I am presently in Railroad limbo and sadly been there since 1990
as do not have the space needed for or resources for a layout.my brother
and I got a large amount of equipment but but nothing has moved from
storage except to be displayed or repacked in over a decade.I led some
astray by my medafore thinking of my plans.are there others in the same
boat?
Dream for the future
learn from the past.
[:(]David
I was in that situation when I lived in apartments for some years. I used the opportunity to convert as many of my cars and engines as I could to Kadee couplers, took the time to mount them at the right height, and also tested all cars for correct weighting, NMRA standards for gauge of flanges etc.
So there are things you can do in your situation to keep your hand in the game.
By the way – one thing I learned. It is one thing to test a car’s couplers for height and the car for correct weight and mount the trucks so the car does not tip BUT … there is no substitute for actually running equipment to find flaws and things that need attention, such as cheap trucks that simply do not roll well and should be tossed.
The other thing I did was get involved in operating sessions with guys who had operating layouts. They needed the crews and were grateful for the loan of some of my equipment; I needed the involvement with real running trains to keep calling myself a model railroader. Ask around at the LHS to see if someone is looking for operators.
Dave Nelson
Dave Nelson
I would suggest joining a model railroad club. That way you could operate your equiptment.
I started as a loner 5 years ago,as there was no existing club where I lived then.I since moved to a bigger city and joined one of the local clubs,and guess what?Even if I enjoyed building my minimal layout(4X6 in "N"scale),it is a far cry from running my big locos on the club’s layout.
On top of this,you’d probably find others friends,which I did.And running your equipment in this environment is much more fun as you would likely learn quite a few tricks just as the other guys may learn from you also.This is fun sharing and it can hardly be beaten.If any reasonably close to your home,joining a club is an option I recommend.
Boy, do I ever. And every time we’ve moved, there is less and less space!
I do occasionally help a friend with his layout. (He’s got space, but doesn’t have much time, and he’s something of a beginner as well.)
Been there, done that… for 15 years.[:0]
Actually, to be honest, I was a bit occupied with other things in life. Now that I have a layout, I have no money left to do much more with it. If it’s not one thing, it’s another! [:(!]
Your profile didn’t indicate what scale you want to model in. If it’s HO (or O), then I’ll leave it to others in your scale to offer suggestions. If it’s N-scale, then I would suggest you check out if there is an Ntrak club in your area. This is not only a good place to run your trains, you can also participate by building a module. A basic one should not take up much space (2x4). It will allow you to build something and participate.
How about a shelf style switching layout. You can switch cars in and out of shops and have one spot for interchange (inbound and outbound loads and empties). Atlas has a track plan that fits into a corner of a bed room. You would be limited to running one or two switchers and few short cars, but it’s better than nothing. I saw a layout in M.R. built into a book shelf. Just a small scene for a loco to run back and forth.
It could be built on 2" foam board and just sit on a shelf. If or when you move you can take your railroad with you and leave the book shelf on the walls.
Being active duty military, I have moved 9 times in the last 15 years. And as anyone who has been a model railroader awhile can tell you, there are times when other interests, tasks or whatever take priority over MR pursuits. I do or have done just about everything that has been mentioned above to maintain my MR interests. Because of limited space and the reality of frequent moves, most of my stuff resides in boxes. I have constructed cases for my equipment from rubbermaid style underbed boxes and foam to protect it, and have relatively few buildings, and they are all disassembled or unassembled. My last layout was a switching layout, but I really did little scenicing and concentrated on playtime, knowing that it’s days were numbered from the beginning. Now I don’t even have space for that, but I did find a local club that I have joined and run my stuff there. Throughout though, I have continued to work on models, improving my skills and focusing on quality of product…metal wheels, KDs, details, etc. And now, being part of a club allows me to work on other areas …scenary, wiring, tracklaying, etc that I hadn’t done in awhile. As mentioned above, there are ways to contine the MR experience. Very few folks have the grand layouts that are shown in MR. I would venture to guess that most of us don’t have a layout, and quite possibly never will. But that doesn’t mean we won’t stop modelling.
Don’t give up, don’t dispair…look for expanded possibilities…