an introduction and some questions

[Anonymous]

Hello. My name is Ken and I live in Southern Oregon. I am 31 and have always been into trains. I did my senior research paper on trains back in high school. blah blah blah.  I have always wanted to give the hobby of model trains a try. When I was a kid I had the run-of-the-mill ho setup. It was fun for a while but really did not have the room to expand past a 6 foot figure 8.

 I was talking to a friend of mine and he was telling me about his train collection. That got me thinking that now is the time for me to give it a shot. I am currently getting out of the saltwater fish hobby so I will have have some extra dough.

I am still not sure what size I want to run. I know that I don't want to run the small HO stuff. What is a common size to run? it looks like O scale. does that sound right. I like the little larger stuff, but not the size you can ride on. ALA Ricky from Silver Soons. I will try to keep all my questions on this page to not bog down the site will tons of little questions threads.

 I look forward to chatting with ya'll. Also can anybody recomend a good magazine that deals with this hobby. Oh, also what is a garden train. I have seen this term used. thanks

[siberianmo]

Hello Ken and to the Kalmbach Forums!

First off let me offer this advice . . . check out the features of this site. You will quickly see <by clicking on the various titles, graphics, etc.> that the idea of it all is to engage one another in the discussion of trains - whether they be model or real.

Kalmbach is a publishing company - they put out magazines for Model Railroads <Model Railroader> Classic Trains <real trains> Classic Toy Trains <Lionel, American Flyer, etc.> Garden Railways <LGB, G-gauge, etc.> etc. They also have put together these Forums where each of their magazines has a companion site for the Posting <submission> of this 'n that on the subject at hand <ie: Model railroads, etc.>.

So, to address your last question first: the best source for someone with Model Railroad interests would be Kalmbach's Model Railroader magazine.

Second - in order to engage people with similar interests to yours, you'll have far better success on the Model Railroader forum - the one you entered is for real trains of the Classic kind <note the descriptions at the top of each Forum page . . . .>

There's much more - but "doing" is a far better way to learn than having me <or anyone else> bore you to tears with suggestions.

Sooooooo, good luck to you with your experiences here in the Ether <cyber space>!

Tom

[Anonymous]

thanks Tom. I will relocate this thread to the proper forum.