just bought my 1st train set

I need a hobby and I had a UP train set as a kid that I shared with my 2 brothers. Unfortunately the set got sold many years later and I've always wanted that feeling back that I had as a kid. Probably like most of you on this board did too. So it was a pefect hobby to get back into and I bought a cheap train set on Ebay to get me started. My plans are a full on modern freelanced layout with some prototypical elements of the trains that run through here (about a half mile from my home) and some elements of the industry's in my area including coal, grain, and freight. I have some ideas of how I would like it to be and have an unfinished basement that will serve my needs perfectly to build it. I would also like to have a steam loco with passenger service even though it doesn't exist in my area. So I'll have a mix of diesel/electrics (mainly UP) hauling coal and freight, and a steam loco to take passengers on vintage rides. Not sure if I want to keep the 2 on separate lines or combine them. I'm leaning more to a combined effort. Any ideas?
I don't know all the train jargon yet when it comes to modeling, or real world trains so I'll be asking some stupid questions early on. I am a quick learner though.
Craig

 

If everyone thought all questions were stupid, than this wouldn't be the world's greatest hobby. Everyone in the hobby is still learning. In fact everything about the hobby is a learning experience and you'll find a wide variety of help on this site. Welcome to the Mad Hous.....Model Train House. Modern Freelanced with Prototypical Elements? Welcome to my neck of the woods

 

Well you got step one done perfectly. A starter set is a good way to get into it. Before long you'll be wanting more and more!!! he he he

My advice is pretty simple: keep it simple. Model railroading is a hobby that can happen on any level, but often people want a skilled craftsman type layout but they haven't acquired the skills for it. You might consider going to atlasrr.com and checking out some of their small layout plans.

You'll also quickly discover that model railroading is an expensive hobby, but it doesn't have to be. I used found lumber on my new layout and i didn't spend a dime on materials that way.

The main thing is not to get bogged down too much and just get some trains running and having fun.

 

Well, if I could have given you some advise first, it would be to avoid buying a train set and suggesting items you could buy individually because you would be more satisfied with the models bought separately. Train sets have improved over the past ten years, for example Walthers and Athearn have offered train sets that are better quality than the cheap toy like sets from Tyco and Bachman and Life Like. Power packs that come with train sets can't handle much so if you are going to build a layout bigger than the old 4x8 plywood pacific, MRC makes good quality power packs for the basic level. Then of course in the last 20 years, digital command control (DCC) has matured and is much more affordable than the systems in the 70's and the 80's. Digitrax and NCC make entry level systems that can be expanded to support a large basment layout if you grew into one.

As for track planning advice, if you have a space and want a book that will give some good ideas and design advise, there is the Kalmbach book by John Amstrong - Track Planning for Realistic Operation. If you can learn how to lay flex track - you can design and build a freeform layout that does not rely on snap track or sectional track and the plans made for them. Rather you used flex track and can build a layout with curves a little bigger than the train set 18 and 22 inch curves, and run more modern longer train cars, and of course passenger cars. I suggest you think about curves larger than 24 inches if you can manage it.

As for good quality trains bought separately, Athearn RTR are a little more expensive but overall good quality. Some of them, if the box is labeled for DCC, can have a decoder plugged into a socket so you can run them using digital command control, that way you don't have to wire the layout with electrical blocks, like the olden days. You just punch in the address of the engine in the throttle and you can control it separately from all the rest. Atlas is another maker of excellent quality HO diesels, probably the best overall quality. Bachman ore less expensive and not as good, although newly produced engines from Bachman are reportedly better than the old ones. Proto 2000 make nice diesels. The old ones made by Life Like are less expensive, but Walthers took them over a few years ago and the prices are MUCH higher now.

For freight cars, Athearn, Walthers, Atlas, ExactRail are all excellent and ready to run. If you want to build kits, there are still Athearn blue box, Accurail, Model Die Casting, and Walthers kits at train shows if you can find one in your area.

 

I can't speak for all train shows, swap meets or sellers, but Look around at local shows. At mine, we have a seller doing 3 for 20 on Athearn RTR. Swap meets can be your friend, always look at shows, and haggling doesn't hurt either. But I agree, train sets aren't always the best to start with. Sometimes it's cheaper to build your own set. But again, find a local train show in your area that won't cost you a limb to pay for gas and start there. Look for local clubs or hobby shops to talk with. And when in doubt, Trainboard.com is here to help too.

 

Generally it actually costs more to purchase all the items that would be in a train set, if you purchased them individually, at least in the past. This is because the items you buy are better quality, like an MRC power pack could cost between $50 and 80 dollars by itself, but is much better than the small power packs in train sets. If you buy an Atlas diesel, those (street price) can run $70-100, or more - or you could get an Atlas Trainman diesel which is not as detailed but run great and cost less. Trainman is Atlas's lower cost line, but still nice quality.

I agree, look for a train show in your area. Depending on where you live, assuming you are near a major city, you probably should have at least a couple come per year. Baltimore MD has the Timonium show quarterly, and in Chantilly VAwe have one per year (used to be twice a year until they sold a convention building to Walmart!), so I have at least 5 per year I could visit, probably more if I looked around. Yes, it is over an hour to Baltimore from where I live but it's a great show. There are lots of good deals at shows on both RTR train cars and kits. The last Timonium show I saw lots of kits for Athearn, Walthers etc between 5 and 10 dollars each! Yes, you need to get KD couplers for them so that adds a little extra cost, and if you like metal wheels, a little more.

Since I moved away from California, I've lived in Texas, Indiana, New York and Virginia, and all areas have had train shows I could visit, so I'm sure you can find some to attend.

 

I live about an hour away from Wheaton, and we have a show 11 times a year. July is for County Fair Setup. Yes it does actually cost more to build a set, but if you're good at wheeling and dealing, it doesn't cost much more

Right on the Money with the Kadee couplers. They have a conversion guide on their website, but most models seem to take well to the #5 coupler. The first thing I do with any engine or rolling stock I buy is swap the couplers over to Kadees. Atlas' 2 part coupler system is a pure joke. It will snap on most loads. One thing to well verse in is to pay attention to the size of your curves. Longer shanks will be better for tighter turns, but will not be as prototypical. Metal wheels are also a good suggestion. That black stuff that generally sits on your rails is plastic. it just wears itself down and screws up your rails. Metal, while it is a bit more on the expensive side, will last longer and help your rolling stock run better. It also adds a little weight to it.

And that's something else to consider. Some cars can benefit from added weight. I've used Athearn Kits where the stock weight wasn't enough. Generally this can be solved by using some 1oz lead fishing weights, generally hot glued in (as I do that in large scale). I put my weights over the trucks to help distribute the weight as the trucks should be handling the weight, not the full body.

 

well I got my train set today. I tried to set it up but all of the rail joiners are wore out and there's a few missing. I did make a circle with a few curved section and hooked it up. The loco moves but looses power on some of the bad connections. There are a few minor broken pieces. Nothing I can't deal with. I did win some more auctions on ebay. In all I will have 55 cars, of which 8 are cabooses, and 1 more loco. There all cheap bachman, life like, a lot of them have missing wheelsets and a few have missing trucks. I'll prolly raid the cabooses to put some of them back together. I did pick up 6 athhearn freight cars with kadee couplers. All but the athearn cars will be most likely part of the scenery when I do a bigger layout. I picked up some new joiners and should give everything a good shake down soon.
craig

 

You should be able to buy packages of rail joiners at your local hobby shop, you always need extra's of those when working on a layout. You've already discovered that electrical conductivity is very important. If rail or rail joiners are coroded or dirty, they may not pass electricity reliably so cleaning, polishing etc can help in that regard. Also some folks chose to solder rail together to get good conductivity, but soldering is semi permanant so you may not want to do that until you have a track arrangement set up that you want to keep. You can separate soldered track by applying a soldering iron to the joint and heating it, then pulling it apart. But you have to be wary of melting ties etc, so along with a soldering iron, flux, rosin core solder, you should get some heat sinks to draw off some of the heat and protect against melting ties. Even simple allegator clips can help function as heat sinks by the way. Another way to get better electrical operation is to connect the power leads to the track in more than one place. In my last layout, I soldered leads to the bottom of rail joiners and ran them every other joint of flex track. That way the chance of a dead spot would be virtually nill. On a small temporary layout, you can just run a few extra leads from the power pack, that way you have more chance that it would not lose power.

You'll find that the better the quality of the model railroad products, the more you will enjoy the hobby. Many of the older train set engines and freight cars are of toylike quality. Even if the engines have all wheel drive and pick up, they may not run all that well if they are Lifelike or Bachman. Lower cost HO engines such as Athearn blue box, Bachman Plus/Spectrum, Atlas Trainman, Walthers Trainline, etc are a step above train set engines and should run decently. Better yet, Stewart, Atlas, Proto 2000, KATO, Athearn Genesis are among the top runners. Many of the freight cars will have very loose pivoting trucks and truck mounted couplers, again they have a higher tendency to derail, especially if pushed or backed up. You never identified the "brand" of the trainset but that will probably indicate how good or bad your experience you may have. True, you may have gotten a boat load of stuff for cheap, but as you replace much of it with individually higher quality engines and rolling stock, you will probably find things run more smoothly.

You mentioned having some Athearn cars, but they would become part of the scenery? I would think the Lifelike and Bachman cars would be worse that Athearn, and be relegated to scenery long before the comparatively better Athearn cars! Athearn can be MUCH more reliable and better running than cheap toy set freight cars. Athearn has body mounted couplers which can be converted to KD#5 easily and if you remove the trucks, you can file down the bolster a bit and then put them back on and tighten the screws to stop the trucks from rocking, so that they swivel freely but don't rock!

 

no no. Everything but the Athearns will be apart of scenery. I know all about electrical connectivity. I'm an auto body repair technician. I knew full well what kind of quality of train parts I was buying. The train set is a bachmann figure 8 with a tressle bridge.

 

Then it sounds like you have everything under control and don't need our advice. Enjoy the hobby.

 

Best of luck rail master - this is a great place for learning the hobby. If you're anything like me, your interests will change as you progress and are exposed to different aspects you might not have considered before.
I started out to model the Union Pacific and now find myself deep into the L&N and southern railroading.
And about those older "junk" brands (Bachmann, Life Like, etc.) - don't be so quick to turn them into scenery, you may have to massage them a little but there are some jewels there too. Main thing - have fun!

 

So I was doing some research after seeing another board member use google street maps for pic's of something he was modeling, I and got the street veiws of the Grain silo/mill that I'm going to prototype and I got a bonus. The end of an intermodal was stopped right at the crossing. Southern Pacific well cars double stacked. All my years of being around this rail line I've never seen one. It's always been coal or mixed freight with tanks, box, auto carriers, and gondolas. Also I got to see it in the middle of the day with all the truck traffic around the mill/silo that I don't get to see because I'm working when they're working. This weekend if I have some free time I'll walk down the hill to it and take some pictures of it as it's only about a 3rd of a mile from my house.