I started in model railways in the usual way, by owning a Triang train set I had as a child.
It consisted of a small Industrial Diesel and a Steam Engine in UK outline,some freight and a passenger carriage which looked similar to the ones I saw in the railway yard in Darwin NT.
After stopping at a hobby shop in North Queensland many years later, looking for a plastic model to build, I found a HO scale locomotive and was impressed by the detail, especially when I thought back to the Triang trains in comparison.
I was given a contact to a local group of enthusiasts by the shop owner and they recommended I look at a magazine about HO trains (Model Railroader).
I then bought a couple of books on wiring and scenery, and (after it became available in the house) I looked at the internet for ideas and examples.
I started a layout following a plan in one of the books and with the help the group I was able to build my first serious layout learning from their experiences.
A move to the South Coast Area of New South Wales Australia for
work saw the layout dismantled and a downsized version built in my garage in the new location.
It soon became obvious that I was
not doing much with it especially during the winter months, my neighbour across the road had been
tinkering with large scale for a few years and it attracted my
interest so I sold the
the HO layout but kept the rolling stock.
A
friend from where I had moved from sold me some old LGB track and then I
bought an LGB Stainz of eBay thus my large scale layout was born.
It
was initially a type of "dogbone' with loops (link to Previous Layout) at each end connected by a
single track, the trains reverse direction by the use of "trailing
points" ie the train just pushes through.
I went immediately for onboard Battery/Radio Control as my control, after seeing the issues my neighbour had with his track powered layout (he later changed to Battery R/C as well).
Radio Control and Electronics used on the Railway
After
visiting a layout, which was open for a club that my neighbour was a
member of, I found out the owner was looking to down size and part of
that was moving to HO. We arranged a swap for rolling stock and
my collection expanded.
I started looking at some forums on the internet and there I found others who could give me good advice on different projects I started.
Useful Sites and Forums Used for Ideas and Help
