Did a search, but did not find any threads on this topic. Anyone model railroad? I'm just starting out. Bought an HO set form my son last Christmas, and we're slowing constructing enough inventory to put a layout together. Next step is building a table for the layout... have the stuff here... just need to budget the time. Will help when cutting and splitting is done! If anyone is interested in what I've done so far, I'll post some pics. Would like to see any work that any of you have done as well!
As a teenager I thought that MRR was very cool and kept borrowing lots of books from the library. I never got into the hobby but I love seeing miniatures in almost anything. I now have a collection of doll house building books.
Dang, if you would have posted this 4 weeks ago I could have sent a TON of HO model buildings (several NIB), trees, boxcars, etc to you for the cost of shipping. I was cleaning out the basement and finally decided that if I haven't used any of the stuff in the last 20 years it probably was never going to get used. That's fun stuff though, one of my great-uncles had an entire mobile home behind his house dedicated to a VERY large train layout.
One of my landscape suppliers has a huge loft in his barn that has a giant layout in it. I'm talking 40ft by 20ft or bigger. It's pretty cool to look at.
We had a small layout back in the 1970's. I kept my train set since it was the Bicentennial Spirit of 76 line. Just pleasant memories to look at now.
No experience but look forward to any pictures. A kid I went to school had a father that had a massive layout-filled his entire basement. I was fascinated by it. I could see myself doing that as a retirement hobby.
When we moved to the new house about 5 years ago I took my HO layout apart and now it's stacked in the basement for when the little guy is older. Got into it fairly young because of an uncle who was big in it he has moved up to I think O or maybe G scale. I had 8x24 layout with the center section I could stand in the middle of and "engineer" the works even dabbled in a little N scale
There's a magazine called model railroader if you guys have interest in the hobby try and get a hold of an issue just to see how neat it really is especially now a days there is s lot of very cool technology type stuff that's out there for it
Fiber optics and LED lights have really made a difference to miniature work in doll houses. I would think that model railroading would have also embraced the technology.
Woodwidow, they do and have for a long while all of my diesel locomotives have led directional lighting. They are computer controlled as well.
Don't forget Railroad Model Craftsman Magazine - Model trains, layouts, how-to features, reviews and more! , N-Scale Magazine Home and several others.
I had and still have in boxes a rather large O gauge model railroad. In the house that had 6 wooded acres I had a dedicated room for my layout. it measured 20' x 14'. I have Lionel, MTH and other O gauge locomotives and rolling stock probably numbering about 125 pieces. In my new house I have the space but have not had the time to setup layout. I would prefer to join a modular group of O gauger's. For those not familiar, it is generally a 2' x 4' module that when connected with others offers a rather large area of track and neat settings for buildings and scene's. The reason I would prefer that type of arrangement is that working on your layout is time consuming and is very solitary. I have woodworking for my solitary time. I like the people interaction that a club would offer. Usually, the club meets once a week for 3-4 hours to work on layouts and run trains. Running trans is the fun part. Layout construction, although satisfying, is at times boring. My two most prized pieces are the Lionel Union Army Civil War Steam engine set and the MTH California Zepher with a 3 locomotive set and 5 passenger cars. It is neat to see the Zepher running with full lights and sound. But, you do need a good sized layout for that train to look cool. I got started with O gauge because my FIL was a train guy and he bought me a used Lionel set for a Christmas present when I told him that I had an American Flyer set a young boy and my mom gave it away because, " we can't have all this stuff around here", but that another story. Over the years I have added to the stock thru auctions, store closings, etc. I buy stuff that reminds me of something or someone. I have some HO stuff that people have given me and I should get a list or try to package it for sale. I just don't use it. Model railroading is alot of fun.
Sorry I left this thread unattended. Had a busy week at work last week, and didn't have much time to devote here unfortunately. Hopefully, the following pics will make up for the time lost. Anyways, wanted to post pics of the buildings I've worked on over the last year. As I said in the OP, I've only done buildings so far in preparation of getting a layout going. So, no layout pics yet. The first pic is an old standard model called Machine Shed. This model was given to me in the mid-to-late 1970s as part of a Christmas present. It was a Tyco set. We set up the railroad and I used the train, but I never built this model until this year. Was my first shot at constructing a model railroad building, and I was learning about weathering and so forth.
My next effort is called Greeley's Place. This is a backwoods cabin. Could be for a hermit, mountain man, or someone similar. this model is primarily laser cut bulsa wood. It's about two inches tall by 1.75 inches wide or so. Lots of detail, and I messed up a couple spots. The tiny chair (about 3/8 inches tall) is compiled of five separate pieces. This one took a lot of time and patience, particularly when installing the wall slats. This will be the main building of a small backwoods farm.
These next two as support structures for Greeley's. I'm going to have Greeley have a chicken coop and a smokehouse. Neither are quite finished, as each have a couple additions to be affixed when the models are installed on the layout. But the pics show the main bits of the models. Each has dimensions of around 1 inch (wide, deep, and tall). The models are cast metal. Less work to assemble than the basla model, but more time spent on the painting.
