Suppose the phrase “Ready-to-Run” wasn’t a marketing phrase but rather just something you said as you’re about to head out to the hobby shop to pick up some supplies… If offerings from Athearn and Atlas and Life-Like and the rest were just a set of plans and a bit of guidance… and Samhongsa’s next offering in brass came in sheets with a roll of solder… would you still be a Model Railroader? How much scratch-building and doing-it-yourself would you do to participate in the hobby? Would you cut your own ties and lay your own track? Turn your own wheelsets? Make your own lost-wax castings? Do you have what it takes, do you think, to have been a pioneer in the hobby? Or did the invention of kits and stock already assembled make the hobby a possibility for you? Where is the line for you-- what would you do to be a Model Railroader?
That’s it, those are my questions for this week!
As always, I’m looking forward to hearing from each and every one of you-- and you know those photos are always great!
One thing to remember is that metal is not always required. For instance, you could make your locomotive boilers from wood or paper as well as metal.
Scratchbuilding is fun - I’ve done some cars and buildings and hand laid a little track, but it does take time. And there’s the rub when you’re idea of a small layout is a dozen+ engines, 100+ cars, 300+ ft of track, a couple of dozen+ buildings, etc. If I had to scratch build it all I’d still be working on my first 4x8 layout.
Most of the early guys were model builders more than model railroaders. Nothing wrong with that of course and it’s still the main appeal for many. But for those of us short on time and big on dreams, easy kits and RTR are a blessing.
I suppose I might still build models, but I certainly wouldn’t build a model railroad. For one thing, I simply would never be able to find the time. I put a lot of time into structures and scenery, but my trains only need weathering and the occasional decoder. Building a single locomotive, not from a kit, would probably take six months or more (full-time job and a family) so putting together an operational layout would take so long that even a patient man like me would probably lose interest.
I’m glad that I do have the option. I love to buy a simple structure kit and then detail it, inside and out, with mostly scratchbuilt parts. Then I’ll run an RTR train through my scenery. I guess that’s the way I like to run my railroad.
IF there were no ready-to-run locomotives, cars, track, or easy-to-build kits, I would probably NOT try to build a working model railroad. I am so into railroads, it is hard to imagine NOT being interesting in modeling them somehow. I would probably build model dioramas- the kind that would fit on a model railroad.
And in fact, I HAVE scratchbuilt (probably more accurately “scrap” built) a non-working model of a model railroad in 1/12 HO scale to demonstrate a layout concept. And I have shown my N scale scratchbuilt barn with an N scale model of a Lionel layout in the loft—but non-working.
I once cannibalized a Lionel FA diesel mechanism for the wheels and chassis under a mostly-cardboard shell of a switcher I built for a special-effects photo diorama. I had some Weaver O tank cars and I needed a switcher to complete the picture so I just BUILT one.
I do a fair amount of minor modifying- I consider most ready-to-run rolling stock as ready-to-redo. And I enjoy a radical kitbash.
In 1970, I attempted scratching an HO shorty wooden head-end car- without plans. And it looked it.
Those, who are able to build exceptional models from virtually nothing, earn my deep respect. Two minor strokes left my hands a little shaky and my vision slightly impaired, so that is out of question for me now. Even kit building has become challenging in some instances, turning me into a mediocre model builder. But so what - I am proud of what I am able to achieve and I have lots of fun doing it.
I highly doubt I would have got into model railroading as deep as I have if it wasn’t for Ready To Run equipment and kits that were easy to assemble. For me it was the instant gratification that kept me in the hobby the first few years. As most people know I love the high end, highly detailed and the higher priced stuff. I couldn’t replicate any of that if my life depended on it. Not many people can although some THINK they can, lol. Later on I discovered that I have a knack for building highly detailed buildings. Of course most of the detail is store bought but I’m learning how to make molds now and a few of my buildings are now cast using molds I’ve made. I’ve scratched built a few shacks and an old run down barn. I’ve hand layed some track and I’ve learned how to carve bricks and stone work into modeling clay from a old British model railroader.
I think the natural progression for most people is along the same route I took. Buy RTR stuff, dabble in kits, work up to craftsman kits and then start scratchbuilding. For me though time is a huge factor in anything I do. I’ve been working on my roundhouse for almost two years now, lol.
So to answer the questions, If offerings from Athearn and Atlas and Life-Like and the rest were just a set of plans and a bit of guidance… and Samhongsa’s next offering in brass came in sheets with a roll of solder… would you still be a Model Railroader? When I first got into the hobby I would say nope, I would have needed the instant gratification of a finished product. Today would be a different story though.
How much scratch-building and doing-it-yourself would you do to participate in the hobby? Would you cut your own ties and lay your own track? Turn your own wheelsets? Make your own lost-wax castings? Now days I would do as much of it as I needed but that probably would have turned me off
For ride on size live steam there are kits but you get castings that must be machined. And some of it pretty precise so at least access to a lathe and mill plus machining skills are required. I used to know of one company that sold certified boilers for their kits, that was a long time ago. Don’t know about now.
If I had alI of my current skills, would be a happy scratch builder. However, much of what I learned about model building I learned by assembling kits. So, if there had never been kits I might have focused my creativity elsewhere. Today, if all of the pre-fab materials disappeared, I’d most likely switch to live steam. After all, if I’m going to do all the machine work I might as well build something I can ride, and that sounds and smells like a real train.
As an adult i got back into the hobby because of my Father in Law. He had started out years earlier making his own tinplate cars and some other hand made items… He then left the hobby until the mid 1960’s were he got into HO. he still fabricated a lot of items. Some were pretty good! I said I wish I had the equipment and the skills to do that kind of work. He introduced me to something called “flextrack” and RTR cars, etc.
After a short fiasco in “n” scale, I started on a slide under the bed HO 4’ x 8’… I didn’t do much better with that either, but had a bit of fun. Bought a couple of train set Tyco junk and finally started on a “real” layout after I moved to the city I now live in… That finally brought me to a time when I found something called “kits”. Here are a couple I put together back close to 30 years ago… Man I thought they were the nuts! Whole lot more fun than plunking a building down on the plywood central after taking it out of the box…
The one on the left I thought was the most realistic looking engine house I had ever seen after I glued it together… The industry on the left was really great because it was very cheap, made out of cardboard, and looked something like, ah, a building… Why I couldn’t never make something better than those perfect structures…
So yeah, if I had not had some RTR and some easy rattle the box kits to start with (I amazed myself with my first Blue Box car!), I probably would not have entered the hobby. But…
Getting the courage to challenge myself ever more difficult kits and leaving RTR behind to a great degree has allowed my to grow and become a much better modeler over the years. When I got back into the hobby after a 15 year rest (after the death of my wife) I looked at the stuff I thought was great and found it ver
If I cannot master a shake-the-box kit, I’d not be able to master a complex one, then a resin one, than progressing to scratch-building something. And having had the plethora of ready to run models available lately has enhanced my love of model railroading quite a bit as I like honestly just buying a nice model that takes so little to move closer to my personal vision of perfection in scale. I’ve built many, many kits and though I’m not afraid of a good challenge I’m not nearly as thrilled as before.
I think I’d still be a model railroader of some kind or another if I could apprentice under a real craftsman and learn how to take raw materials and shape them into finished goods I’d still likely do so. Heck, even if the only way for me to have a model of N&W 611 would be to carve it from wood I’d so as I love the locomotive and my desire to have a model is that great that I’d prefer that over nothing.
Do I have what it takes to be one of the hobby pioneers? Definitely not. I’d love to learn how to build a model or two and see myself taking 1-2 years building a model but definitely not a model railroad that way I don’t have the patience and certainly lack the skills.
I started out with RTR, but it was Lionel O-27 tinplate on the living room rug. From there I graduated to modeling miniature layouts with modeling clay (age in the single digits) then from balsa and sewing pins (!) in 1:196 scale. Some of my earliest efforts were scratch-built in HO because I couldn’t afford kits on my allowance.
I haven’t turned my own wheels, but I have erected steam locomotive frames. I expect to have to produce some of the small details that I’ll need to produce believable Japanese locomotives on Bachmann consolidation mechanisms. I don’t consider a steam loco superstructure much of a challenge - been there, done that.
I routinely cut my own ties (from sheet balsa) and lay my own track. Only specialwork now, but I have laid `Plain Jane’ track with four spikes in every tie. Again, been there, done that.
One thing that was very helpful to me that isn’t there any more is the scratchbuilding and kitbashing information that used to fill the pages of MR and other hobby magazines. Mel Thornburgh, Jack Work and others who slip from memory guided me by the hand. That kind of mentoring has been gone for years - but is now available on the MR DVDs (which I won’t be buying because I have the original magazines on shelves directly above this keyboard.)
I probably wouldn’t be building the kind of layout now taking shape in my garage if I’d had to build all of my rolling stock from scratch - but I’m sure I would have a layout. When the model railroad bug bit me, it sank its fangs all the way in.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - largely from scratch)
For me, scratchbuilding is the be-all and end-all of model railroading. When I’ve completed my current model railroad, I’ll probably get thoroughly bored and start on a new round of scratch-building. Operating trains doesn’t do a great deal for me.
I have to confess, if it wasn’t for RTR locomotives and rolling stock kits, I never would have become interested. It was my childhood visits to hobby shops [remember those!?] and seeing the HO model trains that got me excited. Reading MR and RMC kitbashing articles gave me the courage to try modifying some Athearn bluebox locos to resemble what the B&O and Western Maryland were using, this was what really got me started on the road to scratchbuilding.
When I re-entered the hobby in my early thirties and had small children, I didn’t think I had enough free time to devote to scratchbuilding. I desperately wanted to model the steel industry but thought that dream would have to wait until my young’uns grew up and moved out. Then Walthers introduced their steel mill structure kits in early 1996 and that re-ignited my enthusiasm. After assembling one of the blast furnace kits and thinking it looked too small, I decided to try to build a larger version of it. So I got a bunch of different sizes of PVC pipe/couplings and cut them in the same general shapes as the corresponding pieces in the Walthers kit, and - voila! - I had my first scratchbuilt structure! I’ve been hooked on semi-commercial* scratchbuilding ever since.
using commercially available detail parts from Evergreen, Plastruct, DPM, etc.
I have to admit that if things were as the OP described, I wouldn’t have gone into model railroading. My fingers and eyes don’t work as well as they used to (isn’t growing old wonderful?) and handling little tiny N scale bits and pieces is difficult for me. Reading the articles in MR about people who have built or heavily modified locomotives leaves me with great admiration for their skills but I know that such things are not for me. I’ve done some scratch building but I find it tiring and frustrating. Years ago I tried building a couple of flatcars from a kit but never finished them. Maybe some day, if all the pieces are still there. At the moment I’m starting to build a rather unique structure that I saw and photographed and felt that I just had to have on my layout for various reasons. We’ll see how that turns out. I can work on it for only a little while at a time before I’m tired and my eyes start to hurt. But I’m having fun and I’m determined to see it through to the end, and I guess that’s what counts.
John,If I had to return to my Dad’s early modeling era(30s- early 50’s) I would quit the hobby…I just don’t have the needed skill for that style of modeling.
I would not have made a pimple on those pioneer modelers.These guys was modelers in their own class and the type we will never see again…I seen my Dad take brass stock and make a Baldwin S12 switcher with a bare minimum of hand tools and a handful of Kemtron parts.He didn’t have power tools other then a Craftsman drill.His favorite soldering iron was the type you heat on a open flame.
Now I would have made it with Varney and mantua locomotive kits,the early wood and metal car kits and the early structure kits of the 50s.
BTW…If I had 1/10th of my Dad’s modeling skills I might just might make a real model railroader.[:O][swg]
Scratch building the early days was a necessity in many more instances than it is today. The layout I am currently building would be impossible for me to attempt if the hobby was still at the 1930s era stage of development. Hats off to those guys - scratch building locomotives, turning parts on a lathe etc…
Since my goal is a fine scale, operations based, double deck layout, I do have to keep things moving along. I would rather take the scratch building process and apply it mainly to structures and some rolling stock, rather than scratch items such as locomotives and power packs etc… Of course the whole layout itself is scratch built in terms of the structure, track arrangement and scenery. I have many scratch building projects in various stages of completion on the current layout: turntables, bridges, round houses, canneries, stations, sheds, out buildings, Mills, water tanks, etc…Basically anything I can’t find as a kit (or that can’t bashed) to fit the prototype…
