YOUR first layout?

Mark Watson Aug 23, 2008

  1. Mark Watson

    Mark Watson TrainBoard Member

    6,000
    1,317
    85
    Hey all,

    I'm bored and at it again here on the boards with another "for fun" question.

    What was your first ever layout?

    I remember mine was a perfect circle (12 inch radius sounds right) of I think atlas curved track pieces nailed to a round board (not more than 1 or 2 inches larger in diameter than the track circle). The top of the board was stained wood grain. I ran a bachmann santa fe F unit with a Leigh Valley box car, an ATSF caboose... hmm.. A green and white cattle car, and a UP grey covered hopper. Thats all I can remember at least.

    At this time my father had his room sized HO layout and all my stuff was N scale. I liked the small stuff, but by the time z scale built up its reputations I was too vested into N *shrugs* Eventually I talked my father into converting his HO room to N :-D
    Now that I'm out of the house and half way across the states from him, he's itching to go back to HO. Part of me wants the layout to survive.. but at the same time.. I get all the N stuff shipped to me once dad digs up his old HO stuff from storage. :-D

    So what layout did you start on?
     
  2. piston_8

    piston_8 TrainBoard Member

    70
    0
    15
    Lionel o27 oval with 4-4-0 train
     
  3. mhampton

    mhampton TrainBoard Member

    224
    2
    24
    The earliest trains I remember having were 027 sets snapped together on the floor. The first permanent layout I built used the plan for the Monopoly and Octopus in N scale published by Atlas. I am now back to the point that in order to run trains, I have to set up an oval on the floor, but when time and space permit I am going to build a version of the Heart of Georgia modified for On30.
     
  4. Mr. SP

    Mr. SP Passed away August 5, 2016 In Memoriam

    1,801
    928
    35
    A "Lionel Scout" set bought for my sixth birthday and run on the floor was my first layout. HO took hold in 1958 with a Revell set with a Santa Fe NW2 a few cars and caboose mounted on a piece of plyboard that fit under my bed when it wasn't being used.
     
  5. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

    8,903
    3,623
    137
    An HO Atlas train set with an oval on a 4x8 with a passing siding.
    The loco was a Santa Fe blue / yellow geep. There was a box car, flat car, taker, and gondola but can't recall the names.

    My first one I build was a modified Lynn Westcott design from 101 trackplans. it wa a 2x4 in N scale point to point
     
  6. mavrick0

    mavrick0 TrainBoard Member

    504
    0
    22
    My first one was an HO set my uncle gave to me for x-mas, probably hoping I would leave his alone, lol. He built it onto a 4x8 piece of plywood and added a up and over and painted some streets and gave me a few buildings he had sitting around. And I actually have a photo. lol. Can't remember how old I was but probably around the 10-11 year old range. So here's me with my younger cousin.
    [​IMG]
     
  7. justinjhnsn3

    justinjhnsn3 TrainBoard Member

    85
    0
    11
    My first layout that was all mine was an HO 4x8 Military layout. It also was the fist layout i took to a model railraod show. It was atleast 10 years ago now an i have shown my own layout or helped with with my dads 1-2 shows a year since.
     
  8. Kenneth L. Anthony

    Kenneth L. Anthony TrainBoard Member

    2,749
    524
    52
    Lionel O gauge built by my father for me and my brother when I was 5 years old. 4x8 plywood with 1x2 framing underneath, plywood painted with green grass color, gray painted streets, and orange-beige paint for ballast under the 3 rail track. Large oval around the outside, with a hill (I called it a mountain) in one corner, made of screen wire covered with joint compound, and a little cascade of water running down the side of the hill from a spring. The outside oval had a "switch" (turnout we designers call it now) with a connection that crossed an inner oval to connect to the inner oval at the other side. A train running clockwise on the outer loop that ran through the connection would end up running counterclockwise on the inner loop.
    Wish I had pictures.
     
  9. Ironhorseman

    Ironhorseman April, 2018 Staff Member In Memoriam

    4,717
    113
    66
    I did not have a 'layout' per se' when I was a kid. I got a used American Flyer trainset with some track, one switch and a power pack. I put it together on the bedroom floor. I built a trestle with my old Erector set for the train to run through. I was in my 30's when I put my first layout together: a fold-away 4X8 in the garage. Later took it down and started an open grid layout that took half of the room in the garage.
     
  10. LALLEY

    LALLEY TrainBoard Supporter

    180
    37
    13
    I had a 4 x 8 chipboard layout spay painted green with an oval and two tunnels... HO scale with a Tyco "whistle" that hooked to the powerpack. I think I was around 10 or 12 or so. I can say, that it sure is nice to be a "grown up" and be able to afford the details, items, and scenery that I WANT instead of what my parents consider "good enough" ;).

    WOO WOOOOO

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6o3XTdcZPQ"]YouTube - TYCO Steam Whistle in Billboard[/ame]
     
  11. JCater

    JCater TrainBoard Member

    3,199
    9
    49
    Like many here I started with a 4X8 piece of plywood and an over and under figure 8 of track that Dad surprised me with one Christmas. I will never forget that layout. It was cool to have an HO set that was led by a CBQ Burlington unit in red and white...just like the real ones that ran by the house! Later Dad made some paper machette mountains that mice decided to eat and after that we did some plaster mountains. That layout got expanded over the years to include 3 4 x 8 sheets. It all disappeared when I went away to college, unfortunately...
     
  12. drawmada

    drawmada TrainBoard Member

    185
    0
    12
    My first layout was an N scale Dogbone measuring 3 feet wide at the ends with a shelf that was 6 feet long and 14 inches deep. the subroadbed and mainline were done on it with one #6 Peco streamline leading into the yard. The Mainline was all Peco, and the layout sported a 14 inch radius at both ends. The subroadbed was 1 by 2 s with cork on top glued in place. It had one river with a scratchbuilt trestle made of carved bamboo skewers which were dyed in strong leftover coffee. What had been started of the scenery was a 2 inch pink foam base with one inch pink foam placed vertically instead of horizontally and carved by heating a knife.

    Total dimensions were three feet by twelve feet.


    That was my first one which I started 21 years ago, and I miss it lol.

    Cheers!
    Adam
     
  13. Zandoz

    Zandoz TrainBoard Member

    248
    1
    13
    My first planned to be permanent layout (not counting under Xmas tree loops), was to have been a roughly 5x12 around the wall HO shelf layout in my mom's basement coal bin. It never made it past a track plan, site prep and some initial shelf cutting, due to me moving for work. That was 25 years ago, but last I knew, the cut shelf boards are still there.

    The only layout to make it to the point of positioning track work, is the current one...an N scale expanded door layout.
     
  14. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

    4,333
    5,042
    93
    When I first got into trains was a invitation to join a club of sorts. It was so much a layout but rather we were collectors of Lionel "O". Marriage, a child and a different job got in the way. So I sold all my stuff to the "Club".

    Recently I bought a 2'x4' layout. A loop inside a loop with two sidings. It's just bare plywood on a 2"x2" frame. I believe it's called Cookie cutter style. I have a switcher, two log cars and two refrigerated cars in "N" scale.

    I have acquired three hollow core doors that will be the full width of the windowless wall and 80" down two sides. Unless I think of something different. I will have to wait until I can find another job before getting into it. Now I'm just reading magazines a couple boards and going to swap meets.
     
  15. Kitbash

    Kitbash TrainBoard Supporter

    2,090
    5,588
    73
    My first "real" layout was a dedicated room with a walk-in bubble plan. I had the room finished (15x16) for the layout. This was 1987 when I started planning it. I joined the fairly new NMRA layout design "Special Interest Group" (SIG). One of the SIG officers sent me a sketch on his idea for my desire to "freelance" the C&O in the early to mid 50's.

    That became my first edition of the "Albemarle Division".

    Now I am contemplating the third edition as the Mrs. and I try to sell our house in Northern VA and purchase one here in Raleigh, NC.

    Good thread. Certainly keeps me energized to read the boards here and revert to some arm-chair modeling as we await getting another trainroom.
     
  16. Larry777

    Larry777 TrainBoard Member

    219
    1
    13
    My first layout got started with a Marx NYC F3, a boxcar, a tank car, hopper car and a baywindow caboose that my uncle bought me for Christmas. It ran on that strange Marx brand track. Looking in a window at a local hobby shop, I spied Atlas "t" rail track for the first time and that old Marx track had to go. Also, I took my lunch money and bought my first kit, an Athearn flat car and added it to the collection... I thought Athearn was the top of the world as a young teen and soon I had cattle cars, more box cars and my first couple of passenger cars. Marx did offer a depressed-center flat car and I bought that. Next was a dummy UP Geep, which meant that the F3 had to be painted to match. All situated on a 4x8 board.
     
  17. Wolfgang Dudler

    Wolfgang Dudler Passed away August 25, 2012 TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

    3,794
    352
    49
    My first "layout" was an 0-scale Fleischmann clock train on the floor.

    Wolfgang
     
  18. Cox 1947

    Cox 1947 TrainBoard Member

    42
    0
    10
    My first layout was a 4x4 sheet of plywood with a circle of American flyer track, steam engine 2 cars a box and gon and a caboose back in the early 50's..poor old steamer spent its life running nothing but circles chasing its tail..Green house paint and green "Easter Basket Grass" was about as finnished as it ever got..Jerry
     
  19. HOexplorer

    HOexplorer TrainBoard Supporter

    2,267
    3,219
    70
    My first layout, at the age of 54, was a 2'x3' Z scale railroad in a box on my 51' sailboat I lived on. Cheers, Jim CCRR[​IMG]
     
  20. GeorgeV

    GeorgeV TrainBoard Member

    180
    91
    20
    Well, this goes back about 50 years...

    When I was a kid we had a Christmas train set, a Lionel that was only set up during those few weeks of Christmas. But my first layout was an HO scale 4x6 from an Atlas track planning book. I guess you would call it a folded figure 8 - twice around with a diamond where the loops intersected. It also had a couple of sidings. My dad built it on a plywood table he made - he was pretty handy. Had toggle switches to control the power to different blocks and electric turnout motors. I was about 6 years old at the time. It was a great start for me because from him I learned by watching him (while he learned by reading some books!).

    I still have the first locomotive - a Varney Docksider that still runs, although a bit clunky because of a couple of falls to the floor. I remember some time after the layout was built watching Dad build a Bowser K-11 which I also still have. When new it ran silky smooth. I also remember the Athearn F7 A and B units with 3 passenger cars that arrived at Christmas. My first repair job was putting in new rubber bands.

    Good memories ... and a great start in the hobby thanks to my Dad (who wasn't a model railroder himself!)

    George V.
     

Share This Page