In addition to the monthly magazine, a subscription to Model Railroader (and an email address provided to the magazine) entitles you to weekly model railroading updates, some of which include sweepstakes entry forms for freebies from various suppliers. Click on the links below to be sent to websites where you can enter these sweepstakes:
BLMA Models
Model Expo
Canadian Model Trains / ModelTrains.com
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
First Steps
Have you decided that you'd like to start model railroading? Excellent! You will need a few things to begin:
Things that you may wish to consider as you become more serious about the hobby:
- A dry, clean area where you can setup your layout. Dust, cat hair (and cats) will not only ruin the illusion you're trying to create, but also cripple the trains themselves. The engines have tiny little electric motors that rely upon clean, uninterrupted contact with the metal rails for their power. Hair and dust cuts this contact, causing stalls.
- Some sort of large surface to permanently mount the track to. There are many options on how to build one, which I will discuss later, or you can look online for other ideas! You will want to permanently mount the tracks, so that they don't move, you can ballast them, and then wire them for running trains. Plus, permanently mounted tracks increase reliability - tracks that are frequently setup and torn-down become worn-out and electrical reliability can be severely compromised over time. You can do so to start, trying different configurations until you find one your really like, but try to keep it to a minimum!
- A Power-Pack. MRC makes great starter packs that are better than what you'd find in a train-set.
- An Engine. This is the actual locomotive that powers the train. A train is not just the engine, but the whole line of cars behind and including the engine.
- Rolling-stock. This is what modelers call boxcars, flatcars, passenger cars, etc. They "roll" but aren't powered themselves, they're pulled by the train.
- Wires, to connect the power pack to the tracks.
- An electrical outlet.
Things that you may wish to consider as you become more serious about the hobby:
- A subscription to Model Railroader magazine, and a few Kalmbach books for beginners.
- A back-drop. Doesn't have to be fancy, but something blue and white behind the layout to denote a horizon and sky can greatly improve the illusion that you're not just running trains in the basement, but a railroad through the wilderness (or city). If you can afford it, there are companies that sell backdrops of varying price (with varying quality), such as Backdrop Warehouse.
- Electrical blocks. You may wish to set these up before permanently mounting your tracks. Basically, you can only run one train at a time unless you setup "blocks" of tracks that are electrically isolated from other blocks, using toggle switches to turn the blocks on and off. Conversely, you can use digital command control (DCC) to control more than one locomotive at a time, using just one throttle and one electrical block. More about this in another post! For now, here's a good external website you can use.
- Scenery. What do you want your layout to look like when it's done? You may not want a flat tabletop layout - you may want to cut out sections of it so that you can model areas below the track level, such as rivers under bridges and trestles. Do you want to model a city, the country, or a combination of both?
- Better equipment. You'll find that better quality, more expensive equipment does indeed run as well as look better.
- Upgrading couplers. Beginner-level rolling stock in HO has "horn-hook", N-Scale has "rapido". Neither look realistic, or work very well, but they're not patented, so Atlas doesn't have to pay a company that makes couplers (like Kadee) to use theirs. You can however switch them yourself. Micro-Trains already has the "good" N Scale couplers on their cars, because they make them!
Manufacturers
There are many, many manufacturers of model railroad supplies. Most are very small companies owned and operated by one or two people, a few are much larger and employ a fairly large staff.
Here's a link I found online that is much more comprehensive than anything I could have compiled on my own:
It lists dozens of different manufacturers, but isn't comprehensive, as new ones are added every year, and others go out of business or are absorbed by others.
One of the largest to be absorbed was Life-Like, which many will remember as a low-cost manufacturer; it was purchased a few years ago by Walthers as part of their desire to expand beyond simply distributing supplies from other companies, and begin manufacturing their own.
Walthers is the largest distributor of model railroad supplies, carrying a little bit of everything. This is most likely your local hobby shops supplier; if you don't have a local hobby shop, you can purchase directly from them as well.
I'm going to discuss a few select manufacturers, mostly the largest and most well-known.
Atlas: Great quality locomotives...which I believe have drive-trains made by Kato. Decent quality rolling-stock in N Scale (a good intro for those who can't afford Micro-Trains). Buildings and scenery tends to be cheap and not terribly realistic in appearance. They are best known for their track however, where in both HO and N scale they are considered the beginner's standard. It's not terribly realistic track - the rails and ties are oversized, but it's cheap compared to other brands, and is of good quality (the trains run well on it). It's short comings are easily dismissed once the track is ballasted, and if you choose to do so, painted!
Plus, while the rail may be oversized, you sometimes need an oversized rail in smaller guages such as N or Z, where flanges on rolling stock and locomotives may be excessively large, otherwise the wheels would ride on the ties and not the rail. This is less an issue over time, and generally only a problem on older models.
Atlas also provides free of charge a download of their Right Track Software, which you can use to design a layout on your computer before ever buying the track, so you know exactly how much room you will need, and what you will need to purchase for track.
Athearn: primarily HO Scale, a good, middle of the road manufacturer.
Con-Cor: I wasn't a big-fan of their quality in the 80's and 90's, but I've read that this has
improved over the last few years. I'd like a few of their newer models to compare.
Kato: High-end models, and a price to match. Primarily smaller scales, such as N and HO. If you want a great running N scale locomotive, you look for Kato.
LGB: large-scale manufacturer (G scale), above average quality, cost.
Micro-Trains: this is the manufacturer of choice for N-scale rolling stock (train cars). Highly coveted by collectors as well as model railroaders, they have a premium price tag. The quality however makes the price worthwhile, as smooth-running rolling stock is a necessity in a small scale such as N. I know from personal experience that well taken care of Micro-Trains rolling stock will last forever, I have a few that are close to 20 years old now.
MRC: Model Rectifier Corporation. Lesser known for their rolling stock, buildings, or engines, their forte' is that they make great power supplies. Throttles in other words. They're good, they're guaranteed, and I wouldn't use anything else.
Here's a link I found online that is much more comprehensive than anything I could have compiled on my own:
It lists dozens of different manufacturers, but isn't comprehensive, as new ones are added every year, and others go out of business or are absorbed by others.
One of the largest to be absorbed was Life-Like, which many will remember as a low-cost manufacturer; it was purchased a few years ago by Walthers as part of their desire to expand beyond simply distributing supplies from other companies, and begin manufacturing their own.
Walthers is the largest distributor of model railroad supplies, carrying a little bit of everything. This is most likely your local hobby shops supplier; if you don't have a local hobby shop, you can purchase directly from them as well.
I'm going to discuss a few select manufacturers, mostly the largest and most well-known.
Atlas: Great quality locomotives...which I believe have drive-trains made by Kato. Decent quality rolling-stock in N Scale (a good intro for those who can't afford Micro-Trains). Buildings and scenery tends to be cheap and not terribly realistic in appearance. They are best known for their track however, where in both HO and N scale they are considered the beginner's standard. It's not terribly realistic track - the rails and ties are oversized, but it's cheap compared to other brands, and is of good quality (the trains run well on it). It's short comings are easily dismissed once the track is ballasted, and if you choose to do so, painted!
Plus, while the rail may be oversized, you sometimes need an oversized rail in smaller guages such as N or Z, where flanges on rolling stock and locomotives may be excessively large, otherwise the wheels would ride on the ties and not the rail. This is less an issue over time, and generally only a problem on older models.
Atlas also provides free of charge a download of their Right Track Software, which you can use to design a layout on your computer before ever buying the track, so you know exactly how much room you will need, and what you will need to purchase for track.
Athearn: primarily HO Scale, a good, middle of the road manufacturer.
Con-Cor: I wasn't a big-fan of their quality in the 80's and 90's, but I've read that this has
improved over the last few years. I'd like a few of their newer models to compare.
Kato: High-end models, and a price to match. Primarily smaller scales, such as N and HO. If you want a great running N scale locomotive, you look for Kato.
LGB: large-scale manufacturer (G scale), above average quality, cost.
Micro-Trains: this is the manufacturer of choice for N-scale rolling stock (train cars). Highly coveted by collectors as well as model railroaders, they have a premium price tag. The quality however makes the price worthwhile, as smooth-running rolling stock is a necessity in a small scale such as N. I know from personal experience that well taken care of Micro-Trains rolling stock will last forever, I have a few that are close to 20 years old now.
MRC: Model Rectifier Corporation. Lesser known for their rolling stock, buildings, or engines, their forte' is that they make great power supplies. Throttles in other words. They're good, they're guaranteed, and I wouldn't use anything else.
Sets vs. Layouts
In a previous post today, I discussed the difference between Model Railroads, Model Trains, and Toy Trains.
An article from Britain reminds me that I'd also like to tackle the difference between a train set and a train layout.
A train set is a collection of trains; it could be one singular box that holds an engine, railway cars, a power-pack, track, and even a few buildings - everything one could need to begin building a layout.
A model train layout is the collection, turned-into a model world. You could say that it's the "finished" product, and greater than the sum of it's parts, even though most modelers will tell you that there is no "finished" model railroad. No more so than a "finished" prototype city. Things change, new models are released, new techniques are created or discovered, and a modeler may go back and change something that he had previously completed on his layout.
Want a more graphic example?
Train Set
Model Train Layout
(work in progress)
Both use N scale equipment, but only a layout actually incorporates the equipment into a world that you yourself created.
An article from Britain reminds me that I'd also like to tackle the difference between a train set and a train layout.
A train set is a collection of trains; it could be one singular box that holds an engine, railway cars, a power-pack, track, and even a few buildings - everything one could need to begin building a layout.
A model train layout is the collection, turned-into a model world. You could say that it's the "finished" product, and greater than the sum of it's parts, even though most modelers will tell you that there is no "finished" model railroad. No more so than a "finished" prototype city. Things change, new models are released, new techniques are created or discovered, and a modeler may go back and change something that he had previously completed on his layout.
Want a more graphic example?
Train SetModel Train Layout
(work in progress)
Both use N scale equipment, but only a layout actually incorporates the equipment into a world that you yourself created.
Celebrity Modelers
"You play with trains?" Bet you may have heard that before, or perhaps you're saying that to me now. Maybe it's true, but we're in good company. Did you know Rod Stewart is an avid modeler? Michael Gross? And I know these two are, Rod Stewart had his layout featured in Model Railroader not that long ago, and was quoted as saying that he'd rather be on the cover there, than on Rolling Stone. Michael Gross - also known as the father on Family Ties, and more recently as Burt, the survivalist in the Tremors movies - is an unofficial spokesman for the hobby, being very active in both modeling and prototype rail-fanning. Phil Collins has even said in an interview with Rolling Stone: "I'm building a model railroad in my basement. That seems to be an obsession. There really isn't any room for music at the moment." Oh, and apparently Peter Jackson - the director - is an avid modeler too.
So, it still isn't cool to model trains? What? According to the website I linked to earlier (here), two of the members from "The Who" are modelers. Not enough? Are you going to poke-fun at Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio, Gene Hackman, or Gomez Addams? Ok, so the last one is a fictional person, but you get the point (and you can't tell me you've never wanted to stage your own "cornfield meet" in miniature, where two trains collide and explode).
Model Railroading is relaxing, and megalomaniacal. It's being the Trump of your own world, the God of tiny little plastic people. It's playing the artist with scenery and backdrops, the electrical engineer of microswitches, the historian researching fallen roads (lingo for past, no longer running railroads, like New York Central); it is everything and has aspects that will appeal to anyone. Now, you can't tell me that isn't pretty cool.
My wife even reminded me that you don't have to model the trains themselves - you can skip the trains, and just model the towns and cities. That too is allowed!
Everyone's invited. Get on board!
So, it still isn't cool to model trains? What? According to the website I linked to earlier (here), two of the members from "The Who" are modelers. Not enough? Are you going to poke-fun at Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio, Gene Hackman, or Gomez Addams? Ok, so the last one is a fictional person, but you get the point (and you can't tell me you've never wanted to stage your own "cornfield meet" in miniature, where two trains collide and explode).
Model Railroading is relaxing, and megalomaniacal. It's being the Trump of your own world, the God of tiny little plastic people. It's playing the artist with scenery and backdrops, the electrical engineer of microswitches, the historian researching fallen roads (lingo for past, no longer running railroads, like New York Central); it is everything and has aspects that will appeal to anyone. Now, you can't tell me that isn't pretty cool.
My wife even reminded me that you don't have to model the trains themselves - you can skip the trains, and just model the towns and cities. That too is allowed!
Everyone's invited. Get on board!
Trains for Kids!
Trains are fun, and shouldn't just be for adults. Most adults who enjoy model railroads have probably gotten their start with model trains, after "catching" the train-bug early in their childhood with toy trains. What's the difference then between model railroads, model trains, and toy trains? Depends who you ask!
Serious 'model railroaders' will tell you that the hobby can expensive: true "model railroads" are reproductions of life-like scenes along prototype railroad corridors. This means that the trains run like Swiss watches, and cost about as much as one, through detailed scenery complete with realistic people, cars, buildings, that may match "real life" scenes. In many cases, someone from Pennsylvania will be able to go into a model railroader's basement, and see familiar scenes from the PRR (Pennsylvania Railroad) re-created in miniature! This attention to detail comes with a price of course; accurate scale models of particular locomotives will cost more than "generic" appearing locomotives representative of an entire fleet.
Model trains however are used to describe the less-realistic, and therefore less-expensive realm of electric trains made primarily for children.
The two intersect in larger scales more than smaller scales. Z and N scales are so tiny that they can be easily mishandled and broken by children, with pieces so small that younger children shouldn't be allowed to even touch them (not to mention the expense involved if they were to break or be lost: a Z scale engine about the length of your index finger may cost hundreds of dollars). My N-scale cats for instance (yes, they can make them that small) are about the size of a grain of rice, if not smaller! HO Scale is good for an older child (see recommended age on the side of the box) that can put the track together and situate the cars on the track, and is the least expensive of the truly accurate model railroading scales. O and G scales are better for younger children (again, paying strict attention to age guidelines set by manufacturers), because the pieces are bigger, and the trains more durable.
In both these larger scales the worlds of model railroading and model trains intersect, depending on who you ask. O-Scale Lionel for instance often runs on 3-rail track, and doesn't "look" as realistic as track in smaller scales. They are however great for children - they're durable, and big enough for small hands. Plus you can often pick up used Lionel or Marx train-sets complete with all the pieces, on sites like eBay, or even lawn sales, for pennies on the dollar, since many may be 50-60 years old! They are really built to last!
But - collectors also collect Lionel, and this sometimes drives up the prices for rare or more in-demand items, and the newer Lionel products being manufactured today are a little more true to scale (and therefore may be less durable than older, used items) and as such are much more expensive. Lionel is what many aging baby-boomers grew up with, and as they get older, seek to recapture a little of the magic from their former childhood hobby.
G scale is also an option, and again shares itself with toys and models, but for a different reason - craftsmanship and price is different from one manufacturer than another. A Bachmann Big-Hauler can be found on eBay for less than 200 bucks, complete with track, power supply, engine and cars; if you want LGB however (German, what I have called the Mercedes of the model railroad world), you may pay up to $1500 or more for just the locomotive. What you get is a museum quality model that will run like a really large Swiss watch. Where you shop in the spectrum between quality and price, is ultimately up to you!
There is of course a third option besides model railroads and model trains - toy trains. These are trains that are obvious toys - there is little or no attempt at realistic appearance or function, and they probably do not run on electric rails as scale-models do; they may be hand-operated wooden toys, or battery powered plastic toys. These are a great option for the youngest of children, but do have their drawbacks:
I can't answer that question for you! I would however say the following: model railroading is a great tool to use in building rapport with your children. It's a "toy" or hobby that both children and adults can share, at the same time, and how often do you find that? If you sometimes wish you had more time to play with your kids while giving a little time to yourself to relax, it may just be an option. Just don't forget the black and white striped hat, and the wooden train whistle!
Serious 'model railroaders' will tell you that the hobby can expensive: true "model railroads" are reproductions of life-like scenes along prototype railroad corridors. This means that the trains run like Swiss watches, and cost about as much as one, through detailed scenery complete with realistic people, cars, buildings, that may match "real life" scenes. In many cases, someone from Pennsylvania will be able to go into a model railroader's basement, and see familiar scenes from the PRR (Pennsylvania Railroad) re-created in miniature! This attention to detail comes with a price of course; accurate scale models of particular locomotives will cost more than "generic" appearing locomotives representative of an entire fleet.
Model trains however are used to describe the less-realistic, and therefore less-expensive realm of electric trains made primarily for children.
The two intersect in larger scales more than smaller scales. Z and N scales are so tiny that they can be easily mishandled and broken by children, with pieces so small that younger children shouldn't be allowed to even touch them (not to mention the expense involved if they were to break or be lost: a Z scale engine about the length of your index finger may cost hundreds of dollars). My N-scale cats for instance (yes, they can make them that small) are about the size of a grain of rice, if not smaller! HO Scale is good for an older child (see recommended age on the side of the box) that can put the track together and situate the cars on the track, and is the least expensive of the truly accurate model railroading scales. O and G scales are better for younger children (again, paying strict attention to age guidelines set by manufacturers), because the pieces are bigger, and the trains more durable.
In both these larger scales the worlds of model railroading and model trains intersect, depending on who you ask. O-Scale Lionel for instance often runs on 3-rail track, and doesn't "look" as realistic as track in smaller scales. They are however great for children - they're durable, and big enough for small hands. Plus you can often pick up used Lionel or Marx train-sets complete with all the pieces, on sites like eBay, or even lawn sales, for pennies on the dollar, since many may be 50-60 years old! They are really built to last!
But - collectors also collect Lionel, and this sometimes drives up the prices for rare or more in-demand items, and the newer Lionel products being manufactured today are a little more true to scale (and therefore may be less durable than older, used items) and as such are much more expensive. Lionel is what many aging baby-boomers grew up with, and as they get older, seek to recapture a little of the magic from their former childhood hobby.
G scale is also an option, and again shares itself with toys and models, but for a different reason - craftsmanship and price is different from one manufacturer than another. A Bachmann Big-Hauler can be found on eBay for less than 200 bucks, complete with track, power supply, engine and cars; if you want LGB however (German, what I have called the Mercedes of the model railroad world), you may pay up to $1500 or more for just the locomotive. What you get is a museum quality model that will run like a really large Swiss watch. Where you shop in the spectrum between quality and price, is ultimately up to you!
There is of course a third option besides model railroads and model trains - toy trains. These are trains that are obvious toys - there is little or no attempt at realistic appearance or function, and they probably do not run on electric rails as scale-models do; they may be hand-operated wooden toys, or battery powered plastic toys. These are a great option for the youngest of children, but do have their drawbacks:
- Because they're not to scale, you may not be able to run different manufacturers on the tracks you bought. This is less an issue with Thomas and Brio (link), which use just about the same track, but is more an issue with Lego (link) and GeoTrax (link), which is different than anything anyone else makes.
- There is also the problem of obsolescence: the kids will grow out of them at some point. You can put a lot of money into Brio, just to have them grow out of it in just a couple very short years.
I can't answer that question for you! I would however say the following: model railroading is a great tool to use in building rapport with your children. It's a "toy" or hobby that both children and adults can share, at the same time, and how often do you find that? If you sometimes wish you had more time to play with your kids while giving a little time to yourself to relax, it may just be an option. Just don't forget the black and white striped hat, and the wooden train whistle!
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