New Member - Happy to be here!

Howdy "Southern",
welcome aboard!


(do you have a real name we can call you? first name is fine..you can put it in your profile..)


Welcome to Large scale! I think you will find you made a great choice for a new hobby!
and you will find much help here..
ask anything! 


Scot

I've thought and planned a good bit about what I want for my railroad.  I currently have an oval (30' x 10') with 70 feet of Aristo track, 10' diameter curves and track power.  I constructed the roadbed on top of the ground with landscape edging filled about 3" deep with crushed granite.  The track floats on the granite ballast.  Right now, I am an apartment dweller, so my layout is at a friend's house.  When I get a house of my own, I can dig up the current layout and take it with me.

My current motive power and rolling stock consists of my pitiful little Atlantic Coast Line Mighty Moe Starter Set from USA Trains, with the addition of one extra boxcar.  I have sketched out a master plan for my permanent layout.  I'm planning my track to be ground level and virtually all main line with 2 loops.  I plan to emphasize the "garden" part of the railway and am not planning any structures or yards.  The main feature of the final product (to be built in 4 stages with a total of about 600' of track) will be a  20' x 10' pond and waterfall spanned by a 20-foot railroad bridge (pretty ambitious, but it won't be completed for a number of years)

As for the railroad era, I planning to model trains from different eras that have run or are currently running in the Carolinas.  In addition to my ACL starter set from the 1930's, my first "real" train will be a modern CSX freight train.  My dream train at this time will be a 1950's streamline version of the old "Southern Crescent" passenger train which ran from New York to New Orleans through the Carolinas.  I'll probably use the new Aristo E-8 to pull the train.  After all of that is in place, I might build an elevated railway of a yet to be determined narrow gauge line.