I’m Bill from the Tampa Bay area, I guess you could call me one of the “old” guys (I’m 47) I’ve been interested in Model Railroading since I was a kid, I had the typical 4x8ft plywood HO layout. I’ve lived in apts. for most of my adult life so I got pretty interested in N scale and have been buying the occasional Engine, Car etc. for a couple yrs now.
In the apt. I live in now I have an area in the living room where I plan to set up an N scale layout about 3ft wide by 12ft long with a 3ft x 6ft L shaped area. I plan on modeling CSX and Norfolk Southern Modern railroading with 6 axle engines, container cars and autoracks and some Amtrak passenger service.
I know that the area I have isn’t the ideal size for curves and such but I think I can make it work. I plan on having a twisted dogbone type layout with my return loops stacked on top of each other and a kind of double track mainline.
I’ve been reading these forums for awhile now and I recently subscribed to the magazine (I’ve been buying it in the tore for yrs but finally got a subscription) Anyway, that’s what I plan on doing, i’ll see what happens once I actually start building it…lol
Welcome to the forums and back to model railroading.
I was unable to build for a number of years, eased my frustrations by buying as you have. Got plenty of stuff now, more time than I had, but my space got hijacked, so working in a smaller than anticipated area.
As mentioned above, ask away when you have question.
One thing I see in your plan that you may want to think about. Unless you can get to both sides of your layout, you may want to reconsider your 3ft wide shelf. 30" is considered maximum desired reach for most folks, so as not to hit scenery when reaching over it to do other things. Of course this depends on your height, arm length and the height of your layout.
About what you plan on doing. It sounds like you have a solid thought about what you want to do, and there are plenty of items for the modern day modeler. Kato has a huge line, and Atlas seems to have joined in on this as well. [:)]
As far as the dimensons, you may want to reconsider the 3ft width. 30" is the standard minimum for model railroading, though you can get away with it if you and your friends have long arms.
What kind of 6 axle engines do you plan on running? This kind of does matter since engines such as SD40-2s and SD45s can go through tighter curves and turnouts than AC4400CWs and SD70ACe’s.
Thanks for the welcome all! I realize that 3ft is kinda wide to reach from front to back, but I am planning on leaving some room behind my benchwork to get at the backside of my planned layout. I could go 30inches wide, and have an easier reach, but I think the extra 6 inches that I get, and the larger radius curves that will result from the extra width, will be worth any hassles I might have.
Right now I only have 2 engines, a Bachmann Spectrum Dash 8 - 40cw and a Kato GE C30 - 7 I do know that these aren’t the most “modern” engines out there and I’m sure I’ll pick up some updated stuff, but i liked the looks of these so I picked them up. Thanks for the tips, I appreciate it!
I also do N scale and recommend that no curves are less then 11". 12" would be better, but 11" will do. Even if you run short engines and rolling stock they all perform better.
Some of the longer cars will over hang slightly, but at least they will not derail as on curves less then 11". As big as you can make them is better even if it means less trackage.
Welcome, Florida Rocks! You have a “model railroader friend” right across the state there in the Miami area, His name is Lance Mindheim and if you’ve read Model Railroader for a while, you may have run across some of his articles. Lance is an extremely talented individual who designs and builds shelf-style layouts commercially. I often go to his website for not only ideas but inspiration. His photography is unbelievably good, right down to the last detail. And, if you have a question about how he does some of the things he does, he is quite willing to share. Another bonus with Lance: he does a lot of modeling of CSX, as you might guess, being right there in Florida. Here’s Lance’s Web address: http://www.lancemindheim.com/
I might want to add one last thing. You are not one of the “old guys”. I’m 60 and I consider myself one of the “young (er) guys” compared to some that are on this forum. To quote someone on this forum “you’re never too old to play with trains”!
Once again, thanks for the welcomes. I checked out the suggested website, http://www.lancemindheim.com/ and am amazed! I love checking out photos of layouts and such, you can get so many great ideas just seeing what other people do. I live just South of Tampa, in Bradenton (the home of the Tropicana juice train) I find Florida railroading cool, but it doesn’t seem as something that I would want to model. Pretty much no elevation changes, lots of swamps and water…lol
Even though I may not be one of the “old guys” I feel as though I am. 6 back operations, 2 neck operations, all since 2001. I screwed myself up at work and now I’m out on total disability…some days I feel like I’m 90!..lol