In recent issues of MR, and other sources I’ve read that the model railroaders need to atract more young people in to the hobby (world’s greatest hobby . . .).
Being a “young person” my self (OK I’m 27, but I think I fall into the category of people to get intrested), I am intrested in model railroading, while it is nice to see the articles and web pages of the basement/garage filling mamoth “works of arts”, it is important to realize that all these people had to start with something to sharpen their on.
I realize that for me it is going to be a while before I have my basemnet filling masterpiece, I have a couple of project in the works that will get me started down the Railroad Track ( a couple of building kits, and a couple of vehicle kits).
So my question to you is how did you get started in the hobby, what was your first project or kit that you attempted in order to get you feet wet and helped you learn what you needed to know to get your layout/diorama to where it is today ?
I’m 30, and my Dad got me started when I was about 7 or 8. My Dad loves trains, as do I. I used to love going to my grandparents house where there was (still is, actually) a double track main line behind it! I don’t remember what started my first HO layout, but it was a basic figure 8 w/ one siding. It had some old structures my Dad had built many years before. I once came down w/ the chicken pox, and got it good. One Saturday, my Mom told me to come down to the basement - my Dad built me a mountain/tunnel with Plaster of Paris. That was great! Eventually, this 4x8 layout had a 5x9 section added on to it. I got into building and detailing structures from kits, and even kitbashed to make a replica of my Grandfather’s camera shop that he used to own. Even though I was born way after the passing of steam, I love it. These modern trains just don’t do it for me as steam engines do. Don’t get me wrong - I love PRR GG1s and diesels of the 40’s and 50s - that’s why I model that time period - I can have the best of both worlds! Anyway, my first layout lasted me for 20 years, until I got married and moved out of Mom and Dad’s. I packed up all that I could, sans the bench work and track. The house I live in now has a full basement, and I plan to start a new “empire” very soon (tomorrow, actually!). I’ll have enogh room to build a 22 x 8 or larger layout. I have my work cut out for me, but my Dad said he’ll help. I’ve been working on new buildings, even though there’s no place to put them yet. My models aren’t “craftsman” kits. They are off the shelf DPM kits, old Tyco Center Street kits, IHC, AHM, you name it. I weather and detail these kits so they don’t look “new.” I’m very happy w/ how they come out. Good luck w/ your venture. As far as getting your feet wet, etc: buy some paints, glue, and a kit that strikes your interest, read those directions (or destructions, as I sometimes call them), and dive in!
I’m not really sure what it was that first attracted me to model railroading as a hobby. I have been a model builder all of my life, beginning with a Nautilus submarine kit that my father bought me when I was 7. That was in 1953; from there I went through the usual stages over the years: airplanes, ships, tanks, and of course, cars. Lots of cars! Hot rods! '32 Fords, '25 T-buckets! Oh yeah!
Also, though, when I was 7, my grandparents gave me a Marx electric train set for Christmas, and I had a great time setting the train up on my bedroom floor and running the train around a fort I had built for my toy soldiers (also a Christmas gift that year). The next year, my grandfather gave me a Lionel transformer that had a smoke and whistle control on it. My excitement knew no bounds until I realized that my Marx loco had neither of those features and no matter how hard or often I pushed the control knob on the transformer, I wasn’t going to see smoke or hear a whistle.
Anyway, the years went by, my family moved to a new house in the suburbs, I started junior high, discovered Hot Rod Magazine and girls - in that order - and the train set’s track quietly rusted away in a box in the garage.
College, military duty, graduate school, professional and family obligations all combined for over a decade to keep me from model building. Then in the space of a week, and for reasons that even today remain a mystery to me, I suddenly found myself fascinated with the idea of model railroading. I have no idea what prompted my interest, but it was there, and I found myself scouring all of the model shops in town, looking for books and magazines, studying all of the colors in the Floquil paint rack, and being nearly mesmerized by the photographs on the Campbell Scale Model kit boxes. It was a great week; by the end of the second week I remember that my head was so full of layout plans and schemes that I could hardly sleep. And therein I made my first big mistake.
Well,I got my start my sitting on my dads knee and running a O scale 2 rail Hocking Valley 4-6-0.Also coming from a railroad family,both grandfathers,my dad,all his brothers,my mother all of her brothers and 1 sister.Any reason I should love railroading? Yes,I al;so worked on the railroad.The PRR and later the Chessie.It is in the blood!
Now that is an interesting thought. “It’s in the blood!” It certainly does seem that way. Both my kids’ eyes light up when the hear a train and make sure that I know one is nearby. Then they strain to see it. My wife doesn’t understand, and I haven’t done anything to get my daughter turned on to the hobby - yet. Nonetheless, my daughter has it coursing through her veins as well. From my office I can hear the nearby CSX and NS trains (as well as CN, CP, and Amtrak) echoing off nearby buildings. The sound of a train does call to you, doesn’t it?
I’m terry from Australia. I’ve been Modelling American trains in HO scale for about 15 years now! And while I have built several layouts over the years, I think that the most important thing in model railroading is making the right choices. I’m currently three quarters the way finished with my Alabama layout at the moment, it is not a “Mammoth” sized layout but it is still(I think)a work of art(I’m trying to get Model Railroader Magazine to do a small feature on it! Fingers crossed!).
Anyway back to your question(Sorry I get a bit carried away at times when I talk trains),I made a bit of a mistake when I started. I started modelling one railroad(BN) then I got bored with them and then started modelling another…and so on. That’s why I say make the right choices, in my view dont start out with modelling anything yet. Start by researching and reading about all the different railroads their are to model and then make the choice as to which Railroad you want to go with or which one is your favourite.
When you have come that far, then I would start with just collecting for that particuliar road. If you are not confident at tackling a locomotive first up , then just start out with a caboose or freight car. A little tip(and I could explain this further later) don’t think that class 1 Roads are the easist or best to model, it is often the smaller regional ones. But it is all up to you!
Once you start to get a decent collection together then you can start to think about layouts. Don’t be daunted when you look at other peoples collections of trains and see 50 loco’s 300 frieght cars and think that yours pales in comparison. Often, a smaller collection is much better. Also a small collection will allow you to spend much more time detailing and not so much time trying to keep up with the jones’s!!
One little tip, always buy the highest quality Locomotives and rolling stock where available and within your own means. I know sometimes this seems daun
I’m close to 40. I got started when I built a 4x8 setup for my father-in-law. He is getting older and I thought he would like an indoor hobby for his retirement and I asked him if he wanted a model train set for Christmas.
While researching for that project (in the Fall), I got the bug myself … Real Bad!
I tacked an oval of track down to a sheet of Homosote for him including an Atlas plate girder bridge with 10% slope approaches. I used Woodland scenics green ground foam to cover the 4x8 and ballasted about twenty inches of track. Then I spent the remainder of the Winter building a few structures to adorn the table top.
I learned alot by doing those basic things. I have spent the time since reading Model Railroader, Railroad Model Craftsman and almost every $5-$20 book on model railroading I can find. I have built several structures from kits but mostly I am waiting to get that dedicated Right-of-Way for my own model railroad.
I recommend you read as much as you can. Do some planning. Set up a plan which allows you to start small and work up to the final goal; and have fun.
Well I started in earnest when I was 19 but had gotten an American Flyer train for Christmas when I was 8. I Joined a club and started a 4x8 framed layout that I had found in a MR book. It was one that had an angle on one end and hinged on the wall. Also bought some fine scale kits, La Belle 1900 series, 5 of them. Couldn’t afford a good steam loco so I settled for an Athern GP. Pluse I built a few other cars, or started. Ambroid center flow and a Navy Helium tank car.
You’ll notice I talk past tense, I’m 59 now and just getting back into it real time so to speak. I still have those cars. In fact I have just about rebuilt the La Belle cars the others aren’t in the best of shape from being packed away and moved a number of times.
I think its as much watching real railroads, the power and such that sparks the initial interest. The fun of building scale and producing something that didn’t exist before is another. I hear a lot on these forums of people who want instant RTR high quality products and feel sorry for them as they will never know the fun of creation.
My available space is limited, 2.5’X12 with a possible 4’ dog leg. So I’m modeling logging and mining in a fictisious valley with a dual gauge HO/HOn3 system. I’m investing in some fairly expensive fine scale kits but don’t think in the long run I’ll has as much invested as some of that have 50 locos and 250 cars RTR.
I tend to be artistic and the kit building lets me satisfy that craving as any one can paint a picture but not too many can create a whole scene… Have fun at it, it’s only a hobby…Walt
I must have been in middle school when I received a train set for Christmas. I set it up on my bedroom floor from time to time. It was a simple oval with a passing siding.
Dad had a 15x15 in the basement that never made it past benchwork and track laying. Although it actually ran, in retrospect the layout didn’t do much for operations. The fun was snow-days from school and winter lay-offs (dad was in rough carpentry in Michigan); on those days my (older) brother and I would help dad wire the layout. My brother would make connections to the track and turnouts, dad would wire the control panels, and I would make connections at the junction block. It was the simplest task, and I was the smallest so fitting under the table was even. Even more brother had more comfort being able to stand in the open benckwork to do his wiring.
I’m now on the third iteration of a small layout in my basement. I’ve tried to start small so that I might actually finish it, and have a layout that allows for better operations. Trying to find a role for my 8 year old son is a challenge. And now my 6 year old daughter is interested and needs to be given a role.
As for learning, a lot come from dad. However, Model Railroader and Trains.com are my sources for information so far.
My grandfather was the first to get me into the hobby. He would (slowly) build brass steam engines. I thought it was the greatest thing ever, to actually see them come to life over time. From hollowed out brass pieces, to detailed greyish/black steam engines, it just blew me away. I’m 31 now, and I got the bug for diesel engines instead! First layout was a 4’x8’ HO set. I’m currently building an N scale layout now. Living in a condo, not much space for HO, but in N you can build a little empire. Pete
Kristian, there are a number of women in model railroading. The hobby obviously tends to attract more men than women, but it’s not exclusive.
Mary Miller holds a Master Model Railroader certificate from the NMRA; Linda Sand is an active and well known layout designer; and there are many women involved with the “business” end of the hobby.
I met a “socially prominent” lady from Lake Tahoe at the '98 NMRA Convention in Kansas City. She had “dragged” her husband to the convention; she was the modeler, he was the sightseer. We sat together in a couple of the clinics while her husband went on “non-rail” tours. She was building a logging layout in her Lake Tahoe home and knew a good deal about western-style logging operations.
So, this is a long-winded answer to your queston, but in short, no, it’s not an all-male activity.
Well, believe it or not, my first layout was my Dad’s design. I think I was like 2 when he built a 4 x 8 layout for me. It had mostly 70s Tyco cars and motive power. A few accessories were also installed and a couple static building models. The track was nailed directly to the plywood.
My second layout was also my Dad’s design, this time however we opted for roadbed and ballast. The rolling stock was again Tyco, and I remember the new piggyback trailer unloading facility with crane-think it was a Tyco Silverstreak trainset.
My next layout I built myself- a 4 x 6 layout using Tyco, Bachmann, Athearn and Concor rolling stock and motive power. It was truly something. This layout was torn down though, to make room for a 4 x 8 version.
In my last two years of high school I built a monster 4 x 16 layout. I was only running one train though, so it didn’t take much wiring knowledge, and I kept it till I joined the military in 86.
Now, that I am out of the military and have my education out of the way, I have developed my hobby interests again. I am working on this monster layout. Right now it is in the design stages, and I know a lot of you have heard or see me post about it. My main obstacles are getting the track laid out so that it uses maximum space, while still allowing access points in case of derailment. The other obstacle is the wiring. When I get beyond these two things, the whole layout will be a breeze. Thanks…
the earliest memory I have, is once when I was, it must have been about 3 or 4 years old (I’m 44), and I walked down into the basement one day (I think it was xmas morning) & my uncle had set up a little circle of O gauge trains, and he was watching it and smiling, with my 2 older brothers (2 & 3 years older) sitting on either side of him. That’s what first got me hooked. Then, later, my father set up an oval of HO trains in the basement, and I remember me and my brothers were down there with them constantly (mostely me). That was about 1964. Then, I just remember, I was always thinking about them, and planning layouts in my head, and I remember I used to go to a used book store that was near us, and buy used copies of M.R. That was when I first realized that some adults are into them (I was thinking of them as being for teenagers). Then, a few years later, I bought a couple KALMBACH how-to books, and I used to pour over them constantly!TTHEN, one Xmas, I’ll never forget it, it was 1979 and my parents got me a Tyco HO train set, and a layout book. The interviening years are a blur, but I just remember, my first attempt at building a layout was a disaster! Anyway, to sum it all up, now I’m living in an apartment, and I have an N scale layout in progress, and an HO one, also in progress, at my parents house. (which I can’t get to very much, for reasons I don’t want to go into. I know this is rather lengthy, but that’s what you get for asking!