Hello, I was wondering, I have what is the HO scale I believe, I just started, and I have a great place to set this up, but right now only have about 12 length ( distance) of track. I looked around on Amazon, and see that just one track can run close to 4.00 or 5.00. Is this a good price, or does anyone know where I can find some if these tracks used, or new, best price etc?
Billy
There are many types of HO scale track. Some of which do not mix well with others. Can you please tell us if you are talking about Bachman EZ-Track, Life-Like Power Lock, TrueTrack, or some other type. I could assume you are talking about 3 foot sections of flex track such as Atlas or Peco, but if that assumption was not true I would be giving faulty information. Much of the Bachmann or Life-Like track comes in packages of 4-6 pieces per package. That could also be what you are seeing on Amazon. So give us a little more information and we can help.
Billy,
Yeah, lots of place to buy and type of track, so need to know what kind of track you’re trying to match.
BTW, not to throw aspersions or anything, but one does have to inquire about the inappropriate nature of your avatar. Pics of people on tracks just ain’t cool on a train forum. While some may consider it artistic, it depicts the sort of behavior that can get people hurt and which anyone who’s around trains shouldn’t want to promote… Not good.
Billy, the first thing you need to know for sure is what scale your train set is. I know you bought it for $20.00 and it is old, so HO is a good guess, but you never know.
HO scale track is right at 3/4 of a inch from rail to rail on out side of the rail across. Next question is does it have the road bed attached to the track or is it rails and ties only?
All so if you look on the back of the track, it should say who made the track. Might all so have the code.
Track Code [:-^] Remember I posted there is a learning curve? [:-^] Code is the term used to tell you how tall the rails are. Higher the number taller the rails are. Most train sets will come with code 100 and is the most common rail height. 95% chances that is what you have. That is all so what I run.
On the track you found on Amazon, if you can post a link we will take a look and let you know if it is a good prices.
Like I said in the other post, there is a learning curve.
Ken
Yep, before you go any farther or buy anymore, you need to know EXACTLY which scale you have. If you don’t know, any future purchases (track, rolling stock, buildings, material, etc) may not match. There should be some sort of information that came with your set.
If you hang around here for a while, you’ll find that we refer to “LHS” or “LTS,” which stands for Local Hobby Shop or Local Train Shop. Where do you live? If we know that, we can recommend a good shop in your area. Alternately, Model Railroader magazine, our hosts on this forum, has a section in the back with a listing of some train shops. (It’s advertising, and they pay for it. But, my LHS is there, and it’s a terrific place to start.)
Bring a sample of the track you’ve got into a good shop, and they can tell you what you have. From there, you can either buy some more if they have it in stock, or go online and find it.
Most likely, it will be cheaper online. But remember, you got good service from that shop, and they can’t survive without your business.
There are often lots of track on ebay. Set up a “saved search”, (make sure you have it set for HO) and it will notify you when one is listed. You could use “flex track”, “Atlas track” (or your preffered brand), “Alas switches” (You’ll end up with both electrical and track switches). If you have the track with the roadbed built on, put its name in your search.
I saw in your other thread that you used sand paper to clean your track. This is not a good idea unless you use a very fine 800+ grit. It scratches the track and dirt settles into the scratches and is difficult to keep clean. Get a brite boy, which is a track cleaning eraser at your local hobby shop or online dealer… You can also use alchol on a rag, it will get the gunk off. There are other products you can use, rubbing alchol is about as cheap and available as you can get.
Have fun,
Richard