When I got back into the hobby in the mid 80’s things were quite a bit different then that are now. Things were more affordable but the quality and level of detail isn’t as good as today. Paint and decals were plentiful and it was practical to repaint cars into your desired scheme. Also modeling materials were somewhat limited. Plaster soaked paper towels over wire screen was pretty much standard. As for myself, the high cost on “model paint” has caused me to switch to department store rattle can colors, both for cars and buildings. Since I model forested hillsides I quit using plaster and just hot glue brown paper or even newspaper to a web of cardboard then glue ground foam or clumps directly to the paper. Model railroaders tend to be enterprising folks, what changes, adaptations, or helpful ideas have you come up with?
My first layout as a teenager in the '60’s was snap track on cork roadbed with no ballast. Scenery was plaster of paris applied directly to window screening. Buildings were cheesy Plasticville. Vehicles were matchbox cars that were closer to HO scale back then. Lights in structures were Christmas lights with no interiors. I also had no figures. Had no idea about minimum grades, laying track with precision or keeping everything to scale.
Today I lay my track with much more precision. I have combined n/s track with brass track but have used Funky foam from Hobby Lobby for my roadbed with decorators sand for ballast as these are much cheaper than the stuff made for model railroads. I am now using styrene foam and Sculptamold for scenery and using much more detail. I use natural, free and inexpensive materials whenever possible and use my savings for locomotives and rolling stock. I have purchased many figures pre-painted but have tried my hand at painting my own also. Have graduated from a 4 x 8 layout to a 14’ x 14’ around the room shelf layout with a peninsula. Of course all of this was made possible by having a full-time job for 45 years and now having the time in retirement.
I made my first layout at the age of 12, used it for a couple of years, then took a 25 year break…
As I’ve worked in the hobby, I’ve become much more concerned with making things look “right”. My current self woul
dn’t tolerate my original layout for a second, and I now find great satisfaction in ripping out parts that were “my best effort” a few years ago and redoing them as my skills improve.
And sorry about the formatting of that last post. I’m using the new Tablet that I got for Christmas, and no matter what I do, I can’t edit that line break out of there.
When I got serious about HO scale in the 60’s, I was a teenager with a limited budget. By the 70’s, I was employed and had money. You mentioned prices were less back in the 80’s, compared to now. There are two issues you need to look at:
Inflation - That has really ramped up pricing.
What is available - Most model railroad products were in ‘kit’ form back the. Now, most product is ‘RTR’, and have a higher level of detail. This adds to the cost.
Decals and paint are sort of becomming a ‘lost art’ - It is even hard to find correct decals. I like to kit-bash or scratch-build freight cars and the lettering decals can be problematic. Good supplies for detail parts(roof walks/ends) are available as are styrene.
Myself, I ‘make’ ground foam myself. I ‘grind’ it in several sizes, and color it with cheap acryic paints from Walmart or Hobby Lobby in an old blender… Here is a link to what it takes to make your own ground foam:
I use medical plaster wrap - but buy it via eBay or on-line supply houses - A lot more inexpensive.
One thing that I have noticed over the years is most guys seem to be unable to ‘buy’ another engine. I think this is sort of normal in this hobby, but really cuts into your modeling budget. Myself, I have about 60 engines and 300 freight/passenger cars. But that was purchased over a 50 year time span! My layout will not hold all of those cars…
Greater reliance on swap meets/ EBay as principal sources of models and materials; more “home-spun” solutions to repair and restore efforts. This is a direct response to economic conditions. For example, five+ years ago, I was a regular small customer of Train World, generally buying about $100.00 every 3 months. I had several LHS options for local parts and supplies. Today, only a Hobbytown is the LHS and I can only window shop at Train World. However, the result is that I have become a far better hands-on modeler, and have come to appreciate the skill sets that were once prevalent in our hobby. Cedarwoodron
A life time of long hours lets me buy what I want, when I want, in retirement. As a result my current retirement layout is somewhat larger than anything I thought I would ever have.
I never understood off layout staging as I never had enough rolling stock or engines to worry about it. My current fleet is still growing as it is hard to resist buying the things I want or like. So to that end I am planning under the bench staging on my 6’ x 18’ bench.
Actually having a whole large room devoted to trains only still makes me pinch myself sometimes. That is a huge change compared to what Dad and I had.[:)]
My first ‘layout,’ and I use that term loosely, was one a sheet of 1/2 inch particle board which I dropped and broke off one corner and tried to repair. The track was Atlas brass snap track and, as I recall, it may have been a figure 8 with an over/under made out of those plastic trestle pieces. Most of the detail was provided by my imagination and I really thought I had something.
I also tried the screen wire scenery method, the plaster soaked paper towels, block wiring, relied on horn hook couplers and was satisfied with just making do.
Over the years I read lots of books, tried new techniques and thank goodness, I tossed that piece of particle board. Now I really like building benchwork, building and painting structures - and actually, the more complicated the better. I have adopted the plaster cloth method of scenery, poured my first lake and stream. and have a layout that covers about 250 square feet of floor space. I dumped my old block wiring for DCC a few years ago and have in place a maintenance/repair system for virtually everything.
Most of what I do i have borrowed from other people and made changes along the way that suit me. All in all, it’s been a great journey I just wished I knew when what I know now.
“How has your modeling changed/adapted over the years”?
Since this is my hobby, something I do for enjoyment, my enjoyment comes from doing the things I found enjoyable when I started out in the hobby. I have been a model builder since a very early age and got involved in both Model Railroading and Flying Model Airplanes at that time. My biggest enjoyment in this hobby therefore is model building, whether building a kit; or, from scratch, that is what keeps me interested! If the model building aspect of this hobby ever goes away, it’s likely I will loose all interest!
Therefore, I have had to adapt to a dwindling supply of kits and have had to seek-out new; or, obscure old manufacturers, still manufacturing kits. I find the ancillary items needed to be a kit/scratch builder, are still basically available: trucks, wheel sets, couplers, wire for grabs/brake rigging, detail parts, paints and decals. Hopefully this will continue.
I’ve had to adapt to the fact that most folks in this hobby, seem to be diametrically opposed to my views on what is enjoyable about it and are forcing the direction of the hobby towards expensive, Ready to Run equipment! I feel it is a sad commentary on the state of the hobby that there are no kit locomotives available, anymore! That equipment is more detailed and runs well (for the most part) has been taken from the abilities of the model builder and is simply a part of the expensive investment made by the buyer! I can find no pride of ownership in that.
The above are my opinions, which have been posed as a personal answer to the O.P.'s question. You have differing opinions, fine, state them in a way that will keep this thread from being locked! I may be different than you and here in America, different people with differing opinions, is our right!
I am in this hobby for over 49 years now. In all those years, I went a number of different ways - in terms of scale as well as modeling techniques. Up until recently, I used what the industry has to offer. I am right now attacking what I think will be my last layout. Aside from an etched metal kit for the loco, I won´t be using any RTR or even kit-built item on this layout. It´ll be scratchbuilt from A to Z. I know this is going to put my skills to test, but I have got the time to do things more than once, should I not be happy with the outcome.
I too grew up building models - cars, boats, planes - in the 1950s. When I got into HO in 1960, I was immediately introduced to the Athearn BB kits. WOW! Money was in short supply but those kits were affordable. Soon I was working on Revell and other structure kits as they came out.
Fast forward to today… my skills have improved, and money/time are more available. My love of kit building is as strong as ever, and there is not one ready made structure on the 11x15 HO layout. Of my 250 freight cars, there are about 15 so called RTR pieces. These were bought because of their uniqueness, and of course each one required various degrees of help to get them to be truly “layout ready”.
During my early HO years, I also enjoyed building benchwork, layout design, wiring, track laying, and all those processes needed to put together a layout. When my latest layout was built in 2008-2009, those desires were still strong. What I have realized in the last few years is that my love of building a layout is about equal to “running trains”…
So to answer the OP’s question, the modeling of my youth is with me today - still trying to build that world of the 1950s - with the Santa Fe and the Illinois Central running side by side thru a midwest setting.
For decades, I was a pure and unadulterated novice. I would get a layout built to the point where trains were running in circles around bare wooden benchwork and go “Cool… now what?” Scenery, structures, operations, none of it even occurred to me. Only in the past year or so has the secret to an extended and in-depth love affair with model trains (rather than occasional half-baked flings) been apparent to me: your layout should operate like a 1:1 railroad. Seems forehead-slapping obvious in retrospect, but the pieces did not fall together until embarrassingly recently. I thank MR for this; this magazine has caused the scales to fall from my eyes, revealing how vast, complicated, intriguing and seductive this hobby truly is.
A list of inspiring MRs:
Pelle Soeborg
Linn Westcott
Tony Koester
Andy Sperandeo
Cody Grivno
Jim Hediger
Thank you to you all, and to all at MR. I wish everyone a happy, trainy Sunday!
I have had a similar exodus from the early days. I have also developed a stong dislike for the RTR offerings,and have gone over the edge so far as to not allow any plastic structures on my current layout.This means spending my HO budget on vintage kits from the internet. My hobby experience is significantly affected by the availability of E-Bay and the on-line hobby industry.
I find my real enjoyment in the non-operating aspects of the hobby so my track plan is simple and my scenic is elaborate.I am facing retirement in the next year and am wondering if this drastic change will change my focus yet again.
When LION was little him asked for a train set for Christmas. Him was thinking of a wooden train pulled around with a string, what appeared under the tree was a loop of American Flyer track with some freight cars pulled by a Hudson. You see there is a problem with a train that runs on tracks: It can only go where the tracks go. A wooden train pulled by a string can go anywhere your imagination can take you. It is not at all limited.
Well now the LION builds railroads, and his layout is not limited by the tracks: I can put tracks anywhere I want my train to go. LION is limited by money, and by ability, but since LION cannot control for these two things, him builds railroad out of things that he does have. All stations are built from scratch using snips of cardboard, wood, foam, printed paper, LEDs and a vivid imagination. After all, who in the world makes station platforms four feet long.
Is the model world class? No it is not. But it is a hobby, and it gives me hours and hours of time to build and reflect, to ponder and wonder. Not only must I make a station platform that someone can look at and say : " Oh. That is Prospect Park in Brooklyn", but I must also make it out of materials that I can find around this place. A platform roof: Corrugated cardboard of course, Place the corrugated edge where it can be seen, paint it green (with red on the roof) and it will look enough like the metal beams used in subway construction to make it look thus in the mind’s eye, for the LION cannot afford to buy the proper plastic materials in a store. Not only this, but I must arrange my elements in a way that they lighting system will work, but the wiring will not be seen, and that things can fit together with the least amount of effort and trouble.
OK, my present layout is of the New York City Subway System, but this was not the original intention when I first conceived it. It was supposed to be a commuter railroad, perhaps the LIRR. Penn Station was the main focus, and like NYP
I started out six years ago on an extremely tight budget using older equipment from my youth(1980’s). I used many of the thrifty ideas learned on this forum. I went dumpster diving for foam, used sedum for trees, ceiling tiles for rock walls and other cheap alternatives to modeling supplies. The problem is that I was using substandard products with limited modeling skills. The results were less than satisfactory with my first layout. The biggest change I did for the new layout was shell out the money for new foam, scenic express trees, new Peco track, sculptamold for ground contours and other, more costly modeling supplies. I also have a acquired better modeling skills so the current layout is superior in every way to the first one.
So I guess in a nut shell, my biggest change is using better products with better skills to achieve a better result. The only question is, could I achieve a similar result using the sub par materials I used on the old layout with my current skills?
I’m less tolerant of crowded track and scenery and tight radius curves, given the unavoidable space constraints. Things need to be more spread out to look right to me. That has led me to be more interested in short lines with shorter trains than I was 20 years ago.
As I read through these posts it looks like it is about the same for all of us. I had a love of trains from a little kid that had not much more than a circle with a few snap together building and hot wheels and a small steam train, but 12 years ago when I had space and not a lot of money I purchased a couple trains one day at a flea market and started a 4x8. I used the paper towel/newspaper plaster method and better plastic building kits and tree kits and tried to make some from scratch. Today the 4x8 is gone and now I am working on a 14x20 around the room, I have gone to pretty much all foam and using Fusion Fiber with very happy results. I have gone to more wood structures and better plastics with some scratch building, I even make my own leaves by grinding up leaves, dyeing and curing them and sifting and then using weed and plant material for armatures. I have started using more Noch products as I feel they give a more realistic look and I also use the static grass now, still with some ground foam. I now have an air brush and I can remember a time when I said I would never get into DCC and now I have the NCE radio system and half my power is converted to DCC with LED lights and sound and working on the rest. What I don’t see myself doing is a lot of motorized switches and computer control and all the techie stuff as I am not much of a techie and really get more into the modeling aspect of it. But basically yeah there has been a lot of improvment over the years as far as products on the market but I think it comes down to over the time as your skills improve and in some cases your ability to afford some of it you just want to improve on what you have done in the past. Bottom line is as long as you enjoy it keep it up no matter how you do it. Unfortunately I see and thank goodness make some good buys from guys that have just gotten board with it or just don’t find the fun in it anymore.