Hi,
I’m a complete newbie to this hobby and I’m at a loss where to start.
Does anyone know of any suppliers in India?
Pointers to basic reading materials will be very helpful.
Regs
Chirag
I’m assuming you’ve already searched the 'net?
For reading materials, Kalmbach, the owner of this web site, is the best source in terms of volume.
[#welcome]
Hello.
I myself am a NRI over in the States. What city are you from?
I haven’t seen much so far in the way of model suppliers in India yet. However, i’m sure that the interest will grow.
In terms of IR models produced, there seems to be very little, but a company had produced locomotive models for sale at the IR museum. I do not recall whether the models were powered or not.
If you are interested in Western railroading, they can definitely be shipped via courier, although it will be expensive.
[Edit] After a bit of internet research, I found that a museum and hobby shop have opened in Pune!
http://www.ikf.co.in/minirailway/index.htm
As from the site, they have the museum, a hobby shop, and have recently installed manufacturing capabilities. Hopefully we’ll soon have badly sought IR models.
I should think so! Didn’t they run the steam “black beauties” until only about 10 years ago? Prototype steam operations in the 1980s and 1990s.
Welcome to the forum Chirag. [#welcome]
I list some books on my web site (<-- click). You can find a simplified table of contents and my opinions about the books.
Maybe you will find it helpful.
Karl
edit: Hey wow! 500 posts! Is this a milestone of some sort?
chirag- Welcome to the forum! Glad to have you on board!
I checked out the link mentioned (Joshies?) and all I could pull up were pics of the layout he built, but that was enough. He had a good looking model railroad. I’m guessing most of the modeling he did was of Swiss and Euro train lines.
I have always been fascinated by the Indian Ry, they have some great lines and really neat equipment. Small trains running a few feet from homes and business’ are cool no matter where they are! If you do get a layout going based on the IR, I sure would love to see it.
And both Kalmbach and Carstens publishing firms have tons of good books about getting started in model railroading.
Good luck.
Thanks for the welcome guys…
Well I’ve searched and searched… no suppliers.
And defintiely nothing on the Indian Railways. I guess I will have to use standard locos and rolling stock on my next trip to the US and look to customise. Since most of the locos (but not the rolling stock) in use are imported… that helps a bit. I know the PR guy for IR here, and he’s promised to help as muh as possible. So at least research is easier. 
Cheers
Chirag