Hi all. My name is Russ. I’ve been what someone recently called a “lurker” for a few months now so it’s time I introduced myself. I’ve been getting back into the hobby after 40 years (that seems to be the sweet spot for that doesn’t it?).
I left the hobby largely out of frustration. Small attic room freezing or baking. Flat tabletop that used to hold my brother’s Lionels. And John Allen and Malcolm Furlow, now inspirations, made me feel I was wasting my time. Never threw anything away though and through the years would pick up the occasional MR or RMC.
Last March I broke my dominant arm quite badly. The day I met the surgeon he said “All broken bones are bad. Yours is as bad as it gets.” I now have a plate from bicep to elbow. Anyway one day in May I was standing in the doorway of the junk room upstairs, looking at 20 years of accumulated crap and stuff I never unpacked. This included a couple hunks salvaged from the old layout leaning against the wall. I thought if I don’t do this soon I never will.
So I started that day dragging stuff out of there with one arm (out of cast by then but still in sling).
I bought a Grand Valley kit. If I’d given it more thought maybe I would have done something different. The room (14x11) would be great for a shelf layout with few windows. But after all these years, something “easy” felt like the way to go.
Then I ordered benchwork. It took about 2 months to arrive - they said on the website that they were behind because of some big orders. That was fine. I wouldn’t have been able to drag it into the house, much less get it upstairs and put it together, with one arm. It’s 5x8 to add a yard/more industries.
So I spent that time working on 40 year old freight cars (couplers, wheels and weight) which included an “eBay someday” box for the ones that weren’t worth the bother.
The layout will be set in a fictional town on the coast of Maine in 1959. There will not be a big mountain with 2 tunnels per instructions. Smaller mountain, one tunnel, with the outside loop being coastline. B&M, MEC, BAR mostly (bought a nice Portland Terminal RS11 too). Still trying to get the track “bulletproof”. DCC is not very forgiving I’m finding. But I’ll get there.
I look forward to participating in these forums!
Welcome on board Russ. I went through what you are experiencing now and, in retrospect, it has been fun. Don’t make the mistake of trying to start with a room filling layout. Start small and polish your skills before you advance. You’ll find that this is a rewarding hobby so enjoy it.
Joe
Welcome to the forum, Russ! Even though you’ve been reading the forum for a while, it’s nice you’ve decided to contribute. As you get more of your layout started, I hope you will consider some photos. There are only a few “experts” here (I’m not one), so don’t think your progress isn’t good enough for us to see!
Welcome back Russ! I wish you all the best on your healing journey.
I too was out of the hobby for decades and came back in 2017. I’ve learned some lessons. One is that getting into DCC can be easy, buy a new DCC system (NCE in my case) and new DCC locos, or harder - try to put decoders in old engines with open frame motors that run rough and draw a lot of power (1+AMP!). I also found some of my engines had deep flange wheels that would have required code 100 rail and decided to junk most of my old equipment and go for NMRA compliant locos and wheelsets in cars on code 83 rail. I have missed some of the old stuff, but the new equipment is so much easier to work with!
Thanks guys. I’m doing DCC. NCE Powercab. Code 83 rail. I bought the track pack that is supposed to be a fit. Not really. Plus, more soldering and wiring. So I got some Micro Engineering flex track. I use a ballast spreader that I 3d printed to shape it (whether I’ll use it to actually do ballast I don’t know). That’s the point I’m at now. Right now the layout is piled with stuff from the old metal shelves that I’m replacing with a 6 foot tall metal cabinet. I’m going to finish putting that together this week, get things put away and better organized, then get back to the fun stuff.
While a lot of your possible questions have already been addressed on the Forum over the years, the search function can be rather funky, so ask away, though be prepared to receive well-meaning yet conflicting answers!
Work at your own pace, don’t let the really Good Stuff you see here on occasion get you down, use it to inspire yourself.
Welcome to the family Russ! I’m new to the hobby myself, modeling in N Scale and loving all the “attention to detail” stuff. Please share pictures as you move along on your layout. Many time I draw inspiration or have an Ah Hah! moment because of the guys on the forum. Hope you heal quickly.
Welcome Russ. Yes i can say just back into the hobby after about a 15 year absence and i cant share much more advice that hasn’t allready been given. So i will say just that i personally find my biggest obstacle is my own procrastination. And once ya get past the fear messing up things go pretty quickly relatively speaking.
Yeah procrastination is a factor for me so far. “Fear of messing up” as you eloquently put it. Messing up scenery or smearing glue all over the windows of a structure is one thing, kinky or uneven track is quite another. But as I said in my first post, I’ll get there!
I was a notorious glue smearer building model cars as a kid.
