While most people would think of model trains as children's toys they might be surprised to discover there are as many, if not more, grown men and women from all walks of life who are model train enthusiasts and may have been all their lives having started out with a birthday gift of an electric train set.

A model train layout can be an absorbing hobby that takes you away from all the worries of the world into a miniature world where you can be the master of all you survey and decide if there should be mountains, rivers, towns and farms on your model train layout.

There is a tremendous freedom to do whatever you want and you can have whatever type of countryside you desire. From desert to flooded plains, mountainous snow capped regions to sunny seaside areas and all in the space of just a few feet. With a model railroad layout you are in total control of the features of the landscape your railroad goes through.

It is probably true to say that most adult model railroad enthusiasts began as children with a toy train but that is not true of everyone. For some the fascination with model trains has developed as adults when they have seen what is possible and the astonishing level of detail and excellent engineering that goes into the construction of these train engines in miniature.

Most people start out with the H0 model trains but there are several other scale sizes you can use and if you are pushed for space for your model train layout you might want to consider the N gauge or even Z gauge which is incredibly tiny and small enough that you could fit a reasonable layout on a coffee table.

Some people enjoy constructing all the trees and buildings they use on their railroad layout by hand but many people find this a rather tedious task and they are happy to pay someone else to do that and buy the scenery and buildings ready made so they can get on with operating their trains. There are no rules about this and you can have fun doing what you enjoy the most.

You can get computer train layout design software to help develop your track to get the most usable track in a given area but you should probably start out with some books about model train layouts or model railway track plans and design. You can use computers to control all the different trains running on your track at the same time. So you can see that building a model train layout can be a comprehensive hobby that includes all sorts of different aspects of building and running your model railroad and you can spend as much time on whichever area interests you the most and have a lot of fun with your model trains.

Nearly all the model trains you see these days start out from an electric train set but it wasn't always the only choice. When I started out I was given a clockwork HO train set that was made up of the locomotive and a circle of track about three feet diameter.

It was a great little engine that whirred away travelling several circuits before it came to a halt when the clockwork motor ran down. It may not sound much to the young people in this modern computer driven world but I was thrilled with my clockwork train set and it introduced me to the hobby of model trains which has remained an interest throughout my lifetime.