Hello all, guess your’e never too old to start a hobby. I plan to start on my N guage layout within the next month or two and wanted to take this time to purchase some of my rolling stock. I guess you could say I had sticker shock when I saw some of the prices for rolling stock. For example a new 50’ boxcar ranged from around $8 up to the mid thirties.
I was hoping I could get some good advice on what to look for and what to avoid. I know you get what you pay for in most cases. Good brands, good sources. Anything will help at this stage.
Yes, it can be daunting to see a $30 dollar tiny box car.
The prices do NOT necessarily reflect quality. While I am in HO mainly, I DO have some N scale stuff.
Here are a few things you should consider besides price:
~do you want to have to change out couplers? If not, then look out for only knuckle coupler styles. most of them will play well with each other. There are some older “Rapido” couplers {big squared couplers} that are HUGE to the size of the trains. They are old style. The two are NOT compatible with each other…you will have to make a "transition car with a Rapido on one end and a Knuckle on the other end IF you have both types of couplers! Today Magne-Matic N scale couplers From HO’s KaDee couplers in N scale are the “great ones”. Athearn trains acquired the HO McHenry couplers and they are now producing McHenry N scale couplers, which will be found on all their new N scale releases. Knuckle couplers indicate new stuff.
~there are a variety of manufacturers for stuff. DO you have a particular era {period of time} you want to model? DO you have a particular Railroad you wish to model after? DO you have a particular Type of RR cars you want? These questions are important as NOT EVERY manufacturer makes everything you may Want. You may have to select certain items regardless of price based on what you desire and who makes it. If you choose none of the above, you can follow the “its my RR and I’ll run what I wanna”.
~The price does not indicate quality per se. Expensive equipment {especially locos} can fail jsut as well as cheap stuff. Bachamann makes some good stuff, . The older cheaper stuff from them would have the Rapido couplers, though.
I’m an HO modeller, so I won’t try to advise you on good brands etc. I will give you some generic advice, however. As Galaxy alluded to, you can be an “it’s my layout and I’ll run what I want to run”, and that’s perfectly acceptable. If, however, you think you might want to run a more prototypical layout, then decide now what your era, location, and railroad is going to be, and only acquire models that fit.
Just remember, cars often swap between railroads as their cargo moves from place to place, so just because you’re running UP (for example), doesn’t mean you won’t see NYC rolling stock… it’ll just be comparatively rare.
Note that it’s rare that one must pay list price. Reputable on-line dealers such as Brooklyn Locomotive Works and ModelTrainStuff have a wide range of rolling stock at good prices. And many local hobby shops also offer some discount from list.
Atlas is one N scale freight car brand that comes already equipped with knuckle-style couplers and has a variety of price-points.
Both of these vendors have dozens of options for $15 or less (sometimes much less). Most newcomers buy too much due to enthusiasm and many find later that a lot of the pieces they have purchased don’t fit the theme and concept of their layout eventually.
Good advice for newcomers is to read more and buy less – but few follow that advice. Best of luck.
I buy used from eBay and ‘N scale yard sale’ at yahoo groups. I stick with Micro-Trains cars, and newer Kato & Atlas engines when buying used.
If you are going to go DCC, check out the TCS web site for N scale decoder installation photos on the various locomotives. As an example, if I am looking to buy a used loco, I will try and find something about it on the Internet, then go to TCS web site and look up a decoder for it and pull up the instal photos so I know what to expect.
I built my whole railroad at discount prices. Even though I am in HO, I bought all my rolling stock for under $10 a peice and we are not talking blue box but RTR Proto 2000, top RTR atlas and RTR Red caboose etc. I have seen N scale Kadee cars go for similar prices!!!
Thanks Galaxy for your time and feedback. I have been reading as much as I can for the past three months and feel I am about ready to start on phase 1 soon. You might say I am breaking the family tradition by going N guage, my father was all HO when he was alive. I feel I can build a nice layout in my 10 x 20 area with N guage.
I’m glad you brought up the subject of couplers, it was may next area of research. I keep hearing about making sure you get the newer ones.
I want to model the 60’s and my interest will be more on switching, yards and business districts. I have decided to do what I would call a top-down plan. Era, area of interest, location, types of industries, products and services needed and produced. This will help me buy the type of rolling stock needed and what to model my railroad after. Think I will try and take a little from several different railroads.
I think I am going to name it the OKI RR for Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.
Going to trade shows and getting used can help a lot with price. You can also pick up the cars/locos and check them out carefully vs an ebay buy. Some of my LHSs around here sell used product at great prices.
Also, generally on ebay I have found things go for too much money(mostly the “buy it now” stuff). I can almost always get better pricing from my LHS after my club discount. Online retailers almost always have better prices too.
Larry and others have it right. You have to decide a lot of factors before leaping in. If you are after ultra high scale, something that N gauge has finally achieved, with all metal wheels and proper couplers that really work, then prices are usually high. If you don’t mind hauling around a bunch of older cars that still look OK at a distance then you can certainly find plenty of 70’s and 80’s stock at train shows for $5.00 each or even less off e-bay.
Like many here, I have a small stock of older N scale on hand as “tinker material” and most are yard sale cast-offs picked up in the $1.00 each range. They can suffice if you are just looking for long freight material.
I have a friend who has lots of N stuff and he only changes out modern couplers on a few lead and trailing cars on his long freights and leaves the old clunky couplers on 80% of his rolling stock that remains more or less permanently coupled in yards.
Most of my rolling stock is made up of Atlas, Intermountain, and Micro-Trains. Almost all cars these days come with some type of knuckle coupler, so I would stay away from the older Rapido couplers if you can. One thing I like about Intermountain is that they often release a car in several road numbers, not just one or two. As for locomotives, I’ve had very good success with Kato, Atlas and Intermountain.
I started this morning off promising myself that I would reply back to each message received. Well I can see that would become a hobby in itself. So I would like to thank each and every one of you who gave me the advice I was looking for and plenty of good resources to check out.
Don: I’ve been in N since the 70"s. Welcome. In my experience, you can’t go wrong with MicroTrains cars and Atlas cars (easily converted to Microtrains couplers). With Locomotives, if you are looking at DCC equiped, many Atlas and Bachman engines come factory equipped, but IMHO, Kato makes the best running locos on the market for my money, and the modern Kato units only need a drop in decoder. If you are sticking to DC, then Atlas and Kato are the ticket.
If you are in the buying mode, you defiinately want to join the Yahoo group called:
n scale yard sale - excellent prices - I’ve both bought and sold a lot of equipment there, and the guys have all been on the up and up with what they are selling. You do have to be knowledgeable about the item before you purchase.
A lot, but not all, of the Atlas Trainman line are the 1970’s tooling with upgraded trucks and Knuckle couplers.
If you can find older Atlas cars with Rapido couplers at a low enough price, they are worth converting to Micro-Trains.
Some of the older Bachmann cars with Rapidos are also worth converting. A lot of their “new” cars are also the old tooling.
The jaring feature on many of the older cars are thick roofwalks, which sit too high, and the brake wheels. Replacements are available for both from MicroTrains (plastic) and others (some brass). I usually just remove the roofwalks, cut off the pins, scrape them thinner using a single edge razor blade and glue them to the car roof. It only takes a couple minutes per car.
A lot, but not all, of the Atlas Trainman line are the 1970’s tooling with upgraded trucks and Knuckle couplers.
The OP mention the higher price cars that rules out the Trainman cars that is decades old-some dates to the 60s and came in a simple kit…
Look at FVM,IM,ER, BLMA,ESM,Bluford Shops and better Atlas cars, and you will see the higher detailed cars is lightyears above Trainman most Athearn,Concor,MT,the older Roundhouse cars and Bachmann.