General Discussion (Model Railroader)

 Hey guys -

 I mentioned in another post (and on another forum) that I enjoy "re-building" older stuff. That includes locos (when possible), rolling stock and structures rather than going out and buying the latest and greatest. 

 It's not just because I'm cheap (frugal is a better term), but I like to test my skills on making stuff look and hopefully run better than it originally was or currently is.

 Seems to me a lot of folks and shops, give the impression if you're not running the hottest item or using the latest technology,  you're the odd man out.

Just wondering how many other modelers enjoy working this way and if we can have a few suggestions or tips you use to get stuff up to speed.

BTW - I'm currently running several N scale, DC (blocked) layouts and have been scale modeling for about 40 years (on and off) and consider myself pretty average is skill sets. No, I'm not a rivet counter and freestyle my layout designs.

 Thanks

Archer

I recently picked up some ARNOLD S-2's from a LHS for a nice price----2 work nicely--so far. The other 2 ---well, gearing is cracked---so we fix/modify, update as necessary

After all, even when new, the prototypes still had to work on their engines----

Much of my rolling stock is from the layout I had when I was a teenager, now almost a half-century in the past.  Those trains were carefully packed away when my Mom sold the house a few years after I graduated from college, and they sat in boxes in attics and basements for decades.

I've gotten pretty good at replacing horn-hooks with Kadees, swapping Mantua Talgo trucks for body-mount knuckles, and upgrading to metal wheelsets.  Most of my old freight cars are now in service, including a string of operating clamshell hoppers, along with an old operating flood loader.  You just can't buy this stuff anymore.

I've had less success, or maybe it's less determination, with engines.  I tried to resurrect my old, fat-bodied Athearn GP-9s, one gear-drive, one rubber-band style, but neither ran very well.  I even put a decoder in one of them, with disappointing results.  I was looking into re-motoring them, but found I could buy a new Proto in the same livery for less than it would cost in parts to fix the old one.

A few of my structures made it, too.  Many, though, were cardboard models that didn't look very good to begin with, and suffered greatly over the years.  The coal loader, an old Suydam Swift plant and an interlocking tower are part of my scenery now, though.  These were part of my youth, and keeping them around is keeping me young, too.

Well, the railroad that I model pretty much requires that I go brass for the locomotives.  There are times that I---GASP!!-- actually take a brass loco and do a little 'kit-bashing' on it to make it a little more representative of a particular prototype locomotive that I want.  Some of it's very minor--changing out feedwater heater systems, re-motoring and re-balancing--some of it has been pretty major (like turning an old PFM ATSF 2-10-2 that I got for $25 some years back into a Rio Grande F-81 2-10-2.  That was a major cut, saw, solder re-build, but it looks okay to me.).   

The Brass Purists are still fainting everytime I mention this, LOL!

Like Ed, I also enjoy re-working older rolling stock to bring it up to a more 'contemporary' standard.  Not much, you understand, just usually trucks and couplers and maybe some underbody details.  And like Ed, I've got some older Athearn/Menzies and Ulrich cars that I run regularly on the layout, along with those nifty Silver Streak wood car kits. 

Don't get me wrong, my MR is NOT a 'running museum' as far as the dates on most of my locos and rolling stock--I have plenty of 'contemporary' rolling stock and even a couple of new, plastic steamers--but I enjoy up-grading the older metal and wood kits a lot.  

It's a great hobby, and there's room for every way to enjoy it.

Tom

Archer1:

It's not just because I'm cheap (frugal is a better term), but I like to test my skills on making stuff look and hopefully run better than it originally was or currently is.

 Seems to me a lot of folks and shops, give the impression if you're not running the hottest item or using the latest technology,  you're the odd man out.

I'm kind of the same way. I'll take an old or cheap (or both) engine or car and make it into something better. With freight cars, it's usually just upgraded trucks and wheel, and new couplers, but I'll get a lot more involved with the engines. Right now, my biggest one has been an old Tyco Chattanooga Choo-Choo. I finally got the last parts for it a few weeks ago, so I'll be trying to finish it pretty soon.

I don't have a lot of the latest stuff either (I do have a few, though), so I guess I'm a bit of an "odd man out" too, but I actually think it's kind of fun. Someone will say "that (Bachmann, Rivarossi, IHC, etc.) product is worthless junk, along with all their other garbage! Don't even touch it!" So then I buy all that "junk" and turn it into something nice.

I am OLD! and I model old and cheap!! I am in Nscale I pick up old engines and rolling stock,basket cases,junk box specials and what other folks call plain old junk..I model a small short line and most of them ran 2nd and 3rd hand downs so I fit right in...Jerry

In 1950 my dad gave me an HO John English 0-4-0 Yard Bird kit. I was always going to detail it. Now some 55 years later I have remotored it, added valve gear, a full detail job, sound and DCC. It was a huge job and I loved every minute of it. A true craftsman would have done it better and quicker, but I think it is fine and it finishes something I started as a boy. It now awaits paint. I am trying to learn airbrushing. Here is one pic.

The point?? Try it, you may like it.

 that is one of the things that makes this hobby great.  i am thankful for people who like to tinker with older equipment as that give me an outlet for all the stuff i would be stuck with otherwise.

  i have spent an entire evening working on older athearn diesels and my limited skills and patience usually resulted in something that did run better but it was still not up the standards i have come to expect from kato and atlas.

  kind of like starting a race with a rock in your shoe.  there are other facets of this hobby that i enjoy more.

 already having more equipment than i can use, i tend to run the best i have and the "almost" good enough stuff just sits around or gets peddled off.

  if you get pleasure from upgrading lower end stuff then good for you.  i am glad you enjoy what you do, but, i have a different attitude. heck, even some of this "high end" stuff needs help before i am satisfied with it.

  my old man once told me that hot rodders were among the most tight fisted people on earth.  otherwise, they would just buy a corvette and go for a ride.  i guess he didn't appreciate the rewards of tinkering.   this apple didn't fall far from the tree.

grizlump

Your'e more then welcome to join me in assembing a few 60 year old Kinsmans S scale express boxcar kits, my procedure is to assemble the basic carbody as was intended, I do back up this thin-fragile siding with aircraft plywood cut to same demensions. new trucks. N/B castings and assorted stand alone details that produce an outstanding finished model, the kicker is I got a whole dozen of their kits for 5 bucks at a garage sale, cheap, who me? 

Dave

Buy a $2.00 Bachmann,LifeLike or TYCO boxcar or hopper at a trainshow,body mount some knuckles maybe replace the stirrups possibly repaint or at least weather it and then enjoy the hell out opf watching your car go around on the layout.

Sounds like a lot of fun to me.

When I saw the title line with "Old and Cheap" in quotes, I thought you were talking about me. I have quite a few old Tyco diesel and steam locomotives still running on my layout. I don't even like the "new" Tyco pancake motor, but can take the old MU-2 power truck and make it purr like a kitten. In most cases, the cars have been converted to Kadee couplers, right on the talgo truck that came with the car.

I've still got several Tyco locomotive kits waiting to be assembled. Maybe when the grandchildren come along.

 I too am in N scale, been so for 25+ years...  I have some old engines which i keep going , some Rivarossi sw1200's, and old Mini trix Uboat and an Arnold GP30..  when i bought the GP30 the seller told me it was the Cadilac of N scale..  had to remove the wheels and file them down , they were so wide they shorted out at switches,,  The SW1200's are wired together for better pichup..  I am slowly replacing what i can afford to with altas engines with fly wheels...  I have some old RS3's that i took the bodies off of and put on fly wheel mechimisms... 

so i guess i too am odd man out , i like the new stuff but still enjoy the old model

One of my best, most fun model railroading  times recently was rebuilding a Tyco or Mantua 2-8-2 into 2-8-0 with an MDC boiler.  I had a chance to use my milling machine, and my motor rebuilding skills.  The result looks about as crude as you would expect for an MDC boiler on a Tyco underframe, but the joy of bringing the old components together in "living, breathing" form is top-drawer for me.  Cost was literally zero, as the boiler was left over from another 2-8-2 project, and the 2-8-2 was a basement rescue from a relative's house.

 I love being cheap with this hobby. It's fun for me to buy a beat-up lot of cars or somebody's old engines and just paint and fix them up myself. I really like my LHS for that- fairly often something new will be for sale that it seems they pulled out of their back room somewhere. Just this weekend, I spent $5.25 each for 2 Roundhouse 50' tank car kits from 1993. (Did I mention they don't update the prices much? ) Plus, seeing as I don't have room for a layout, it gives me something to do train related.