Ken, you certainly are a fearless modeler. I don’t know if I could get myself to tear into a $400 loco!
I don’t want to take too much time, so I’ll just show a couple of pictures. My first layout was a 4x8 table in the basement of my previous home. I had a tendency to do part of a project, then I would learn how to do it properly later! I’m glad that I got to try many different parts of building a layout before I had to tear it down. I’m taking much more time to do my current layout. I’m hoping what I’ve learned shows in the bridge pictures. They are an example of what I’ve learned on this forum. Hopefully I’ll have success with the whole layout. What a difference a few years can make!
Mine started 55 years ago, 9 yrs old, with a Marklin trainset. The LHS tried to get me into buying a Fleishmann set, all my friend were running Marklin so I had to do the very same. Never regretted it, all the boys took their trains and we put them on the attic floor, we build fancy layouts. Dinky Toy cars next to it, scale had no importance back then. My father had a older lifesteam set, it was only fired on special occasions, what a show it was, on the floor of the livingroom.
As a teenager I started my first tabletops and was always frustrated with the results. I had seen wonderfull pictures of European craftmanship ( B. Schmid, R. Ertmer und herr Wientgen, Sorry Ulrich) but trackplanning was going with the Marklin layouts. Only after reading Pit Peg, a nickname for one of the great german modelrailroaders, and Model Railroader Magazine, since '64 my idea’s started to shift. No more tabletops, less selective compressing; the day’s I could build the Mont Blanc in the corner of my 8x4 were finaly gone. My Trackplanning for Realistic Operation was published in '69 and Armstong’s CS was covered in the first? year i started buying MR.
Alas I am a bit like David Barrow, the moment my trains run well and when I should start building scenery, I become restless. In the mean time I’ve seen so much alternatives i am always inclined to start allover.
When you have to choose between the dirty and dark green or brown of the DB or the NS you can see running in the rain daily or those wonderfull coloured cars going to a warm and sunny California, it is easy. The Mamma’s and the Pappa’s wrote a song about Califirnia Dreaming; so California and the AT&SF it had to be.
As a student girls were more important and frequent changes of houses lead to a new start 25 yrs ago. I had been in San Louis Obispo for almost a year. Alas I was less focused on tracks those days, we have seen all the trees, state parks and beaches, Disneyland and ok and some tracks too.
Unfortunately most of my train history occured when photography was very expensive and no one would think of wasting film on a kids toy trains. I think I remember the first picture I ever took of my models, it had to be 1974 or 1975. It was black and white. Maybe I can find it and scan it in.
On the other hand I could “describe” my train history and paint a pictures in words for you to look at if you would like?
For example my first “portable” transistor throttle was built inside of on of those metal a band-aid boxes. It had long plastic knobs sticking out all over the place for the momentum and braking adjustments.
Started with a Life-Like HO scale train set in 1993 (I think). I was around 7 or 8 years old at the time. Around 1997 actually put it up on a table, following a track plan based on the book ‘HO Railroad that Grows’. Didn’t follow this completely - it was all 1 level, and mostly a spaghetti bowl.
In 2005, I decided to get into N scale - I’d always wanted to. Started out with Bachmann standard stuff and rapido couplers - rapidly upgraded to the likes of Kato, Atlas and Intermountain. Used Peco track from the start. My first N scale layout was a 3’ x 7.5’ table featuring a small freelanced town in California in the mid-1950s, on the AT&SF mainline with occasional trackage traffic from the UP. I began converting to DCC in Janurary 2008, and wouldn’t go back if you paid me [swg]. Unlike my HO scale layout, I was doing this one completely on my own, and so learnt most of my stuff from this. I ran this layout for a while, but at the end of 2008 I decided I wanted more action.
I didn’t have that much more space, as I had moved out from my parents at the beginning of 2008 and was living with housemates. I sold the 3’ x 7.5’ and built a new table, 4’ x 9.5’. The benchwork was completed in Janurary 2009, and I’ve been working on this layout ever since. This one is set in a semi-freelanced version of the yard at Las Vegas, New Mexico, in the same time period. The switching action on this layout provides enough activity to keep me happy. I’m about 1/6th of the way through doing the scenery, and this layout is designed to be expanded in the future if needed - once I get a house of my own.
I’m currently getting ready to start my third layout, though it will essentially be my first layout that I put thought and planning into. My dad built my a 4x8 table when I was younger and I got a train set for my birthday. We rigged up a two level double loop sort of thing that worked pretty well, though it never got scenery. That one kept me entertained for a little while until I thought I was ready for a “real” layout. My dad gave me the book An HO Railroad from Set to Scenery which I probably read a hundred times. After reading through the book for the 101st time, I went out to the garage (no such thing as a basement in an “old” California house) and started slapping track down. I imitated the two loop track plan that author Rick Selby used on his layout and put a yard/industrial complex in the middle of the loops. At this time I also started using Kadee couplers instead of horn hooks. Eventually I started on some structures and scenery which proceeded to spread across my layout like a plague. The less said about this railroad the better…
Fast forward to late 2008/summer 2009.
By this point my high school career had wound down and I was in college. I steeled myself for another adventure into the garage. This time I was determined I would create something worthwhile. I was soon back to my old tricks randomly laying track when I had an epiphany; planning was required to create a halfway decent model railroad! Drat! So I decided I would just put down an oval and a few spurs for testing my equipment. Apparently I had actually learned something from my previous attempts after all. I installed my dcc system and went about programming my locomotives and compiling a believable equipment roster.
So there I was planning out what was to be the ultimate 4x8 empire when somebody dropped it on me that I should actually be building a Heart of Georgia. There is no way I’d be able to build something like that in the garage. I was pretty bummed, but I plow
My dad is to the left my sis in front and me looking away. I think I was 3 or 4 then. I got a 3 rail Lionel shortly after 5 or 6. Got my own layout at 8 years old it was a 4x8 on top of are pool table. That lasted till my teens. 30 years go by with no trains.Got back into trains when my mom said come over and get this junk out of here. When I seen the trains I said that’s not junk that’s important stuff. We have a 9x12 room at home so the wife said I could have half. This was my first layout in 30 years.
I posted a few pics of it here when I got everything I had on the table and I mean everything. Someone said it looked like skittles. So I sat back and took a good look at it and they were right. So I started over and this is were I am now. These pis go left to right.
As a kid, I lived in a small apartment and had a Lionel Scout train set, the cheapest thing going in 1948. I always wanted more, locos, cars, switches, you name it, but was doomed to frustration by tightwad parents and tight spaces. When I bought my first house, I built a shelf layout in HO utilizing simple AHM docksiders and rolling stock. I was, however able to visit some more elaborate layouts and work on them with guys who were prepared to teach me the rudiments of “big time” model railroading. In 1986 I was the founder of the First State Model Railroad Club ( www.fsmrrc.org ) primarily to see if a really elaborate club layout could be built in Dover, DE. With no building available, the club evolved as a modular group and I have served as president or secretary ever since. Finally, last year we got access to a disused Railway Express Company warehouse which was made available on the basis that we maintain the building and grounds to keep the structure from becoming derelict.
Meanwhile I moved into a ranch style house with a really big basement in 1987 and started my present layout. I chose to model the Pennsylvania Railroad because, at that time, you could get a fair selection of Pennsy style steamers that weren’t brass. Furthermore there is just a lot of Pennsy “stuff” available at reasonable prices. I love to beat the price of HO railroading down as much as possible but since my layout has been compl;eted for some time now, I find myself upgrading my equipment and structures. I particularly like to acquire distressed or neglected brass engines which can be rehabilitated, painted and put into service. Guys from the club help me out when I’m stumped by a wiring problem or need mechanical help.
I believe that model railroading is an evolutionary process. You start with cheap stuff, upgrad
I was avoiding mentioning the post about flying trains launched from one of Ken’s 0-5-0 switchers…but if we’re looking for old layout pics, I’ll go look for the Plywood Atlantic and the pics of my new space.
Thank all of you for sharing your stories. Far as pictures, do not have to be where you started, but where you are now.
One thing I have found is getting started is the hard part. We think it going to be to hard and put it off. Afraid it will not look right! I stared at pink foam mountain for 6 months before I started carving and painting! It was so much easier than I thought it would be.
From this.
To this in 2 hours.
If any new people to this great hobby read this, just do and if you don’t like it ask here and do again.
Since no “early” photos are required. My history started some time in pre-school. My father had three locomotives a Varney dockside (of course), a Varney F3, and a hustler powered by a single F3 truck. He had reworked the Dockside with the fancy valve gear. I had some plastic trains that fit on HO track, but sometimes I got to run his powered trains. I had a loop on a board that folded up over my bed. It had a single stub end siding, track was Atlas fiber tie, and this was pre-snap track so at age four (five?) I learned how to wire a hot frog turnout.
The Varney dockside went to the pawn shop to buy booze, and soon thereafter my parents divorced (very scandalous back then). We lived on my mother’s part time salary of $0.50 an hour. So the two loco’s, three turnouts, and few trains that were left is what I had. My only reference was a single book, a first edition “A Practical Guide to Model Railroading”. Had it memorized by the time I was in 3rd grade. So in 3rd grade I understood things like what the # of a turnout meant, how to hand lay track, what type of loco needed what radius of curve, how to do wiring for cab control, etc. Unfortunately the power-pack that I had inherited in the divorce was worn out (and very dangerous to use). It was one of those old ones where the voltage was controlled by having a raw variable tap on the secondary winding of the 110V transformer. I’m surprised I wasn’t electrocuted. Anyway the trains stopped running.
A year later, in 4th grade, our economic situation had greatly improved. I actually got Christmas gifts that year! They included a brand new AHM 4-4-0 ($18!) V&T Reno and a new MRC AMPACK ($12!). I was the happiest kid alive (and I still have both).
A slow accumulation of track and cars occurred but
Since no “early” photos are required. My history started some time in pre-school. My father had three locomotives a Varney dockside (of course), a Varney F3, and a hustler powered by a single F3 truck. He had reworked the Varney with the fancy valve gear. I had some plastic trains that fit on HO track. I had a loop on a board that folded up over my bed. It had a single stub end siding, track was Atlas fiber tie, so at age four (five?) I learned how to wire a hot frog turnout.
The Varney dockside went to the pawn shop to buy booze, and soon thereafter my parents divorced (very scandalous back then). We lived on my mother’s part time salary of $0.50 an hour. So the two loco’s, three turnouts, and few trains that were left is what I had. My only reference was a single book, a first edition “A Practical Guide to Model Railroading”. Had it memorized by the time I was in 3rd grade. So in 3rd grade I understood things like what the # of a turnout meant, how to hand lay track, what type of loco needed what radius of curve, how to do wiring for cab control, etc. Unfortunately the power-pack that I had inherited in the divorce was worn out (and very dangerous to use). It was one of those old ones where the voltage was controlled by having a raw variable tap on the secondary winding of the 110V transformer. I’m surprised I wasn’t electrocuted. Anyway the trains stopped running.
A year later, in 4th grade, our economic situation had greatly improved. I actually got Christmas gifts that year! They included a brand new AHM 4-4-0 ($18!) V&T Reno and a new MRC AMPACK ($12!). I was the happiest kid alive (and I still have both).
A slow accumulation of track and cars occurred but lived in temporary layouts set up on the floo
Zepher, seems we have similar story’s, I sort of got my first train set when I was a round 5. It was a O gauge Santa Fe set from my uncle Harrie (nick name was Fibber MC Gee). Mon was devoiced as well, and could not afford food much less trains. Uncle Harrie had a fair sizes layout and gave me some track,cars and pair of F’s in Santa Fee warbonnet colors. I was a happy little boy.
Then one day when Mon and I got home, it was gone! [%-)] Seems uncle Harrie came over while we where out and took the train set and sold it. I remember there was a big fight about it, but none of the details. I do remember Harrie’s, breath smelled funny most of the time and seemed just a little to happy most of the time.
Ken, you uncle was a claire-voyant and could see the future. He could see that your train was heading towards 12000 hours of continuous operation and was headed for a smokey demise. He was just trying to shield you from the pain of fried electrical parts. But as we now know, all too painfully, your path led you back to model trains and the pain of the smoky demise later in life![(-D]
In the US the traditional story is Lionel for Christmas as a kid. Lose interest in trains in the teenage years to run around with fast cars, and fast women (at least that is what you prayed for[:)] ) then along comes a house, family and kids and then in later life returning to the hobby.
I grew up in England, so for me it was a Christmas present that comprised a Traing Minic OO scale road rail set. I still have the loco http://www.tri-ang.co.uk/OO/docks.html an example of which is at this link. My little red docksider has flanges that are about a scale 2’ deep!! My first layout was a simple double loop on a 4 x 8 made with my Dad.
Years later I am living in the US with my own family and my parents come on a visit. They were moving home in the UK and had cleared out their attic and found my old OO trains. My Dad was rather happy to haul them over to the States and hand them to me. So about 8 years ago, the seeds were sown again and I started work on a small basement room layout.
From a simple start we went from something like this
to this
But what I really enjoy doing is building structures and scratch building things like this
