I mean some on Model Railroading cheap. Its sometimes not that expensive. For example take Life-Like’s 0-4-0 Dockside. I mean a child could of made that. It is a nice little engine for your starter layout but its just a pile of junk! It won’t pull anything!! You waste $25.00 on something that won’t pull anything, you might as well not buy it! They’re Diesel’s are worse. They ahve that nosiesy little motor, with PLASTIC WHEELS (OH MY GOOSH CAN IT GET ANY WORSE!). So tell me, what’s cheap to you??
I was going to bite my tongue on this one - but I couldn’t resist.
What is garbage to you may be quite acceptable to someone else. Depending on how much effort and/or money one is willing to put into a project, nearly anything can be made into a nice piece. I have an AHM RS3 that came from a garage sale train set that I use for grins and giggles, or just have a need to see trains run. Same with the rolling stock. I also have a Tyco 0-4-0 with a bent side rod (I did that somehow in the distant past) that I will someday do something with. Probably in the same “cheap” category are my Roundhouse Climax (used Roundhouse conversion kit on my boxcab diesel), and the Model Power - Frateschi 2-8-0 with the all-tender drive. And then there’s the Tyco 4-8-0 kit with the over-size cab. How about an HOn3 Porter 0-4-0T as my sole “brass” engine? At least 3-4 regulars on this forum would call every one of these locomotives “junk”. But they are not to me; they are my current roster - and they are all paid for.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
A little hint…if you think it’s cheap, don’t buy it. If It’s cheap and built well enough, I’m going to buy it…it’s a matter of economics…plain and simple.
Just my .02 from the desert…
I agree with you Fred; the Tyco stuff I used to run was great when my kids were growing up–no big loss if little hands dropped something–and they can always be used in other ways on the layout even when they quit running.
Some of the stuff I run now is “cheap”, but has given lots of service. I also use the “cheap” stuff for practice on weathering and to see what I can do to modify in some way or another. Beats experimenting on the expensive stuff.
Model railroading is fun. And I like cheap fun sometimes.
How about this thought…You have a not so well off (as in not much extra money) family that may be looking for a low cost train set for their 4 to 10 year old that just wants to “play” train set.
I have a Gandy Dancer that I purchased for $2 and my 5 year old thinks the world of it. He pays no attention to the Spectrum 2-8-0 with sound roaring by it!
One mans junk…
For our original poster, I guess it’s all about tolerance. As the other gentlemen have said, if a person is willing to tinker and modify and improve, then maybe a “cheapie” shell and moving platform/frame is just fine for their purposes.
My tolerance is low. I am not a tinkerer. I am intolerant of crappy stuff that doesn’t live up to its advertizing. I pay, through the nose mind you, and can expect a company’s warranty to ensure that I get satisfaction the second time around if need be. So far that has worked for me, and has made my short time in the hobby more enjoyable. If I were a Cudaken, I would do as he does and get out of the hobby what Ken does. I have no stomach for it, and will gladly pay for something that runs and looks like the pictures and accompanying words promise.
On the other hand, I ran a marathon in a blizzard, and didn’t give it a second thought. I have slept out in the open in -28 deg C. Just made sure my sleeping bagdown fill was fluffed up properly and that is was good and dry before use.
We each have things about us that challenge us in a positive way, while other things just contribute to a crappy time of it.
I cannot keep mouth shut, but here goes.
MRC Decoders in fine engines. WHY am I tempted to waste money on these works of fidelity and true to actual engines past and present only to be confronted with a POS Decoder that only knows how to jerk into motion or slam to a halt with very little range of adjustments possible.
Makes me want to hold on to my dollars and wait for a QSI version to come out.
Dont get me started on train items built 40 years ago and passed off as brand new, mint and offered at pricing rivaling those of fine QSI equippted engines today.
Ive said enough. Cheers everyone.
Ditto to the Athearn/MRC issue. Some Tyco steamers where nothing but repackaged Mantua units. With some tinkering, they make great runners.
David B
Yeah, I was wondering how (and if) to respond to this post…
Yes, there is plenty of “junk” out there… But like any hobby, we all must start somewhere. More often that not, we start easing into a hobby, with the idea that we’d better not spend too much at first lest we not like it, and are then seduced by cheap products.
Example from another one of my hobbies:
In 1995 I learned to play golf with my grandfather’s clubs. I wanted to replace the wooden driver with a titanium shaft driver. I bought one at Value City in State College, PA for $15! Not long after, I hit a nice 200-yarder with it and noticed the follow-through felt funny. I then noticed a black mass following the ball downrange. It was the club head! Titanium shaft indeed! It had snapped. I got what I paid for.
So we cannot help but be drawn, sometimes, to the seductive call of low prices. Yet we all know, for we have all learned the hard way, that we get what we pay for. “Cheap” and “good” tend to be negatively correlated.
To the OP: If you feel LifeLike (now part of Walthers) is producing inferior products, let them know! Chances are they know the Docksider is no BLI or Athearn Genesis, nor will they likely do anything about that. But if you feel there is a problem with all of their locos, send them an e-mail (perhaps worded more tactfully than your post[swg]).
Of course LifeLike (or Walthers now) will likely point out that their higher-quality line is the Proto series (2000 in HO, 1000 in N), and, as you’d imagine, it’s more expensive.
Over the years I have stocked my Model Railroad with higher end Locos & Switchers, I have no Patience for Locos & Switchers that Jerk and have to constantly be finger nugged,I demand a lot from my switchers, very low speeds while they work with no stalling, so therfore I save for the higher end Locos, thats just my thing, But like all of us here I started out on theTrain set`engines and was happy with those until I got older and wanted better.
Mike G…
Everything I would say has been said except one thing…
The engine could not have plastic wheels. It would have to have metal wheels in order to get power to the motor…
Phil
To start with, your Life-Like 0-4-0T I picked up two for less than $20 at the local toy store’s after-Christmas sale a few years back - as kitbash fodder, not to run. The prototype could only move about five cars, why should the model be expected to move more?
There’s Cheap Junk, Inexpensive but Useful Models, Reasonably-priced Quality Products and, “Why buy a Ford when you can have a Ferrari?” rivet-counter/collector’s wondermachines. Inexpensive but useful is the ideal place for a beginner, reasonably-priced quality is where most folks seem to gather. Disappointment with Cheap Junk probably causes many newcomers to switch hobbies.
This is where the demise of the LHS really hurts. Time was, you could go to your all-knowing hobby dealer and get some really good advice on which items in his inventory were best suited to your needs and stage of hobby development. Now you might have to cross a couple of state lines to reach that kind of expertise.
As for a really cheap model railroad, I recall one made of bits of painted balsa, running on a flat piece of plywood between (not on) rails made of stripwood. Power was provided by the human hand in direct contact with the locomotive. The whole business only cost a couple of bucks; plywood, balsa, sewing pins and paint. To a pre-teen in the late 1940s, it was creative heaven.
Chuck
What a great image! [(-D]
So Dave, I hope said club head didn’t connect with a human one at the other end of its arc! [(-D] At least when cheap model railroad items fail, they’re usually not potentially lethal. [swg]
Was a time in the 1970s when I used a Tyco GP20 and put Details West diesel castings on it and wished it ran better. Now do the same to a PK2, GP20 and they run better.
I still repaint Tyco flat cars and add decals and detail and they look okay,
and rework Tyco box cars because the paint work lettering is much better than other manufactures. Tyco had some good die makers in the 70s because they sold so much stuff, the company could afford it.
http://www.geocities.com/oldlahistory/ftcarupgrade.html
http://www.geocities.com/duncan2train/flatcar.html
Hmmm… if the club head follows the ball, do you yell “Eight!”? [:-^]
Here is my favorite cheap crap. In trucking, fleet managers started to require drive shafts that are designed to twist and fail (Not the universals… but the shaft.) when torque is applied at max rating on the tach on dry pavement.
Sometimes I ate overweight tickets without bothering to adjust a trailer tandem knowing that the cheap crap will fail completely.
My solution was to quit and look for another trucking company with much stronger equiptment.
Even so you can still make a shaft fail so they casterate the engines and derate them to save on repairs.
SIGH.
I know I said enough, but this topic is just too hot to handle.
Fortunately, it was on the driving range…! Wonder if the ball retrieval tractor got clogged trying to suck up the club head…[:-^]
If you want to see what can be done with cheap junk, take a look at this guy’s work.
I love the high-end equipment I have, but I still love to tinker with the old clunkers. I have an old AHM Alco switcher that has sentimental value, and recently discovered that a Mabuchi can motor is virtually a drop-in fit for the power truck, once the armature & magnets are removed. With the new motor and extra pickup, it runs silent as a bloody Kato. Fred W, it would work for your RS3. [:D][tup]
Geeee whizzz Falls Vally RR, I worked for one of those companies too!
The last one as a matter of fact!
The drivers seat was broken and in the full forward position, and to get in and out you had to pull the steering column release lever and move the column forward to make leg room to get in and out. Then one day the column release broke and my boss wouldn’t fix it, so we drivers had to invent a way to get in and out, by