Hello. I got here from David K Smith's website. Since I've never liked huge rooms, I first started with N scale, then built a 3X8' layout in Z while stationed in Germany. I still have some N stock, though. I've built some N and Z dioramas and a couple of small layouts for practice (I could have avoided a LOT of mistakes if I'd known about David earlier), now it's time to build the 3X12' folded dogbone. I love the idea of trains running down long lengths of uncrowded track. Yeah, I'm what some disparagingly refer to as a "roundy-rounder". What can I say? I like to relax with a cold Mountain Dew (Does NMRA claim the trademark on that, too?) and watch 'em roll. Since my first layout was European, and I like steam engines, that's what I'm going with. I'm not doing prototype, just whatever looks good to me. Lots of track, lots of open scenery, a few structures for eye appeal. KISS, indeed. N scale. Not perfect, but valuable practice. I've since learned to make my own roadbed, as the cork and foam commercial stuff seems too thick and/or wide to me, and the wrong color as well. I like making my own stuff as much as possible, within reason. Ah, well, it's a good hobby... although the startup costs are a bit steep...
Hi Peter, Welcome to the TrainBoard, we're happy that you're on board. I like the Burlington scene, is it Z or N? Don't worry about Roundy-Round, that's about all I do now that I'm having a ball building scenery.
Welcome to TrainBoard Peter! It looks like you and I have a lot of similar aesthetics! Round-running, steamers, not as worried about freelance, and of course high scenery ratio. I agree, start up costs can be a bit steep at times, but that's when scratch building and scrapping things together comes in handy right? Do you have the 3x12 in progress, or still in the planning stages? Everyone over in the Layout Design and Discussion forum always has excellent input to provide. We like to observe progress as well, so if its already under construction, I'd like to invite you to start a progress thread. Glad to have you here. Happy modeling!
Thanks, the Burlington scene is N scale. (I wish I could find a Z-scale 4-8-4 with that much detail! (That I could afford!)). This was actually my first practice attempt at scenery and ballast using modern materials, I was surprised that it came out so well. It's now my desktop display at work. Turns out that I love making scenery, good thing that a layout is never really finished, or I'd probably lose interest in it... I just tossed a 2'x4' N scale oval, the scenery came out okay but I really messed up the track. Seriously, if I had read David's blogs first, I wouldn't have made the mistakes I did. Oh, well, on to the future!
Thanks, Mark. The 3x12 is still in the planning stages. I have almost enough Marklin track to build it (lots of long flex!) but I've just ordered enough Rokuhan track to build a 14"x72" shelf layout, and I might switch to the Rokuhan. My biggest concern is that I was planning on ballasting the Marklin with brown sand, so I don't know if I'm going to like the Rokuhan ballast. This is my Rokuhan plan: I might order more of the 011, 009 and 005 track to make an oval helical on the right. The idea of the rear tracks running across the back at a 6" elevation is appealing, especially on a narrow shelf! Do you have any suggestions? Maybe something to make those long straight sections more interesting?
