If you think you can't learn from youtube then think again.  Were you into trains as a kid?  are you still?  Did you dream of having a HUGE setup with multple lines and little towns and mountains and tunnels?  I used to read a magazine called Model RailRoader and it was mostly about how to build your own scenery.  I never really got very far with any of it.  But the guy in this video could probably build anything: thought some of you might enjoy it

 

Very nice.  I have built several model railroads over the years.  I had one here in a spare bedroom for a few years.  But it was 'N' gauge and when my hands started shaking I could no longer work on the locomotives and cars.  I donated everything to our local model railroad club.  They gave me an honorary membership and I can go out there and watch them run trains when they are operating.  They have a nice layout in a building at the fair grounds.

To model the layered limestone and sandstone of the southwest I simply broke up pieces of drywall and layered them.  I hardly had to paint them at all.

Noel

Great stuff. I still run O, HO, and N railroads that take up a big part of my basement. Nothing spectacular since I am not that skilled, but I still just love watching the trains go in circles. Growing up is overrated. My N scale is all Kato N, and my HO is primarily German trains, but not the crazy expensive stuff.

Cheers, Pete

Model railroading was my first hobby since a teenager! I had several complete years of Model Railroader and remember feeling sad when I had to part with the boxes filled with the magazines!

I run N gauge because you can put lots of switches and sidetracks on a 2' by 4' layout and still have a double track oval around the whole thing (the long side tracks in the middle of the oval). There's even room for side tracks coming off of other side tracks which themselves come off the surrounding oval. All on a 2' by 4'.

Problems with N gauge (or Z which half scale of N): turnout switches must be exact or trains will derail over the switch points. H0 scale (half 0 or twice the scale of N) does not have this issue. Turnouts are reliable do not have to be constructed precisely and exactly correct. Slightly irregular engines are unlikely to derail.

But with H0 scale, it takes 4 times the area to make the same layout as with N. Because layouts are 2 dimensional and 2 times 2 is 4.

And engine interiors are 8 times larger than N, because the inside volume where the machinery is, is 3 dimensional, and 2 x 2 x2 is 8. It is much easier to repair works inside H0 engines than inside N.

H0 is still the most commonly used scale for home model railroaders for these reasons.

Bachman N gauge here. Just boxed it all up for my move.

 Here's my starter set, I've expanded a bunch since then.

My grandfather funded my expensive German N-gauge hobby as a kid, but the expanded vistas in my mind were simply not possible, especially in a limited space, and even the enormous basement monstrosities in the magazines were of necessity static, meaning once completed you had few options if you became bored with the layout.

In my mind was a vision of video train worlds with nearly unlimited scope, but the technology was not really there yet.

Fast forward a few years...

I would look at a physical trainset nowadays as more of an artistic endeavor than anything else.

9 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

meaning once completed you had few options if you became bored with the layout.

Once the layout is complete it's time to strip it down and start a new one.  Although some are into operation I always wanted to be building.  Which is probably why I spend more time adding scenery and new aircraft to my flight sims than flying in them.

Noel

Are you going to build a layout in your new place Sue?

Noel

Last week I was going through my brother's stuff and found his laptop.  It's has a Windows 7 OS and I have installed my old MSTS on it.  I was never comfortable with the Steam Train Simulator but now that I have MSTS back I'm back to train simming.

Noel

Of course, (eventually once I unpack.) My buddy in Oklahoma loves trains too. I've been sending pics of various layouts and trains to her.

 Sue

Thank you so very much for mentioning yet another "rabbit hole" for me to fall into... /snark

Seriously, many years ago I was heavily into model railroading. At first, I began with N gauge thinking that I'd achieve a much larger layout in half the space. It didn't take long for me to realize that between my failing vision and shaky hands I wasn't going to finish that dream layout!

So, I switched over to HO. I eventually filled the basement of my rented house and had nearly completed my goals when my late brother and I decided to buy a house. I took care disassembling each of the 2'x4' modules and the 4'x4' corner modules by building them into enclosed boxes, and moved them to the basement of the new house.

Unfortunately, I had by that time become very discouraged and just didn't feel like investing the time and energy to rework the modules and reassemble the layout. A few years later I learned of a young man (19) who was very much into model railroading and in fact was planning a career in the railroad industry. I gave the entire collection to him rather than trying to sell stuff piecemeal.

Good for you Sue.  You have a partner to help you with work.  That will make it much easier.

Last night I watched the old movie Arthur with Dudley Moore and Liza Minelle.  That was quite a layout he had behind his bed.

Noel 

It's been a while since I had a train up and running.  I've moved around a lot and it just seemed a bit 'secondary' but I periodically think about getting some sort of layout back up.  My first train was a gift for Christmas from my dad - a Lionel set with a steam engine and 3 or 4 cars.  Later I got into HO and built a simple layout with a small town.  I was really into building models so that worked well.  The 'oddball' building was my first shop class project - a small house - but thats what I made it for even if it didnt really fit in.

I think I had the same trouble as @HiFlyer because my mind had incredible creations that I simply couldn't live up to and it was a bit depressing and discouraging.

But I found that video online and I am just severely impressed with some people's modelling talents or really most any creative building talent.

One of these days though I really hope I buy some of the engines and cars I always wanted.

There was a Target on a bus route I used to ride and in that same mall was a train dealer who sold lots of O gauge stuff.  I walked in and saw the multi-hundred dollar price tags and it made me a bit sad but it was great to look around.

I haunted several NYC train/hobby stores as a kid, as I mentioned in a previous thread some time ago.

Little shops practically hidden within the city, with storefronts so narrow that surely the majority miss/missed them completely as they busily passed by.

I didn't have much money to spend then, but as a big-eyed kid, the shop owner tolerated me as I wandered for hours, reading the magazines for free, gawking at the wares and asking a zillion questions.

Its amazing to me, especially with property values and rents probably being what they are nowadays, that some of these hidden gems survive to this day, probably run by the children of the previous owners, who were ancient even way back then and must surely be gone by now.

Others however, Like Manhattan Train and Hobby, Polks, and Jan's (nicest lady ever) are gone forever, closed when the owners passed.

Fading reminders perhaps, of a bygone era.

 

 

Edited March 13, 20224 yr by HiFlyer