Model Railroading

Driving Park

Driving Park

2,007
United States
Los Angeles
GTP_DrivingPark
Finetales
My hobby besides playing GT would be model railroading. Besides an avid car fan I am also a diehard train fan. I was in fact a train fan before I was a car fan. When I can't go out to Petersburg VA to watch 30 trains a day, I run my trains in the basement. Anyone else a model railroader? Post now!
 
I've always been a bit of a train fan myself. I had an N scale pike until a couple years ago but alas, I don't have the space for one now.
 
I used to be really into this but it took up to much space and time, its a pity cos life has taken the pleasure of these things away for me.
 
I've never been into trains at home, but I had a friend with a large HO layout in a "spare" room of his house back in high school, and another with an N-gauge layout. Neither one could ever understand the electrical connections so I was helping them with that. (You have to insulate here, add a controller for that segment, and if you plug in that transformer you'll fry it and this one too. Shut up and let me work!)

I didn't see the point of actually having the trains, though. To me, building the dioramas and tracks was cool, but then it was "so what?" while running them. Boring.

That said, I have an American Flyer S-gauge set which my dad bought me for my first Christmas in 1957. I'm not sure who it was really for, since I was 7 months at my first Christmas, but that's not the point. Anyway, S-gauge is somewhere between HO and the Lionel's O-gauge, with HO being 1/87 scale, S-gauge being 1/64, and O being 1/48. You don't see a lot of S-gauge stuff out there, and you don't find it in the stores. My sets runs, has a figure-8 layout with cardboard trestles for an over/under crossover. I have a 4-4-2 locomotive with tender, a gondola, a tank car, a refrigerator box car, and a caboose. The engine can be set so it reverses every time it stops, so you can run back and forth without manually handling the train.

I always liked this set better than my cousin's Lionel when we were kids because I didn't like his 3-rail track. I also liked that my set needed less room, and that the couplers looked and worked like the couplers on real railroad cars.
 
Well I haven't seen many 4-4-2's out there so that's a rare one.

As for S scale stuff, well, Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars are also 1/64. That stinks for me because I have 5 locomotives on my HO layout and TONS of Hot Wheels.

And I too do not like the 3-rail track. Yes it helps the circuitry a little in loops and stuff, but it's not realistic. I have a friend with a Lionel layout in his garage and yeah, I like HO the best. Besides, it's easier to have HO because it's the most popular so more stuff is HO than anything else. N scale is second but still. My first train set was N scale as a birthday present but it derailed a lot and the track was really small so it was extremely hard to put the engine back on. My dad went to the hobby store and traded it for an HO layout, and now I've made that into a table in my basement, complete with a yard, 2 tunnels and grueling 10-15% grades.

:-)
 
You know, I never made the connection with the Hot Wheels scale!

As for the 4-4-2, it's actually one of the cheapest, most common of the American Flyer locomotives.
 
I use to have a 5x10' HO scale layout in my crawl space back in my old house, but unfortuantly after moving away from home and into an apartment its been put away till I get my own house. My locomotives run from CN and CP diesels to a couple of steamers (2-2-4-4-4-4-2, 2-2-4-4-2, 2-4-4-2, and my favorite and the oldest, a 2-4-4 Manatullian). The model shop in my city closed down a couple of years ago, so the only recent purchase for the hobby was a PC train set bought at Christmas time last year, and I'm hoping to get the newest one (a 2-4-4-4-2 I believe with 4-5 coal cars plus caboose) when it comes on sale shortly.

What landscape and from what time period have you all gone with for your setups?
 
I got a whole bunch of trains, along with track peices handed down from my dad and my grandpa when I was younger. Back then I always wanted to have a wicked track in the garage, but most of the track peices were broken and we never really bothered with getting new parts. I'm betting that a lot of the stuff is priceless now judging by the age and great condition (of the trains and cars atleast). :lol:
 
Hi,
I have a N Guage railway set which we are planning to sell. Can anyone give me a rough estimate of how much you think it will go for?
Here is a picture of it. We plan to sell on ebay but do you think that there is any other places we could possibly sell it?
dscf2395eq8.jpg

Thanks
Speedster502
 
speedster502 - I'd guess around $200 with all that track you've got.

SRV2LOW4ME - I've never heard of a 2-2-4-4-4-4-2.:crazy: Do you have a pic? My time period is about 1980, where they still used Spartan Cab diesels and steam locomotives for excursions. Landscape is northern mountains (I have a 10% grade on there).

gibson - sign up in my railfan thread!

:-)
 
Driving Park
speedster502 - I'd guess around $200 with all that track you've got.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Here is a full list of stuff which might make a estimate a bit easier.

The board is a 48” (1m 22 cm) x 38” (96.5 cm), height 8 ¼” (21cm). It is fitted with castors to enable it to fit nicely under a single bed. It has a draw for storage of trains and carriages

The track is pinned, gritted and glued in position and features a delightful corner tunnel which has an access hole to the rear of the board to rescue de-railed trains. The layout is fitted with the following:

10 sets of points 9 of which are electrically operated.

Delux electronic track cleaner

The hand made wooden control box contains:

Gaugemaster 2 track controller
Bachmann controller
9 Point Controllers
3 Additional Switches (Redundant)
Removable connecting cable which stores in the box
Track Layout map
Basic electrical wiring diagram

The rolling stock included is as follows:

1x Grafar Limited Engine No.68079 (In box)
1x Graham Farish Engine LNER No.2801 (In plastic moulded tray)
2x Trucks
1x Brake van
2x LNER 4 wheel Coach No.0662 (Both individually boxed)
2x Coaches No.M16171 (Unboxed)

Various building as shown (None are fixed in position)

Selection of farm animals, deer and people

Selection of vehicles, bikes etc

Unopened signal box interior kit (Bought by mistake, not really suitable for layout)

Metcalfe N-Gauge railway workers cottages (Two out of the four currently un-made)

Plus remains/spares of Metcalfe buildings that are already made


Sorry if this sounds like I am trying to advertise this, I am not. I just stole the text from the ebay thingy....
Thanks
Speedster
 
Serge.D
I still have my Lima trains from when i was 8 to 12 year old,that was between '77 and '81.:)

serge
Click to expand...
Snap, although I am younger than you. I was between 7 and 11 then.

They're up in the loft at my mum's house gathering dust. As far as I'm aware, it still works...
 
If it still works daan, then I'm amazed. After just a few months with my set put away because we were moving, the tracks were so dusty that the electric current could barely make it to the train. But I've got all the grime off and now they work well again.

:-)
 
speedster502 - my guess looks good, I'd now guess $200-$250. You'll get good money for all that, I can assure you. I'd put a Buy it Now option there too.

:-)
 
Driving Park
SRV2LOW4ME - I've never heard of a 2-2-4-4-4-4-2.:crazy: Do you have a pic? My time period is about 1980, where they still used Spartan Cab diesels and steam locomotives for excursions. Landscape is northern mountains (I have a 10% grade on there).

:-)
Click to expand...

I don't have any pictures on hand, but whenever I take them out of storage, I'll snap a few pictures for you. Its a huge locomotive though, and unfortuantly doesn't like anything less then a 22 degree turn, so it basically just sat on my last layout as a display piece in the yard. I had mine set in the late 60's, early 70s small town + country side in the summer. I even had a small farm set up at hay time, complete with round and square hay bales (almost 50 of them, hand made and painted by me) being put in the barn.

Thanks for making me realize I miss working on my layout. :lol:
 
My dad works for the railways, so I sort of grew up with them. He bought a whole load of Thomas the Tank Engine bits and pieces, so I've inherited them, and bunch of other stuff (random locomotives/carriages/buildings etc.) too.

Edit: all Hornby 00 scale.
 
Heh, once I finish stuffing myself with 1:18 diecasts and parts for 1:8 scale R/C, I plan on working on some HO scale stuff. Not sure how long it will be, but I do have a ton of track, along with a few old locomotives, and a mix of various train cars. I plan on starting with a Amtrak California sometime soon. :)
 
I am fond of model railroading, but my little brother is a hardcore fan. He is starting a N-scale layout, but it is too expensive at the moment. I am more into aircraft and cars, so you can imagine how heated debates get when people call model railroading "the greatest hobby in the world".

It's good to find a thread of railroad fans, though.
 
I've been a train fan since I was a kid. I had a small set, don't even know if it was lionel or what. Was thinking it might be a good thing to sell online. If not, maybe I'll just buy a set for myself. My kids are really into Harry Potter, and lionel makes a Hogwarts Express set. Anybody seen it or know if it's any good?
 
Lionel generally has good quality, so no matter which set you buy it will work fine and last long, but their prices are steep so you've got to have the money.

:-)
 
hi guys

I had a fling with railroading and still do. I got a Marklin Z guage type 89 loco with one 5 pole motor. It came with a battery pack for a 9V battery and every time I used it, it worked fine and then slowly raun out of speed. Then if I left it for about 10 minutes, it would spring back to life. This happened from when it was new. Lately, I havn't been able to get anything out of it even with brand new batteries. What can I do to get it started? Should I fork out heaps of money for a proper transormer? do I need to send it away to get repaired?
I can't afford it now so whatever it is, it'll have to wait.
 
Well, now I have 3 nice HO scale locomotives. Hopefully the next step is some passenger cars (though, some may have to be custom done) and a few freight locos and cars. After that I need to start getting ready to build an actual setup, though this probably won't happen till after I move.
From left to right:
Atlas GE Dash 8-32BWH, #2051 Amtrak California
Athearn GE Genesis P42DC, #116 Amtrak
Athearn EMD F59PHI, #2008 Amtrak California

 
I used to be really into my model trains up until about four years ago from when I was six years old
I dont have enough time now with my exams and technology and stuff
Ive still got all the track and trains in the loft
I used to truely love just spending like four hours watching them go round and round and it was a blast back when I still had a proper imagination :D
 

Latest Posts

Back