Unfortunately, you got into the hobby just as the price of track doubled. I bought the last of my track this past spring when stainless track could still be had for $3 a foot. There seems to be a number of things that may have contributed to the huge price hike - $90+/barrel oil, big spike in the metals market, sagging value of the US dollar, corporate greed, etc.
There are a few ways to save a few bucks. Take advantage of Aristo's buy 4 boxes get one free offer, buy your track at a big train show (better prices, no shipping plus places like St.Aubins were offering free shipping for anything they did not have with them), and/or join a local club (I have seen a few club members either give away old track or sell it cheaply).
-Brian
altterrain wrote: Unfortunately, you got into the hobby just as the price of track doubled. I bought the last of my track this past spring when stainless track could still be had for $3 a foot. There seems to be a number of things that may have contributed to the huge price hike - $90+/barrel oil, big spike in the metals market, sagging value of the US dollar, corporate greed, etc.There are a few ways to save a few bucks. Take advantage of Aristo's buy 4 boxes get one free offer, buy your track at a big train show (better prices, no shipping plus places like St.Aubins were offering free shipping for anything they did not have with them), and/or join a local club (I have seen a few club members either give away old track or sell it cheaply).-Brian
I though about the four box deal but I did not have that kind of money to spend all at once. Thats why I am doing a little at time. I know in the long run it is more expensive doing it that way. The other problem is I have no local clubs close by. Everything is 2 hours away and I have a work schedule that makes me work most weekends and rotaing night shifts. Tough to attend any club meetings etc.. You think the prices will go down again? It is fustrating, you would think if they make the track affordable more people would get into the hobby.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
I never worried about how to afford it. I am a frugal shopper by nature and I will NEVER ever pay full price for anything unless absolutely necessary and unavoidable. I've gotten most of my track from Ridge Rd buy 4 get 1 sales and by surfing online train shops for closeouts and bargain sales. Hand laying track on home cut wood ties will save you some money, but kill you for time. And I never, ever tell the wife how much I'm really spending.
G scaling is not a cheap hobby, but it can be done for about the same cost as anything else in other scales, but you have to temper your dreams with your budget. The cost of a 2,000 ft track HO dream layout will get you about 300ft of modest G scale as a rough comparison. Rolling stock can be cost equivalent of HO if you are willing to spend some time and bash things together, or you can go live steam and spend more than the gross domestic product of most third world countries.
Sounds to me like you are on the right path, buy what you can, when you can, and stock pile. It's a good way to begin.
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
I'm in the same shoes. I normally collect Japanese N-scale, but had an urg to build a larg scale garden layout. Now things are getting very expensive with collecting two scales and do not have the money the spurge in one shot.
I picked a Spectrum Consolidation since it was a close-out. I wanted to use Aristo stainless steel track. For the last few months all I have been able to find was a box of 12" & 5 peices of 24" straight track from ebay. I have been waiting forever for a 8' diameter to show up on ebay with no luck as it is the widest I would be able to use on my layout. Might have to spend the $170 for a new box.
So for now my consolidation sits in it's box.
Ralph
I have been able to find track priced at non train focused hobby stores or local hardware stores with toy departments. I suppose since they move such little track inventory their computer system changes price at reorder point. I had recent succes with a Hobby-Town store located in a strip mall. Check to see if any stores are near you at www.hobbytown.com . This store was focused on R/C cars but in the back of the store they had LGB track.
Also you could leave your name and phone number with a local train hobby store. They often get calls from people who are trying to unload used track. You could ask them have them call you.
FJV
The Home of Articulated Ugliness
I suppose I was fortunate in that I had bought my track, and had laid it, some months before the big price increase.
I bought track before locos or stock: that seemed to be the logical way and whilst I found, even at the pre increase price that it was quite costly, it was part and parcel of the railroading hobby.
Luckily my youngsters fledged the nest a while ago but I have to admit that I would not have been able to enter the hobby whilst rearing a family. It would have been a question of priorities.
Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad
https://www.buckfast.org.uk/
If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)
Copper prices are at an all-time high due to the demands of China and other developing countries, and copper is the main component of brass rail.
Oil prices are at al all-time high, and plastic for the crossties is made from oil.
Transportation costs are at an all-time high due to the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel.
I don't know about other states, but in Arizona the minimum wage keeps going up in 15 or 20 cent per hour increments every six months as a result of an initiative campaign during the last elections, and every business increases its prices as the wages go up.
The bankruptcy and sale of LGB compounded all of the above by cutting off supplies of their track for a few months, which triggered some panic buying and hoarding.
For one thing, why are you buying Aristo track? If your getting it at competitive prices its old stock, I've been warned to be ready for a real jolt when the new catalogs come out.
USA sells the same track, from the same factory in China, for a hellova lot less! Aristo's price is artificially high IMHO, taking advantage of the shutdown of LGB, how else do you explain a 100% jump in price when all your competition only saw a 20-30% rise? They may come down a bit, but its still ridiculous. One dealer I know stopped stocking Aristo as he says the new catalog prices are insane. He's just going to wait and restock with new LGB. I wont buy from Aristo unless there are no alternatives, fortunatly there are, USA prices are the best I've found, LGB has resumed production and has a ship load of track, "on the water" I doubt they will be as high priced as Aristo. Even Piko track should be less.
If RRS doesnt stock USA try www.wholesaletrains.com or www.san-val.com
Have fun with your trains
Unless I'm missing something, didn't USA trains also raise there prices. Looking at Wholesale trains site, the price is up there. 8' Diameter curve
USA Trains $10.40 a peice.
Aristo $9.20 peice
Snowshoe,
If the price of track is really a big problem, and it could be for a young family man, "rolling your own" might be a good alternative. And, if you're not too fussy about scale appearance, you could fabricate track made with 3/16" x 1/2" steel or aluminum strip, gorilla glued into milled PTL ties. I've never done this but I remember reading about a guy in Austrialia, I think, who made many hundreds of feet of track for very little money. Matter-of-fact he scratch built almost everything and wound up with a good looking garden railroad for a couple hundred bucks. And I'll bet he enjoys his railroad just as much as some of us who have spent, or are about to spend, many, many thousands of dollars on ours.
Just remember that this is a very diverse hobby, there's no "right way" to do it, it's all about what you find enjoyable. Don't get hung up on what you see in the magazines. Those are usually examples of the finest, and most expensive, layouts out there. That's something to shoot for eventually but right now get something running and start enjoying.
Walt
Edit: Just found the information I mentioned. The article is entitled "The Sandstone & Termite Railway" in the October 1999 issue of Garden Railways magazine.
rpc7271 wrote:I work during the day, deliver pizza for Pizza Hut in the evening, and paint houses on the weekends. Spend the money on trains ans stockpile it all wherever there is room. Eventually i will sell it back to you guys at tripple the price and retire to Jamaca!
Who would buy from you? Lots of ways to make track! Been to hardware store?
BTW, FMJ = Copper, they need new bullets? Naw......War going on son, we need copper!
vsmith wrote: For one thing, why are you buying Aristo track? If your getting it at competitive prices its old stock, I've been warned to be ready for a real jolt when the new catalogs come out.USA sells the same track, from the same factory in China, for a hellova lot less! Aristo's price is artificially high IMHO, taking advantage of the shutdown of LGB, how else do you explain a 100% jump in price when all your competition only saw a 20-30% rise? They may come down a bit, but its still ridiculous. One dealer I know stopped stocking Aristo as he says the new catalog prices are insane. He's just going to wait and restock with new LGB. I wont buy from Aristo unless there are no alternatives, fortunatly there are, USA prices are the best I've found, LGB has resumed production and has a ship load of track, "on the water" I doubt they will be as high priced as Aristo. Even Piko track should be less.If RRS doesnt stock USA try www.wholesaletrains.com or www.san-val.com
Of all the online stores I looked into, ridge road had the best price in aristo. USA and LGB are more expensive or about the same. It is actually not true that Aristo is the highest. I got 3 ft straight from Ridge for the same price that USA has for their 2 ft long straight.
Sheesh, talk about a hot thread!
Let me, the most novice (I think) of the G gascalers on this board, weigh in, too. Since my layout will be ca 1880, and since I've had to move indoors for health reasons, I've been contemplating wooden rails. I reason thusly: as a retired tool & die maker, I see no insurmountable problem in regrinding a router bit or the like to something near a rail shape. I haven't researched early strap-iron track yet, so might not even have to do very much of it. But matching the contours of a rail isn't impossible. Soaking/steaming and bending wood isn't a great art, though some few make it out to be. Just a lot of hassle. But I have a whole bunch more 'hassle' than '$$'.
I don't know if it'd work outdoors. I suspect it would, with redwood or the like, though maintence would be a big consideration. Warpage, cracking, whatnot. This is a world full of tradeoffs.
I'm also doing battery with RC. Before I took the advice of the esteemed folk of this board, I was going to do wired rail. I hate wiring! This may not be what you'd considered, because the RC stuff is rudely expensive for what one gets. (I have past avionics experience. Long past).
But like the man ahead said, 'there's always a workaround' if you want to badly enough. The guy in Australia used lengths of aluminum angle if I remember correctly. Looked kinda odd, but he was happy. And his trains ran on it.
I don't know if you have the power tools (router, grinder, tablesaw, skills, etc) but grinding the bit is no Dark Science. You just keep at it until you get it suitable. And sharp.
Les W.
Probably simply a good investment, two years ago with Aristos sales I was paying $2.38 per ft with shipping. buy 4 get one free. it adv out.
Now I could sale it used for $3.50 per ft and make $$.
But then I would not have any track.
Is it REAL? or Just 1:29 scale?
Long live Outdoor Model Railroading.
Uh Oh, my bad.
Guess the prices have gone way up since I last bought track online earlier last summer! Well that stinks
hoofe116 wrote: But like the man ahead said, 'there's always a workaround' if you want to badly enough. The guy in Australia used lengths of aluminum angle if I remember correctly. Looked kinda odd, but he was happy. And his trains ran on it.Les W.
Les, Yeah I seen that, was way cool! Think F J & G does some of it to (you know he is into every thing ).
Toad
I feel your pain, Im using LGB track though.. bout the same price. I have 2 cases of R2 & 3 curves and 2 cases of 2' & 4' straight track... oh yeah and 1 case of R1 cures that came with my nephew's starter set... couple R3 switches and a few R1's... meh i cant wait till i can actually lay some track in the spring
Buying track sucks but you cant run trains without it so... yeah... track it is
Trust me it will be worth it
as far as affording it, I just buy 1 case or 1 switch at a time
hoofe116 wrote: ............ Since my layout will be ca 1880, and since I've had to move indoors for health reasons, I've been contemplating wooden rails. I reason thusly: as a retired tool & die maker, I see no insurmountable problem in regrinding a router bit or the like to something near a rail shape. I haven't researched early strap-iron track yet, so might not even have to do very much of it. But matching the contours of a rail isn't impossible. ............Les W.
............ Since my layout will be ca 1880, and since I've had to move indoors for health reasons, I've been contemplating wooden rails. I reason thusly: as a retired tool & die maker, I see no insurmountable problem in regrinding a router bit or the like to something near a rail shape. I haven't researched early strap-iron track yet, so might not even have to do very much of it. But matching the contours of a rail isn't impossible. ............Les W.
The strap iron/wood rails used by the predecessors of the Norfolk Southern can be seen in their museum at the corporate HQ in Norfolk. I suspect most other rails of the period were very similar. It is simply square wood laminate with a strap of iron along the top. It would be very simple indeed to duplicate this in G scale and no special tooling will be required. Pins (long nails) driven in at angles secured the track to the ties. This method was cheap, quick and quite strong enough for the teakettle engines and 4 wheel cars of the day.
I expect that each railroad used their own unique rail system, as this was long before any standardization came along. So don't feel obliged to follow any conventions if you are using this method of track laying. Have fun and now you got me thinking......
I guess I should have gotten into the hobby a year sooner. So far I layed what track I have for my layout and found that I am in better shape than I thought. It is amazing how it does not look like much when the track is in the box. Im doing just a simple layout so far. On either end is going to be a 6.5f ft curves. One side is going to be a long straight away going into a mountain with a tunnel. The other side is going to be an s curve. The front curve that connects the straightaway and the s curve is going to cross over a ravine with a water fall. Im not sure how long the straights are going to be yet but I want to have it as least 12-16ft long. I might add a 2or3 ft straight to the turns and a switch for now for later additions. wish I had a program for everyone to get a better idea of what I want to do and get some advise for other options I can do with this loop. Its something similar to the layout from the garden railways book, Garden Railroading:getting started in the hobby on page 112. The only big difference is I want it a little longer and im not using the loop that climbs around the mountain.
Also why is garden railroad magazine so expensive. Most mags you get 12 issues for like 15 bucks and Garden railroading is like 30 bucks for 6? I just cant figure out the reasoning for this stuff.
I am a battery guy, so I can buy old used dirty track for much less than new...works for me...good luck and don't get in a hurry, I had a few years logged in before I ever laid track, and still have a LONG way to go!
Good Luck!
cale
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