"Hi" from the New Guy

[Centaur]

Thanks to the latest members of the welcoming committee.  Your advice is appreciated.  I'm going to enjoy it here. 

One more question regarding choice of a rail carrier:  In real life is it usually a single raiload company on a rail line, or is it normal for carriers to share a line?

[yougottawanta]

Welcome new guy from a new guy,joined last month. The Fols in here as you have probably already guessed are as Tony the Tiger said "G R E A T ". I have a little different slant on answering your question. If you are single,recommend HO, Married "N" . If single you can pretty much run your track where ever you desire in your apartment. If married the spouse will not tolerate such activity and will probably "allow" you some of her space. "N" scale would be your best option. Good Luck and welcome.

[Blue Flamer]

   New guy.

If you are going to go N scale, you can get some good info on building basic 2 ft. X 4 ft. modules that are standard world wide. Just look up www.ntrak.org. There are many N Scale Clubs out there if you are that way inclined.

If you want a good source of info on designing a layout, look up Space Mouse's web site at the bottom of one of his postings. He has compiled a wealth of info that he has passed on to all of those that wish to use it.

And again,     .

Blue Flamer.

[CAZEPHYR]

Greetings to everyone.  I'm the new guy here today.  A member of this message board asked me a question at Kalmbach's Astronomy.com.  Out of gratitude for my response he offered to answer questions about model railroads.   In reply to my query he advised going to this Kalmbach message board instead. 

I received an American Flyer "S" scale set for Christmas 1947 when I was 2.  Later when I was 16 I created a Lionel "HO" setup based on a series in Boy's Life magazine.  Both sets disappeared long ago.  I now live in an apartment and am seriously considering the creation of a model railroad. 

Would "N" scale be best?  Any advice for someone who's been away from the hobby for 40 years?  Are there new things to consider nowadays before getting started?

 First of all, Welcome to this forum.     I can relate to your past since I received my first train in 1948 and it was an American Flyer Royal Blue Pacific.  My brother still has it today.   I retained some of the other American Flyer models just to have them.

I model in HO and have been in HO since the sixties, but only run at club layouts.  The art of building a home layout is indeed a task that might never end.   N scale is a good scale if you have very little room, but it does not offer the variety of equipment that only HO has done to date.  

You are the only one to decide what scale to model and what you want to spend overall.  Check around and see if you can visit a train show and look for yourself at what is available.

 

Good luck and happy modeling.  It can be great fun to model your favorite railroad and revisit history as it once was.

 

 

 

 

[Centaur]

I'm most appreciative to those who have added their welcomes.  I'm becoming convinced that "N" scale is right for my apartment. 

Next I'll have to choose an era to simulate.  Since I was introduced to model railroading at Christmas 1947 and then was thrilled by the 1948-49 Chicago Railroad Fair, for nostalgic reasons I'll aim for late forties or early fifties.  Am I correct in assuming that would allow me to have both steam locomotives for freight and streamlined diesels for passengers?

I'll also have to choose a region of the country.  The terrain here in northeastern Illinois is rather flat and uninteresting.  I may have to look toward the east or west.  Any suggestions?

After choosing an era and region, I'll have to focus on particular railroad carriers.  What might be some suitable company names circa 1950 for your recommended region?

Great thanks for any ideas.   

[loathar]

You look familiar. Were you a newscaster some where?

You'll have to excuse loathar. No reason, you'll just have to excuse him because you have no choice, turn and walk away...

Anyways, welcome to the forum. My name's tracklayer and I'm an N scaler of the 1940s and 50s south east Texas area.

Tracklayer 

If you look at his web page, there is a photo of him and I thought he looked like a news man from when I lived in Cleveland.

[Centaur]

Cleveland Oh. by any chance?

Before Chicago:  San Jose, CA, Joplin, MO, and Rockford, IL.  Our Chicago financial news program was carried on a small network that included Rockford, Milwaukee and South Bend (hmmm, good name for a railroad.)  Perhaps the signal from the latter reached Cleveland.  Also, during 2000-2003 our show was video-streamed on the internet as WebFN. 

[Tracklayer]

You look familiar. Were you a newscaster some where?

You'll have to excuse loathar. No reason, you'll just have to excuse him because you have no choice, turn and walk away...

Anyways, welcome to the forum. My name's tracklayer and I'm an N scaler of the 1940s and 50s south east Texas area.

Tracklayer 

[loathar]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome, words of advice and suggested reading material.  This seems like a nice friendly gathering place.  I hope to be here often.  In answer to a question, my eyesight and dexterity are quite good, or else I wouldn't still be playing shortstop and clean-up for our first place softball team.  Admitedly, though, I'm now old enough to be helped by reading glasses.  And yes, I was a TV newscaster - mainly in my native Chicago, but earlier in other cities.

Cleveland Oh. by any chance?

[bogp40]

We

lcome Curt,

After doing a bit of research and poking around some websites, let us know a little more about what you would expect for a layout. The size of the space, a rough floor plan of the area etc.

Things to consider as well as the scale are:  What RR you'd like to model, any particular local and time period. Type of operations, a point to point, a point to point with a continuous running capability, If real limited space and more RR wanted, N would be a better choice. If you have a complete spare room at your diposal I would go with HO.

[Centaur]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome, words of advice and suggested reading material.  This seems like a nice friendly gathering place.  I hope to be here often.  In answer to a question, my eyesight and dexterity are quite good, or else I wouldn't still be playing shortstop and clean-up for our first place softball team.  Admitedly, though, I'm now old enough to be helped by reading glasses.  And yes, I was a TV newscaster - mainly in my native Chicago, but earlier in other cities.

[loathar]

You look familiar. Were you a newscaster some where?

[Left Coast Rail]

It is almost a completely different world as far as the hobby you left 40 years ago. Visit here often and you'll be able to tap a pretty good knowledge base. Visit the National Model Railroad Association's Website and The Worlds Greatest Hobby where you can look for a nearby club. You'll be an expert (and broke) in no time. :)

[tstage]

Curt,

to the forum! Good to have you aboard!

Boy!  Picking a scale is really an individual choice and preference and there are tradeoffs to all of them.  Just a few questions for you:

• How is your eye sight?
• How is your dexterity?
• Are you wanting to build structures/rolling stock from kits or do you want everything ready-to-run (RTR)?

The larger scales S, O, and G are nice for older eyes but you need a larger space to operate your trains.  HO and N are probably the most common scale but pieces/parts get tinier and tinier.  Having grown up with American Flyer and dabbled with N-scale for a short time, I found that HO was a nice compromise between the two.  So, 3 years ago this month, I started building my first (and current) layout.

Two other things worth considering are sound and operating system.  Locomotives with sound already installed can be purchased and/or sound decoders can be installed in locomotives from N through G-scales.  Also, DCC (Digital Command Control) is one of the new ways you can run your locomotives independently one from another - even on the same track.

Curt, if you'd like to read up on DCC, click on the following link:

http://www.tonystrains.com

then click on the link in the right center column entitled 2. DCC For Beginners.  It's a nice primer on what DCC is and what it can do.  You can either read it online or download it onto your computer as a .pdf file.

Hope that helps... 

Tom

[jeffrey-wimberly]

to the forum.

Look at the amount of space you have to work with and consider the availability of components. I have a small a small space, so N scale would be best for that. Enter three problems. #1. N scale components are not readily avalible here, therefore they are quite expensive. #2. I have serious nerve damamge which makes it difficult to handle small objects and nearly impossible to install small detail parts. #3. The N track components are very hard for me to handle. So that leaves me with O scall and HO scale. I don't count S scale because there are no S scale components avalable here at all. O scale is much too big, and it's expensive! I'd never be able to build a convincing layout in the space I have. That leaves HO scale. The components are readily avalible, attractively priced, and there's a very good selection. I can work with it well (not easily, but not hard either) and due to space constraints I'm stuck with 18" radius curves. Despite this, I'm building a very good looking layout.

[Bob grech]

Welcome aboard! It's always a great feeling to add a new member to the hobby! 

[WCfan]

Welcome to the forum. We certainly have a lot o answers here, some of which are even useful. Mine to your question, look at the two scales N and HO. Neither will give you a large or complete layout in an apartment.

However you may like one a lot more than the other. Go with a size you like.

I would then decide what part of a layout I wanted first and build a module of that. You can then build aditional modules.

What ever Scale you decide on, make sure you are building a "FUN" part to start with.

Let's talk more on new things as you progress.

[ARTHILL]

Welcome to the forum. We certainly have a lot o answers here, some of which are even useful. Mine to your question, look at the two scales N and HO. Neither will give you a large or complete layout in an apartment.

However you may like one a lot more than the other. Go with a size you like.

I would then decide what part of a layout I wanted first and build a module of that. You can then build aditional modules.

What ever Scale you decide on, make sure you are building a "FUN" part to start with.

Let's talk more on new things as you progress.

[WCfan]

I would go for N scale. That's the best for apartment dwellers.

[Centaur]

Greetings to everyone.  I'm the new guy here today.  A member of this message board asked me a question at Kalmbach's Astronomy.com.  Out of gratitude for my response he offered to answer questions about model railroads.   In reply to my query he advised going to this Kalmbach message board instead. 

I received an American Flyer "S" scale set for Christmas 1947 when I was 2.  Later when I was 16 I created a Lionel "HO" setup based on a series in Boy's Life magazine.  Both sets disappeared long ago.  I now live in an apartment and am seriously considering the creation of a model railroad. 

Would "N" scale be best?  Any advice for someone who's been away from the hobby for 40 years?  Are there new things to consider nowadays before getting started?