You folks are good.

[thumsup]

Hi all,
Yes, you guessed it I'm new to this. The railroading I mean

There is so much good information here I just don't know where to start. Hopefully it well come.
Thanks to all for being involved..

Joe

 

[ezdays]

Joe,

Welcome to the Gauge. You are right, there is a bunch of good stuff here, enought for everybody to share. Give us a bit more information if you can, but by all means, share with us what you're doing.

 

[thumsup]

just the facts

Hi EZ

Well, let’s see. I’ll save ya all the history and cut to the present. I decided it was time to get involved with model railroading simply because I always wanted to do it. Now I have the resources and a little room to dedicate to the hobby.

I decided to do N gauge for the obvious reason. My first mistake was to visit a “model train” shop first before finding the “Gauge Forum”.

I bought some track and rolling stock. Made my second mistake, bought some more track and rolling stock. And that’s where I’m at.

Now what to do.

I’m thinking 3’ by 5 or 6’ table, modeled around the late 40’s to the early 60’s. A small oil field and refinery, some other industry, a town and maybe two levels. Right now I’m thinking freight but passenger later. Or not. If this turns out like my experiences with Photography and woodworking I’ll be changing directions as I go.


So not to repeat my earlier mistakes it’s research, research, and more research. But then the question “when will the trains run?”

Thanks for the interest,
Joe

 

[Catt]

Hi Joe ,and welcome both to the Gauge and to N scale railroading.I see you've allready found out we have a lot of info to freely share with you.

Just remember the #1 rule for asking a question.What is that you ask? Well the #1 rule for asking questions is "There is no such thing as a dumb question."

By the way don't be shy about letting us know of any good ideas or ways of doing things that you come up with.(even us oldtimers don't know it all )

 

[thumsup]

Thanks Catt

I hope to be active here and maybe post some photos as things develop.

j

 

[Chessie6459]

Welcome Aboard The-Gauge Joe. You will find alot of information here. Can't wait to see what you have to bring to the model railroading hobby.

 

[Will_annand]

Welcome aboard Joe, glad to have another N Scale railroader here.

Ask away, we all started that way.

 

[eightyeightfan1]

Welcome to the Gauge!
Going to the LHS was a good start. Thats what most of us do when we get started.
Then we figure out what to do with the stuff we bought. If we have no idea...We come to the Gauge.
Well...Most of us........

 

[60103]

Hi Joe! Welcome.
If you have a 3x6 table, you could think about using an HO plan for 4x8 but with 3/4 the dimensions. Or an old toy train plan. There are lots of 4x8 plans out there.
There's a very old book called the HO Railroad that Grows. That shows a progressive railroad development. Your library may have a copy. Not suggesting you build it, but see how it develops.

 

[ddavidv]

The size layout you're considering might be a good candidate for building on a hollow core door. They make a great base, are very light (easy to move) and inexpensive. Do a search on here and you'll probably get a lot of hits.

One thing I'd suggest: pick up a Walthers catalog for N, even an old one from last year (they are expensive, new). This will give you a good idea of what's available and may guide you a bit on what you want to model. Also, check some of the online suppliers and Ebay to see what is out there. No sense is picking an era or roadname to model if there is little or nothing available to support it.

Welcome to the hobby; it's great fun! :thumb:

 

[Evan]

3' x 6' ft

Hi,

Welcome to the Gauge! I also have a 3' x 6' area to model in. There are quite a few trackplans avaliable from Atlas that fit that area nicely. I'm modelling one called Scenic & Relaxed.

The one REALLY strange thing that I found out, is that in South Africa the hollow core doors are not 3' wide. They're 2.7' wide. Very weired. Had to get some ply wood and stick it to the top of the door. But, gave me 6.7' long, so it's a nice trade off.

I'll PM you a copy of the track plan, if you like.

Cheers

 

[thumsup]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the replies and idea’s for starting out in my new hobby. My first (and second) trip to the LHS netted me a bunch of Kato track, a early diesel and some rolling stock.


Journeyman Pooh Bah suggested using HO plans and reducing them down ¾ size. That’s a plan because there are so many HO plans on the net. Increases the possiablies.

Evan said he is modeling one called “Scenic & Relaxed”. A google search returned a photo of someone layout. I can’t believe all the N stuff in a 3’x6’ area. This is one of the problems I’m having, “getting everything into perspective?”


So, on a 3’ x 6’ table I’m going to model the transition period based very loosely on the area in Cal. were I grew up. This well include a small oil field and refinery, another industry (yet to be determined) and a town or so.


So it’s off to do some more research and try to come up with the layout plan.

Thanks again for all the kind words and great direction.


Joe

 

[linuxtx]

There is certainly nothing wrong with the Kato track. It is nice for building an expanding layout, and can be detailed fairly well when you finally get things the way you want them. The only major downside to unitrack is the cost, but I think it is well worth it.
There are a good number of layouts in the wild. While the Scenic and Relaxed, and a majority of the others on the web, seem to be made for Atlas Code 80, they usually translate quite well to unitrack.