Hello, everyone!

[sarahmafred]

Hi!
I'm Sarah, and I'm just starting out in MRR. I've spent some time lurking in the forum and felt that it was time to "come out of the woodwork". While I haven't yet decided on a layout, or even really started anything but the in-my-head designs, I am excited to be on the way to getting going in this hobby. I'm still a bit confused about a great many things, but I have already realized that this is a great place for both specific and general advice on anything in this hobby.

About me: I live in East Tennessee, I work in a factory/warehouse, and while my interest in model railroading is fairly recent (aside from the "off-the-shelf" set I bought about 6 or 7 years ago and ran on the carpet) it is deep. I've recently purchased a few books to get me on my way to benchwork and wiring, and a locomotive and some rolling stock (I have not yet decided on an era or line, lacking sufficient knowledge about either), and, once I get my extra room cleared out of excess furniture, I feel ready to embark on what I hope to be many years of creating, tweaking, and re-creating of a MRR layout. Any getting-started advice would be appreciated, but this is more or less just a hi-how-are-you to everyone in the forum.

 

[rzw0wr]

Hello Sarah.
Welcome to the greatest MRR forum on the internet.
Glad to heard of your new interest. MRR can and is a great hobby.

Feel free to ask all the question you like.
Lots of great people here to answer about all the questions you may have.

What gage or scale are you interested in?

I would suggest you downloading a design program like SCRAM, it is free, or any of the others that get mentioned here.
It is a nice place to start and most of the programs I have used are fairly easy to use.

 

[Iron Horseman]

I'm still a bit confused about a great many things, but I have already realized that this is a great place for both specific and general advice on anything in this hobby.

Yes, Just start with one confusion point at a time. But mostly don't make it harder than it has too be. I see many new people come to the hobby and are so worried about "doing it right" the first time, they miss a lot of the fun associated with learning as you go.

 

[logandsawman]

Welcome to the forum. Hope you have years of enjoyment!!

lasm

 

[marriedshades]

Howdy and welcome what gage you got

 

[U18B343]

Hi Sarah,
This is a great hobby, I have been doing it for thirty years. The best place for me to find inspiration is from the prototype. Just walk along the side of the tracks with your camera and take pics of buildings, ties, rail, even weeds. These small details can all add up to a wonderful model. Another bit of advice that I have followed is don't be afraid to try something new. I hate wiring and benchwork but have to do it. I wasted a lot of time not wanting to do these things but in order to get to the parts of the hobby I love, scenery, structure building and operation, I had to grit my teeth and do the hard bits. Ask all the questions you want.

 

[tootnkumin]

G'day Sarah, good to welcome another lady member to the forum. I see by a quick Google search that your state has a rich and diverse number of present and past railroad companies. Plenty there to research for inspiration as to an era or RRoad/s to model. Take a bit of time before leaping in too deep with model purchases. What have you got so far? Some prototypes will be much easier to obtain than others, unless you wish to get into kit-bashing or repainting to suit. Going by the number of lines mentioned in Wikipedia, you've got a lot of choices.

You'll get lots of support (and maybe some cheek) from the members here.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Yes, Just start with one confusion point at a time. But mostly don't make it harder than it has too be. I see many new people come to the hobby and are so worried about "doing it right" the first time, they miss a lot of the fun associated with learning as you go.

Welcome Sarah! I emphsized this line from Iron Horseman, because this is one then you should never worry about at! There's no one way of "doing it right" , there are so many ways to do things to get to the goal in this hobby that I discovered many years ago, that there is no one "CORRECT" way to be a Model Railroader. Being in East Tennessee might I suggest that you research the old "Rat Hole Division" of the Southern Railway, that ran from Cincinnati, OH to Chattanooga, TN. It got its name from all the tunnels, sharp curves and bridges. That line even thou it's Southern, was a subsidiary, owned by the city of Cincinnati, and was called the "Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific", or the CNO&TP.

Lastly, remember that the only dumb question is the one not asked!

 

[wombat457]

Welcome Sarah,

You have picked the best Forums in the world to be apart of. As most have already said, start slow and have a base plan in mind, at the very least the gauge you would like to do, HO, N and so forth.

As new Model Railroader, you are going to have a lot of hurdles to cross, not to mention questions, we all did at one point. This is the best place to get the answers, suggestions and advice that will you will undoubtedly need as you move further into this "hobby", that description (by the way) is a misnomer when it comes to this vocation, it is more an addiction than a hobby, but you'll discover that yourself

The best advice I could possibly give you at the moment is to have a plan of what you want to have, take things slowly, one step at a time AND (most importantly) ask questions, lots of them! No such thing as a dumb or stupid question around here.

As said, welcome to the Hobby and to the Forums and never loose sight of the fact that whatever you do, it is YOUR layout and to have FUN doing it and with it!

 

[Trussrod]

I'd like to also welcome you to the forums here and say I'm glad you decided to introduce yourself and let us know what your thinking about at least generally. That's a good start.

Many of us on here have considerable knowledge of building layouts in one fashion or another, I can always expand upon that more in the future.

Probably the first thing you need to do, as your probably aware of is to determine how much space you'll be able to devote/make use of to build a layout in?

Maybe you have some idea of the era either Steam or Diesel of maybe both you want to run on your layout. But this is fairly well determined by the space you have and the radiuses you'll be able to fit within your area. The radiuses will determine the size and type of Loco's you'll be able to run without problems on your layout? Both steam and diesel come in smaller and larger sizes and many will handle an 18" radius or 36" Center to Cente, in HO scale, but you'll need/want to allow at least a couple of inches on the outside of each track so it isn't running along the edge of your table. Of course you can always add an additional section on the outside edge if this should happen. To measure a 180* radius easily, measure from the outside of the far rail the outside of the close inside rail which is the same thing as C-C center-center and then add 1.5"to this for HO to give you the outside demension of the road bed embankment to give you the over all diameter of your radius plus add at least a couple of inches for scenery on each side and end of the radius, assuming your going to have something like a continuous loop of one type or another.

Also your space will determine, at least to some extent what size of equipment you want to run as the smaller the size such as N scale means you can fit a lot more in a given space and make it seem like there is more space between locations. HO cuts the space between locations in half compared to N scale and O gauge cuts it in half again compared to HO but as you increase in size you also gain in being able to see the detail much better on your equipment. But you also need to be aware that as the size of equipment increases, N to HO or O gauge so does the space requirement for structures etc!

I hope that help to give you a bit of a better starting point?

Again glad to have you with us.