Greetings from N. California
- Thread starter truckdad
- Start date
goscrewyourselves
I'm the one
Welcome to the forums and into the hobby. Yep things have changed since 1979, some things for the better other things not so much. DCC can be a little daunting at first but if you keep it simple it is no harder than plug it in and off you go.
truckdad
Well-Known Member
Thanks. The first order of business will be to build a "clean" room in my shop. 8x12 I'm thinkin. Re-subscribed to MR and reading all I can, but I expect to learn some tricks here from the veterans. I still have some leftover rolling stock, buildings, track, etc from way back when and at least 1 quality 4-6-2 with 4-5 passenger cars.
goscrewyourselves
I'm the one
8' X 12' is very similar to the room I have for my layout, mine is 11' X 9' so not much difference. There are a great many people here who have "decades" of experience, knowledge and tips and tricks. The majority are more than happy to pass those things on.
santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Dave - Welcome to the forum, the friendliest model railroading forum on the Internet. Tell us a little more about your preferences, scale, era, locale, preferred carrier, etc. I model HO scale generic flatlands ATSF in the 1978-1990 time frame. I won't be the first to post that you should seriously consider an around the walls layout as opposed to a table in the center of a room. Don't think that you have to go DCC; many of us old-timers still use DC, especially lone-wolfs like me and some others. If I was starting from scratch, I would probably go DCC though. Come on over to the "Running Bear's Coffee Shop" and get to know some of the forum members that hang out and shoot the bull over there. While we talk a lot about modeling, anything goes except for politics and religion (mostly).
Again, welcome.
Willie
[h=3][/h]
Again, welcome.
Willie
[h=3][/h]
montanan
Whiskey Merchant
to the forum. Glad to see you getting back into the hobby. I started my HO layout in th elate 70's after getting out of N gauge due to the lousy running locomotives at the time. Things have changed a lot over the years, probably for the best. In the 70's, 80's and even into the 90's I was having to scratch build structures and custom paint locomotives and rolling stock many of which are on the market today. Good luck on the DCC. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, but I am still operating DC only because I am a lone operator and my layout was built for switching and I rarely have the need to run more than one locomotive at a time. Like Willie mentioned, stop by the Coffee Shop for a cup where we talk about most anything. If you have any questions at all don't hesitate to ask as there is most likely someone on the forum that can answer your questions.
Trussrod
Well-Known Member
Hi Dave: Welcomed to the forums, I see I didn't post quick enough as Willie and Chet both mentioned some of what I did! I'm David in Coarsegold, Central Calif., which is in the foothills North of the North end Fresno by 31 miles. I've been involved with HO scale model railroading most of my almost 72 years in Dec. I also had a 5' x 9' layout around the time you did too. During that time I met a fellow whom I knew as Mark Raymond, who was an Engineer for the SP in Fresno and he taught me to build my own switches using code 70 Railcraft weathed rail. They are now named, Micro Engineering, great track btw.
Yes, things have really changed but a number of older RR's, like myself have decided to stay in 'DC' as we are single operators and don't see the need of operating two or more loco's at the same time unless in a consist such as double headed or as a helper if the need arises? And various guys have said that the sound can get tiring too after a while, I guess it would depend on how high you had the volume set. Anyway while the chuff and some other sounds are nice I can use my Cell Phone and an App called Railroad Compaion an in expensive down load that allows me to play the various sounds as well as get the chuff, ring the bell and blow the whistle to send signal as I wish, so with that, it's like having both worlds in 'DC' without the added expense. Blow the various whistle signal alone adds a lot of realism to operation. Not that it's always necessary to do that but available when you want to do that.
So possibly your old transformer and equipment will work just fine if you stay in 'DC'. The thing you may want to do depending on the type of wheel sets on your cars, might be to change them out, if you already haven't to the newer RP25 contour which is self centering as the cars roll down the track. Metal wheels are preferable and do offer some natural rolling, clickty clack if things are quiet enough.
I've been work on my current layout for a long time, due to various things that have taken place in my life, as well as that hand laying all my rail and making my own switches is time consuming but I love it as I can design a switch to meet the needs of a given situation depending on if I can maintain the 20* radius I established when I started building my current 10' x 21' layout which is a folded dog bone with a lower line of about 45"s in height and a upper line of about 54"s in height for enjoyable viewing for me at 5' 9" tall as well as others that are about my same height. This is an around the wall, free standing L-gerder type of frame work that was meant to be 30" deep but has turned out to grow deeper at various locations. I have pictures of my bench work on the site here under my site name. It is light weight yet very strong especially once 45* angle bracing is added.
I hope this helps a bit Dave
Ps: I guess now we are going to have to distinguish between you and I by David in Coarsegold and you at your location?
Be sure to stop in at the, 'ANPL/Jefferies Dinner' down the main listing for coffee & do-nuts plus conversation of your choice except Poly-e-tics or Re-lg-ion.
Yes, things have really changed but a number of older RR's, like myself have decided to stay in 'DC' as we are single operators and don't see the need of operating two or more loco's at the same time unless in a consist such as double headed or as a helper if the need arises? And various guys have said that the sound can get tiring too after a while, I guess it would depend on how high you had the volume set. Anyway while the chuff and some other sounds are nice I can use my Cell Phone and an App called Railroad Compaion an in expensive down load that allows me to play the various sounds as well as get the chuff, ring the bell and blow the whistle to send signal as I wish, so with that, it's like having both worlds in 'DC' without the added expense. Blow the various whistle signal alone adds a lot of realism to operation. Not that it's always necessary to do that but available when you want to do that.
So possibly your old transformer and equipment will work just fine if you stay in 'DC'. The thing you may want to do depending on the type of wheel sets on your cars, might be to change them out, if you already haven't to the newer RP25 contour which is self centering as the cars roll down the track. Metal wheels are preferable and do offer some natural rolling, clickty clack if things are quiet enough.
I've been work on my current layout for a long time, due to various things that have taken place in my life, as well as that hand laying all my rail and making my own switches is time consuming but I love it as I can design a switch to meet the needs of a given situation depending on if I can maintain the 20* radius I established when I started building my current 10' x 21' layout which is a folded dog bone with a lower line of about 45"s in height and a upper line of about 54"s in height for enjoyable viewing for me at 5' 9" tall as well as others that are about my same height. This is an around the wall, free standing L-gerder type of frame work that was meant to be 30" deep but has turned out to grow deeper at various locations. I have pictures of my bench work on the site here under my site name. It is light weight yet very strong especially once 45* angle bracing is added.
I hope this helps a bit Dave
Ps: I guess now we are going to have to distinguish between you and I by David in Coarsegold and you at your location?
Be sure to stop in at the, 'ANPL/Jefferies Dinner' down the main listing for coffee & do-nuts plus conversation of your choice except Poly-e-tics or Re-lg-ion.
Last edited by a moderator:
Trussrod
Well-Known Member
Dave: I assume your planning on staying in HO? It's about as small as I'd want to go at my age. As your probably well aware, the size of your layout is determined by the type of Loco's your going to want to run, due to the radius requirements as well as over hang on some of the Loco's, and the car lengths depending on the time period your planning on modeling? I sure this is all going through your mind as it part of the space requirement. Layout planning is always tedious but fun.
Let u know what you come up with?
Btw, There are computer programs such as SCARM [Simple Computer Aided Railroad Modeling] a 2/3D program on the site here that once you get used to it allows you to design your complete layout. Tony is fairly familiar with it and I a little bit. It canb a big a big help in planning out your layout as it lets you know what will fit in depending on the sizes you input.
Let u know what you come up with?
Btw, There are computer programs such as SCARM [Simple Computer Aided Railroad Modeling] a 2/3D program on the site here that once you get used to it allows you to design your complete layout. Tony is fairly familiar with it and I a little bit. It canb a big a big help in planning out your layout as it lets you know what will fit in depending on the sizes you input.
truckdad
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the input David, I see you are not too far away as I am in Penn Valley, just west of Grass Valley. I have an idea of what I want to build, mostly industrial, that would replicate some of the different places I was at while in the trucking business in Santa Maria, CA. But first I need to get the room built in my shop, if I can get my partner named Procrastinator busy.......
