My first, the Rock Ridge and Train City I, was a 4.5 x 8 --started as a 4 x 8 designed on Atlas Track Planer, then built with EZ track--oops didn't fit.
I think it lasted 2 years, before I tired of the EZ track and ripped it out.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
I had Lionels by the time I was 5. That layout, a couple of 4x8s in an L, lasted 7 years until I sold it to convert to HO. I think that layout lasted 8 years. My parents wanted it packed up once I went to college, so I salvaged every building and every piece of track and put it in boxes. 40 years later, I opened the boxes and built my "grown-up" layout. That one is in storage now, awaiting its new home.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Twelve months. Then wife wanted to finish the basement, so it all had to come down.
First layout was a 4'x8' built by my mother. Single loop with a passing siding, Life-Like steel track, still the longest-lived of my five layouts so far (lasted about 4 years, age 7-11) and the most comprehensively 'finished' with trees, a lake, a 12" mountain with a tunnel, a little town... even with downsizing over the years, I still have some of the metal Tyco cars from those days, refurbished and repainted to serve my current purposes.
2nd layout was another 4'x8', this time with double-main encircling a small town (age 12-13), the first one I built on my own. I was obsessed with winter and practically destroyed the whole shebang overusing Woodland Scenics snow on the lot.
My last two layouts were built in the past five years-- No. 3 was a 6'x9' donut, No. 4 a 13' shelf layout. Neither progressed beyond wiring and a few swipes at scenicking, but taught me a lot about my tastes in operation, detail, and size. (No. 5 is in-progress, an 8' portable shelf with handlaid track.)
I think the process of building a layout tells you a lot about what you want for the next one. Maybe that's why mine have gotten progressively smaller over time.
Phil
My layout will most definitely not be a throw away... even when I have a bigger layout the first will still be used as a display layout for shows and stuff...
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
First layout was my Dad's O-27 layout 16x8 with center operating pit and 4x6 ell addition. My Dad was either the consumate scratch builder or cheaper than the Lion. He made his own three rail track from used oil cans. He had some amazing jigs to facilitate the fabrication. The layout survived a move with nary a scratch. We tore that layout down when I got to Junior High School.
Second layout (really the first I built by myself) was a traditional HO 4x8 with Varney and Marx locomotives. I thought I was in hog heaven when I got "upgraded" to Athearn BB. Scenery never amounted to much, but I think I had just about every building kit that Revell ever made. That layout lasted through High School. It "disappeared" when I left for college. I sure would have liked to save the Revell buildings.
Ray
My first layout, 1956-or-so, was a 4'x8' built for me by my father...brass track on fibre ties, Atlas switches, built from kits (and one scratchbuilt), full remote mechanical control of all turnouts, including rotating switchstands, Kadee couplers on everything, and remote mechanical uncoupling, too.I have photos of it, but can't find them. Features included a scratchbuilt wooden trestle, with a coal dealer's siding running off it, and a scratchbuilt, from milled basswood shapes (angles, I-beams, and H-columns) through truss bridge.That layout was in use for about 8 years, and was sold, mostly intact, after a lifespan of about 10 years.
While I still have and use some of the original rolling stock and locomotives, I also have a scratchbuilt water tower (built by my father from an MR article by, perhaps, Jack Work) that will eventually find a home in Park Head, on the upper level of my current layout...
The second layout was a while coming, until we were able to finally buy our own house. Most of my time was spent re-doing it, but I finally got around to a second layout which filled a smallish room in the basement with a very ambitious trackplan. It lasted only 4 or 5 years, and I was going to take it down when we sold the house, but the buyers asked if it could be left, so it was. Code 100 ns Model Power track and only one very small sceniced area....
My one regret was that I had to leave a scratchbuilt #12 curved turnout, my first attempt at such stuff - worked like a dream, with a Fulgurex motor-driven switch machine.
I honestly don't recall when my current layout was built. I built our current house in 1988, and we moved in in the Fall, but I was still doing finishing work (trim, kitchen cupboards, etc.) for some time, and, of course, working full-time, too.
I'd guess it would have been early or mid-'90s. I made pretty good progress, but doing work for others did take away from my own stuff, and after retirement, it seemed that I had less and less time for the layout. I'm still doing work for others, but when the current stuff is wrapped up, I hope to put a major push on getting the whole layout looking at least presentable.
Wayne
On another thread I stated that your first layout is always a throw-away. As could have been predicted, a lot of people don't agree with that statement.
.
So... I would really like to hear from as many people who are willing to share: What was the lifespan of your first serious model railroad.
I built a 3 by 7 N scale layout on a door that very closely followed the track plan of the first GORRE & DAPHETID layout. It did not have a turntable, but I made allowances to update it with one later.
There were tracks that left the layout for future expansion. It was powered by a Troller Autopulse 5 Amp Dual Pack. All trackwork was Atlas code 80 snap track. The trackwork, wiring, and controls were all bulletproof. My dad helped with this part and it was way overbuilt. That would have lasted a lifetime. I really thought this layout would be incorporated into all future STRATTON & GILLETTE layouts.
Scenery was questionable at best. I wanted too much in a small space, and it was really a mess. Mountains, farms, a neighborhood, engine service, industries, just way too much.
My dad held onto the layout until I graduated from college. Then I moved out, and I had no interest in it. It stayed in the back of my closet for a year leaning on the wall. By this time I was planning my "dream house", and the layout that would be in it. The little door layout no longer interested me at all.
When I moved out of my first apartment, the layout landed in the dumpster. It had not been run in more than two years.
Please share the life storiers of your first layout.
-Kevin
Living the dream.