Model Railroad Layouts.

[jdavid93225]

Originally Posted by Cecilia_Rose

Dont do trains but if I did Id want one of the outside setups. I saw one once. He had a whole landscaped country side. With hills and tunnels and bridges and rivers and towns. It was too kewl.

These layouts are pretty neat. They're also pretty popular. There is a magazine dedicated to garden railroads called, you guessed it, "Garden Railroad." I've read about several of these layouts, and have been very impressed with them.

You can do nearly all the same things indoors with the smaller scales that you can do with a garden railroad. Depending on the space that you have available, you can also build hills, tunnels, bridges, rivers, and towns. It's even possible, though somewhat more difficult, to have running water on the layout, instead of simulating water by using resin. There are several magazines dedicated to this hobby, the most popular being "Model Railroader." It's interesting to read if you have any interest in the hobby.

[Crew Chief]

I've always enjoyed looking at model railroad layouts. Especially HO scale. I collect (among many scales) HO scale trucks, busses and fire apparatus. My wife'd have a FIT if I decided to put up a model railroad, too!

About 10 years ago a model RR club in the Dallas, TX area had one awesome layout in a mall on the North side of town. Don't know if it's still in existence and forgot the name of the mall. But it's worth seeing if you're anywhere near Dallas or passing through.

[Claire_F]

The latest issue of Model Railroad magazine features a layout by Rod Stewart, who's evidently quite an enthusiast. It's evidently quite impressive - we need to get a copy of the issue.

When we started the process of building our house, our builder looked at the floor plan we had designed. It was based on an existing floor plan we found on the internet, and had originally featured a tray ceiling in the living room, with a stairway down to the basement just off the living room. (We have an open floor plan, with our living, dining and kitchen occupying one uninterrupted space.)

He suggested that if we had a flat ceiling in the living room, he could put a bonus room above it, and just add another stairway going up alongside the stairs to the basement. He would just put down some OSB, and my husband could finish it later.

Total cost for the extra 400 sq. ft. of space was about $500.

My husband is finishing it himself, and it will be his train room. He works with N scale, and is planning to recreate an area of Wise County, VA. His parents' families worked in the coal mines in that area, and he's always been fascinated with the railroad operations in the area. Last Christmas I gave him this book, which not only has amazing photographs of that area, but even includes layouts of the rail yards. He was thrilled.

My brother-in-law is an artist, and has agreed to paint a mural on one wall of the room. My mother has a neighbor who works for the railroad, and he has given us some RR crossing signs and lights. The signs will be outside, but he hasn't decided where to put the lights yet.

I can't wait to see the railroad start to come together!

[Rickers]

I want to build a layout (dream on !) in N scale that is a mountain between two canyons. One canyon has a logging operation and a mining operation in the other canyon. Trains will bring logs to a sawmill and other ones will take cut timbers to the gold mines. Trains will also deliver ore from the mines to a smelter ! I would expect to run a few Shay engines with the vertical cylinders.

[jdavid93225]

Originally Posted by rickers

I want to build a layout (dream on !) in N scale that is a mountain between two canyons. One canyon has a logging operation and a mining operation in the other canyon. Trains will bring logs to a sawmill and other ones will take cut timbers to the gold mines. Trains will also deliver ore from the mines to a smelter ! I would expect to run a few Shay engines with the vertical cylinders.

I'm a fan of geared locomotives, and think that would be neat. I really like a few custom models that I've seen of vertical boiler Climaxes. They are pretty neat. I love Shays, too, and have a three truck model in HO scale.

I like your idea for a layout. Logging and mining are things I'd like to model that can be done in a limited amount of space. I haven't decided to do this currently, because most of my collection are larger late model steam locomotives (like 4-8-4s, Big Boys, and Challengers) and transition era diesels (EMD F3s and E6s, and Alco PAs).

[Crew Chief]

If I'm not mistaken, singer Neil Young and former talk show host Sally Jesse Raphael are also model train enthusiasts.

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by rickers

I had one as a kid, a 4'x8' HO layout layout in my bedroom and my step dad had good start on one too before he died from smoking. But my neighbor had a really nice full garage layout in N scale. San Diego has a huge model railroad club that has an exhibit at Balboa park. I think the S.D. club merged with the La Mesa club some years back if my memory serves me. Anyway the display is great and the public can wander through and watch the trains running. It makes me want to build a train layout at my house where the train can carry margaritas from the bar inside to the patio through a tunnel in the wall in the summertime !

The TS&T RR: Triple Sec and Tequila Railroad

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k315/Tek_Freek/TSTRR.jpg (broken link)