I was just wondering can you build model subways and where do you get subway trains?
As far as the trains, I would check out Japanese Manufactures (Kato, Green Max, MicroAce) . The ‘older’ trains look very simular to current N. American subway trains. I’m an N guy, so I really dont pay attention to HO but I think they all do both scales. I know they sell ‘powered chassis’ as well and kits, so you could easily kitbash something very realistic.
-PFS
In H0 there are several resin kits (expensive) available of NYC subway cars. Proto 1000 or 2000 (Walthers now) has also released subway cars/trains.
i worked in the new york city subway for 31 years and had thought about building a subway layout but since the trains are always running in a tunnel who’d be able to see it? one of my fellow club members is building a subway line undernieth his main ho layout. it can be viewed from the outside. he’s using several of the proto redbird IRT subway car sets and will have a couple of stations for the trains to stop at. he is also modifying small deisels and some flat cars to use as work trains as the prototype did. he is also a retired transit worker. mts imports has sometimes had brass subway cars from ny and chicago. the nycta had 3 divisions IRT, IND and BMT. the cars on the IND and BMT were wider and longer than the IRT cars and could not be interchanged. there are some of them available but i don’t know who makes them but they aren’t cheap.
Proto 1000 has a 4 subway car set. I think Mister Beasley has that.
Tom
John Allen had a subway on his G&D.
CHUCK
Mister Beasley has a miniature TV camera and extra lighting in the head end of his 4 car IRT (New York) subway train - and detailed subway tunnels. His stations can be seen through slits in the fascia, but the only way to see the tunnels between is with, “Cab vision,” on the flat screen.
As a native New Yorker, I once wanted to do that. Then I picked a prototype where underground rapid transit was handled with EMU and DMU cars running through tunnels dictated by topography, on the same tracks as through passenger and freight trains.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Welcome to the forum. I wanted to build a subway layout ever since I was a kid growing up outside New York City, on Long Island. Now, I’ve done it. I’m using the Proto 1000 subway trains (formerly Life-Like) and I’ve also got a Bowser PCC car. This is the Penny Lane station. You can see the Protos in the background, and the PCC car parked at the “lower mezannine” platform up front:
(Clicking on a photo will enlarge it in most cases on this forum.)
You can look at other still photos at http://www.railimages.com/gallery/bruceleslie, including some under-construction shots. There are some pics of the camera installation in the front car, too.
This is a link to the video. It’s old and dark. I’ve got to work on it one of these days. Only one of the stations is finished in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=dOV9NSqrQlc
The track runs in a loop, mostly around the edge of the layout. The three stations (Penny Lane, Saint Anne Street and Scollay Square) are visible from the edge of the layout. The ground above is all scenery-covered, but wherever I could I made lift-offs so I could get to the trains in case of problems.
Walthers has announced several new items in the Proto 1000 subway train line, but I can’t find them on their page. Trainworld has some of the older sets on sale. http://www.trainworld.com/2005_ho_scale.htm to look at them.
Yes. My mate Doug Coster had a subway station on his now defunct Japanese exhibition layout “Setagaya”
http://japanese-trains.com/setagaya/
Numerous subway/Underground layouts have featured in the UK model press over the years, as well.
Cheers,
Mark.
At present none of these manufacturers offer electric multiple unit stock in HO.
Highly arguable. I’d be hard pressed to think of any Japanese EMUs that look like current N.American subway trains - which trains did you have in mind?
Cheers,
Mark.
Actually it was a joke; he had a subway station open on one side facing the aisle, and tracks apparently leading off in both directions but really just going a few inches beyond the platforms before ending at mirrors, giving the illusion that the tracks continued on and on. He’d play a recording of a subway train arriving at the station thru a speaker located near the station, to try to get people to watch for the train that never arrived.
Didn’t Walthers come out with models of SF’s BART and Washington DC’s Metro trains back in the '80s?
At least I remember seeing the ads in MR…
Yes they did, and since they are no longer made, they command alot of money on ebay, especially for what they are.