so. how do I even get started?

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Ms Latenttrainfan- By no means are we trying to tell what you HAVE to do.

With typical male 'knowledge", we have spent time, money and effort doing and buying things that were "pretty" or "the latest and greatest". EXPERIENCE has taught us that deciding what we like and planning is much better than getting 60% of our money back on Ebay auctions of stuff we no longer can use. (Gotta have a little beer money!)
If your decision is to spray paint 1/2 of a sheet of plywood green and the other 1/2 white for summer and winter scenery, it is okay by me if it is okay with you.
Most us us are eclectic in making our scenery what coulda been or what shoulda been seen in certain times in someplaces. We change our minds about scale, type of equipment and operation, or installation skills on our layouts. The objective is to make it fun for you and not get bogged down in drudgery trying to get the layout to work the way you want it to work.

Our club built a Hogwart's Castle for a local children's museum last year in 10 weeks. The time constraint took all the fun out of building the layout and we had to drop a couple features due to materials leadtime.
It sounds as if you will do well building your layout with a little planning.
Mikey
 
well, this is going to be fun. I have to recover from a day of installing fencing, so while I'm knocking back a gin and tonic with my dinner, I'm cruising through different train sites, and getting punch-drunk on all the fun stuff there is available.

I can't wait to get started, I feel like a kid at Christmas.
 
Bread&steel said:
OH YES ! I second everything Bob ( TRUCULA ) said. It's spot on !
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Thank you!! :cool:

One great thing you have here are allot of friends that will save some trial and errors. I wished when I first got into it I had this. I had only a couple books, mags, and no local friends that were into trains. It was all learn on my own. I could have cut down so many live and learn issues if I had this site and the Internet back then. People here are so nice and love to share tips and knowledge. Everyone here is great and helpful. If we all lived on the same block we'd have one H%&& of a club!!...LOL

Once you obtain a like-able/operable layout have fun detailing...We all have other life interests built into our layout. Am sure you'll have a well detailed horse farm and other personal interests on there.
I have my mini monster show trucks, love of the water, camping, and yeah even a rock band with me drumming...LOL.

When it comes to personal likes, build what suits you...Its the only world we have that you can control...LOL Its my personal "get-away" ;)

Another little money saving tip: When you go to a hobby shop, USE A SHOPPING LIST!!!...So many times I went and bought stuff because "It was cool, it was big, it was different" only to find I couldn't use it later. Measure the area you plan on placing a building and make sure you don't get something too big for the spot. Don't spurge buy, get what you need for the planned area your focusing on. I have boxes of extras I hope to use SOMEDAY!!...LOL
 
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also to answer your question on other ladies on this forum there are... they pop in once in a while.
 
I will try not to go too silly when I finally hit the train store. (I suppose it will be like going into a tack shop, your first visit you want EVERYTHING, or going to the weekly horse auction, you want to bring them ALL home...)

and I think maybe a camera is going to be an important part of the whole works, because you'll be wanting to see my progress. (read that as I'll be wanting to show off and inflict it on YOU poor people..)

Trucula! a rock band! with you drumming. that's awesome. and see? now you've got me thinking I should add a horse show in progress somewhere on my layout (I'm starting to use the WORDS -snork) with ME on my jumper mare. :D really. I love this. its an excuse to play with toys and make like its a grown-up thing to do.

this new hobby could easily get out of hand. I've never HAD a hobby other than the horses, and that turned into my job years ago. which is good. but its nice to do something different.

it seems my fencer works, the horses stayed in their new paddock all night! I only electrocuted the guy helping me twice. :) 9200 volts going through that wire, I heard him yelp the first time, poor man.
 
LTF- I think I am going to enjoy your posts as you get more involved with the modeling of trains and share what you find to be fun.

You can also model the shocking fence with a warning sign and a smokey gray figure next to your fence.:eek:

Please let us know about your first visit to the candy store, I mean hobby shop, and your impressions.

Mikey
 
Trucula said:
Thank you!! :cool:

I have my mini monster show trucks, love of the water, camping, and yeah even a rock band with me drumming...LOL.

When it comes to personal likes, build what suits you...Its the only world we have that you can control...LOL Its my personal "get-away" ;)
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As I am getting started on my revived layout, my wife and I have been looking for little things from my life to put on the layout. One of them is going to be a classic car show / Cruise in at a drive in, because that is one the things we visit on a pretty regular basis.

Another thing we found is a boy scout camp http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/272-130551
Which is great but when it arrived we found that the scouts are in RED shirts. I need to repaint them but I am not confident enough with my painting skills on something that small, so I am not sure what I will do with it.

This is gonna be such fun getting back into the hobby.
 
jtudor said:
As I am getting started on my revived layout, my wife and I have been looking for little things from my life to put on the layout. One of them is going to be a classic car show / Cruise in at a drive in, because that is one the things we visit on a pretty regular basis.

Another thing we found is a boy scout camp http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/272-130551
Which is great but when it arrived we found that the scouts are in RED shirts. I need to repaint them but I am not confident enough with my painting skills on something that small, so I am not sure what I will do with it.

This is gonna be such fun getting back into the hobby.
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Yeah car shows are a big part of my weekends too when I don't play. I have a large 4x4 show truck the has over a dozen national wins at Ford Nationals, Truck National, 4Wheeler Jamboees in Pa and Ohio. And lots of local trophies (dust collectors...LOL) (The truck is called "Trucula")
 
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well, I don't go to car shows, but my first car, when I was 17? 18? was a '61 Humber Supersnipe Series III Saloon car.

it was very handsome. I never lost it in a parking lot because there was always a crowd of people around it. :D
 


I'll just add it to the rest of the seasonal decorating. house, barn, mile long driveway, (for REAL), riding ring area, arena....


I live in a fantasy world. I don't get HALF the projects done that I would like to.
 
Sounds like you already have lots of things going on in your life so building a layout will take you much longer than you think. You've alread gotten good advice so I won't bother to repeat all of it. I'd just advise you to sit down and make a simple plan to prepare the layout room with approximate (realistic) times to do each step. Every step you complete will give you a feeling of accomplishment and you won't get discouraged because you think you're going too slowly. Getting the layout room so it's as insulated as passible and getting up lighting and electrical outlets will give you time to mull over exactly what you want to do once you get to the layout stage.

Bob, that's one serious looking 4WD monster you have there. I can see why you've won a bunch of awards. Makes even an expesnsive HO engine look cheap by comparison. :)
 
one step at a time. I figure I have the rest of my life to do this. :) of course, finally getting STARTED is the key. My first real step is to get all the junk out of that room. There are old metal shelf units bolted to the wall, and of course, I can't find my can wrench. (sigh.)

some old tires, (they'll go out to make a X-country jump for the horses). a dresser. in good shape, so I might clean it up and put it in the spare room in the house.

some plastic drums. not the kind you play. the sort you store liquids in. They'll make a jump, too.

I'm off to home depot this weekend, I'm buiding a new set of jumps, so while I'm there, I'll look at wall options, and also at insulation. Good thing I just treated myself to a shiney new cordless drill. Why don't I get the impression that this isn't what other women do for entertainment?

I suppose I could collect tupperware instead. somehow, that just doesn't quite cut it....
 
LOL, my wife actually does collect tupperware. I think she has one of every piece ever made. She has no understanding at all of why I like to work on my layout but, then again, I have no understanding why she needs three cake covers either. :)
 


I gotta say, I got into this hobby a couple months ago, and I already have more freight cars then I have space for.

Next project (other then the layout) is converting some of these old tyco cars to newer couplers and trucks
 
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