Sounds like me. As a young buck I had a Santa Fe F7, a B&O F7, a Pennsylvania 2-8-0, a Santa Fe 0-6-0, a Union Pacific GP7, a Missouri Pacific GP38-2, and a New York Central SDP-40. I had a ball!
Interesting, I clicked on the “Get Started” link just now and got an article called “Essential Tools for Model Railroading” with a lead picture of a bunch of tools. The article does have some links showing you where you can buy the tools discussed.
Below that are a bunch of links to other articles about products and ideas for getting started in the hobby.
There is an amazing amount of information available online about model railroading, you can learn more in a few days online than many of us ‘oldtimers’ were able to learn in a year or two of reading books and magazines. But to really understand railroading and the model railroading hobby, you still are going to have to take time to take in what’s available. There are shortcuts, but it is still a lifetime journey.
I think the biggest hurdle is that the local stores don’t sell trains.
It used to be that any store that carried toys had electric trains. I remember buying trains in small toy stores in the local shopping center as well as local hobby stores. The nice thing was that you could see what you were buying, had it immediately, and could buy just 1 or 2 things and not worry about shipping.
Now you have to hunt up a place online and order enough to make the shipping costs reasonable. Wait for it to arrive. And hope that it matches the picture. Or you’re driving a long distance and have to buy enough to make the trip worthwhile.
I know some people will do this, but others will go on to other hobbies that do have stuff in local stores.
Paul
Kevin, My tool box is very basic. I have several small screwdrivers,2 pin vices,a modelers saw, a HO ruler,various sizes of needle nose pliers,a three prong gripper tool.NMRA gauge, a KD gauge, dikes,wire stripper,various medicine bottles with small screws,3 fly boxes with detail parts, one fly box with KD 148 and #5 couplers,#5 centering springs 3 bags of knuckle springs and 148 coupler boxes, Xacto knives and a zip lock bag full of IM wheel sets.
In the 65 years I been in the hobby I never own a test light/volt meter. I just never found the need for one.
My tools go on and on forever…
But… I DO NOT have a scale rule or a pair of rail nippers. I also never use my foam cradle.
My list of the twelve most important tools:
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X-Acto Knife
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Pin Vice
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Detail Paint Brush (Winsor & Newton S7 000 tapered round)
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0-6" Dial Caliper
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Flush Cutting Pliers (good ones can be used as sprue nippers and rail cutters)
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#50 Drill and 2-56 Tap
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Kadee Coupler Gauge
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Miniature Screwdrivers
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Squadron Sculpting Tool
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Squadron Seam Line Scraper
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Snap-On or Xuron Tweezer Nosed Pliers
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Precision Steel Rule in 1/64 and 1/100 graduations with machined zero edge
-Kevin
LOL
How did we go from Hurdles to a Newcomer Getting Started to What’s in My Toolbox? [(-D]
Rich
Because when you click on the “Getting Started” tab on the Model Railroader home page, the first thing you see is a list of 12 tools you need to buy.
It was a natural progression.
-Kevin
Your post reminded me of my first contact with model trains. I remember seeing the train in the window of a department store downtown at Christmas.
That probably doesn’t happen much anymore.
There is a tool of potentially great value to ‘newbies’ (at least in the smaller scales) that ought to exist, but really doesn’t (and therefore has to be ‘a tool built by the tools you have’ relatively early), That is a hand drill-press arrangement for keeping small drills straight going in and out (with no deflection) and controlling the feed advance and pressure. (Added points for careful chip renewal and cutting lubrication…)
I cheated a bit as I had a watchmaker’s staking set that had been modified to take a carefully trued collet/pin-vise head, with a crank and pressure pad to do controlled feed and speed together. How anyone expects to freehand-feed tiny drills into almost any material, let alone achieve orthogonal bores, is still astonishing to me; I’m even more amazed that so many have learned to make this work. New people, though, need tools that won’t frustrate as they go up the learning curve…
I had metal Thomas toys, wooden railway train set, battery operated G scale train set for Christmas at the age 3 or 4.(I later bought one to go with the one I already have.) An HO Scale Santa Fe train set. Probably a year MR magazines in 1995/96.
I bought my own track plan book around 6 I believe twice because I lost the first one and later that one. I think around the same year or earlier I got myself a N Scale Bachmann old timer UP gondola, a blue GN stock car, and NH flatcar with 2 sealand containers.
1997 I purchased Amtrak heavyweight coaches 4 pack than LL Amtrak F40. What I really wanted to get was 2 locomotive set with 6 coaches decorated in Amtrak livery. Later on a LL Little Joe train set that came with a saddle tanker, 2 cars and caboose. That Christmas I received 3 buildings to go with that set. Than bought a LL Diesel Charger train set decorated in Conrail paint.
1999 I received for Christmas an HO Scale high nose GP38 Santa Fe train set and later I purchased 2 cars for that set. Then I received my last train in 2002.
In 2006 I really started picked up model railroading buying getting a Kato Santa Fe Super Chief passenger car sets and months later bought ATSF F7 A-B-B-A set. Unfortunately the locomotive number I have should be a A-B-B consist so I’m still missing 2 B units.
The rest is history…
Dave, Even at 72 I wouldn’t want to sit in a clinic while a guy rambles, on and on and on and says very little like the last shelf layout clinic I attended 4 years ago. It was bad enough with him repeating “you know” every third sentence. I wanted to jump up and tell him if we knew we wouldn’t be here.
As new modeler I would research on line,you tube and variuos modeling forums. Today’s youth knows how to find answeers on line.
Well you know, like, Larry it’s not like, you know, EASY or anything to prepare and give, like, a clinic, you know.
Dave Nelson [}:)]
Really new modellers, not just modellers who have long standing plans to eventually model, may be much less common now than 50 years ago.
Current and even just recent prototypical operation does not lend itself readily to traditional model railroading.
I can identify my interest in model trains with my interest in the prototypes of my childhood during the transition era in the UK, which lasted a lot longer than in North America.
My main interest was always in passenger trains and arose from riding them and watching them carrying other people on a daily basis.
So, yes, the absence of a ready to buy (or even pre-order) a suitable passenger consist was a significant obstacle to my re-entry into this hobby, let alone entry as a complete neophyte. At least I knew what I was looking for.
My local hobby shop had a NIB IHC CPR liveried 8 car passenger set from the transition era. I bought same. I bought what I assumed was an F7 to haul it. The cars were pretty awful but this forum provided details on how to rebuild the cars so they might stay on track. The information on and in the box for the “F7” revealed that I had accidentally purchased a model of a C Liner that actually ran on the prototype CPR railroad that inspired my return to this hobby, the Kettle Valley Railway.
I had enjoyed rides on the preserved Heritage KVR and acquired some history books in the local bookstore near there describing the truly remarkable history of that CPR subdivision. Rivalling the Last Spike story of the CPR transcontinental all Canadians know about.
I had also taken a ride long ago on the restored Royal Hudson passenger train out of Vancouver.
Rapido had just released its model of that locomotive.
Serendipity plays a role here.
By now, some few weeks into my rediscovered hobby, circumstances were conspiring to draw me in big time. I spoke to my local hobby store guys and claimed I would
OK… lets run this scenario from my youth… I believe around 1975 or so.
I had a few Tyco train sets to my name, and my dad built me a 4 by 8 layout in the garage. I had tyco track, cars, and a power pack.
The big problem is that those Tyco engines were garbage. The layout was frustrating.
One trip to the hobby shop on NW 13th Street in Gainesville, Florida, and dad bought an Athearn locomotive, and now all the train set problems were solved. I had a good running locomotive, and I could happily run trains on my layout.
I made the step to Model Railroader that day.
OK… a newbie gets a train set for his son today at Menard’s or Hobby Lobby (I think my first train set was actually for my dad), and he wants to make an upgrade to have some fun.
He is hit with a wall of DCC, sound, code 83, code 70, code 100, Digitrax, Marklin, HOn3, and so on. All this comes up on his internet search.
Who will guide him through this mess? How will he become a model railroader and not a bewildered guy who just buys an R/C car and forgets about trains?
-Kevin
Kevin, Those issues is covered on you tube, MR and the modeling and how to books by Kalmbach, MR forums and other forums and face book.
The day of getting information at the LHS is over replaced by the internet.
I don’t know of any gamer that buys their games at GameStop and the three R/C guys I know buys off line and they are in ther 60s.
Even my son buys his gaming figures on line.
Kevin,
Too many Ramblings follow:
I’m not sure that the old mode worked all that well …Many of the issues that make model railroading complicated to a beginner were not really solved by the LHS. Often the owners and people in the shop had/have axes to grind and product to move. I got lots of unhelpful advice as kid in a hobby shop. BTW: I’m sure there were some shops where this wasn’t the case. Today I also see lots of questionable advice on forums and chat lists and the web in general.
Splitting up the beginners into kids and adults is a good idea. I think adults are more equipped to gather info and sort out the chaff from the wheat. They generally have more patience and the ability to understand delayed gratification. I think kids need more of an inspirational, “get trains running right now” approach to keep interest and give them some momentum. Neither group should be bombarded with too much complexity in the beginning.
I think the best help for beginners is a mentoring program that connects them to people who have a plan designed for beginners and can answer questions a
Guy, You make a lot of excellent points.
I will address DCC the KISS method. A Bachmann EZ Command DCC system comes with a DCC/Sound locomotive with simple addressing and a youngster can ring the bell and horn. I’ve seen these as low as $99.00 at train shows.
First-time model train builder. Definitely following this discussion [:)]
[#welcome] to the hobby and the forum.
Feel free to ask questions.
Paul
[#welcome] To the Model Railroader forums. Your first few posts are delayed by moderation, but this will end after a handfull of posts. Please stick around and join us.
Asking questions is very welcome.
-Kevin