Any model railway (railroad) fans out there?

I love model railroading, it is just a matter of space for the layout.

Now we have the digital controlled engines where you can run more then one train on the same rail line by selecting one or the other.

When I get the space, I am definately going to go back to finishing a layout I started a couple of years ago.

  Tom T

I model OO British and HO American railways.

I also like military, aircraft and painting figures.

The only problem I have is that I don't have enough time to do any!!

Cheers

Richard

I am a big MRR fan. My father and grandfather began collecting Lionel O and Standard gauge when my father was a child. Now my dad and I have been collecting my whole life. The basement is packed with Pre and postwar Lionel.

We have a 4 x 8 Lionel O gauge tinplate layout in the basement.

I was into N gauge for a few years. I gave my layout to a friend (2 x 5) , I had lost interest. I saved all of my rolling stock, buildings, etc...I plan on getting back into it one of these days.

My dream is...A giant O gauge layout, 1/2 tinplate/ pre-war lionel the other half a hi-rail 1/48 layout with a giant airfield for my aircraft models :-D. And of course the trains could run back and forth between the two areas...

My parents got me into Lionels when I was little, and I have since switched to HO scale. It definetly puts a strain on the money, since when I visit the hobby shop I must find a balance between trains and models. I somehow managed to squeeze a 4x8 HO layout in my room, which is still in the making. It has no particular time period....just a loop of track with a roundhouse and some sidings that I can run my trains on. It would be nice to focus on one or the other for time and money's sake, but I just can't give them up. Both are such great hobbies!

Kolja94 wrote:

a nice basement with a house on top of it!

Model RRing is my primary modeling outlet right now, I do large scale and have been having more fun than with any styrene kits so far...

Heres some pics

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith//Class%20A%20final%201.jpg

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith//Price%20painted%20front.jpg

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith//Silver%20Bullet03.jpg

I started model RR'ing back around 1985 and have had several layouts from N gauge to HO and I even started one in S scale using my old American Flyer collection. I gave up on the N gauge because I wanted to do more scratchbuilding and felt like I needed a larger scale to work with, hence the HO scale. I've built layouts from 2 x 4 ft for the little stuff all the way up to the shelf type layout that took up the walls of half the basement. I'm currently working on the plans for a 12 x 5 ft HO layout. One thing I've learned over all these adventures is to stay within your means, meaning that as cool and fasinating as those big layouts look you have to to keep in mind that it takes a lot of time and money as well as a crew to operate them. Unless your layout is fully automated (money) trying to run multiple trains is almost impossible for one person to manage. If you try and mimic the operation of a real railroad then you'll know that they don't go around in a circle so to keep things real looking the layout needs to be point to point ( more operation, more switching ) which is not a bad thing at all. In fact that's what I prefer. But if you build a layout with kids in mind then the circle type layout will be more interesting to them, you can keep the trains going 'round and 'round. It's a great hobby with lots of different aspects, from modeling the rolling stock to building model buildings and weathering them to look real to the electronics involved in all the wiring to the senicing of the layout. Tons of fun to be had but the process is on-going. Then again that's what hobbies are all about.

Hud

I love model railroading, too.  I got started when an oldtimer gave me a stack of 50 or so Model Railroader and Model Railroad Craftsmen magazines.  I got started with a smattering of HO scale things - 19th-early 20th century - including some great novelty 1800s rolling stock kits by "Ye Ol' Huff-n-Puff" and a "Roundhouse" 0-6-0 saddle tanker engine kit.  Those were great for building with a heavy edge of "scratchbuild" approach on the rolling stock kits.

I stepped down to N scale because of the limits of apartment living.  Am "armchair" currently because of space issues, and have most of my stuff packed away in the closet with dreams of time and space.

My son and I are currently contemplating getting back into the things and seeing what can be accomplished on a sheet of plywood.  It's a toss-up between N scale "realistic" and digging into the HO novelty stuff again. 

Going to consult my son and see what he'd like to do...