I’m a 13 year old on an extremly tight budget. I have a 8x12 garage space for a layout and I’m am trying to put a Midwestern Secondary main in. My only experience is HO w/o scenery and Lionel in two loops on outdoor carpet. Any suggestions to bulid a layout in a tight space on a tight bugdet?
Please Help,
Daniel
My first suggestion to you is to get the recently published Model Railroads Step by Step by Kalmbach. You should be able to find it at your local hobby shop (LHS). It is a very basic text. However, it has a DVD with it that is very well done that might help you get some ideas on planning, wiring, and doing scenery on your layout. Take a look at that and it might get things moving for you.
Oh, and [#welcome] to the forum!
Start small, plan big and shop smart. Think used and recycled.
Use salvaged materials for benchwork if you can. If your family knows any contractors, see if you can pick through their scrap pile. A splintered 2X4 may not be of use to them, but is is one leg of your benchwork. Scrap foam insulation is perfect for building scenery.
Hit the paint stores for their cheap paint. (Usually paint that they made a mistake in mixing.) You might get a gallon for the price of a can of spray paint. Grays and browns will come in handy.
Hit the garden (assuming you don’t live up here where the ground’s frozen) and get real dirt to use as ground cover. Sift it through screening or an even finer me***o get the really small stuff, put it on some aluminum foil and bake it for about a half hour at 200 degrees to kill any nasty things in it. Paint the area where you want a dirt covering and spread the dirt on while the paint is wet. It saves time and work if you vaccuum up the excess (use a new vaccuum bag ) to use in another spot. A dust buster works well here.
I make trees using either woody weeds or bamboo skewers for trunks. I use furnace filter for evergreen trees and the poly fiber from an old pillow for leafy trees. Green spray paint and then roll it in ground foam. (That part’s not cheap, I know.)
My cliffs and rock-cuts are a lightweight spackle which is pretty expensive, but if portability wasn’t an issue for me, I’d use one of the cheaper, heavier plasters with screening or paper that’s be
EastCoast says: [#welcome] to our forum
I can add very simple advice.
READ everything you can.
DO your homework.
PLAN what you want carefully.
GO SLOW and don’t ru***he building process.
You are young enough to where you should just “get your feet wet”
and try a little of everything at least once to see if it works for you.
If you ever start to get aggitated with the project before you, take a
“time out” and come back fresh later. Keep your modelling FUN and
never see it as work.
ON A PERSONAL NOTE: I work a job and love my trains. I got trains in
my blood now because my job is so boring. BY the time I get home, I’m
itchin’ to get modellin’.So it stays fresh and new.
And one more thing, be happy with what you achieve unless YOU know
it can be done better. Critizism will come and go, KEEP YOUR EMPIRE.
WE ARE HERE FOR YOU EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. YOU CAN CALL ON
US AND PICK OUR BRAINS WHENEVER. [#welcome] [tup]
ken-ecr
Pick a family members brain’s - almost certainly they’ll be someone who’s put bits of wood together before, and knows some great short-cuts!
Also raid your Dad’s tool box on a regular basis, he’s probably got old screws he doesn’t need anymore that you’ll find useful.
Good luck in model railroading!
Ian
P.S. I’d kill for the space you’re talking about, my layout (two level) is squeezed into a 6’6" x 4’6" space. (And that includes a hole in the middle for access!)
Library. You can check out almost any of the Kalmbach and other books from the library. It may be necessary to use inter-library loan (that’s where one library borrows a book it doesn’t have from another library), but you should have access to a vast array of resources this way. Also, there’s a good chance the local library will have Model Railroader and/or other magazines. The greatest value will be back issues.
Also, Boy Scouts. Your local council may have someone who is serious about the Model Railroading Merit Badge.