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Now this is a thread I like! Three years ago, I lost my job and, as a consequence, our beautiful house, which has been home to my family for 15 years. Being 56 in Germany means finding a new job is just about impossible. We had to move into a small apartment in the dingy part of town and our monthly check pays only for a very basic live. There is no room for a hobby, in terms of space and funds. I had to come up with a rather unusual approach to the hobby, if I were  not to be condemned to armchairing for the rest of my days. A long and tedious web search unearthed a web page of a Japanese fellow model railroader, who builds a mini-modular layout in N scale, consisting of simple and inexpensive modules. Each one measures only 6" by 12", that´s not much of a real estate, but enough to come up with something rewarding. The modules don´t require an elaborate and expensive benchwork, the consist of three pieces of plywood, nailed and glued together. OK, you can´t really build sweeping curves and big yards. The track plan will always stay fairly simple, but heck, that´s better than nothing. I also follow Japanese prototype - for a good reason. Locos, trams rolling stock, structures and building materials are a lot cheaper than anything I could get out of the US or Germany. Structures are in a price range of $ 8 - $ 10, instead of $ 25 to $ 40, which I see here in Germany. Scratch building Japanese structures isn´t much of an effort, as they are mostly simple box-like contraptions (unless you go for a shrine!). Just a few pics: <img src="http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv185/SirMadig/P1020399klein.jpg" style="max-width: 550px;" border="0" /> <img src="http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv185/SirMadig/P1020360klein.jpg" style="max-width: 550px;" border="0" /> <img src="http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv185/SirMadig/P1020251c.jpg" style="max-width: 550px;" border="0" /> <img src="http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv185/SirMadig/P1020226klein-1.jpg" style="max-width: 550px;" border="0" /> <img src="http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv185/SirMadig/P1050049.jpg" style="max-width: 550px;" border="0" /> I am right now finalizing my plans for some more modules, closely following the Enoden line prototype, connecting Fujisawa with Kamakura, not far away from Tokyo. <img src="http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv185/SirMadig/Enoshima.jpg" style="max-width: 550px;" border="0" /> I admit, it´s an exotic approach to the hobby, but for me it is lots of fun: Read more about this here: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/minimodules.html">My layout</a>
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