I’ve read that book myself. Very good and it has a lot of good ideas as well. It was put out by Kalmbach Pub. Co. in 1993. It should be available at your library.
I’ll see if I can find that book, but right now I’m trying to figur out what to do. I’m wanting to go to n scale but most of my stuf is ho. I may disasemble all the track and completly rebuild the track plan.
Whne I was your age I would assemble one track plan after another until I found something I was happy with.
First off do not follow any advice coming from that idiot Jeff Wimberley! Second get a damn job if you are at least 16. Well since you are a dumb redneck go back to school to learn how to spell and get a little bit more education before worrying about building a train layout, THEN get a dammn job so you can buy your own stuff. Stop whining too! Talk to your father about other alternatives this is not a mediator forum site! Your questions should read “How to handle my dad?”
BNSF:
Before you think about changing scales right now, you might want to go to your LHS and see if there are any books available about track plans for your size of layout. You said that your Dad won’t let your sell your stuff–is it possibly because it was a gift from him to you, like a Christmas or birthday present? If so, being a Dad myself, we’re kind of funny that way, we don’t like to see something we have given with a lot of love being rejected after a while by our sons. We always hope that it will be a beginning for a love of a hobby. I know, I went through this with my own son quite a while ago. It kind of hurts us. But what I did was find out what my son really wanted and worked with him to get it. It all turned out for the best.
You say it’s a ‘starter’ set. Well, we ALL have gone though ‘starter’ sets of one kind or another. I did way back when HO wasn’t supposed to stay on the tracks–and a lot of times, it DIDN’T, LOL! What I would do is get a book of small track-plans from your hobby shop and take a look through them. There might be some that look pretty interesting. Show them to your Dad. Get HIM a little interested, too, so he knows that you’re serious about the hobby. So maybe he can help you do some chores around the farm that will allow you to earn money to get some of the things you really NEED to keep your interest.
Hey, I’ve BEEN there, when I was a young man, also. You’re not alone, not by a long shot. Look for a trackplan that you think will work for you right now to keep your interest up.
Okay, your spelling isn’t that good–at 12 mine wasn’t anything to shout about either–but I really ADMIRE your love of the hobby and your willingness to ask we Older Dudes about what you should be doing and looking for. I really w
Hmmm…
This offensive Etraitor character has had his account deactivated, but his posts remain. I guess something still needs to be done.
Put your stuff away for now. Is it possible its just the type of layout you now have , there are many many types and different era’s. If this is your hobby you have to find out what draws you to it.
First let me say that some of the advice given here are great words of wisdom and a little that was out right rude, you need to figure out just what part of the hobby your tired with?, is it your layout design, is it your over all look of your layout?, is it lacking something, from reading your post it sounds like your tired with the whole layout?
Is it the scale you don’t like?
I find it hard to offer advice when I’m not sure what part your tired of?
If it is the look of the layout try different paint jobs on your structures to breath new life into them, if your rolling stock looks boring, give the cars some life by re-painting them, if it is the track plan, redo the tracks and recycle the structures and kitbash them into new configurations?
If you can fine tune your statement about growing tired with your present layout please let us know which parts you are not happy with and we might be able too be of better help too you?
Hang in there with the hobby you’ll get past this obstical and just may learn something about yourself along the way!
What ever you decide remember to have fun along the journey.
Best of luck to you, your a good kid and I’m sure your Dad is proud to have you as his son.
Your Model Rail Roading friend, Jess Red Horse.
It is perfectly normal for children/young teenagers to be impatient, to be very enthusiastic about their every new thought, not being very realistic about their own skill level relative to the difficulty of what they want to do, just wanting to dive in and start something without “wasting” any time on thinking and planning first, to want to make sweeping changes, and not being very good at finishing what they start.
Some of us adults still have trouble with quite a few of those things, too 
But it is also perfectly normal for parents to go “why can’t you use what you already have, instead of starting over with something new ?”. Often accompanies by the observation along the lines of “money doesn’t grow on trees” and exhortations to “stick with it”.
In this case, listen to your dad. What is the tearing hurry ? Why do you need to start over right now? What harm would it do to stick with the stuff you already have and improving that instead of selling everything and starting over ?
Also, you should take a break from building a layout to go read more and go look at more pictures of layouts.
In addition to this forum (“General Discussion (Model Railroader)”, maybe you actually should go read some books on starting out in model railroading, layout design etc. Buy the books or borrow em from your local library - I am sure they also have interlibrary loans.
You apparently also need to think some more about what you want to accomplish and why. The “what” and “why” is usually more important than the “how” in pretty much everything you do.
Why do you want to build
BNSF,
This book (HO Railroad from Start to Finish by Jim Kelly - Amazon # 0890241554 currently in stock for $12.21) is actually a reprint of a series of articles that appeared in Model railroader over 2 year’s time (beginning January 1991 to November 1992). Maybe you can find the Model Railroader issues (lots more articles in all those issues) if you cannot find the book. I imagine if your dad took you to the next train show closest to where you live you may find the book or the Model Railroader issues or you can order from Amazon (it would make a great gift).
I came to the hobby as an adult. I had a 4x8 layout with one loop of track and no scenery as my first (and only) layout. I agree that it was not exciting and had the potential to grow tiring. Eventually I moved several times and had to put the layout away. Fortunately I was a member at a local club so I learned a lot by working on the club layout. Maybe if you joined a club (perhaps your dad could come along with you) you could learn new skills that you can apply to your layout. Also, the Boy Scouts have a merit badge for model railroading. If you are not a Boy Scout already maybe you can become one. I’ve seen Boy Scout troops at local train shows (they often get in for free) so that would be a way for you to meet model railroaders your age. There is also the Teen Association of Model Railroaders (www.tamr.org). You could get involved with it and learn some skills you can apply to making your layout more exciting.
I’ve read many of your previous posts. You are quite active on this forum. I gather you may not have many model railroad resources close by. If that is correct then it may be a bit harder for you to accomplish all this. But, you can look at it this
Well, 3/4 no and 1/4 yes on the answer to that question, I buy the stuff my self, because none of my family members knows what to buy, like scale, what the hecks a santa fe northern?, (still continuing) is it the right pain job? So I just ask for money for birthday and christmas and get the stuff I want but covers a little less than 1/3 of the stuff I have, most of it I bought with my own $$.
BTW: I do get all A’s (well I have a 89% in LA which is 1% away from an A), I play football, I’m on on the chess team, I work on the farm and I mow yards, so dont’t think I set around at home doing nothing but this.
Ok now to get to what I came on here for,
I redid the track and this time I think I’ll add some building and scenery (other than a grass mat).
It’s just a simple loop but I took yalls advice and added in a couple spurs, I branched of the main line, then I put a switch conected to the one connected to the main and it loops around and the origen switch goes back at a slite curve then straight.
Model railroading is a multi faceted hobby. There is building rolling stock, operating, benchwork, tracklaying, electronicking, weathering, layout design, prototype research, structure modeling, scenicking, kitbashing, painting and decaling, DCC, model photography, computer control, scratchbuilding, railfanning, and doubtless others that will come to mind. Think about which parts have appeal to you. Try some of the ones you haven’t tried out yet. Not all of them even require a working layout. For the rolling stock modeler even the simpliest layout allows him to watch his latest model actually run, as opposed to a mere static display.
As far as a “starter” set. Think of it as a collection of track (always usable) rolling stock (basis for kitbashing or repainting), a power pack (always usable). Plus, you will find the market value of used model railroad stuff is pretty low, hardly worth putting it in a yard sale.
BNSF,
I often read your threads. I got young kids my self, younger then you but still, I see a lot of the issues that you are facing with them. And as Stein put so well, sometimes we adults suffer from change of interests to often ourselves. I know I do.
But here is my real point of this post. I think you get some bad posts against you quite frequently just for being young. And your not the only young person in this hobby that suffers that nor is this the only forum that this happens in. Your spelling might not be perfect, but you are young. Some other people here has bad spelling to. I know that my English is far from perfect. But it seems to be more accepted if you are older for some reason. Or perhaps more correctly, it is less tolerated from “kids”. I have often seen threads that has some pretty bad attitudes against young people. The “everything was better back then” crowd can get noisy.
So stick with this hobby if you like it. Change and change again. It’s normal and OK. As long as you are having fun that is alright. Keep on posting and keep us updated on where you go.
Magnus
Stay in Model Railroading and only model in one scale.
Well said! I’ve seen bashing happen to many younger members of this forum (myself included) because their work (photo quality, spelling, weathering, just to name a few) were not quite up to scratch with some of the other posters’ work.
The thing is, with some of these cases, I’ve seen other older posters with work of the same quality, and no one degraded them for it! Age seems to be a generalization of work quality. I’ve seen work by teen modelers that would put some older modelers’ work to shame.
I wonder why the older members do this, do they think we don’t care? When this happened to me, I was hurt, and now I have to work to not keep a grudge against those involved. You know who you are!
However, most people here are very respectful of us teens, treating us as equals and taking our advice seriously. Still, many of them, no matter how good their intentions, treat us a little differently than others. They end PM’s with phrases like “Your layout shows much potential for someone your age” and such. Why does our age have anything to do with our layout potential? True, many younger modelers act differently than adults, but still, there’s something to be said for equal treatment without any assumptions about age.
Don’t get me wrong, the posters I mentioned have extremely good intentions
Well said! I have seen all too many posts degrading younger members (including myself) because their work (photos, spelling, and weathering, just to name a few) isn’t up to scratch with some posters. Is it because they’re young? Too often, I think it is. Some of the bashed work is actually better than that of a few adult modelers, but those adults don’t get degraded by the general populace (with a few exceptions) because of it. That’s not to say everyone bashes the younger modelers in question, but unfortunately there are quite a few bad apples who do out there…
Why do they do it to teens? I have no idea. Maybe they aren’t afraid of offending us, or they simply think we don’t care. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. When this happened to me (a how-to video I produced on basic weathering was the provocative in this case), I was hurt and offended for a couple days, and I still have to work hard not to carry a grudge against a few specific posters, the worst of which suggested (for the second time!) I keep my work in Teen Model Railroader Place! Now that’s definitely age discrimination! [V]
Most members here are very good to us teens, treating us as equals, and not throwing us all into one catogory labeled “Teens” when looking at our work.
I’ll second that, Magnus. Keep us posted BNSF![tup]
Why do they do it to teens? I have no idea. Maybe they aren’t afraid of offending us, or they simply think we don’t care. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. When this happened to me (a how-to video I produced on basic weathering was the provocative in this case), I was hurt and offended for a couple days, and I still have to work hard not to carry a grudge against a few specific posters, the worst of which suggested (for the second time!) I keep my work in Teen Model Railroader Place! Now that’s definitely age discrimination! [V]
Most members here are very good to us teens, treating us as equals, and not throwing us all into one catogory labeled “Teens” when looking at our work.
I’ll second that, Magnus. Keep us posted BNSF![tup]
Why do they do it to teens? I have no idea. Maybe they aren’t afraid of offending us, or they simply think we don’t care. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. When this happened to me (a how-to video I produced on basic weathering was the provocative in this case), I was hurt and offended for a couple days, and I still have to work hard not to carry a grudge against a few specific posters, the worst of which suggested (for the second time!) I keep my work in Teen Model Railroader Place! Now that’s definitely age discrimination! [V]
Most members here are very good to us teens, treating us as equals, and not throwing us all into one catogory labeled “Teens” when looking at our work.
I’ll second that, Magnus. Keep us posted BNSF![tup]
EDIT: What’s up with all those posts by me? I tried several times to post a message, but I got an error… Then a few minutes ago I got an email saying:
The post was approved and is ready to be viewed at the URL below.
Could someone help? (And delete all those extra posts except for the first, I can’t find the delete button on these new forums…)