I am trying to find cost effective ways to help my son with model railroading. He is a young teenager and this year asked for his own trains. I have a large layout, so he was interested in his own started set. Of course he asked for a Santa Fe F-7, which was very hard to find right now. I did find one on eBay, and it was an older model. As a kid, how can I help him afford this hobby? When I was a kid Athearn engines were $23.50 and a new car was $5.00. I realize that was a long time ago, but I could save a few weeks allowance and purchase those things for myself. Today a cheap engine is well over $100 and railcars are anywhere from $30 to $50… for the cheap ones.
I don’t mind using eBay, but are there other ways to help my son grow his collection on a kid’s budget?
Lots of cheap quality stuff out there, just got to look. Got a DCC and sound MTH gp-35along with a digitrac zephyr for $200 out the door on e-bay. Also got a Bachmann engine with DCC and sound in steam for $89 from an online vendor.
You can always find bargain but good quality locomotives and rolling stock on eBay. And, if you have a local hobby store (LHS), you can veiw them in person.
To cut costs on rolling stock and generate interest, look for easy-to-assemble kits like Accurail. The detail is good but you can generally assemble one in 30-60 min - i.e. depending on the complexity of the kit. Kits give a sense of accomplishment, teach about the prototype, and help hone ones modeling and hand skills. And doing it with your son is a great way to mentor him in the hobby.
Are you in the US of A? Any ‘‘Wanted/ Free ads’’ ,(not that you want the items free, just that the add is free for you to list what you want), papers in your local area? There may just be some gentleman that is happy to help get started a youngster in the hobby.
Is his interest in HO? SF F7 in blue and yellow or silver and red? Athearn BB in DC (a great runner/puller w/that extra large weight and later on little details that can be added) or another newer brand in DC/DCC w/lots of detail?
The times have changed so much I don’t have a clue.
I grew up in the early 1950s and was expected to earn my spending money so I did. I bought my first HO locomotive when I was 14 with paper route money in 1951, MDC Roundhouse 0-6-0 for about $5.75. The paper route paid something like 75¢ or so per month.
I got a job at a local hobby shop keeping it cleaned up as a tradeoff for my train goodies. When I wanted to buy that first locomotive I was short money and the owner offered to make up the difference for cleaning up the store twice a week. I ended up working part time for him for three years.
I don´t think the tricks of the trade will work any longer. Model engines have become expensive and sophisticated toys, loaded with desirable gimmicks like DCC and sound. Of course, that comes at a price, but one will have to lay out that kind of cash to foster a teenager´s interest theses days. The kids are just not as easy to please (or keep focused), as we were in our youth.
I may have one or two HO rolling stock cars I don’t use that I’d be glad to donate to your son, although you did not mention what scale he wants to model. They may need some minor repairs (broken coupler, for example). Let me know if this is of interest, and I’ll see what I may have available.
I don’t happen to think a kid needs to start with the top end loco and rolling stock. He’s more prone to break the MU hoses, firecracker antennas.
Assuming your layout is DCC, I would look at a Athearn or even a Stewart SF F7 and maybe you could help with the cost of a decoder and teach him how to add details and install the decoder.
At the Timonium train show, there are lots of Athearn blue box rolling stock at $10 or less that have kadee couplers installed, some times weathered or with metal wheels. Old Bowser rolling stock kits are priced similar to Accurail.
If he’s closer to 13 than 19, there probably aren’t paper routes anymore, but there is baby sitting, I here the going rate nationally is $17/hr, and lawn work and snow shovelling.
You did not mention what scale he is interested in.
Is he wanting to model in a different scale than dad?
When I got back into this hobby a few years back I went to a train show with a set budget- -I didn’t set the budget- -“She who must be obeyed” did.
It was less than $50.00 cash. We enjoyed the show and before we left I offered one vendor $35.00 for a starter DC set and a controller.
Because I “bundled” and had cash he accepted. Then I went to another vendor and offered him the remaining $15.00 for a “vintage” Tyco crane and tender set. I explained to him that I was just getting back into the hobby and that my parents had gotten me the same set when I was younger.
He noticed the starter set and controller under my arm and agreed to $15.00 rather than the $25.00 asking price.
If you can find a train show in your area I recommend you “advance” your son the cash and see what he can find on his own.
Definitely supervise and offer advice but let him make the ultimate decisions, even if it means getting what he wants for more money.
This will not only allow him to participate in this great hobby, but it will also give him some life lessons on barganing and value.
I am in a similar situation, and I get my best deals at train shows. Most of my engines were around $30-40, and my cars were $5 each. Those are athearn BB and P2K engines, and athearn and similar cars. A big box of track for $15, a set of 20 flex tracks for $20, MRC power pack for $10. Just shop around, especially at smaller train shows.
Start with some kits, like the Accurail stuff. Lower price, and it gives him the hook into the building aspect of the hobby. Then let his kits join the fleet on your own railroad; so he can operate them there.
If your looking at starting him on a layout with full locomotives, DCC control and track your looking at a heavy price tag to pay. Yes, you can get a Bachmann starter set for a fairly reasonable price; but you have to remember those don’t have much engagement beyond looping on the floor in circles. Smaller kits and scenery projects will be more interesting and cheaper than jumping straight into large layout building.
Let the model building divert into his interests too. It doesn’t have to be trains. If he is a fan of science fiction maybe get him some Star Wars, Star Trek or even Halo and Mass Effect kits that are out there now. Any interest in history or old wars can be met with a massive market of WWII figures and planes. Maybe he likes RPG games and some D&D figures might be the perfect place to learn airbrushing and brush painting skills. If he likes the assembly of kits, get him something large but still simple to assemble like a larger Lego kit (I spent my own Christmas morning building Lego’s Disney Train they released this year for example). Metal Earth has a ton of static models of various subjects that are simple to build, yet require patience to complete.
Get him some books on the prototype stuff too if he has any interest there. Yes we are a digital generation, but that reading profeciency still works on the written page. I actually just ordered Jim Boyd’s Steam Locomotive off Amazon because it had such an impact on me as a kid since my High School library had a copy in their collection and I wanted a copy of the book to call my own all these years later.
Trust me, I love to look at Rapido and ScaleTrain’s best high end locomotives and they are what I want to have in this hobby someday. But I am
First of all, I hope you and your son enjoy the hobby and have many fine hours of hobbying together. Very happy for you that he has interest in the hobby.
As for affordable hobbying. HO railroading is one of the easiest hobbies to enjoy affordably.
As folks have already said, train shows are a great way to find plenty of good condition (even NOS kits) for very low prices. Also, depending on your kid, they can be very fun experiences to share with your children.
For new kits I second the notion of Accurail and Scale Trains Kit Classics (can be hard to find sometimes).
Check your local shops, most major metropolitans have at least one shop that specializes or at least keeps a big stock of used trains. Here in Chicago area I can think of 3 or 4 different shops where you can buy rolling stock (often NOS kits) all day for less than $15 and often even less than that.
Look up the HOSwap group and I’ve heard there are a couple similar groups on Facebook as well.
Also there’s probably a Trainworld ad on the side of this page right now. They always have quite a few locos in the $40-50 range, and almost always some DCC even. Be sure to check both the sale and regular sections and sort by price.
I’ve built up a large collection of trains that I am quite happy with and with a few exceptions I rarely spend more than $10 a car and $30 a loco.
Find room to give the kid his own layout. That’s how I got into model railroading many years ago. Lionel, 0-27, 4 by 8 homosote trainboard. There was a time that we have three loops of track, three tranformers, and three sybliings all running Lionel together. Let the kid do his own track plan, in fact let him redo his trackplan, much of the fun in model railroading is doing your own track plan. Once the track plan stablizes, he can move onto structures. Now a days HO is the low cost way to go. Find some trainshows and go to them with the kid[s]. Plenty of used rolling stock available for really decent prices. You might even find some stuff youo like.
Whenever one of my girls showed an interest in a hobby that could lead to one-on-one time with dear old dad, I just paid for everything.
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Time spent building things with your children is priceless. They have their entire lives to learn the ways of real world. I say foot the bills and have fun with your son while he still wants to spend time with you.
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Not once have I had the thought “I wish I would have spent less time and money on my girls when they were still children.”
agreed i got my son interested in the hobby & bought locos/cars / track he started out with thomas & when he started building stagging yards & taping kadees to the back of thomas i knew i had to step up to the next level.
hes 24 now & way involved in the hobby.he has learned alot thru it
When shopping at my local model train store last month, I had an interesting conversation with the manager. I told him I was building a couple of small HO projects to expose the grandkids to the hobby when they came over for Christmas dinner. I said that while I expected my grandkids to be excited (which they were), I wasn’t optomistic that kids in general would find model railroading attractive enough to overcome their addiction to smartphones, tablets and other electronic media.
He told me that just the opposite is now the case at their store and that they are seeing a resurgance of kids who are eager to enter the hobby. His theory is that the pre-teen and early teen kids who have grown up with the electronic stuff have become jaded but are facinated with trains because they are tangible physical objects that they can control. He also noted that their familiarity with electronics is another plus because there is no barrier for them tackling the complexities of DCC.
