I am curious as to how “complete” a person’s first thoughts were about the layout they were thinking of building. And if you don’t mind commenting, how has your thoughts about how a layout should look or be, changed over the years?
Of course I dreamed of a complete fully sceniced model railroad and still do. Nothings changed over the years and someday my dreams will become reality. It’s just now I have kids to raise, bills to pay, etc., etc.
I can remember building my first layout - an N gauge 4 x 8. Way to ambitious for a 12 year old kid. And the track plan was a folded dogbone design which of course I thought I had invented.
I think my 0-6-0 steam engine made one lap around the track and the layout was scraped. It took me my entire Christmas and spring breaks to complete the benchwork and lay the track. Very shakey, very crude but it worked.
Fast forward 30+ years and I’m still at it. Mostly dreaming - some building - many layouts in between.
In fact I think the dreaming is the best part.
Two years ago I got interested in the hobby.
Now I have completed Benchwork in my room and cork roadbed stacked on the floor.
Lack of funds is my main problem.
(my layout is about 8x8’ in HO scale.)
No engines, unless a broken switcher that I can’t name -it’s that mutilated- counts
Actually the reason for this poll is because of a debate that has been going on in the layout design sig at Yahoo! Groups. I don’t want to get into it right now as I don’t want to “skew” the results. I can’t say I dreamed of the current layout I am building but what I can say is that I dreamed of having “a” layout that was done and quite detailled.
When I first got interested in model railroading in 1971, I was hooked on the hobby by the EBT layout in the December 71 issue of MR. I thought then and still do that that would be a great layout to build. Unfortunately, I have never had the time and space tp build anything that large. But if we’re dreaming…
Enjoy
Paul
My dad got me interested in model railroading over 30 years ago.
Back then all I wanted to do was run them.
Now, all I want to do is work on my layout so that I can run them.
My dreams now consist of finishing my current layout before the wife decides she wants to move. UGH!
Gordon
the the second from the bottom
I voted that I had in mind a very detailed layout with scenery and structures. In fact I am still dreaming about that(hopefully not for much longer), and I do believe I will still have a pike of that quality.
When I was young, before I started out, I used to see nice layouts on Tracks Ahead. I one day dreamed of having a layout like one of those, but couldn’t figure out how to do it.
Highly detailed trains, excellent scenery, everything weathered skillfully. Then I leaped in with horrible attempts at greatness.
I got there eventually.
PS–I used to consider 22" radius a wide curve!
I don’t remember. I was three years old 47 years ago and my first train was a Lionel set up around the Christmas tree. My Dad bought me cars, track, operating accessories, etc. and finally he built a table in the basement for the train set. Then he started adding scenery, houses, lighting, roads and all. When I was seven or eight, we traded it all in for some HO and I was pretty much on my own ever since. For some reason as I kid I liked to try and duplicate in a scene, what I saw in the real world. I remember bugging Dad once to play army men with me simply because he had been a soldier during WWII and I wanted to be able to “play” the right way.
A couple years later I had the brainstorm realization that since I seemed to see magazines on so many diverse topics, there must be one for trains, too. I went to a local neighborhhood store and soda fountain which also had a large magazine rack. There I discovered MR(!), and the rest as they say, is history. I’ve wanted to emulate what I saw in there, and on my local railfan outings as a kid, ever since.
Speaking of dreams, I was out of the hobby for a good 15 years, and about once a year, I would have this recurring dream of being in a very well stocked train store. It was great. About the closest I’ve come to that dream is going to my LHS I discovered many years back … I think he has more!
It’s interesting that the question specifies “first” layout. Our aspirations change as we gain experience, and although the layout I’m working on now is still my first, it’s not my first attempt, and I’ve been in the hobby (or on the fringes) for decades (since I was a teen-ager). The dream has alway been of a layout that’s as close to “perfect” as possible–and for me that means full scenery and lots of detail. Well, there’s usually a gap betweeen dream and reality, but even though I began work on my present layout with the conscious expectation that I would make lots of mistakes and learn a lot in the process, the goal is still there. I think the biggest change for me is that I have a greater understanding of the prototype, so my sense of what looks “right” has become more sophisticated (not that there isn’t room for growth in that area too).
Incidentally, I’ve just started on scenery construction, and I have to say that no other aspect of layout gives as big a return on your investment as scenery construction. For a relatively minimal outlay of cash, time , and effort, you get a huge improvement to the look and feel of the layout.