Model Railroad Concept

Choosing a model railroad concept or theme may be very easy if you?ve been in love with a certain stretch of railroad that you grew up with in your home town; or it may be difficult if you just have a general idea that you want to build a railroad but don?t have any idea about the specifics. The latter of those scenarios is the way it was with me.

My first layout didn?t really have a plan or a purpose, except that I knew I liked mountainous terrain, lots of trees and rocks, tunnels and bridges, over- and under-passes, with multiple trains weaving in and out of scenic areas. So I guess that was a start.

As time went on, and as I learned more about the hobby and about railroad history, coupled with the fact that I live on the east coast and have visited the western part of Virginia, West Virginia, and the Blue Ridge Mountains many times, I began to form the theme for my current railroad.

I always enjoyed my trips to Pocahontas County in West Virginia and the Cass Railroad, an old lumber-hauling railway in that area which has now been converted to a tourist attraction. The scenery is spectacular, especially in the Fall, literally exploding with color. There are many creeks, mountains, valleys, rock formations, etc, all of which I liked and decided I wanted to model.

I picked up a book on the Pocahontas Roads, which was a history of the railroads in that area and found that Pocahontas County and the New River area were heavily populated by tracks and trains from multiple railroad empires, including C&O, B&O, N&W, Clinchfield and Western Maryland. This seemed like an ideal area to model because I would have the ability to run equipment from all those railroads on my trackage since they were all in that area anyway.

I wanted to be able to run steam locomotives weaving in and around the mountains carrying lumbar, coal and general freight, but I also wanted to have high-class passenger service carrying VIPs to Greenbrier and Hot Springs and various vacation spots along the Blue Ridge. In addition, I liked the idea of using some of the early diesels to carry these passenger trains. The only realistic period of overlap of steam and diesel is in the late 1940?s and early ?50?s.

So, considering all of the above, my model railroad concept was gradually conceived - from a glimmer of an idea about the kind on scenery and locale that I liked into a full theme of what kind of trains I wanted to run, in what era and what the purpose of the railroad was going to be. I decided the era should be October of 1948, the year I was born; and the locale should be in Appalachia, specifically, connecting to the C&O, B&O and N&W at the northern end, and extending from Pocahontas County through and on top of the Blue Ridge Mountains and connecting to the Southern Railway at the lower end of the Blue Ridge. The purpose of the railroad would be to haul lumber from the mountains to the sawmills and then to furniture stores, to haul coal from the mines to the power companies and residential coal yards, and to carry passengers and freight through beautiful mountainous terrain from one town to another.

I wanted this to be a fictitious, free-lanced railroad so I wouldn?t have to specifically replicate any particular scenes of the C&O, B&O or others, but it had to be based on reality, and it had to capture the essence of the area and the railroad operations that existed there.

When my model railroad concept initially gelled, I didn?t have a large room available to me. So I set up a small table (an old damaged dining room table) measuring about 3x6?. In order to get any significant empire on this small of a space, I decided it would have to be N-scale. Part of this decision came from the fact that I liked to have a lot of scenery for my railroad to run through. I had always done HO scale before, but I thought it might be time for a change in scale anyway.

Naming the railroad has also been an interesting process. My original 3x6' layout was intended to represent Pocahontas Roads (nicknamed "Pokie Roads"). As the layout expanded to encompass an entire room, however, it seemed appropriate to imagine that this original small railroad was purchased and engulfed by the larger Blue Ridge and Southern, also fictitious, but helpful in describing the essence of the railroad. The smaller original, central 3x6' section of the layout is now called the Pocahontas Division of the BR&S.

And so my own model railroad concept was born, the ?Givens and Druthers? were noted, and I was ready to go!

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Read This Before You Start a Trains O Scale Model Railway Project

In this article I am going to outline the things to consider before starting your model railway project. Due to the logistics of building a model railway, mistakes early on can really bite you in the butt later on down the line.

Space

The first thing you need to consider before all else when building your layout is space. How much space do you have and how long will that space be there for? Not only how much space do you have, but do you have enough space to do what you are planning on doing with your model? Lack of space is a common problem, but there are a couple of solutions.

Firstly you can create more space. A common way to do this is to build a shed in the back garden, or board up the attic! If you are serious about your hobby and you want to keep your layout in a fixed position you could be better off doing this first as last.

The second option is to have your layout on a board. This is ideal for a spare bedroom that is rarely used because the whole thing can simply be put against the wall while the room is being used. Depending on size it could even be slid underneath a double bed. If your board is particularly big you could have it in two pieces, and design your layout accordingly. This way the two pieces can be detached and stored more easily.

A more complicated version of the board is the folding board. This means that your board has two joints with hinges. This allows you to fold your set up and put it up against a wall or under a bed.

This second method requires a reasonable amount of forethought and planning. The distance between each joint must be double the height of anything you put in your layout. As if it isn't it will get crushed once folded together. Also you can not have any terrain or buildings between the joints. This method was mentioned in the interests of thoroughness and is not recommended for a beginner.

Layout - Scenery

If you are a beginner you may not even want to have scenery at first which is absolutely fine, if so skip this section. However if you are going to have scenery it is best to think about it before you start.

There are some questions you must ask yourself before you start your layout:

Is your layout going to be an urban setting or a rural setting?What time period will your setting be in?What country will your setting be in?Do you want your setting to be built up, or do you want it to be very green?Is the layout going to be designed by you or are you going to replicate somewhere in the real world?Do you want to be able to change your layout in the future?

You can just decide how you want your track and then simply start building the layout around it and decide as you go. This can be very creative and is a good approach if you are starting the project with a child.

All of these different options must be taken into account with the consideration of your budget and the amount of time you want to spend.

As a general rule of thumb a rural theme with rolling hills will be easier and cheaper to produce than a city theme. If you have the time and patience a city theme can also be produced on a shoe string.

When considering a time and place think about the buildings in that period and place and whether or not they would be hard to replicate with your own hands. There is no point in deciding on replicating a gothic city if you don't want to spend ages making the models or buying them off the shelf.

If you decide to replicate somewhere in the real world this can often be more expensive because there is no compromise. This is also a more time-consuming option.

If you would like to change the layout of your scenery or your track then a rolling hills setting is not ideal for either of these. An urban setting or any scenery with movable parts is better suited for this.

You do not have to move your scenery to change your track layout!

Not if you plan your track well in the first place.

An oval track is difficult to change without moving most of the pieces of your track. This is because like a circle the bits of track are as far apart from each other as they can be. So the idea is to be able to change your track by moving as little pieces as possible. This is done by making a track that crosses or runs very close to itself in a few places! This way you can change the dynamic of the whole track by only moving a few pieces.

As with most things in life you must think about time and money, as your decisions now, will effect these in the future. Build or Buy? That is the big question. Building is cheaper but time-consuming and buying is the opposite. So think about what you want and use the information here to design a layout that suits you perfectly.

Trains

The final consideration is trains. When buying trains there are a few things to keep in mind but generally speaking BUY WHAT YOU LIKE!!!!

A lot of train manufacturers make some great starter sets and these are perfect for the beginner. They are matching, they work together and they are usually very good quality.

When buying any model train it makes more sense to buy better because it will be cheaper in the long run. I wont go into the details of what is collectable and what is not as that is beyond the scope of this article.

If you buy the good brands you can't really go wrong, MTH, Lionel, and Atlas Industrial Rail make some great starter sets.

And never forget: KEEP THE BOXES THEY COME IN, and keep them in good condition. This will affect the resale value if you decide to sell or swap them in the future.

Electrics

The last essential consideration for your train set is the electrical side of things.

There are two main options - Analog, and Digital.

As this article is aimed at beginners I would recommend going digital. Its just easier!! And if you don't have any experience with wiring or you have a child that will be using the set it could be the safer option as well!! Whatever you choose you will also need to buy a power pack.

Although I have tried to be as pragmatic and concise as I can in this article don't forget that this a hobby and requires passion. So read the rules, take the advice and then do exactly what you want to do!

Model Trains is a great hobby and is fantastic for anyone who has a creative or technical flare.

I really hope this article has been useful for you, if you have any questions on model railroading don't hesitate to post them on my blog - trainsoscaleus.com

Happy Railroading!

Alex

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How to Choose Your First Model Train

First question: how old are you?

No, I'm not being ageist, but the tracks that bring an eight year old and a retiring baby boomer's first model train introduction to our wonderful hobby are many and varied. There's also the issue of money - one of the above is more likely to have far more to dispose of freely than the other. But there is a common freight yard that we can explore here.

What gauge?

Statistically, there's about a 66 % chance that your first model train will be HO gauge. Trains built to 1/87th the size of the real thing and running on rails spaced 16.5 millimeters apart account for around..." of all model railroad purchases. If your first model train was a gift, chances are you won't be too concerned about the other sizes, gauges and scales. But if you are lucky enough to have your hand on the regulator, you might want to consider some of the other options available as well. You have a huge, usable basement? Have a look at O gauge. 8ft x 4ft is about all you could possibly spare? Check out N gauge.

I want to see it run!

Of course you do. After all, that's what distinguishes what we do from what the plane makers, and shipbuilders and military modelers do. Our stuff works! Most first model trains take their initial run around the tracks on the floor. Nothing wrong with that, but long term, stuff like pet hair, lint and carpet-grime that those little DC motors pick up from the floor can make your trains run less well. Then there's the issue of how you see your trains. I've yet to meet the model railroader who is happy with the perspective of being above the roadbed, looking down. So after you've reassured yourself that it all runs fine out of the box - or boxes - try relaying the tracks on something like a ping-pong table. It's safer, if noisier, but from a seated viewpoint, now you're seeing your train side-on or front -on and just below your normal line of sight. Much more satisfying.

Laying ties and driving spikes.

Eventually many of you probably will hand-lay your own track, but after the first flush of seeing your train actually running on the ping-pong table - or kitchen table, if you opted for N gauge - you may be thinking about something a bit more permanent and visually stimulating than the oval of track with it's impossibly toy-like tight curves that came in the pack with your first model train. Time to do some planning! And that, dear reader, is so much easier and more convenient now than in the pencil, eraser, protractor and graph-paper days. I'm assuming that you all have computers, so you'll be pleased to know that there are plenty of software packages that take the drudgery and guesswork out of planning a layout. Some you have to buy - others are free. Almost all offer some kind of try-before-you-buy option. Just use your search engine with keywords like "model railroad track-plan" and you'll see plenty of choices.

What will all of this cost?

If you want to start with an off-the-shelf set, or if you are thinking about buy a model train set as a birthday or Christmas present for someone else, $200-300 seems a fair ball-park figure. That, by the way, gets you everything you need to start hauling freight right away - locomotive, cars, track and a powerpack. Time and available cash will determine how much more gets spent from this point on. But forget about the money; your first model train will always be a pleasure and a joy that lingers.

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