Building the Bench Work

First I cut two 1X4s 6 foot long for the sides,

four 1X4s 46 1/2" (2 for sieds, 2 for middle),

one 1X4 24" and two 1X4s 22 1/1" for middle.

I drilled five 1/2" holes in all the boards except for the 
6 footers, to run my wiring.

With the help of a square, some clamps,

a little glue and my nail gun

the pieces are all together.

Now we have some good support for our Layout.

Check back and see what's next.  And thanks for looking.

4X6 HO Layout "The Beginning."

Hey lets build a Model Train Layout!!  I went to the lumber yard and picked up a 3/8 " 4X8 sheet of plywood, two 1X4X8 and four 1X4X6 for the bench work.  I cut the plywood down to 4X6 and set it on a table to lay out my track design..I had in mind what I wanted so I grab some track and got after it. I'm working on the railroad.

Testing track.

Testing with a few cars.

Close up.

Everything worked great.  Now to????

Visiting the Rock Island Train Tunnel

Back when I was The Royal Rangers Senior Commander our troop went on a camp out.  One of our Commanders had 5 acres about 3 miles from a Rock Island Train Tunnel.  We had a great time hiking to the tunnel.  Here is a few pictures of our find.  This really made my day.

Where do I Start?

When we got home from Branson, I couldn't wait to go to the hobby store to find a book on building a railroad.  After looking at several track designs, I decided to build a 4'X14' dogbone loop design.  Now I'm getting serious, it's from Train Set to Model Railroad!  Who knew you had to be a carpenter, electrician, fabricator and painter to build a railroad!  Oh yea, you need a lot of time and patience.  Now for my benchwork, I used the L-girder construction with 1/2 " plywood.  That took about 4 days.  Next I put my track together, traced it out on the plywood, removed the track and installed the cork roadbed.  Now it was time to lay the track.  Boy was I excited.  I could sing you a song, "I am working on my railroad every chance I get."  I bet you could hear me singing when you read it.  Well maybe not hear me but you do know the melody.  I would run some track then run a train, run more track, run a train.  Hey, you had to make sure the track worked.  Boy did it!  After I finished the track I built a tunnel, planted some grass and trees.  I built a town, with a Walmart and Kentucky Fried Chicken. I built a farm, a truck terminal and yes a yard for my trains.  I would go out to my shop to work on the layout and run my trains while working on a little section at a time.  After about 2 years we moved and I had to take my layout apart.  We really had a lot of good times together, me and my layout.  Here's some pictures of my layout.

Trying to Remember when it all Started

Back many moons ago my family and I went on vacation to Kansas City, MO .  We somehow wound up in an old warehouse converted to a shopping mall.  Well guess what it had a hobby shop and in the middle of the floor was an HO layout.  My heart melted.  I could have stayed forever.  My daughter, Heather, was standing by me asking all sorts of questions about the trains.  After about ten to fifteen minutes my wife, Diane, persuaded us to leave.  Our next stop was Branson for some shows and of course more shopping.  That was ok with me because the second shop we went to had a train set and guess what?  I bought it.  Of course I told Diane that Heather really liked the trains we saw and it would be something we could do together.  I believe that was the last time Heather saw the train set and that is when it all started.