$500 Starter Layout Contest Rules
Here are the rules for the $500 Starter Layout Challenge Contest we ran from
August to November of 2012.
You have a $500 total budget.
Assume basic tools: hammer, saw, drill, screwdriver, scissors, single-edged
razor blades, soldering iron.
experience. For now, a bottle of acrylic craft paint or latex house
paint and some local sifted dirt would very well cover the shaped
bare foam. If money is available, a bag of Woodland Scenics ground
turf and a bag of coarse clump foliage would be good additions to
the inventory. I would not worry about ballasting track at this point
unless one wanted to experiment with various processes, because
the track plan will no doubt be changed once the initial lessons of
this loop have been learned.
Conclusion
This concludes my Getting StartedWith $500 Railroad. I feel my
example is a real workable solution that offers a firm foundation for
future growth. With an additional $500 available, the case could be
made for advancing to a DCC setup, investing in tools to maintain
and upgrade couplers, obtaining more rolling stock, and adding a
couple structure kits to the pike. Once more switches are available,
a more interesting track plan could be considered, and as this plan
develops, soldering tools for installing buses and feeders could be
acquired as well.
In other words, these rails are far from the final destination!
Third Place Layout for $500 -
MRH-Jul 2013
