 Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC) Posts: 14,875 Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
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Most of us build a layout but where is it all coming from, what makes us find the energy to build and spend so much money on a hobby that has modeller and enthusiasts hooked on it.
I can blame my mother for sending out my and my brothers early small collection and the all forgotten Christmas present back in 1954, I've never thought about it and than suddenly this urge came about I have to recreate something more substantial.
John |
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 5 users liked this useful post by river6109
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 Joined: 28/11/2007(UTC) Posts: 8,230 Location: Montreal, QC
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When I was 4 or 5, I received a wind up train set (Triang) where my Dad had carefully applied Letraset for Canadian National. A year or two later, that train was replaced by electric ones. The year after, we were introduced to some other trains, which had been left with us by a colleague of my Dad's who was returning to Europe (Switzerland?) and could not bring his trains. Those metal models included a steam engine, a shunter and a green and a blue electric. At first I liked the blue one, but when I realized that the green one went with a coach that had little knobs on the roof to open the doors, that one became my favourite when we were allowed to play with it.
A few years after that, our family moved to Switzerland when my Dad took a year's sabbatical to return to his alma mater (ETH). For my birthday that year, I got a 3050 Ae 6/6 and for Christmas a small Start set so that I could run my new train. I discovered that the green locomotive (RET800) and 348/1 were in fact Swiss trains, I learned what SBB was and I was hooked.
In the 1980s, when I was at University, I got back into the hobby while working at a local hobby shop and following a summer class in Germany, I started my collection which represents trains that I have either taken or seen during my travels.
I think that what made Swiss trains so interesting was the mix of international cars and coaches that could be seen behind Swiss locomotives.
Regards
Mike C
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8 users liked this useful post by mike c
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Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC) Posts: 14,875 Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
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Mike, this would have been excruciating working in a model train shop and seeing all these locos and rolling stock and not being able to buy anything but suppose you've made up for it now
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1 user liked this useful post by river6109
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 Joined: 15/12/2005(UTC) Posts: 3,594 Location: Spain
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My inspiration I have had to get where I could.
In the days before internet, most information and inspiration was gathered from what was available to me;
Primarily the Märklin catalogues, a couple of books by Bernd Schmid (sold by Märklin), and some odd magazines that I could get my hands on. (Not much available on my non-existent budget and "far away" from Copenhagen)
Although I would have liked to model danish trains, what was available was mainly german epoch IV stuff.
Later, thanks to available german magazines from the local library (MIBA and Eisenbahn Kurier), my eyes were opened a bit more to the world outside of Märklin.
Catalogues from Roco, Fleischmann, Lima, Arnold, etc. showed layouts in a totally different style than Märklin. Much more... "realistic" decorations, in my eyes.
Forays into US and british train modelling magazines showed mind-blowing decorations which helped me define what I wanted, and what I did NOT want.
However, on my strict budget, a totally new beginning was out of the question, but at least I could get onto K-tracks and gradually reduce my epoch IV stuff to get more epoch III (steam!) stuff.
Because of numerous other accesories, a german DB layout was also always a given. This is not a problem. I love my german trains!
A visit to the early MiWuLa (year 2002 I think) helped solidify my ideas for my own future layout.
Lately I plow through youtube videos from huge exhibition- and club layouts, from the hands of Joseph Brandl and other master artisans. Of course I can never do anything close to what they do, but they are certainly my inspiration! |
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4 users liked this useful post by hxmiesa
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Joined: 31/10/2009(UTC) Posts: 609 Location: Toronto, Ontario
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My original inspiration came from Hamley's in London. From when I was about 6, my dad would ask whether I wanted a trainset for Christmas. Every year I said no but in the mid=70's, Hamley's opened a hobby version of their shop a couple of blocks north of Oxford Street. They had some spectacular displays. When I was in there on an annual summer vacation when I was 11 years old, I decided I did say I wanted a train set. My dad, who obviously always wanted one, got all the various Kalmbach magazines on our return home to Canada (design, wiring, construction etc ) . The first layout was up in about 2 months (we did not wait for Christmas) and funnily enough, I still use many of the original Atlas controls.
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5 users liked this useful post by jcrtrains
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 Joined: 02/02/2017(UTC) Posts: 694 Location: England, South Coast
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Originally Posted by: jcrtrains  My original inspiration came from Hamley's in London. From when I was about 6, my dad would ask whether I wanted a trainset for Christmas.
Ah, do you remember the time when Hamley's display ran all the way round the upstairs balcony? Vollon & Brun SNCF BB 9211 'Mistral' pulling a long rake of the 'inox' coaches under catenary at great speed all day? I was hooked.
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3 users liked this useful post by Michael4
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Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC) Posts: 14,875 Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
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Henrik wrote: a couple of books by Bernd Schmid (sold by Märklin),, I had one of these books but you wouldn't believe it I didn't like it, although he is a master modeller and produced many layout some of the photos in the book it didn't look right to me., one can take a picture to make the the perfect scene but for some reason this is what I thought: a picture made for photographic purposes, like a snapshot of a scene, it may be alright for a specific frame but I couldn't see it being used for an overall scenery, its hard to explain without a picture.
my inspiration I got from the garden when it comes to scenery, I've must have saved thousands of dollars and I'm still happy today for what I've achieved. mountains mainly made out of cork bark, landscaping mainly soil, and bushes and trees from our native bush,its very hard to recreate nature unless you feed it with natural materials.
mind you the snow modules aren't made from any close to nature materials but again I've used some techniques which would represent snow in Europe and having lived there I had some idea., like snow drifts and how snow is formed over weeks and month of snowing.
John |
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5 users liked this useful post by river6109
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Joined: 15/12/2005(UTC) Posts: 3,594 Location: Spain
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Originally Posted by: river6109 Henrik wrote: a couple of books by Bernd Schmid (sold by Märklin),, I had one of these books but you wouldn't believe it I didn't like it, although he is a master modeller and produced many layout some of the photos in the book it didn't look right to me., one can take a picture to make the the perfect scene but for some reason this is what I thought: a picture made for photographic purposes, like a snapshot of a scene, it may be alright for a specific frame but I couldn't see it being used for an overall scenery, its hard to explain without a picture. I think his scenery skills were excellent, but what I certainly didnt like about his layouts, was the trackplan. Even his last layout featured in the Profi-Tips series of articles in the M.Magazine always used the same boring double oval. Ever since I discovered the "dogbone layout" (=crushed oval), I´ve never looked back at any of his trackplans. |
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2 users liked this useful post by hxmiesa
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Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC) Posts: 14,875 Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
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Originally Posted by: hxmiesa Originally Posted by: river6109 Henrik wrote: a couple of books by Bernd Schmid (sold by Märklin),, I had one of these books but you wouldn't believe it I didn't like it, although he is a master modeller and produced many layout some of the photos in the book it didn't look right to me., one can take a picture to make the perfect scene but for some reason this is what I thought: a picture made for photographic purposes, like a snapshot of a scene, it may be alright for a specific frame but I couldn't see it being used for an overall scenery, its hard to explain without a picture. I think his scenery skills were excellent, but what I certainly didnt like about his layouts, was the trackplan. Even his last layout featured in the Profi-Tips series of articles in the M.Magazine always used the same boring double oval. Ever since I discovered the "dogbone layout" (=crushed oval), I´ve never looked back at any of his trackplans. It just struck me and don't ask me why, I may had already a picture in my head and what he represented wasn't what I was looking for. and most probably it was inspirations, its like being a conductor and each conductor has its own interpretation how an orchestra should play a classical musical, I've seen videos of his scenery and I was impressed but I still remember this one picture in his first book bought out by Märklin but I've sold it many years ago so I can't elaborate on it. |
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1 user liked this useful post by river6109
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Joined: 04/01/2019(UTC)
Posts: 344
Location: England, Ipswich
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Originally Posted by: river6109 Originally Posted by: hxmiesa Originally Posted by: river6109 Henrik wrote: a couple of books by Bernd Schmid (sold by Märklin),, I had one of these books but you wouldn't believe it I didn't like it, although he is a master modeller and produced many layout some of the photos in the book it didn't look right to me., one can take a picture to make the perfect scene but for some reason this is what I thought: a picture made for photographic purposes, like a snapshot of a scene, it may be alright for a specific frame but I couldn't see it being used for an overall scenery, its hard to explain without a picture. I think his scenery skills were excellent, but what I certainly didnt like about his layouts, was the trackplan. Even his last layout featured in the Profi-Tips series of articles in the M.Magazine always used the same boring double oval. Ever since I discovered the "dogbone layout" (=crushed oval), I´ve never looked back at any of his trackplans. It just struck me and don't ask me why, I may had already a picture in my head and what he represented wasn't what I was looking for. and most probably it was inspirations, its like being a conductor and each conductor has its own interpretation how an orchestra should play a classical musical, I've seen videos of his scenery and I was impressed but I still remember this one picture in his first book bought out by Märklin but I've sold it many years ago so I can't elaborate on it. Gamages in High Holborn, London had a large Lionel layout at Xmas every year and my Dad always took me there. When I was old enough (10) he wanted to buy me a set but it was way too expensive so he bought me a Triang Transcontinental box - 2-6-4 Canadian pacific lok, two freight cars and a caboose. My local library, in South London, had a copy of Frank Ellisons "On Model Railroads" which is a book made up from Model Railroader articles - all dated pre 1955. Since then I have drifted around but mostly building (or at least buying on my regular trips to the US) US outline stuff. Now retired, I have gone through N Scale US, HO scale US, UK N gauge and finally Marklin. Incidentally, a friend in the US found me a copy of the Frank Ellison book so I now have my own! |
Long Haired David
AKA David Pennington
A mystified Maerklin Newbie |
3 users liked this useful post by LongHairedDavid
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Joined: 08/09/2015(UTC) Posts: 2,078 Location: Cowansville, QC
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Hi guys  My inspirations ? My inspirations? ......Very simple: my wallet   My joke of today  Thewolf |
Project Estrie Rail Road-CS3-Track C- Itrain-Digital |
4 users liked this useful post by Thewolf
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Joined: 31/10/2009(UTC) Posts: 609 Location: Toronto, Ontario
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Originally Posted by: jcrtrains My original inspiration came from Hamley's in London. From when I was about 6, my dad would ask whether I wanted a trainset for Christmas. Every year I said no but in the mid=70's, Hamley's opened a hobby version of their shop a couple of blocks north of Oxford Street. They had some spectacular displays. When I was in there on an annual summer vacation when I was 11 years old, I decided I did say I wanted a train set. My dad, who obviously always wanted one, got all the various Kalmbach magazines on our return home to Canada (design, wiring, construction etc ) . The first layout was up in about 2 months (we did not wait for Christmas) and funnily enough, I still use many of the original Atlas controls.
Interestingly enough, our original layout design is actually available in today's retail world (albeit out of stock) as shown below. Atlas had a plan book that included detailed wiring instructions (also still available as Atlas HO Layouts for every space) which was our bible for building the layout. This layout had great operating elements with lot's of crossings and a reverse loop. Our second layout extended this original design with each of the loops being much larger and containing yards, industry and a turntable. Great stuff and always great to see classic designs being continued today. Original Atlas layout
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5 users liked this useful post by jcrtrains
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Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC) Posts: 8,476 Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
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I remember as a small boy being taken into Wellington City when my mother went shopping, and the James Smith department store had a Lionel Train layout in the shop windows. This must have been something like 30 feet long, possibly more, as it occupied the full window space from the doorway in Cuba Street to the doorway in Manners Street. I remember it having the livestock wagon that would load and unload animals, an operating railway crossing and trains really rocketing along - none of this "scale speed" stuff.
I assume it was set up and run by a bunch of guys who used their own track and trains, I assume members of a club of some sort. I recall them wearing American style fine striped dungarees and caps like real American loco drivers and firemen.
A quick Google search doesn't reveal any information on these displays, but I guess if one went digging in local archives there would be pictures somewhere. From memory they did this for about three years or so as a Christmas attraction.
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4 users liked this useful post by kiwiAlan
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Joined: 09/11/2013(UTC) Posts: 335 Location: Toronto, Canada
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There have been many sources that have inspired my layout designs and general interest in this hobby over the years.
-Train watching in Germany as a boy
-Repeatedly skimming through Marklin Catalogs, Marklin Magazines, and many other reading materials
-Visiting various club layouts in the Toronto area as well as in Germany (including of course several visits to the MiWuLa among others)
-More recently watching Youtube videos of many layouts and of DB verkehr from the 80s and 90s
-Viewing the many layout build threads and track plans here on Marklin-users.net and the websites created by a number of users here |
My Layout Build | Märklin CS3+ | K-track | Merkur | Viessmann | LDT | iTrain | Modeling primarily DB EpIV-VI
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3 users liked this useful post by Roland
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Joined: 01/06/2016(UTC)
Posts: 2,465
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 Joined: 26/01/2018(UTC) Posts: 406 Location: Hailey, Idaho
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I've obsessed compulsively about trains from my earliest childhood memories, even before my father bought my first starter set. |
G - LGB
HO - Marklin
N - Mix of manufacturers mostly Kato |
1 user liked this useful post by GaryTrooper
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Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC) Posts: 14,875 Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
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Originally Posted by: GaryTrooper I've obsessed compulsively about trains from my earliest childhood memories, even before my father bought my first starter set. You should ask your mother whether or not she traveled in a train before you were born  , I used to read these magazines in bed at night time and I just dreamed of it but could never afford it and its the same to day., 65 years later John |
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Joined: 26/01/2018(UTC) Posts: 406 Location: Hailey, Idaho
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Originally Posted by: river6109 Originally Posted by: GaryTrooper I've obsessed compulsively about trains from my earliest childhood memories, even before my father bought my first starter set. You should ask your mother whether or not she traveled in a train before you were born , I used to read these magazines in bed at night time and I just dreamed of it but could never afford it and its the same to day., 65 years later John Mom was from Jersey City, Dad was from Brooklyn. Mass transit was all around. Lol. Facebook has this group called New York's railroads, subways & trolleys psst & present. The group consists of historians, railroad workers, and everyday people into rail transportation. There are early videos of trolleys going over the Brooklyn bridge and many other parts of the early subway and elevated systems. If you follow the posts long enough you can see how all the first, independent start ups grow in size to become the system it is today. Photos as early as the1870s. Check it out if you're into it. |
G - LGB
HO - Marklin
N - Mix of manufacturers mostly Kato |
2 users liked this useful post by GaryTrooper
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Joined: 08/09/2015(UTC) Posts: 2,078 Location: Cowansville, QC
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Originally Posted by: TEEWolf It's good Wolfgang very good |
Project Estrie Rail Road-CS3-Track C- Itrain-Digital |
2 users liked this useful post by Thewolf
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