Hi everyone,
I'm new to the hobby, and the forum so maybe a little information about myself would be in order.
I live in Columbus, Ohio and will be 62 in January, but still feel every bit of 30. My interest in model railroading came from a different source than most I think. Being a car nut all my life I had build a faily large slotcar track (125') in my basement even though I had no one to race with. I figured they would come later. It was 1/32 scale and I wanted it to look really nice so I turned to the only place I could go to find out how to landscape my layout. I was dropped jawed impressed when I saw what you guys when making. I couldn't stop looking over your work. Well, after a few years of not being able to get any real interest going in the slotcars and knowing how much I love to build, it didn't take much of a push to get me to take it all down to go railroading.
That of couse lead to the thousand or so questions I need answered. I've already started my RR library with information on benchwork, scenery, layouts and such. I even see where there are books on how to operate a yard, but I do have a couple of questions that I can't find answers to.
I want to model (HO scale) the transistion period from 1930 to 1950, using the north east US as the area of interest. The problem I'm having is in finding information about railroads in that area. What industries to model, and especially - what does it look like? Any suggestions on what books to get would be great?
I also want to do the plan myself, but don't want to use a computer program. I just enjoy the experience of drawing it out on paper. Are there any tools or template specific to railroading that would make the task move along faster?
Sorry for the windy post. I guess I just feel like a kid about to open a new package.
Regards
Bill
I'm new to the hobby, and the forum so maybe a little information about myself would be in order.
I live in Columbus, Ohio and will be 62 in January, but still feel every bit of 30. My interest in model railroading came from a different source than most I think. Being a car nut all my life I had build a faily large slotcar track (125') in my basement even though I had no one to race with. I figured they would come later. It was 1/32 scale and I wanted it to look really nice so I turned to the only place I could go to find out how to landscape my layout. I was dropped jawed impressed when I saw what you guys when making. I couldn't stop looking over your work. Well, after a few years of not being able to get any real interest going in the slotcars and knowing how much I love to build, it didn't take much of a push to get me to take it all down to go railroading.
That of couse lead to the thousand or so questions I need answered. I've already started my RR library with information on benchwork, scenery, layouts and such. I even see where there are books on how to operate a yard, but I do have a couple of questions that I can't find answers to.
I want to model (HO scale) the transistion period from 1930 to 1950, using the north east US as the area of interest. The problem I'm having is in finding information about railroads in that area. What industries to model, and especially - what does it look like? Any suggestions on what books to get would be great?
I also want to do the plan myself, but don't want to use a computer program. I just enjoy the experience of drawing it out on paper. Are there any tools or template specific to railroading that would make the task move along faster?
Sorry for the windy post. I guess I just feel like a kid about to open a new package.
Regards
Bill