SOAPBOX -- Track Dealers -- How the Price of Track Affects Our Hobby

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
61

Not to mention the more you produce, the faster the tooling wears outs and the sooner you have to replace. I know peopel will look at it and think “plastic, causing metal to wear out?” Well, yes, it does. Then there’s the question of how bad do you let it get (reducing quality of the final product) before you spring for fresh dies.

One other thing, people take today’s money and look in 30-40 year old magazines and think that the hobby was so much cheaper. You also need to look at inflation as well. This has never really been a poor man’s hobby, even going back to the early days. When the first electric trains came out - electricity in your house was a luxury, not everyone could even afford to have electric lights, let alone an electric ‘toy’. Sure, there have always been ways to scrimp and make due with available materials (empty tin can stock and so forth), but if you look at the fully ‘finished’ layout even 50-60 years ago, notice how many of the people buildign them were doctors and other such professions. Not too many Joe the Plumbers with fully finished 50x30 basement empires full of highly detailed locos and perfectly accurate rolling stock and all craftsman-level structures. Then there’s the time vs money trade off. You can have more for less money if you have more time, or you can have more of a layout in less time if you have more money. So maybe you’ve found a way to make that othersise unafforable dream layotu a reality - but if it takes 100 hours to build that highly detailed insid

62

Fred W-

Thanks for some good comments and useful information!

I had not heard that but will happily investigate it, thanks for the tip.

Yes, I’ve heard about the famed LaVancil rail-- was thinking about that this morning in fact. But is there more to that story? Why would his rail not sell while other mfgr’s rail does sell? Where can I buy LaVancil rail? Who markets it? Why is it not better known or at least heard of? Is that the real problem then, marketing?

Trout Engineering on the other hand is likely suffering from a different problem-- progress. I know about Tru-Scale roadbed, and it is nice stuff, but its rigid construction and doesn’t permit any flexibility on the part of the user. Thus you either have to know exactly what you’re going to build ahead of time or buy a lot of extra stuff that you’ll have on-hand afterwards. I see Tru-Scale stuff come up all the time for sale on ebay. Funny thing is, its nearly always new-but-neer-used, i.e., “stuff I bought for my layout and was surplus”. Plastic flextrack and cork roadbed simply provided an easier route for most people.

[quote user=“fwright”]
Spikes and ties - you can make your own. Steve Hatch at Railway Engineering (

63

Very definitely true. For me, I’m okay with “good enough” for the most part. But I am interested in hand-laying my track and making it look as good as I can, at least the visible parts. And I have recently determined that I want all of my turnouts, especially in hidden or hard-to-reach areas to be the highest quality I can afford or can make. I don’t care what they look like, which I’m sure will reduce the price-- especially if I’m able to make them myself. I don’t even care if they have ties as long as they stay in gauge and otherwise operate the way they need to… which even as I’m typing this gives me a wild and wacky idea for my staging yard— which if it works will reduce the cost of all my staging yards from hundreds of dollars to tens of dollars… thanks y’all !!! I appreciate it…

John

64

If your “breakthrough” thought is laying staging track rails directly on the surface with no ties, it’s been done and failed. Turns out that pretty small bits of dirt can derail the trains or get into the works if there are no ties. If the rail is up on ties, the crud mostly falls harmlessly between the ties.

Some hobby “breakthoughs” that are dreamed up are not new, nor particularly good.

65

That’s a good tip and probably useful-- thanks, but nope, that’s not what I was thinking, not even close. Is just if aesthetics is not a big concern, I may have thought of a way to do it much cheaper is all. I’m in the process now of researching it and contacting mfgr’s. If it will work though, I’m not going to keep it a secret, I just wanna find out if I’m right first.

66

Avoiding the utter nonsense posted on this topic (as in they should give away track), one thing no one has discussed yet is that once you build your layout, you might not buy any track again for years…even decades. My club has been around for 72 years. We’re currently building just our 3rd new layout since World War II. We have probably gone 20+ years without buying a single new switch or piece of rail.

What kind of business can survive that at give-away prices?

Paul A. Cutler III

67

It seems to me that the business interests behind Model Railroading have been overlooking a significant detail that is probably a contributor in cutting their collective throats-- the price of track.

Track is a basic, fundamental essential ingredient in Model Railroading. Without it what have you got?

But if the price of track is too high then it stifles the ability of people to express themselves creatively and utilize the space they have available to its fullest potential.

Well, if they’ve been cutting their own throats, they’ve been doing it for a long time.

The MSRP for a 36" length of Atlas code 100 flex track in 1959 (source: June, 1959 MR, page 13) was $1.10. That’s the equivalent of $8.11/section today ($811 for 100 sections). The MSRP in the Walthers catalog is $25.95 for 5 lengths (or $5.19/length). Walthers has it on sale, so it’s even cheaper. Code 83 is listed at $6.25/section (on sale for $4.98 section).

And if you don’t want to pay full MSRP (or Walthers sale price for that matter), Trainworld’s selling 100 sections of code 100 flex for $270 ( $340 for code 100). That’s only $2.70 /section for code 100 (or 1/3 the inflation adjusted Atlas 1959 list price). Source: March 2010 MR, page 18.

Andre

68

I like Atlas nickel silver code 100 flex or sectional track, and I like Peco code 100 Insulfrog switches. Peco switches are expensive, but I like the spring-loaded ‘snap throw’ mechanism for throwing switches manually.

69

Call me crazy, but I never considered $1/foot of track expensive. (I use Walthers code 83 because other brands don’t match up well with their acessories like the turntable)

However $20/turnout, I consider horribly expensive! I would like it ~$10 with the number of turnouts I have. (A little over 120)

70

Question. I looked at the amount of track one would get in a box—100/box of 3’ length. Some commented on needing 2 or 3 boxes. If one box gives you the equivalent of about 300’ of track and you needed 3 boxes—running about 900’ of track----

Just how big was this layout anyhooooo----???[%-)][:P][:-^]

71

Hi,

Lot have been say about the price of pieces of track and we must admit like the other needs of this hobby, track is quite expensive.

Some people say they can find ready to run turnouts for affordable price, other say handlay them.

I don’t know the best way to make cheap turnouts but after all these reply I would come back on the system I use and which is often show as a very expensive one.

I calculate the cost in a first series of 10 turnouts, next a second run of 10 turnouts; I find the result not so bad at all.

I am speaking about Fastrack jig system.

Before to calculate the price of a produced turnout, this system is interesting if you need more than 25 turnouts, that’s a starting point of view.

Second you don’t need all the things offer in the Fastrack line, like point tools or frog tools; they are helpful of course, but you can file the rails whithout them.

I use them in Nscale because I want first class turnouts for my layout and handlay ones for a better look; small tolerances in handlaying Nscale track are gone whith these jigs.

I didn’t use the Fastrack laser cut ties, but glue wood ties on the paper template of the turnouts aviable on the site.

So I consider the need of only the following items (price coming from www.handlaidtrack.com this evening).

The price are based to build a standard n°6 turnout in Nscale code 55,whith enough material to build 10 turnouts in a first batch.

A n° 6 jig in Nscale alone 115.45$

A bundle of PC ties(100ties) 12$

A bundle of 11 ME 36’ rails (enough to build and around 20 turnouts) 16.2$

A bundle of wood ties (500 ties) 14.

72

Here at the ATLANTIC CENTRAL the current layout plan calls for a double track mainline that is about 8 scale miles long, or about 500 actual feet. That’s over three boxes right there. Then then there is the 25 staging yard tracks, each about 20’ long, that’s another box and a half. The main visable freight yard is 7 tracks and about 25’ long, slightly more than a half a box. Then there is the industrial areas, passenger terminal, engine terminal and the branch line…

The layout fills a 22’ x 40’ room and is double decked…

And I was the one who said track is a bargin today. But, I do use that “inferior” Atlas track at only $3.30 a length and $13 per turnout.

Sheldon

73

Don’t forget the helix between the decks and to/from staging. Mine will require a full box of track, double-tracked-- and there will be two on the layout.

74

You, I already knew about!! lol![swg][:P] BTW I love the look of what I see in that steam thread!

I’ve run across code 55 rail in N scale at one LHS at 2.49/section and so I just started buying them bits and pieces fashion. Now I have a supply!! [:D]

Most layouts of that scale got built up over years of putzing with them. Now we see people doing this like pronto------and then wondering why it is so expensive----

75

So I suppose if I stated that I have over 11 cases of track on my layout (100 pc/case) and 350 turnouts would not be considered a small layout? I am building a multi level layout in a 2500 sq ft area - it is a prototypical layout doing Conrail in the early 80’s As far a the price of track goes it is rather expensive compared to the engine and cars needed to populate the layout. It is all in what one wants to do - building this layout IS what i want to do - so the cost is not an object - it is no different that boating or 4x4s or drag cars - all which I have done and Model Railroading is far far cheaper ! BOB H - Clarion, PA

76

That, sir, is a tiny bookcase layout![(-D]

Hey, since you have the space for the dang thing, why not? My thing was that it could be done over a longer time frame as well. Track only is looking expensive if one had bought the stuff in one fell swoop. Done over a period of time maybe not so much—

77

Try soliciting competitive bids.

I’ve had good success approaching several LHS’s to bid on my spec-sheet of track with specified brands. The total list price for the lot would have been about $1,500, the actual winning bid saved me about $500 off the list price - cheaper than cherry-picking individual sales.

And it was a win-win deal, I got the discount, and the LHS got the sale, yes they took a lower margin but without carrying the inventory - they just placed the order and called me when it arrived. They deposited my money long befote they paid the distributor.

My experience is that LHS owners are good business people, give them some volume and they’ll work with you on the price.

Jim

78

Thank you - those are just three of about 40 freelanced steamers that protect the schedules here on the ACR. Most are kit bashed in some way, some a lot, some just a little.

You are very right about this, years ago basement sized layouts took a decade or two, now I see lots of them being built in two or three years from scratch to fully operational and few more years to high levels of scenery.

One member of our local group has gone from a plan I drew to nearly finished scenery in about 5 years, 5 miles of double track, large staging yards, etc, filling about 700 sq ft.

I consider my 800 sq ft to be average size, at least amoung modelers I know. Large layouts are like what Bob H is building or Ken McCory’s layout.

Themes and track “milage” vary quite a bit, but most everyone I know with a layout has 500 to 1000 sq ft of layout space or more.

And, as a student of economics and history, I still think track is a bargin right now, even those expensive brands I won’t buy.

Sheldon

79

Now THAT is an excellent suggestion! Thank you very much for it. I’m going to give that a try.

John

80

We did this when buying Tortoise switch machines. Several of us got together and bought about 6 bulk boxes all at once and lowered the price about 10% below the usual discount price.

Sheldon