My First Layout

[GP-9_Man11786]

I thought it would be fun to share pictures of our childhood layouts. Here's a picture of my very first layout, circa 1992:

I was 8 years old at the time. The layout was 4' x 6' and basically consisted of a loop and passing siding set atop some grass mat. My scenery ( and I use the term loosely) consisted of a styrofoam "mountain" and some four-wall shacks made out of Legos.

In 1993, my dad and I built this layout on the same table top:

[simon1966]

Fantastic!  There you were at 8 years of age scratch-building with Lego!

[Texas Zepher]

GP-9_Man11786

I thought it would be fun to share pictures of our childhood layouts.

Yup that would be fun, but when I was a child film was expensive and no one thought to take pictures of the toy "train board" as we called it. 

[TMarsh]

Same here Texas Zepher. I thought about taking a picture of my layout, such as it was, no more than I did of taking a picture of my Orange Juice. Besides, Mom and Dad only had so many of those square flash cubes laying around and you just didn't "waste them".

[NittanyLion]

I remember having a 50' Doritos boxcar that I loved so much.  It was always the last car in the train going around that 4x4 circle, because it had broken coupler.

[TMarsh]

OK, no pictures, but since Nittany gave a visual, I will too. Got an AHM trainset for Christmas about '71 or '72. (9 or ten so I was a late starter compred to some of you folks)I still have that set and yes the Pennsylvania SW2 loco still runs. I had no place to set it up, but we had a tile floor in the basement and I would set up my snap and flex track down there and run it around for hours. I used blocks and things to make hills too and you know the funny thing, that track, not fastened down on a tile floor with too steep approach angle I'm sure, an up grade that might as well be a cliff face and a down grade as steep, UNsupported for a span, only connected electrically with the joiners and brass track constantly handled, the train ran pretty darn reliably. Now with everything done right....... I might just put some tile on the layout and not fasten the track down. 

[Texas Zepher]

TMarsh

OK, no pictures, but since Nittany gave a visual, I will too.

Good idea.  I had a 4x6 board that was hinged to the wall over my bed.   The track plan was an oval with a single switch that ran a spur to the outside of the oval and up the short edge of the board.  The turnout was a #8 Atlas with fiber ties and a hot frog.    I remember it having a jeweled high lantern switch stand on it.

 There were two locomotives I only recently found out were Marx.   I only had two cars  that ran well, so the "train" was always those two cars and a caboose.   Sometimes I would get to run my father's locomotive an 0-4-0 Docside tank that had been super detailed (probably a Varney).

[GP-9_Man11786]

I was actually pretty lucky to discover model trains when I did. Back in the early 1990s, toy stores still carried them and they were pretty reasonable. I remember saving my allowanceand going to the local KB Toys and buying a Bachmann HO freight car for $3! Those were the days!

[TMarsh]

(Ahem) One word.......Woolco. OK, I just showed my age.

[Flashwave]

TMarsh

(Ahem) One word.......Woolco. OK, I just showed my age.

Alright, I'll show mine then.

 

 

 

Huh?

 

[Sailormatlac]

Woolco!!! Fond memories about this store in my area... It was a familial tradition to go shopping there every thursday evening! And the CN Murray Bay sub was running along the parking lot!

I was 5 years old when I asked my father to build my first layout. It was a 36" diameter circle on a 4'x4' plywood plank. "Scenery" consisted in a Bachmann freight shed and tank car, the rest was hand drawn on the board with color pencils. Collectible vintage 1:48 cars completed the set with a pair of Life-Like lichen trees... No picture indeed. Back in 1987, my parents were Polaroid enthousiasts and such films were quite pricy (they were often talking about the recession then). The train set was the infamous Bachmann EMD F9 Diesel with a boxcar, a hopper and a caboose all in CP Rail scheme... bought at KMart!!!

Matt

[Anonymous]

My first layout?

Well, I received my first "train set" at Christmas 1963, aged 7. No place for a permanent layout, then. I usually assembled the track on my bed, with a green colored woolen(!) blanket acting as scenery. Boxes were tucked underneath the blanket to simulate hills. Of course, I had to disassemble it each night.

A few years later we moved into a house my parents had bought. It had a basement and I was able to negotiate some space for a layout. It was a 1 m by 2 m affair, with a track plan very similar to John Allen´s famous original Gorre & Daphetid RR. Track was Marklin tin plate and the scenery composed of hard shell and colored saw dust. It was small, it was not necessarily good looking, but it was mine and I had built it myself! It did not last very long, as a our basement was flooded following a heavy thunderstorm. I salvaged as much as I could, packed it up and sold it a few years later, just before I took off to the US as that year´s exchange student.

In fact, the layout was quite ugly, but I still have fond memories of it, but, alas, no pictures!