Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
This is a very interesting topic. Model railroads are odd in that they contain a lot of little details, fragile things, etc.  They're unlike most things in our houses / garages.  Most other things can be vacuumed, washed, etc., and don't have tons of moving parts. I almost think that model railroads are on a continuous decline from day one.  You build it, then things start to deteriorate. One of the worst offenders seems to be scenery.  It gets dusty/dirty, and how could you really control that?  You could try to slow the process, but you're only slowing it down. I grew up as a kid seeing a huge 2-rail O-gauge layout at the LA county fair.  It was huge.  The equipment running on it was beautiful.  But there was no denying it was on a constant decline over the years.  The scenery, etc. was aging, and that's just a fact.  They layout was there for like 50 years or something before being removed (still makes me sad). I've been getting back into the hobby by learning to handlay track and turnouts.  I have a couple scratchbuilt turnouts in the garage, and I kid you not, when they are a couple days old, they're dusty already. Here is an interesting concept: Garden Railroading.  With garden railroading, the scenery is alive.  You have to continually work on it, but it doesn't get "old". My plan is to have a couple modules for an HO layout, with a return loop or something.  The idea would be the modules would be covered in sort of a shadow-box to keep the dust minimized, could be taken outside for photography, etc. I personally have abandoned the concept of a layout being a way to model a "railroad".  For me, model railroading is all about the "stage" concept - mentioned in MR years ago, where the layout is merely a "snapshot" of a railroad line.  Basically, a small scene where the trains come in on one side, and exit the other side.  I may do two modules with two scenes, each being 8ft long or so. There are just so many facets of this hobby, I will have to keep my layout small if I want to experience all of the aspects of it that interest me (handlaying track, airbrushing, building buildings.... the list goes on and on).  I've been back into the hobby for a couple years now, and only have a couple scratchbuilt turnouts to show for it.  Right now, two 2ft x 8ft modules seems like a huge undertaking! People are mentioning their turnouts are aging.  I'm pretty confident handlaid turnouts will be way more durable over time, as there's no thin strips of metal, etc.  It's all real, beefy rail. I also am determined to use natural scenery materials as much as possible.  Seeing the O-gauge layout as a kid made it clear to me that scenery may need "sprucing up" occasionally, and the idea of buying scenery stuff to constantly redo it just irks me. You know, I wonder if these types of issues are partially why David Barrow went from making scenicked model railroads to a non-scenicked / operations only style layout.  The guy is obviously all about operation.  Maybe operation plus scenery and all the other aspects of MRR'ing was just getting to be too much work. I might add, I have only seen one truely nice looking huge layout in person (obviously, I haven't seen Joe Fugate's layout in person, which certainly looks awesome in MR magazine, and online).  The beautiful huge layout I've seen in person is the one at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum.  If I remember correctly, they raised $250k or so to build it, or to add on, or something.  That's serious cash.  My point is it appears to take some serious infrastructure for MRR'ing on such a large scale. Alright, enough model railroad philosophising from me...  : )
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag

Update Reply

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Model Railroader Newsletter See all

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!

Subscriber & Member Login

Edit post

Post Body

Tags (Optional)

Subscriber & Member Login

Users Online

Search the Community