Hey guys, nice board. Anyways I am considering re-entering the hobby of Model Railroading. I was into model trains from my childhood until my mid to late teens, but after starting college I kinda lost intrest and went onto other things. At that time, I also sold all my model RR stuff (benchwork, supplies, etc). I am a 23 yr old College student. I am thinking about re-entering the hobby mainly for the reason of needing a "winter time hobby" to do. My other hobbies include auto racing, SCCA (sports car club of America) and the sport compact car scene. Since I am involved in other hobbies, I will be on a budget to do everything that I want to do. During nice warm weather, I am involved in auto racing and the car scene in general. But when the snow starts flying, there isnt much car related that I can do so I think that model RR would be a good hobby. I dont know if I can commit to building my own layout (im sure my parents would freak if I told them I wanted to build another model RR bench after they had helped me build the other one which I sold LOL), so I am considering the possibilty of joining a club, and helping with a club layout. Just thought I would introduce myself. Also any ideas of model RR on a budget would be appreciated. BTW, I was into HO scale when I originally was in the hobby.
Welcome to Trainboard Capt. Obvious. You will find that "N" is up and coming strong. Regardless of what scale you decide to dab in, there are lots of guys and gals here that would be glad to offer any help and advise. There is very little flack on trainboard as we are one big happy family. Again, Welcome and enjoy.
"N" coming up and strong, as in N scale, right? I also agree, the atmosphere around this board is much more laid back than some of the automotive forums I am also a member of. Ive been browsing the boards for a month or so and this seems like a big happy family. Finally, a forum on the net I can look forward to visting without constant fighting and what not.
Join a Ntrack Modular layout club and build yourself a module that you can run at the club and at shows. Welcome to Trainboard.
Hi. To answer your Q. on model railroads on a budget there are tons of ways to do it If you need materials for constructing benchwork you can usually go to any business that handles pallets and get scrap palet wood. It's awfull stuff but if you have a plane you can make it resonable. Of note is ikea as you can often get OSB sheets, hardboard, and miscelanious furnature pieces for nothing (I know people who make and sell kids toys out of this scrap). Construction sites may also have scrap you can have. You might want to consider learing how to handlay track. Although flex track cost around the same price you can build a turnout for much cheaper than you can buy one. There is someone on this board who makes very nice looking structures out of cardboard. Those were just a few examples of ways to save money. There are many many more.
I know where you are coming from, I am in the same budget bracket and the same restriction on size too. I'm still in HO, but if I were starting over from scratch I'd be tempted to go N and fit more in. One tip: extruded styrofoam insulation as a layout base. It's cheap, easy to work with, and light, you probably could built the whole thing yourself. My current layout is 2 inches of this stuff resting on metal shelf brackets screwed to the wall. The track is laid atop cork which was glued down, and the foam was carved easily enough with an old, bent, hacksaw blade. I probably have more invested in one Atlas loco than in all the benchwork & backdrop & junk I have!
AYE CAPT'N! WELCOME ABOARD TRAINBOARD! AVAST YE TRAIN LUBBERS! TRAINS AHOY! "RED SKY AT NIGHT, RAILROADERS DELIGHT". "RED SKY AT MORN......RAILROADERS TAKE WARN!" AH WHAT THE HECK! I'M "INSIDE" PLAYING WITH MY TRAINS ANYWAY! SEA CAPTAINS HATE CREW CUTS! Sorry. Just get carried away. Joining a club sounds good. Just ignore me too. [ 02. October 2002, 22:06: Message edited by: Johnny Trains ]
Come to think of this, I work at a home depot, they are always throwing away good lumber (i.e customer rejects, used for promotional purposes, temporary clearance sale shelfing, etc). Ill have to check into that.
Welcome about Capt! Feel free to ask anything you like! I'm sure one of us will be able to help you out with whatever your thinking of doing, probably in 3 or 4 different ways! Anyway, what railroad you plan to model ??? And what era ? Etc....
I really havent thought that far in advance yet, but if I do I may just go with a standard modern era layout with no particular line--like I had intended to do the first time around. I may go into HO scale again, since it is the most widley used scale---as far as I know it still is.
Cap'n Obvious- Welcome to Trainboard! You're right- HO is the most common scale modeled, but N scale has been making great strides. Before you decide on a scale, see what you have for layout space, and decide on what you like. John Armstrong calls it "givens & druthers". Decide for yourself: </font> what era you like</font> what part of the country you like</font> what scale would best suit your needs</font> how much can you afford</font> Of course, being this is merely a hobby, you can pretty well do what you like. Good luck, and welcome back to model railroading!
If I were you, contemplating modern RRing, I'd go with N. It's awfual hard to fit a reasonable model of a double stack train on an HO layout!
Yes. It's a VERY nice board. Which is why I signed on. HO is still the largest scale in numbers of participants. But N scale has made great strides this last decade. Growing by leaps and bounds the past couple of years. Even famous HO manufacturer Athearn has just entered the N scene! Most anything you can do in HO, can be done in N scale today. The suggestion of NTRAK is a very good one indeed. This N scale modular group set the standard of today for all scales with it's concept. It's a great way to meet people, operate prototypically looooong trains, and see what can be done. Check out their web site and links at: www.ntrak.org N is also privileged with not one, but TWO scale dedicated magazines! N Scale Railroading, and N Scale Magazine. It's well worth considering. Take your time. Read the magazines. Ask questions. Above all, have fun! BoxcabE50
Welcome to our family here on the TrainBoard Capt. Obvious! Perhaps you can gather up some scrap from work, I quite often got scrap from the dumpsters behind the Home Depot here in Fort Worth. I have stock piled wire, paint, brushes, wood of all kinds, foam, insulation, and more. I figure it is worth the money if its free! Maybe do some cogitating while having pencil in hand to make notes would help your situation. Measure the area available for this layout. Get a tape measure and draw the room on a large piece of paper, or the side of a large corragated box. Do it in 10 to one scale. Fiddeling with cars, I assume you can read a micrometer, or vernier scale? If so, work in decimals. if not, stop by the nearest Hobby Shop and get a conversion rule, they usually have HO (1/87) and N (1/160), or you can get an archetech's scale that has a bunch of scaled dimensions in feet and inches. The reason to start this way, is you will have to know what radius your chosen scale can turn easily. Obviously if you wanted O scale (1/4" to the foot) you would be unable to fit it onto a 4 foot by 8 foot piece of plywood, see? Lay out and use sissors to cut out some cardboard circles to the size. Now you can draw the correct radius and play with various track arramgements until you arrive at one that looks promising to you. Now days, both N scale and HO scale track comes already made to minimum radiused curves, and straight sections. Once you have decided on the scale, you will do well to get a turnout (switch) so you will know how much space it is going to require for each one you would like to have, and more importantly, what angle the switch is going to direct your track away from straight. Keep in mind that a turnout is not a true part of a curve. Allow finger room between yard tracks and sidings, because you will eventually have to pickup a car or engine while others are right beside it, or on both sides. The nice thing about posting here, is, we will all voice our opinions, and not get mad if you absolutely refuse to take any of it! (We might snicker a little), but we wont laugh at you any more than we would want you to laugh at us. (Especially me, I'm old, crotchity, stubborn, and set in my ways, any other way but mine isn't worth a flip!) But I'll never tell, if you don't! Email me if you do need help, though.
Don't forget you're staff discount. My father works for a hardware store here (a competitor so I'm required to hate you ) so I used his discount. I bought 1x3's for 75c cdn. In all my basic benchwork cost be $35 including the drywall compound for the walls.. [ 03. October 2002, 06:05: Message edited by: Paul Davis ]
Don't be afraid to buy a kit or two from different scales, just to try them out. You might find, after building an N scale car kit, that the smaller size might drive you nuts after awhile , or that you really like it. Or maybe you prefer the larger size and detail of HO. You don't have to make an immediate decision. Although it is much less expensive to switch scales before you spend a lot of $$$ Pat
Thanks for all the suggestions. As for the scale, I may go HO, I got kinda big fingers and I dont like to deal with little things too much. That may be more my size. Also there are some train shows in my area coming up also, so I may go check them out to get some more ideas.
Choosing scales was actually the hardest thing for me to do for awhile. HO scale is the perfect size to me, perspective wise,not too big nor too small. I don't like the small size of N scale in general, but it doe's make a hell of a layout though. I was leaning towards N scale for awhile but decided HO because I already have a decent collection of it and feel "more at home" with the size, despite having a smaller overall railroad. Since I already have some N scale stuff I'm going to put it on the HO layout also, but use it as a "forced prospective" area in the mountain areas. It will be a separate RR "off in the distance". I'll try it anyway, don't know if it'll work though.
