Good morning! My name is Andrew. I live in Winter Springs, FL. I have worked in the area and for the same company for 35 years. I work for a Mouse! I have always been interested in building a model train layout. I have been doing a lot of research on these forums and on the internet. I don’t have enough room in my aparment to build one yet. My fiancé has encouraged me to build one. I am thinking possibly 1950’s Knoxville, TN. I look forward to leaning all I can to build a layout. I would appreciate any advise and expertise I can get from y’all . I am very detail oriented. I wouldn’t say it is OCD but it is pretty close.
Welcome Andrew, it’s good to have you join in. You are very lucky in your choice of fiancé, I can tell you that!
Between Model Railroader magazine and this website, together with MR Video Plus (which is very extensive and worth exploring) you might feel a bit bombarded by advice, some of it not focused where you need it most.
Someone in your shoes wants to know so many things at once and it can take a year or two for the magazine to get around to covering your topic. That is why a book or special issue can be in some ways the most help of all to the beginner. Looking at the special issues MR has available for sale,
http://mrr.trains.com/magazine/special-issues
I see they have one on How to Build a Model Railroad and another on how to build a small model railroad.
I also find Kalmbach’s annual “Model Railroad Planning” to be useful.
And the internet is bound to have some resources for researching Knoxville in the 50s.
There are historical societies for just about every big railroad that is or was, and in Knoxville the Louisville & Nashville RR was pretty important. I bet their magazine has featured historic Knoxville in back issues. They have a website
http://www.lnrr.org/default.aspx
Are you aware that the annual convention of the National Model Railroad Association is going to be held in Orlando this summer? You may not feel ready to join the NMRA (although I would not discourage you from doing that) or attend that convention, but the reason I mention this is that a highlight of the annual convention from Friday to Sunday August 4, 5 and 6 is the big national train show, one of the biggest there is, and you are
Welcome to the forum.
If you have specific layout questions, there are some profesional designers that freely comment on your design. Pictures or you proposed layout cut to the chase quicker than beating around the bush for 2 pages of posts but there are very specific directions on how to post pictures in this forum, in a “sticky” in this general forum. If you can follow directions, it’s not hard.
The other newbie trick is to give us too little information. I don’t think you are asking us how to procede with an apartment layout but if you are, we need to know scale.
The British sites (sorry I don’t have any names) are more geared to small layouts. If you have room under the bed, you certainly can build a small HO or N scale switching layout that you can set up on a coffee table.
First, don’t let a lack of space be a dream killer. There are ways around that; You could build rolling stock kits, I’ve seen dioramas as small as 12X12 in. not mutch train action, but build a building,add some trees grass, road, find your skill. Try modules most are 2X4ft. Depending on your scale; youcan get a lot of stuff in a 1X6ft shelf type layout.
You need to decide on a scale Z thru O. Type of RR coal,passenger ect. and a location, east/west coast or any where in between.
When you ask a question here, you will get diefferent methods, there is no one way. Try them all or find the one that would work for you.You will also get answers to questions you didn’t ask. Pick out what you need to know and disreguard the rest There is more information here then you or I will ever use.
MR is fun, if you don’t allow it to stress you. IMHO
Have you made a trip to Colonial Photo and Hobby yet? They have a good selection of trains and are friendly. They have lots of books, and should have some of the titles listed earlier.
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For really good advice you might want to day-trip it down to Sarasota and vsisit Kelly and Dave at Gulf Coast Model Railroading. Great little shop and great guys with good advice.
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Ready to Roll in Miami has everything, but the location looks a bit scary.
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-Kevin
Hey wdw3082:
Congratulations on your first posts, and congratulations on taking up the hobby!
Have you decided what scale you are going to work in? Since you like details, HO has a lot of potential. N scale will allow you to fit more into a given space but details are really tiny. Lots of guys do it though. Larger scales allow you to do intimate detailing but they offer limited operations in a small space.
I’m in HO and HOn30 which is HO scale rolling stock on N gauge track. I have been into the hobby for about 15 years but due to past space limitations I don’t have a layout yet. My son (the space limitation) has moved out so I will be starting to build this summer. I have kept myself busy scratch building structures and a couple of HOn30 locomotives, acquiring rolling stock, installing decoders, building kits etc. etc. I have had a track plan for quite some time so I have been able to acquire all of the turnouts and switch machines and almost all of the track needed at pretty good prices over the past couple of years. EBay has been a good source.
If I can offer one single piece of advice, it is to get yourself a copy of John Armstrong’s ‘Track Planning for Realistic Operation’. It’s on sale at Kalmback right now:
https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/12148
This is one of the best books for helping you to avoid mistakes when designing your layout. When I started in the hobby I came up with my own wonderful track plan that I thought would be the envy of every railroad modeller world wide! Then I bought Armstrong’s book to see what all the fuss was about. After reading Armstrong’s book I realized that my plan was almost totally disfunctional. I would not have been able to do most of the sorts of operations that I had envisaged. Had I built it I would have wasted a lot of time and money.
You are in for a lot of fun. Tell your fiance how good a person she is!
If you’re new to the hobby and want to build a layout, I highly recommend “How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork” by Linn Wescott. It’s still available in the used book marketplace:
https://www.amazon.com/Build-Railroad-Benchwork-Second-Railroader/dp/0890242895
It’s not just nuts and bolts “how to…”, but also design considerations as well.
Gidday Andrew, [#welcome] to the forum.
While you don’t have room to build a layout, you can start building the structures that you will place on it, 1950s Knoxville will no doubt have particular buildings that you will have to either kitbash or scratchbuild especially as you’re detail orientated.
Acquiring the appropriate locomotives and rolling stock should also keep you not only busy, but interested.
Have Fun.
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
P.S. Treasure your fiancée!!
Thank you for for the advice. Yes I do plan on attending the NMRA convention in August. Ihave researched pics on the internet for Knox in the 50’s. When I am ready will build my layout.
By the way my name is Andrew. I am sure I will have specific questions once I get going. I am leaning towards an HO scale layout.
I know where Colonial Photo & Hobby is. I have been there before, but mostly for work when I was driving for work. Besides if you know Orlando it is a pain in the… to get to downtown. That is why I live in Winter Springs and drive 30 miles to wrk.
Andrew,
Being in the hobby today is made all the more enjoyable with the immense amount of data available at just the touch of a key pad, but sometimes at the risk of “information overload.”
Building and detailing structures and small scenes for my HO scale ISL reinforces in me the truth in what Rod Stewart reportedly said of model railroading, “it’s just the most supreme relaxation.” I very much agree with what others have said in that so much modeling fun can be derived from not a whole lotta’ space.
BTW, I’m curious about your statement “I work for a Mouse!.”
Regards, Peter
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One of my daughters lives in Windermere and works for the same mouse. I actually do an occasional (seasonal) bit of contract work for the mouse.
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The mouse is the money machine that keep the gears of Florida turning.
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You might know him as Mickey! LOL.
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-Kevin
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Yes I know him quite well, I have been there for 35 years. What does your daughter do for the Big Cheese?
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I designed a under the bed layout. Unfortunately it doesn’t fit underneath it but I don’t want to cut it either.
Here’s a picture.
It measures 28"x 56". A decent sized train set in N Scale with 12" curve radius track. Basically all small layouts are going to look the same.
I thought of expanding so it will have a second curve on top as a runaround and for mainline trains waiting for the local. And a possibility of a interchange track to get on and off by staging.
Oh… something else because you are near Orlando…
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You MUST go to Skycraft Surplus on Fairbanks (Just to the East of Interstate 4)! They have so much stuff you will find useful when you build your layout. I have spent more $$$ there than any hobby shop, and they do not sell any trains.
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-Kevin
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[#welcome]
During my Amtrak career (retired 2014), I served TENS OF THOUSANDS of people, young and old, who were traveling to Meet the Mouse. [tup]
Tom
Most definitely! I know exactly where SkyCraft is. You can’t miss it. I haven’t been there in awhile. If you need it they have it.
Andrew
“If you can dream it, you can do it!”
Walt Disney
Welcome Andrew!
[#welcome]
I will now get this out of the way… You can’t possibly have OCD… If you did, you would term it CDO. (That’s OCD in alphabetical order, the way it should be.) [;)]
Now… Back to normally scheduled topic…
HO and N are the popular scales on this forum, S and O on Classic toy trains forums.
Once you select your scale, learn all you can.
You will find lots of help here, and in various books. Read, read, read. There’s always lots to learn.
But, also, get started on modeling! Anything, even just a single railcar, but get started!
Welcome to the best hobby there is!
Why not COD? That is what Yoda would say!
Thsnk you for the advice. I did start a scratchbuildibvg project yesterday. I did post of the beginning of it in another post yesterday. Why does it take 24 hour for the moderators to review it?
Andrew