No Question, just hello

[RoyalOaker]

I recently stumbled on this forum and I just want to say, Thanks!

You folks are great. The wealth of info provided and the friendly atmosphere has made this my new favorate stop.

I hope to spend more time here, but I probably wont be asking any questions until I catch up on the many posts out there.

A little about me, In the past year I have dug out my old HO collection from when I was a boy and have starting making the toy a model. I am working on a basic oval on an old ping pong table covered with two inch blue board. Everything is going slow, but it's been fun. My five year old girl and three year old son love helping out, but I have to make sure they have a nice supply of my very old and beat up freight cars where they can reach so they don't grab my new models.

The layout is a fictional town that will include a small city and industrial section(Much like the city of Roal Oak, MI where I live), but it will also have a mountain tunnel and a river, sometime.

It's nice to meet everyone here, Have a great day.

[simon1966]

Welcome!

Good for you, getting the kids involved. My kids started to "help" assembling basic Athearn Blue Box models at about the age of your kids. They love to ink wash and weather the rolling stock that they have mede. This makes the hobby really personal for the kids and keeps them interested as they can run their own trains.

[canazar]

Royal,

You and I sound almost of the same. About a year and half ago, I started just as you described. Trying to bond with my new stepson (he was 3 ) then. We started off slow with a peice of 4x8 2" thick foam board and used all of my old trains from when i was kid.. Well, now it has growninto a full blown obession for the both of us. We now have a layout that is close to 200 feet worth of track and a fleet of 4 DCC powered engines and 30 "newer rolling stock". (check out the website link) It has been great. We have now become rail fans too! The kid and I have become very close, I cansay it has been the best thing.

Best of luck to you and welcome to the forum and hobby. See ya aroudn the posts.

Best Regards
John Kanicsar

[AntonioFP45]

[#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][swg]

[swg][swg][swg][swg][swg][swg]

[twhite]

[#ditto]Welcome to the forum--it's a great hobby and a very creative, relaxing one. Glad you're involving the kids, too, because Model Railroading can be a great family adventure. I know from my son, my nephew and my grand-nephew. When they visit, the garage is the center of attention, not the TV!
Have fun and keep us informed of the layout, okay?
Tom

[Anonymous]

WELCOME! RoyalOaker.

I'm in Grand Rapids along with BigBoy.
I too started with a ping pong table, two 4 1/2 footers X 5 ft. wide This wider table will allow you to install 22" to 24" wide radius.

I went out a bot a 4X8, cut 2 feet off it, installed it in between the two 4 1/2 footers. The extra 1 foot overhang accommodates my controls.

If you have an opportunity, take a sneak preview of the HO Walthers catalog.
It has over 1,000 pages of accessories.

Happy railroading.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forum!

Hope you enjoy your stay!!

[BRVRR]

RoyalOaker,
Welcome! [#welcome]
I too got back into the hobby by digging out my old HO stuff and setting it up on a 4 x 4 table in the laundry room for my grandson. Yeah, Right!![:I][:I]
Now my long suffering wife has allowed me to expand in to one of the 'spare' bedrooms.[^]
The 4 x 10' BRVRR is as big as I can squeeze into the space. Maybe a foot or three wider in the future.[;)]
The point is the grandson enjoys the hobby immensly. He his a steam engine lover as are many of us. I built him his own small DC layout for his play room at home. We, too, do some railfanning in the summer months.[:D]
This is a great forum! The people here are always willing to help.[:D][:D]
Enjoy the hobby.[:D]
[:D]

[Anonymous]

Welcome to trains.com Hope you enjoy your time with us.

[RoyalOaker]

QUOTE: Originally posted by canazar

Royal,

You and I sound almost of the same. About a year and half ago, I started just as you described. Trying to bond with my new stepson (he was 3 ) then. We started off slow with a peice of 4x8 2" thick foam board and used all of my old trains from when i was kid.. Well, now it has growninto a full blown obession for the both of us. We now have a layout that is close to 200 feet worth of track and a fleet of 4 DCC powered engines and 30 "newer rolling stock". (check out the website link) It has been great. We have now become rail fans too! The kid and I have become very close, I cansay it has been the best thing.

Best of luck to you and welcome to the forum and hobby. See ya aroudn the posts.

Best Regards
John Kanicsar

Thanks!
We live a few blocks away from the GT Holly branch of the CN RR. My kids love to walk out to the tracks with me. When we are lucky we sometimes catch a switcher moving freight around or we catch a look at the Amtrack or the many other trains that use that stretch.

Your layout looks great. I am a long way from where you are at and will never get that kind of space in our house.

[RoyalOaker]

QUOTE: Originally posted by locomotive3

WELCOME! RoyalOaker.

I'm in Grand Rapids along with BigBoy.
I too started with a ping pong table, two 4 1/2 footers X 5 ft. wide This wider table will allow you to install 22" to 24" wide radius.

I went out a bot a 4X8, cut 2 feet off it, installed it in between the two 4 1/2 footers. The extra 1 foot overhang accommodates my controls.

If you have an opportunity, take a sneak preview of the HO Walthers catalog.
It has over 1,000 pages of accessories.

Happy railroading.

My brother lives in Lowell, not to far from you. It sure is nice on that side of the state.

I did just as you did, I bought two 4x8's and cut them so that my table is really, 9' long and 5' wide about half way and 6.5' the other half. The blue board really helped fix a lot of problems as the Ping pong table was left outside for several years and had a serious warp to it that made running trains a little tricky.[:)]

[Anonymous]

Royal Oaker,

Hello neighbor! If you live by the GT Holly Sub, you most certainly live in MI, correct? Locomotive3 and I are in Grand Rapids, quite close to Lowell as you said.

Well, welcome aboard! I hope you'll find this forum as helpful as I do.

[Anonymous]

Hey all,
Just joined last week myself. About 2 years ago I was supt on the new Wine Train relocation project in Napa Vally for flood control. The Yard Master used to take me through town to deliver boxcars. We had our jobsite completion party on the train. We were able to rent the whole train! Ever since then I've been addicted. My new double wide office trailer has a double overhead track that runs through all of the offices. We have a fleet of about twenty DCC locomotives. We get alot of visters in the office just to watch the trains run. Anyway great forum.