New guy on board here - pun intended. Not new to model railroading. Been involved since I was a wee boy - now 33. Introduced into N scale about 10 years ago. Finally getting to modeling up a nice layout now. Still in the planning stages - stupid RTS freeware - might have to skip this and go manual. Going to be doing a freelance, era correct layout of the C&O in the mid-late 40's. Going for some diesel passenger service of the C&O Pere Marquette line, along with some steam coal lines. Been doing a lot of searching, no posting, finding quite a few answers to my questions. TIA. Darin
Welcome aboard,Darin.Glad to have you at the Train board.Look forward to seeing the progress if your layout.
Welcome Darin I found your post quite amusing (and strangely similar to my own modelling experiences). I'm also 33 and relaively new to Trainboard. Whilst dabbling in various scales over the last 10 years, I have finally made some real progress in n-scale since the wife and I finally bought a house just under twelve months ago. I have roughly half of the garage to my disposal and I am slowly building a double deck layout featuring the El Capitan, Super Chief and Cal Zephyr. Track work on the top level is complete, I would like to progress the scenery on the top level a bit before I extend the rails down onto the bottom level. Anyway, welcome aboard.
Welcome to the Board!!!! It is always good to talk with new friends. I have built a number of layouts over the last 30something years, and always took the "conventional" approach.....no matter where I was, I would sketch a trackplan and think it through. My present layout was started when I was 60 and I was not as physically agile as I am now, so I approached this layout, the Bessemer and Shenango Valley, with a deep down in my soul approach. I sat down in a quiet house and thought what I liked best about model railroading, my physical characteristics-both assets and limitations-my personal preferences-like preferring to hand operate all of my switches-and level of patience. I will take months to model a project, but get miffed when I have a derail. I love watching trains and second, loved watching them traverse over both open track and switched track in traffic. I like passenger trains more than the average, so I built both long straights and sweeping curves within the range of my very comfortable operating chair-a tilt and swivel cushy piece. Since I also like to watch TV in my living room with a train running so I can glance over periodically, my layout is in my living room (I am single and live alone) and I use Kato Unitrak. I do have passing sidings galore, an upper level of a small town, plenty of spurs and other sidings, and very simplistic dc wiring. I get a few comments, like you shudda done this or shudda done that, but everyone does. I did everything I intended and it is still underway but I sure love running my trains everyday! My only advice is for you to search your deepest inner thoughts and decide exactly what you want out of your layout, then proceed accordingly. It is nice to listen to others or read trackplans for ideas, but bottom line, the layout is yours and all yours and if you make a mistake, just tear it out and re-do. Because I took this approach, I have learned to listen to others' advice with a grain of salt, as they don't live my life, I do. Follow your heart and go make a layout for YOU. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
