Growing up as a kid, my Dad had a lot of HO railroad stuff. He never did a large layout as the space and time never allowed, but he has a huge collection of engines and cars that he had purchased in the 60s, and 70s. He did have a small layout that consisted of a twin transformer and two interconnected loops on what was probably a 4’ x 8’ board. We ran many engines in a circle on it for years until one day I thought I could modify it and I started pulling up track trying to do some more and he got irritated and everything was put away. That was probably 20 years ago. We still have all the model railroader magazines from the late 60s, 70s, and early 80s stored away. From what I remember it sure looks like foam has really changed the difficulty level of making an entertaining layout, meaning you don’t need jigsaws, bandsaws, and all sorts of woodworking tools near as much as they used to for carving up your plywood to create multiple layers.
Now being a Dad myself my son has discovered Thomas the Tank Engine. Anything train related he is enamoured with and has been playing with the wooden thomas engines for years. I discovered the bachmann line of HO scale engines and have been thinking I might have found a good use for the empty bedroom. By proxy my daughter has also become interested in things and I’ve been looking for something that we could do together, and I could work on as well to try and find something to relax with vs. playing a video game or just watching TV.
I’ve been playing with Atlas’ software in an attempt to design a layout. I’d like to create one that is up against the walls of the room vs. a big rectangle or square in the room. I’ve picked up a book or two on the new woodland scenics foam system and checking that out but I’ve got ideas for our very own island of sodor that would only be an island of sodor in engines only so if that gets old we can recreate the
My model railroading career started when my son got a Hogwart’s Express train set for Christmas. I started building a Hogwarts layout and within a month, both my kids could care less. I was able to salvage it into an Old West Layout.
So your instincts are good. Design what you want and run TTE on it. So that begs the question what do you want. I suggest reading my Beginner’s guide below in my signature as it was intended to help you figure that out.
If you develop what you want, the kids will see your interest and want to join. IF you do it for them, they will loose interest before you get the track so that their engines don’t derail–nothing will discourage a kid more than seeing their engine not able to make it around the track.
Layouts for kids and model RR for you are totally different beasts. A bit like the family car and that custom car you lavish attention on…
A kid layout may get turned into a war zone…
So you are not going to be very happy with the kids if you’ve lavished time and attention (not to mention $$$) on it.
Your first decision is what you want to achieve… something for the kids, something for you… maybe both -BUT seperately… and with time the two may merge.
As Spacemouse rightly says… if you go with what you are interested in the kids may get the bug.
The reverse is that if you say you are going with what they want but lay down rules and act for what you want… well, I guess that you can figure out where that’s going!
You are really fortunate to have all that stuff from years ago. You have a head start… certainly to build a period layout. Reading the magazines on how things were then will be a really good start. As for modelling techniques a lot has changed… but some has stayed the same… a lot of the questions about fitting a quart into a pint sized layout are still around.
I agree with Chip, build what you want. I have built for myself, for my kids and for my grandkids. The only ones that worked were the ones for my self. If they have an interest they can help with a part or section, but the layout will be for you. If they want one, let them build it, but they will not want yours. Also the pace of building will be very different.
As to what to build, only you know that, but around the wall will be more satisfying than a table if you have that option.
I agree that the most satisfying layout for everybody is the one you design around YOUR wishes and interests. While they’ll never admit it, youngsters want to be invited into the adult world. Building an adult layout, and inviting them to join in, will be much more interesting to them in both the short and the long term - and it will certainly be more interesting to you.
Building an adult layout doesn’t mean that you have to model the railroads of (fill in location of choice) as they appeared and operated on (fill in time of choice.) Many people do, myself included. Others treat the real railroads as a Mulligan stew - take a locomotive or several from here, some freight cars from there, blend in a generic yard and engine terminal and add stations and industries to suit. In my admittedly biased opinion, the only person you have to satisfy puts your shoes on and wears your hat. Others may have opinions (often several to a customer) but only you can tell if you’re having fun.
Take a look at the other threads around here started by folks that are new to or returning to the hobby. All of them are full of advice about books to read, ideas to try and pitfalls to avoid. They make worthwhile reading.
I would start by running a search for shelflayouts.com. The layouts they show can be strung together around the other walls.
You might put a loop on a peninsula at kid arm height for Thomas.
Tony Koester’s books on Realistic XXX for Operation will give you some ideas. His latest, on Layout Design Elements, may be the most helpful as he provides some “jigsaw pieces” you can string together.
As mentioned above, ask around in the forums. I have a really good public library and if yours is half-ways decent, you can find enough books to learn enough to start.
Oh, and remember - if you think you might be able to come back next year and do a project over right, you are doing it correctly now. You are supposed to improve with practice !
I’ve been looking at the DCC stuff trying to see if I should just start with it instead of install what appears to be 1980s technology with ‘transformers’
I’ve located Digitrax as a providor of the starter pieces needed, who else is out there? DCC is used as so many abreviations I’m having entertaining results with the search on Google.
In addition to Digitrax there are several excellent DCC manufacturers on the market in the US. You might want to look at NCE (North Coast Engineering), MRC (who seem to have some excellent new offerings) and Lenz. It would be probably a good idea to look at some of the web sites of some on-line vendors like http://www.litchfieldstation.com/ and http://www.tonystrainexchange.com/ companies like these offer a variety of systems and provide some good basic DCC material to help you get up to speed. I have a Digitrax starter set myself and am very happy with it. There are numerous members of the forum that have systems from the other manufacturers and most all seem to be very happy and strong advocates for their systems. Good news for someone getting into DCC as this means that it is hard to go really wrong.
I do like the heading for this “starting new as an adult” I would not mind getting a 2nd shot at adulthood as well! There are a whole bunch of things I would do differently.[:D]
The difference between DCC and DC from an operators point of view, is that instead of controlling the power to the track to control one train. You are controlling the train directly–as many trains as you want. You have control more like the real thing.
Nowadays, it make more sense to start with DCC than to start DC and convert later.
Digitrax is a good system, as are many other people will mention. Check around to see what is supported by your LHS, your local train clubs, etc. It might be nice to have help near by.
IF no one has mentioned it, you might consider joining a train club. You will learn a lot about the hobby as well as get to run trains under different conditions. It will help you learn what you like about the hobby so you can build toward your ideal layout at home.
Definitely, if you join a club, purchase a DCC system that matches the club so what you purchase to operate at the club can be used at home.
