New guy from Va. saying hello

[_____]

Thought I would add to the list of forums I belong too since Im getting back into model railroading again.

A little background on me here:

Im 26 yeas old and have alot of HO stuff packed away in storage. It hasnt been out in 12-13 years. I have a 5 year old son now who is inlove with trains. We have some tracks right on the otherside of the fence in our backyard so he gets to see em everyday

I figured what better hobby for us to have than model trains, so its all coming back out of storage!

I have a unfinished attic in our house so in the past week I have bought a attic ladder and all the wood to lay the floor

Gotta move the roof joists around a little and once thats done. Walls will go up. The room will be 10' wide and I have 40' in length to work with but im thinking 25' should be long enough haha.

Well you guys will be hearing alot from me as this build goes on because ALOT has changed since I was into this. First thing Ill be looking into will be a DCC I guess and weighing my options since NONE of my engines are DCC ready.

Hope to learn alot here guys,
~Jason

 

[SpaceMouse]

Hi and welcome.

There's an article I wrote for new (and returning) people to get them thinking about how to design a layout. It takes about five minutes to read and is clickable from my signature. It is intended to save people time and money.

Keep us post with pictures.

 

[_____]

Thanks alot man. Thats actually the first article I started reading on here

And tons of pictures will follow because Im a semi-pro photographer im my free time

Are we allowed to post build threads on here with lots of pictures?

 

[jbaakko]

Welcome to the forum Jason!

 

[Selector]

Welcome to our forum. You'll find tons of info and good people here. We'll do our best to ensure you have fun and some good development, not to mention advice.

 

[_____]

Thanks for the warm welcomes guys.

 

[UP2CSX]

Hello, Jason, and welcome aboard. You have the most unusual screen name I've seen. Build threads with lots of pics are not only allowed but encouraged. There are a lot of folks who will be getting train sets for Christmas and I'm sure they would benefit from your experiences. Just start a new thread and keep posting to that thread so we can keep up with what you're doing. Any guy that can talk about moving roof joists around like it's no big deal should have no problem with benchwork.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Hi Jason and welcome to the Forum! Great screen name, I see you have a sense of humour - that'll come in handy during those inevitable moments of frustration that we all tend to experience once and awhile.

That 10ft x 40ft attic seems like plenty of space for a good-sized layout, but I need to ask: What do you plan to do for climate control? Every attic I've ever been in is usually hotter than h*** in the summer, and probably not too comfy in the wintertime either. I had to install a 12500-btu heat pump in my two-car garage in order to make it tolerable for running trains during the extreme seasons.

Getting a DCC system early on is a good idea, you'll probably want to do that before you start amassing a large fleet of locomotives or wiring your layout for DC block control.

I look forward to seeing photos of your progress!

 

[_____]

Hello, Jason, and welcome aboard. You have the most unusual screen name I've seen. Build threads with lots of pics are not only allowed but encouraged. There are a lot of folks who will be getting train sets for Christmas and I'm sure they would benefit from your experiences. Just start a new thread and keep posting to that thread so we can keep up with what you're doing. Any guy that can talk about moving roof joists around like it's no big deal should have no problem with benchwork.

Pictures should start this weekend as the ladder goes in As far as the roof joists, Im just going to have to move the supports from a V configuration.

Tha black lines are how my roof is set up now and Ill be changing it to the way the red lines are drawn up there. The black lines going out to the left and right roof will stay but the longer ones on the inside will be removed.

Giving me a room shaped like this.

Haha bad drawing but you get the idea.

Hi Jason and welcome to the Forum! Great screen name, I see you have a sense of humour - that'll come in handy during those inevitable moments of frustration that we all tend to experience once and awhile.

That 10ft x 40ft attic seems like plenty of space for a good-sized layout, but I need to ask: What do you plan to do for climate control? Every attic I've ever been in is usually hotter than h*** in the summer, and probably not too comfy in the wintertime either. I had to install a 12500-btu heat pump in my two-car garage in order to make it tolerable for running trains during the extreme seasons.

Getting a DCC system early on is a good idea, you'll probably want to do that before you start amassing a large fleet of locomotives or wiring your layout for DC block control.

I look forward to seeing photos of your progress!

For climate control Im trying to figure out how to route some of the central heat and AC up there. Not too sure how thats going to work just yet though.

As far as a DCC system I think I have made my mind up to get one. None of my engines are DCC ready but In order for me to have a rail yard that I can keep all my extra trains on without them moving Ill have to go DCC.

This whole thing will be a learning experience all over again. Ofcourse when I was into this I was 10-13 years old so all the "planning" was done by my dad so now I get to go through all the headache he did back then haha.

Im glad you guys like my screen name too It confuses alot of people on the other forums Im on

 

[V&AL]

Welcome Jason!!

I'm from down in Elizabeth City, NC (an hour or so away, give or take.)

Welcome to the forums!
There's a bunch of good clubs and NMRA groups in your immediate area.

come on done to E-City next weekend for our 3rd annual train show. Its a small-ish affair, but should be our biggest ever. Let me know if you want the when-where...