I developed very rapidly from a circle of track around the Christmas tree. I started out as a young boy with my American Flyer train set. That is an S scale size train. For the uniformed, the common SCALE of the trains that hobbyists have available are, from small to large are Z, N, HO, S(American Flyer), O, O27(Lionel) and G (garden). Of all of these, the HO scale is the most popular and has the most accessories, parts (for customizing) and articles written about. Then I would hazard a guess that it would be N scale, then O/O27. After I got out on my own and got serious about model railroading I was in the realm of HO, as there was more choices of supplies, like track, ready made power sources, how to articles, etc. It wasn't until about 1985-7 that I found N scale as my scale to work in. The track of an N scale is about 1/2 inch from rail to rail. My reasons for switching to N scale is that you can get more scenery space with N scale and that gives the illusion of distance, which is important to me. The reliability of N scale had been an issue up to that point. My friend John had a smoothly working medium size N scale layout that convinced me to go smaller. That meant undoing my second HO layout and redesigning and rebuilding once again in my garage railroad space. More on that later. I really got interested in electronics and built a push button train control system from an article in Model Railroad Craftsman magazine and it worked wonderful with the design of the layout I have developed. On that layout I also built a theater style lighting system to simulate the different times of the day, if I wanted by using colored bulbs on a rheostat (slider) system. That involved electricity. I also have built many styles of bridges which requires (to replicate realism) some knowledge in engineering. I love to build scenery which needs a basic knowledge in geology. Building the many trees on my layout would have cost LOTS of money if I had to purchase tree KITS, so with the help of my neighbor Jim Williams, we used some pretty good looking (smaller scale) weeds that with a little help, looked very realistic. Buying rock molds made it pretty easy to have rock outcroppings where needed/desired, and coloring them to blend in or stand out was a study from books and magazines. So you see, there are many, many areas one can become interested in, in just building a good looking model railroad. Then there is what is called "OPERATIONS". There is a whole lot of articles written about how the prototype (full scale 12"=1') railroads and how to use a card system of moving your rail cars from point A to point B like the big boys do. Some modelers us a fast clock just to make more stress and distress in their operating sessions! ha ha I have never gotten that far along as that, because my enjoyment is in the building, not the operations necessarily. But you now know there is a lot in this hobby to stimulate anyone who wants to get into it.
So today, after one year of building, I had learned a lot of lessons, and even though it was not completely finished and operational, I decided to undo what I had and start over with a fresh idea and newly learned skills to make it better. It was still an HO layout at this point and the space in the double garage remained the same....only because my wife wanted to have the car parked in the garage and out of the blizzards and high winds of the North! So to keep peace in the family, I relented and keep space to squeeze the car in on its side of the garage....however.....
January 1981
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| Jan 1981 New benchwork...new design |
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| Jan 1981 City will be on the upper level, future roundhouse is visualized in the area of the scratch built turntable |
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| Jan. 1981 Power stations installed |
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| Jan 1981 Main train yard with the main line curving over and around it on a future bridge |
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| Jan 1981: Locomotive servicing area 14" turntable |
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| Jan. 1981: More on the engine servicing area below...main line on lower right with industrial tracks in the middle |
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| Feb 1981 the lower tack along the wall goes to my work bench for repairs/modifications of engines or cars. |
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| Feb. 1981 Benchwork, sub roadbed, being meticulously measured with a warped stick |
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| Scratch Built Concrete Batch Plant |
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| Yard Control panel - Notice bridge installed over yard toward the back |
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| Engine facilities control panel |
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| MOW cars, car/engine washer, engine house and fueling station |
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| Steam engine roundhouse to be installed on this side of the Roundtable |
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| Adding a Power station |
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| Feb 1981 Engine facility in foreground Factory behind |
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| Feb 1981 Wiring behind the Engine Yard Control panel |
Have fun in what you do. Learn what you can. Excel in sharing your gifts that God has given you. God is Good . . . ALL the time.
Remember,
Keep Singing, Keep Laughing, Keep Smiling
Blessings
Gary
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