all u's to look at and comment on i always appreciate the advice from fellow modelers. i haven't quite buying though. This xmas santa has been very good to me. i already know what is in the bag
My first train was an O scale American Flyer set that my father's boss had given to his daughter for Christmas. She didn't like it so my father's boss gave it to me. Then one Christmas I was given 20 Silver Dollars and told I could buy whatever I wanted at the after Christmas sales. I bought a Lionel train set at Capwell's in Oakland CA. Several years passed and for some reason my parents took me to an auction. I found a complete 4 x 8 HO layout for sale at the auction. It was fully sceniced with moutains, bridges, and a station. Whoever built it did an excellent job. It even came with a beautiful dual cab control panel. I just had to have it. My parents managed to get it for $30. I ended up selling my Lionel train set to pay for it plus I had to do a lot of odd jobs around the house to earn the rest. That layout lasted until I left for college. During college and continuing through numerous moves and up until 5 years ago, I built model railroad modules with the plan to incorporate them into a final big layout. Good plan, poor execution. I ended up trashing all but one of the modules. I managed to incorporate that module into my current layout that fills a 24 x 40 foot room. I am currently working on my lifelong dream. My current HO layout has all of its track and signals installed. I have about 1/3 of the basic scenery done and am working on building buildings and finishing the rest of the scenery. I can finally run trains when I want to. I run my trains with Radio Digitrax DCC and love it. No tethers. The best part is now I have a layout that others can operate too. I have periodic operating session without having to deal with a club and all that goes with it. It is my club, my rules, and zero bureaucracy/politics. Just fun. David
I built my first real layout starting in 1988 and it had to be demolished due to moving in 1994. In 2001, I started my second layout.. a smaller 23 long by 5', HO scale dogbone. Completely a freelance representation of the C&O Railway. Right now? I'd fairly say my layout is 80% complete on track and 40% complete on scenery. I have had a ... shall we say.. "bad" fall of railroading. Having been consumed by my job this fall and then keeping up w/ college football in my spare time. Frankly.. I have had enough of those two and am ready to pay more attention to my railroad.
I got started by working with two Model RR hobbyiest at a computer and office supply store. Roger Hensley asked me to go with him to Indianapolis Indiana. He is an HO modeler so we went to a mulity scale shop. I looked around and did not see anything that really interested me. In the same shopping strip center was a N-scale only shop. Roger told me later that when I walked in the door he knew what scale I was going to model. A couple of months later Norm Reimondo, the store owner, was going to INDY to check on some N-scale equipment and he invited me to go with him. I bought several hundred dollars worth of stuff and my first layout was on the road to construction. This first layout was in the garage with a reversing loop, wye and several other wiring nightmares. Everything worked after some tweaking and minor adjusting of trackage but it was cold out there in the winter. Thus my present layout was born. I took part of the garage and built myself a room at my wifes urging. It has been three years since the room was started and I have all trackage completed and the scenery is well uner way. Trains run on all sidings, branch lines and mains. It is not DCC yet but can be converted if I ever get the money to do so.
Started as so many did fifty plus years ago. Lionel and American Flyer. Our first Christmas, my wife gave me an N scale set. Been there ever since. No looking back. No regrets! Great times. Many friends. Plenty of fun and memories! Boxcab E50
Ive always been interested in trains, but I got into model railroading when from somebodys garage sale, my mother bought me a big piece of plywood with a loop of double track, it was HO scale, and came with 2 trains, a small 0-4-0 and some freight cars, and a 4 axle diesel, a french prototype i think. i acquired a couple more 0-4-0's and some cars, but i never had any scenery and i didnt care, i loved it so much. Then we had to get rid of it as it was taking up too much room. at that time i had a lifelike trainset, that had a loop of track, came with a GP38, i think, and some cars. i used to occasionally set it up on the tiles in our lounge. In 1997 my mother bought me a small pre built n scale raliroad as a gift, as i had become interested in that scale, and bought some cars and building kits. When i moved out of home last year i didnt have any layout, just my modest collection of trains. I moved back home when the people i shared a house with moved and i realized i wouldnt be able to afford a house all by my self, and couldnt find any other housemates. and now, i have a door size Nscale railroad that is pretty much just started, i have a little track laid, a tiny bit of scenery, and alot of junk on the door. i havent really been modeling seriously until i moved back home, and even still i just love to watch my trains run around.
I first was interested in model railroading when my older brother had a HO layout, the typical 8 by 4. when I was in high school my mother encouraged me to build a HO layout which was a 9 by 5 and was built in the garage. At the age of 15 when other interests (girls) became a priority the model railroad was left and was eventually dismanteld so my father could put his car back in the garage lol. In 1996 my interest was rekindled when GATs (at the time a work collegue) introduced me to N sale. Since then I have built my layout and I continue detailing and operating the layout.
It is a long story behind my N-scale model railroad of today, briefly described here. Already at the age of 9, I was often visiting and looking at all those different narrow gauge steam engines running at a cement factory and also the normal gauge freight trains from that factory to the main line. In the late 60´s and beginning of the 70´s the N-scale pops up, which leeds to a lot of layout plannings, bigger and bigger until it ends up in proportions that become unbelievable expensive. That´s it - the limit was reached. Now the common sense took over. I started to build two modules, one with an iron mine and one engine shed with a switch table. During the 80´s a preliminary layout plan was drawn, with the modules above and a model of Sandy River station as the main points. In 1985 some substructures was made and the shape of the final layout decided. The building of the layout started in 1988 when we moved from our hometown Malmoe to the small village Staffanstorp, just 27 miles outside Malmoe. In 1995 I added an extension about 17 feet long, to the original layout, with a second mine, two stations and an harbour. In the year 2000 I decided to skip the harbour, and try to build a hump yard. It took a little more time than I presumed, but in January, 2001, the hump yard was ready. Due to the membership of NARA (North American Rail Alliance) I planned for another extension of about 2 by 13 ft, to be able to simulate connections to other member´s railroads. This latest part of the layout consist of two villages with one small yard, and an industry area. The above story is cut from my home page, and if you are interest you are welcome to visit my site to get more info and photos. [ 18. November 2002, 18:15: Message edited by: HelgeK ]
I'm a 25 year old graphic designer, and I'm starting my first "real" layout. I had one as a kid, inspired by a trip to an Uncle's house. He had a nice layout, took the full basement. I got a basic set for Christmas that year, I must have been like 12 years old. It consisted mainly of plastic-looking buildings and train cars that I "weathered" like the big-boys did in the magazines. My "weathering" consisted of rubbing charcoal on cars with my fingers! It was not a pretty sight. So now I'm 25 and live in a 2 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend, who is really cool about me having a layout in our apartment. My uncle also died recently, and I was in his will to receive all of his train items. So I have all of these wonderful old trains to use, although I am interested in modern day freight trains and he mainly modeled early century passenger trains. I'm almost done laying all of my track. After it's up and working, I will do scenery. I look forward to putting lots of little scenes around my layout, having many interesting things to look at. I am 50% interested in trains, and 50% interested in scenery. Other hobbies I have include skateboarding (as often as possible), 3D computer animation, and video editing. Good topic by the way, I read every word of everyone's posts! Dave
My grandfather is the one person that started me in the hobby. I have always had trains, liked trains and lived trains. My first set was the old Lionel under the Christmas tree. This was the real fun layout that went up once a year. I had a blast playing with it along with my army figurines. Seeing my interest grow, my grandfather and father set up the old 4x8 sheet of plywood and built a basic little HO scale layout. This is where I had started exploring the more "serious" side of railroading. Finally, my apartment dwelling days began in the early 80's. I received an N-scale train set as a gag gift. Some gag gift-LOL. I have been hooked ever since! You can say that I went down the scales as I got older. I will probably go back up the scales should my eyesight ever start failing me but one thing is for certain.....I will always have trains!!!! Russ Hoffman
You, me and several thousand others </font>[/QUOTE]I actually got a bid on the building I wanted to build my layout in at one point. Only $46,000! At that price, maybe I should design a bigger layout.
The day my wife bought me an HO scale trainset as a gag gift will be a day she wishes she could forget Now, the rest of the story. I got an American Flyer trainset under the tree as a young boy. I loved playing with that. Then my dad had some of his stuff from when he was a kid. Too make a long story short, this trainset plus my dad's stuff got mistakenly thrown out when we moved to a different house when I was a teenager. By then I was more interested in cars and girls. On to the present. About 10 or 11 years ago, a new hobby shop opened near my house. My wife and I dropped in on a lark with nothing to do on a winter afternoon. She must have noticed my interest in a trainset. A couple of weeks later that trainset was bought more or less as a gag for my birthday. This evolved into a 4x8 then two 4x8's placed together to form an L. I even got my young sons interested and had a pretty good layout going. Then we decided that our present house was not big enough anymore. So we moved to a new house that was a fixer upper. My trains were in boxes for about 3 or 4 years until I joined a club. This inspired me to finish off the basement and put in my own layout as well. Now I have a 10x10 ho scale layout, with the minimum radius of one tight curve of 22 inches. All other curves are between 24 and 36 inches. I have also moved on to DCC as well. I have more rolling stock and locomotives then I care to admit.
It's amazing how many of us get our starts with Lionel and 4x8 size layouts. And even more amazing how many of us want larger layouts or a dedicated building for our layouts! I've read and enjoyed every post here also, and I hope we get a lot more modelers come forward with their stories...
I had been interested in trains for a while, as we lived near a railway line, so when I left school and got my first job, I bought my first trains - Hornby OO 3-rail, with formed tinplate trackbed. This was set up on the table until it had to be cleared away when it was meal-time. I then built a layout in my bedroom, which was hinged to the wall, and lowered over the bed for operating. Next layout also in the bedroom was around the wall type (leaving just enough space for the bed! This time I handbuilt the track, and began scratchbuilding locomotives (still OO scale). After marriage and a house of our own, as I enjoyed scratchbuilding, I changed to O scale, and persuaded our club to allow me and another member to build an exhibition layout. This was a great success at our shows. I also built quite an extensive O gauge layout around the garden, and for variety, an O scale narrow-gauge layout in a shed! When I started building locomotives for customers, it was not long before I was asked to build some in #1 scale, so I then moved to that scale! Later I was asked to do some locomotives in Gauge 3 (2.5" gauge), so dual-gauge track was laid in the garden for G3 and #1. I tried American HO in the attic for a while, then started going on holidays to Switzerland and our club built a generic European layout, so we could run our various Swiss, German, Austrian and French trains! After I went on several railfan trips to Belgium, I changed to Belgian railways and built my own portable layout which was taken to several exhibitions. My best effort, I think! I really enjoyed that layout. Finally, after a railfan holiday in southern California, I settled for US N scale, and here I will stay! Shortly after that I produced my first cast metal kit for a spine car (as none were available) and went on from there. A layout was built in a purpose built shed in the garden which is currently being rebuilt/improved.
