Thursday, May 17, 2007

Model Railroading

After more than 25 years of collecting and arm-chair model railroading I have decided to jump back into the hobby. I first started to have interest in the hobby as a kid growing up in the late seventies. Sometime around my 10th birthday I got an HO scale train set. I was thrilled, I had been dreaming of this set for a long time, wearing out the Sears catalogue in the process. My first layout began soon after. My dad built a 4’x 8’ table with folding legs to use as the train table. I have no idea what I was going but I had a blast. This lasted for a couple of years but my interest soon died out.

Fast-forward to the early nineties and I am married with a young daughter. My interest slowly rekindled and I started reading the Model Railroader magazines again. My house didn’t really have the space for a proper layout (at least that is what I thought at the time) so I decided on a switching layout. Switching is my favorite railroad activity so it was a good fit. I modified the track plan, from one of the Atlas track planning books, for the Southside Connecting railroad. I built the bench and got the track down and even had trains running! My wife was amazed (her actual words were “you’re actually doing it?”).

Life took a turn and we moved out of state and my uncompleted railroad was abandoned, much like a real one. I continued to collect cars and locos for a few more years but things just never seemed to be right to start another layout (excuses, excuses). I now realize that if this ever going to happen I have to just do it and make the most of what I have.

“Why is this on your painting blog?” you ask. I plan to use this blog to document my progress just as I have done with my war gamming hobby. There is a lot of painting on a model railroad you know, so there will be plenty of things to share. Don’t worry; I have not given up on my war gamming and miniatures painting. In fact, we are starting a Lord of the Rings campaign next month so keep a look out for that. More on this later.

Warhammer Ancient Battles Tournament

My local game group, The North Phoenix Irregulars, is holding our annual WAB tournament on June 9th. Checkout the website for more info - http://wab.bluedream.com/. Please check out the list of sponsors for the event