How old were you when you first started building your first layout? I’m 13 building a 12 by 20 footer. Oh yea did i say double deck.
Ummm…Since I started in May 2004, that would have made me 45.
Tom
I guess it depends on what you mean by “building your own layout”. Since I assume you don’t mean temporary layouts on the floor with plastic Brio equivalent trains (we couldn’t afford that expensive wooden stuff), I must have been about 4 or 5 years old. I put out the Atlas HO sectional track and set out the buildings on a board and my father nailed down the track. It was then hinged over my bed. By myself I “ran” plastic trains that just happen to fit on HO scale rail. I got to run electric when my parents were present. I had three locomotives 0-4-0, F3, and some sort of Plymoth switcher with a single EMD B truck under it. It had a hot frog on the single turnout (that was the only kind they had back then).
But I guess if one considers doing all the work them self and building from nonthingness I had to be in 4th grade (how old is that 9?). For Christmas that year I got a new 4-4-0 locomotive and MRC power pack, so that started the effort. I started my 2nd in 6th grade (it was an elaborate loop-to-loop on 7/8" thick 5x9 plywood cement-forming board). It was never finished, because Christmas of 1969 (7th grade) I switched to N-scale, and began my 3rd layout.
I started building my second layout at the age of six. (My father built the first when I was four).
I am 25 now i would say my first layout was around 12. I found an old name tag for a train show i presented in, that was dated about 12 years ago. i do not know how many more years before that i had my own layout. On the other hand i have been helping other people with their train layouts as far back as 5 years old.
I ‘officially’ became interested in model railroading (as opposed to toy trains) at the age of 12, when I bought my first copy of RMC. That ignited The Dream. My parents got me a Tyco set the following Christmas and I started collecting Athearn BlueBox locos. I ran these on club layouts since I didn’t have space in my parents’ house to build a worthwhile layout.
It wasn’t until 20 years later, after a 15-year absence from the Hobby, that I had a house of my own with a basement and built my first 14x9-footer.
When I was 7 years old in 1936 my father built/had built 3 4’x4’ sections for Lionel trains. They layed on the floor in a bed room and were up from between Thanksgiving and Christmas until some time in January.
After I lost interest everything was stored away until my son reached “train age” in the early 1970’s. We used those same sections but put them on top of a ping pong table and added to them. Of course we bought new trains and got them at the Great Greensberg Train Shows. There was no LHS.
When he lost interest once again everything was stored away. Several years ago I went into semi retirement and decided to get back into trains. This time I went with HO but am using the same old sections plus what I have added to fit my space. I put them on legs this time, however. I started this project in Febuary 2007 and just had my 79th birthday.
Bob
I was 12 and in 7th grade. Heres the layout. An N scale 3’X4’ pike. Look at that great scenery. Paper mache’ and 2 dollar water colors. It doesn’t get any better than this [8D]
Lets see your layout. I’m betting its a little better than this gem.
Man…you are old. Bell Bottoms, and silk shirts. I bet “The Brady Bunch” was your favorite show way back when LOL. Hmmmm how would I know this ?
8 or 9 when I built one w/ some real scenery, not just a grass amt. bTW, I’m 13 as well, and i’m waiting for the attic here to get retrofited to be my bedroom.
1971 for my 13th birthday I got a 4x6 foot piece of masonite that I built my first layout on.
I’d been running on the carpet with brass sectional track for two years prior to that.
I’m 49 now and have two switching modules under construction, with the hope of having a room for a full fledged layout some time in the not too distant future.
Thing is I’m having fun, which is what it’s all about.
Mark Gosdin
Im 28 now, I think I was 3-4 when my dad brought home the first 4x6 and a HO AT&SF Bachmann set [:P]
I was 13 when I built my first HO RR. I am now 68. ( Prior to HO I built and rebuilt many Lionel layouts at my house and at friends houses.)
Peter Smith, Memphis
We built O gauge floor layouts at 6 years in the very early 70’s Then we had a HO scale trainset at 7. The “REAL” layout did not occur until 15. It had to fit under the bed. No scenery and inadequate horn/hook couplers which made operation impossible.
Fast forward to 40+ years, Im building one in the room at the end of the house. That one is probably going to be my one and only until the addition is completed at some point in future. It is designed to be portable and be a nucleus of the next one.
I assisted on many layouts over the years. Ordinary life changes such as chasing Girls as a teen, school a few years later and work for decades will determine how much or how little you participate in the hobby.
One other thing Ive noticed. Long ago houses were big, cheap and spacious. Did I say spacious? Now you can hardly find a open 9x9 foot room in anything built today unless you paid alot of money for a custom build.
I was around nine and built a Lionel layout on a 4x8 sheet of plywood.
Well, lets see. I have had trains since I was three, but my Father did all the work then. When I was 13 or 14 we moved and my Dad built an 8x12 table for my Lionel trains in our brand new basement. I did everything on that layout including the wiring and soldering. (Except for the table of course.) A little after that I got my first look at MR and was amazed at the work shown there, and I started to emulate it. After I left home and was out on my own, my first “real scale MRR layout” was a 2x4 N scale one when I was 22.
My Dad set up my first layout when I was 4, in 1962. Around age 7 or 8, I pulled some of the track, and added a couple of turnouts, and some paper tie flex track.
Around age 12, I completely revamped the layout into it’s almost current configuration. Then about 13 years ago, I completely revamped it again with my 3 year old son to it’s current configuration.
Rotor
I started helping my dad build his layout when I was 5, but I didn’t start work on my own layout until I was 22.
I started when i was 13 and now im going to 16.
Bold undertaking with such little experience. How about some pictures?