Your First Day in O Gauge Railroading

The only thing I'd do differently, I guess, would be to investigate sound reduction methods.  The noise never used to bother me, but enough is enough.

On my first day of O gauge railroading, I was three years old, and it was Christmas, 1951.

 

I wouldn't change a thing.

 

If today were my first day in O gauge:

 

Rapid-transit out the wazoo--because that's what I grew up around (40+years living a half-block from an elevated subway line will do that).

 

---PCJ

I agree with Balshis, my first day was with the 2245 Texas Special under our Christmas tree and I would not trade that moment with anything. 

 

Steve, Lady and Tex

1953 on the floor of my parents sun porch at the back of their Chicago apartment with a Marx CV set, which was a moment of inspired wonder. 

You can see my 1st day as an O Gauge railroader.....Christmas 1956 with my Marx Monon diesel sel.....then 1958 (at 02:45) and beyond with Lionel.

 

 

Peter

I had a good amount of time to plan the layout before I started construction. It paid off for the most part. We did renovate part of the layout last year to make better use of space.

 

So as of today, I would not change anything.

I had a small layout my dad built me as a child. To be honest I can not remember what train set I had. And also remember very little of the other details. So I will consider my starting point as 2011, when I got back into the hobby.

 

I still do not have a permanent layout, but I am happy with most of the purchases I have made so far. I'm using Atlas track and switches and am very happy with them, as well as DCS and mostly MTH trains.  I ordered a Legacy system last fall when I purchased my first Legacy engine (I'm sure you all know how that's going, hoping to get it soon and looking forward to it).

 

I started out with Railking stuff and then Premier. As for do overs, might have gotten a few less Railking items and a few more Premier, but overall I'm really happy with all my train items so far. I have had very few problems.

 

I was reading OGR magazines and also the other one for a while before I got going. Luckily, I found this forum early on. I owe a lot to all the contributors here for supplying me with the information I needed to take the correct paths for a lot of this stuff. One of the first things I learned was to pick one or two read names and stick with them. I have done that for the most part, cheating only a couple of times so far. Thanks to you all here on the forum I have made wise purchases (or at least I think so anyway) and am quite pleased so far.

 

The only thing I am struggling with is my layout planning. I want a larger one than I can afford all at once, so I've been trying to break it down into smaller sections that I can do a little at a time. So far I can't seem to come up with something I really like. I am going to use Mianne bench work, so I am just about to order a 6' x 16' set and put some track down and see how I like things and what I want to change. By the time I get that figured out, maybe I will have a better idea of what I want and be able to add on and some more layout area.

 

Surely something will come up that I will regret and want to redo someday. I'm sure that happens to all of us at one time or another. But so far, so good! 

I would have started in 2 rail from the beginning and been more picky with what I purchased.   

I would have started in HO and maybe have moved up to S gauge.

My first day in O gauge Hi-rail was preceded by several layouts in several scales.  I gave a lot of thought to exactly what I wanted and am very happy that I have not impulsively bought engines, cars, or scenery that did not support my vision.  At this point I wouldn't change a thing.

 

Art

First day started with a garage sale. A Williams brass bigboy lying on its side, no box. The gentleman said $300.00! I had no idea what it was, or what it was worth. I just happened to have $ 308.00 in my pocket from a summer painting project I just completed for my neighbor. I bought it, set it on the mantle, and......... that was summer 1999. Now I enjoy all the perks of this wonderful hobby! 

My first day in model railroading came when I was 2 years old. I don't remember much other that it was set up under the Christmas tree on a small oval loop. Dad saved up and spent about 1 1/2 weeks pay on a 2046 set and added a cattle and milk car to it. It was the premier O27 set of the day and I still have it. That engine and the whistle tender still run like new. Over the years dad would buy me a new item each Christmas and the set would grow. When I got a bit older I took the responsibility of putting the set up each Christmas for about a month. The set stayed on a 5 x 9 ping pong table board for many years until I lost interest in my high school and college years. About 1975 when I got married and moved to NJ my train interest was rekindled. In the late 70's it seemed like the train shows were overflowing with young guys looking back on their hobby and buying the things that they could now afford. That is the time that I got serious about the train hobby. It can be said that model trains have been a life long love.

If I could start all over again I would probably do a lot of things different.  I would keep my current 8x20 framework but I think I would go 100% toy rail.  No scenic details whatsoever.  No track ballasting, track weathering, mountains, fields, factories, etc.  I would let the trains and accessories do all the talking.  I would probably also concentrate on tinplate, both O gauge and Standard gauge, and would make sure my layout would accommodate both.   I would get rid of my rail yard and construct a track configuration which would allow me to operate at least four trains at once.  The layout surface would be covered with a good sound deadening material along with marine deck carpeting.  I might have a turnout or two but not very many just to keep things fairly simple and allow for trouble free operation.  Finally, I would use good old, and I mean old, Lionel tubular track.  Anything new in the track line would come from USA track, none of the flimsy stuff coming out of China.  I would still run the post-war trains I inherited from my Dad and Grandad but the bulk of my operation would be tinplate.  I suppose over the years I've become something of a traditionalist. 

I would have married someone else!!!!!  LOL

 

I started in 2 rail O scale and moved into 3 rail O scale.  Luckily I kept all my 2 rail stuff.  If I were starting over I would just stay with 2 rail. 

 

Also, when we (my wife and I) bought our house I started to put up a 2 rail layout in the basement.  My wife kept buggin' me about where our son would play when his friends came over.  So, I took the layout down, finished the basement, and waited for him to get old enough to move out and leave the basement to me.  Again, If I were starting over I would have kept the layout up and sent my son to his friends' houses to play.  Now, my wife has the basement for herself and no room for trains.

 

Rick

 

The wife has the basement to herself? What kind of backwards household do you live in?!

If I had a chance to do it all over again, I would not change a thing!

 

And if today was my first day in O gauge model railroading, I would ask myself, "Why did I wait 65 years to get into this?"

THE FIRST DAY IS OVER?? But I haven't finished playing yet!

 

Ray Marion

Ugh, let's not go there. I made a lot of design and build mistakes but those are part of the hobby so no do-over there. And I made a lot of right choices like my table construction and Atlas on cork for the track. But in the absence of a good face-to-face resource like an easy to access LHS I bought A LOT of stuff that doesn't fit/match and/or work. In the end, joining the forum sooner would have saved me quite a bit.

It's amazing how many people apparently only read the title and not the post. 

 

I would leave more room around the back of my layout.

Mark is right, after reading the post more carefully, my original  post is ahhhh... way off point. OOOOPS !

Peter:

What a priceless clip of memories for you that must be!  Such innocent times!

 

Gotta' ask: Did your sis turn out to be a keyboardist?

 

 

 

Why are people reminiscing about the past?

Because it's much easier than reminiscing about the future?

It's amazing how many people apparently only read the title and not the post. 

Thank you, Kunde!

You are right, this wasn't supposed to be a trip down memory lane but an idea on what we would do differently if this was the first day in model railroading for each of us.

 

Well, you did ask people "How you would do it differently or would you not change a thing?"  It seems to me that most people are stating they would not do much or anything differently.  And now you chastise them for taking the time to answer your question.

 

Perhaps you should go back and read your own post!

 

Also, you are asking a question about this being someone's first day in O gauge and posting a list of your plans but most of these ideas can only come from someone who has been involved in the hobby for awhile.

 

Happy railroading,

Don

Use the space for a workout room instead of trains.

Ok, but wasn't really the point I was trying to make.

I'd keep things pretty much the same, unless I had more space, time, and money to invest, then the layout would be bigger, but probably not more than double the present size (39" x 80"). A second level might be nice, and a place to experiment with this idea in the back of my head of tinplate On30 running on the inside rail and one outside rail of tubular 3 rail track. Marx 6" cars would be the basis for that mess. lol

DGJONES, I'm sorry that my wording was ambiguous. I probably should have asked if you would change anything now that you have had a chance to see the good points and bad points of your layout. That is why I listed things that I would change.

Jupiter, Mars and the moon must be out of alignment as we post to this thread (or while reading it anyway)?

I think I would be more focused on just certain road names instead of buying every "pretty" train I saw!  Other than that, I am happy with my choice of building the kind of layout I have currently....

 

Alan

I would only buy trains within the relative same scale. So traditional size based on the 6464 and GG1s.  If I could stay in that realm I would be happy "scale" scale is too big for my space. As long as all the cars look good in thier train I'm happy.

I'd probably soil myself on my dad's lap because I was only 6 months old

If I had to start today it would definitely be 2 rail scale with everything as prototypical as possible.

I guess I would have concentrated on a specific era and roadname.  I like having a variety of equipment but it would have been nice to try to model a layout loosely off of the railroads in my area.  I still like what I have in my collection though and some people go crazy trying to make everything prototypical.  I hope to start a new layout someday so I could always sell off some of the equipment I do not need if I want to model a layout based off the trains in my area.  There are some locomotives like my scale NYC Hudson I could never sell.  

I would not buy so many trains.

I'd listen to everyone when they tell me York is the best train meet in the world and I should go next week.   In reality it took me 7 years to finally go. Lesson learned the hard way.  Lol