Well, i would like to eventually get a permanent home and build me a garden rail system, but until then i will stick with HO/N for the time being. As for sets that i have seen and like, if anyone has had the chance to travel to Griffith Park, Ca and visit Travel Town (Railroad Museum). It has a large reproduction of the San Fernando Valley. That is one set that has always stuck with me, from being a child, even up until now. Another set is the one that they have outside during the Orange County Fair.
Rachina,
Thank you for your service. The rest of us need to be reminded of the things you have to sacrifice as part of it.
My son who has the same employment and the same hobby built a coffiee table layout. It’s a glass top coffiee table with a N scale layout in it. Of course it’s limited in scope. A basic loop with limited switching. However it’s not the size thats important but what you do with it.
Of course for a move you need to remove anything moveable, like the train. But it ships as a piece of furniture.
If my memory serves MR had an article about building a coffiee table layout a year or two ago. It should be a great convrsation piece when you have visitors.
Thanks again for all that you and your family do for us.
JIm
Is this the Travel Town layout you mean (the N scale East Valley Lines):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDCPZebCxis
The layout on the video (provided it is the right one) seems to shows running longish passenger trains (A Santa Fe Super Chief some time between 1936 and 1971, and an Amtrak train ie post 1971) through a mountain landscape and then through an urban area.
Quite a bit more on this layout here: http://www.evlrr.com/
What is it about this layout that most fascinates you? Except for the sheer size of it, of course - a single person who has to make a transportable layout that need to fit into any standard sized bedroom obviously is not going to build a largish club sized layout 
Or in other words - what is it that most fascinates you about a model railroad - is it standing at one spot watching trains run past your location?
Or following a train with your eyes as it moves around around to see where it goes, ducking into tunnels and crossing over bridges and stuff like that?
Or is it having several people running trains at the same with, with trains stopping at signals or going into sidings to let other trains past, simulating the traffic pattern, trying to keep most things on sche
i wouldnt say that an HO/N scale layout is a poor mans variation of a garden layout. I love trains, ive grown up around them my whole life; designing and running a layout would give me the same exhilaration as actually being able to work for Union Pacific or BNSF. The links you posted are correct, that is the right layout, although that footage seemed to be a little older, i was there 2 yrs ago and it was really rather built up. As for what drives me to want to build/operate a layout (regardless of scale) is the fascination of ducking into tunnels, reappearing on the other side of rolling hills. All different styles, ages and themes are interesting, but there is a point at which one must stop and ponder, is this too wild, am i going to be happy with this when its done? If i was to pick a time, it would be post WW2 when the Big Boy’s and Challenger’s roamed the rails. the true giants of their times. Cargo is more interesting than passenger hands down. My unit is about to attempt its first railhead here in about a month. When i was stationed in Germany, we had to railhead to go to the field cause it was roughly 6 hours away by bus (or if you were unlucky enough to have to drive there in a humvee). Yet this should be most interesting. I have seen tanks and humvee’s on the flatbed cars, but never have i seen M270A1’s or M1068’s (if you dont know what they are go ahead and look them up).
I’ve never seen an MLRS or an APC on a rail car but that would definitely make a cool looking load you have to admit. There has to be some pics some where, how else do they get every single one that comes off the production line to where ever its going they can’t move them all one at a time by truck?
I model bachmann’s EZ track for several different reasons. However, there is a gentleman on youtube that is in the Air Force that models with this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWPvKVmZw2s The stuff is rugged and handles frequent moves fairly well. He has a very good video on it. He also explains why he chose this. If you choose this way, be prepared there are some limitations to what you can do. No flex track,and turnouts are expensive. But they have a good selection of radii and lengths. As for myself, I have redesigned my layout about 6 times now. No drawing, just took it apart and redid it. This stuff can be taken apart repeatedly. Lay the track on camper foam (cuts the noise down)and cover it in ballast, you really can’t tell is a plastic roadbed. All this being said, I don’t know your situation but you do need some room. I know I couldn’t have done it when I was living on base as a single man. (roommates). If you have your own quarters etc, all you need is a wall and a few inches off of it. I’ve seen beautiful stuff in only 3 inches width. You could make some dioramas to practice your techniques and display your stuff until you get out or retire.
Thanks for your service to this great nation. Its good to know we still have people that will stand up and get the job done.
When I was in, I had a ROOM with a roommate. Bathroom was down the hall. and that was the Air Force where we build the Officer’s club first and the PX second
Hi Rachnia –
First a request : when you post please press the ENTER key at the end of each paragraph, so your text is a little more readable - when everything is jumbled together in one long paragraph, it is hard to read.
If the everything jumbled together in one paragraph is due to your web browser, and you don’t have the option to upgrade to a newer browser, just disregard these first two paragraphs.
Looked them up. The 270 is a MRLS built on the Bradley chassis - a little more than 22 feet long, a little less than 10 feet wide and a little over 8 feet tall. Never been in one of those. Last time I looked, my old brigade still had M109s (self propelled 155mm howitzers).
The 1068 looks to be a command post tracked vehicle. Seems to be about 16 feet long, 9 feet wide and 9 feet tall. I’ve been in a similar type of vehicle, an M577 - based on an old M113 chassis.
Anyways - both should fit just fine on a flat car. After all - an M1 is about 10.5 feet tall and wide, about 30 feet long, and weighs something like 60 tons or so, and M1s are transported by rail.
Not so relevant for your model railroad layout, though. You wouldn’t expect to see Challengers and Big Boys pulling a modern armored unit by train
Okey-dokey. You want post WW2 big steam engines, and you want to watch them pull freight trains through tunnels.
No, no bars, im an E-3, but my wife did sit on the waiting list for roughly 16 months, thankfully i was deployed, so i didnt really have to deal with it
Thank you for picking up the torch for us. After 30 years of military service, here is my advice based on my experiences:
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Be flexible. Constant change is the only constant of service life. We can’t predict what we will be called upon to do next, or in 3 years time. There will be opportunities like the present where you can get some modeling in. The space available and configuration of that space is going to change dramatically every few years. Anybody that tells you your situation will stay what is now for more than 3 years - if their lips are moving, they are lying.
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You are young (and I assume your wife is, too) and in your child-bearing and child-raising years. Children make a huge dent in your time and $$ and space for model railroading - as it should be. Almost all service members are in their child bearing and raising years, so please don’t take offense. It’s real life.
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A layout that maximizes the space in one house won’t fit in the next without lots of modifications. Guaranteed. It’s even worse if you rent your quarters off-base because you get to make extra moves during a single tour when landlords change their mind, or your finances change yours. A 4x8 won’t necessarily fit in every spare bedroom. Don’t ask me how I know this. I cried as I cut my 4x8 with handlaid track down to a 4x6 because that’s all that would fit in the next house.
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The packers will do a decent job if they are not packing your trains on the last day. The last day of packing is always a rush to get done, and things get packed poorly on that day. Don’t let the packers or movers unpack at the destination end. It all ends up in a pile in the middle of the floor. Your stuff is often in the wrong room as well, because the room names and number of rooms don’t match from one house to the next. Much better to unpack the boxes yourself over time (often years!).
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Movers (tho