I made a comment that if you do not have a railroad running or were looking for a change of pace you could easily get a 2’ x 3’ cork posting board on sale for around $10.00 and put some spare track down and be running in a few hours.
Why did I suggest 2’ x 3’ cork tack boards? Well this is my story and I am sticking to it:
• The cork and underlying material holds track spikes like a champ (practice hand laying track).
• You do not need any power tools to build bench work. It is small enough to store under a bed if you have no room for a layout.
• You can move it easily to the coffee table and run trains.
• The layout will fit in the trunk of a car even my 2 seat SLK.
• You can get 11” radius curves down that will allow you to run a lot of small HO or ON30 drives and cars.
• I have built a mini and a micro layout on these before and they have each lasted 5 years and are still running.
Here are the rules.
• Must use a 2’x3’ (approximate) cork board to start, keep it intact or slice it dice it any way you want.
• A train has to run on the layout when finished.
• The layout needs a purpose to exist, industry, theme park ride, etc.
• It must hold the interest of a 7 – 10 year old for a half hour of play time. Yes, this is possible; I know it to be true. The children should be able to drive it and throw a switch but tell them no touching the trains or structures. I suggest a loop with a couple of switches or cool automation.
• It must be operational by Thanksgiving 2014 (Giving the finished layout to a child, hospital or old age home for the Holidays earn extra special bonus points).
• I would like to keep the scale to HO or above to make it a real challenge. (bonus points for new gauges / scales invented)
• If you model someplace then model someplace else for the challenge. I model the Yukon that means I have to model something like Arizona, North Carolina, Cuba, Europe or something.
Sample of said board.
http://www.officesupply.com/office-s...FWcS7Aod62AAZg
I buy mine at Hobby Lobby and use a 40% off on line coupon they put out every couple of weeks.
So let’s go, I know two ON30 guys who want in other than me.
Why did I suggest 2’ x 3’ cork tack boards? Well this is my story and I am sticking to it:
• The cork and underlying material holds track spikes like a champ (practice hand laying track).
• You do not need any power tools to build bench work. It is small enough to store under a bed if you have no room for a layout.
• You can move it easily to the coffee table and run trains.
• The layout will fit in the trunk of a car even my 2 seat SLK.
• You can get 11” radius curves down that will allow you to run a lot of small HO or ON30 drives and cars.
• I have built a mini and a micro layout on these before and they have each lasted 5 years and are still running.
Here are the rules.
• Must use a 2’x3’ (approximate) cork board to start, keep it intact or slice it dice it any way you want.
• A train has to run on the layout when finished.
• The layout needs a purpose to exist, industry, theme park ride, etc.
• It must hold the interest of a 7 – 10 year old for a half hour of play time. Yes, this is possible; I know it to be true. The children should be able to drive it and throw a switch but tell them no touching the trains or structures. I suggest a loop with a couple of switches or cool automation.
• It must be operational by Thanksgiving 2014 (Giving the finished layout to a child, hospital or old age home for the Holidays earn extra special bonus points).
• I would like to keep the scale to HO or above to make it a real challenge. (bonus points for new gauges / scales invented)
• If you model someplace then model someplace else for the challenge. I model the Yukon that means I have to model something like Arizona, North Carolina, Cuba, Europe or something.
Sample of said board.
http://www.officesupply.com/office-s...FWcS7Aod62AAZg
I buy mine at Hobby Lobby and use a 40% off on line coupon they put out every couple of weeks.
So let’s go, I know two ON30 guys who want in other than me.
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