Shortly after I got back from my last deployment I started a small B&M layout that was based on a modified oval (my oldest daughter, who is 6, thought my small point to points were boring). Anyway, I really want to get her involved in model trains so I started the layout you see here. Due to life it sat in the garage for months without any progress, but my wife is out of town and the kids are with the grandparents so I thought I would take some time on the 4th to relax and get the track laid. This layout is loosly based on the area around Enfield, NH and Mascoma Lake (where I am originally from). For those who know the area, the wide road would be Rte 4 and the smaller road would be Main. Baltic Mills will send and receive box cars and has a coal fired powerplant that gets fed by rail. On the other end of town there will be a freight house and feed store both receiving box cars. Overall track plan: Rte 4 bridge on west end of lake: View down north side of lake towards the cut outside of Enfield: Future site of a much scaled down Baltic Mills: ***NOTE: I used Code 80 because my kids play with a lot of older equipment that wouldnt work on Code 55. The Atlas switch controllers will be replaced by ground throws once everything is all said and done. Obviously, there is still a lot of painting, planting, watering, etc. to do.***
Thanks. My girls sorta picked up liking trains on their own. The oldest took an interest and her interest got the younger one liking them. It all worked out pretty nicely and the oldest and I do railfan trips together when I can get the time off. As for the layout, well it is a work in progress (they all are I suppose). I just needed to get the track down to get over that mental barrier and get things moving again. Thanks again for looking.
Good to read that your youngsters are interested and involved! Hope you can run a few trains around now. That usually is a big help in picking up the pace of building a layout.
Cool layout! Could you tell us the layout's size please? Also, thanks for your service and happy Fourth of July!
Happy 4th to you as well! The layout is 24inX46in, pretty small. It needed to fit down my 27in wide basement stairwell once I get the stand built for it. I have a small "town" built in a module style (one of my "boring" point to point layouts) that I plan on attaching eventually as well. At the rate I work, it will be a while... at least we can run trains now.
The layout may be small but it has a lot of character! What kind of trains are you/will you be running? Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
If you've already run N scale with your kids you probably figured out how to make the layout bulletproof. On my layout kids invariably want to push the cars and trucks around on the roads so I use Classic Model Works vehicles that are pretty rugged and have no small detail parts to come off. In this vein you may want to check out Peco switches to replace the Atlas. They are pretty tough and have durable snap-lock points for assured electrical rail contact. Pre-assembled buildings are also pretty sturdy, and come with a base to help them stay that way. And I made everything (except track and foliage) removeable. Kids love to pick things up and check them out.
I started a 2'x4' conrail layout with my daughter as well (It started with an Atlas Trainman Conrail set). There can be a good amount of action in these small layouts for sure.
Thankfully the B&M only ran 4 axle freight locomotives (during the several decades this layout will represent) and a huge portion of their traffic was box cars so that is mainly what I will stick to. I slapped together a combine by quickly painting a Bachmann 60' heavyweight up in B&M colors and that will provide passenger service on mixed trains. I just won a BL2 on eBay and I have plenty of GP7s/9s and a GP-18 I bashed together plus a handful of F units (there is an E7 as well but it wont negotiate the curves), throw in Atlas 33' coal cars and various 40'/50' boxcars and that will cover my rail traffic. The kids will run older Bachmann and Lifelike motive power with Rapido couplers and the tons of non-coverted rolling stock I have left. As of right now I see two trains per operating session: 1. Mixed train pulling combine and box car for freight house arrives does its switching then departs south bound towards what would be Canaan (the Northern ran south from White River to Concord even though some portions actually went slightly north). 2. Local with deliveries for feed store and Baltic Mills arrives does its switching to get empty from feed store and mill power plant plus outbound mill traffic then departs north to what would be White River. I may change my location to a fictitious town/lake in the near future when I add the other town "module" and increase traffic by adding through freights and an actual passenger train... that will wait until I have a better picture in my head. My buildings are mostly kits, I looked at the prebuilt stuff and didn't see anything I liked, my kids are pretty good about not touching anything anyway. The Atlas turnouts were used because I had a bunch just sitting around... if I upgrade this thing in the future I might consider Peco. I think I could have gotten even more "action" into this layout despite its size (that would have made me happy) but my kids just like controlling the train and seeing it go through scenery, so additional views were more important than additional switching. Thank you all for your comments.
Hello from down the road a bit! What your modeling is the Northern Line, just up the road from where I'm modeling in Potter Place NH. Nice work and having spent a lot of time in your modeled area, I would say you nailed it. Nice work, keep us posted. Glad you got your kids involved too!
Very nicely done and it's very nice that you are including your children in the hobby, my Dad did with me and I'm still in it some 60 years later. Hope you enjoyed the 4th of July holiday...and THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!!!! Bob Parsons Vietnam 66-67-68
I know it's been a long time but I have finally got back into the swing of layout work. Not much to report but some progress has been made on the lake side:
