Advice for complete beginner

[ROBERT PETRICK]

MikeP66

I've been interested in model trains for many years ever since I was a kid.  Now I want to build my first real layout.  I've been thinking about it seriously for several months now and have bought several Atlas layout books and tried designing layouts using computer applications such as SCARM(along with buying lots of other books on the basics of model railroading).  When I try to build the layouts from the books in SCARM, they never actually fit together as they do in the book layout.  This is not intended to be a critism of SCARM, but highlights my basic problem:  I don't really know what I am doing!!  What I would really welcome your opinion on is where should I go to get help and advice?  How does a total novice get into the hobby?  Should I join a local club (I am in the Boston area)?  I am keen to start building, but I know I need to do some planning first!

Thanks

Hey Mike- 

You don't really need to join a local club, but visiting one and hanging out for a while might be useful. Or several. Boston, did you say? Whether the club's just starting out and building a new layout or whether they've been around for years and haven't done a stick of work on their old layout. One thing model railroaders like to do is sit around a talk. For hours on end. Whether there're refreshments available or not. Those conversations might help you understand the dry prose of whatever books or magazines you've been reading, and they might go into details you haven't (and won't) encounter in books. Besides, there's always routine work to be done on a layout or even a complete tear-out-and-rebuild in the offing. Plenty of hands-on experience to be acquired.

Good luck.

Robert

[riogrande5761]

Get out now, or forever it will dominate your destiny and bank account!

Run Forest run!

[BigDaddy]

You've come to the right place.  John Armstrong's book is a must read:

https://www.amazon.com/Track-Planning-Realistic-Operation-Railroader/dp/0890242275

I've heard it said that the Atlas plans put in too much track to be realistic.  That is also a common newbie mistake.  The other mistake is to create a plan with unrealistically sharp turnouts and radii.  I've had the opposite problem with Scarm, what fit together in the plan didn't match using real track and turnouts.

Decide what space you have or want to use, draw up a track plan and post it here.  You will need to follow the directions to post a pic in this forum, there is a sticky in the general forum on how to do it.  Figure on your first plan being just a beginning.  There are professional layout designers here that will (in a good way) show you the error of your ways.

 

[selector]

A good start would be some how-to books that our hosts, Kalmbach, offer for reasonable prices.  Also, hundreds of excellent youtube videos by people who know what they're doing...and a few who don't. 

First, though, it's really smart of you to take a breath and begin to ask basic questions.  From their answers, many with different perspectives, you can begin to build that germ of an idea as to what you would like out of the hobby.  What is it about the hobby, or the materials, or the layouts, or trains in general, that appeals to you?  Can you get them in scale?  Will you have to accept alternates or just abandon the idea?  Steam, diesel, modern, antique, all of it?  

The more specific you can be, the easier to develop the plan that is a good fit for you, but it also means more limited availability of commercially produced items that would be appropriate.  Many find they must build their own...and that only comes with years of skills-building.

Figure out what you want that you can get without too much trouble and have you running trains in a way that pleases you.  That necessarily means specificity, and that only comes from discarding almost all other options open to you.  First, learn what all the options are.  Keep reading, keep asking, save the dollars for now.

[7j43k]

I don't see a club helping much.  Unless, of course, they're just starting out.  Then you would watch and learn.  And help out.  But with a layout already built, I'm not seeing that you'd learn what you want.  Plus they actually want you to stick around and be a productive member.  As opposed to "learning and leaving".

Seems to me there have been layouts (in books) that give you a complete list o' parts.  I'd recommend doing one of those.

Here, for example, are some offerings from Atlas:

 

http://www.atlasrr.com/Code100web/index.htm

For each of them, they refer to a book.  If you find one you like, get the book.  Get the track.  Put it together.

 

 

Ed

[MikeP66]

I've been interested in model trains for many years ever since I was a kid.  Now I want to build my first real layout.  I've been thinking about it seriously for several months now and have bought several Atlas layout books and tried designing layouts using computer applications such as SCARM(along with buying lots of other books on the basics of model railroading).  When I try to build the layouts from the books in SCARM, they never actually fit together as they do in the book layout.  This is not intended to be a critism of SCARM, but highlights my basic problem:  I don't really know what I am doing!!  What I would really welcome your opinion on is where should I go to get help and advice?  How does a total novice get into the hobby?  Should I join a local club (I am in the Boston area)?  I am keen to start building, but I know I need to do some planning first!

Thanks