When I build my first layout I was in my late 20's, moved a lot, and didn't have much budget. I had planned to build an HO layout, but due to the considerations I just stated I decided to try a small, portable N scale layout just to practice some techniques. It was 4X4 with a loop of track, a passing siding, and 3 industrial spurrs. It modeled a small, midwestern town served my Mopac/UP in their merger era of the early 80's. The railroad served a lumber yard, a grain elevator and feed store, and a furniture wareshouse. It had a hill with a cut made with hydorcal cast rocks, a creek and pond, and lots of trees. It also had a small Main St/downtown area. It was a lot of fun to build. I so fell in love with N scale that 2 years later I sold all of the HO stuff that I had collected and wen all in with N scale. Now, 20 years and 2 layouts later, I have never regretted that decision.
Owner and superintendant of the N scale Texas Colorado & Western Railway, a protolanced representaion of the BNSF from Fort Worth, TX through Wichita Falls TX and into Colorado.
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Check out my MRR How-To YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/RonsTrainsNThings
My very first trains sets(Tyco HO) never made it past the carpet central phase on Christmas morning as I burned up the motors. But my following birthday in March they were replaced with a MPC era Lionel set and a 4x6 table I had to help my mother pickup from a garage sale. So for the next several years Lionel trains and various buildings that as I grew older turned into Dept 56 Christmas buildings dominated my layout. Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
I'll be really honest here. My first N gauge layout was an oval on a 2x3 piece of plywood. It had an underlayment of that green paper sawdust grass. It had nine inch radius 90 degree pre-made curves. And the green tan and white styrofoam tunnel with the grey portals, remember those. Later I brought sand out of the alley and glued it on the outside edges of the track and thought that was ballast. I was only seven years old and was pretty proud of that at the time. For a generous portion of years I started and built two more layouts and then took a 35 year break.
My first layout, actually built mostly by my father when I was 9/10, was two 5x9 platforms in an "L" shape.
HO scale, two complete seperate loops of track, grades, bridges, some of it "double track", some areas not.
Track and turnouts were TruScale, some "Ready Track", some "Self Gauging" that I learned how to lay and spike the rail.
A large plaster mountain actually hid two "staging sidings" across the back and the layout could store three trains in addition to the two running.
The layout was completely sceniced with plaster on screen wire mountains, LifeLike "grass and dirt" glued down, trees, black painted plaster roads, etc. Lots of structures, both plastic and wood kits. And a few "built ups" of that time from Ideal.
The layout also featured lighted buildings, Aristo Trolley Bus system, and as time went on I added sidings and industries.
Equipment consisted of a collection of Athearn and Varney freight cars, plastic and metal. A Varney F3 set, Mantua Mikado and Pacific, PennLine GG1, Athearn heavy weight passenger set, etc.
I still have some of that rolling stock and several of the structures my parents built.
That was around 1967.......
Sheldon
My first HO scale layout was a U-shaped walk in layout, roughly 8 x 14, with a lift out at the open end for continuous running. 22" radius, single track main line with several industrys and a small engine servicing facility. I started it in 1961, but cars and girls kept it from being finished!
I remember as a child coming across a sheet of plywood (maybe 4x6) with S gauge track on it. Never saw the trains. My brothers and I played with HO trains on the floor - not exactly a layout either.
When I was 24, I got into trains as a hobby and built an HO 4x8 layout following a plan in the back of John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation (1st edition). It used Atlas track and turnouts. I ran Tyco trains and built Atlas structure kits - station, lumberyard, signal tower. It lasted about 6 months until my first son was born and I had to give up the spare bedroom.
Paul
joe323I think it depends on your definition of layout. My earliest memories of trains are The Child Guidance Railroad, a precursor to today wooden Thomas trains but in plastic.My first electric train set was an 0-27 set with one siding that I built on a piece of Homosote in high school
My Dad and I built my first layout in 1965. For Christmas, he and my Mom had given me a first generation N Scale Arnold Rapido train set. We promptly went out and bought enough extra track to make an irregular oval, with a passing track and two sidings. The layout was 2-1/2 feet by 4 feet, on 3/8" plywood, with a 1 x2 perimeter. It had no legs, so i could slide it under my bed when i wasn't using it or put on the bed when i was using it.
The 1965 N scale locomotives had two speeds: zero and about 150 mph. Still, i enjoyed that layout for years, added buildings and scenery until i progressed to a more complicated layout in 1972. I still have the original locomotive and cars, although I don't run them anymore.
I have always appreciated that my Dad introduced me to model railroading (also flying model airplanes). He is 88 years old and going strong. He still loves trains, and i'm building him a small layout as a surprise gift and a small thak-you for the many things he as done for me.
My first layout was an expansion from an original train set that was set up under the Christmas tree in about 1957. It wasn't until about 1962 that I went down into our dusty dirty cellar, with a dirt floor and smelling of coal dust and heating oil and found an old door upon which I built my "empire". It was Lionel O-27. My parents got me four switches for Christmas, along with some new pieces of rolling stock, three box cars, as the original set consisted of only a tank car, a hopper, a gondola and a caboose, pulled by a CB&Q GP7 (that thing could pull anything!). It was also my entry into scratch building structures, mostly out of cardstock (cereal boxes or any other packaging made out of it), and popsicle sticks. I was a "closet model railroader", as it wasn't considered cool, (or even sane) to be "playing with trains" at age 12 or 13!
My first layout was a 4'x6' loop layout with industry sidings..All track was Atlas "Snap" track with #4 "Snap" switches and 18" curves.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
My first layout was old before I even set it up. It was a Marx O scale built on several sheets of plywood which were rather precariously balanced on saw horses and cardboard boxes in my garage. I say it was 'old' before I started it because it had originally been given to my two older brothers when new. I was a toddler at the time so I was forbidden to go anywhere near their 'layout'. To make a long story short, they burned the locomotive out before I had a chance to run the layout. My mom, never one to throw anything out, kept the train set. Years later she asked me if I wanted it. Of course I wanted it!!!
I managed to find a replacement locomotive for a really great price so that's when I set up my 'first' layout on the plywood in the garage.
I should mention that the novelty wore off in less than two weeks. 'O' gauge tin plate just didn't appeal to me. I think the locomotive could go around the tight curves even faster than my slot car set! The 'layout' was taken down soon after. However, my wonderful wife did see the spark in my eye and so she bought me Bachmann's HO scale Hogwarts Express for Christmas that year. Several thousand dollars later....I still don't have an HO layout and my back problems may make that a permanent situation.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I was about 5, so 1952-ish, dad put a panel door from a closet on sawhorses, and we had an oval of Lionel 027. A steam loco a few cars and a caboose. Two switches made a passing siding. The raised parts on the door became streets for the few Plasticville buildings we had.
But MY first layout was a few years later, HUGE. Two 4x6 plywood sheets set in an L fashion, straight out of the little Atlas track booklet. HO, with a B&O Athearn GP7 with rubber band drive. Had the little flat black plastic controllers for blocks and reverse loop. Hog heaven. Then in the corner of this table flat land I built a little hill with a cut through it. Green sawdust on top, and brownish colors on the walls of it. Oh so realistic to me then. Some Revell buildings of the era: the engine house, the station depot, the elevated crossing shack. I needed some roads, so I found a container of "lamp black" in dad's shop. Spread some glue and poured on the black stuff. Dear lord what a mess. Black fingerprints everywhere, jet black roadways. Live and learn. Later the folks bought me a weathering kit - four bottles of paint in colors like dirt, soot (like I needed more of that), rust, and I forget. No stopping me now, I can make a mess of anything. But I loved it. We sold the layout when I left for college in 1965.
I think it depends on your definition of layout. My earliest memories of trains are The Child Guidence Railroad, a precursor to today wooden Thomas trains but in plastic.
My first electric trainset was an 0-27 set with one siding that I built on a piece of Homosote in high school
Joe Staten Island West
First layout came with the used, pre-war Lionel 0-6-0 my folks bought from a friend. I was too young to remember its arrival, (late 40's?). It was a 4x7 sheet of plywood, painted brown with green dyed sawdust sprinkled on the paint except in the areas where the track, roads and buildings were to go. Still have the 0-6-0, but the table disapperared sometime while I was in service.
Have fun,
Richard
My first layout was a battery G Scale locomotive that ran in the living room at the age between 3-5. Can't remember the year nor does anyone else.
It was a basically a simple oval track and placed behind the couch for storage. Only two pictures exists 1. Christmas morning showing the box. 2. The track behind couch.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
First layout was an American Flyer under the Christmas Tree.
Later we built an 8' x 8' layout in the garage. The table was un ropes so that it could be pulled up to the ceiling when not in use. The top was homasote, so we could change the layout at will.
After I had my Appendix out, dad talked me into an HO scale layout with plans to build the Trans-Roominental railroad between the teo dormers in our house, and transiting under the eves of the attic. This never happend, but I did get a layout built over the stairway. This to was fungible, and the pla changed from time to time.
After we moved to a new house I had a 4x8 table in my room, but then I sold the trains and bought a printing press.
While in the Navy, I bought some more HO scale trains, but dad limited me to the top of two book cases in the basement.
When I joined the Monastery my first layout here was built upon two ping-pong tables in a basement room designated for hobbies. it was 5' x 18'. The floor of the room was all heaved up, the water table being quite high under the monastery. But then word came from on high that the room was to be renovated and trains were not part of the plan.
I then moved the layout to a classroom above the library, and built the Eregion Railroad. That still had the two ping-pong tables, but each as a blob at eack end of an new structure of 3' x 24' tables.
I got tiered of that layout, and no longer wanted to go under the tables to take care of the wiring. So I took that down and built my present layout. It started life as perhaps the LIRR with push pull sets right in to NYP, but then the first of the plastic HO scale subway cars came out, and it morphed into a 100% subway layout.
The main line was over ten miles long, but it was boring to run one train back and forth. So I automated the layout and now run ten trains at a time. All I have to do is sit back and watch, AND man the tower at the 242nd Street Station.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
AMFLY_zpspdlrliir by Donald Schmitt, on Flickr
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
I built my very first layout at the age of 11, without any help from an adult. It was a simple layout, using Marklin´s infamous tinplate track on rubber mounts to keep the noise level down. The track plan was nothing but an oval and a station with a passing siding and two spurs leading to local industries and one spur leading up a mountain. Scenery was the typical hardshell construction of the 1960´s and the ground cover was made from colored sawdust.
Although - at least from today´s perspective - it was not a well planned and well built layut, it worked and i was very proud´having built it without any help.
It lasted only for a couple of years before I dismantled it and sold all my Marklin stuff - much to my regret today.
My very first layout was an oval of Lionel 027 track with a passing siding at one end (2 turnouts plus 180 degrees of curved sections) on the living room rug. When not in use it hung on a hook on the back of my bedroom door.
Since it was assembled when I was five months old I didn't have much input to its design. Later (about a year later) I got pretty good at running it. Re-railing rolling stock taught me hand-eye coordination at an early age...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
For Christmas around 1960 I received an American Flyer over-and-under figure 8 trainset. It had a steam loco although I can't remember the wheel arrangement. It had a box car, tank car, gondola, and caboose. I ran the heck out of it although I never mounted it on plywood. A few years later my brother and I went halvsies on a used 4x8 HO layout. The track plan was a triple oval with the two inner ovals joining together for a shorth stretch on one side of the layout. There was a mountain on one end that all the ovals went through. It was constructed of screen with some type of ground material over the top. Not sure what it was but over time it began to crumble away. The inner oval had a spur track to what was supposed to be a mine which was nothing more than a short tunnel built into the mountainside. It was the only track that had a grade on it. There was also a spur to an enginehouse which housed a dummy F-unit. There were three operating locos, a UP switcher, some sort of steam switcher, and the Athearn rubber band drive switcher. There were a couple of houses on the layout, a railroad tower, and on the mountain side there was a mill with a stream that ran down the mountain, between the inner and outer ovals to a small pond at the other end of the layout. Since the layout was on a flat sheet of plywood, a viaduct had been built to carry the stream to the pond. A small electric motor had been installed in the mill house to turn the water wheel. When turned on, it spun around like a fan. I remember one thing I learned form that layout. I learned how to curse.
Great to read about all the layouts,I appreciate it.
I suppose this is a picture my 'first' layout. It was my Dads. What I remember most about it was the control panel that had dozens of switches and the layout took up the entire basement. When I was 9 or 10, my Dad, with my help , built a 10'x5' modified figure eight layout. This is where I learned to spike track and solder wires. I also learned how messy plaster over window screen was. We had that layout until I got drafted and my Mother sold it. I had a lot of hours of fun on that layout.
My first layout was slot cars and trains on a piece of plywood on top of a pair of saw horses in the garage. It grew onto a kiddies’ pool table and other pieces of old furniture and had a section of open grid and more plywood. It had very steep grade but the trains were very short so it wasn’t a problem. It had a locomotive shortage. It had mostly Tyco cars. It had scenery made from this stuff you mixed with water and spread over wire screen. It already was the color of dirt so no painting was required. It had sections of paper grass sheets. It only had a handful of trees so most of the forest was clear cut or had burned and had tree trunks made from used wooden match sticks. Hey, I was an kid with no budget at all. The snow is the same canned stuff you spray on your Christmas tree.
I guess it depends on the meaning of 'your'. My first layout was my dad's. It was a Lionel 027 3-rail round the Christmas tree. Setting it up was a holiday tradition. (Another holiday tradition was a Dickens Village on the dining room sideboard, but that's another issue.)
My second layout was also my dad's. A little bitty half-size HO thing. On 4x8 plywood, on saw horses, in the garage. When I was five or six. A B&O steamer and a dozen or so freight cars. My brother and I called it the Beans and Onion railroad.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
ATSFGuy I simply had one of those "Life Like Sets'" with that power loc track. AMEN I LOVE LIFE LIKE
I simply had one of those "Life Like Sets'" with that power loc track.
AMEN I LOVE LIFE LIKE
My very first layout was 62 years ago and the only thing I can remember about was the fact is was American Flyer S gauge.My second layout is a little easier to remember because my step dad and myself taught our selves to scratch build the buildings on it.They were not very fancy but they sure were fun to build.We went through a lot of Cherrios and Kelloggs Cornflake boxes.
A 4x8 sheet of plywood that my father and grandfather painted bright green with white roads. Some buildings and a loop of 3 rail track. A steam engine and some freight cars.
They took it down and packed it up for more room when my younger brother was born.
My first layout was a Snap track 4'x6' plan from the Blue Atlas plan booklet back in the late 50s / early 60s. It went around to a crossing and internal loop then back to the outside. I recall it had a siding and a short passing track perhaps.
The rolling stock started with a B&O F unit, perhaps a Tyco, or an Athearn rubber band drive. A Varney switcher got added, someone's 0-6-0 and a 4-4-2. I wish someone would make a 4-4-2 today. Cars were Athearn kits.
The layout was build with hand tools...a hand drill for the screws, a miter saw box, etc. I recall getting blisters on my hands screwing in the screws.
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
My first layout, was built by my dad. It was a 4 x 6 over and under. I was 8. My dad made the layout in his work shed and put it right next to the Christmas tree Christmas morning. Spent all of Christmas vacation running trains. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures. It was 32 years ago!
Joe
Modeling:
Providence & Worcester Railroad
"East Providence Secondary"
HO scale