I have (somewhere) photos of my first layout. It was 4' x 20', 0-27 scale in my folks basement. The negatives, remember them, are probably going to show up in a archeological dig some time in the far future. Yep, it is embarrassing now but back then it was a top item in the local newspaper and in the DM&IR Ranger magazine. It finally got dismantled during its third attempt at improving its looks. I still have some black and white prints hidden from sight. My "investment" in the whole layout was about $500.00 !! Oh yes, this was in the late 1950's. My latest layout is under construction at present and I don't know who's going to be finished first, the layout or me.
God's Best & Happy Rails to You!
Bing (RIPRR The Route of the Buzzards)
The future: Dead Rail Society
This is a photo I took of a scratch built building when I first put it on the railroad about 1990.
The railroad has changed a lot since then.
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
Hi Narrow gauge nuclear
Regrettably no photos of my early railways exist I am not and never was a good photographer with a real proper camera.
Do OK with one of those digital idiot proof cameras.
Suffice to say some of my early model railways where not that brilliant, but at the time they where the best thing since sliced bread.
I was lucky and it was Hammered in that you took time with track work, and for bench work if it will do the job and you can't jump up and down on it its not strong enough.
And I always had help with both until I was old enough to be left to it.
So trains always ran well unless there was an issue with the loco or stock or dirty track and bench work never warped..
It is a shame about some of the monstrosities that where created in the name of scenery
I have never been able to alter locomotives I just can't bring my self to make the first cut or drill that first hole in a perfectly good loco.
Scenery is much better now that it doesn't need to hide, or take a couple of Panadol and have a good lay down.
Err I think that tells you just how bad some of it was
Those disgusting over bright green and funny shaped hills YUK!! and the wrong kind of grey
regards John
Mr. B.,
You're absolutely right about the cost being a limiting factor. Hard to think of it that way now that most everything is nothing but some electrons in a file somewhere -- unless you used to work at Kodak.
What I really kick myself in the teeth over is not getting more pics of the prototype. Between kits and scratch, everything that wasn't saved from that layout can be reproduced today with a little help from ebay. It's awful hard to reproduce this 1:1 scene...
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I truly regret that I have nothing to show here. Back in the day, photographs were done with film and each one was an expensive proposition for a teenager. Somewhere, I've got a couple of them, but I haven't seen them for years and may never find them. I had an O-gauge layout when my age was measured in single digits, an HO-scale layout in my teens, and I pulled those same trains out of storage in my late 50s.
I've been happy to take pictures this time around. I see them not only a documentation of progress, but also as a guide to others. I don't know how many times I've posted my earliest shots of my benchwork frame, or the same with a bit of foam on top. The pictures and the benchwork have served me well.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Found a few more pics to contribute to this thread. They are of my self-enclosed module I built in Germany when my dad was stationed there in the early 70s.
I actually still have some of the rolling stock, etc, as seen in earlier pics in the thread.
narrow gauge nuclearCan anyone here embarass themselves more than this?
Absolutely! The only thing wosre than a lousy photograph is a lousy photo that some amateur like myself tried to "improve" - like this one from 1996, where I attempted to hide my basement's cinder block walls by using MS-Paint make it look like open sky:
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
I really need to take some pictures of my articulated Chattanooga Choo Choo project...
The picture shows my layout I built about 20 years ago, when I got back into model railroading after a nearly 20 year hiatus. I have "grown" since ...
1982 in NJ
Peter Smith, Memphis
I would have to take a photo of a photo, which is already very crappy quality to be able to show you anything of what I did at 10 years old in 1960, if I even had photos of my model railroad stuff. Not that I'm actually loath to show you, it's more that I'm loath to put in the effort of digging that stuff up!
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
narrow gauge nuclearI did thoroughly enjoy the hand lettering on Mike's T&SV cars. That's the kind of embarassment we were looking for.
heh, heh, heh. Yeah, and iffn it don't have horn-hooks, it ain't truly embarrassing.
Actually, my first two layouts were pretty embarrassing. First was one based on the Elk River HOn30 series in RMC (Frary and Hayden IIRC). Doomed by the poor performance of Yugoslavian motive power and my amateur track laying skills, it was narrowgauge. The second was a portable switching layout that was way too heavy to be in a military family's household goods and had frustrating brass track to boot. That was the only ROW the T&SV ever had and it stayed in Germany. I took a decade or so off, then started the present not too shabby layout as a module in the late 80s before moving to my present digs.
All our layouts were OK........At the time, they were the best we could do at that time with skills and money at hand. A lot of cool images here and some not looking embarassing enough. Some of you guys aren't going back far enough or you came to the table better equipped than most of us guys who start out with 5 thumbs on each hand.
I did thoroughly enjoy the hand lettering on Mike's T&SV cars. That's the kind of embarassment we were looking for.
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
E-L man tom don't know, heck, even my recent pictures are not that good, like this scratch built photo of a class N3A caboose I built about 8 years ago. The photo was taken about 3 years ago.
I don't know why but the picture didn't post. I'll try again.
I don't know, heck, even my recent pictures are not that good, like this scratch built photo of a class N3A caboose I built about 8 years ago. The photo was taken about 3 years ago.
That is pretty legit for a kid. I had the same, but with a Bachmann Chessie F7 set. We had a huge Lego city, only with HO scale trains.
Leighant,
Great trestle! And a Berlin 1972 layout? Heck, I was in West Berlin briefly myself in '72. My family rode the Duty Train from Frankfurt for a long weekend. I enjoyed riding the U-Bhan, but had to promise I would avoid the segments that went to the East.
Anyway, great topic. I'll likely have the most embarrassing pics. My misspent youth shows here.
A pair of Overton's in the "modern" Tonopah & Sumpter Valley scheme.
A well-worn RS2.
Derelict, but scratchbuilt MOW car from the Elk River Railway. A T&SV express car. Dig those Fox trucks! And the one thing that doesn't shame me so badly after all these years, a caboose built on an AHM bobber chassis. Get that poor kid some custom decals before he handletters again!
Derelict, but scratchbuilt MOW car from the Elk River Railway.
A T&SV express car. Dig those Fox trucks!
And the one thing that doesn't shame me so badly after all these years, a caboose built on an AHM bobber chassis.
Get that poor kid some custom decals before he handletters again!
My first N scale structure, built in a hospital bed on meal tray in 1969, as a feasibility project to see if scratchbuilding in N is possible.
2x4 foot generic N scale "generic Colorado" (?) layout built for a kid's Christmas present in 1969.
Sierra Pacific, 3 x 11 foot figure-8 HO layout, my attempt at being John Allen.
27 x 34 inch West Berlin N scale layout, 1972...
that GP15-1 was more stubborn than the serailment prone track. it was an ok layout but my track laying was terrible.
SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide
Gary DuPrey
N scale model railroader
Well, you wanted an early pic, so here you go. This was my very first model railroad, circa 1992 when I was 8 years old. I even scratch built my own structures out of Legos. Judging by some of my buildings, there was an explosion at the paint factory.
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
Richard,
I think that is pretty good,,,nothing to be embarrassed about...I wish I could show some of mine,with a Brownie camera and 35mm,starting around 1951..
Cheers,
Frank
We all began MR sometime in the past. The older among us are loath to show our 3rd and 4th and 5th efforts, while proudly displaying our first layout as those images are supposed to be pathetic and cute. As skills increase we do better, but with more modern materials and MR knowledge our next 4 layouts (our "transition era"), if you will, may seem a bit embarassing to us by today's higher standards.
So.....Let's show some our dirty laundry as we went through that "mid-life" MR crisis dwelling in what now seems like a twilight zone in our MR careers. Whatca' got?
My submission is of my third layout, the Disputanta and Danville Western, made up when I was a newly graduated, first-job, electronics engineer in the later 60's. I was very proud of it then, but now.......well..... The impossible grades in opposite directions, the melted ice-cream plaster rock. Wow!
I am still proud of the ruinous, but well executed rape of the Rivarossi AHM Y6-B with its original purchase price worth of cal-scale brass castings epoxied liberally to the loco. Looks good, but is just the wrong thing to do by today's standards. (Cal-Scale did not make mudflaps, curb feelers or lake pipes or I surely would have added them.)
Can anyone here embarass themselves more than this?