Hi everyone,
I am new here and just getting back into model railroading. I played with them as a kid. I still have my original trains from when i was a kid 30+ years ago. I dont know where to begin except that i should learn the basic. I wanna build a layout of somekind eventually. What things should i consider first? What are the essentials or basics to begin with? Thanks everyone.
A visit to your local hobby shop might be your first step to see how the hobby has changed. Purchase a few model railroad magazines to get into the feel of the hobby again. If the LHS has recent magazines at a lower price, pick-up a few of those. Before you buy anything equipment, use the forum to see if there are any problems with your choices. Keep it simple at first; a smaller functional railroad is better than a large one that does to operate properly. If there is a model railroad club nearby, ask if you could visit. Visit any shows, clubs, etc. that might be coming up in your area. And by all means if you have any questions, ask !!!
Welcome. I came back five years ago andhave never had nore fun. I did the following steps.
Identified the space I had
Chose a scale - I liked HO
Read old magazines and had some ideas of what I wanted - I chose lumber and mining, mountains and valleys. I decided I liked complex sceney.
Chose an era. I liked steam.
Drew some sketches of track plans that could fit my space and include my three chosen scenes. I wanted a floor to ceiling canyon, a lunber camp in Northern Minnesota and a mining scene in the desert.
Once I got that far, things started to come together and I could ask more specific question. I do wish I would have started with DCC and saved a lot on money and all the extra wiring for DC.
In my five years seice, I have added some new areas and changed some track work, but my only regret is that I didn’t lay all 24 inch curves so when I fell in love with large steam, I could have run it more easily. I did get all my stuff to run on 18 inch curves but it was too hard.
Good luck. Keep us imformed. I would love to talk about extruded foam sceney.
Welcome back!
You’re coming in with the right attitude, certainly. I agree with the others – don’t be too eager to start building. Go out and see some layouts, and read as much as you can for a while.
You might try identifying the space that you have, and working on a list of “Givens” (things you absolutely must have, either because you won’t be satisfied without them, or because of some physical constraint that you can’t change) and your “Druthers” (things you would like to do if you can fit them in).
You might also want to look at some track planning software so you can play around with various designs. Do a search of the forums, and you will find lots of advice on the various free and commercial products available.
BTW, you weren’t a kid 30+ years ago, you were just less grown. In the immortal words of George Bernard Shaw, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.” Let the inner kid come out to play!
Welcome to the forums and back to the hobby.
You are headed in the right direction. This is a good place to ask questions first and act (spend and build later).
If you go to the top of this page in the light gray line, you will find the word SHOP. Click on there, there are a number of beginner books listed and I would suggest one on benchwork, track laying, wiring and scenery. If your LHS does not have them, you can order them either directly from MR or through the Walthers catalog.
As suggested, define your space. Also make a list of givens and druthers. Givens are things you can’t change, as your space and the limitations (obsticles, windows, doors) in it. Druthers are what you would like (continuous running, switching, heavy on operations, era, location -city/country, Applachians/Southwest). Set these down and you will begin to define your railroad and what you can do.
When you do begin to finalize things just remember one thing, it is YOUR railroad and only you can decide what you really want. If you want to build buildings you like, whether they fit your location or not, it’s up to you. If you want to have steam engines and modern diesels side by side, your call. In that thought, excursion trains hauled by steam have made it possible for many modelers to justify some steam on their modern layouts.
Also, in that light gray line you will find RESOURCES
Welcome to the forums and back to model railroading.
You have the right idea, ask questions first, act (buy and build) later. If you go to the top of this page to the light gray line and find SHOP. There you will find a number of beginner books and I would suggest ones on benchwork, track laying, wiring and scenery. If your LHS does not have them you can order directly from MR or through the Walthers catalog. Read and then come back with more questions.
Also in gray line you will find RESOURCES. There you will find listings of Hobby Shops, MRR Groups and Events. You can search to find ones near you. Visiting layouts and going to train shows is a great way to get exposed to the many aspects of the hobby.
Have fun,
Edit: Knew I lost that other one, but didn’t know it had come here. My train skills are hopefully better than my computer skills, but that ain’t sayin’ muck.
Have fun anyhow,
Hi,
Thanks everyone. I have all ho items. Most of my track is nickle silver which i know is better then brass. The few pieces where the electrical is connected to the track is brass. Is there any way i can change it over to the silver or would it be cheaper to buy new? I would say about 70 or 80 percent of the cars i have are the advertising on them (boxcar or refrigerator kind). There are various railroads presented such as Illionois, Santa Fe, etc. I have 5 engines (2 dummy), all deisel, 5 cabooses, and about 35 oothers. I have a few logging ones, along with a coal one. I already have started a list of the musts and a list of would likes. Thanks everyone.
Try your local library for books as well, I was surprised they had 120 books available. Far as brass track, not nearly as bad as most people think. I started adding some this January just to see what kind of problems I would have? None, stays as clean as my nickel sliver track.
On turns, I would try to stay above 22 inch radius if you have the room. 18 inch turns will put more strain on engines and rolling stock. If you do have to use 18 (I still have 2) just take your time on aligning the sections.
Good luck and ask a lot of questions.
Ken
I’ll not repeat what the others have said about research and planning. But I’ll disagree with the reccomendations of not building anything yet.
Something as basic as the proverbial oval on a 4x8 sheet of plywood is a good place to start. Especially since you already have locos and track etc. It need not be fancy but a place to practice tracklaying skills, testing locos, fine tuning rolling stock etc will help immensly in pursuit of this hobby. It will allow you to get a better handle on what your current skills are, what you’d like to learn and what the abilities of differing grades of locos/rolling stock are. What kinds of grades and curve radii do you want and can you biuld em? A big one is do you want a “railfan” layout where trains run through scenes or an "operations layout where you are the engineer? What kind of scenery do you like, urban/industrial, mountains, desert? Looking at different layouts can give you an idea of what you like but actually doing it and seeing the results are far more informative.
With a little forethought this “starter” layout can be integrated into the final basement empire or if it turns out to be a disaster it can be disassembled and redone without a lot of wasted time or money. Besides, even if you may never use this layout for anything permanent, it’s still fun to play with trains.
Too many members on this fourm seem to believe that bras track and old trainsets are a waste of time and that newbies should throw it out and startover with new. Great if you have the disposable income. I agree that some of this old stuff is no good junk but the same practices of guageing wheels, laying good track etc apply no matter what materials you’re starting with, so why not use what you already have? This isn;t to say that you’ll never buy new or better but why invest hundreds of extra dollars into the learning cuvre?
And iff those old trainsets and brass track was as bad as everyone mak
Welcome to the forum. Your nickel silver track will be ok to begin the layout. A little cleaning with a bright boy will make it like new again. My suggestion to you before starting your first section of track is to READ, READ, and READ some more. I would like to suggest that you get some “How To” books on layout design, benchwork, wiring, (DC and DCC . DCC is really a great way to run a railroad and it’s not as complicated as it seems) and finally a book on Scenery. Kalmbach sells such books. Also, visit as many layouts as you can. that way, you can get some real good ideas in your head concerning the type of layout you want to create.
You’re going to make a lot of mistakes before you build a quality layout and just keep in mind that this is not an “instant gratification” hobby. I’m on my 6th layout and have been building the current one for over 7 years and it’s still the plywood central in a lot of areas. I’m taking my time and trying to do the best job that i can so that the trains, turnouts, and rails have minimal defects. If something doesn’t come out right, then just tear it out and start over again. There are a lot of new to the hobby modelers that get frustrated and give up too easily. It takes a person with a tenatious attitude to stay in this hobby. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again…chuck
[#welcome] back to Model Railroading and [#welcome] to the Forums.
I will not reiterate the excellent advise that you have received above, but it is all excellent from some excellent modelers. What I will add is, “Make haste slowly”. Check everything that you do several times before moving on.
Bench-work: Solid and level where it needs to be level.
Roadbed: Sand it smooth before laying track.
Track-work: Be sure that your curves and transitions into them, both horizontal and vertical are both smooth and seamless and that your track joints are straight and tight. Make your curves as broad as you possibly can.
Turnouts: Just a small dab of glue at each end to hold them in place and DON"T solder the the track connectors to the turnouts, just in case they have to be changed later. It is much easier to loosen a couple of small dabs of glue than try to pry up the whole length of the turnout.
I do want to go to the dcc system, but in the beggining i was thinking of going with the dc. Everyone says to go with documenting the wiring to make it easer and to do some kind of color coding. I was thinking of soldering all the straight pieces to make sure the connections were better and all. Your the first to mention about the sanding part. Thanks to everyone for the helpful information.