Brand suggestions for newbie?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have finally decided now is the time to start a railroading hobby. I am very new to this and have been reading extensively for the past month or so. I would like to add that this board rocks! Back to the reason I am writing, I only know the name Lionel and always figured it was good stuff because see it in the hobby shop I go to. I also race RC cars with my 2 sons. I would probably go with O scale and truthfully my wife says I can use the corner that is approx 5x10 and I can expand from there. HA HA Believe it or not she wants alot to do with helping me out. I guess I am lucky… I have a general plan of what I want to do and I am working on putting a layout on paper. I am looking into a woodsy lumber mill scene being that I am in the lumber business and the scenery you can make is endless. So again I ask is Lionel sufficient or should I look at others. I have about $800.00 to start with which I know can 10 fold from there if I let it. Also if it is Lionel I see fasttrack and regular track is one better than the other? I want to do this right the 1st time around!!!

Please bear with me because I have alot of questions…

Thanks in advance for the help.

Mike

2

By woodsy I presume you mean old fashion lumbering type stuff rather than the modern heavy equipment.

If sufficient is all you are going for I would say yes. Is it sufficient for the long term is a different question.

So the real question is do you want to go with the toy train 3-rail type track? If so (and nothing wrong with that) this question is probably better posted over on the Classic Toy Trains forum -http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/95/ShowForum.aspx

On the other hand if you want more the two rail type, Atlas has been producing some really intersting things lately like this:http://www.atlaso.com/ousra060switcher.htm

On the third hand, for a woodsy lumbering scene in O-scale you might consider narrow gauge trains such as these On30 from Bachmann. They have Climax and Porter locos. http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/catalog/?sel_category=92&sortOrder=name

not to mention the lumber cars:
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/catalog/?sel_category=141&sortOrder=name

And Oh Yeah - Don’t forget the pulp wood.
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/catalog/?sel_category=175&sortOrder=name

3

Mike,

Studying is half the fun with this hobby. If you are in the lumber business, I suspect that some things will need to be prototypical.

Space Mouse’s Beginner’s Guide to Layout Design is a great tool that you should check out.

My husband and I, started ours with a 2-Truck Shay and 3 skeleton cars, and enough track to circle the Christmas Tree. The money that we invested in the locomotive made us think again, and we turned it into a full time hobby.

Our first layout was fashioned after a plan that was featured in MR magazine. I wish you and your wife many happy hours of enjoyment with your new hobby.

Sue

4

If you’ve only got 5x10, O might be a bit large for the space.

Ask yourself what you prefer:

If you like a lot of scenery (and space is tight) and you like long trains and you’re not as particular about the detail on the trains themselves, then N scale might be the ticket.

If you just like the locos and rolling stock in and of themselves and don’t care if they don’t have much room to run, then O scale could be for you.

If you’d like something in between, then HO scale – the most popular scale and the one that offers the most choices – could be the one.

5

I agree, 5x10 is kind of small for a O scale layout.

6

Be prepared for sticker shock with O gauge. Of course, that’s true of most RTR (Ready To Run) equipment in model railroading, but the smaller gauges will generally be more affordable.

A 5x10 layout in O gauge will confine you to the sharp, non-prototypical curves of the Lionel trains we remember from our youth. If you’re trying to build a “realistic” layout, this may be a problem for you. On the other hand, there’s a lot of fun-factor in O-gauge trains because they can run on this track.

If you can, get to a few shops and ideally a train show where you can look at different layouts done with different gauges.

If you can wait a while, incidentally, Lionel changed their marketing strategy last year and sold complete sets at Target stores, and maybe a couple of other big-box retailers. These prices undercut their traditional shops, which was bad news for them, but might be good for you. Even better, the leftover inventory went on clearance on December 26th at rediculous prices, perhaps half of the pre-holiday cost.

7

Don’t overlook Atlas’s line of O Scale as well…The price may seem high but,when compared with high end HO equipment there’s a few dollars difference.

8

I should have read my post before posting. I am not going with O scale but I am going HO because of space limitation. Thank you for the responses so far. To answer some of the questions, I am not looking for a toy but rather somethng to last thats why I said I want to do it right the 1st time around. To clear up the Lionel question, I have only seen that brand at the hobby shop as I said so If its not good quality I would stay away from it. As far as the scenery question I am looking into older style factory buildings and mills not anything modern. I would like to incorporate rocks,trees,mountains and if possible a wooden trestle style bridge. This is the only thing I havent really figured out yet. I want to first figure out what train then what layout then scenery. I have all the material for the bench but am holding off in case I dont want a rectangular shelf but maybe something with shape. My mind is going 100 mph…

9

Hi Mike,

if you model in the diesel era I would suggest the following brands: Kato, Atlas, P2K(careful some models have gear issues), Athearn Genesis, Athearn RTR, Athearn Blue Box. This are the makes that will roam on my layout in hopefully the not too distant future. Makes like BLI are not for me to comment on due to no experience with them.

Atlas and Walthers Gold line are very good freight cars as well. For track it is the Atlas standard flex track and Peco switches.

Maybe do some searches and see what other members on this forum have to say about the above mentioned manufacturers.

Hope this helps

Frank

10

The top of the line brands are like Atlas, Kato, and Intermountain. BUT I don’t think any of those make old time logging equipment. Atlas makes some wonderful 36’ old time refrigerator cars. The Bachmann Spectrum line has included logging style Shay & Climax locomotives. I don’t know which are still in production. They (Bachmann Spectrum) also make a Russian Decopod (2-10-0), and a consolidated (2-8-0). Proto-2000 has made really great looking 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 switcher locomotives that would look good in a lumber mill setting. They run really good but aren’t known for their pulling power.

Since you are going with HO that will not even be an issue. Lionel makes very little HO scale equipment.

If you go away from the logging setting there are tons of options. As mentioned above the top of the line Atlas, Kato, Intermountain. There is also BLI, PCM, and the Athearn Genesis. In the mid range are some great models such as the Athearn RTR and Proto-1000. Proto-1000 is a really great brand that runs really good. It just doesn’t have the detail of its up-scale Proto-2000 models. I have found that often when I get a super detail model all the cool tiny details get broken off way too easy. After some usage the

11

Mike07,

If I may be so bold, I think you are going about this backwards. I know you want get a layout and trains like yesterday but the first thing you need to do is sit down and do the following:

  1. Decide exactly how much space you have and what is the maximum radius of curve you can fit in that space.

  2. Decide on what time period or era you want to model.

  3. Look though all the track plans that are available (just do a search here) and pick one that best suits your needs, space, and budget.

Once you have that firmly fixed in your head, then we can answer what type of equipment and manufacturers might be the best for your layout. A railroad that models the 1880’s, the 1920’s, 1950’s, and the present will all have very different recommendations of what might be best. A layout with 18" radius curves will have very different recommendations than a layout with 36" radius curves. Some up front planning on your part will save you a world of grief later. [:)]

12

As you suspect, Mike, there is a lot to do with this hobby because there is so much history to both the items and organizations being modelled, and also because that is what we are doing…modeling. If, as you say, you want to do things right and to eliminate most of the standard errors due to your limited resources of all types, getting to understand what railroads do what they do the way they do it is worth several long evenings of reading. Many new folks make the mistake of buying whatever seems to go together and then running it for three or four weeks only to find they’re bored to tears, or that what they have cobbled together was not a good investment after all…none of it was seen on the railroad which owned the one or two locomotives you snapped up in haste. That sort of thing.

Still, though, all of us know that we like to at least get something running under power while we do the grander scheme, even if that means plunking down some track in an oval with a single siding and watching a nice locomotive and three cars, plus caboose, run around the track. So, if you could do some quick deciding about which railroad you favour most, that first locomotive will be a good first investment. Just keep the curves it can negotiate in mind when you go to plan the big layout.

13

If you plan on doing a straight logging line, I would respectfully submit that many logging operations owned geared locomotives, namely, Shays, Climaxes, and Heislers. These locomotives were designed and built with this type of operation in mind; rough, primitive, temporary track, heavy loads, steep grades, sharp curves, that sort of thing. Geared locomotives typically had a slow top speed, like 10-15 MPH, but could pull nearly anything (well, within reason). Many were built in the late 1800’s, and some lasted into the 1960’s (and some still run today). Bachmann Spectrum has produced several versions of these over the past recent years, in On30 (O scale, but runs on HO scale track), and I think they also did some HO scale ones. If you do a search, you’ll find Model Die Casting (aka Roundhouse) made these, too, but be advised most of these are kits which take quite a bit of skill and patience to properly assemble, paint, fine tune, etc. There are also other brands, but I can’t think of them at the moment.

Of course, some shortlines had more conventional steamers, and they also served logging companies. For brands that I’d recommend (and some I own), I’d list as follows:

IHC (International Hobby Corp.) (Good steam, sparse on fine details. Diesels are junk)

Proto 1000, Proto 2000 (Formerly Life Like, now Walthers).

Kato

BLI (Broadway Limited Imports)

PSC (Precision Scale Corp.) (Sister company to BLI)

Athearn, Athearn Genesis

Walthers Trainline (Mostly out of production, but they still turn up.)

Bachmann Spectrum

Atlas

Stewart

Intermountain

Let’s see, did I miss any? Of all the brands listed, I do not have any BLI or PSC locos, but I do own some of every other brand.

Hope that helps.

Brad

14

Don’t you mean PCM?

Magnus

15

I would start thinking real hard about what you want on your road. That decides the kind of radius you will or should have to make this work. A lot of train set radius are to small and should be avoided. If you want to run a little bit of anything then 24" radius seems to be OK. But if you wan full scale passenger equipment like Walthers heavyweight you will need to go bigger. Perhaps 30" will be required for passenger cars. This also applies to locomotives, if you want Big boys you need big curves.

That said, I would like to recommend BLI/PCM and Proto. I have nothing but good experiences with them. The Bachmann Spectrum steamers I have are all nice but they are not very strong. However, dollar per dollar they are perhaps the most dollar efficient.

Magnus

16

Yeah, uh…, if you say so. I’ll take your word for it.

Brad