Good advice from dstarr. I forget that I was buying train sfuff before Al Gore invented the Internt, so I had a pretty good feel for what was what before I started ordering on line.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
Start off at your local hobby shop (LHS) if you have one. Freight cars and cabeese usually sell for about the shipping charge on E-bay. Athearn, Accurail, Bachmann, Roundhouse, Modelpower, Rivarossi , and others make excellent models for reasonable prices. The product is all made from injection molded styrene plastic, and the only difference between the $7 a car and the $35 a car models is the niceness of the paint job and the fineness of the details. Any low cost model that looks good to you is a good one. Not to worry about quality.
Then visit a train show. You can find all sorts of rolling stock that is ready to run, or that will make a fine model with some paint and decals. Plenty of shiny toy set freight cars look just fine after a coat of flat box car red and a few home road decals. Red auto primer in a rattle can makes a good and readily available box car red.
Once you have seen enough rolling stock models to know what they are and what they look like on your layout, try some of the on-line or mail order places. Check their ads in Model Railroader.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
A number of on-line stores sell well below MSRP. My personal favorites are Model Train Stuff and Trainworld Online. Both have good selection, good service, low prices, and low shipping charges.
My standard advice in these cases is not to waste money on garbage just to get your car count up. You will regret it in the long run. However, there are some good suggestions above for lower priced stuff that is still pretty good quality. Bachmann silver series cars are pretty good, too (at the low end of the price point).
It all depends on where & when you look.
I've picked up quite a few cabooses through Kijiji & a buddy down the road. I paid $15 for a brand new Atlas Trainman SOO line caboose. I also paid $5 for a weathered Athearn BB Caboose.
Ebay or train shows would be your best bet in the US though.
Gordon
Brought to you by the letters C.P.R. as well as D&H!
K1a - all the way
Hi!
Welcome back!
Check out Ebay, and the Athearn blue box kits are in my opinion the best for the money on the low end of the pricing spectrum. Also try Accurail and MDC. Many sellers will combine shipping, so that will help.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Also check out Walther's Trainline. So far, I have only had to change couplers on them and they run like champs.
I am a fan of the bowser/stewart kits. They run around $10-13 at my LHS. I also like the atlas trainman RTR line, as the detail is pretty good and it is around the same price. Check around online for a good place to buy.
sfb
Anyone know of a good source for cheap freight cars/cabooses at reasonable shipping prices? I'm getting back into the hobby and don't have a ton of money to spend.
Thanks for Any Info!