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Hooray! And so this long project begins. I will use the first post to talk about the story of how I was so lucky to get a tad larger than a 9' x 9' room:
When I outgrew my twin-sized bed, I was lucky to get to move on up to the newest bed in the house (trust me, this is important to the story)(which meant the old guest room in the back has no bed). The back room (not much of a guest room now) has been used as mostly a storage place for my sister's scrapbooking stuff (she never even uses it). When my sister moved out, I acquired this back room, and used it to start running HO trains from a bachmann set I bought at Hobby Lobby (never buying anything else except woodland scenics stuff from them EVER again). I soon hated HO scale, and was moved in to N scale. I was able to receive quite a bit back of what I used to buy the HO scale stuff. I am currently designing my layout (there isn't much design to it, gasp! to all of you practical planners. I really only came up with the assertion that I will figure it all out later (will take up a whole other post). I will attach photos of the back room VERY soon (like tonight if I move it). So stay tuned!
Welcome to the forums, i wish you luck with your build and im looking forward to watching the progress come forth. Im a young guy in this hobby too. Im in the exact same boat as you, except im planning a 10x12 in HO. What era do you plan to model, what railroad and location, or not sure yet? btw, people here love to see pictures of the trains, so dont be afraid to show off your work
Yay! I have some pictures of the back room. As you can see I still have some cleaning up to do (Yes. It was messier). I'm one of those kinds of guys who stuff everything beneath the benchwork (that what it's there for). I will be talking about how the idea came to be later on and will do my best to try to show my basic plans. Here are my pictures:
Littlefoot14, I'm only a teen too. I plan on modeling west virginia (hooray for freelancing, I'm too lazy to research). I plan on modeling around the early 50's. The layout will have two decks (3 towns and 1 super tiny town is how I'm looking at it).
The story so far:
In the late 1920's, the Virginian split in to 2 railroad names (virginian and west virginian). The WV was owned completely by the Virginian, the only difference is the name. The west virginian profited greatly off of the mining business, but was not kept up with modern technologies. To apoligize for not keeping the locomotives to date, the virginian gave the WV a few brand new FM H-16-44 switchers (although they have the virginian logo on them).
This story allows me to run steam of I want and still have 1 diesel switchers. The railroad will run off of mostly coal, a little of lumbar, and a small tiny bit of chemicals.
I will answer any questions and continue to add to this thread (with lots of pictures) as often as I can. I am starting benchwork and will take things a module at a time.
railroader- looks like a decent sized room, although i can see that window being a problem assuming where you build the layout. Freelancing is a nice way to go, i did a proto-freelance myself. Its got a nice story too it and i look forward to helping out as best i can and watching the build.
Littlefoot, that window is no problemo. I figured it all out. By cutting a few inches off the other end, I have more room for a good-sized town on the side of the window. Lucky me, I am thin enough to squeeze back there for a couple of years by walking sideways. I didn't get to working on it tonight. But I will say I am going to use the standards of the Woodland Scenic's Mod-U-Rail system. I will have:
2 18" x 36" modules
3 36" x 36" modules (2 of which have cut corners)
2 24" x 24" modules (both with cut corners to 18")
I will be working on the benchwork soon, but don't expect aqnything exciting to happen until this weekend (sorry). Can't wait to post again!
There was a plan in MR just recently by an Ozzy fella based on the Virginian in N Scale. Check it out. Look up Virginian on Model Railroader's trackplan data base online, the plan is recent enough that it should be there.
I know. that is what I thought when I started setting up my first quickie (newbie) layout.
newbie layout definition: Bachmann easy-track on 1" plywood.
Hopefully this weekend, I will be able to build (or mostly build) my first module. I plan to make this layout have two decks (I don't think I have quite enough room for storage and I would like to put in some effective planning techniques). I am STILL trying to decide what DCC system I will go with. The turnouts should not be a problem (I am thinking of using the "old style" electrical switch boards, but I do kind of want to control them with DCC). I decided thanks to the "which DCC" thread i posted a while back:
1. I don't really like Lenz.
2. The Digitrax Zephyr is more than it's cracked up to be.
3. Infrared is OK.
4. NCE Power Cab is great, but not really want to go with.
5. I like the MRC Prodigy Advance Wireless and will probably go with it.
Thanks to all who contributed. If you have any comments/suggestions/both, please send me a PM.
I have been ripping nails out of old pieces of wood (brings new meaning to the word "recycle" for Model Railroading) for almost an hour now. I have 2 more pine boards left. It snowed here in North Texas last night (makes even the oldest kids seem like children, everyone in my last class @ school on Friday couldn't keep quiet even though we were taking a test), so it has been chilly to work so in the garage. Can't wait to be done! I think I am going to make the layout be 54" tall and have a series of workbenches underneath. This will allow me to have up to 5 people (little close for comfort though) inside the layout at once. It will be around the walls, and Model Railroader's "Cunningham's Gap" will be an inspiration and role model. I tested it on paper, and it should work nicely. I have decided to have 2 towns, and a kind of "don't blink or you'll miss it" town. The largest will be West Victoria, the second will be called Cunningham (thank you for the great name MRR), and I have not decided what to call the small town. I have also decided that I would like C&O to have all rights on carrying cargo. Somehow I will include this in to the story and post it when I am finished. I am thinking that the C&O bonded with Vgn. to expand in to WV under a new name. Oh well, I'll figure it out later. Hopefully tomorrow I will start BUILDING benchwork and will post some more pics.
The layout will really be based on MRR's Cunningham's Gap in HO. The town will stay the same (except I will change the curved turnouts), but the fiddle yard will be changed to get a small town with a yard and possible locomotive servicing section. I plan on making the layout 54" high so I can put worktables underneath (and squeeze more people in). I also plan to build the modules in blocks (phases). I will build the benchwork for Phase 1 first. Then, I will put down track, and finally, put down the scenery. This way, I have something to operate on while I continue to add on until it is finished. I will probably get to building the benchwork soon.
). When my sister moved out, I acquired this back room, and used it to start running HO trains from a bachmann set I bought at Hobby Lobby (never buying anything else except woodland scenics stuff from them EVER again). I soon hated HO scale, and was moved in to N scale. I was able to receive quite a bit back of what I used to buy the HO scale stuff. I am currently designing my layout (there isn't much design to it
, gasp! to all of you practical planners. I really only came up with the assertion that I will figure it all out later (will take up a whole other post). I will attach photos of the back room VERY soon (like tonight if I move it). So stay tuned!
). Can't wait to post again!
