Who started with the “classic” 4’ x 8’ train table? I didn’t have room in my room for a 4 x 8, so I got a 4 x 6. That lasted a couple of years, until I moved to the unfinished attic. My dad taught me how to lay a hardwood floor (used, that he had acquired). No trains until the floor done. I had to work around air conditioning ducts for the rooms below us, but when it was done, I was able to start. I only built a 10 foot yard and about 30 feet of plywood mainline to siding, but I could run and switch for hours. No scenery, no buildings, it didn’t matter. I had fun.
8 Likes
As a kid, I started out running American Flyer trains on a 4x8 sheet of plywood on our basement floor.
When I first got into HO scale as an adult, I built a 4x8 layout on a plywood surface supported on 2x4 legs.
6 Likes
I had a 4x8 flat sheet I did for LEGO trains. That layout ended up not getting very far. I’m currently nearly two years into my first true layout – a 4’x8’ with a 7"x7" square lopped off the far left corner so it fits into the corner of my apartment.
6 Likes
I started with an engine terminal on a 2-1/2’x6’ banquet table instead of the classic 4x8 plywood. It was quite constricting, especially since I used O, but at least I’d moved on past the basic oval setup and wanted real switching. That same table is still part of my current layout, but most of the original track (including my highly defective scratchbuilt turntable) has since been torn up and is currently being replaced with a small hump yard.
6 Likes
Had the standard plywood sheet for the HO scale Illinois Central Gulf set from Tyco (The Steel Hauler). This was in the 80’s. Some may remember this. This was around 1984-1985. I believe this was first released in 1981.
6 Likes
I started with an old ironing board.
00 gauge
It had a station, run round, locomotive shed for one 0.4.0 locomotive, two turnouts; one to a goods shed, the other had a cattle/horse dock.
Rolling Stock
One 0.4.0 locomotive.
Three four wheeled carriages.
Small number of four wheeled freight wagons.
3 Likes
I had Lone Star Treble O British stuff starting at about age five in the early 60s that was set up on 4’ x 8’ and smaller sheets of ply.
Warp ahead to about 2002 and my son ended up with a ridiculous amount of Thomas Wooden Railway stuff. I cut down three saw horses and put a 5/8"- 5’ x 10’ sheet of ply on the saw horses at a height he could walk around, maybe 30". As he grew I made the sawhorse legs higher. Around age six he asked if I had trains as a kid to which I replied yes and made the treacherous journey to the crawlspace to retrieve the RR equipment of my childhood. I had enough of the Lone Star Treble O to fill the 5’ x 10’ sheet of plywood so Thomas came off and the Lone Star went on.
At the time I also had 4’ x 9’ and 6’ x 12’ sheets of 5/8 plywood. The 5’ x 10’ sheet fit the space the best so we used that.
The bakelite in the Lone star and the brittle 40 year old plastic started to fail and that is when I really returned to the hobby filling a 15’ x 24’ room.
4 Likes
Quite a while since I heard that company. I nearly bought some, but I liked the 00 gauge items better.
2 Likes
These stories are fabulous to read. I too have one, later.
The idea of a hump yard is my goal on an HO layout. The ironing board is a hoot.
I have repaired old equipment for folks. The most fun was the 027 figure eight set. It had a current relay in series which would trigger a stop of one train while another was still running. They would crossover and swap positions with each other. Not only fixing it was fun, the realzation of how it worked was a blast too. endmrw1118251825
4 Likes
Who had a 4x8? Well, I don’t know what the standard, similar-sized plywood is over either pond, but in North America I’ll bet the number that had a 4x8 at sometime or other are well over half. For anything O to HO, at least.
John
3 Likes
My first layout, built for me by my father, was two 5x9 platforms made with 1/2" marine plywood that came in that size.
It was L shaped with elevated trackage, two complete loops with different routes (a double crossover joined the routes), plaster mountains across the two “back sides” with two hidden staging sidings behind the mountain.
Sheldon
3 Likes
6x4 is the most unwieldy baseboard I have handled. Heavy. Difficult to handle. That is just to get it in the house.
3 Likes
4 x 8? Sort of. I built the Apex and Hypotenuse Atlas King Size track plan, where you saw off a couple of triangle pieces off of one end of the 4x8, then attach them to the other end. This makes a 4x8 that’s pointed on both ends so that you can push the layout into a corner of the bedroom at a 45 degree angle.
I modified it with an Atlas turntable in the middle of one of the loops. According to the plan, it used all sectional track and Atlas turnouts with their switch machines. However, I constructed a classic, graphical layout schematic control panel to control the Cab A and B switching and pushbuttons with a DIY-constructed “Electronics for Model Railroaders” Capacitive Discharge Unit. I didn’t have any lighting on the control panel for turnout indication, but it was easy enough to simply push all the pushbuttons ahead of the path of the train. With the CDU, it didn’t hurt the switch machines.
I ran mostly Rivarossi, Atlas and Athearn locos. I had to chop up a couple of the bridge piers to make room for the swing in the AHM/Rivarossi Big Boy, but my Rivarossi Y6b would take the whole layout without issue. I also ran a Rivarossi E8 with 8 passenger cars, without an issue.
It was a lot of fun!
P.S. This was all round the early 70s. 
3 Likes
We all started with a 4 x 8 pretty much. I have a beautifully scenic, era-specific, fully detailed serious HO scale layout, but I don’t know if I have as much fun with it as I did with that 4 x 8 with the Lionel. The most fun was piling the Lincoln logs on the track and running thevSanta Fe Hudson at full speed through it, we said we were running for the Mexican border. 
5 Likes
Growing up my father had a hollow core door N scale layout, built with my older brother. By the time I was of railroading age he had decided a preference for HO - which I happily followed- and we built a L shaped layout of three 4x4 modules made using a 4x8 OSB for frame and legs, 2x2s to support the corners, and 4x4 sheets of underlayment for the surface. It got moved around a few times, expanded, and some part of that construction is part of his basement layout still, though the EZ track is long gone!
Personally, and perhaps its just the apartment living of my generation, I prefer smaller modules than that. I’m planning on using IKEA Linnmon tables as the bases for some larger modules after my next move.
3 Likes
I am not sure why Dad chose that. He was the guy that built the layout(s) and I had endless hours of enjoyment out of them. He worked in downtown Vancouver and on his lunch hour would sometimes wonder over to the Hudson Bay Co. and buy a new car. I still have the boxes with the price tags on them.
As far as the extra large pieces of plywood I had/have, my Father-in-law had a bunch that was given to him by a friend and he passed some sheets on to us. As I understand it very few mills produced these extra large sheets as they were specialty items used for various applications. There was one mill in B.C. that produced them and shipped them worldwide. They are horrendously expensive to buy and I bet I could sell them for a few bucks. I said I had a 4’ x 9’ sheet, but Sheldon makes me think it is actually 5’ x 9’. The 6’ x 12’ sheet we use for Christmas dinner as we usually have North of 20 people for that.
3 Likes
When I was 8, my dad built for me, a 4’x8’ HO figure 8 with 2 sidings. I was “over the moon” since I wanted a model train since I was about 4 years old. 60 years and 7 HO & N scale layouts later, I now am building a 9’x 11’ Kato N scale layout.
3 Likes
Many years ago our local lumber yard would sell 5’x9’ sheets that were meant for ping pong tables.
3 Likes
I had a 4X8 as a kid in Missouri with set 2217WS. It was set up in a humid basement which in turn rusted the track.
Hint: don’t clean rusted track with steel wool. 
4 Likes
We had a 4x8 (still do somewhere) it ran freight ok but my Athearn passenger set didn’t like the tight radius turns.Its the reason I run N scale now.
3 Likes