I am currantly an arm chair model railroader. I have a great interest in the hobby, but have little money to spend and no space to model. There is a car port on the back of the house that would be perfect for my layout, but it’s at least 5 years away from being cleaned out and fixed up. I’ve already completed track plans. I spend my spare time weathering and detailing my engines and coal cars. Last week I finished a small sawmill scene that I built on a shoe box lid. I plan on constructing my coal tipples and other structures in the same way. My hope is that some day when I can finally build my layout I will be able to place my completed structures and scenes into place with some blending in of scenery.
My question is this…what are some other things I can do to help ready myself for the golden day in which I can finally build my layout?
[#welcome] to the forums.
What scale? If on a shoe box lid, that seems to indicate Z or N.
Have you thought about joining a train club? Let us know where you live, and maybe someone can suggest a club in your area.
Many clubs exist because their members don’t have space for layouts of their own, or because they’ve been downsized on retirement. Lack of a layout of your own is no reason not to join a club.
Read through the magazines and get ideas how people do it or what they model. You don’t have to imitate anybody but other people’s work can be really inspiring. And welcome to the forums.
Welcome to the forum. If you have a little space you could build a little diorama that you could later include in the layout. Put some track on it and you could even run an engine a little bit.
I joined the local division of NMRA and it has been fun.
You should build a timesaver layout that is a shelf, like a 1x8, or 2x8, these are alot of fun, and depending on how much detail they are inexpensive.
Tjsingle
Would you be leave HO? I kit bashed a saw mill from an old wooden box car. I then sat it on top of a Lifelike girder bridge beam. This allows the mill to sit about 6 scale feet off of the ground. There’s a small office to the side with follage, small pine tree, and power pole. My log loader is an John Deere end loader by Ertl. I made the forks out of an old credit card cut to shape. I then weathered the entire loader. When I figeure out how to post photos on the forum, I’ll be happy to show everyone.[:)]