I am toying with the idea of starting Model Railroading. The last time i put together a track would have been when i was aroung 12 and that was along time ago. Anyway, if i decide i am wanting to do HO scale. Where should i start? With a kit or something else?
Thanks
Matt
Hi Matt,
I don´t know how long ago it was when your were a 12 year old, but the hobby has changed quite a lot in recent years in terms of supplies and techniques. The best start is to collect the right kind of information from various sources, before rushing in and maybe buying the wrong stuff.
Our host of this forum, Kalmbach Publishing, has a some good reading material for beginners, that are worth wile investing into. I can recommend the following books:
HO Railroad From Start to Finish
12121 
$17.95 or
Building a Model Railroad Step by Step
12418 $21.95
There is also a series of books called “Basic…” Go to your local hobby shop tao take a look at those books.
Chip Engelmann and SpaceMouse also offer some good reading here in the web - just google your way through and you get a wealth of information!
Happy model railroading!
Maybe a little more info would help us give advice. What sparked you to get back into model trains? Are you planning on building a layout. What’s your favorite railroad and era.
To answer your first question, there are many kits still out there. While Athearn has announced they are discontinuing Blue Box kits, they can be found pretty easily. Accurail also makes very good, easy to build kits. If your up to a little more challenge, Walthers (LifeLike) Proto 2000, Intermountain, Red Caboose and Branchline all make great kits but have a bit more detail to add, anyone with a little patience and good eyesight (or a good optivsor!) can put them together.
The big push these days is ready to run, most of the manufacturers offer RTR and its very easy to get a train setup and running in absolutely no time, however, the RTR is more expensive.
If you like buildings, there are far too many to list but you should be able to find many that will keep you busy for hours.
Ricky
There is a saying “get something running”…
It does have soe truth…
The question is…“What”?
My neighbour has been aware of my model RR insanity for years but still got himself into modelling/collecting Blackpool trams earlier this year. (00 scale - which is close to H0).
The things he needed to start:-
a tram or 6
a length of track
a power supply/controller
The thing he didn’t need to decide for what he wants to do is whether to go analogue or DCC control. I would recomend DCC to someone making a fresh start… and some people would scream “NO”! at me.
Don’t waste your time/money on second hand track until you [possibly] need to expand [at some future date] and you have gained experience in what to do and not to do with track. Go for good quality Nickel Silver flexible track. I would say use Micro Engineering or Peco… others will again scream “No”! and prefer other makes… but do use NS either way.
Get two spirit levels! A long one to make certain that the larger structure you build to put track on is level and a little one to check the track. get some experience before you play with anything but flat track unless it is going straight up/down with no switches in it.
Don’t expect to achieve perfection straight away… but the better quality you buy and the more time/effort you put into building it the better result you will get - with less effort. (put another way… you can buy cheap but you will have to put more time/effort into getting a good result).
You ask about starting with a kit… USA “kits” tend to be mostly complete with details to add on. These are good so long as your eyes and patience are
Let’s assume you are thinking about putting up a layout. Not all model railroaders have layouts. Some join clubs and run on the club layout. Some enjoy modeling rolling stock or structures and displaying them in cases. But let’s assume you want to build a layout.
Step one is finding somewhere to put a layout. Spare room?, basement?,attic?, garage? or ??? Is a move in your future? If so, a portable or semi portable layout as opposed to one fastened to the walls might make sense. If your carpentry skills are limited, a 4*8 table made from a single sheet of plywood makes sense. It’s also portable.
Step 2 is laying down track. It doesn’t have to be the final track plan, you can lay just enough to get running and add sidings and spurs and a double track main later. Was it me, I’d go for flextrack, fewer joints which reduces the opportunities for kinks and loss of electricity. I strongly recommend obtaining “Track Planning for Realistic Operation” by John Armstrong. It is packed full of ideas for track plans, track laying, bench work styles, lotta good stuff. It’s a good read too.
Step 3 is wiring your layout. Rail joiners are not dependable for carrying current, they loosen over time and then a piece of track looses power and the train stops. We like to run a power bus made of heavy wire around the layout under neath and solder lightweight jumper wires to the track every so often. For starters just run one bus and omit power blocks and block toggle switches. They can be added later. I would start with a simple DC power pack, they are only $50 (new) will run everything, and are simple to hook up. The advanced DCC system costs a good deal more, requires a $30 decoder installed inside each locomotive, and the decoder needs to be programmed before the locomotive will move. DCC does little for the solo engineer. It’s forte is allowing many engineers to
Welcome. You are getting some good advice.
Here’s mine, in a nutshell: don’t spend any money unless it is because you’d like to own some how-to books. Our hosts, Kalmbach Publishing, sell some really good ones. There are others. A local club may have someone willing to let you borrow some of his.
It is so easy to look at what you see in webpages and behind counters at hobby shops with big eyes and decide that would work for you. Well…maybe this minute, yeah, but in two months you could be doing the [banghead].
To avoid this, do this:
Continue to read here and form a concrete plan
Learn of typical mistakes people make when they first rush out to get a model railroad up and running.
Consider what you want out of your train experience. If it is simply fun and learning, then do the latter first and the fun will follow. It isn’t fun putting stuff in boxes that you have just learned was a mistake buying, and trying to get a decent return for it on e-auction sites or at garage sales.
Truthfully, about 4-6 hours of reading three or four different paperback how-to’s is both fun and educational. It helps to guide you to formulate some serious questions, the answers to which focus your investments of time, energy, and moolah…and ooohh…you’ll need sizeable chunks of each.
Don’t make any permanent track applications. Lay some configurations out and learn what is wrong or right about the various choices you make. After a while, you will have a good idea how track goes together so that your trains don’t derail or uncouple, and after six months you’ll still be interested in the ‘revenue services’ and other realistic operations that your track plan affords you. Two oval circles, or a figure 8 and a couple of spurs will have you booting the who
Welcome aboard! [#welcome]
This is a great and varied hobby. To some modellers, it’s “anything goes,” while others like to pick a specific location and/or date and model that exactly. Then again, some of us are limited in what we can do by our available space. Today’s large engines and long cars have a hard time making it around the tight curves that model trains had when I was a boy. That’s one reason I won’t go any later than the “Transition Era,” that glorious time when diesels and steam shared the rails, 56 Chevies ruled the roads, and doo-wop music filled the air.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll find a link to Coming Events. This is a guide to train shows and club open houses. You can search by state, and maybe find one coming to your area. It’s a great way to look at a wide variety of model railroads, and see what interests you. Take a look on this forum at Weekend Photo Fun, too, and see what the rest of us are doing. Don’t be intimidated by the quality of modelling displayed. None of us is born knowing how to do this, and we’ve all discovered that it’s not as hard as it looks, and learning is half the fun.
Get a starter set, a good one that has the theme you hope to end up with some day, from a company. Set it up, and play with it. When you are getting ready to put it on a board, exchange the track that came with the set for better 1 piece track from Atlas of Kato, both are very good. Don’t do a 4X8, do something a little larger that will hold your interest for longer.
There is never any need to follow a track plan that anyone offers you, change it to fit your needs and wants, or as the patron saint of Track planning, John Armstrong, called them, Givens [needs, constraints] and Druthers [wants, likes]. Get several kalmbach books on track planning, might I recommend the Ian Rice book, “Small Smart and Practical Track Plans,” and subscribe to Model Railroader, try the annoying pop up window that you inevitably just "x"ed out of, where you can get access to over 500 track plans.
When you have your plan, and the track is nailed down, building procceds as normal, build buildings, make scenery, and have fun. I’ll be subscribing to the post, so if you have any other questions, please ask and I will be happy to answer.
13 years old, dedicated subscriber, and overall guru on the subject.
Spend a few weeks browsing books and checking model railroad related forums. Try to get somewhat of what you might like to model. Once you figure out what era and prototype interests you, pick up a quality locomotive and a few cars. I cannot stress how important it is to get quality models. There are few things in this hobby that can be as frustrating as locomotives and cars that dont work well.
When you’re ready to run some trains I’d advise you (at the risk of being berated) build a cheap and simple table/module out of plywood as a non-permanent test layout. Though tables such as the 4x8 have limitations, it would serve you well especially if you dont have experience with model trains to practice laying track and some basic scenery.
Take a serious look at DCC (digital command control) for your power source.
If you can, I recommend you go to a train show that has display layouts in different scales. The scales with sufficient commercial support are Z, N, HO, S, O, and G (also called Large Scale). If you like building more than running trains then the larger scales (O, G) may be more enjoyable. If you want to run really long trains or have limited space the small scales (Z, N) may be your best bet. HO and S are in the middle if you want to do some of each. Narrow gauge is also a possibility for all scales except Z.
Once you pick a scale the next step depends on what you like most - building, get a kit - running trains, get some track down.
Enjoy
Paul
I first want to thank all of you for your coments. I am 39 years old, so you can see that it has been a long time since i last laid track.
I like the ho scale for many reasons. N is ok but just so little. Anyway i do like to build and run trains. I guess my next question would be if anyone on this fourum would know if there was a train club in my area. I live in Decatur IL. Maybe by asking both you and a club i will be able to get started without being to lost.
Thanks