Just wanted to introdce myself.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone. I just joined the site today. My name is Brian and I'm 16. I live in the beautiful state of West Virginia. I have been into model railroading for about 8 years now. My first set was a Bachman Santa Fe set, and yes I still have it. When I turned 10, I got into model car building and have been doing that ever since. Well a few weeks ago the bug bit me to get back into model railroading. Last weekend I finally got around to building a 4 by 8 foot table so I finally have a place to run my trains. This weekend I'm going to start laying down track, and if anybody would like, I will gladly post some pictures. I have already found some very useful tips here and will definitely use then. anyway thats just a little about me.

[rolleiman]

Welcome and go ahead and post the photos.. As a dialup user though I would ask you to keep them on the smaller size..

Jeff

[ARTHILL]

Welcome to the forum and to the club. I have been back and forth between cars and trains for 60 years, including some great drag racing. Now it is trains. I glad you kept your stuff. I sold some once, and I wish I had it back. YES WE WOULD LIKE PICS. Good luck.

[cwclark]

[#welcome] to the forum!...there are a lot of (hardcore) people here with years of experience in the model railroading hobby and if you hang around here long enough you might learn something ...before you start you might want to brush up on a few things you'll need to know to make that killer layout first... www.kalmbach.com has a lot of good books that can get you started so that the mistakes (and there will be lots of them) won't get you so frustrated that you loose interest in the hobby...you might want to pick up some of these books in the following catagory: 1. benchwork, 2. track work and track laying, 3. wiring, and 4. scenery....send pictures please!...we'd love to see what your doing...chuck

[howmus]

[#welcome] [#welcome] [#welcome] brian024. This is a great place to hang out. Any questions you have will find answers here. And, by all means show us your work!

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys. Will do, rolleiman. ARTHILL, 60 years is a long time. I bet you have had some great memories. Thanks cwclark, my friend came over to help me lay down the track and he brought over their great bock on scenery. I have already read thourgh the one on bench work and I have found some very useful tips on track work and wiring here on the forums. We are taking a break right now from the track. I'm planning on putting mountains down one whole side of the layout, so we are trying to get most of the track that will be under the mountains fini***oday. I'll post some pictures later once we get the track down. Does anyone know of any web sites that alow you to make a track plan? I have tried paint but with no succes, I would like to hear your guys opinions on my track plan.

[Anonymous]

[#welcome]to the forums there are many helpful people here i think you'll like it here don't forget to come on over to the coffee shop

[electrolove]

Welcome to a really great place.

[selector]

Welcome, Brian. We're from everywhere (notice electrolove's signature?), but we talk the same language. Like in any "family", we have cross words here and there, but we basically like each other, support each other, and we like to visit whenever we can.

We hope you have a good time here, if you stay, and that you learn from us as we have learned from each other. We will probably learn from you, too.

-Crandell

[Tracklayer]

Welcome aboard the forum Brian024.

Tracklayer

[fiatfan]

Here's another one of those [#welcome] signs. [:o)]

In addition, here's a link to a thread that has a lot of good information.

Welcome home!

Tom

Edit: Here's the link

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=36405

Tom the [D)]

[dragenrider]

Well, howdy there Brian! Welcome aboard! We'un's hope ya have a great time on dis 'ere forum. Dere's a lot you can learn right uher'. I know'd 'cause I dun learned myself a bit, too.

[ARTHILL]

There are some free downloads on track planing, but I ws not able to figure them out. One is by Atlas. Maybe someone else has the links.

[Anonymous]

Thanks again for the welcomes guys. I'll be sure to ask is anything comes up, the one main thing I can see is wiring. I know nothing about wiring, but have picked up a few tips here and there. Art, Atlas's web site was the next place I'm going to go. Well we got a little bit done but not much, but atleast its something. I will start a thread in the layout building section about the build up of my layout.

[icmr]

[#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome] to the forum Brian024. I hope you find a lot of help here.



ICMR

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[davekelly]

Brian,

Welcome!!!! Glad you kept that first train set. Don't ever get rid of it. I still have my first trains, and I don't care if it is considered "junk" or not - I love 'em and everytime I see them I think of the fun I had when I was a kid. After all, who's kidding who, we're all just big kids playing with the coolest toys on earth!

Most of all, Brian. Go forth and try. You'll make mistakes, but you'll learn from them. Afraid of wiring? Sit down with some references, think about the project,plan and execute. If it works - great! If it doesn't - who cares? Figure out what is wrong, research, ask questions and fix. Trust me - every mistake that you make that you are able to correct will bring a whole bunch of self satisfaction.

The key to this hobby? It has to make you smile. If a loops of track and a bachmann F unit makes this happen - then everything is how it is supposed to be.

[ereimer]

welcome to the forum . please feel free to post pics . look for the weekend photo fun and mid-week photo fun threads and keep us up to date on your layout

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the great welcomes guys. Dave, I know I will probably never sell mine as well. I've taken the engine over to my friends house an ran it and its pretty weak, but that doesn't bother me.

I just posted a thread about my layout. Here is the link. http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=49506

[Anonymous]

Welcome. I am also Brian, but i am 17, so we have a lot in common. My dad, and my brother, and myself are building a layout in our garage. It is about 12' by about 13' ish. If your family has a garage or other open 'non-living' space then I would start to campaign for it right now, because eventually you are going to want a bigger layout. I would also downsize to 'N' scale, because you can get a lot more of it in a little space. That is the scale we are doing.

I also suggest maybe getting a job, as railroading can get expensive ;)

Brian

--Just a little clarification, Brian is my son. I'm usually the one that posts, so the computers always think it is me. If he starts to post more, we'll have to get him an identitiy of his own!

[Anonymous]

We don't have a garage but there was space in our basement for the layout. I took that and got started. I did consider having an N-scale for the obvious, fit more into a 4 by 8 than HO scale. But I already had some Ho stuff and my grandpa is giving me some stuff so I thought it should be used. I have already found out about the prices on things. I'm working at Home Depot right now, an easy way to get wood for a table, but I have a good 25 minute trip to get there. A new store is being built not to far from my house and I'm going to try and transfer so I have a quicker trip. There 3 train shops around and all are pretty good stores. The best one is not to far from where I work and he carries a lot of great things.