Model Railroad Budget - any ideas?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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My purpose in starting this thread is to allow forum members to post money saving ideas on their model railroad layouts.

I ask that people avoid non-model-railroad items. In particular, stay out of politics. I think it’s wise to economize no matter what the outside economy is doing. If times are good, people should save for the proverbial rainy day.

If you want advice for non-model-railroad family budgets, please go elsewhere. There are many good sources for such information.

I have budgeting experience with a major railroad, and they always carefully justify spending. One fallen flag, the Milwaukee Road, used the slogan, Amerca’s Resourceful Railroad. That’s a motto for model railroads, too.

It’s “protoypical” to save money with your railroading.

I can post several examples myself. I love “deals” I’ve already seen some good ideas here in the forum.

Feel free to post your money saving techniques. I may post some pictures of some of the things I have done to economize later. I would like to see others first.

Example. I buy basket case locomotives and cars. Then I rebuild them.

It’s more fun to build models than to own models.

.

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The loads of scrap metal in this photo are an example. The scrap metal is really shredded paper from our paper shredder that I colored to look like scrap sheet steel. The gondolas were $1.50/each at a train show. I installed kadees and weathered them.

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Don’t buy new R-2-R stuff. Buy kits, structure or rolling-stock and hone your modelling skills. $ for $ you will get a lot more hobby time out of a kit.

If it is a wooden structure kit, use the leftover carrier sheets etc to make something else. I made a smoke-house out of the remains of a small shed kit. 2 models for the price of one.

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One way I cut down is to buy use equipment…I also trade/sell equipment that I no longer need or bought on a whim.I also buy at the best discount.

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Scratch build. Index cards, soda cans, wood crates, etc make excellent and free building materials. MR used to have a section devoted totaly to dollar models but that ended years ago. I fear the younger generation of the hobby has little idea that it is OK to build your own trains. Compare hobby magazines from 50 years ago and you will see a stark contrast in the number of construction articles and the quality.

Let the imagination run wild. That’s all it takes and costs nothing.

Use real dirt for senic materials, nuke, sift and package according to size and color.

Use real plants and parts therof for well, plants and trees on the railroad.

Paint buildings onto backdrops instead of using 3-D models

Paint and old bed sheet to simulate dirt and grass and use that over scrapwood frames for scenery. It’s surprizing how effective that is.

Use real sawdust and dye it with RIT dye for ground cover

Build only two sides of a structure, you never see the third or fourth side anyway so why model it? Double your structures for the price of one.

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Folks:

Here’s some of mine.

-Buy kits, not RTR. You usually save at least $6 each, and kits like Bowser freight cars are a lot of relaxing fun to assemble. You can put them together while watching TV.

-More complex kits like Bowser locos are quite cheap as good steam goes, and the work required in assembly means you have something to do and are less tempted to spend and buy more. (see my needing-to-be-updated thread. :frowning: )

-Buy secondhand locos with open-frame motors, clean and tune them up, and replace the motor magnets with $2 NdFeB rare earth magnets. Result - a great running loco for cheap. (see my current thread :slight_smile: )

-Use NdFeB magnets for Kadee uncouplers (see my current thread :slight_smile: )

-Keep operations low-key by modeling a branchline, shortline, or lightly trafficked section of Class I. After all, how many trains are you running, 90% of the time, when operating alone? 1 or 2, probably. The rest are just idle. If you want more traffic, save money by reusing trains. Don’t stage up 8 mixed freights. In real life, they look pretty much the same. Stage up 2 and run 4 times.

-Use as many stock or hardware-store materials as possible. Why use Rigid Wrap when paper towels dipped in plaster work fine? Paint with $5 color-mismix latex. There are lots of earth and pukey green tones there.

-Consider scratchbuilding or doing more scratchbuilding. Not only is it cheap, it’s fun.

-Use printed-out brick paper from Scale Scenes. Print out only one to save costly printer ink, then take it to the copy shop and get enough color copies to model the Great Wall of China. Make your own windows by inking clear plastic with a ruler and ultrafine Sharpie pen.

-Make trees instead of buying them.

-Use secondhand brass or steel track from train shows. Polish it with the GLEAM method described on this forum, then avoid all abrasives coarser than crocus cloth and it will stay clean, with an o

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-Buy kits, not RTR. You usually save at least $6 each, and kits like Bowser freight cars are a lot of relaxing fun to assemble.

Excellent advice but, I will add this for food for thought since we are talking budget here…Some kits cost more or the same as the RTR cars especially in full price hobby shops…Don’t forget to add the price of metal wheels to the total kit price…

As another thought why change wheels if you have a low hobby budget? I stop changing out the wheels…Now the only metal wheels I have is already been change or comes with the RTR car.

Use a clean rag with 91% alcohol to clean your track and wheels…One bottle will last for weeks unless you clean track every time you run trains-contrary to popular belief you don’t need to clean track every time you run trains nor do you need that high price track cleaning gimmick car…

Use common sense while hobby shopping.Don’t be fooled into thinking you need the latest gimmick.The money saved can be spent on what you really need.

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Don’t impulse buy! I’ve bought quite a bit of on sale close out stuff that I ended up not using.

Buy cheap plastic KD knock offs…(wait) Bad idea…Don’t do that…[:-^]

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Same/similar idea to rolling stock, but I buy used buildings for a buck or two at shows, then refurbish or kit bash them into what I may want.

Sometimes even building kits “new in box” at shows can be cheap.

The worse it looks, or the older it is or the worse shape the box is, the cheaper I can get it.

I like to look/dig under the table for things I may find useful. They hide “junk” there. Never know what one may find. Sometimes neat stuff.

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Build your own specialwork. A complex passenger station throat with multiple double slips costs about as much for raw rail, tie stock and spikes as you will spend for a single good-quality manufactured double slip - and YOU will have control of both geometry and quality.

Print building and cityscape photos off the Internet, contact cement them to some inexpensive foamboard from your local office supply emporium and use them as backgrounds.

Shop sales - hobby and otherwise - and stockpile things you KNOW you are going to use. OTOH, don’t collect, “Maybe I can use this,” items unless you get them free.

Construction is down, but not out. Ask if you can have things that are going to the dumpster. The more you take, the less they have to pay at the landfill or transfer station.

Horsetrade. Maybe that humongubox you bought in a fit of madness will fit your clubmates needs more than the 36’ wooden boxcar that doesn’t belong behind his diesels. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

Just a few ideas.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

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I see many more ideas than I had expected to see. [tup] to everybody!

Here’s an old idea I’ve seen used by many model railroaders. use the same drive for two or more locomotives:

SHELL SWAPPING

This is an example, too, where you have to ignore rivit counters who could cost your time and money. Santa Fe did not operate E7’s which is the Santa Fe shell I use here.

The chassis is a Proto 2000 E7 drive. The two shells are other makes (CBQ is Rivarossi and ATSF is Model Power). The drive cost me close to nothing. I love deals.

Selective use of “close enough” and “plausible realism” will conserve your resources.

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I have been buying mostly second hand locos and rolling stock (3 vandy tenders have been the B&O’s only new equipment purchase this fiscal year) and decalling, painting and weathering for the B&O. I look for structure kits at train shows, and will be handlaying my own turnouts, etc. I set aside 20 or 30 dollars a pay for “train stuff” and with careful online shopping, still manage to get enough things to keep busy. The forthcoming purchase of a lathe for the mechanical department will be the largest expenditure on the system this year, but hopefully will vastly reduce locomotive construction times.

Tim

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Things i do to save…

i make my trees from christmas garland last xmas got 9real feet sections of pine garland for 2 bucks each so far have trimed almost 300 trees only half way thru the fist garland lol

i also make all my own ground cover out of sponges and ground paper and cheap craft paint oh and yes lots of real dirt…

hope that helps someone…

Hobojim

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you will quickly come to find that a lathe will be a tool that will pay dividends not only in locomotive construction, but in dozens of other applications as well. Look into finding some hobby magazines of the 40s and 50s (Model Machinist I think was one) and you will learn how to build your own machines, jigs, tools and thousands of other useful projects.

Here is a web page to get you started

http://hometown.aol.com/__121b_hMRzStle8nUxlC2VUcRJJDwCX/kcq3ba

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As others have said, scratchbuilding. Making anything that you can learn how to do.

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Thank you for the link!

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YIKES ! Guys that actually clean track, guys that actually use BRASS track and make stuff from other stuff----these are my kind of model railroader, want small parts? take apart old propane lighters(empty) all kinds of wheels, gears, pieces of brass, metal parts etc, I also dismantled an old computer(it was a cold winter night) and ended up with a ton of really small screws and all kinds of metal shapes and sizes, I learned a lot from the replies here already. Does this mean I can’t go out now and buy 8 new $40.00 boxcars and a couple of $300.00 locos on a whim???

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Don’t buy that expensive foam asphalt roadway/parking lot material. I found “Creative Hands Cool Foam” in a craft store. It comes in 11 3/4 x 17 3/4" sheets for about $.79!! One piece will give you 258’ of 28’6" wide roadway in HO!! I also picked up a set of foam markers for about $5, but I don’t care for the results - a little faded out for the white & yellow, but a yellow Sharpie dosn’t work at all!! Maybe paint? My [2c] worth of savings!!

P.S. They come in several other colors other than black - could be a use for them also.

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When you must buy, buy quality. This primarily applies to locomotives and in particular their mechanisms. As an N scaler, I can attest that one quality diesel will make you much happier than the three cheap-os that are now lingering in the junk box. This is less applicable to things like rolling stock and structures. You can really work wonders on a basket case from a swap meat with some details and weathering. Of course, these don’t have to function on their own, like an engine.

Locomotives aren’t earning revenue for the railroad if they’re laid up!

I’m also an advocate of salvage, scratch and bash. My general rule of thumb is “Never Throw Anything Away.” Here’s a couple of examples:

Tarped drywall load - Materials, scraps of wood and styrene, a bit of masking tape and some thread.

Generator Turbine load - Materials: a gear from a dead G-scale hand car. The tarped thingy is a commercial resin casting picked up at a show for cheap.

Track Cleaner/MOW car - Materials: $5 boxcar, a few bits and pieces from the scrap bin, a hodge podge of old decals resurrected with some spray on decal film. The cleaning pad is a bit of masonite (hidden behind the step boards) weighted with an old loco weight. The only thing new on this is the Atlas metal wheel sets, and I suppose the paint.

Adaptive re-use: Caboose lighting. Materials - LED board from a locomotive (DCC install included new bright whites) a few bits of wire, some leftover weights etc. I bought a tube of conductive paint

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I must say that I learned a lot of new ideas. For instance, I’ll take screws, etc. out of an old computer prior to tossing it in the trash.

Lee, I like the photos. The track cleaning train looks like a really good idea to me. Well done! Each of your photos is an inspiration.

This photo includes some resourceful ideas. The retaining wall is made from plastic strips I cut from a “For Sale” sign commonly sold in hardware stores. We had a sign left over when we had some land to sell, and it was cheaper than Evergreen sheets. I used PVC solvent cement to glue the strips together and then used spray texture paint followed with acrylic washes. Above the retaining wall is a chain link fence made from scrap pieces of fiberglass window screen. The fence posts are brads from a brad nail gun. The interlocking tower was one of several junk buildings I got cheap at a train show. I repaired it and painted it.