Very nice work. Not being picky just an observation and gentle ribbing but the rails need some rust, so shiny!

i do model railroading!
My scale is not a common one for modelers.. 1 scale:
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Check out that realism!

Is this in your basement Mike? LOL

Yeah. *sigh* It's why I only have a couple games. No room for anything else.
On the downside, weather is horrid.

I do some modeling in N scale, but its pretty limited. Most of my N stuff is Atlas, Con Cor, Rivarossi, Kato and Broadway limited. I'm a steam person so lots of articulated, shay and unique steam engines in my roster. Mostly just have small displays now, but I'm working on a coffee table with a logging layout inside it. Still in design phase though (didn't stop me from buying up all logging engines and rolling stock i would want though...).
Grew up with O guage and still have a bunch of it around the house. I don't do much with it anymore due to space and cost. Mainly used for the "around the tree" trains, a display on my fireplace mantle and I keep some on top of my kitchen cabinets to display as well. Mostly Lionel with some MTH mixed in. I was only born in 1987 so I'm still young, but I still have my first Lionel train set from 1988, my grandpa's prewar and postwar collection was given to me a year ago when he passed away, and my small group of articulated steam engines.
I somehow never got into HO. My dad started me on O guage and I started N in college when space was a bit of a problem. It's all taken a bit of a backseat now that I'm married and have taken up pinball.

So I know nothing about model trains or real trains but I've always found them very interesting. Can you give me a short "Model Trains for Dummies" explanation of what all the hobby entails and how much it costs to get started?

I use to...a long time ago, when we had slot car tracks in basements and storefronts...1966+

Today, as my son was growing up, I added one of these, similar.

Only problem was he kept taking Godzilla out and playing Rampage on the Trees, buildings and people!

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I'd check your area for any model railroad clubs. Or hobby shop. That would be a great start.

You can be cheap. And you can get into brass engines and spend thousands.

Like any hobby. Learn. Start small. And plan what makes you happy.

LTG : )

Someone on Pinside had sent me a detailed email about wanting to make a Train Pin.

True to the look, it would have mountains and Tunnels, with the Pinball moving through tracks, and collecting trains, with a Z scale built in to complete the animation.

My father is building a rather large outdoor layout in his backyard. My mom is ok with it, since she gets to do the landscaping.

My two year old has developed an immense obsession with trains, and I've been kicking around the idea of selling a majority of my pins to fund a decent size HO layout in the garage

If your selling pins...you should just go all in

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I wish, but my house and land is small. N gauge or HO is what I have room for.

About a year and a half ago I chainsawed my HO layout to make room for a more serious arcade. My plan has always been to take what I learned from that layout and build a much better one.

What I love about model railroading is that there are always about two or three thousand projects of varying size that you can jump into whenever you have the right amount of time and energy: Tuning up a boxcar can take 15 minutes, and building the benchwork for your extension can take a couple of days. Same with expense. You can use the free dirt from your yard, or you can invest a couple thousand in brass locomotives.

I always loved building with "unofficial" materials, like the cheap gravel from the fish section of the pet store, or making mountains out of foam insulation. It's a very relaxing hobby with a lot of different paths to take. The only part I wasn't too keen on was that there didn't seem to be too many younger folks getting into it. There were a few here and there, but I am afraid there might not be much future to it in another generation or two.

Also, I found this odd: A lot of model railroaders seem to be named "Don". Strikingly more than I generally run into in regular life. I have no explanation for that.

I have a large collection of mth proto 2 and 3 for sale. Mostly premium. Need to feed the pinball monster.

I did lots of HO and a little N when I was young. The best thing I did was to model a 4' x 8' HO "pike" based upon one featured in a "beginning railroading" book I checked out from the school library (parents later bought a copy). I wish I could recall the title, but it simply documented everything the author did as he built the layout. It had detailed plans and methods for scratch-building landscaping and structures, and specified Tyco (ha, instantly dates me) track and accessories. It did a great job at explaining the wiring/switches needed for multiple trains, reverse loops, etc; I learned a lot from the process but I guess that knowledge is now somewhat obsolete with the advent of DCC.

I've thought of either doing O/G live steam (but don't have space for a super elaborate layout) or doing a detailed, sprawling Z-scale layout in the same or less space (but I'm unsure about availability and expense of Z-scale stuff beyond simple "train sets" in the U.S. and have no experience running the trains). Each provides a particular type of fun, but I don't know which would ultimately be more satisfying. I've built a few Wilesco and Mamod steam engines and tractors, so live steam isn't particularly intimidating, but I know nothing about Z-scale (other than the fact that it looks really cool ).

Anyone have an opinion? Is Z-scale as satisfying to operate as good N or HO or is it more of a novelty?

Yes, we take our model railroading seriously around here.

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I have a 4x8 that is 10 inches deep and folds up on the wall. All the wiring is in a 2 inch area below the "ground" and front panel when it's up against the wall. I run 3 trains at one time with an MRC digital control. I like action toys and designed a control panel that would allow you to do everything without ever reaching into the layout. One of these days I am gonna get back to working on it.

I'm lucky enough to have 2 different live steam clubs within 5 minutes of my house. Always nice to go for a ride on weekends. I would love some live steam, but there is no way I have the room or skill for that yet.

This is so cool. When I was 6 my parents built a HO layout on a sheet of plywood in my room. Many nights were spent falling asleep with them working on it. It had mountains a town and a switch yard. It went bye bye when I as 12 and my parents divorced. I wish I still had it and had the space for something like this. I was infatuated with trains most of my life. Lucky enough UP would put out a magazine every month with cool photos and I got to live in a town with one of their largest hubs and used to love to illegally go into the cabooses when they had them and get free water. I love the graffiti on your cars.

Jesus Saves!

Love the detail/weathering in your work. Ive always had a fascination with trains.
Anyone in the Cheyenne, Wyoming area should stop and see the Big Boy Steam Engine on display in a local park -- biggest engine ever built and only about eight of them left around. Impressive when seen in person. . . you'd need a pretty big basement for one.

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Warren Buffet has a pretty impressive train set.

If one gets to Expo, just 20 minutes East are the Chicago Botanical Gardens.
They have one of the most elaborate outdoor train sets Ive ever seen!

The Gardens are out of this world too!

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And #4014 is being restored to run again.

LTG : )

https://www.instagram.com/p/BN5T63-FNQX/

Don't know if this link will work, but this one of my G scale trains. To big to run around the tree ...so I had to go under

OMG that is amazing and great video tdiddy. Damn this thread is making me want a train set again. So cool I haven't thought about this in such a long time but takes me right back to that magical moment in my life.

I think we may have done business on eBay OP? I run the eBay store Dans LEDepot. I specialize in LED circuits and lamps for model railroad applications. Mostly O scale items.
ebay.com link: ebay.com

Love the graffiti on the car up top.

So does Rod Stewart. As I recall when on tour he modeled Manhattan sky scrapers for his New York City HO layout.

This is my son and I on our 7.5" gauge live steam Beam locomotive.

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