model railroading dictionary

[Anonymous]

is there such a thing as a model rail roaders dictionary. it seems every article i read, there is something i just don't understand or have never heard of.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forums! Well, the answer to your question is "kinda-sorta": right here in the forums[:D]. It's not published, but it works.
Reed

[jwar]

First of all welcome to the forum Ken Dawg.[#welcome]

There are books at your local hoby shop with good information such as MRs Practical Guide to Ho Model Railroading that has a Glossary in it, or others in what ever scale you chose to operate with.

A far as terminology one confusing term is a switch. In modeling for instance a switch is an electrical device and a turnout is a route deverting device. Prototype railroads call a turnout a switch. Granted there are a few terms that one has to have a good concept of. Years ago when I heard of a cookie cutter base for a layout, the imediate thought was some sort of ginger bread man holes..Just kidding..[^].

This is a great place to ask questions and I have personaly recieved excelent ansers to mine. Perhaps you should have put this post under the general topic forum, but what the heck this is your first post.

You might state your scale in some instances, such as track, rolling stock, structures.

Enjoy the forum and scroll the mulitude of pages of info, any trade or profession has its own jargon, in no time no one other then a modeler will know what your talking about.[8D] Its seems a lot of the same questions are ansered every two to three weeks or so. But by all means ask what you want when you want, as this is your forum.

Enjoy....John

[Anonymous]

[#welcome]

jwar and bnnnboy have given you the best answers.

Hang out here awhile, you;ll catch on, trust me.
And take a trip to a hobby shop, pick up a few books
And finally, subscribe to Model Railroader mag. You won't regret it![:)]

[johncolley]

Special entry for dictionary: "Oh Darn" What you say when you grab the soldering iron you just used that is rolling/dropping toward a favorite locomotive.

[egmurphy]

There's a glossary on the Model Railroader Magazine home page. You can enter a word in the search box, or pick a letter and browse the definitions. Here's a link to it. Hope this is what you were looking for.

http://www.trains.com/glossary/glossary_search_user.asp


Regards

Ed

[rogerhensley]

There is also a Glossary of terms in the NMRA Introduction to Model Railroading pages at: http://www.nmra.org/beginner/

[Anonymous]

Check out greatesthobby.com. Frequently Asked Questions. Dictionary of terms, model railroad questions, Toy train questions, garden railway questions. On this site I found the dictionary of terms helpfull. Good luck

[Anonymous]

That web site is Worlds Greatest Hobby. Com

[Anonymous]

What causes you on half of the track and not the other sideRichard41 gillis

[willy6]

I think there is one word in the Model railroading Dictionary with the most definitions..................it is "OOPS"[banghead]

[ROCCO MALEY]

What is the difference between a double crossover and a scissors crossover

[gregc]

ROCCO MALEY

What is the difference between a double crossover and a scissors crossover

one explanation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_switch#Crossover

[slammin]

Rocco,

Welcome to the forums. In the future, you will have more luck asking your questions in a new thread instead of resurecting a 12 year old thread. Usually if I see an ancient thread brougt back I don't bother reading it. Most times much of the info contained is obsolete. 

[jjdamnit]

Hello all,

If you go to the National Model Railroad Association web page, under the Education tab you will see the Beginner's Guide.

At the bottom of this page; after the disclaimer, you will see a link: Continue to the Beginner's Main Page. 

From there you can choose any of the sub categories. These sub categories include explanations and diagrams of the subject matter.

You can also look under the Standards tab for Standards & Recommended Practices along with the DCC Section, which goes into technical information.

To my knowledge there is no single printed source of a dictionary or encyclopedia, the NMRA web page is probably the closest you will come.

That is not to say that there are many websites and books that have glossaries that cover many of the terms and concepts in model railroading. 

Hope this helps.