Is this your first year in school?
Might I suggest that this is an important period of your life? There will be a lot of demands on your time, both academically and socially. College offers a wide range of opportunities and activities that you've never had before, nor will you likely have again. A few years after college, many of us wish that we had taken more advantage of what the school had to offer, rather than wasting as much time drinking beer and playing cards, which we certainly did. (Of course, one could also argue that these sessions developed friendships that have lasted a lifetime, which they also certainly did.)
Planning and building a model railroad is a time-consuming activity, even for a small one. Right now, not only are you short on space, but you're also short on time. Unless you're in a club, this would be a solitary activity, and college is also a time for developing social contacts, not staying alone in your room even when you're not studying.
The trains will still be there in the summer, and after graduation. Right now, you have a golden opportunity, so make the most of that.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Does your school (MSU) have a model railroad club?? If so, join it...if not, start one !! Odds are you're not the only model railroader at your school. Even if you don't have room at first for a layout, you can get together to talk trains and go visit local rail hotspots etc. to get ideas.
I'm an alumni member of my school's RR club, wish we had thought to start one when I was there as a student.
The Railroad Club at the University of Minnesota
By doing a little creative carpentry and limiting yourself to short locomotives and small cars you could build a fold-in-half layout with built-in rolling stock storage that would be about the size of a suitcase. N scale would be more flexible than HO for this purpose.
I have seen a complete Z-scale layout in a report-size briefcase. Our Japanese fellow modelers are quite skillful at this sort of thing.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a space a lot bigger than a suitcase)
Slowly building a layout since 2007!
Hello,
I have been in school now for the last month (roughly) and i am starting to feel like i need my fix so to say. Anyone have any advice on a scale, and or design that they have seen? Ideally i would like to put this in my closet so chances are space is VERY limited.
Any advice or help would be great!
MSU College rail fan