Introductions

[Wlal13again]

Hey Dave, great to have another door layout guy here..

Rich

[davefoxx]

Hey Dave, great to have another door layout guy here..

Rich

Rich,

Thanks.  I love having a door layout.  Not only is it more manageable for me to construct, but I can knock the layout down and move it in minutes, if not seconds.  Yeah, maybe it is a roundy-round, but if scenicked just right, only one side is visible and the track appears linear in each scene.  The longer that I have this layout, the less I am seeming to make excuses for it being a temporary layout and that I am awaiting the day for building the dream layout.  I am actually surprised at how enjoyable my little layout has been.  If anything, this layout has been a great testbed for the future, as it is the first layout that I have actually made any real attempt at scenery.

Dave

[bradb]

Hey All!

I'm Brad, a 45yo software geek who visits here often to read but I'm such a newbie I guess I kinda feel I don't have a lot to contribute, so I don't post.  Plus when I'm here it's often because I'm supposed to be working but end up surfing during the odd free time I have between tasks (I work as one of the technical guys for a wannabe mainstream database company) and I tend to get distracted often.

I've lived in the Pacific Northwest all my life and until recently had been living in the Portland, Oregon metro area.   Now I live in Salem, Oregon, in my childhood home, working (and posting) from my mom's basement.  Not exactly a life-long dream.  Maybe the stuff good asshats are made from?  I dunno.

I got back into the hobby about 14 months ago when my father passed away from cancer about the same time my company decided to close their Portland office and told me I could work pretty much anywhere in the area I wanted.  As I'd promised my dad I'd take care of my mom, I packed up and moved back here after 25 years.  I was then going though boxes of stuff in the house, seeing some of the remnants of the HO and N stuff my dad and I played with together so many years ago.  When I saw a picture of an "N" scale SP 'Bloody Nose' MP15 on the 'net I was totally hooked again.

Brings back memories of seeing SW1500's pulling a few cars along a siding at the end of the street.... hearing them coming and running down to take a closer look and wave as they slowly chug on by.... on track now ten years gone now  (And SP gone too, much to my surprise).

Anyways I started planning a freelanced early 70's urban switcher (a branchline using old SP equipment) ala John Pryke's Union Terminal but struggled over the right track plan.  Making no real progress, I one day caught a glimpse of a Portland & Western GP39-2 in Tigard and was taken by the bright orange, yellow, and black paint scheme.

I decided to freelance something based on Pacific & Western because I liked the colors (and it looked pretty easy to do myself too; my momma didn't raise no fool).

Then came the  railwire thread "LDE Plan for Southern Pacific suggestions" (http://therailwire.net/smf/index.php/topic,14863.0.html) and it gave me the focus I so desperately needed. 

I then decided to model a 5 mile section of the P&W's operation here in Salem in the Early 2000's.  Basically I'm building a modular 1' wide shelf layout, a roughly "U" shape with the BNSF and UP/SP interchanges (at Bush and Minto respectively) at the sides of the "U"; and street running, Cascade Warehouse and Boise Cascade at the bottom.  Much less track and industries than the busy big city switcher I'd planned, but 7 or 8 industries plus two interchanges should keep me plenty busy - and allow me to actually have a shot a finishing it too.

Sorry to make this so long, it just seems my involvement in this hobby has been such an amazing journey down a path that keeps reflecting on my past.  I can't wait to see what's next.

Cheers,

Brad.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Welcome Brad!

How far along on your layout are you? Still in planning?

[wm3798]

Welcome to the fold, Brad.  Love the idea of an industrial switching shortline concept.  Keep us posted on your progress.
Lee

[bradb]

Thanks guys!

Ed, I've got a pretty good idea of the track plan but nothing in electronic form.  I'm working on the modular benchwork right now and hope (if the weather is decent) to get some updates posted this weekend.

Brad.

[WSOR-Man]

Hi everyone,

My Name is Tim and I'm modeling mostly Burlington Northern in the pre-Merger era, including CP Rail,Wisconsin Southern and only because I like 'em Conrail,CSX and Penn Central.
I'm also active on the Atlas forum and started to build a layout on a door just like Dave Foxx and Dave Vollmer do...
I live near Bremen/Germany and work in the food industry..yeah, we have Becks in Bremen, the world famous beverage...*cheers*in our shops I also try to airbrush..and the results are great...but I'll never be as good as Steve4...

Tim

[MichaelT]

Ok, I'll meander out of the brush...

Michael here! I've read quite a bit of posts on the Railwire, was led to the site by Lee from another pretty good site.
I've been in model railroading for about six years now (yes, a VERY late start), and I currently model large scale and N scale. I dabbled in HO for a bit, but decided that N scale was what I wanted to model for my indoor layout.

Being raised here in Central Arkansas in the late 60's and through the 70's, I do remember seeing the Jenks Blue of the Missouri Pacific rumble through town, although I grew up playing sports and didn't get into trains then. My current project (frustrating as it is) is to loosely model the Mopac. My layout room is a 12x14ft room, I'm using 12x11 of it for modeling.

There is a track plan that I was working on...
http://www.ScaleRailsOnline.com/images/Galleries/michaelt/2656/Layout_template_N3.jpg

Although I've pretty much scrapped it and I'm starting again...I'm not very good at layout planning. I'd like to run 1960's era trains, although I do have a couple of Connie's on hand and will run them probably as a shortline that just loved to keep the steamers, or use them and some heavyweights that I have as an old fashioned scenic tour train.

Lee said the Railwire folk were good people, and I consider Lee good people, so I take him at his word. I figured to learn more, I should get a little more involved, so figured I'd say howdy and go from there!

so, Howdy! ;D

Michael T

[jbaakko]

Hey guys, Josh here.  You may recognize me as I use jbaakko, just about everywhere.

[shark_jj]

welcome to dave, brad, tim and michael.  I am relatively new here myself and it is a great bunch of guys.  They really do live by the motto, "there is no such thing as a stupid question".  Ask away and you'll get an answer.  If you want to check out some recent great threads go to Modelling and Tutorials and check out the 11 different Scenery Threads, there are a lot of great N Scale Modelling tips.

[Arob]

Greeting All,

First time posting, but have visited many times.  I have collected n-scale for the past 12 years, but have never gotten serious on a home layout or such. I just returned from a day trip to the National convention and was amazed by the N-Trak layout and feel engized after seeing what other hobbyist's are creating in n-scale. It is time to fire up the work bench!

On a personal note, I visit Dave's two site several times a week and greatly enjoy his encouragement, insights, accomplishments, and struggles....Bravo David!

-Arob (Alex)

Tennessee Valley N-scale

[John]

Welcome .. please come back often and share your progress with us.

[2-8-8-0]

I cannot believe it took me this long to find this forum....

A FORUM THAT DOSENT SUCK! Thanks folks, i feel i have arrived in a better place. And one devoted to N scale, no less. Im working on my roster for my B&O atm (yeah, no room for much of a layout yet) for my 1948 West End (With just a sprinkling of WM beginning to invade...) You know....B&O. The road model manufacturers seem to hate!

Nice to be here and all that. I am gonna go back and lurk in the corner some more.

Tim

[davefoxx]

Welcome Tim.  There's no need to just lurk, so please continue to be active in this forum.  You're right, this is a forum that doesn't suck.  Everyone here tends to be a little more laid back, so flaming wars don't seem to occur here as they do elsewhere.  Plus, there's some real fine modelers in here who are just a wealth of information and are more than happy to share tips and ideas.  If you're into the B&O and WM, you will find some others in here with similar preferences.

Dave Foxx

[wm3798]

Ah.... A bunch of new heads brimming with tapioca... Just waiting to be molded by our team of experts!
Bwahahaha!

Welcome, guys.  Now if you'll step this way into the laboratory, we have a few wires we need to attach to your temples...

Lee