Things sure have changed since my last layout...

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Greetings! Just wanted to introduce myself in my new home. I am a 60 year old that hasn’t had a layout since I was 15. Back then I had HO (and still have it all boxed away in the attic) and now am starting over in N. Couldn’t decide on a timeframe I wanted to do at first. I really like my CSX and Amtrak diesels, but HAD to have one of the new EM-1s. I knew they weren’t going to play well with each other, so decided to give my 11 year old the Amtrak/CSX/Chessie/C&O stuff we had started with while I go with 1950’s B&O. He will get to keep the Kato CSX and Amtrak diesels, and the Spectrum 2-6-6-2 and 2-8-0. Grew up in Newport News VA so you would think I would have gone C&O, but options seem limited compared to the amount of stuff available for B&O.

I have gathered up a couple of BLI E8 A&B’s, an E6 A&B, an EM-1, and a pair of GE 44 ton engines. Having sound available is great, but found I don’t always use it. Retired the few Atlas and Bachmann cars I acquired somehow, and went with all MTL cars for my B&O line. Wiring is DCC using an NCE PowerCab with a spare PowerCab to let me address 12 engines at once. Have the autoswitch programming track board, and just added the USB interface so I can use JMRI. Buying an SB5 booster to increase power. I just got a Walthers DCC 130’ turntable but haven’t even taken it out of the box yet. All of the track is Peco code 80 flextrack and electrofrog switches. Each switch has a PL15 switch mounted so I can add a signal as well as power the frogs. Thinking of putting a Peco Snap It on each one so I can operate them from the PowerCab.

Been out of the hobby for 45 years and things have changed…just a little. Decided last year to put together a layout with my 11 year old. We bought a Bachmann set (yea I know) from the hobby store nearby and put together a little 4x5 in our computer/game room. Started using the Bachmann EZ track and bought a few hundred dollars worth of switches and track to enl

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Welcome back to the fold! (From a former NASA man and computer programmer @ Goddard)

I think you’ll find the hobby even better then you remember it. The quality and detail of plastic engines has gone up considerably since the time you have left.

Far as C&O. Yes choices are light. (I think part of the problem is CSX wants model makers to pay a royalty for the C&O name) The other part of the problem is I think the market is flooded with used C&O stuff. But for being the #3 Class A during the transition era (most popular), I agree with you the choices are limited for new stuff.

Broadway Limited makes a T-1 w/sound(Very very nice hauler but needs R-22 track, but an excellent hauler)

Rivirossi makes the H-8 w/sound(exceptional model detail)

Bachmann makes C&O Connies (Conslidation 2-8-0)

Walthers is selling the C&O Pier Marquette right now with the famous Chessie club passenger car

On eBay you shouldn’t have much of a problem finding

C&O H-5, and H-4 with sound (by Bachmann) (It’s easy to kitbash a H-6 from a H-5 using a vandy tender)

2-8-2 Mikes (BLI (sound) and older Athearn (non sound))

FP-7 with sound (Athearn Genesis)

F-7 with sound (Proto 2K, Athearn and MTH)

4-8-2 J-2 Heavy Mountain class (Some with sound, some without) Bachmann

2-8-4 Bershires (Bachmann no sound and P2K with sound) (Weak haulers though)

BL-2 (Proto 2K) They are always all over the place.

RS-2 Proto 1000 (One of my smoothest runners)

0-8-0 C class switchers (Proto 2K. Some with sound, some without)

I should know. I have 60 C&O trains. Over half my collection was from used stock.

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[#welcome]

It is good for us to be here!

I am a LION. The Broadway LION if you please. (Or even if you don’t please)

My subway layout in in a 24 x 27 former classroom building. Of course the layout is not that big, for I’d never be able to reach the middle of it. No, wait, I cannot reach the middle as it is. The middle of the (6 x 18) section is empty. Oh well, nobody can see in there, so what do I care. If your table is 8’ wide, you are going to have a lot of waste space in the middle that you will not be able to use. Of course if you choose to use a solid table 8x20 feet then you will have 20’ long yards or industries on each side, (which is quite respectable!) and decent loops around the ends. It has posibilities. You can put up a back drop so that the donut looks like a layout. (LIONS always put food first, you know)

If you are interested, you can drop by my website, and if you are not interested then keep your fingers clear of the LION’s cage, buecuse LIONS like finger food.

ROAR

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No, it won’t be a solid 8 x20. I am thinking thats the outside dimensions and it will be a duck under. Probably a 2’ foot wide strip for track down each side. One 8 foot end willprobably be another 2ft strip and the final end will be a 4x8 because I like roundhouses and turntables, so the service yard will be decent size.

Thanks fur the welcome Lion.

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Hi and [#welcome]!!!

I jumped back in after many years, and found this new fangled thing called DCC was AMAZING! Easier to wire and easier to control the individual locos!

If I may, May I suggest that you don’t exactly have to give up your other B&O incarnates!

I like the B&O, the C&O the treasured Chessie {loved watching Chessie RR going by as a kid/teen.}, and a LITTLE reluctantly the CSX. I set up a small layout for CHANGE-OUTs to “update the era” and therefore to the newer equipment or back to the older equipment, as I love steam, but loved the Chessie!

I swap out a few bulidings and stuff to change eras. I primarily did it to ease the bordom of a small layout of only one iron-clad era.

Just a suggestion!

I often complain about things {anything} as “having a NASA sized instruction manual” it is more than aobut 5 pages. I hope you take no offense!

Nice to see your son involved as well, Trains are something no boy {kid} should be without!

[#welcome] back!

[8-|]

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Welcome ! Hope to see you around a bunch !

YGW

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Welcome back!

Yes, things have changed. As far as I can see, most of the changes have been for the good. Personally I miss the availibility of car kits. Also find DCC complex (but fun) as I never got into computers and the capabilities are somewhat overwhelming. I am gaining though.

One thing I noticed is you mentioned a layout in the 8’x20’ range. As long as that is your space and you are going around the walls, you’re fine. One thing I have seen with a lot of folks here on the forums, is they are thinking of layouts much too wide to reach across. 30" (5’ if you can get to both sides) is considered maximum reach for most folks, dependant on their height and the height of the layout. Some folks do have a large table with pop ups, but as you are probably beginning to find out, you aren’t quite as flexible as you used to be. I’m ahead of you by a few years and still very flexible, but I do notice the difference.

When you have decisions to make, come on back and ask away. The folks here are very good at offering suggestions. The one thing to remember is that what they say is what has worked for them. There are often many right ways to do something, finding out what works best for you takes a little experimenting. Many times you will find that one way may work best in one situation on your layout, but another works better somewhere else. We all do. Don’t be afraid to tear apart and improve either. Keeps you thinking and busy.

Have fun,

Richard

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Welcome aboard, FallnFlag!

I finally committed to the hobby after thirty plus years of dabbling. Best decision I ever made.

Four critical things I’ve learned: DCC is complex but worth it, total cost doesn’t vary much from scale to scale, build your rr for operation, and narrow gauge is awesome.

Have fun, and welcome to the roundhouse!

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Thanks for the welcome guys. Took until now for my first response to be approved. Looking forward to hanging out here. Seems like a friendly bunch, except for the hungry Lion, but I like animals. I’ll be around with questions as they come up, and until then I’ll just spend some time reading.

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And I thought I was a long time out of the hobby when I jumped back in to the hobby in 2010 after 15 years out of MRing! You really have to appreciate what has happened a lot more than I did. I finally hopped back in due to the superb R-T-R HOn3 that is out there now. I was always HO standard gauge since 1959 but forever wanted to do HOn3, however, it was just too much scratch building back then and I was no great craftsman in my youth…Busy chasin’ skirts, I guess.

Welcome back to the amazing new world of model railroading.

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Welcome aboard! [#welcome]

I’m 67 now, but I returned to the hobby about 8 years ago. Like you, I had boxes of trains that had been in the attic, basement, crawl space or spare bedroom closet for 40 years. I’m in HO, like I was at 15. My old locomotives now run as “honorary” dummy engines, but I’ve been able to restore most of my old freight cars. I’m a bit sentimental. They remain “old friends” to me, and I’d hate to part with them.

But yeah, things have changed, mostly for the better. I find the new engines more reliable and better running, and I’m a more patient person myself, so my trackwork is better. When I wired in my first decoder and ran my first DCC engine (or, more properly, motor, since I also model subways) I was an 8-year-old kid again, and some days, well, I still am.