Hi! My name is Brian and I am a railway modeller here in Scotland, however, I have always liked and hankered after American Railroads. recently one of my friends challenged me to build and run an American layout. I chose to model the Union Pacific, however, unlike you in America I have very little room ,the best I can manage is what I belief you guys call a shelf layout but I could be wrong. What I am looking for is a few good guys from across the pond to help me out. I am looking for help with just about everthing, any help will be much appreciated. My email address is bmirner@aol.com Thanks for taking the time to read this plea.
You didn’t even respond back after a few replies from us with lots of info on modeling the UP, you created a previous post called UNION PACIFIC here.
Hello, Brian. Have you looked at the Union Pacific site, or for a historical society for the railroad? Often they have a great amount of information available. There may even be a yahoo group.
Have you picked an era yet? Is steam of an interest, or something after, say, 1965 or so? Several manufacturers have rolling stock suitable for modelling from the early 20th until modern times.
Also, have you sought out information on Pelle Soeborg, a Swedish gentleman featured in Model Railroader about once a year for the past five or six years? He models the UP and does a fantastic bit of work.
If you have a thread already to which others have responded, please do not overlook those responses. Others will become reluctant to help you if you don’t acknowledge earlier contributions elsewhere.
-Crandell
If this looks good to you, Pelle has a couple of Kalmbach books on scenery and layout construction that will probably be very valuable to you. His great backdrops and scenery make his “Daneville Subdivision” layout look huge, but it’s basically a shelf layout.
p.s. I believe he’s Danish, not Swedish…[;)]
Brian,
From one of the hundreds of US modelers based in the UK, welcome.
Is there anything specific you want to know at this stage?
My advice for new starters (based largely on my own experiences and mistakes), is:-
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Keep a current subscription to Model Railroader and read every article;
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Join the NMRA British Region;
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Before you commit to any real expense, take time to decide what, where and when you want to model (it took me two years before settling on what I really wanted to do and in that time, like many new to US modelling, I was simply buying whatever I thought was appropriate. Hence 30 locomotives are soon to hit the auction sites!);
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Get a copy of the latest Walthers catalogue, it is your railroading bible;
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Sign up to the many railroad photo sites on the internet - they’re a great source of inspiration and can often provide evidence of short trains to fit your limited space;
6.Search this forum for specific topics; there are some great guys out there only too willing to help.
Ian
I must apologise as this is the first time i have been on a site like this ,I am not the most computer savvy person in the world. I can only assume that when I went on line originally I have somehow lost your reply I can only aplogise for this and hope it does not stop you getting in touch
Hi thanks for your quick reply. I must admit I am not too savvy about computers and I thinkI have upset someone already by not replying quickly enough. But Hay Ho. I am think era 1965-1975 GP’s RS and switchers. I have a good idea abot locos but my big concern is freight cars. I also buy railroader modeler and have seen the gentleman yourwere talking about. Just to give you a little background I have been involved with several layouts that have appeared in Britishn model mags and have exibited at many 5* British model exibitions .
Hi thanks for prompt reply to answer your questions fully . This was a challenge because of what was said one night in the pub(you know the type of discussion). What I want is a small yard shunting scenario. Railroad UP So far I have Purchased (on ebay) SW1500,RSC2, GP9,GP30 and a GP38. Also a fair selection of freight cars but these can be sorted over time.
Saw his recent article in modelrailroader picked up plenty of tips. Thanks