# Hello Everyone



## navyman_3703 (Feb 27, 2011)

My name is Jerry and I am relatively new to the the world of modelmaking. I feel I have the skill and ability to succeed. However, I am lacking in the isnpiration department. Also, I live in a relativly small town in Northern Arkansas, USA, so my abilitly to acquire the necessary supplies is also quite limited. I am a little reluctant to shop online at this point because I am really not sure what I am looking for and what I should expet to pay for supplies. My main area of intrest in model making is structures like houses, barns, buildings, etc.. Also, I am facinated by the beauty and serenity of model landscaping. I have sone experience with model cars, airplanes, and r/c airplanes so I really want to reach out and discover a whole new side of model making and incorporate it all together somehow.

Anyone have any tips for me or ideas to get me started in the right direction? I have a moderate amount of tools so I am ok there, but like I said, my creativity and imagination are failing to keep up with my ambition and facination.

-navyman-


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## R Snyder (May 12, 2009)

Are you interested in railroading or just building structures?


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Hmm. Maybe you want to start out by making something. See how it comes out.


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

Welcome aboard. Glad to see you here on MLS. There are a number of people on MLS that live in the NW Arkansas area. Hopefully some will see your post and make themselves known. 

Also, plan to attend the National Garden Railroad Convention in Kansas City in June. You'll be able to get many of your questions answered there as well as see lots of vendors and their products. See http://www.ngrc2011.com/ for details. 

Again, welcome to garden railroading.


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

Navy, 

Do you wish to model any particular railroad? Maybe something from your area now or somewhere from a past place you may may have lived, like your hometown or another area you may have visited that you might like to recreate that experience in your yard? 

I started in large scale by studying local railroads in my area and carefully shopping prices to buy an engine and several freight cars and track to build a simple big rectangle layout. It took about a year to even get off the ground [so to speak, it's actually still on the ground exactly where it's supposed to be.]. From there...well, it just seems to grow from there [kind of viral]. 
I have enjoyed reading about the local railroads and the history of the people that built them in my area and the industries they served as much as I have enjoyed actually building the model railroad. I may have half as much in books as I do in trains. I've bent and compressed those realities into my modeling. 
But, there's also no reason not to just build some completely fantastic/fictitious railroad that also never existed by simply making up a fictitious industry and deciding what kind of trains might have serviced that region. [e.g. huge tracts of virgin 'dental floss' trees and then modeling the dental floss mills downhill from the dental floss forests and the locos and freight cars and maybe a few local passenger trains to serve the people who lived in that dental floss region. 
I wish you well, hope you find the enjoyment many of us find in the hobby and the best advice I think anyone could offer is 'go for it' and ask the folks here on then forum for help along the way. I have gotten PRICELESS advice from the folks here on this forum. 

Scott


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## White Deer RR (May 15, 2009)

Welcome, you'll get a ton of great advice here, not only in direct responses but by using Google "advanced search" to search this web site. I lurked for at least a year before posting, and finally did so mainly just to say thanks to folks. 

There are some amazingly talented folks here in all areas of the hobby, including your main interest of structures. You could spend a long time going back through the buildings thread, there is some awesome stuff. 

If you're interested in your part of the country, I think you'll find a wealth of information on the Internet about railroad history. I'm more familiar with Kansas and Missouri, but for example the KCMO public library has a fantastic web site with a lot of pics, as does the Johnson County (KS) historical society. There's likely similar resources for Arkansas. 

You have the advantage of living in a part of the country where one could model any number of lines, whatever suites your fancy. Frankly I wound up with ATSF because the vendor I initially purchased from was out of Pennsy starter sets, and after about a year I finally looked up what the heck the Panhandle and Santa Fe line was, and over time I've wound up learning a great deal about the history of ATSF. Kind of fun, but then I'm something of a history nerd. 

And as SRW noted, there are no rules against just making up your own scenario, say a short-line logging railroad, or something that never existed. It's your stuff! 

You'll also find that folks on this web site have debated, considered and tried many different materials for outside use. If you like woodworking, (just guessing,) the most sage advice I ever read was that you have to protect wood structures just like you would full-scale buildings, trying to prevent ground contact, or when needed using sill plates, and of course paint, roofing and even caulking. I've been surprised that little bits of wood will hold up better than one expects when well-painted and placed on concrete pavers. Sure, real foundations would look better but then that would require (ahem) skill. If I had any skill I might consider making entire structures out of concrete, which guess what, is not only possible but there's a product for that (called Jig-Stones.) 

As for buying train stuff off the internet, my only advice with G scale train items is to plan far in advance, as finding stuff in stock can be tricky. I've used several of the better known vendors, and I can't really make any real complaints about them, but then, I just place my orders and it gets here when it gets here. Pretty hit or miss. It's not just the vendors, of course, because some manufacturers do batch production and certain items just aren't available new for long periods of time until they produce more. Shop around, common new items are often advertised on E-bay at absurdly high prices. 

And HAVE FUN! If you want to just start out with a small bit of track and focus on buildings, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you have room and money for more track, heh, nothing wrong with that either. ;-) Best of luck!


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

Oh yeah, I completely forgot. Pick up some Garden Railways magazines or better yet, get a subscription. Once you are a subscriber you can go into their archives 'on line' and download structure plans from contributors like Jack Verducci. I've printed a couple of his building plans out on my computer printer and used them or modified them to build a farmhouse and a freight station. I LOVE to build structures in my wood shop and like the previous post stated if you build your garden models with the same materials and attention to building any other outdoor structure as to sealing/painting them using materials known for their resistance to weather then they should hold up outdoors just fine. You may have to bring them into the shop once in a while for some repairs but materials like cedar, treated pine, cement, plastic, metal, aluminum...etc. all work great for building outdoors models with. You'll find tons of examples on line or in magazines of how folks build outdoor garden models and also lots of interesting articles on how to chose garden plants/shrubs that look good with scale garden modeling.


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## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

Jerry, 

Welcome aboard! Lots of great advice on these forums. 

Best, 
TJ


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## tommyheadleycox (Oct 15, 2010)

Hello, Jerry,

I sympathize, for I suffer from the same syndrome. I once saw a humorous term that described my predicament perfectly: "Paralysis of analysis." Ha! The cure is to do something - and I mean anything at all - to overcome the inertia of thinking too much. Start really, really small, just try creating a small diorama of a favorite place. Even if you just put down oval of track on the carpet and make a house out of craft sticks for the night, my exprerience is that it will serve as a catalyst by gettting you to think how you'll do it next time.

In a way, it's like trying to think like you did when you were say 5 years old. You didnt' worry if something was going to be good enough, you just put stuff together the way it suited you.

Thanks for writing this - it reminds me that I need to just try some things I've been meaning to do.

Good luck,
Tom


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## R Snyder (May 12, 2009)

I think Tom has some really good advice. Just pick a small project and do it. If you are interested, things will grow from there. Be sure and get some magazines, study this forum and try to meet other people in your area. When I started, I was lucky enough to find Marty Cozad just a few miles away - what a discovery!


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

As Tom stated you can succumb to "analysis paralysis" if you over think it and put things off until you get the perfect model railroad all blueprinted on paper before you buy one stick of track or one locomotive. 
My brother has enjoyed collecting trains for over 30 years and has a very large collection of some of the most beautiful brass and plastic models of narrow gauge engines and rolling stock in several scales/gauges which take up a space about the size of my first apartment and he talks about building layouts someday, maybe when he retires but as yet he hasn't laid one inch of track and his stuff is all in boxes or on shelves. That's cool and probably more a matter of 'time paralysis' than anything else since he's worked so hard at his engineering job that when he gets home he just seems to enjoy the research and collection aspect of model trains. 
I kind of jumped into 1:20 and 1:29 about three years ago and have been growing apace ever since. I got started with a very reasonably priced, and nicely detailed, Bachmann "Annie" model, modeling the ET&WNC which ran from the city I live in currently up into the mountains in NC, bought a lot of rolling stock for that line and repainted/remodled a freebee 'Big Hauler' my Uncle gave to model another engine on the ET&WNC narrow gauge railroad in 1:20.3 scale and from there I expanded into the Southern RR which also ran through my town which I have been buying engines and rolling stock for and may even someday expand to include some Clinchfield stuff that also ran through my town. That stuff is in 1:29 scale and is mostly USA Trains and Aristocraft but both run on the same track. You may wish to decide at least if you want to do narrow or standard gauge railroad modeling but other than that...go for it. It's amazing/amusing how quickly one thing leads to another after you jump into it. 
There are several books you can find at your local hobby shop or on line like 'Garden Railroading' and 'Gorgeous Garden Railways' and other books you can easily find doing a google search or for sale through some of the model railroad magazines that can help you get started. There are many ways to power and control large scale trains but to start with a loop of good brass track and powering your trains through the rails with a transformer may be the easiest way to go to get rolling. You can decide later on if you wish to control or power your engines with other methods and can convert your track powered trains later so don't fret too much over making your mind up about Digital Command Control or battery powered locos, etc. Just get yourself a basic transformer and some decent track and you can grow from there later as you decide what suits your layout best as it grows.


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## rdamurphy (Jan 3, 2008)

Approach it like you would any other project. What are you interested in? Are Garden Trains your cup of tea? You've got the climate for it, but wuold you prefer "indoors" trains? 

What type of trains? Or any type? I prefer Colorado Narrow Gauge, early WWII years. Do you like modern diesels? 1st or 2nd Generation Diesels? Transition Era? Steam? Modern, Classic, or 19th Century? Or do you prefer to mix and match? 

Are you a "rivet counter," someone who sticks to a theme, or just someone who wants to run trains in circles while sipping iced tea? 

What flavor of "G"? Fn3? 1:29? 1:32? or a mixture, or even different "sets" of trains to run on different days? 

Do you want a garden level, or elevated line? How much room to you have? Benchwork or bridges? Lots of switching - or just places to hold trains? 

What type of power? Battery Powered? Conventional DC? DCC? R/C? (Fellow Largescalions, note those are in alphabetical order, LOL!) 

You can waste a lot of money buying stuff that doesn't fit you, or what you want. Model trains can be very expensive, and I've had to sell some stuff I bought "on impulse" that really didn't fit what I wanted to do. 

So... It's better to figure out a plan before you start. 

Some of the BEST Model Railroads, in ANY scale, are the ones with a "history" or "backstory." A lot of the guys around here will tell you theres. My original HO scale railroad was Denver, Irving, and Murphy. "The DIM line that is always bright!" Yeah. Ahem. OK, I was a teenager, K? 

The idea was it was a small switching/bridge line that covered a gap between the AT&SF and the D&RGW, and so had mainline traffic moving from one to the other and also switched the local industries including a pretty nifty (for it's time) PiggyBack terminal. It worked, it gave me some structure, and I had an idea of what I wanted, needed, and what direction I was going. The railroad was a shelf railroad, with return loops at both ends, one representing the connection to the Grande, and the other to the Santa Fe. Even had a an Alco PA1/PB1 and Athearn streamliners to make a trip once a day across the "bridge line." 

Others around here have some excellent backstories to their railroads, and when you look at their trackplans, and pics of their layouts, they just tend to "gel" together and make sense. 

Other folks just lay track and run whatever catches their eye! 

Your railroad, your choice. I've never let anyone bully me into their idea of what a "model railroad" should be, and I've never tried to bully anyone else into doing what I want to do. Actually, I enjoy seeing other people's work, from the ultra-detailed super-model to the fanciful stuff. 

Thanks, Robert


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## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

Welcome!! 

'Do a LOT of reading!' has been said, and with good reason. LS trains are a whole new world for the noob. They put everything in a literally different scale. Holding an n scale Dash 9 in the palm of your hand is great, but to note that it is around half the length of the Aristo Dash 9 power truck puts it all into perspective... 

Don't rush in, as many do, and rue the day. 

...and don't do what an old pal of mine did. He was a merchant seaman, and on retiring, decided that he was going to build a model of his last command, a middle-sized containership. Three years later, he confessed to me that he was totally hung up on the collection of about four hundred n-scale containers he had acquired and really had no idea how to move on from there. 

Ask questions, join a group if you can, and ask questions. 

Did I mention that asking questions is good? 

tac 
www.ovgrs.org


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## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi Navyman, 

You don't say but have you possibly just retired? If so congratulations on a choosing a subject which can keep you very busy indeed!

So, Welcome to MLS - first thing to do it to decide what scale/period/ you want to model. Then go to an exhibition and see if that will suit both your pocket and space available! 

Then perhpas get some magazines/cheaper books to verify your choice, and again think to be sure of what you intend as a rough idea.

Then look for items for that scale, again to see if your budget will not get busted! 

My choice was and is for 1880's Colorado Naroow Gauge, and I build most of my equipment and buildings as well. Our scale(s) are large enough to make things easy for scratchbuilding: IF you have the time and can get the bits needed. Buildings (in my scale of 1.20:3) are large but easy to make my largest ones sit on 3foot x 2foot paving flags to give you an indication of size, but most are much samller than that. 

'Bruce Chandler' and 'Ray Dunakin' are both (& there will be others!) very good builders of buildings. 'Big65Dude' to mention just one has a very nice selection of rolling stock, and David Fletcher has done some 'Masterclasses' on loco building, which is where I started large scale - I wanted & built a Mason Bogie, and am making another at present, in between feight cars and another new building that are also under cobnstruction . 

I am quite sure that I have missed out some very good builders that are on MLS, and I apologise for that 

The 'web' and especially MLS is/are a fantastic rescource, and any member will answer any queries that you have I know.


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## DennisB (Jan 2, 2008)

I have sent you a private message and welcome aboard. Regards, Dennis.


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