Another Newbie

[sclairfan]

Hello everyone.
I am also new to this hobby and the forum. I presently collect the bright orange Sclair Hopper Cars by Lionel. I plan to put together an industrial railyard with loading barns using Sclair Hopper cars as my first model railroad project. I am thinking of putting a setup outside. I still have to convince my wife that I may need a bit of yard space for my trains. I have seen some great photo's on this site and it has definetly given me a lot of good possibilities to consider. I work at the Sclair Polyethylene Facility and work in the railyard there ,so you can probably under stand why I want to start with these cars. Any good advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. One other thing. How do I get my picture to go with my signature??

[Anonymous]

I have never heard of sclair? what is it?

Don't forget this is an international forum and what is familiar to you, may not be so well known on th other side of the world!

Rgds Ian

[Anonymous]

Welcome aboard, sclairfan. You'll find that this is an open group that loves to discuss and share their favorite hobby - garden railroading. They are also very curious about new things. As Ian said, garden railroading is big world wide - England, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, to name a few.
I Googled "sclair hopper" and came up with some cool hopper images. If I understand it correctly, sclair is the resin plastic that the cars are made of, correct? It seemed, though, that they were all N or O scale. Do they come in G scale? Who makes them? I'd love to have a couple to add to my fleet.
Have fun and ask lots of questions - these guys love to bat the details around.

[johnandjulie13]

Welcome aboard!

I will look forward to hearing about your progress.

To get your picture in your signature line, go to "update profile" on this page. Once in the "update profile" page, you will find a section entitled "Signature." Enter the url of your picture and it will then appear at the end of your posts, just like my Pennsy Steamer. [:D]

Regards,

John O

[Train 284]

Welcome aboard!

[Ray Dunakin]

Welcome!

[Anonymous]

Hey glad to have you hear, pal!

[John Busby]

Hi sclairfan
Lionel that sounds like "O" gauge to me so my first bit of advice
is go through all the garden railways forums looking at what FG&J is up to.
He is into "O" so that will give you an idea of what is possable
in the garden in "O"
Next bit of advice whatever you plan on doing in the garden keep it simple
garden railroads are a whole different ball game to what you might do indoors.
Last bit of advice
Get on with it and have fun doing it[:D]
regards John

[sclairfan]

I'll try and answer some of the questions that were asked.

QUOTE: I have never heard of sclair? what is it?

. Sclair is a product name and trade mark for polyethylene plastic resin. The Sclair facility is in South Western Ontario Canada. About Sixty miles from Detroit Michigan on the St. Clair river, Canadian side.

QUOTE: If I understand it correctly, sclair is the resin plastic that the cars are made of, correct?

The model Sclair cars are made of the same material as any other model car. The real cars contain the plastic resin in a pellet form.

QUOTE: It seemed, though, that they were all N or O scale. Do they come in G scale? Who makes them?

The Sclair cars come in N,HO,O scale and I recently found out that just this year LGB introduced them in G scale. I am leaning towards the G scale for my out door train and keeping my lionel on a module inside. Because of the cost of getting into G scale I will be a while gathering up cars for my garden railroad, but that will give me time to think about what I want to do. I like what I have seen in G scale trains they really stand out and, from what I have read here they are very good quality.

[Tom The Brat]

Go with G.

Sounds like a cool obscession[;)]