Cannot relate to that. My father never had a layout even though he bought my first American Flyer train set for me.
Rich
Alton Junction
mikelhh " No offense to anyone, but I would give up all these layouts built or highlighted on this website to run trains again on my father's." - Joe C Great answer, Joe. Mike
" No offense to anyone, but I would give up all these layouts built or highlighted on this website to run trains again on my father's." - Joe C
Great answer, Joe.
Mike
Hear! Hear!
Get right down to the nitty gritty my Dad was my inspiration.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Number One would be the South Shasta. GA Humann modeling the SP from Gerber to Dunsmuir in O Scale. I first visited this layout when I was 8 - I'll be 60 later this year.
Number Two would be the Alturas and Lone Pine. Whit Towers conducting an old column, in the competing RMC, about operations on his layout.
What really piqued my interest was the philosophy of an evolving layout - a layout that was expected to change significantly over time. The MR project layouts of the early '60s - PH&C and Ma & Pa in particular - showed this philosophy in action. There was also an article in June '63 about building a very small layout where the scenery was changed out regularly.
Layouts that I have started building were the Tidewater Central (MR project in the late '50s) with additional tracks added, and the Pigeon Creek (MR Dec '67?) - another layout planned for expansion. Lessons learned from the latter - 1) a 4x8 is not very practical in a spare bedroom, 2) a small loop-to-loop track plan is not very practical when wired for DC.
I found Ben King's layout (Timber City?), a shelf layout planned for progressive construction, to be particularly inspirational. The other shelf layout I have particularly enjoyed was Chuck Yungkurth's famous Gum Stump & Snowshoe - I am building a modified version.
Not in MR, but in the NG&SLG is Boone Morrison's modeling of the NWP. I enjoyed how he would condense plot plans and other information about actual towns to make a reasonable model. Harry Brunk did a similar series on building a model of the Colorado Northern.
Fred W
....modeling foggy coastal Oregon, where it's always 1900....
Picture Gorge & Western Ry (HO) None more Picturesque!
Port Orford & Elk River Ry & Navigation Co (HOn3) Home of the Tall Cedars
The first one was a club layout at the Joliet Illinois train station. I only looked at it thru the windows but was in awe of it. When I got it highschool I met and spent some time working on Stewert Marshalls South Troy English and Wycliffe. Of course the Ogauge layout at the Museum of Science and Industry was one I could watch for a long time.
Though I don't do steam what "inspired" my newest layout idea was an artical in MR with Jeff Ashby's N scale. July 2011 I think. The seniced ( spelling) helix impressed me enough to do a two level. It's nothing like Jeff's but I'm pretty proud of it. As I was imagining what type of landscape I would like most along came an artical of Mike Dannemam's Moffat Road again in MR. Stratta rock baby, lots of stratta. Now if I could only paint a backdrop as fine as his.
Ron
I was surrounded by trains as a kid- many fond memories of running Dad's Lionel set in the basement. The layout that kicked me into modeling was probably the Blissfield (MI) railroad club and (to a lesser extent) Doug Tagsolds D&RGW layout.
That's them. Says the photos are from 2000, that's probably the last time I was there.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Randy,
Is this the one?
http://www.trainweb.org/pa/bdsme/ho-ga/photos-bdsme-ho.html
richhotrain rrinker Rich, yes. Old schoolhouse (or maybe it was a church). O scale on the first floor, HO upstairs. --Randy Thanks, Randy. I have never been there to visit the layout, but there is a web site that includes a half dozen or so photos of the layout from different angles. It is a gorgeous layout. Rich
rrinker Rich, yes. Old schoolhouse (or maybe it was a church). O scale on the first floor, HO upstairs. --Randy
Rich, yes. Old schoolhouse (or maybe it was a church). O scale on the first floor, HO upstairs.
Thanks, Randy.
I have never been there to visit the layout, but there is a web site that includes a half dozen or so photos of the layout from different angles. It is a gorgeous layout.
Oh wait, it was the Grange Hall. Eventually I'd get it right. I haven't been there for a number of years, but it was always fairly complete.
Not to be confused witht he L&KV club that was just in MR, also in Bethlehem.
And if you really want to see something, the Reading Society of Model Engineers. They have a 15" guage train, 7 1/2" and 4 1/2" scale, and an O scale layout indoors that is a veritable museum of model railroading - they've been around since the 1930's and there are items on the layout that are that old, right on up to the latest O releases (the layout is 2 rail O - they do also have a 3 rail hi-rail seperate layout). If you have the MR DVD and have looked through the issues from the 30's - you can see stuff like that shown on this layout.
The Model Railroader Video Layout Tours from the late 80s were something. All of the greats such as the V&O, John Armstrong, etc, were included.
Later, Bob Rivards work, especially the way he detailed his diesels were an inspiration.
Jim
The local operating museum layout built by the PSMRE at the Washington State History Museum. The details are incredible.
http://psmre.org/exhibit.htm
Mine started with an idea from Linn Wescott, back in the late 1950's. His track plan for his unnamed railroad that was featured in the publication "HO Railroad That Grows", is still at the heart of what I do. Granted after numerous rebuilds, it gets a bit harder all the time to see that relationship. The idea of progressively building and operating as you go along is something that I bought into whole heartedly. Occasionally, I have wondered how many of the layouts built on that small plan are still up and operating.
Don H.
As a youngster, I always liked the Gorre & Daphetid and other whimsical railroads, but they never really captivated me as much as the layouts that looked like the things I'd seen in real life. One of the most seminal for me was Carl Appel's OO gauge Norfolk & Ohio (MR Nov. 1958) which featured impeccably detailed motive power running in scenes that looked like real life. Another was Wally Moore's layout in St. Louis, which featured big mainline motive power serving a fictional midwest city. His Central Union Terminal was featured in MR July 1957, and his large East Side engine terminal was featured in MR Aug. 1958. I'm not aware that there was ever any coverage of Moore's total layout, and I've always felt disappointed about that. A third major influence was Paul Larson's Mineral Point & Northern, which made several appearances in MR in the 1950's, and had a real-life feel to it. The Tidewater Central, an MR project RR (Dec. 1956 - Jan. 1957) convinced me that a believable model railroad could be constructed in limited space, and might be within my teenaged capabilities.
My uncles 4 x 8 roundy round. those were fun, running a BN cow calf set with flatcars and a caboose.
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
rrinker WHat got me in the hobby in the first place? The holiday seasonal layout my Dad used to set up every year. And maybe the Black Diamond Society of Model Engineers layout he used to take me to see every year - back when they were still in Downtown Easton, PA, long before they moved out the Bethlehem where they are now.
WHat got me in the hobby in the first place? The holiday seasonal layout my Dad used to set up every year. And maybe the Black Diamond Society of Model Engineers layout he used to take me to see every year - back when they were still in Downtown Easton, PA, long before they moved out the Bethlehem where they are now.
Randy, is the current location the one with the HO layout on the second floor?
And riding on the Strasburg, New Hope, and Kempton trains. And places like Choo Choo Barn in Strasburg and Roadside America.
Model layouts that made an impression later on - the various ones featured in Sutton's Complete Book of Model Railroading (and the chapters on Astrac are what convinced me early on that command control was the way to go). Another book I picked up had some great color shots of Irv Schultz's layout, and the Slim Gauge Guild, with floor to ceiling scenery. I didn;t start buying MR until the late 70's, and only became a subscriber another 10 or so years after that, so my exposure was through the books I bought or checked out at the library.
Like Joe, I'd give anything to be back running trains on those temporary layouts with my Dad. I like to think that if he was still around, he'd be at my place as often as possible working on my layout.
Wow! there were so many for me, but the original one was the Gorre & Daphetid, specifically those Varney ads. Others include Irv Schultz's layout, McClelland's V&O, Koester's A&M, Elwell's Hoosac Valley, Frary and Hayden's C&DR, Bill Darnaby's Maumee Route, Bill Henderson's Coal Belt, John Wright's Federal Street, Earl Smallshaw's Middletown & Mystic Mines, and, most recently, Steven Peck's Trumansburg.
Wayne
One of my biggest sources of inspiration when I was getting into N Scale was Spookshow's blog. Following several of his layotus from start to finish taught me various techniques for weathering, scenery construction and blasting track. I also learned what products were out there.
Other layouts that inspire me are Dave Vollmer's PRR layout, Dick Elwell's Hoosac Valley and Allen McClelland's V&O.
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
I'm kind of with Rich, no layout got me started. Riding the Shaker Rapid to the West Side market with my grandmother did. Once past CUT the rapid tracks parallelled lots of NKP NYC tracks. The huge bridges of multi track were kind of awe inspiring. Then later trips to cruise the north end of the Cuyahoga river exposed me to lift bridges, steel mills and Hulletts.
No friends or family had an interest in trains so Iwas always a lone wolf.
Current inspiration does come from the AM and VO though applied to the PC Cleveland and Pittsburgh line.
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
The G & D especially the PFM and Varney ads in MR in the 1950s. Later the early 1960s Mineral Point and Northern articles and photos in MR.
I haven't read every reply, so maybe I am the first to say this, or maybe I am not, but nobody's layout inspired me. I just decided to enter the hobby and started building my first layout. Sorry.
For me it was Tony Koester's AM. My first issue of MR was the second part of his two part spread, to which I still have the origional issue. Now the cover was lost years ago. And to a slightly lesser extent Allen's V&O.
Irv Schultz's St Clair Northern piqued my interest and Jerry McGee's P&P showed me that early rail (1900's) was really possible.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Without a doubt, John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Gate 5
Modelling the UK in 00, and New England - MEC, B&M, D&H and Guilford - in H0