Model Trains Help & Suggestions

[Kerbalsaurus]

I’ve been thinking about getting into model trains recently, but I know it’s an expensive hobby. Quite a few other people on the forums do it, so I’m wondering if anyone knows good brands or websites to buy from. I’m mainly interested in vintage trains, specifically PRR.

Edited September 12 by Kerbalsaurus

[SunlitZelkova]

Unless you’re buying a ready to run set, online is not the best choice to order products. Do you know if there are any hobby shops or model train stories in your area?

What brand would be best depends on what gauge you’re interested in. What gauge you choose will also affect the availability of certain items.

For example, there’s a wide selection of items for HO gauge, but with N gauge there’s a lot more limitations, especially when it comes to accessories.

What size layout are you thinking? Or were you thinking more of just setting it up on the floor or table from time to time?

As far as cost goes, it depends on what types of engines you want to run and at what gauge. N gauge steam locomotives are notoriously expensive in the US. Diesel F units would be less expensive.

Another factor is how many trains you want to run. If you’re trying to run multiple on a single mass of track, you’ll need DCC equipment, which can double costs of locomotives at times.

Note there are other ways to have multiple trains running. Simply setting up one line of track and having another disconnected will require two controllers/transformers but would be cheaper than DCC likely.

Another factor in regards to cost is whether you’re willing to buy used or not. I visited Spokane to see my grandparents in July and was surprised at how good quality and cheap a lot of the rolling stock was at the local train store. Used of course, but it didn’t look bad at all. Contrast this with when I went to my hometown hobby shop a couple days later. Similar freight cars cost about double.

Whether you’ll get a good deal though really depends on the shop though. Some shops don’t sell used items, only new ones.

If you’re not sure about what gauge to choose, here’s some info.

HO is in the middle ground between O and N. It’s still quite big, and thus engines can be more expensive at times. However, freight cars can often be about the same cost when bought new (24-30$). Engine prices will vary a bit, IIRC DC (analog control) ones can actually sometimes be the same price as N gauge ones (there was an HO Great Northern SW2 at my local hobby shop for 124$, meanwhile there was an N BNSF AC4400CW for about 110$). For DCC the costs are higher than it would be with N.

N’s primary advantage is in space, you can either build a small layout in a smaller space or do more with a big space. With HO there is a lot more selection when it comes to accessories like buildings and vehicles.

Note that with both HO and N a lot of buildings, like station platforms and freight receiving centers and what not, are assembled and painted like model airplane kits. Unless you plan on buying lighted ones (which are prefabricated) you’ll need those skills. Paints can be about 2-3$, you won’t need a huge selection of colors. Brushes are cheap, paint thinner for cleaning them is 10$ or so, primer is similar in cost to the paints. Cement is also 10$ or less. It isn’t too tricky, and given it’s a building and not an airplane or car there’s room for errors in case you don’t have prior experience building models. White glue is required too for applying the windows, which are usually little sheets of acrylic you cut out with an Xacto knife or something similar.

Depending on the manufacturer N can be lacking in details, especially if you buy older (used) models. HO obviously gives a lot more room for details given its size.

Something to note about model railroading is that it isn’t like building plastic models of planes or ships where there are often a wide selection of classic, famous vehicles on the shelf at all times. Manufacturers often stick to famous railroads and don’t keep any models in stock constantly, things come and go over the years. More famous models like F units will appear regularly, but something like the Pennsylvania Sharknose steam locomotives would be rarer.

Availability of the certain railroad you want will kind of depend on where you live. Western railroads like Great Northern and Southern Pacific are easier to get west of the Rockies, while East Coast railroads are easier to find over there. That said, there can still be a sort of lacking because it all depends on the manufacturers decisions about what to produce.

One last thing about cost: it depends on what type of layout you want to build. I basically have most of what I need for my layout based on the Pacific Northwest, in total I’ve spent about maybe 900$ish. Although I’m planning to build some individual mountains I’m not planning to put the layout down permanently because I don’t have a good means of dust control; I’m a “set it up on the table/floor from time to time” guy.

My layout is just a loop and siding because that’s all I can fit on the dinner table. I also thought long and hard about expansions with double track, I decided I just wasn’t interested in doing that. My layout is based on the Northwest Washington State, specifically rural areas, and thus I felt a single track line was more likely to be in place.

What I mean to say is that the cost of the hobby is gonna depend on what your layout will look like; what era, what part of the country or state, etc. How much space you really have at home to build it. Whether it’s permanent or not. Etc.

Pennsy served a pretty big portion of the country so there should be lots of possibilities there.

Actually one more tip: model railroading is very hard to do to scale unless you’re just building a switching yard. So don’t think about it as much as “I want to emulate the Horseshoe Curve” and more “I’m going to base the area on these landmarks and elements of the real life area u like.” Instead of worrying about trying to have realistic passenger operations and thus trying to have a layout big enough to have two stations so you can take passengers between them, it’s better to just throw in things you love or think are cool. My layout only has a single station but I still have fun taking my passenger cars around it, even if from a different point of view it might seem weird to have a passenger train running on a line with only one station.

Let me know what gauge you’re thinking of getting and I can provide more info! Good luck!

EDIT- Forgot about O gauge. It’s BIG, and there’s basically only two companies in the US that manufacture it: Lionel and MTH. So selection is less. They’re also very expensive given their size.

Edited September 12 by SunlitZelkova

[Kerbalsaurus]

14 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Unless you’re buying a ready to run set, online is not the best choice to order products. Do you know if there are any hobby shops or model train stories in your area?

What brand would be best depends on what gauge you’re interested in. What gauge you choose will also affect the availability of certain items.

For example, there’s a wide selection of items for HO gauge, but with N gauge there’s a lot more limitations, especially when it comes to accessories.

What size layout are you thinking? Or were you thinking more of just setting it up on the floor or table from time to time?

As far as cost goes, it depends on what types of engines you want to run and at what gauge. N gauge steam locomotives are notoriously expensive in the US. Diesel F units would be less expensive.

Another factor is how many trains you want to run. If you’re trying to run multiple on a single mass of track, you’ll need DCC equipment, which can double costs of locomotives at times.

Note there are other ways to have multiple trains running. Simply setting up one line of track and having another disconnected will require two controllers/transformers but would be cheaper than DCC likely.

Another factor in regards to cost is whether you’re willing to buy used or not. I visited Spokane to see my grandparents in July and was surprised at how good quality and cheap a lot of the rolling stock was at the local train store. Used of course, but it didn’t look bad at all. Contrast this with when I went to my hometown hobby shop a couple days later. Similar freight cars cost about double.

Whether you’ll get a good deal though really depends on the shop though. Some shops don’t sell used items, only new ones.

If you’re not sure about what gauge to choose, here’s some info.

HO is in the middle ground between O and N. It’s still quite big, and thus engines can be more expensive at times. However, freight cars can often be about the same cost when bought new (24-30$). Engine prices will vary a bit, IIRC DC (analog control) ones can actually sometimes be the same price as N gauge ones (there was an HO Great Northern SW2 at my local hobby shop for 124$, meanwhile there was an N BNSF AC4400CW for about 110$). For DCC the costs are higher than it would be with N.

N’s primary advantage is in space, you can either build a small layout in a smaller space or do more with a big space. With HO there is a lot more selection when it comes to accessories like buildings and vehicles.

Note that with both HO and N a lot of buildings, like station platforms and freight receiving centers and what not, are assembled and painted like model airplane kits. Unless you plan on buying lighted ones (which are prefabricated) you’ll need those skills. Paints can be about 2-3$, you won’t need a huge selection of colors. Brushes are cheap, paint thinner for cleaning them is 10$ or so, primer is similar in cost to the paints. Cement is also 10$ or less. It isn’t too tricky, and given it’s a building and not an airplane or car there’s room for errors in case you don’t have prior experience building models. White glue is required too for applying the windows, which are usually little sheets of acrylic you cut out with an Xacto knife or something similar.

Depending on the manufacturer N can be lacking in details, especially if you buy older (used) models. HO obviously gives a lot more room for details given its size.

Something to note about model railroading is that it isn’t like building plastic models of planes or ships where there are often a wide selection of classic, famous vehicles on the shelf at all times. Manufacturers often stick to famous railroads and don’t keep any models in stock constantly, things come and go over the years. More famous models like F units will appear regularly, but something like the Pennsylvania Sharknose steam locomotives would be rarer.

Availability of the certain railroad you want will kind of depend on where you live. Western railroads like Great Northern and Southern Pacific are easier to get west of the Rockies, while East Coast railroads are easier to find over there. That said, there can still be a sort of lacking because it all depends on the manufacturers decisions about what to produce.

One last thing about cost: it depends on what type of layout you want to build. I basically have most of what I need for my layout based on the Pacific Northwest, in total I’ve spent about maybe 900$ish. Although I’m planning to build some individual mountains I’m not planning to put the layout down permanently because I don’t have a good means of dust control; I’m a “set it up on the table/floor from time to time” guy.

My layout is just a loop and siding because that’s all I can fit on the dinner table. I also thought long and hard about expansions with double track, I decided I just wasn’t interested in doing that. My layout is based on the Northwest Washington State, specifically rural areas, and thus I felt a single track line was more likely to be in place.

What I mean to say is that the cost of the hobby is gonna depend on what your layout will look like; what era, what part of the country or state, etc. How much space you really have at home to build it. Whether it’s permanent or not. Etc.

Pennsy served a pretty big portion of the country so there should be lots of possibilities there.

Actually one more tip: model railroading is very hard to do to scale unless you’re just building a switching yard. So don’t think about it as much as “I want to emulate the Horseshoe Curve” and more “I’m going to base the area on these landmarks and elements of the real life area u like.” Instead of worrying about trying to have realistic passenger operations and thus trying to have a layout big enough to have two stations so you can take passengers between them, it’s better to just throw in things you love or think are cool. My layout only has a single station but I still have fun taking my passenger cars around it, even if from a different point of view it might seem weird to have a passenger train running on a line with only one station.

Let me know what gauge you’re thinking of getting and I can provide more info! Good luck!

EDIT- Forgot about O gauge. It’s BIG, and there’s basically only two companies in the US that manufacture it: Lionel and MTH. So selection is less. They’re also very expensive given their size.

I was thinking about HO gauge, as that’s relatively affordable, and fits the size of my house fairly well. My main worry is honestly more price than anything. I have seen some good prices for HO gauge PRR trains online, with locomotives between $70-$150, and passenger cars between $30-$80!

For the setup, I was thinking more of a 1950s setting for it, and the late golden age of rail. It’ll probably just be an on the table setup with two or three stations for now, as something more long term would probably be too expensive at the moment.

Hobby shops in my area unfortunately are not common. I know a good model train hobby shop, but the issue is they’re all the way out in central PA, and I don’t want to drive all that way just to get trains. I’ll start looking though.

[Nuke]

i got a trainset in my closet. i think its o scale but im not sure. i never use it because cats.

[SunlitZelkova]

On 9/13/2024 at 12:29 AM, Kerbalsaurus said:

I was thinking about HO gauge, as that’s relatively affordable, and fits the size of my house fairly well. My main worry is honestly more price than anything. I have seen some good prices for HO gauge PRR trains online, with locomotives between $70-$150, and passenger cars between $30-$80!

As long as you can afford it, I’d say go for it. Especially since it sounds likes you have a solid idea for the expanse and focus of your layout, it’s a good investment that will provide hours of fun.

Those prices aren’t bad at all. That’s pretty much what you’d have to pay for N scale new. Are the HO listings new too?

Just be careful before you buy online. If you can, contact the seller and ask about the shipping method. If there are reviews, read them and make sure they have a high approval rate. Note that depending on the site there are caveats. Reviews can be faked and such.

On 9/13/2024 at 12:29 AM, Kerbalsaurus said:

For the setup, I was thinking more of a 1950s setting for it, and the late golden age of rail. It’ll probably just be an on the table setup with two or three stations for now, as something more long term would probably be too expensive at the moment.

That’s a great choice! There’s a lot of HO 1950s vehicles out there, as well as era-agnostic structures and figures.

I was buying vehicles for my N scale layout the other day and I literally had 2 choices for 1950s cars. I browsed HO for the heck of it and there were 10+. This was on Walther’s, the online market for train stuff. I’m sure other sites have great selection too!

On 9/13/2024 at 12:29 AM, Kerbalsaurus said:

Hobby shops in my area unfortunately are not common. I know a good model train hobby shop, but the issue is they’re all the way out in central PA, and I don’t want to drive all that way just to get trains. I’ll start looking though.

If the seller seems trustworthy I’d say go for the online order. A lot of model train shops are very “analog” businesses that prefer to do business face to face and thus don’t post their listings online. Especially if the online option is exactly what you want, I’d say go for it. You wouldn’t want to find yourself disappointed after traveling to the physical train store.

Hopefully the online market has buyer’s protection. Worst case scenario you’ll be repacking the box it came in, dropping it off at the post office, and getting your money back in a couple business days.

I just mention this because I actually went to my local hobby shop to buy an NP diesel locomotive in July and brought it home to find out when I raised the throttle the lights came on but it didn’t move. I had the option to return but instead planned to take it to the (local) proper train shop and have it repaired.

Moral of the story is there are options depending on how much money you’re willing or able to spend.

One last piece of advice: don’t worry about getting it done right away. I didn’t actually have money to repair that NP diesel before leaving for Japan to attend college, and thus I won’t be seeing it run for four years or more. But I don’t consider it a waste because I bought it in otherwise good condition for a decent price ($139.99) and it’s such a rare paint scheme to see produced + one that I dreamed of owning in some form since I was a child that I consider it to be worth it.

The choice is yours though! Good luck and have fun, purchasing it and getting excited for it to arrive is part of the experience, especially if you’re like me and dreamed of having an electric train layout as a kid but, being a kid, never had the wherewithal to make the dream come true.

[Kerbalsaurus]

Good news! I put an engine and a car on my Christmas list, and while not expecting the exact type I asked for (honestly, I wasn’t expecting to get them at all), I did get them!

The first one I want to show is this, a Brunswick Green Pennsy GG-1. This is my all time favorite locomotive, and probably one of if not the best electric locomotives ever built. Quite a biased judgement, but it also ran for 50 years between 5 different railroads, and that’s no small feat. The model itself works really well, and the really cool feature is that the pantographs can extend and retract.

The passenger car is a PRR Conngressional, one of my favorite passenger cars. This is the more troublesome one. The issues that arose with this is that at first the coupler wouldn’t connect with the engine’s. I figured out how the couplers worked eventually, but it still disconnects every now and again. However, the much larger issue is that the car may be to large for the tracks. It derails at every turn, and that’s a bit concerning. Any suggestions on how to fix that?

[SunlitZelkova]

On 12/26/2024 at 9:08 PM, Kerbalsaurus said:

I figured out how the couplers worked eventually, but it still disconnects every now and again.

Knuckle couplers can be finicky. If the problem it fairly frequent and persists, you could look for different types of couplers online. Looks like yours are HO; with N scale there are a number of different knuckle coupler types available and they can be swapped at will. It’s possible that’s the same for HO too. Couplers are fairly easy to remove and replace, basically just requiring a screwdriver. There’s multiple parts, such as a spring inside the assembly, so be careful not to lose them.

And also, because you have an electric locomotive, be VERY careful to not damage the pantographs. I recommend just Googling for how to remove couplers or do maintenance on a model locomotive with a pantograph. There might not be a video specifically on the GG1 but there might be something related to Japanese or European trains and the principle would be the same.

On 12/26/2024 at 9:08 PM, Kerbalsaurus said:

However, the much larger issue is that the car may be to large for the tracks. It derails at every turn, and that’s a bit concerning. Any suggestions on how to fix that?

It depends on if it is the max turn angle of the bogie or the spacing of the wheels on each bogie that is the problem.

If the former, in theory you could modify the car so that the bogies can make tighter turns, but you’d probably have to take the body off the chassis to get a better look at how it’s assembled. This should be possible- most passenger cars can have their bodies removed pretty easily so as to install interior lighting- but depending on how the bogies are assembled they may be impossible to modify it without basically breaking them first. Also be careful to not damage or break the body.

If the latter, there’s nothing that can be done with what you have on hand. The only solution would be to buy another circular loop’s worth of track with a smoother curve and replace the curves you have.

Track makers tend to have guides to the radius of their curves on their websites, some modeling associations may have guides too. If you know the maker of that passenger car, look up a manual or any old sales information from websites and you should be able to find the minimum curve it can take.

On the bright side: space-wise for your layout, you shouldn’t need too much of a bigger curve to handle the passenger car. The positioning of the bogies on each look barely longer than each other; I’m actually surprised the car would have issues at all when the GG1 doesn’t.

Now that I’m thinking about it, depending on the speeds you’re running at, the passenger car might be too light. Some older N scale passenger car models required opening up the body and putting in weights, because none were installed in the factory and the cars would frequently derail. I recommend maybe observing how it derails more to make sure it’s a problem with the length of the car that’s causing the derailment. Just make sure to put towels or clothes or something along the tracks so when it falls the body isn’t scratched.