Advice... Again...

[Midnight]

Pookums... So, now I'm actually starting to get serious about the train stuff. (Again.)
I've decided that I'm only going to have one or two locomotives and all the rest will be buildings, scenery, etc. The trains just cost quite a bit too much for a twelve year-old. I was at my friend Nick's house just now and he has a MRR. His isn't professional and all quite yet but he's working on it.
So, I'm thinking of starting with a 4x4 piece of plywood and sectioning it off it into four 1x1 sections that I'll work on seperately.
Thoughts?

 

[Russ Bellinis]

What scale are you going to run? If you are modeling in ho, 4x4 won't give you more than a circle of track. I would make a 2x4 or 2x6 shelf for a small switching layout. Galen (OcallieCreek) made a 2 x 4 foot timesaver module, that was fully scenicked. He brought it to the modular railroad club one evening for some of us to play with. He had a Bachmann GE 44 tonner and 5 or 6 40-50 foot freight cars. It was a lot of fun. The modeling on the time saver was good enough to have a picture of it in the Walther's Catalog in the "Wonderful World Of Model Railroading" section a couple of years ago. If you don't have enough room to do the layout of your dreams, the best plan is to do the layout you have room for. With a small switching layout, you can get a small switch engine and 6 Athearn shake the box kits and have a lot of fun for a low price.

 

[myltlpny]

I'd go with the shelf layout. It's small, inexpensive, and easily stored. Also, the locos and cars are generally small.
When I lived in an apartment, I had a 10 foot shelf layout. It was great. Just a simple 1x12. It had a yard, and a "mainline" along the wall. I made cards for all my cars. Each car had it's own number. I would randomly pick 15-20 cars and lay them out on the yard tracks. I would then take the corresponding index cards, and deal out 10. The game became assembling a train in the order the index cards were dealt by shuffling the cars around the yard and assembling the train on the "Mainline".
It's lots of fun, requires a minimum of rolling stock and only one small loco. If you want buildings, line the back of the shelf with some modular wall systems to make it look like the backs of buildings. Boom, you're done. How long can you watch a train go around in a circle before it becomes boring?

 

[MasonJar]

Your other approach could be modular or sectional, or even just some dioramas that you can work on for the enjoyment of modelling, and then incorporate into a bigger layout in the future.

For small layouts with continuous running, look at www.gatewaynmra.org. One of my local clubs also has a 2x6 "TimeSaver" layout that is quite fun to operate, and also provides lots of opportunities for modelling structures, scenery, etc. See http://members.fortunecity.com/gknowles/sld_module/sld_module_index.htm (beware of advertising and pop-ups - it's hosted in free "FortuneCity" space... ).

Andrew

 

[Midnight]

Meh... I'm thinking that I might just do like... little scenes for now and then maybe add them onto a larger layout when I get some money. I'm not really sure right now...

 

[bigsteel]

you might also want to try www.thortrains.net they have some great trackplans for small spaces.but for the little amount of many you say you have ,you should probably go with modular layout design building 2 by 4 sections and peicing them together.--josh

 

[MadHatter]

Hi Midnight

I would suggest you start with N- scale, because then you can definately get a lot cramped into a small space. This will be a great start. Remember: When doing scenery nature isn't tidy so don't try and make that perfect hill or whatever- the only thing that will have to be laid to the best of your ability is the track- especially in N.

 

[MasonJar]

little scenes for now and then maybe add them onto a larger layout

Gauge member TomPM did this and is now working the dioramas into his full layout. DO a search by his name, and you should find everything. Some of the diorama construction threads go back a ways, but the "incorporation" threads are still being added to.

Andrew

 

[spitfire]

Meh... I'm thinking that I might just do like... little scenes for now and then maybe add them onto a larger layout when I get some money. I'm not really sure right now...

That sounds like a good idea -- it's flexibile and allows you to model the buildings and scenes you're interested in now, and add them to a layout later. You'll get good practice doing it, won't spend a ton of money and you'll have some fun in the process.

Val

 

[Midnight]

Yep, I think that's what I'll do. I'm just going to start with easy stuff like rearranging a building or something, painting it, weathering it, etc.