Just starting out, putting together a rolling stock roster, suggestions?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello everyone,

I am just getting into the hobby (again), for the first time since my childhood (Tyco toys with horn-hook couplers). I don’t have a layout, or plans for one at the moment as my kids are still very young, but I am waiting on a membership with a large local club to be finalized. I have made 2 trips to a local hobby shop just around the corner from my house and have purchased a few things. I have started a roster of my equipment for easy reference when I am there so I can make sure not to double up on road numbers (no need to manually renumber then) if possible. Or, to be able to identify what I had should something… have a fall and sudden stop at some point. I have found that certain manufacturers (looking at YOU Walthers & Atlas) make it incredibly DIFFICULT to find info on anything that may be out of production, basically not possible to search their website for their own model numbers.

So far, this is what I have down, but I wanted to get feedback on this to see if others do this, and what other elements you might track. At this point, I don’t have a proper scale to track weight, or an NMRA gauge to verify wheels or coupler heights, etc, maybe down the road. I know some of the things aren’t needed such as DCC or sound for rolling stock, but I do know some people will put a sound decoder into a car for train noises, additional immersion and all of that.

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Welcome to the forum! Very nice job on your list! Some possible suggestions:

Which coupler? Must use Kadees if planning to use magnetic uncoupling.

Car color? Having a variety of colors is attractive, to me anyways…

3

A couple of things to think about when starting out is timeframe and location

What years are you considering? With a couple of SD40s, one being BN, I guess that you are doing the 70s(?). Railroads can run freight cars for 20 or 30 years unless they are in rough service, so cars with build dates going back into the 1950s would be suitable. 50s vintage cars would need to be updated to remove roofwalks. All cars would have consolidated lube panels, a black panel with white lettering. BN would have a lot of Plate C, 100 ton capacity cars - boxcars, grain service covered hoppers, etc. Dependng on location, you might even have some Amtrak passenger service

Because it was formed from mergers of a number of large RR, BN covers a lot of area in the upper midwest and northwest. Have you considered what part of this vast area you want to model? It will affect the industries you add to your layout and the scenery.

Please share this information with us, and it will help with our suggestions

[#welcome][#welcome][#welcome]

4

A very good idea, to start cataloguing your fleet of rolling stock early. I have tried to catalog my grandpa’s fleet of hundreds of cars, a result of years of uncataloged collecting, and it was hard and unsuccessful, next time I visited he had 30 more cars to add!

Learning from that I have already cataloged my collection of less than 20 pieces. You’ve got mostly the same thing I do. I also add location because my stuff is spread out in three places. Since you say you are joining a club this may be helpful to know what’s at the club and what’s at home. For wheel sets you may want to have the size (usually 33 or 36 scale inches) and manufacturer. I don’t do this but you may also want a description of the paint sceme on your engine/cars.

In the end add what you think is nessessary and add cars when you buy them, don’t let them pile up!

5

I think your roster looks pretty good. I have seperate rosters for the different types of cars, and I have three more columns, to include, New or 2nd hand, Modifications, and date of Last Inspection. I don’t go for the specific model number, and my notes column takes care of whether the car is RTR or a kit.

Don’t do what I have done by not filling the roster as I purchase new (to me) rolling stock, getting behind is a pain in the behind![sigh]

Cheers, the Bear.[:)]

6

I also have different rosters for different car types.

I should add if they were new or second hand and RTR or Kit, good idea Bear!

I once included price payed at time of purchase, then realized this is a hobby and I don’t care what I paid, I know their approximate value anyway if the time comes to sell stuff.

7

I do a roster like that myself. I use Excel. In addition to what you have, I have columns for build date (the date I built the kit or checked out or fixed up the train show purchase), price I paid, length of car in scale feet (useful for keeping track of boxcars) car weight, and a details column for general comments.

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Welcome to the MR forums. [:D]

Now you’ll hear from someone who has never cataloged rolling stock, or kept any such records of locomotives, as I don’t feel the need. But that’s my way, and it works for me.

You do it your way. [swg] I never found the need, or the desire, for all the documentation. Most of my roster is equipment I have bought used over the years, to suit my needs, refurbished, detailed, and rebuilt, and sometimes repurposed. Locomotives, and rolling stock.

As far as Walthers goes, have you tried the Advanced search? I have, and do, and have a fair amount of success.

At the bottom of the long list of items, are some boxes. Make sure you check the box about discountinued items, most times, that will help, you might not always get an image.

A Google search will sometimes give results, sorta the “back door” approach, but it can be productive.

A site that can be of help with finding diagrams of older equipment is:

https://hoseeker.net/lit.html

Good luck with your start in model railroading! and for posting pictures, at the top of the General Discussion forum is a “sticky” on how to do it, and the requirments.

Mike.

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The scale length of the car is a very usefup item to include. I usually put this in my “car type” i.e. a 40’ boxcar or a 50’ covered gondola. Is you decide to use a computer program (i.e. JMRI) to route cars you will need to know this to tell the computer so it doesn’t put more cars on a track than can fit.

Car weight is also very useful. Generally cars track best at or above NMRA recommended weight, so you’ll want to have a record of what cars are at that.

10

Thank you all for the kind words!!

For Prototype, I don’t really have anything set, I just buy what I like and plan to run that. PERSONALLY, the current generation locomotives are cool and all, but I just dont dig the cabs. They all look like identical twins. The only way I know to tell them apart is the radiators, or the printing under the cab window, but I can’t remember models, I can only differentiate between them. I LOVE steam (bit expensive for me at this point), and I LOVE early generation diesels. I also love the locomotives I used to see with my dad as a kid when we would drive by the railyards and watch trains for a few minutes (a tradition I have with my kids now). They love the hobby shop too. My daughter picked out the BN boxcar and Amtrak Gondola last time we were there.

I use Googles version of Excel saved to my Google drive for the roster at the moment. I am seeing lots of good suggestions. I plan to note wheel size and Mfr, but not sure how without an NMRA gauge. Also, if anyone has tips in identifying wheel mfr based upon model mfr I would appreciate it.

The ideas for Color scheme, last maintenance, weight, and the like are good additions. I may add a column for weathering info as well should I start down that path.

With the club, they have no specific prototype. I would say the layout itself is 50s to 80s, with members having every interest imaginable. My most recent visit I was watching a modern CSX consist, some other fairly modern freights, a Wabash E unit (I think) passenger train, several steam trains, and a dual UP Turbine pulling over 80 old reefers. The time before that there was a member with 2 different bullet trains (series 0 and series 5) and a Japenese freight loco of some kind. Before that was a member with several British steam engines. It is pretty awesome to see something different EVERY time I am there.

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One of the cheapest and absolutly best running first generation diesels are the yellow box engines from Atlas with the Kato drive in them. This is where Kato got thier start in the USA. You can chose from the Alco C425/424, RS3, RS1, RSD 4/5, RSD12, RS11 and the GP7/9(with/without dynamics). They are butter smooth running, excellent headlights even in DC mode and drop in sound decoders are out there for them if you go the DCC route. I am seeing these engines $45 and under at most train shows if you shop around. For long trains the GP7s are best with thier diecast metal chassis/walkways, same for the RS1. The others have a plastic walkway/pilot assembly and it can flex under heavy loads causing uncoupling. I would recommend finding some kind of prototype to follow, be it a shortline using hand me down first generation diesels or a certain area of say the BN or ATSF. Otherwise you end up with a “shotgun” approach, this leads to having lots of stuff but no real focus. I have done this a few times and its not the best approach to modeling.

Personally, I have settled on a shortline using ex-BN first gen diesels. The line is set in IL or IN. I am using the local shortline like it was in the late 80’s/early 1990’s as my inspiration. This was what I was exposed to and first railfanned on bicycle(as well as in the cab many times) as a teenager before I got my first car. And even then, it was my choice to railfan(bicycle was cheaper than gas in the car!). I am using Overland brass diesels for motive power. I started where you are, and now I strive for a couple really really nice locomotives instead of a fleet of them. Rolling stock is a mix of grain hoppers that I remember seeing where I lived back then, NS, NW, ADM, Stailey and a few odd balls from out west like Lincoln Grain, and so forth. Most are older Athearn blue box kits and Accurail kits as I refuse to pay nearly $30 for a

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Put me in pls for one who never made a rolling stock inventory. I don’t see the purpose. Is it to avoid getting duplicate cars? I once did that and alterated on of the numbers on the car by a digit or two. It looked quite realistic.

Whatever works for you. I find it a waste for now. Perhaps when I have a fleet of hundreds.

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I have a few those too, Mike. Just look for “Made in Japan” on the box, and on the bottom of the truck covers. Those will have the Kato drive.

Mike.

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I also use Google Sheets for my roster, it’s easier ‘cause I can access it on any computer.

As for finding wheel size a pair of digital calipers may be usefull, take the number it reads and multiply it by 87.1 (for HO, 160 for N, etc). Alternately if you replace wheels you will know because it will say on the packag (hopefully). Do be aware the size of wheels is based on what the prototype had, don’t put the wrong size on the wrong car.

As for manufacture of the wheels I would assume the same company makes the wheels as makes the car, unless you changed the wheels in which case you should know who made the wheels. Perhaps more important than mfr is what the wheels are made of, are the wheels plastic/metal and are the axles plastic/metal, how big are the flanges, etc. (Note metal wheels are generally better quality than plastic ones)

15

As for your mention of needing a scale for weight as well as the calipers, take a look at Harbor Freight. That’s where Dad got me both my digital scale and my digital calipers. The other thing to look at would be getting a couple of sets of numbered drill bits (1-60) and (61-80). You will find that you will use them quite a bit. The 1-60 set also came from Harbor Freight. The other set came via the Internet.

I have about 170 pieces of rolling stock and I don’t have them in a tracking program either. I just have a very good idea of the cars that I have.

I do have multiples of some cars as I need them for trains. As already mentioned renumbering is not hard once you get the hang of it. I also have painted and decaled about half of the equipment that I have. (I protolance so that is a prerequisite.)

I have equipment that has been kitbashed. I have a bunch of engines that use the shells from one manufacturer and bashed to fit a better drive. (Eight Tythearn engines and one Bachthearn.) I have eight Tyco cabooses that have been converted to run on Athearn caboose trucks. A Bachmann caboose is part of the collection as it is the only plastic model of that prototype. A bashed Con-cor passenger dome-observation is also in my collection. (The rear truck mount has been moved forward to accomodate a new pair of Athearn streamline trucks.) That just shows you shouldn’t eliminate less expensive cars just because of the name.

16

Suggestions?

To the OP, if you haven’t settled on a RR, an era or a theme, it’s difficult to recommend rolling stock for your roster, unless you are looking for brand/make recommendations. Just buy what is “shiny” and appeals to you. Most have no trouble doing that.

As for brand, most of the following are good rolling stock: Athearn, Atlas, Walthers, Intermountain, ExactRail, etc. Bachman is at the lower end but may work for you.

As for out of stock items. Once you familiarize yourself with sources you will be able to find a lot of out of stock items. Obviously Ebay is a very good source for that - I scavange Ebay regularly for out of stock items and hunt for reasonable priceds and have not trouble. Trains shows are another source. And there are some shops that seem to have stuff still in stock that others sell out of quickly. So search vendors that have items.

It takes time but after a few years you’ll have a “go-to” list. Spring Creek is one vendor in NE that I often find has items that many are out of but they don’t have a live inventory like some do, so you may need to contact them if you are looking for certain items. The friendly staff will let you know if they have x, y or z.

Hah hah. Give it time. I haven’t counted my rolling stock but I’m sure it’s in the hundreds - probably a couple hundred coal cars alone, but the D&RGW was

17

It is hard to offer suggestions, as it seems the OP wants more info on detailed recording keeping, and not building a lay out.

Going by his “roster list” so far, he’s in the mid to late 90’s, but with the BN and ATSF merger in 96, he’s kind of on a tight rope, as from his period on forward, his BN locos would be patched for the BNSF.

I’m sure plenty of BN locos roamed the road with out a “patch”, they will be getting fewer and fewer.

The same with his Soo Line. Probably easier with the Soo, as many of these still excist in the red and white, well, what used to be red and white. [swg]

His Cajun Electric Power Co.'s gondolas, (Trinity Industrial Leasing) CEPX, seem to fit the late 90’s as well.

So, I guess until he has his answers on the different programs for his version of a detail record keeping program, and starts to move forward, solidifying his time period, specific railroad, and location, it’s hard to offer help.

I would think the content of his roster would weigh over the record keeping of that content. How can you build a roster with out knowing when and where?

And to save himself from buying items that don’t fit his current scenario, it’s even more important to get the “when and where” down first.

Definitlely not needed, maybe at some point down the road.

Important to have, once you actually have a lay out, and a lot of reading is available at NMRA, to help.

So once the OP has a "when and wh

18

If you plan to run more than one train and plan to not go DCC, you will need to wire your track in blocks and control the trains by selecting the blocks the throttle will be controlling. In coloquial terms, they call it running the track and not the trains. Just an FYI.

If you choose DCC, you can basically dispense with the blocking of tracks for control purposes and instead, all the rails are powered all the time; in a nutshell.

19

Thank you everyone for all of the responses with this topic. I should apologize in advance, as the discussion name could have been better (should have been cataloguing), and I could have elaborated more in my initial post. Or maybe it is that my post is being skimmed over without being read.

Regarding the roster, I am speaking specifically to the TRACKING of the data of the equipment, not so much looking for suggestions on what rollingstock to buy specifically to fit a prototype to model. Personally, at this point in time, I want to build a small diorama to test out modeling techniques and things like that. I would LOVE to be able to build a layout, but I just don’t have space with the current house layout, not that I don’t WANT to build one. The only space I have which COULD be allocated to a layout, would be in a portion of the basement as wide as my home, which is currently ENTIRELY a childrens playroom. This means it would be left un-supervised with my 2 kids (both under 8), as well as neices and nephews (which we have 11, all of them under 12). It would be fantastic to be present down there at ALL TIMES when they are down there, but when only 1 parent is at home cooking dinner, or working from home, it just isn’t feasible. So there is that. The other thing, is that I have a LOT of improvement in the space of carpentry, and being creative that I would like to work on BEFORE making a large investment in lumber and materials to eliminate the need for rework and wasted materials. Going along with this, without a layout, or the pontential of a layout in the near future, maybe I will choose a prototype and stick with i, and fill a roster with equipment that fits that prototype, but I haven’t reached that point yet. Another consideration is that I have several large projects in and around the house which are demanding my time and resources (building joists up in attic to add another 6" of insulation, then 1st floor cieling tearout to put insulation in), several l

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I read that from the beginning, but, somehow, as things do in here, it drifted on to the actuall equipment, etc., etc.

Your not alone in this forum as far as being anal with the tracking, cataloging, documentation, spreed sheets, analysing, and such. You have company in here, and maybe if the thread was titled with things, as you suggest, what programs do you use, what do you document, etc., you’ll get some of your fellow “Bookkeepers” to respond.

There was a thread started in here not that long ago, on this same topic.

Good luck with it all!

Oh, and congrats to your grandparent that’s 100 ! [:D]

I’m just a young buck at 70. [:-,]

Mike.