I don’t know about you guys, but reflecting back on all the things I have had to buy to get into this train biz that was not bought at a hobby or model RR shop, I think I have done very well.
The first thing I went out to buy was a whole lot of 10’ HT fir 1"x 4"s. I loaded up the truck and went in to pay the bill. The guy quoted me the price and I handed him my credit card. Before he put the charge through I mentioned it was for a model railroad I was building. He said “really!”. Well in that case I"ll give it to you at contractor price and knocked off $.07 a linear foot. Before I could even get the smile on my face he said "HE double hockey sticks I can do better than that"and he knocked off another $.03 a foot. That was the first thing.
Next was Bus wire. I went to the local contractor store and asked for 300’ of 14 gauge wire in red and 300’ of 14 gauge wire in black. I followed him to “the wire room” where there was spool upon spool of wire. As he started to pull out the wire he asked what I was going to do with it. I told him it was for a model RR and he stopped and said “can you use 12 gauge instead”?. I asked why and he said “hang on a sec”. He disappeared into the back of the warehouse and came out with about 400’ of green and 350’ of black. He said " if you can get by with 12 gauge in black and green instead of 14 gauge in black and red, you can have it all for $20.00. I smiled and said " I think I will be able to manage" and thanked him very,very much.
I have gone back and bought several things there including three terminal strips marked $12.00 each dropped to $4.00 for the train guy.[(-D].
The last thing is Home Depot. You get two free cuts with every piece of wood included in the price. They know me and if it is for the RR they give me all the free cuts I need. This was great in getting me started on my splines and backdrops. I do go when they are not busy.
I have been very lucky. But when a guy hears MRR, even if he is not into trains, there is that conn
Model railroading on a shoestring budget? Hey, Brent, that´s my topic!
I have virtually no money available for my hobby, so I rely heavily on things I can have for close to nothing. I went to our local carpenter and inquired about a hollow core door to be used as a base for my model rairoad. He had a used one, which he let me have for free. To top this, he even cut it to the size I wanted to have and let me have bits and pieces of plywood I also need. Total cost of benchwork - just a handful of $ for glue and wall mounting brackets!
Good morning Ulrich. Free is even better! You just reminded me that today I picked up a whole bunch of hardwood scraps at a furniture manufacturer I was visiting. They will come in handy I’m sure
Have a good MRR day[:)]. It’s bed time here and it has been a loooooong day. [|)]
To be honest, I received my MMR back in 1988 and I can’t recall anyone giving me any price discounts for materials I bought, or parts I bought, or anything else except free advice that wasn’t always the best.
However, my layout was already built and pretty much done, and I incorporated the projects leading me to the MMR into the layout. Glad everything worked out for you.
I’ve never tried getting a discount from the lumber store I normally go to, BUT, since it is a long time family owned buisness, there happens to be an realtor office on one side that distinctly looks like an old depot, and then there’s the feedmill complex on the other side of the road thats been there long time, and then the fairly new asphalt bike trail that runs a straight line past all of them, …well, I’d bet that the father in the lumber store remembers when those rails came into the lumberyard.
Sadly, Bob, I think a lot of it has to with location. I live in a small rural community, and I’ve run into many of the situations shared by others. When I built my first layout, I lived in Phoenix, AZ and, people just weren’t into model railroading. But for rural people, especially older folks, it seems when people find out it’s for a model railroad, it hearkens them back to their own childhood and the hours of fun they spent watching a train navigate a simple oval of track, using their imaginations to fill in the many stops along the way.
Tinman and Madina you have both hit it dead on. The lumber store is on a spur line that use to have a Co-op next to it. And it is a family business that probably has it days numbered as suburbia is literally on the horizon across the farm lands. And it’s rolling out at an alarming rate. The family owned operation has much better quality products and can easily give a discount if the spirit moves them. A big box store employee does not have the same empowerment without going through the chain of command.
Just yesterday I picked two sheets of Homasote for my Lakehurst Yard that I’ve been working on. I normally go to a Home Depot a ways away form me as the one that nearest to my hose would never cut homasote. “It makes too much dust and it ruins the saw blade” Was the answer I had gotten in the past. So being I was on the way home and with in a stones throw I decided to gave “that” home Dept a call and ask if they had Homasote in stock and could they cut it for me on the saw. Guy said of course we can, when I told him that others in the store had refused to cut it for me he said you come see me my name is Bill and I’m the manager of the lumber department. SO I hang a right turn and off to H.D. I walk in the lumber department and ask for Bill, he said yo the guy on the phone, yup that me, how much homasote you need? I tell him and what sizes I need it cut to. He doesn’t even look up from the saw and say yard panels? I was like ah what, are you using these for yard panels he asks again. I looked at him and said yup, he replied you hat gave it away (I was wearing a PRR ball cap) I would have figured it out anyway, I model B&O transition era he replies. Ok I am not in the good graces of the lumber department manager a fellow model railroader. Where chit chatting talking trains as we’re walking up to the register and when the girl goes to scan the cut up Homasote he says One panel the other one was a damaged piece it’s on us. Can’t beat that with a stick.
I’ve had the people in Lowes ask me several times what I was working on as I am always in there buying plywood or lumber of some sort, wire etc. So I told em a model railroad and they all responded ah cool you have any pictures? So now every time I do something new on the layout I have to bring in pics to show the folks at my Lowes store. Even the store manager thought it was neat and I told him I just completed a model of a Lowes Store for a friends layout and showed him the pics. He told me I’ll pay you to build me one of those fo
There are two messages here, one of which is that there are great folks in retail and if you are darn lucky you’ll run into them. The second message, and I think the younger you are maybe the harder it is to appreciate this, is that there are benefits to letting the world know you are into model trains, from getting to know fellow modelers at work or in the neighborhood, to being given sacks of old trains by people who want to find a good home for what their kids or their parents or siblings had). Railroad themed clothing such as hats, T shirts or sweatshirts really helps. So does a railroad themed bumper sticker.
My prior car had an Operation Lifesaver bumper sticker and I can’t count the number of railfans and modelers I met just by parking somewhere.
My own story is that I approached a maker of adhesive caulk via the internet to ask about a particular product and mentioned it had been recommended in an MR article but which I could not find at any store. That mention of MR really paid off as the guy at the manufacturer went to their warehouse and sent me what they had - a now discontinued product – FOR FREE as well as a spackling compound which he recommended for scenery – and which he mentioned he used on his own O scale layout.