Discover Ways To Create A Model Railroad - By: Jimmy Cox

The hobby of model railroad building is one which lends itself to constant growth. There are several different ways which you can use to accommodate this growth. Some of these are outlined below.

It is possible for the original layout of your model railroad, even a simple oval on a 4' x 6' table, to grow and grow without spilling over its original limitations. The addition of new loops, sidings, cars, accessories, buildings, hills, lakes, streams, trees, and the scores of other items that have a place on or near a rail- road, will keep you busy and happy for months - or longer.

So many and varied are the potentialities of even a modest pike that, if you are strictly limited as to space, you can still gain for yourself years of rewarding enjoyment.

But if there is a little unused space somewhere, you will in time plan additions to your table or shelf. There are many ways of doing this, depending upon the amount and shape of the available space. If you have a platform along one wall of a room, continue it along an adjoining wall. If windows or doors get in the way, construct lift-bridges or drawbridges across these points.

If your train shelf is not too high, perhaps you can build a downgrade that will carry the extension below window sills. Some enthusiasts have even tunneled through a wall into the adjoining room to gain additional space.

The chances are, however, that most newcomers to model railroading will have started with 4' x 6' or 4' x 8' tables. They would like to add to their layouts without starting all over again and, if possible, without destroying too much of the trackwork and perhaps scenery that they have already completed.

You can accomplish this by building another table and attaching it to the first. It may extend out from the old table at right angles, or fit across one end to form an L, or make a T with the first table, or a big square 6' x 8' by putting the two side by side, a long shelf 4' x 12' when end to end. These figures are based on two 4' x 6' tables.

You can add greater variety by making your second table open-top if the first was closed, with easier construction of mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers, underpasses. And, no matter how you place the table, you can find a way to tie your new trackage into much of the old, and add new scenery so that it blends with the old.

You may have a bridge, with one track passing under the other after ascending a grade. If your new table is open-top, one line can descend 21/4 inches, the other rise 21/4 inches. The new layout obviously adds tremendously to the variety of train operation, without making you waste any time ripping up your old layout and scenery.

The new scenery can flow into the old perfectly, in fact. If the terrain on your first table has been gently rolling farmland, start hills on your new table a little higher, growing higher until at the far end you have your mountain. Add a river if you wish, tumbling down the mountain, under a bridge, across your new table, and into the river bed on your first table.

Thus your hobby can be ever-expanding, and your enjoyment of it will grow as well.

About the Author

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